“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57).
Some of us who were watching football one Monday might this season were privileged to witness one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history. The Denver Broncos were down 24points at halftime, but when the final gun sounded the Broncos had orchestrated a complete turnaround and came back to win this contest by a final score of 35 to 24. It wasn’t not only an offensive comeback but even the defense turned their game around to complete the final two quarters with a shutout. But as great as this comeback was, it still was not the “greatest” comeback ever.
Like the Broncos on that Monday night, many souls are headed in the wrong direction. Many in this world live as a servant to sin, which allows them to be led to defeat, aka death. The goal is victory which is found only in life. But life in this case is not just the existence in this world but it is living in God’s grace. Jesus is the only One who can give us the power to live in this fashion: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus came to this world to help us make a comeback: “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). God’s love reveals His game plan for victory and any willing soul can find their way to that victory.
One amazing comeback revealed to us in Scripture is in the life of Saul. Saul was a man of great education which gave him amazing power. He was next in line for the office of Pharisee, which came by his knowledge of the Scriptures. But even though he knew the Scriptures, he sorrowfully didn’t know them in the Spirit of God. So, one can assume that there had to be a “halftime” in the life of Saul where adjustments had to be made. This turnaround was such an impact in revealing to us God’s grace that Luke recorded it three times in the book of Acts: “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads’” (Acts 9:14). This same confrontation with Saul and Jesus is revealed in Acts 22 and 26 also. Saul was once on the wrong team headed in the wrong direction. But Jesus came into his life and taught him how to make a comeback (Acts 9:6). Further reading will reveal that Saul was baptized for the forgiveness of his sins and was given a new name, Paul, in which he made a comeback and served the Lord with all his might: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come” (2 Timothy 4:6). Now that is truly an amazing comeback.
Peter is another great life that revealed a complete comeback. It is easy for us to relate to Peter because we know he spoke from the heart but many times he acted through the flesh. He once told the Christ that he would die before he would allow anything to happen to His Lord which drew out an unexpected response from Jesus: “But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's’” (Matthew 16:23). The comeback for Peter came in the book of Acts also, in chapter 2, where he delivered one of the most powerful sermons of all time. Peter’s comeback can be attributed to his receiving God’s Spirit (Acts 2:4). Peter went on to do great things for the Lord as an author, a teacher and a preacher. All of us are like Peter and Paul in the sense that we are all heading for defeat but we can make a comeback by repenting and receiving the Lord’s Spirit.
In His Grace,
Cub
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Monday, December 10, 2012
Discernment
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
The Bible is a book of contrasts revealing the benefits of being a child of God. It is a book of history that shows many people being made perfect through their faith in Jesus and His power to change the hearts of even the most difficult. It is God’s way of revealing His love as opposed to Satan trying to deceive us in his hatred. All the way through the inspired accounts of men and women going through transformation we can easily see that choosing God’s love is the only way.
The Bible begins with the creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Right away we must choose to believe God’s version or the many different illogical theories of man, such as the “Big Bang” theory. The choice was made possible by the human mind that seems to stumble when it must simply trust God for understanding of something that is too big for it to envelop. The finite human mind just cannot fathom the world coming into existence just from God speaking. It has to be able to physically see something to believe it, so it has come up with its own explanation, the world accidently being brought together as a result of a great explosion in the atmosphere. But this author dares to ask which one of these possibilities takes more faith to believe, God’s truth or man’s lies. We have been given a great opportunity to believe in God through his creation: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Denying God’s power will only cause one to be denied eternal life when judgment comes.
The Bible also contrasts good and evil. Since the beginning of time we have clearly seen this battle between what God is trying to produce in man and what Satan is trying to deceive man into becoming. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the “paradise” of His companionship but Satan appeared as a serpent to tempt them to surrender this relationship for one that he deceived them to believe would be better for them. He did this by manipulating the truth God gave Adam by adding one word. He added the word “not” to God’s statement, “…for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17) and said, “"You surely will not die!” (Genesis 3:3). By adding one word to God’s command he led Adam and Eve to surrender their relationship with God for a relationship with death.
We who are in a relationship with God through the covenant He established in His Son are being tempted everyday through the same trickery of Satan. He comes like a lamb in sheep’s clothing to “steal, kill and destroy” our relationship with God. He deceives us and tempts us to believe in something that is not true like he did in the Garden of Eden. But God’s grace has given us true food that, once digested, will make us defiant to Satan’s trickery: “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14). The contrast here is mature and immature. We are tempted to be content with our knowledge of God’s truth so that we will not mature. This is Satan’s way of keeping us vulnerable to his evil scheme. So we must grow so our “love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment” (Philippians 1:9) so we will not stumble into making the wrong choice. God’s love will guide us into His abundant life if we will make the proper choice.
In His Grace,
Cub
The Bible is a book of contrasts revealing the benefits of being a child of God. It is a book of history that shows many people being made perfect through their faith in Jesus and His power to change the hearts of even the most difficult. It is God’s way of revealing His love as opposed to Satan trying to deceive us in his hatred. All the way through the inspired accounts of men and women going through transformation we can easily see that choosing God’s love is the only way.
The Bible begins with the creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Right away we must choose to believe God’s version or the many different illogical theories of man, such as the “Big Bang” theory. The choice was made possible by the human mind that seems to stumble when it must simply trust God for understanding of something that is too big for it to envelop. The finite human mind just cannot fathom the world coming into existence just from God speaking. It has to be able to physically see something to believe it, so it has come up with its own explanation, the world accidently being brought together as a result of a great explosion in the atmosphere. But this author dares to ask which one of these possibilities takes more faith to believe, God’s truth or man’s lies. We have been given a great opportunity to believe in God through his creation: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Denying God’s power will only cause one to be denied eternal life when judgment comes.
The Bible also contrasts good and evil. Since the beginning of time we have clearly seen this battle between what God is trying to produce in man and what Satan is trying to deceive man into becoming. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the “paradise” of His companionship but Satan appeared as a serpent to tempt them to surrender this relationship for one that he deceived them to believe would be better for them. He did this by manipulating the truth God gave Adam by adding one word. He added the word “not” to God’s statement, “…for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17) and said, “"You surely will not die!” (Genesis 3:3). By adding one word to God’s command he led Adam and Eve to surrender their relationship with God for a relationship with death.
We who are in a relationship with God through the covenant He established in His Son are being tempted everyday through the same trickery of Satan. He comes like a lamb in sheep’s clothing to “steal, kill and destroy” our relationship with God. He deceives us and tempts us to believe in something that is not true like he did in the Garden of Eden. But God’s grace has given us true food that, once digested, will make us defiant to Satan’s trickery: “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14). The contrast here is mature and immature. We are tempted to be content with our knowledge of God’s truth so that we will not mature. This is Satan’s way of keeping us vulnerable to his evil scheme. So we must grow so our “love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment” (Philippians 1:9) so we will not stumble into making the wrong choice. God’s love will guide us into His abundant life if we will make the proper choice.
In His Grace,
Cub
Monday, November 26, 2012
Manner of Life
“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1).
For God’s chosen people there is a pattern set for life. Jesus said He “came to give life and give it abundantly” (John 10:10), so if we are going to receive that life we must be able to see the pattern of that life. And even though the rest of the world may not set their standards on this pattern, we as God’s children must devote our minds and hearts to the adhesion of this walk.
The pattern of the abundant life that the Bible refers to begins with faithfulness: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). God has promised a great future for those who will not allow the world to persuade them to give up. Hebrews is a book written to a group of Christians converted from the Jewish belief system and they were being pressured to return to their old ways. The writer encourages them to remain faithful to Jesus’ way because this is the way to the promises that are entailed in this life. And he reassures them that the One Who made these promises is faithful and would never lead them wrong. The lesson is our also that if we will hold fast to our confession that Jesus is Lord then we can be free from doubt or worry that God will not hold back on any of His promises to us.
This pattern for life begins with faithfulness that leads us to action. In verses 24 and 25 of Hebrews 10, the pattern for our new life in Christ has within its guidelines an unselfish connotation. We are to “consider” and “stimulate” our brothers and sisters to “love and good deeds.” Thayer’s Lexicon says that the word “consider” is a Greek word that means to “fix our minds upon.” In other words, our brethren’s spiritual welfare should be a priority for why we do what we do as an assembly. We are not in worship just for ourselves but we are there to consider the welfare of our brethren also. We are also shown that the pattern involves a desire to “stimulate” each other. Thayer says the Greek word for “stimulate” means an inciting and can be used in a negative sense, as to invoke anger in Acts 15:31. But here it is a positive format showing us that God wants us to gather as an assembly to motivate each other to love, which is a serving love, and good deeds, which are works that God created us in Christ to accomplish: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). The church’s pattern of life is much different than the world’s way of existing because we are patterned after our Lord.
There is one more piece of the puzzle of the pattern for the Christian life and that is reverence. This word sometimes confuses the majority because it entails fear. Some believe that we are not to fear God, but the Bible definitely reveals fear as part of our love for God. Not a too scared to see fear but a reverent and respectful fear that motivates us to action. In verses 26 and 27 of Hebrews 10 we see that if we do not have this fear for the Lord we will continue to willfully sin and this will bring judgment upon what God calls His adversaries. The Christian life is a pattern of sacrifice for Jesus’ cause, which is bringing the lost to Christ. The pattern of our lives lived faithfully reveals to the world that only through the wisdom of God can one find their way to His promises (Romans 12:1-2). If the church is going to be successful in what the Lord has set us apart to accomplish, then we must dedicate our live to the pattern of success He has revealed to us in His Son. If we will be faithful to His pattern He will be faithful to His promise.
In His Grace,
Cub
For God’s chosen people there is a pattern set for life. Jesus said He “came to give life and give it abundantly” (John 10:10), so if we are going to receive that life we must be able to see the pattern of that life. And even though the rest of the world may not set their standards on this pattern, we as God’s children must devote our minds and hearts to the adhesion of this walk.
The pattern of the abundant life that the Bible refers to begins with faithfulness: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). God has promised a great future for those who will not allow the world to persuade them to give up. Hebrews is a book written to a group of Christians converted from the Jewish belief system and they were being pressured to return to their old ways. The writer encourages them to remain faithful to Jesus’ way because this is the way to the promises that are entailed in this life. And he reassures them that the One Who made these promises is faithful and would never lead them wrong. The lesson is our also that if we will hold fast to our confession that Jesus is Lord then we can be free from doubt or worry that God will not hold back on any of His promises to us.
This pattern for life begins with faithfulness that leads us to action. In verses 24 and 25 of Hebrews 10, the pattern for our new life in Christ has within its guidelines an unselfish connotation. We are to “consider” and “stimulate” our brothers and sisters to “love and good deeds.” Thayer’s Lexicon says that the word “consider” is a Greek word that means to “fix our minds upon.” In other words, our brethren’s spiritual welfare should be a priority for why we do what we do as an assembly. We are not in worship just for ourselves but we are there to consider the welfare of our brethren also. We are also shown that the pattern involves a desire to “stimulate” each other. Thayer says the Greek word for “stimulate” means an inciting and can be used in a negative sense, as to invoke anger in Acts 15:31. But here it is a positive format showing us that God wants us to gather as an assembly to motivate each other to love, which is a serving love, and good deeds, which are works that God created us in Christ to accomplish: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). The church’s pattern of life is much different than the world’s way of existing because we are patterned after our Lord.
There is one more piece of the puzzle of the pattern for the Christian life and that is reverence. This word sometimes confuses the majority because it entails fear. Some believe that we are not to fear God, but the Bible definitely reveals fear as part of our love for God. Not a too scared to see fear but a reverent and respectful fear that motivates us to action. In verses 26 and 27 of Hebrews 10 we see that if we do not have this fear for the Lord we will continue to willfully sin and this will bring judgment upon what God calls His adversaries. The Christian life is a pattern of sacrifice for Jesus’ cause, which is bringing the lost to Christ. The pattern of our lives lived faithfully reveals to the world that only through the wisdom of God can one find their way to His promises (Romans 12:1-2). If the church is going to be successful in what the Lord has set us apart to accomplish, then we must dedicate our live to the pattern of success He has revealed to us in His Son. If we will be faithful to His pattern He will be faithful to His promise.
In His Grace,
Cub
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