Salvation

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SIBLING RIVALRY

Have you ever felt like God’s favorite?  God has a unique way of making each one of his children feel special.  He knows us intimately and speaks to us individually in a personal specific manner.  No one else knows us this well.  He is never condemning even when correcting us.  Therefore we should rejoice in our close relationship with God, but we should also be aware that this intimate closeness is available to all who will receive him.

Being special to God does not in any way invoke superiority in comparison to others.  For us humans who carry a sinful nature, this is an important caution.  We want to be special, but in our fallen state, we feel it necessary to prove ourselves superior to others.  I’m better than so-n-so because _______.  It’s easy to fill in the blank because we’ve all been there.  However, Christ died for all of us.  We each get the full power of redemption through his shed blood.  Nobody gets or needs a greater portion.

As the principal of a Christian school, my position had a great deal of responsibility and prestige.  The young man who cleaned the building had a different position.  We were both called of God to fill our respective positions.  Was one job superior?  Not in God’s eyes.  We were both walking in what God had set before us.  With God there is no favoritism. (See Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9).  We were equally important in God’s kingdom.  Both of us were created and gifted to fulfil our purpose for Him.  We were also equally loved by God.  In God’s eyes we were and are his special children.

God is able to have an infinite number of favorites.  We are each one God’s favorite.  We are all special to him.  In the family of God there is no need for sibling rivalry.  We need only to love one another and trust our Father to provide what we need.  He created us with a special purpose in his kingdom.  As he directs you through your life be content.  You are unique and special in his eyes.

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NO CONDEMNATION

It happens so regularly that it’s predictable.  The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.  I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight.  Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.  I’ve tried everything and nothing helps.  I’m at the end of my rope.  Is there no one who can do anything for me?  Isn’t that the real question?  The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.  He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.  With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved.  Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud.  A new power is in operation.  The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. (Romans 7:21-8:2 The Message)

What then is our responsibility in regard to sin?  This question reveals the trap that catches many believers.  We often feel that we should now more than ever focus on being sinless, missing the fact that we can’t make ourselves sinless.  We are still flawed by our inherited sinful nature.  Focusing on making ourselves sinless is self-indulgent and actually leads us away from God.  Our focus should be on God.  That is where we find freedom.  Paul calls it living in the Spirit not in the flesh.  All the power to overcome sin is in Christ Jesus.  We have no power in ourselves.  Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)  Our responsibility is to seek God.  He takes care of the rest.  Try sinning while you’re seeking God.

In closing, I’d like to remind you that we are justified through Christ’s blood shed on the cross.  That means we are acceptable in the sight of God.  We are welcome into the presence of God.  The work is finished.  There is no condemnation for us who have received Jesus.  When we are seeking God, he wants, and may I say is excited for, us to find him.  It is his delight for his children to know him.

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FAITH AND DOUBT

Are you convinced that Christianity is true? Do you ever doubt your belief? Does God really exist? Is my belief in vain? Do these questions of doubt haunt you at times? They do me. During these times of doubt I have two processes that I follow, reason and experience. Reason alone cannot restore faith, but it can help.   Walking back through my life and remembering my experiences with God seals the breach in my faith, and I am restored.

These nagging questions that challenge my faith cause me to return to the process of reasoning. I start with the basic question of where did I and all I know come from. There are only two possible answers. It all came about by some accidental occurrence of events over millions and billions of years, or an intelligent force designed it. The complexity of the universe and the existence of life itself lead me to believe that an intelligent force designed it. And if this is so, what do I know about this intelligent force. I have concluded that the Bible is the most reliable source of information about this intelligent force. This process, to remind myself of the logic of my belief, gets me started. But the most interesting truth about this reasoning process is that it all came about after I believed. My belief in God is therefore founded in something other than reason.

I next reminisce on my experiences with God. God has spoken to me at key moments in my life, and he drew me to himself. He answered prayers and provided miracles all to build a relationship of trust. My faith is rooted in a relationship with God that he has built over many years. Then I remember, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Ah, my faith is based not on my ability to reason, but on my relationship with God. Experience trumps reason. The questioning of my faith is entrenched in my reasoning skills. My reasoning is faulty, but my experience is sound. There is no argument against what I have experienced.

I feel that faith is even more deeply based on a spiritual foundation. When I first believed reason played a small part, experience barely existed, yet I was drawn to God. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him …” (John 6:44). My reason and my experience came because God drew me. I simply said yes to him. I believe because I was predestined to believe. God is sovereign over all his creation, even me.

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TRUST IN THE LORD AND DO GOOD

The title above comes from Psalm 37:3.  Trust in the Lord and do good.  This is wisdom for God’s people from King David who later, in verses 8&9, exhorts us to: Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it leads only to evil.  For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.   These verses challenge us, but they also comfort us.  Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

In light of the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage, I believe June 26, 2015 is a day to be marked as another “in your face God” moment for our country.  That is why I was looking for comfort and direction from Psalm 37.  God’s people need to be aware that God is not surprised by the decisions of man.  He gave them over to a depraved mind because of their rejection of him.  He is in charge, and we belong to him.  We are redeemed!  And we are bearers of his message of love and forgiveness.  Nothing good will come if Christians join the ranks of haters and revilers.

In Romans 1:18-32 Paul gives a clear dissertation on what’s happening.  He starts out: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”  Reading on we see that the depravity over taking our nation is because we have turned our backs to God.  Even the futility of our thinking, the illogical thinking of our leaders is a result of denying God.  So, what should be our response to this evil?

I think that we should trust in the Lord and do good.  God has his hand on all that is taking place on the earth with a promise to work it out for his glory and our good.  Trust him!  As King David pointed out, hating, fretting and being filled with wrath only leads to evil.  Our charge is to do good, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Do good to those who spitefully use you.  Jesus made it clear how we are to proceed.  Don’t turn your back to him.

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God Made It All

Romans 1:18-20  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

It has long amazed me that men can observe the vastness, beauty and complexity of the universe and believe that it came about by a series of random events.  This belief however has value in that it allows man to deny the existence of God.  With God out of the picture men get to make their own rules, and do what they want.  How’s that working for us?

Scientists receive great glory for what they discover, but there is no glory given for the one who created what they have discovered.  Atoms, molecules, photons and the DNA code, to mention a few items of scientific discovery, did not randomly come about.  God created them.  How much more amazing is the one who created than the one who discovered?  The scientist himself was created and given his ability to discover.  Does God get acknowledged for that?  I am very appreciative of the great discoveries made by scientists, but the glory goes to the one who made it all, God!

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The Right Choice

Looking over the topics that I post weekly, I see a common theme.  I write mainly to encourage my brothers and sisters to trust that God exists, and he is who he says he is.  This week I want to approach from a different direction.

We begin by being born into this world.  The world we are born into exists with no input from us.  We didn’t choose where we would live, what race we would be, or what economic level our existence would embrace.  We are given an unknown number of years to live in this world.  We seem to have arrived with certain elements of personality and ability, but from the very start they are molded by the influences of our placement.  None of the beginning circumstances of our life have been our choice.   We will, throughout our lives, make numerous choices, but they will all be influenced by the placement we did not choose.

With this perspective in mind, the question that presents itself is what choices do we get to make?  We get to choose our response to each event in our lives, but not without outside pressures.  As I said, our responses are affected by surrounding influences.  We seem to have an inherent awareness of what is right and what is wrong.  A basic morality if you will.  Yet, if our culture says for instance an eye for an eye, we’ll be compelled to comply with that concept.  It’s our choice whether to comply, but we are under the pressure of what we are expected to choose.

So, why am I here?  Is this all there is?  Can I break away from this temporal existence upon which I have arrived?  Certainly these are reasonable questions that mankind has asked throughout the ages, and there are a lot of answers to these questions floating around.  When presented with these answers, we get to choose which one we believe is the right one.  Of all the things that are not our choice, choosing the right answer to these questions is our choice.  Trusting that God exists, and that he is who he says he is, seems the right choice to me.  I’m not trying to influence your choice, — oh yes I am.  Please forgive me, and please make the right choice.

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The End of Separation

In the beginning there was no separation between man and God.  When man sinned God withdrew his presence.  This separation lasted until Jesus’ death on the cross. The restoration was signified by the tearing from top to bottom of the temple curtain.  (See Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, and Luke 23:45)

One of the churches in our city does the Stations of the Cross each year on Good Friday.  My wife and I find this experience a great way to begin Easter Weekend.  The stations take you from the time they arrested Jesus to the crucifixion. I am always deeply moved as I walk from station to station remembering what Jesus went through.  This year the tearing of the temple curtain stood out to me.

At the moment when Jesus said it is finished and gave up his spirit, the temple curtain was torn in such a way that it could only have been done supernaturally.  The curtain was 16 feet tall and 4 inches thick, and it was torn from top to bottom.  As it was torn it exposed the Holy of Holies, the place of God’s presence in the temple.  No one could enter the Holy of Holies except the high priest, and he could only enter once a year after going through an extensive ritual of preparation.

Jesus gave up his life so we could be restored to the presence of God.  We who are redeemed by Jesus’ blood can now enter into God’s presence. I was overwhelmed by the significance of the tearing of the curtain.  God’s redemption of fallen man was complete, and he opened for us access to his presence.  This tragic day had underlying glory.  God’s created ones could now return to the closeness that Adam and Eve had with him before the fall.  Jesus restored our relationship with his amazing act of sacrificial love.  Can I do anything but spend eternity expressing gratitude to my blessed savior?  Thank you Jesus!

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The Pivot Point of Eternity

Kneeling at the cross

Such a wondrous place to be,DSCN1330

I find my greatest freedom there

At this place called Calvary.

 

For here is where it all begins,

If you are willing to receive.

At this pivot point we each decide

Our eternal destiny.

 

Yes, God took our greatest evil,

The murder of his son,

And with his loving power

Salvation for all He won.

 

Now kneel with me if you will,

And receive this very hour,

The salvation offered freely

Enlivened with resurrection power.