This morning I left the house early for a meeting in Chatswood with local Calvary pastors. As I watched the sun rise before our meeting, the top edge of dark clouds far off shone with brilliant light. The gleaming ribbon of light stretched across the horizon was beautiful and I tried to take a photo on my mobile phone. Though it was gorgeous with the naked eye, the pictures did not do God's creation justice. The bottom half of the screen was so bleached out I could see brightness but without much clarity. Every picture I took was immediately deleted as I drank in the beauty of the cool autumn morning. My phone could not contain or portray the reality of the splendour I saw with my eyes. God knows our eyes are not capable of taking in the sight of the sun obscured by clouds: how then can a man turn his eyes upon God and live? Because of this God made a provision for our weakness as it is written in John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Who can explain such wonders?
I feel like my phone sometimes. The glory of God revealed to me I am not capable of passing on with the same precision and awesomeness as revealed through His Word, the Holy Spirit, or even in nature. I am not a recipient of special grace or divine revelation untold, for God is no respecter of persons. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, be healed, and be filled with the Spirit. On my nameless tomb may it simply be written: "A man saved by Jesus Christ in whom the Holy Spirit dwelt." That God would place His glory within such a failed earthen vessel, broken and chipped and good for nothing in itself! Yet God in His grace, mercy, and love has raised men from the dunghill and made us kings and priests unto Him! Who can comprehend or adequately explain with words such humble condescension of so great a Being?
No man can do God justice. Thankfully He is a gracious God who delights in mercy! I am inadequate, I am wanting, I lack, I lack! But thanks be to God that He grants us faith and strength to cling to His promises: Philippians 4:19 reads, "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." LORD Jesus, my All in All! May your glory shine unabated for eternity according to the riches of your love and grace for all!
06 April 2011
04 April 2011
Look UP!
"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls ."
Hebrews 12:1-3
Hebrews 12:1-3
God knows that Christians need encouragement. Weariness and discouragement are real adversaries faced by every Christ-following believer. God has given me great encouragement today not only from Him but from His people. At times I was filled with great excitement about the wonderful things God is doing in the lives of my brothers and sisters. As if right on cue, the devil attacked my heart and mind through a conversation with a person very hostile to the idea that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
God has provided spiritual armor through the Holy Spirit to protect our hearts and minds. Because God has taken my heart of stone and replaced it with a sensitive heart of flesh I am vulnerable to biting and harsh words. When God speaks in His still small voice I can sense Him, and I also have come to recognize through much pain the hostile tone of the accuser and enemy of my soul. I need not take a single word of Satan to heart. How the devil rejoices to burden us with guilt and wound us with baseless lies. He labours continually to trip us with temptation, bring shame upon us through our failings, and mock us in our weakness. The devil delights to back a child of God into a corner through worthless arguments and debate. But it is unwise and unnecessary to stoop to his tactics for it is written in Matthew 7:6: "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."
When we feel discouraged or are wounded through harsh words, may we remember to look to Jesus and consider He "who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls." Jesus endured all the mockery, scorn, and power of the devil and rose victorious! He did not escape from the hideous trial of faith: He faced pure evil and experienced death only to cast off the bonds with new life! The same Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead indwells every follower of Jesus Christ and empowers us to endure without weariness or discouragement. This is hard to fathom given the condition of the world and the deceptions of our own flesh. But the promises of the Word stand true and we accept them in faith!
Praise God for the encouragement we have in the person of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit! May I continually avail myself of the strength only found in waiting expectantly on the LORD. Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!" God is no liar and His Word is true! Look up these promises yourself believer! Look up to Christ and consider Him with thankfulness and joy, praising Him for His faithfulness!
03 April 2011
Sin Exterminator: 100% Success!
A couple nights ago I was startled during dinner by Laura's scream behind my back. Laura had been baking cookies in the kitchen. I didn't have to turn around because she ran to her chair at the table and sat down, her hands still covered with oven mitts. Let me preface this by saying our kitchen and house is clean, is situated on a concrete slab, and I usually spray for insects once a month. Yet despite our precautions, apparently a large cockroach had crawled into a drawer under the oven reserved for cutting-boards and Glad plastic containers and lids. "And so what do you want me to do?" I asked. But I already knew the answer. It was time to wage war on the rogue insect!
I was admittedly reluctant in emptying the drawer. The last thing I was interested in while my food cooled on the table was to be surprised by some bug dropping onto me. As I continued to remove item after item, soon the roach was spied by Abel crawling across the baseboards and squeezed behind the dishwasher. It was very large, very dark, and probably the most athletic specimen I have ever seen. The legs looked...muscular! I began to spray all around the dishwasher, scooting it from side to side and spraying as much pesticide far back as possible. Then we all waited and waited. I finished off my cold chicken and turned on the TV to see if any sport was on. Now comes the funniest part of the story.
About five minutes later I heard an all too familiar shriek from the kitchen. As my head whipped around to see, Laura ran like a world-class sprinter out of the kitchen, spiked her oven mitts to the ground, and darted into the lounge room! I walk over to see that our large muscular friend had made his grand exit from the dishwasher. It was rather anticlimactic, seeing he was nearly dead from fumes. I applied a generous amount of poison directly, just to ensure he would trouble us no more. During the cleanup phase, our family talked about how a random roach is way better than some other critters that can take up residence without permission in a home.
The hardest thing in that situation was not knowing how many roaches we were dealing with. I had the horrible thought: what if when I move the dishwasher 20, 50, 100 of those suckers start running around? Would I be able to kill them all? I didn't think there was a single roach in our house - could there possible be more than one? I remember a "playhouse" my dad had built for me and my siblings when we were kids. If my mind serves me correctly it was built on an 8 X 8 foot platform. When the day came for the house to be demolished, my dad lifted and flipped over the base. Nothing could have prepared us for what was living underneath the house! There was a literal 8 X 8 foot square of cockroaches which began to scatter in all directions! I think my mom started tromping them; I started running away from them! They slowly disappeared into the turf. That was one of the most wild insect surprises of my life.
When we think about addressing sin in our lives, it's not a pretty picture. Sometimes we don't want to deal with the consequences of our sin. We don't want to see firsthand how deep our wickedness runs. But the wondrous beauty of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness we receive through His blood is that we don't need to worry if all our sin has truly been dealt with! We don't need to live in fear that all our sins have not actually been atoned for. Christians do not need to fear that perhaps unforgivable sins remain that will keep us out of heaven. We receive assurance of our forgiveness through God's Word: 1 John 1:9 reads, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
There is the point: we need to confess our sins. If our problem with insects were to grow and we hired an exterminator, it would be to our benefit to explain where the cockroaches or ants are most often found. How silly would it be to hire a man but withhold necessary information! How ridiculous is it to have a Saviour, a Deliverer, a Forgiver in Jesus Christ, but not freely confess where we need His sanctifying touch. Even though roaches are relatively harmless, the thought them scrambling over your body is a bad feeling. How much worse is sin which causes separation from God and leads to death! Sin must be dealt with, and thank God Jesus Christ has dealt with it once and for all on the cross! He takes away our guilt, uncleanness, and our worry too. Let's thank Him by never falling prey to worry again!
I was admittedly reluctant in emptying the drawer. The last thing I was interested in while my food cooled on the table was to be surprised by some bug dropping onto me. As I continued to remove item after item, soon the roach was spied by Abel crawling across the baseboards and squeezed behind the dishwasher. It was very large, very dark, and probably the most athletic specimen I have ever seen. The legs looked...muscular! I began to spray all around the dishwasher, scooting it from side to side and spraying as much pesticide far back as possible. Then we all waited and waited. I finished off my cold chicken and turned on the TV to see if any sport was on. Now comes the funniest part of the story.
About five minutes later I heard an all too familiar shriek from the kitchen. As my head whipped around to see, Laura ran like a world-class sprinter out of the kitchen, spiked her oven mitts to the ground, and darted into the lounge room! I walk over to see that our large muscular friend had made his grand exit from the dishwasher. It was rather anticlimactic, seeing he was nearly dead from fumes. I applied a generous amount of poison directly, just to ensure he would trouble us no more. During the cleanup phase, our family talked about how a random roach is way better than some other critters that can take up residence without permission in a home.
The hardest thing in that situation was not knowing how many roaches we were dealing with. I had the horrible thought: what if when I move the dishwasher 20, 50, 100 of those suckers start running around? Would I be able to kill them all? I didn't think there was a single roach in our house - could there possible be more than one? I remember a "playhouse" my dad had built for me and my siblings when we were kids. If my mind serves me correctly it was built on an 8 X 8 foot platform. When the day came for the house to be demolished, my dad lifted and flipped over the base. Nothing could have prepared us for what was living underneath the house! There was a literal 8 X 8 foot square of cockroaches which began to scatter in all directions! I think my mom started tromping them; I started running away from them! They slowly disappeared into the turf. That was one of the most wild insect surprises of my life.
When we think about addressing sin in our lives, it's not a pretty picture. Sometimes we don't want to deal with the consequences of our sin. We don't want to see firsthand how deep our wickedness runs. But the wondrous beauty of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness we receive through His blood is that we don't need to worry if all our sin has truly been dealt with! We don't need to live in fear that all our sins have not actually been atoned for. Christians do not need to fear that perhaps unforgivable sins remain that will keep us out of heaven. We receive assurance of our forgiveness through God's Word: 1 John 1:9 reads, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
There is the point: we need to confess our sins. If our problem with insects were to grow and we hired an exterminator, it would be to our benefit to explain where the cockroaches or ants are most often found. How silly would it be to hire a man but withhold necessary information! How ridiculous is it to have a Saviour, a Deliverer, a Forgiver in Jesus Christ, but not freely confess where we need His sanctifying touch. Even though roaches are relatively harmless, the thought them scrambling over your body is a bad feeling. How much worse is sin which causes separation from God and leads to death! Sin must be dealt with, and thank God Jesus Christ has dealt with it once and for all on the cross! He takes away our guilt, uncleanness, and our worry too. Let's thank Him by never falling prey to worry again!
01 April 2011
A Life Worth Living
"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."
Psalm 32:1-2
Happy is the man whose sins are forgiven! David goes on to describe the process in verses 3-5: Psalm 32:3-5 reads, "When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah." David freely confessed his sin before the LORD and God forgave him. What a wonder, to be free from the guilt, shame, conviction, and condemnation our sin justly demands!
Psalm 103:12 states, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." Our sins removed from us at such a distance that we need never be reminded of them again. If we trust in Jesus Christ and humbly confess our sins, God will cleanse us, remove our sin from us, and chooses not to remember them ever again as it is written in Isaiah 43:25: "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins." God does not forget our sins: He decides not to remember them. What glorious forgiveness is granted us freely through the blood of Jesus Christ!
Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. When we believe on Jesus Christ whom God has sent to be the Saviour of the world and repent of our sins, we are not only cleansed from iniquity but the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. This righteousness and eternal salvation is granted to us by grace through faith. Jesus has become the payment for our sins. Romans 3:21-26 reads, "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
Let us rejoice in the goodness of our God, who at His own expense has granted us life for death, and given us eternal salvation instead of eternal damnation. Christ has removed all sin far from us and remembers it no more. All this without guilt and bondage, all this without condemnation! This, my friends, is a life of freedom worth living!
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