Return to Jesus!

I read a discourse to working men called "The Great Strike" by W.R. Bradlaugh who spoke of a young woman who had been a prodigal.  After making a decision to follow Jesus Christ as LORD she returned home at midnight and was surprised to find the door unlocked.  She found her mother praying for her.  After an embrace she expressed her surprise the door was unfastened.  "That has never been fastened since you went away," the mother said.  "I knew you would return, and it should never be said my child came home and could not get in."  Bradlaugh used this to preface the following heartfelt message for doubters, infidels, and those who have departed from Christ:

That is just how our Heavenly Father acts.  He neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.  He is ever ready to receive the wanderer.  Friend, sin has separated you from a father's love and a father's care.  But though you have wandered from God, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has gone after you, and tonight He is here seeking to save and inviting you to come.  Pardon has been purchased.  Salvation is free.  The blood of Christ has been the price paid.  The ransom price has been accepted.  And now let me bid you in the Saviour's name return to the Father.  Is there a poor degraded drunkard here, a lost and fallen sister, a scoffer, a Sabbath-breaker?  If so, I say, arise, and go to your Father while the door is open.  Go at once.  Go direct from the fields of sin and the swine-troughs of Satan to your Father's home.  Go just as you are.  No father ever welcomed back a returning prodigal as God welcomes the returning sinner.  Desponding one, degraded one, God sends a special message to you; He invites, He entreats, He beseeches you to return.  Return, and experience His compassion now.  Return, and receive His forgiveness now.  Return, and prove the greatness of His love.  Return, and taste the sweetness of being reconciled to God.  Return, and heaven and earth shall rejoice over thee.  Soon the Bridegroom will come, and the door will then be shut, never again to be opened.  Saints will be shut in, sinners will be shut out.  Enter the door, for death approaches, and you may at any moment be cut down.  Enter the open door now, for if you perish you will only have yourself to blame.  Enter now, for tomorrow may be too late, and when the door is shut opportunity, mercy, and hope will have fled forever, and your doom will be sealed.  There are angels lingering here to carry back the news.  What is it to be?  Are they on swift wings to bear the glad news that a sinner has repented, which shall cause the angelic throng to strike their harps and make the heavens ring with songs of joy over the lost one's return?  Or are they on heavy wings to mount upward, stand before the most High, and, veiling their faces with their snowy pinions, declare that you, sinner, have been invited to the feast, and would not come?  --that you were told of the love of God, but you despised it?  --that you were pointed to the Saviour, but in your unbelief you trampled on His blood, saying in your heart you would stifle conviction, resist the Holy Spirit, and become your own destroyer?  Which is it to be?  (Moody, Dwight Lyman. Men of the Bible. Bible Institute Colportage Assn., 1898. pages 149-150)

The Manifestation of Christ's Life

"We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-- ¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body."

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

This was a description of the Christian life by the apostle Paul, one who suffered according to the will of God.  But where suffering abounded, consolation from God was greater still.  It was God who enabled Paul to endure and He is faithful to help us as well.

Paul was pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down.  Blows were landed physically and spiritually upon him yet he was not crushed, did not despair, was not forsaken or destroyed.  It could be said he was upheld and sustained, encouraged by hope in God, experienced God's presence, and was delivered.  The victory obtained through Christ's death and resurrection were manifested in Paul and other Christians in the face of fierce opposition and uncertainty.

The crazy thing is Paul and the believers in the early church did not go into survival mode due to satanic assault and persecution but thrived due to the life of Jesus Christ in them.  The Holy Spirit provided help and comfort they needed to persevere and overcome insurmountable foes in the physical and spiritual realms.  The fruitfulness borne in the lives of God's people was the equivalent of grape vines being fruitful in the midst of a fire or olive trees bearing fruit in a torrential flood.  This power and wisdom for ministry in Jesus has been transferred to His faithful disciples to this day.

The life of Jesus is manifested in our bodies when we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, and struck down but not destroyed.  We may hope following Jesus means we will not be hard pressed, confused, attacked, or depressed, yet this is hardly the case.  God allows all these things and more so we might know Him through the fellowship of His suffering and so His life might be manifested to us and through us.

Made Holy and Acceptable

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

Romans 12:1

Over the past few days I enjoyed a getaway with a delightful group of men in Newcastle.  During that time we studied through portions of the Bible and this was one of the first passages we read.  As we discussed this verse, I was struck with the implications of what it means to be an acceptable sacrifice to God.

Those of us who love and desire to please God have an interest in what we can do to make efforts to demonstrate this.  Whilst this verse is a directive to do, it is largely overshadowed by what God has already done.  Understanding this fills us with gratitude, thanks, and humility at the grace and mercy of God that enables us to be in any way acceptable before Him as a living sacrifice or servant.  We are brethren of Christ and children of God by the mercies of God, and no amount of our good deeds can earn this privileged standing.

Under the Law of Moses, animal sacrifices for sin made unto God were to be without blemish.  It was important the animals brought for sacrifice were not sick or blind, without wounds, deformities and birth defects.  Because of our sin (before and after being born again through faith in Jesus) not one of us is acceptable to God due to our efforts or merit.  Yet by the grace of God each one of us has been selected out of all the people of the world to be a living sacrifice God is pleased to accept.  Jesus has called and chosen us, and we are called to reverently present ourselves before Him.

I spent a good deal of my life trying to be holy and acceptable to God, foolishly imagining this to be something I could do myself.  Because of the work Jesus has done we are presentable, holy, and acceptable.  I am called to give my body of death and Jesus provides new life; I offer Him my sin, worries, and fleshly desires in repentance and He supplies forgiveness and cleansing.  Because Jesus works in us both to will and do God's good pleasure this verse is not really about what I do at all but what He has done in choosing and electing me to His family by grace.

Isn't giving ourselves to God the reasonable response since our life is in Him?  What mercy, love, and grace God has shown us!  We can never repay Him, and it would be foolish to try.  All we can do is praise and worship God for who He is and all He has done in transforming us and obediently walk in the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God.

No Longer Dumb

I was privileged over the last week to speak to kids about Jesus Christ, some of whom admittedly had never heard anything about Him.  It was fun to focus on the life of Christ and His amazing deeds which revealed He was indeed the Son of God sent as a Saviour.  While camp is a great opportunity to be intentional about speaking of Jesus, it is good for us to approach every day with the same focus.

D.L. Moody wrote about the great zeal of the blind man healed by Jesus.  He could have remained silent because of the opposition and pressure of the Jewish religious leaders, but his boldness and courage rivalled that of Peter and John before the Sanhedrin after being filled with the Holy Spirit.  Moody points out the fault of silence among those who have had their eyes opened by Christ, a fault I have been guilty of myself:

It is a very sad thing that so many of God's children are dumb; yet it is true.  Parents would think it is a great calamity to have their children born dumb; they would mourn over it, and weep; and well they might; but did you ever think of the many dumb children God has? The churches are full of them; they never speak for Christ.  They can talk about politics, art, and science; they can speak well enough and fast enough about the fashions of the day; but they have no voice for the son of God.

Dear friend, if He is your Savior, confess Him.  Every follower of Jesus should bear testimony for Him.  How many opportunities each one has in society and in business to speak a word for Jesus Christ!  How many opportunities occur daily wherein every Christian might be "instant in season and out of season" in pleading for Jesus!  In so doing we receive blessing for ourselves, and also become a means of blessing to others. (Moody, Dwight Lyman. Men of the Bible. Bible Institute Colportage Assn., 1898. pages 101-102)

It was a notable miracle done by Peter in the name of Jesus Christ when he healed the lame man by the Beautiful Gate, but just as miraculous (though easily overlooked) is the transformation the Holy Spirit did in the life of Peter and John.  After the death of Jesus the disciples cowered behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, but after being filled with the Holy Spirit Peter and John spoke boldly before the very men responsible for killing Jesus.  The boldness to speak of Jesus was not lost on the Pharisees in Acts 4:13:  "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marvelled. And they realised that they had been with Jesus."

May believers have the testimony of the man once blind who was enabled by Jesus to see, that we were once afraid but have been made bold to testify of our Saviour Jesus Christ.  By His grace we are no longer dumb, having been given the fullness of the Holy Spirit.