We Have to Learn to Forgive

As forgiven people, we should be forgivers, right?

Sounds easy, but it isn’t always.

This is our eighth time highlighting the writing of Paul Steele at the blog Paul’s Ponderings. Paul is a pastor in Minnesota. (For our overseas readers, it gets really cold there in winter!) After we look at forgiveness, we have a bonus devotional from Paul about being people called of darkness in a world that can be… well… pretty dark. Clicking each title below takes you to where these first appeared.

An Essential Part of Discipleship

Forgiveness is a essential part of being a disciple of Jesus. Forgiveness is not only about releasing others from their wrongdoing, but it is also about freeing ourselves from the pain and hurt that have been holding us back.

In Colossians 3:13, it says:

Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. This verse highlights the importance of forgiveness and encourages us to forgive others as God has forgiven us. (NLT)

It is understandable to hold onto past hurts as a way of protecting ourselves from future pain, but this can be detrimental to our mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Instead of protecting us, holding onto anger and resentment creates a constant state of negativity, which prevents us from fully living our lives. Not forgiving is like carrying a heavy backpack filled with rocks that weighs us down and makes it difficult to move forward.

Forgiveness is a process of letting go of the pain and negativity we have been holding onto. It does not mean excusing or justifying the actions of the person who hurt us. Instead, it is about releasing ourselves from the burden of anger, resentment, and hurt. When we forgive, we create space for healing and reconciliation, and we give ourselves permission to move on from the past and focus demonstrating God’s character in this world.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught: “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15; NLT)

This teaching emphasizes the importance of forgiveness not only for our own healing but also for our relationship with God. We can’t demonstrate God’s character, which includes His forgiving nature, while withholding forgiveness from others.

Forgiveness is not always easy, but it is essential for our well-being and spiritual growth. It is a choice that we make for both the person who hurt us and for ourselves. By forgiving, we let go of the hurt and pain that’s been holding us back and create room for healing and reconciliation. We owe it to ourselves and our relationship with God to let go and move forward, free from the past so we can continue to follow Jesus into the future.

To The Chosen People

 1 Peter 1:1-2 (NLT)

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

 

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

 

May God give you more and more grace and peace.

The Apostle Peter’s letter to Christians who were scattered throughout the Roman Empire. Following Jesus meant that they lived as foreigners even though they were at home in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

This is our reality as well. Most of us were born right here in the United States, yet, as followers of Jesus we find ourselves as aliens and foreigners in our own country. I think this is one reason why the message of 1 Peter is relevant to us today as it was to the believers of that time.

In this opening passage, Peter addressed three crucial points: the identity of his readers, their divine calling, and the grace and peace available to them.

First, Peter identified his readers as “God’s chosen people.” This description reminds us that as Christians, we have been called out of darkness of the world and into the light of God’s kingdom. We are not ordinary people, but rather we are holy, set apart for God’s purposes. This identity gives us a purpose and a community. We may live as foreigners in a world that does not understand or accept us, but we belong to a community, the Church, that is made up of God’s people. In this community we are able to live out our purpose and discover the love we need.

Second, Peter emphasized that God chose his readers long ago and that his Spirit has made them holy. From the start of creation, God’s plan has always to have a people who would be faithful to Him. Our salvation is not a result of our own efforts or merit but is entirely due to God’s grace and mercy. In fact, according to Peter, the entire Trinity, is involved in our salvation. The Father created the plan, the Spirit transforms us and makes us holy, and Jesus secured our forgiveness on the cross. This truth should humble us and fill us with gratitude for God’s great love and amazing grace.

Finally, Peter ended his greeting by praying that God would give his readers grace and peace. Grace, which was a standard greeting in Greek letters, is the unmerited favor of God that enables us to live a life pleasing to him. Peace, which was the standard Jewish greeting, is the well-being a person experiences by being in a right relationship with God. Both of these blessings are available to us through Jesus Christ, and Peter encouraged his readers to expect them as gifts from God as they followed Jesus.

Peter’s letter to the chosen people reminds us of our identity as God’s holy people, our divine calling through God’s grace, and the abundant blessings of grace and peace available to us through Jesus Christ. As we navigate the challenges of life in a sin corrupted world, may we hold on to these truths and find strength and comfort in Jesus.

Jesus’ Posture Toward You is Eager Forgiveness

Last year at this time we introduced you to Matt Tracy who writes at Kingdom Ethos. To read today’s devotional, which is a sermon transcript, where it first appeared, click the title which follows.

Breakfast on the Beach: Peter’s Failure and Redemption

There’s an old Hindu teaching that says, “treat success and failure, profit and loss, happy occurrences and unhappy ones just the same.” In Islam, they teach that failure is a springboard to success. Truman Capote said that failure is the condiment that adds flavor to success.

Pretty much universally, across cultures and faith traditions, it is taught that failure is a chance to make something of yourself. Failure is absolutely inevitable; but it is solely up to us to rise above it and overcome. But, though there is some good wisdom to be found in the quotes I shared, our hope in failure as Christians is quite different. Our hope is not our own ability to “rise from the ashes,” so to speak, but in Jesus’ ability to call us out of failure through grace.

Peter’s story is one of the more famous examples of failure and redemption in Scripture. Peter’s story is going to remind us that we, too, believe that there is goodness to be found in failure. But not because it is a chance to pick ourselves up and make our own success, but because we worship a God who meets us in our failure with grace and calls us toward something greater.

The first part of Peter’s story occurs right after Jesus is arrested and brought before the high priest to be prosecuted:

So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. 

Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest . . . asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it.

John 18:15-18, 25-27

Not wanting to be associated with Jesus for fear of suffering, Peter denied ever being a disciple in the first place.

We meet Peter again after Jesus is crucified and raised from the dead:

Peter is Recommissioned (John 21:1-17)

Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”  He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

John 21:1-17

I want to point out two takeaways from Peter’s story:

1. JESUS MET PETER IN FAILURE WITH FORGIVENESS

Did you notice that Jesus’ forgiveness of Peter in this story seems to be implied? As if the two mutually understood that reconciliation had occurred? You might have expected that Peter would fall at the feet of Jesus and beg him for forgiveness. Peter had turned his back on his friend and denied his own discipleship. But in this story, Peter, who, days prior, sinned against Jesus 3 times in a matter of hours; who was ready to go back to his old life as a fisherman and forsake his life as a disciple, jumped off the boat in absolute joy and swam to his friend. Jesus met him on the shore, not with condemnation or reproach or wrath; but with breakfast on the beach.

There was no punishment. There was no mourning. There was no holy wrath of God. Why? Because all of that had already been satisfied by Jesus himself on the cross. Peter’s debt was paid when Jesus proclaimed, “It is finished.” Like the father welcoming the prodigal son home, Jesus’ posture toward Peter was one of grace and eager forgiveness.

This story can inspire in you and I that same confidence: that Jesus’ posture toward you is eager forgiveness.

What does it mean to have a “posture of forgiveness?”

I think the best illustration I can think of is my relationship with my 2-year-old. I didn’t need to teach her to be defiant and strong-willed, and – to use the parenting term – “naughty”. My wife and I are trying to teach her how to apologize when she does something wrong. We want her to understand how to ask forgiveness of others. But our forgiveness is not predicated on her apologizing. We don’t withhold forgiveness if she refuses to say “I’m sorry mommy.” She’s two; she doesn’t really know what it means to be sorry about anything. That understanding will come with time. The truth is that before she even knows how to express remorse, we have already forgiven her. We want her to say “I’m sorry” because we want so badly to say “It’s okay, we love you and we forgive you.” We aren’t perfect; we lose our patience with her too often. But our posture toward our daughter is one of forgiveness. We are eager to forgive her because we love her.

Peter’s story is a reminder to all of us that in our failure we can approach our risen Lord with confidence because he has already paid the price for our failure on the cross. His posture toward us; his stance as looks upon us, is grace. He is eager to forgive you because he loves you.

I’m not saying that repentance is not necessary. Repentance is necessary. What’s not necessary is any fear whatsoever that when you repent, Jesus will not meet you with anything less than grace.

2. JESUS’ FORGIVENESS CALLED PETER TO A HIGHER DEGREE OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE

From what I can tell, Peter was a guy who acted and spoke rashly. He had a zealous spirit about him that did not always manifest in the wisest behavior.

Case in point: before Jesus was crucified, men were arriving to arrest him:

“Then, Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear (the servant’s name was Malchus). So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

John 18:10-11

I find it remarkable that Peter was ready to go to war for Jesus. He had his sword at the ready. But when it became apparent that Christ came to die, not to fight, Peter was not nearly as enthusiastic about following him. When the rubber met the road, he was more than ready to dissociate from Jesus altogether. Peter’s loyalties changed when the stakes were raised.

On second thought, given human nature, maybe that’s not all that remarkable.

But just as Peter denied Jesus 3 times, he was also given 3 opportunities to reaffirm his love for Jesus, and 3 calls to renew his commitment – all the while sitting around a charcoal fire just like the one that warmed Peter as he denied Christ in the temple courts.

“Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.”

In John 10, Jesus said “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Herein lies the significance of Jesus’ command that Peter take care of his flock: Jesus, who called himself the Good Shepherd, entrusted his sheep – his redeemed people – to none other than Peter. Peter would soon become a key leader of the early Church movement after Jesus was taken up into heaven.

Then, Jesus tacks on this curious phrase: “When you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

I would argue that this is a fourth calling; a calling that Peter initially ran from, but Jesus obeyed: a call to die. “Stretching out” one’s hands was a euphemism: Jesus was talking about crucifixion. He was hinting that Peter would also take upon himself the role of the “good shepherd” and lay down his life for the church.

John, having probably written this gospel after Peter’s death, provides a helpful interpretive aside, just in case his readers might have missed what Jesus was saying: Jesus was telling Peter how his ministry was going to end. He would be stretched out on a cross, and wrapped in grave clothes.

Peter’s death is not recorded in the Bible, but according to church tradition, he was crucified in Rome around 64 A.D. under Nero. But before he helped the Jesus movement spread to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people throughout the ancient world.

Notice the pattern here:

Peter sins, Jesus forgives, Jesus calls, Peter obeys.

This pattern applies to us as well in our walk with Christ.

Jesus meets us in our failure, not only to eagerly forgive us, but to call us to an even higher standard. Forgiveness is not so that we have freedom to sin even more; it is so that we have the freedom to love Jesus and serve him in an even greater capacity. The forgiveness of Christ is a call to obedience.

Two takeaways from Peter’s failure and redemption story:

1. Jesus’ posture toward you is one of forgiveness. Sin has already been paid for, and there is no condemnation in him. That means you can approach him as you would a friend who invites you to breakfast on the beach.
2. The forgiveness of Jesus absolves you of your sin, but at the same time calls you to a higher standard of obedience. And though that isn’t always comfortable, Jesus doesn’t call you to anything that he himself did not experience – and that is comforting. Because Jesus overcame even death; and through faith in him, so will you.

Quotations: Thoughts on Grace

The difference between mercy and grace? Mercy gave the prodigal son a second chance. Grace gave him a feast.

~Max Lucado

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The Law tells me how crooked I am; Grace comes along and straightens me out.

~Dwight L Moody

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While our various guest writers’ material appears here only once, I do permit myself the luxury of a few “reruns” of some of the original devotionals here. That said, I’ve never circled back to any of the series of quotations by different writers or on different themes. Today’s quotations appeared in two different pieces, one from 2011 and one from 2012. (Apparently some were longer back then!) The authors are attributed on some (not all) where they’re linked with their names, just click.

Grace is at the heart of the Christian faith. It’s our distinctive. Part of our mission is to make people understand that salvation is not earned, it is the gift of God made available to us through Jesus Christ.

A scripture focus for today may be found at this August, 2015 blog post.

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Grace binds you with far stronger cords than the cords of duty or obligation can bind you. Grace is free, but when once you take it you are bound forever to the Giver, and bound to catch the spirit of the Giver. Like produces like, Grace makes you gracious, the Giver makes you give.

~(Eli) E. Stanley Jones

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We tend to give an unbeliever just enough of the gospel to get him or her to pray a prayer to receive Christ. Then we immediately put the gospel on the shelf, so to speak, and go on to the duties of discipleship. The grace that brought salvation to you is the same grace that teaches or disciplines you. But you must respond on the basis of grace, not law.

~Jerry Bridges

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“The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of law—each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional.”

~Philip Yancey

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‘He’s prone to stoop. He stooped to wash feet, to embrace children. Stooped to pull Peter out of the sea, to pray in the Garden. He stooped before the Roman whipping post. Stooped to carry the cross. Grace is a God who stoops. Here he stooped to write in the dust.’

~Max Lucado

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“Romans 8 is all about living in a suffering world marked by brokenness… Verse 28 says: For those loving him, God works together all things for good. …Earlier in Romans 8, Paul discusses how things fall apart because the world is burdened with evil and sin. Things are subject to decay. Everyone will eventually experience the decay of their bodies; that’s the nature of things. The little grains of sand on the beach used to be a mountain. Everything falls apart; things do not come together. This verse tells Christians to get rid of the saccharine, sentimental idea that things ought to go right, that things do go right, and that it’s normal for things to go right. Modern, Western people believe that if things go wrong, we should sue, because things ought to go right. But Christians have to discard that idea completely. Christians have to recognize that if our health remains intact, it is simply because God is holding it up. If people love us, if someone is there to hug us or squeeze our hand, if someone loves us in spite of all our flaws—if someone loves us at all—it’s because God is bringing all things together. God is holding it up. Everything that goes well is a miracle of grace.”

~Timothy Keller

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Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about anymore than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks. A good night’s sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace.

~Frederick Buechner

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Grace is the incomprehensible fact that God is well pleased with a man, and that a man can rejoice in God. Only when grace is recognized to be incomprehensible is it grace. Grace exists, therefore, only where the Resurrection is reflected. Grace is the gift of Christ, who exposes the gulf which separates God and man, and, by exposing it, bridges it.

~Karl Barth

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“…Jesus’ approach toward a decadent Roman empire, as well as toward individual sinners who must have offended him deeply, seemed almost the opposite of the self-righteous attitude of many evangelicals.  As I studied Jesus’ life, the notion of grace kept hitting me in the face.  All his stories made the wrong person the hero: the prodigal son not the responsible older brother, Lazarus not the rich man, the good Samaritan not the Jewish rabbi.  And I began to see grace as one of the great, often untapped, powers of the universe that God has asked us to set loose.  Human society runs by Ungrace, ranking people, holding them accountable, insisting on reciprocity and fairness.  Grace is, by definition, unfair.  That intrigued me.”

~Philip Yancey

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Who can estimate the value of God’s gift, when He gave to the world His only begotten Son! It is something unspeakable and incomprehensible. It passes man’s understanding. Two things there are which man has no arithmetic to reckon, and no line to measure. One of these things is the extent of that man’s loss who loses his own soul. The other is the extent of God’s gift when he gave Christ to sinners…Sin must indeed be exceeding sinful, when the Father must needs give His only Son to be the sinner’s Friend!

~James Charles (J. C.) Ryle

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“Most every cult you could name is a cult of salvation by works. It appeals to the flesh. It tells you, if you will stand so long on a street corner, if you will distribute so much literature, if you will sacrifice so much of life, if you will be baptized, if you will contribute your money, if you will pray or attend numerous meetings, then your good works and hard effort will cause God to smile on you. Ultimately when the good is weighed against the bad on the Day of Judgement, you will finally earn His favor. The result in that, I say again, is man’s glory, because you added to your salvation.

“Grace says you have nothing to give, nothing to earn, nothing to pay. You couldn’t if you tried! Salvation is a free gift. You simply lay hold of what Christ has provided. Period. And yet the heretical doctrine of works goes on all around the world and always will. It is effective because the pride of men and women is so strong. We simply have to do something in order to feel right about it. It just doesn’t make good humanistic sense to get something valuable for nothing.

“Please allow me to be absolutely straight with you: Stop tolerating the heretical gospel of works! It is legalism. Wake up to the fact that it will put you into a bondage syndrome that won’t end. The true gospel of grace, however, will set you free. Free forever.”

~Charles (Chuck) Swindoll

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“You are loved by your Maker not because you try to please him and succeed, or fail to please him and apologize, but because he wants to be your Father. Nothing more. All your efforts to win his affection are unnecessary. All your fears of losing his affection are needless. You can no more make him want you than you can convince him to abandon you. The adoption is irreversible. You have a place at his table.”

~Max Lucado

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A Message of Love and Acceptance

This is our ninth time with Mark McIntire who writes at Attempts at Honesty. There were a couple of more recent devotionals, but this one challenged me to consider the things that I “do” or do not “do” in light of the relationship with Christ based on love and grace.

To read this where it first appeared, click the title below.

Missing the point

I have heard it said from a few pulpits (and I’ve said it myself) that the longest measurable distance known to man is the 18 inches between the head and the heart. The point being that what we think and what has been internalized can be vastly different.

This morning as I walked, I thought of an example.

In John 8, we are provided with the beautiful story of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus, in response to her sin said, “neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Jesus expressed his love for the woman with the words, “neither do I condemn you.” The whole point of the story is a demonstration of the love of Jesus.

Paul tells us in Romans 5:8, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (ESV)

The love of God is not dependent upon our behavior. It is not dependent on how well we follow His commands. It is not dependent upon espousing good theology. It is not dependent on anything that we do or say.

I have been a believer in Jesus for almost 60 years. But I now realize that for all of those 60 years, I have put Scripture, and what people say through a grid that is neither right, nor helpful.

Jesus expresses his love for sinners in the words, “neither do I condemn you.” But what I internalized growing up in the church is “go and sin no more.” To focus on the latter outside of the former is to develop some weird pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps spirituality that is contrary to the Gospel.

Jesus is not telling the woman, neither is he telling me, that more effort is needed, but that is the way I have responded to Jesus’ statement.

When someone has an unrealistic expectation of me that I am trying to fulfill, I hear “go and sin no more.”

When I read Scripture and it highlights my failure, I hear “go and sin no more.”

When someone unfairly criticizes me, I hear “go and sin no more.”

When someone fairly criticizes me, I hear “go and sin no more.”

The list goes on, but I realize that I have put everything through the grid of “go and sin no more.”

That is not the gospel that I believe. I fully understand that I am only saved by Grace. I fully understand that it is God’s love the prompted him to reveal Himself in Scripture. I fully understand that Jesus freely offers grace to all who believe in him and that grace is not earned or deserved.

But there is a broken piece of me that still seeks the illusion of perfection. There is a piece of me strives to be above criticism.

The biggest problem with this is that it shifts my focus to performance and away from relationship.

The two great commands* are all about relationship, not about doing. But the grid I’ve used to evaluate my life switches this around and makes it all about doing and I lose sight of the relationship.

Perhaps in a future post, I will explore some of the reasons why I got into this ditch, but for now, I share this for the benefit of those who have internalized the same message.

I now chose to view Scripture as a message of love and acceptance rather than an impetus to try harder. In the face of Jesus we see one who loves sinners like me. In the face of Jesus, we see the God who loves us more deeply than we can ever imagine.

Rather than try harder, I need to take a deep breath and bask in the love of God.

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^{NIV.Matt.22.34} Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[a] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[b] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

1. Deut. 6:5
2. Lev. 19:18

Legalism Leads with the Law, Rather Than the Gospel

We’re back for a third time with author K.K. Hodge, who writes devotions at Inspirations from the Funny Farm and you can read this one at source by clicking the title which follows.

Legalism vs. Grace

Galations 2:16-21 (NLT) Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law.

Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

My daddy is a wonderful Christian man. We know that there was only one perfect Man who walked this earth, and His name was Jesus. Daddy isn’t perfect, but I know that my daddy has been made right through the blood of Jesus Christ. He loves to tell others about Christ. He helped to build the foundation for me to become the believer that I am today, and I want to be a witness like he is to others. He told me once that his goal is to share the plan of salvation with someone at least once every single day. When he told me that, I thought, “Wow, I want to be just like him!”

I remember a situation a couple of years ago in which a pastor caused my daddy to have a bit of a spiritual battle, and it had to do with legalism. I’m not a pastor. I don’t have a theological degree. I’m just a nurse practitioner and a farmer who has a heart for Christ and for sharing His word with others, but it is my opinion from studying God’s word that grace defeats legalism every time!

My daddy was raised in a Landmark Missionary Baptist Church. Actually, the church formed in my grandparents’, his parents’, home. They were charter members. It is still a wonderful church, and we have visited from time to time. They preach the word, no doubt. As young children, we attended a Southern Baptist Church, and in our teen years, we attended another Missionary Baptist Church. We were fed the gospel at both churches. I loved both churches. I grew in my faith at both churches. The church ordinances may have differed, but the fact remains that the gospel was being preached at both churches.

Did difference in ordinances make one church wrong and one church right? I’m not here to determine that. My belief is that if a pastor/preacher is preaching and teaching the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, then that church is doing the right thing. How do we determine that the truth is being preached? Well, we have to study the word of God ourselves.

Back to my story, this man told Daddy that the women at the church Daddy attends wear lipstick, cut their hair, wear pants, and sometimes even wear shorts, and therefore, it is wrong for him to attend that church. Y’all don’t pull out your stones or torches just yet, but I’m going to tell you about me. This girl right here wears lipstick, cuts her hair, wears pants, and yes, on a hot summer day in south Mississippi, this girl even wears shorts! BUT, BIG BUT, not little but, this girl also loves Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior more than anything else in this world. Am I going to die and go to hell because “the rules” of my church are different than “the rules” of another church? I must answer emphatically–NO! I know that my eternal home is in heaven. There is not even a shadow of a doubt in my mind!

I prayed a lot before I wrote this today. I don’t want anyone to think that I am making light of the choice of church in which one chooses to be a member. I merely want to point out that Baptists won’t be the only ones in heaven, y’all. There will be Baptists, Methodists, Non-denominationals, and Pentecostals there too (to name a few)! God isn’t going to just call one church home. He is going to call THE CHURCH. You don’t get to heaven by attending a certain church on Sunday and following the ordinances of that church. You get to heaven by placing faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It’s a free gift of grace that was given to each of us when His blood poured out on the cross.

Legalism leads with the law rather than the gospel. The gospel stands on it’s own. It doesn’t need any help from us to give it strength. Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 2:8-9 , “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” We can’t work our way into heaven, but we work for the gospel and Christ because of the gracious gift of salvation.

But if works are taking the lead over the gospel of Jesus Christ, this is legalism. It’s human nature to distort the glorious truths of God, and I think we have all been guilty of trying to misuse that free gift of grace. God has given us all that we need for godliness. We desire to live for Christ, and we have deep convictions that the sins in our life dishonor God. But sometimes, in the midst of our pursuit for godliness, we forget that it is only by the grace of God that we can live for Him. Unfortunately, we sometimes tend to forget that any and all godliness comes from the Father. We become all puffed up and start projecting our standards on others. We soon begin to judge people and pressure them to conform to our “God lifestyle.” We forget about the principles that the word of God reveal to us, and we teach our own preferences and practices of the law.

In Galatians 2, Paul brought up an example of when Peter went to Antioch. When Peter first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians who were not circumcised. But later on, when some of the friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles any longer. He was afraid of the criticism that he would receive because the other people insisted on the necessity of circumcision.

Paul later says, “Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” Those uncircumcised believers were believers too, and they have receive the gracious gift of salvation and eternal life just like their fellow circumcised believers.

We have to learn to balance the reality that our faith is through grace alone and by faith alone. We are called to glorify God, and we are called to follow His word. Grace teaches us to separate ourselves from cultural sin, but it never teaches us to use ourselves as the standard for grace. We must look to Christ as the standard, not ourselves! The important questions to ask yourself are, “Have I received the gift of salvation? Am I a child of God?”

If you know that the answer is yes, then you know. We aren’t perfect. We are perfectly imperfect children of a perfect God, and it is through Him that we are made right. We can’t do this thing called life on our own accord, but with God we can. We were created to glorify God. If what you are doing is sharing the gospel and bringing honor and glory to our Father, then keep on doing that! That is His desire for each of us. I leave you with this a word from 2 Corinthians 12:9 that assures us, ““Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” Alone, we are weak, but the power of the Father works best in our weakness.

His grace is all we need!

 

Turning (Completely) To God

Today we’re back at the blog By Leaps and Bounds which is an outreach of Arise Ministries, which is based in West Virginia. The author of today’s thoughts is Adrianna Lindsey.

Repentance

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30.

This scripture is often discussed in sermons when pastors describe a relationship with Jesus. How do we forfeit our burdens? We repent of our sins, we stop trying to do it all in our own will power.

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” -II Corinthians 6:14

How is a believer and an unbeliever unequally yoked? An unbeliever is yoked to the world, to idolatry, to sin and unrighteousness. The yoke of sin is heavy. This scripture is referring to a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever but it is also a great way to compare what a life as a believer weighs compared to a life of an unbeliever.

Repentance relieves a heavy yoke. Taking on the yoke of Jesus can only happen if we repent of our old sinful lives. Many times throughout the epistles the disciples describe when people and their households come to believe The Good News they repented of their sins, got water baptized, then received the Holy Spirit. Same with Jesus, minus he was a man with no sin and fulfilled the law, a Yoke that no man could fulfill (Acts 15:10), in its entirety so he did not need to repent of sin. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and responded to this command that he was doing what was required by the father (Matthew 3:15).

We can’t walk in righteousness and holiness with Jesus without repenting. Jesus literally tells people they will suffer a gruesome way to perish like the Galileans whose blood was mingled with their sacrifices (Luke 13:2-3). He specifically says that their sins were not worse than the sins of other Galileans but they still perished an awful death. When we hold on to unforgiveness, anger, malice, bitterness and so many other sinful ways we are choosing to perish. Jesus says not everyone who says to Me “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom…”and I will declare to them depart from me I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness!” (Luke 7:21-23)

But there is good news! When we repent and turn from our sin, we take upon the Yoke of the Lord! The Lord’s grace is abundant, yes, but that is not an excuse to continue living in sin. Romans 6 specifically says, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” (Romans 6:1-2). We make that decision to repent and be baptized into Christ Jesus and into His death so we can also be raised from the dead and share that with our King and walk in the newness of life! (Romans 6:1-4). How powerful it is to be united together in the likeness of His death and the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5)!

Don’t be a slave to your sin. Jesus tells his disciples that whoever commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). He also says a slave does not abide in the house forever but a son abides forever and if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:35-36) This statement is used often with ministers in deliverance ministry because many times we believe lies that keep us bound in our sin causing us to be a slave to our sin or bound to a demonic stronghold. So repent, let go of that stronghold, because the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

Grace Isn’t How the World Works

^{NIV.Matt.20.8} “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

⁹ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. ¹⁰ So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ¹² ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

¹³ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵ Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

[If you’re unfamiliar with the section which precedes these verses, click here to start at verse one.]

A year ago we briefly visited the blog, Running to Him for the first time. Clicking the title which follows will take you to where this first appeared.

The Grace of the Parable

The parable Jesus used in Matthew 20:1-16 shows God’s outlandish grace towards us. People who follow Christ get the same reward for following Christ, the gift of eternal life with and of knowing Christ. In the parable that Jesus uses, the Kingdom of God is compared to workers in a field. Some worked all day and others were found later in the day, but they all got paid the same wage. Sounds a bit unfair, right?

Well let’s look at it in context, this story isn’t about workers in a field. It’s about the Kingdom of God. The fact is that if you’ve been a Christian your whole life or if you just started following Jesus today, you will be getting the same reward as the person who started following Jesus today.

Does that still sound unfair? If so, let’s take our scarcity mindset and throw it out the window for any conversation related to the presence of Jesus. Why? It’s because Jesus is not like us. Jesus is fully man, fully God. God operates outside of time and space. The presence of the Holy Spirit is INFINITE. Time and the limit of being present in only one place are not limits for Jesus. THERE IS ENOUGH JESUS TO GO AROUND!!

The Kingdom of God is not like the business or company you work for. The Kingdom of God is not bound by restraints of money or time limits. The Kingdom of God is bigger than all of those things. So much bigger that it’s hard for our minds to wrap around the reality of that statement.

With that being established, why would God give more of Himself to some people than to others? Those who believe in Jesus have FULL ACCESS to ALL of who He is. Not just partial access, there are no visiting hours. We can reach out at ANY TIME and ANY PLACE.

How unfair would it be for there to be levels of Christianity? Imagine Jesus saying, “Sorry, you’ve only been a Christian for a day. You can’t enter my Kingdom until you’ve been following me for at least a year.” That’s insane. The Jesus of Scripture, the Jesus I know, would NEVER do that.

The more that I think about it, Matthew 20:1-16 may not make sense when you think of it in regards to how this world works. However, having Kingdom context changes EVERYTHING. Kingdom context puts pride away. Kingdom context makes us realize that we are all on the same playing field before God. None of us are more Spiritual or Holy than the other. We are just blessed to have been called by God.

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Our regular Thursday columnist, Clarke Dixon is now more than halfway through a 14-week sabbatical, but just days in he announced the completion of a book. You can read more about what’s inside Beautiful and Believable: The Reason for My Hope, by clicking this link. This would be a great book to give to someone who is considering Christianity but hasn’t made a decision. It contains material adapted from Clarke’s “Compelling” series which ran here a few years back.

The Love of Our Guide, Protector and Provider

Today we’re back again with Devotions by Chris by Chris Hendrix and two shorter devotionals which he presented in the opposite order to the one which I decided we’re going to read them today. Click each of the title headers below to read these where they first appeared.

A Foundation Of Love

I was at a celebration of my aunt and uncle when a lady walked up to me. She said, “You don’t know me, but I know you. I grew up in your grandfather’s church.” She shared some stories with me about him, and then she said, “He gave that church a foundation of love.” That phrase resonated with me for many reasons. I couldn’t help but think of how you and I are the Church. It’s important that we build our faith and our lives on a foundation of God’s love. If we don’t do that, our lives can become full of meaningless rituals or a cold relationship with God. When that happens we must return to our first love.

In Luke 7:36-47, Jesus was dining at a Pharisee’s house. A lady who was a prostitute came in, bowed at Jesus’ feet, cried tears on His feet, then dried them with her hair and poured perfume on them. The Pharisee was stunned that Jesus allowed this to happen. Jesus told him a parable of two men who owed a debt to someone. One owed a little and the other a lot. The creditor forgave them both. Jesus then asked the Pharisee which person loved the creditor more. He replied that the one who was forgiven more. Jesus agreed. He then looked down at the lady and told the Pharisee that her many sins had been forgiven and this was a display of her love.

In Ephesians 3:19 Paul concluded a prayer by saying,

“And [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself]” (AMP).

You and I can’t just have a head knowledge of God. We must experience His love and forgiveness in our lives. When we do that, we will experience God’s presence and be filled with it. When we have the foundation of His love in our lives, we can make a greater impact on the people around us.

Being Shepherded

One of the things we lose context for in a modern society is the idea of being shepherded. We use the word sheep as a means to put someone down, yet the Bible constantly refers to us as sheep and God as the shepherd. There is great trust between the shepherd and the sheep. He makes sure the sheep are cared for, fed and protected. When one runs off, the shepherd goes after it. There is a unique relationship there that is incredible. It’s the same relationship God longs to have with us. He wants to watch over you, protect you and make sure you’re well fed, but you must submit to His shepherding in order to receive the benefits the Shepherd offers.

Here are some Bible verses on God as your shepherd.

1. There once was a shepherd with a hundred lambs, but one of his lambs wandered away and was lost. So the shepherd left the ninety-nine lambs out in the open field and searched in the wilderness for that one lost lamb. He didn’t stop until he finally found it. With exuberant joy, he raised it up, placed it on his shoulders, and carried it back with cheerful delight!

Luke 15:4-5 TPT

2. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep [the protector and provider].

John 10:2 AMP

3. I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me,

John 10:14 NLT

4. The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want.

Psalms 23:1 AMP

5. You were like sheep that had lost their way, but now you have been brought back to follow the Shepherd and Keeper of your souls.

1 Peter 2:25 GNT

Our Passport was Issued in Heaven

A year ago we introduced you to Nathan Nass who writes at Upside-Down Savior, and is a Lutheran Pastor in Oklahoma. We have two devotionals for you from Nathan, both based on the same chapter in Philippians. Clicking the title for each will take you to where they first appeared.

Our Citizenship Is in Heaven

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:18-20)

You’re an alien. Did you know that? It’s true, as long as you’re a Christian. The Bible from beginning to end reminds God’s people over and over again that we are aliens and strangers on earth. This isn’t our permanent home. Our true home—our true citizenship—is in heaven.

We need that reminder often, especially if we’re proud of the earthly country we live in. I thank God for the blessing of being an American. Many other people dream of American citizenship but don’t have that option or opportunity. That makes it tempting to base our identity on the country that we’re from.

Too many people live that way. Too many people live as if this world is all there is. Too many people live as if this life is all there is. “Their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.” When you forget your heavenly citizenship, you naturally focus your attention on the pleasures and desires of this world. That’s okay, isn’t it? No! “Their destiny is destruction!” If we think this world is our home, we miss the whole message of Christianity, and we’re on the highway to hell.

But you’re an alien, remember? “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” When you believe in Jesus, your passport changes. Our citizenship is in heaven! If that’s the case, then it only makes sense that our hope is in heaven too. Our Savior isn’t a certain president or political party. It’s our Lord Jesus Christ! Don’t look to Washington for solutions to life’s troubles. Look up. To the cross of Jesus. To heaven. That’s your home.

So don’t let your stomach become your god. Don’t set your mind on earthly things, and watch out for those who do. Don’t set your heart on building an earthly country. Our citizenship is in heaven.

Dear Lord God, by your grace, you call me a citizen of heaven. How could I ever deserve that? Thank you for sending Jesus to open up eternal life to me. Help me to live each day as a citizen of heaven. Amen.

The Goal

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:10-12)

What’s your goal in life? What’s the burning desire that you want to be fulfilled more than anything else? It is success on the athletic field? A job title? A certain dollar amount? ____ kids? Whether you know it or not, that goal is reflected in your priorities and in how you spend your time and money.

Here was Paul’s goal: “I want to know Christ.” That sounds pretty simplistic, doesn’t it? Don’t you want to say to Paul: “All you want is to know Christ? Is that it? Don’t you know Jesus already?”

And Paul would say, “I want to know Christ so, so, so much more. To know how much he suffered for me to save me from my sins. To know the power of his resurrection and the eternal life it brings. To know the purpose God laid out for me even before the beginning of the world. To know the glory of heaven that awaits all who trust in Jesus. I want to know Christ and his resurrection so, so, so much more!”

Can I be honest? I don’t think that’s our goal. Just look at the way that you and your family spend your time. Is your schedule filled with “knowing Christ?” How about your thoughts? Think about all the ideas and daydreams that pass through your mind each day. How many of those thoughts are focused on Christ? I’m afraid we sinfully put “knowing Christ” way down at the bottom of our lists of goals.

But not Jesus. He didn’t put you at the bottom of his list. You are his goal! Jesus suffered and died and rose to win you back to God. Through his Word, Jesus has taken hold of you and made you the child of God. Right now, Jesus is in heaven preparing a room for you and me. What goal could possibly be better than this: To know Christ and his resurrection? To know Christ, even as we are fully known by him.

Dear Jesus, you know me and everything about me. Yet, even with all my sins, you came and died and rose to save me. Thanks for your love! Make it my desire to know you and your amazing grace. Amen.

The Reverberated Section of The Lord’s Prayer

For several days this week on his radio program — they’re an audio thing that existed before podcasts — Bible teacher David Jeremiah spoke about the need to see our forgiving of others operating in tandem with the forgiveness we ask of God. I wasn’t able to catch the full length of each broadcast but a few things remained with me.

First, there is an “echo” of the petition for forgiveness in The Lord’s Prayer occuring just two verses later. Using the Matthew 6 (NIV) version, verse 12 is most familiar to us:

And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.

but seconds later, in verses 14 and we read,

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

I want to come back to that in a moment, but let’s look at another familiar passage, also from the same discourse in Matthew which also contains a “reverberation.”

In 5:10, we’re familiar with the final promise of blessing:

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Most of the versions of these beatitudes you see on a wall plaque or a coffee mug cut off at this point, but in verses 11 and 12 Jesus continues,

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

We should probably pay extra attention to these passages which are immediately spoken twice, for added emphasis.

Back to forgiveness.

David Jeremiah compared the person who will not themselves be a “forgiver” to the person Jesus is speaking about in Matthew 18, what the NIV calls “The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.” This follows Peter’s question as to possible limits on forgiveness. Since the NIV is very familiar to us, let’s drop in on Eugene Peterson’s rendering of it in The Message:

“The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.

“The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.

“The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’

“The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.

“The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.” (18: 23-35)

Can a person die in a state where they have not provided forgiveness to someone else, and cannot therefore expect it from God? That’s a sobering question, and if David Jeremiah addressed it, I wasn’t around for that part of the broadcast. But let’s play with that for a moment: If the idea of ‘keeping short accounts with God’ is all about returning to God to ask forgiveness, is God not also expecting us to keep ‘short accounts’ with one another?

This relationship between how we forgive on a human level, and God’s forgiveness on a divine level is also intertwined in one other passage David Jeremiah referenced on two of the radio programs, and these verses are also from the same discourse in Matthew’s gospel. Following the admonition not to call your brother ‘fool’ (or ‘raca’) Jesus says,

“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.” (5:23-24 NLT)

This wasn’t said on the Turning Point broadcast, but I think there’s a bit of a chicken and egg relationship happening here. Perhaps there’s a better way to state this but let’s try these two statements.

To know God’s forgiveness is to desire to forgive others.
To be a person who knows what forgiveness entails is to fully appreciate God’s forgiveness.

But we’ve also seen that, beyond simple appreciation, perhaps forgiven people experience a greater depth or degree of God’s forgiveness.

Who do you need to forgive today?

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If you’re reading this in July, 2022, audio copies of the programs I heard are available at DavidJeremiah.org on this archives page. Check out JL/14 and JL/15 for the two part, “Prayer and Personal Relationships” messages.

Quoting the preview descriptions:

► [Forgiveness is] one of the most challenging parts of being a Christian, but it helps you experience a bit of what God has done for you.

► Nothing feels more liberating than your sin being forgiven by God. But a close second is the feeling of freedom you experience by forgiving others.

Temptation is Rooted Within Ourselves, Not God

Today’s devotional study was submitted by a writer we’d featured once previously. Luke Wagner who serves as Next Steps Pastor at The Anchor Church in Lawrence, Kansas. You are invited to check out his blog, An Eternal Viewpoint. Clicking the title below will take you to where this devotional first appeared.

In the Midst of Temptation

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

The world we live in is filled with opportunities to surrender our integrity. No matter what age, demographic, culture you come from, or upbringing, the reality of temptation is something every person faces. And with every instance of temptation knocking at our door comes the challenge to wrestle with it mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Paul was no stranger to temptation. Neither were the people he ministered to, who were part of the churches he wrote his letters to. That’s why he reminds us that we are not in this struggle alone. More than that, there is no temptation you or I could face that someone hasn’t faced before. I don’t know about you, but I find comfort in that. What I face doesn’t catch God by surprise, and I’m not the only one who has wrestled with it either.

Paul makes an interesting statement next that I think requires us to explore more. There is often times the thought, whether it be conscious or not, that God orchestrates temptation in our life. That when we face temptation it’s because God brought it into our life. The problem is that this thinking contradicts Scripture and God’s very nature. As a Holy God, He cannot commit or cause sin. To do so would be contradictory to who He is. James emphasized this point in his letter when he wrote the following.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

James 1:13-14

Temptation is rooted within ourselves, not God. It is the effect of our own desires, rooted in our flesh. God does not tempt, but rather tests us.

That’s an important distinction to understand. Paul is however indicating that God allows us to be tempted. Allowing something to happen is very different from being the cause, and this is the distinction Paul makes. But even with God allowing temptation to take place, Paul makes it clear that He will never allow it to be stronger than my ability to not give in.

Now, this is an interesting point. It’s common for us as people to find excuses for giving into temptation. And the excuse is always rooted in a lack of escape. Paul however makes it very clear that God always provides a way out. The ability to turn away from the temptation is always there, and thus failure to do so is not because we couldn’t.

We fail to turn from temptation because we choose to give in.

When I give into the temptations I face it’s simply because I decided to give in. The reality and truth is that God never allows me to face a challenge I can’t overcome, He always provides a means of escape and endurance. When I fail in my integrity and allow my character to be jeopardized by giving into temptation, I have no one but myself to blame.

But this reality brings to light another truth. My independence will always lead to giving into the temptations I face! If I continue to try and survive on my own, apart from God, I will fail every time. Paul wasn’t saying I have the strength to escape temptation. The fact that God provides the way means the ability to do so rests in Him alone.

God’s strength is the means in which I am able to walk away when I want to look at that site.

God’s strength is the means in which I am able to walk away when I want to steal that item.

God’s strength is the means in which I am able to walk away when I want to tell that lie.

God’s strength is the means in which I can keep my integrity and character intact.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Maybe that’s why Paul said these words too. He understood that it was literally in the moments he didn’t have the strength to maintain his integrity that God’s grace and power shined through most. Paul recognized his weakness, and understood where his true strength came from.

Not himself, but God.

What’s your response to temptation when you face it? Do you have a tendency to blame God, especially when you give in? Paul’s words present a challenge to how we view temptation, and calls us to not only see it differently but to act accordingly.

What will you do?

 

Two Verses Containing a World of Truth

Ever so slightly cheating on our six-month rule, we’re back again highlighting the writing of Gary Henry at WordPoints for the eleventh time. Click the title below to link to where this first appeared, listen to it on audio, learn about Gary’s books, and then check out other devotionals.

To Him Be Glory and Dominion

“. . . from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:5,6).

Here, in just two verses, is a world of truth about Jesus Christ.

In his greeting to the seven churches of Asia at the beginning of Revelation, the apostle John ascribed glorious praise and honor to “him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” We could spend a rich lifetime pondering these two verses, learning more deeply to appreciate the King of kings and Lord of lords who has given us salvation and eternal hope.

The faithful witness. One of the claims of Jesus was that, having come from the Father, He brought us information about heavenly things that we could not know about otherwise. Speaking of Jesus, John the Baptist said, “He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony” (John 3:31,32). And Jesus Himself said, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father” (John 8:38). So when Jesus is described as “the faithful witness,” the point is that His testimony is true — whatever Jesus said about God can be believed and trusted.

The firstborn of the dead. When He was raised from the dead, Jesus became the “firstfruits” (or “guarantee”) of our own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20,23). He has broken the power of death, the worst weapon of Satan (John 11:25,26; Hebrews 2:14,15).

The ruler of kings on earth. Jesus has been given “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Earthly rulers are all answerable to Him; none is independent of His power. The kingdoms of men rise and fall only with His permission, and at any instant He can depose any ruler whose power stands against His eternal purposes (Psalm 2:1–12; Daniel 2:44; 7:13,14; Revelation 11:15).

Here, then, is One whom we may love and worship. “To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” Eternal with God the Father, He is the Alpha and the Omega. The world was created through Him, and He is moving history toward its final destination. For us, salvation means this: being found “in Christ” when He returns.

“Christ himself is living at the heart of the world; and his total mystery — that of creation, incarnation, redemption, and resurrection — embodies and animates all of life and all of history” (Michael Quoist).

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Today’s devotional was shorter, but keep this in mind: Gary posted four devotionals the same day! Click the header below to read one more.

Made to be Filled

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
(Psalm 107:8,9)

One of life’s most important insights is the understanding that we were created to be the recipients of God’s glory and grace.

We are vessels. We are instruments. We are personal beings to whom and through whom God intends to communicate the benevolence of His own character. When we learn to see ourselves in this way — as existing for the purpose of receiving God’s goodness — we are then able to glorify Him in a higher way than we ever could have done in the past.

There is, as the old saying goes, a God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill. Philip James Bailey said it this way: “Naught but God can satisfy the soul.” Most of us recognize that God is perfectly able to fulfill our needs, just because He is our Creator. What we perhaps don’t recognize as well is that God is the only adequate fulfillment of our needs. Having been made for this very purpose, if our hearts are not filled with Him, we can only die. Between life and death, there is no middle way.

It marks a huge step in the growth of any person when he or she learns the truth of Jesus’ statement, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). It is also important, however, for us to see that what we’re to give is that which we’re intended to receive from God: His goodness. We were created not merely to be receptacles of God’s grace, but channels through which that grace would be conveyed to our fellow human beings.

Paul’s prayer for his Christian friends in Rome was typical of his wish for Christians everywhere else: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). There is simply no higher request we can make, at least insofar as our human needs are concerned. When we see that this is the meaning of life — to be filled with God ourselves, and then to communicate Him to others — we can begin to fulfill the potential for which we were made.

“It is the goodness of God, and a desire to communicate this good, that inspired creation. We are designed to receive God’s goodness” (William Law).

The Blessing and the Gift: Sabbath and Communion

In many of our churches today was Communion Sunday. In the church where I grew up, it was the 2nd Sunday of the month, but increasingly it’s the first Sunday. And if your church observes The Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis, all the better!

There is so much to commend Susan Barnes’ blog, who we feature here for the fifth time. It’s a mix of shorter devotionals, longer ones, and, even though she is a writer herself, a review of books by other authors.

Without trying to be analytical, another thing that struck me today was that many devotional writers end each piece with a short prayer, but here the prayer she leads us in is much longer compared to the balance of the article. Maybe it’s because I read and edit such things daily, but it gave me pause for thought. Could my thoughts be better expressed if, instead of teaching them to my readers, I simply guided us in a more extended time of thoughts offered to God instead? Or, if someone comes to me for help, instead of spending words on trying to fix the situation, I simply spent the time pouring out my heart to God on their behalf? [Okay, end of analytical section!]

Clicking the header below will take you to where this one first appeared.

Communion : A gift of rest

One day the elders of Israel came to see Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord. Amongst other things, the Lord gave this message to his people. “I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord, made them holy” (Ezekiel 20:12).

In the Old Testament God gave his people the Sabbath as a gift. It was meant to be a blessing—a whole day to do whatever was restful. God gave his people the Sabbath so they would know it wasn’t their work that made them holy, rather it was the Lord. Every week, on the Sabbath, God was reminding them salvation wasn’t achieved by their works. In the New Testament, the Pharisees complicated the Sabbath with a whole bunch of rules, and it became a burden, but this was never God’s intention. It was always meant to be a gift of rest.

Likewise, every time we gather for communion, we remember salvation isn’t by our work. Maybe that’s why God told us to share communion regularly because it reminds us salvation is a gift. It’s a gift of rest because we don’t work for our salvation. We partake often because we so quickly forget. We fall into the trap of the Pharisees and turn the gift of salvation into a burden or a way of catching up because we have been too busy.

The writer to the Hebrews tells us, “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).

This “once for all” sacrifice means that Jesus’ one-time sacrifice of his life on the cross was sufficient to deal with all sin, past, present and future. It is an all-sufficient sacrifice. Once was enough because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice.

We are made holy because of the work Jesus did on the cross … not by our efforts.

Let’s pray …

Thank you Lord that you give us the gift of rest. Thank you that we don’t work for our salvation but rather we rest in the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Thank you for the bread, a reminder of your body broken for us, the sacrifice for our sin. No matter how hard we work, we cannot repay the debt of our sin so you took it all upon yourself and gave us the gift of rest. May we truly enter into your rest and know we have peace with God.

Thank you for the cup, a reminder of your spilt blood, shed for us so we could live a life of rest, without having to strive to please you, since you are pleased when we accept your gift of rest.

Thank you, Lord.

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen

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Bonus link:

Wondering what Susan might have written about a verse or short passage for which you know the reference? Click on this link, then scroll down and click the applicable passage.

What We Were Made For

(For the grammar purists cringing over today’s title, yes, you’re right, one doesn’t end a sentence with a preposition!)

Today we return to a devotional that I personally receive by email each day, “Breakfast of Champions” by Andy and Gina Elmes. To get these sent to you, go to Great Big Life and click on Breakfast of Champions. (Oh, no! There’s that hanging preposition again!) This is two devotionals which were meant to go together.

Created By, Created For

by Gina Elmes

 Ephesians 2:8-10, NIV
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

These verses are fundamental and foundational to understanding real Christianity. They speak of who we are and how we came into existence as new creations, and also what we were created for, our purpose. Within these verses we see two important components; when kept together they produce effective Christian living but if divided can produce spiritual laziness and ineffective living in the life of the believer.

The first and most important thing we discover is that we are the produce of His grace (verse 9-10); we did not bring ourselves into salvation, justification and righteousness, rather it was all God outside of our help or assistance. When we were dead in our sins He saved us (made us alive) by His grace, and we enter into all He has given us and achieved for us by faith alone.

In this we can compare ourselves to Adam, the first man God created. There are many great practical and spiritual parallels to us and him, especially that his first day was God’s last day. When we read the beginnings of Genesis we see God make everything and do everything that was needed for life and existence, then finally He creates man and positions him in His finished, completed work. It’s the same with us in our new-creation standing: God completed everything He needed to do to save us and restore us and then through Christ brought us into being and positioned us in His finished work.

As Adam was so are we; we are God’s workmanship, not finding our origins in our ability but rather in His grace, that which He did of His own potential outside of our assistance. An understanding of grace must leave you looking at God alone without any boasting of things added or achieved by you. We are indeed His workmanship, created naturally by Him (we did not come from monkeys or explosions, rather we all find our ancestry in that first man and woman, Adam and Eve), but also spiritually we have been recreated by Him in Christ.

If this is all Ephesians offered us it would be more than enough – we are left created by God and restored and re-positioned by the perfect work of His Son as a gift of His goodness and mercy. But the truth is it does not end there. The apostle Paul takes a breath and continues with the same storyline as He announces in verse 10 that, “We are God’s workmanship, created for good works, and these having been prepared for us in advance”. Wow! Created by God for a purpose – that’s true destiny. This means that there is a proper response to grace and this response is not laziness or sitting on our ‘blessed assurance’ rather Good works.

He Has Always Been A God of Grace

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” Genesis 6:8 NKJV

God has always been a God of grace. Grace is God doing for us what we could never do for ourselves and giving us blessings that we don’t deserve. This is not a new thing that we see only in the New Testament. God says that His character never changes so the grace-filled God we have come to know through Christ has always been grace-filled. The sacrifice of Jesus did not change God into a ‘nice guy.’ He has always been the gracious God of His people who has been helping them and looking out for them.

The first place in the Bible where the word grace is mentioned is way back in the book of Genesis where Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord in a time when the culture around him was so evil that God was going to destroy them. Noah was by no means a perfect man and still did wrong at times but he was considered righteous by God because he had faith in Him and God saved him and his family.

You can even see God’s grace directly written into the law!! In Deuteronomy 15 all financial debt was to be cancelled in Israel every 7 years. In the same chapter we read that all slaves were to be released every 7 years. Also, farmers were told not to glean all the way to the edges of a field during a harvest but some was to be left for the poor to collect so they would have food for themselves and their families. Foreigners living among the Israelites were commanded by God to be treated with kindness. It’s quite easy to see the kindness, compassion, and grace God had on the vulnerable; those who were struggling and those held in bondage and could not be freed by their own strength or ability.

We all have weaknesses in our lives in some area. Maybe you struggle with health issues, lack of finances, loneliness, addictions, etc, God wants you to trust Him and remember His gracious nature and know He desires to extend grace toward you. He knows you cannot face your problems on your own with success and that you need Him. When we put our trust in Him we don’t consider our weakness but rather His strength that will enable us to succeed.

Praying for What We’ve Already Been Given

The decade from 2007 to 2016 was a golden age for Christian blogs. One of ones we visited three times year, and linked to many times at Thinking Out Loud was Parking Space 23. Today we went back for a visit and found that they were still active until this spring when this piece by Jason Vaughn appeared. Click the link below to read directly.

Pray for What We Own Already

Paul’s first prayer in Ephesians really intrigues me. Compare what he prays for with commonly heard prayer requests. When I say, how can I pray for you, what do we often respond with? We mention issues, situations, or desired outcomes. This isn’t wrong. To clarify please do not feel guilty for asking for specific issues you want others to pray for. Instead, I propose some additional content to be added to our prayers on behalf of your church family, family, coworkers, and ourselves. Paul’s prayer, inspired by the Holy Spirit, allows us a glimpse into the apostle’s concern.

As Paul writes to the church, he thanks the Lord for this congregation and records how he prays. He says,

^ESV.Eph.1.15 “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might ²⁰ which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²² And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

The testimony of the church leads him to give thanks. This is a church exhibiting faith in Christ and love for one another. These two attributes only exist through the work of the Holy Spirit, so thanking our Lord proves appropriate and gives Him the honor He is due. But then he reveals how he constantly prays, “that [our Lord] would give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him . . . the eyes of your heart may be enlightened” (1:17-18). Emphatically Paul asks God for the church to understand the revelation our Lord gives to us. He wants believers to know God. He wants God to grant us understanding of Him.

It is not enough for Paul that we be empowered to just live rightfully, but that we think rightfully too. (Paul doesn’t pit these against each other, ever. Instead he sees them as a married couple holding hands walking together). But what is it we should know? He lists three facts he wants us to understand: 1. To know the hope of His calling 2. the riches of the glory of His inheritance and 3. His surpassing greatness of His power brought about in Christ! (His resurrection, ascension and sovereignty, and headship over the church).

The familiar reader of Ephesians will note Paul addressed the first two points in 1:3-14. Herein lies a key observation. Paul wants the church to know and understand what we already have in Christ. The opening paragraph explains what we have in Christ, “every spiritual blessing.” (1:3) He does not hope we gain these truths nor do these truths only exist if we know or understand them. Instead, whether we understand them or not, if you are a believer, these truth do exist! It’s like buying a used car and you made this choice because of make, model, engine, and reliability, then as you drive the car you start to discover all the cool features, secret cup holders, bluetooth, and other neat features. You already owned them, but you did not know you owned them. This is exactly what Paul prays for. He wants us to understand what is true about us in Christ! It is lamentable to think about how many people have passed away on earth to only discover in the presence of God what he or she really had in Christ. Paul wants us to know this today!

When he says, “You will know the hope of his calling” he really means, He wants us to know and understand what we have in Christ. “The hope of his calling” was already explained in 1:3-14 and should draw us back to remember that amazing introductory paragraph. What is the hope our calling we have in Christ? It can be summarized simply — that we are “in Christ!” But Paul mentions six blessings regarding what it means to be in Christ. These are “the hope of our calling” and the “spiritual blessings” every believer has — not earned!

1. “That we would be holy and blameless before Him” (1:4) For every believer this is a relief! We know we are sinful, not holy, and cannot save myself. I know that God’s requirement for his children is that I would be holy as He is holy. But unfortunately I cannot do anything to earn or obtain that holiness. But enter God who chose us, His children, to be holy and blameless before the world was even founded!
2. “Adopted as sons in Jesus Christ” (1:5) Not only have I been made holy, but God adopts me into His family. Believers are children of God, enjoying every promise from God, especially those found in the New Covenant: forgiveness, indwelling Holy Spirit, justified, to know God personally, the hope of the resurrection, and a seat at the banquet table with our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. “In Him we have redemption” (1:7) God redeemed us, not based on our work, but based on Christ and His work on the cross where God is both just and the justifier. No longer are my sins remembered against me, instead God forgives us. Why? Again, not because we have something that God needs, but rather, “according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us!” (1:7-8). This is humbling, and rightfully so! Hopefully it causes us to give thanks to Him for his mercy and grace!
4. “He made known to us the mystery of His will” (1:9). This is the right time for our Lord. We know the mystery the prophets looked into, but didn’t know what time Christ would be revealed. Well now, Christ has been revealed and we know the mystery of His will. We live in a great season where Christ has come in the flesh, died, buried, resurrected, and ascended to glory. We no longer have to ask, “When is the Messiah coming.” Instead we already know, He’s come (and will come back again). We walk with a confidence existing only because Christ has conquered death on the cross.
5. “We were made an inheritance” (1:11). Looking at two sides of the coin. On one side, we are adopted as children. On the other side God made us His inheritance. The covenant keeping Lord made us New Covenant children. We are His chosen ones. We are precious to Him as any good father would be to His children. It’s this truth that allows us to confidently say, “God loves me!”
6. “You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise” (1:13). Every believer, each of his children, His inheritance has indwelling him or her, the Holy Spirit. This is a New Covenant promise true for everyone who believes (1:13). The true God, Holy Spirit, indwells us guaranteeing our place in God’s presence around the banquet table!

Every one of these truths is fully true whether we understand them or not. But Paul, with a pastor’s heart wants the church to understand each of these truths. Why? Because there is hope in them! Life can be difficult. Our trials can lead to despondency, despair, and all sorts of difficult emotions. But to live every day understanding these truths are not only true when we have good days, but bad days too, helps us praise and thank our Lord, joining Paul who opens Ephesians with “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” Nothing in this world compares to what I have in Christ. Remembering this spurs us on to honor, thank, and love others regardless of the context, trials, and hardships we deal with daily.

This hope should serve at the core of our thinking and therefore living. As we seek to love our church family, spouse, kids, and everyone God puts around us, we desire each person to know this same hope. Join Paul’s prayer and make sure you add this content to your prayers on behalf of yourself and others. God wants us to know His gifts given to us through Christ.

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