Love Generously!

As I went to sleep last night, a very simple thought came to me.  Wouldn't it be great if now and always God's people were faithful to share the love of Jesus with everyone?  A lot of the time we think of evangelism as going to people we've never seen before we tracts or having an outreach at the beach.  How great it would be to actively walk in the love of Christ every day!  He gave Himself completely, the greatest gift of all!

Romans 10:13-15 reads, "For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. ¹⁴ How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"  How will people know of the love of Jesus firsthand except God reveal it through His people?  We know love because of the sacrificial love of Christ, who died for us when we were sinners.  We ought to die to self every day for all people so they too might experience the love of Christ.  The love of God prepares the soil of people's hearts to be a willing recipient of His good Word.

A willing recipient is a captive audience!  People may not agree with what we believe or what we say initially, or perhaps will never agree.  But they will never be able to speak against love from a pure heart.  As God has generously offered His love to us always without intermission, may we give that love to others.  Let us give the gift of Christ's love this Christmas season and always!

True to His Word

"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹ For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations ."

Isaiah 61:10-11

 

What God has promised He is able to perform.  Our intellect can get in the way of trusting the Word of the LORD.  When my children were in preschool, they learned how plants grow from seeds.  They wrapped dried beans in a wet paper towel sealed in a Ziploc bag.  After placing the bag in a sunny spot, with childlike enthusiasm they couldn't wait until the first tender shoots peeked out from those seemingly dead, dry beans.  When we grow plants from seeds as adults, we carefully amend and prep the soil, plant certain seeds in certain seasons, properly space the seeds, regulate the depth, fertilize, and build a fence.  We have sprays for pests, various plant food, and consider all the work of weeding and irrigation.  Though the process of growing beans is the same for either children or adults, the knowledge we gain by adulthood makes things so difficult!

This is why God desires we have faith like a child.  A child does not look at all the hindrances of growing a plant because his mind is fixed on the surety of the process:  plant a seed in the ground, add a little water and sunlight - and he knows a plant will grow.  This is how we ought to be when God gives us His Word.  We ought not look at the obstacles which seem to contradict God's Word, but consider the character of God who speaks.  He will never lie, mislead, or be incorrect.  If God says He will make righteousness and praise spring forth to God before all the nations, He will do so!  Nothing is too hard for our God.

When God told me in 2002, "You shall preach, and you shall be sent," it seemed very unlikely.  I wondered how such a thing could come to pass.  God used a quote from Spurgeon's from Lectures to My Students to encouraged me to believe His word spoken to my heart:  "Neptune had long been shining before he was discovered and named; and you and I brethren, may remain unknown for years, and possible the world may never discover us; but I trust that our influence, like that of Neptune, will be felt and recognized, whether we are seen of men, or only shine in solitary splendour to the glory of God."  Soon after I received a call from my pastor who invited me to teach a home fellowship.  Then in 2005 I came on staff at Calvary Chapel El Cajon and was ordained as a minister in 2006!  I had preached, but I had not yet been sent.

It was in 2005 when God placed a desire in my heart to pray for the east side of Australia.  Every morning in my prayers I would turn my face towards Australia!  Little did I know at the time that He would not only open a door to visit the east side of Australia in 2009, but I would be offered a pastoral job at Calvary Chapel Sydney in 2010!  Yesterday my wife and I had a meeting with a pastor to discuss our vision for the fellowship in Sydney.  At the end of the meeting, he prayed for us.  As he prayed, I was blessed beyond measure by what was said, which was something to the effect of:  "Thank you Jesus for sending Ben and Laura to this church at this time."  My mind flashed back to words that God has impressed upon my heart more than once.  In front of the Castle Towers in Castle Hill, there is a large Australian flag.  As I waited at the light and watched the flag wave in the breeze, God encouraged me with the words, "I will establish you."  It is God who will establish, and it is God who has sent us.  His prayer only confirmed it was Jesus Christ Himself who had sent us!

If it was a church fellowship or a group of elders who sent our family to a foreign field, I could doubt their judgment.  But if it is God who has sent me, He can certainly fulfill His will concerning me.  If God says He will establish, He will do it!  He has already fulfilled His word spoken in 2002:  "You will preach and you will be sent."  Won't He establish us as well?  Because God's Word endures forever, it is like good seed that will never be without fruit.  It will never return to Him void, but always accomplish what He intends.  Isaiah 55:9-11: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. ¹⁰ "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹ so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

 

What God says He will do!  Let us purpose in our hearts to believe God no matter what.  Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to Him for righteousness.  Joshua 21:45 is as true today as it was then:  "Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass."  Do we live our lives like this is true?

The Righteous Rise

Sometimes in reading the Bible I come across verses that shatter my misconceptions I didn't know I had!  I read Proverbs 24:15-16 which states, "Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; do not plunder his resting place; ¹⁶ for a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity."  Both the wicked and the righteous will fall into sin, for they live in a body of flesh.  The difference between them is the righteous will rise again and again, while the wicked will fall and be unable to rise.  The wicked have no resting place under the oppressive weight of their guilt and sin before God, while the righteous are those who rest in the forgiveness offered through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ.

We might think that a righteous person is one who no longer sins, while in actuality those who are righteous are those whose sins are forgiven.  There is none righteous, not one is righteous in his own strength save Jesus Christ.  The devil will use our faults against us, to condemn us by saying:  "You think you are righteous?  See what wicked thoughts you entertain!  Look at how you acted!  There's no hope for you now!"  The righteous can be duped to remain down when it is Christ who lifts us up!  David says in Psalm 32:1-2, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. ² Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit."  A righteous man is he who has his sins forgiven by the blood of Christ.

Since God in His grace and justice has forgiven us of our sins, we are now free from sin and are given the responsibility to live righteously.  This righteousness is not according to the law, but according to the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us in faith.  When we are disillusioned by our own faults we can know we have begun to think of ourselves more highly than we ought.  As long as we live in this flesh, we are sinners in need of cleansing and salvation.  We are called to work out our own salvation - not that we could earn our salvation through doing good - but that we would walk worthy of our high calling as children of God.

When you fall into sin, ask God to lift you up!  Let us reach out to Him.  As Jesus rose from the dead and defeated sin and death, we too can be raised up by the same power which works in us by His grace.  A righteous man will fall, but we will rise again!  Praise God for this incredible truth!

It's GO Time!

"Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: you will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ¹⁴ "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" ¹⁵ So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us." ¹⁶ And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger."

Luke 2:8-16

Christmas is the celebration of the divine revelation of Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.  On a quiet night in the countryside of Bethlehem, angels proclaimed the birth of the Son of God to shepherds who dwelt in the fields.  What I find fascinating about this interaction is the angel says,  "And this will be the sign to you: you will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."  The shepherds were never told to go to Bethlehem.  They were not commanded to leave their flocks or seek the child Jesus.  But with great enthusiasm and desire the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."  God had revealed Himself from heaven as a child in a manger, and they desired to experience His presence firsthand.  Verse 16 reveals their zeal:  "And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger."

Funny isn't it, how these men did something they weren't even asked or commanded to do?  The angel simply said, "You will find...."  He might as well have said, "Get up right now and GO!" by their actions!  The shepherds responded to the revelation not by putting another bundle of sticks on the fire, leaning back with hands behind their heads saying, "Wonder how this will turn out!"  They went immediately to seek their LORD and Savior.  Later in the life of Christ, He spoke in Matthew 7:7-8: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."  Jesus extends to us an open invitation to ask, seek, and knock.  This is not an invitation for us to satisfy our own selfish desires, but to experience firsthand what God has revealed.  I must ask myself:  do I have that same enthusiastic response to seek God like those shepherds?  And if not, what is that thing which is so important that seeking God must be second?

These shepherds left all to seek their Savior.  No career, no relationship, no earthly goods, and no self-imposed responsibilities should keep me from seeking my LORD.  Sometimes we have this idea that God must command us to do something before we will do it.  The fact is, sometimes God will reveal something He wants us to act upon by simply taking Him at His word in obedience.  In this case, the men saw angels and were given a sign.  But it was a sign they had to seek, not for the sign itself but for who it pointed to:  the Son of God, born of a virgin in the City of David, our Savior Christ the LORD.  These men were not seeking revelation.  Their responsibility was to trust that revelation and live according to the truth of it.  My friends, this is the Christian existence summed up very well.  These shepherds made haste to find the Babe, widely proclaimed all they had seen and heard to everyone they met, and returned to their flocks glorifying and praising God.  May this kind of super-abundant joyful evangelism in the purest form mark my life and that of every believer!

What has God revealed to you, and what does He want you to do about it today?