Category Archives: Devotions

White Garments

Posted on April 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

Revelation 19:1-8
After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for his judgments are true and just;
for he has judged the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
3 Once more they cried out,
“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And from the throne came a voice saying,

“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
small and great.”

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

The white garments worn by the worshippers are the righteous deeds of the saints. This is not the first time that Revelation makes reference to the white garments of the saints. Three times in chapter 3 white garments are promised to those who overcome (3:4, 5, 18.)
In 3:4 the faithful are promised white garments as a reward for not soiling the garments they currently have with the sins of the rest of the church of Sardis.

Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

In 3:5 those who conquer are promised white garments

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

In 3:18 the Laodiceans are encouraged to buy white garments from Jesus so that their nakedness can be covered.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

In chapter 19 all those who worship are clothed in white and the white garments are the righteous deeds of the saints.

In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast and at the end of the parable a man is cast out of the wedding banquet for not wearing a wedding garment. There is a wedding in Revelation 19 as well. Those dressed in white in Revelation 19 are the blessed who are invited to the “marriage supper of the Lamb”. How many people are there who get invited to the wedding and think that it does not matter how they dress for it? How many would be offended if they were told they had to leave for not dressing properly?

Jesus invites us to the wedding. It is an honour beyond comprehension. And to bask in the invitation and make no preparations for dressing properly for it is to disqualify oneself from attendance. I run into a great number of people who are certain that they have been invited to the wedding and that Jesus, since He offered the invitation, is thrilled that they have chosen to come. But they have not changed their wardrobe in the slightest. The proper wardrobe for this wedding is righteous deeds (19:8). In other words, what many conclude about the gracious invitation of Jesus Christ to them is that they can say yes and not change their way of living. They expect to show up dressed in immorality, idolatry – a life of unrepentant sin. And when they stand before God in great confidence that they have their invitation in their pocket and therefore will be allowed entrance, they will be sorely disappointed, because they made no preparations.

Real grace changes people. This is the clear message of the New Testament. It is brought home most strongly in Romans 6:1-4. How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? Those who are truly saved by grace are those who have died to sin as the governing power of their lives. There is much about this truth that is very disturbing. It is disturbing because there is no one who is not marked by sin in some measure. There is no believer who is not bothered by sin in some way.

How can anyone say they have died to sin? It is what real grace does. All those who believe in Jesus Christ have died to sin. This an objective truth. It has nothing to do with our performance. It has to do with being united to Jesus Christ. Coming to Jesus means death to sin. And the life  lived will demonstrate that. This does not mean that they will never sin again or that they will not struggle against sin and sometimes lose. It means that in Christ we are counted to have died to sin. It is no longer the prevailing power of our lives. We have been set free from sin and become slaves to righteousness. When Jesus died, we died. When He was crucified, we were crucified. We sin because we do not reckon ourselves to be dead to sin. We are dead and what God tells us in the pages of Scripture is to remember, think on, reckon, that such is the case. We are to remember who we are, what God has done and know that we do not have to sin. We once were enslaved by it. But no longer. We have been set free. We are now dressed in the righteous deeds of the saints and we should be recognizing the opportunities that God sets before us to do those righteous deeds more and more. We sin because we choose to. We sin because we do not consider that we have died to sin. And if any live a life of sin then it is because they have not yet been clothed in the very righteousness of Christ, which is the most important garment of all.

Romans 6:5 – For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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He Is Risen

Posted on March 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

Luke 24:1-12 – But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Philippians 2:6-11 …though he was in the form of God, [He]did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Revelation 1:18 – “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades

Jesus Christ is Risen!

He is Risen indeed!

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Passion Week

It is the most significant week in the history of the world. That is no exaggeration. Without the events of this week, there is no hope, no salvation. there is nothing that awaits us than eternal judgement and damnation. This is what was prophesied to the serpent in Genesis 3:15 and this is that, around which the whole Bible circulates. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And on Friday that is what He will do. And on Sunday He will rise from the dead, guaranteeing the resurrection and eternal life for all those included in the benefits of His death.

There will be a ton of stuff written this week regarding the events of Passion Week. We can only hope nothing new and novel will be added. It’s an old story, a true story, a stunningly amazing story. Below are the events of this week as we find them in the Books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It never ceases to amaze me that almost half of the Gospel of John, over a quarter of the Gospel of Matthew, a quarter of the Gospel of Luke and over a third of the Gospel of Mark, deal with this one week in the life of our Lord. This is what the life of Jesus is all about. Everything points to this one week, this one weekend. The whole of the Bible is about this one week, this one weekend  the whole of human history is about this one week, this one weekend. The song of heaven looks back on the events of this weekend.

Revelation 5:9

And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”

It is helpful to get an overview of what went on that week. Why the people who put this together didn’t include the Gospel according to John is beyond me. But this is still helpful. I hope you find it so.

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Posted on March 26, 2013 in Devotions

35,000 Prayers

Posted on February 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

Luke 19:1-10 - He entered Jericho and was passing through. [2] And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. [3] And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature. [4] So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. [5] And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” [6] So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. [7] And when they saw it, they all h grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” [8] And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” [9] And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. [10] For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

I found this video clip on someone’s blog the other day and it is just too good not to share. I can’t help but wonder what my attitude would be to any of these women in prison had I met them before they were convicted and before they were converted. How do we treat the “great sinners” of our neighbourhoods? Last Sunday I preached from the account in Luke 19 of the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus. Who are the Zacchaeuses of our lives with whom we would not associate? Would we have been among the grumblers when Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ house?

Maybe some of these imprisoned women needed to bottom out in a prison before they would even considering listening to the Gospel. Maybe there were lots of people who spent time with them but they just would not pay attention. God knew how to get their hearts. In any case, the video is a stirring testimony of the grace of God, real Christian love, and the power of the Gospel. I hope it says something meaningful to you. It certainly has something meaningful to say.

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“I make my emotions obey me”

Posted on October 30, 2012 | Leave a comment
2 Corinthians 4:7-12 - But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  [8] We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;  [9] persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  [10] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  [11] For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  [12] So death is at work in us, but life in you.
 
Wrestling around with what to post here today that would be helpful or encouraging, or maybe even convicting. The other day a Facebook friend posted something very worth sharing. I hope it helps you. It is a news item about Joni Eareckson Tada and her battle with breast cancer.

Here’s a quote from the video clip to help whet your appetite:

“I Just make my emotions obey me. I am not going to be led by them”.

I can only imagine what emotions she has had to corral in all her ordeals. But the grace of God can do it for any of his children. Joni is a real gift from God to the church. We do well to learn the lessons He is seeking to teach us through her.

 

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No Need for More

Posted on October 18, 2012 | Leave a comment
Matthew 16:1-4   
    And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.  [2] He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’  [3] And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.  [4] An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed. 
 
Jesus considers it a culpable thing not to recognize the signs of the times. In the context of the passage he is responding to the Pharisees’ request for a sign. They do not believe He is the Messiah and if they give the impression that if they could get the sign maybe they would believe. Jesus’ response amounts to saying that they are getting plenty of signs but they do not recognize them. In other words, He has given them plenty of signs to prove what they want proven. They just fail to recognize them. They can tell the signs of the coming weather but they do not recognize the signs that Jesus is giving them. Why should He produce more?
The thing created does not dictate to the Creator. We say we will serve God IF … . That is wicked and adulterous. We do not set conditions on the Almighty. He knows what is best and He has given all that is necessary for us to rise and follow. We do not need more evidence. We do not need to set out fleeces. And we really don’t need codes or prophecy conferences or TV preachers with secret insights into the timing  of the Lord’s return who always seem to say that it is going to be in this generation.  We really don’t need that. We do not need visions and miracles and signs from heaven, although if God should choose to use such things then we welcome them. But they are not necessary beyond what we already have everyday in very ordinary manner.
He has already given us everything we need for life and godliness (II Peter 1:3). And what He has given us is the forgiveness of sins, a right standing with God, the Holy Spirit to indwell, empower, gift and convict. He has given us the Scriptures – a more sure word than any vision or voice the prophets had and even a greater testimony than what Peter, James and John had when Jesus was transfigured and spoke with Moses and Elijah (II Peter 1:16-20). We even have better than what Moses and the children of Israel had when God encountered them in the wilderness (II Corinthians 3:7-18). And we have Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, ascended to heaven and sitting at the right hand of God living in order to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:23-25) and reigning over all the created order for our sakes (Ephesians 1:20-23). We have the Table of Christ as our perpetual reminder of Jesus’ death for us until He come, the spiritual presence of Christ for our strengthening as we come by faith to the Table (I Corinthians 10:16-17). He has given us each other, the church, to worship (John 4:24), to unitedly (Ephesians 4:1-3) be a force for witness (Acts 1:8), for encouragement (Hebrews 3:12-13), for spiritual growth (Ephesians 4:11-16), and for power (Ephesians 6:10-18)  in the world.  
No, it is not more proof or evidence we need. And to ask for it is to testify just how much like the Pharisees we are.  We simply need to see just how much God has already given us, recognize that He has left nothing out and put it to work in the manner in which He directs. 

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Prophet With the Wounded Heart

Posted on October 12, 2012 | 1 Comment
Jeremiah 8:21 - For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. 
 
Jeremiah had the most difficult job of all the prophets. He was labelled a traitor, a liar. He was persecuted, tortured, lied to, lied about, opposed in almost all he did and said. It resulted in depression (20:7-18), and there is even evidence that he might have been suicidal (15:10). The people of the southern kingdom of Judah are intransigent in their sin and anyone who opposes them or suggests, as Jeremiah did, that God is against them, will be dealt with very severely. And Jeremiah was dealt with very severely, very cruelly.
How is a leader, put into his position of leadership by the call and providence of God, to respond when all his efforts are spurned, no one listens to him, no one even believes that he is sent from God and there is virtually no fruit that he can see from his work? Well, many today would conclude that that he should probably get out of the work he is in because they just know that God calls people to get results.
I was in a gathering of pastors in the early 1980s in which a church planter was giving his report. As he was speaking he suddenly burst into tears and cried out to the rest of us “I am such a failure. I have failed”. His heart was broken and it broke mine to think that his assessment was fuelled by those who were leading him because they wanted results. Jeremiah knew this kind of pain and sense of having missed the call of God upon him. But self loathing was not the only response Jeremiah had to his lack of fruit. He had a broken heart for them because of their stubbornness, their sin and the coming judgement of God that they denied was going to happen.
Here is the mark of a real leader of people. He loves those to whom he is sent to minister. Jeremiah’s love for his fellow citizens of Jerusalem did not garner him great success. It did not garner success at all. Sometimes we get the romantic notion that love will change people’s minds and attitudes and behaviour and they will come around if we only keep loving them. We treat life like a one hour television episode where all the problems seem to get magically fixed in a very short space of time. We speak of the power of love and its triumphs. Yet for all his heart for his people, no one listened to Jeremiah. They responded to his genuine concern for their welfare with hatred and opposition and persecution. And Jeremiah’s heart got broken. Tradition tells us that Jeremiah died a martyr’s death. He never saw people come to their senses. The only supporters he had that we are aware of are his scribe, Baruch (32:12-14) and Ebed-melech, a servant of the king (38:7-13).  We are never told that anyone ever came to him to apologize for the horrible way they treated him. At least we are not led to see that anyone did. Jeremiah’s heart was broken because of the sin, the judgement and the hardness of heart, of the people he was sent to minister to. And it won him nothing in terms of fruit in this life. He loved his people.
We speak of the power of love and its ability to change people. And it is true. But there are some hearts so wicked that love bounces off. They are so settled in their evil that nothing can penetrate. Such were the people that Jeremiah ministered to, having been told by God that they would not listen (1:19). But their stubbornness did not prevent Jeremiah from loving them. This is real leadership.
It is hard to work in an atmosphere of unappreciation. To faithfully carry out one’s duties day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year and never get a pat on the back, never see an increase in pay, never get thanked or referred to at promotion time. Not many of us would stand for it. Not many of us would be able to carry on in it. And not many of us would keep silent about the bad treatment and the lack of respect. But Jeremiah not only carried on in a horrible environment, he loved the people who were party to his hardships. This is not human. It is super human. It comes, not from within, but without. It is what God grants those whom He calls to labour in unresponsiveness and impenitence and persecution. It is what God will give us as we continue to live in a culture that has less and less respect for the truths of Scripture and those who hold to them. We hear a lot from various corners of the evangelical world about the evils of our culture. Such assessments may be necessary. But coupled with such critiques should be the kinds of words that reflect a love for the people of our culture to whom we are sent. We are sent to live with them, live out the Gospel before them, preach the Gospel to them and show and tell them of the only God who is worthy of all our loyalty. We will not do it without a heart that aches for their welfare, weeps for their lack of response and loves them with concrete action.
What a calling is ours. Thank you Lord for Jeremiah’s example. Give us, not only his tenacity and perseverance, but the warmth and concern he had for his hearers even as ours, like his, seem to be unwilling to hear.

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Our Father in Heaven

Posted on September 12, 2012 | Leave a comment
Some more thoughts regarding the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13
Who is in Heaven – The Worshipful prayer
 
Prayer is an act of worship. And in this opening phrase Jesus is telling us to remind ourselves who it is we are talking to. We approach God with confidence and assurance that because He is our father He will receive us and help us and answer us … . He is our father, after all. He is the best father there can possibly be. But He is not merely our Father – He is our Father who is in heaven. And Jesus calls us here to remember who it is we have been given the privilege of calling our father. Our father is the ruling sovereign of heaven. I may go to my father and ask him to buy me a Mercedes Benz. He loves me. He wants me to have it. But it is beyond his capability to get it for me. He doesn’t have the resources.  But “our father in heaven” reminds us that He can do whatever He wants. 
“In heaven” is not a matter of God’s address. It is a statement that He is over us. He rules and we are the ruled. He is the King and we are the subjects. He is the Lord and we are the servants. He is the Leader and we follow.
2 Chron. 20:6 – “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.
Acts 4:24 – And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,  
Psalm 11:4 – The Lord is in his holy temple;
        the Lord’s throne is in heaven;
       his eyes see, his eyelids test, the children of man.
 
This is what we should think of when we say “who is in heaven”
 
Psalm 115:3 – Our God is in the heavens;
        he does all that he pleases. 
Eccles. 5:2 – Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.  
Col. 4:1 – Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. 
Psalm 115:3 – Our God is in heaven. He does whatever He pleases.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 – “God is in heaven and we are not. Therefore let your words be few”.  Don’t think that you are in charge. Don’t make foolish vows and do not suppose to know where you will be or how you will be doing in the future.
Hebrews 8:1 – Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,  
These are the kinds of things that we need to remind ourselves of when we approach God in prayer. We need to begin our prayers with an acknowledgement that He is over us. And there is no better language to use than the Scriptures themselves. 
 
We are so prone to thinking that we are in charge. It is our default position. And the opening phrase of this prayer is important for us so that we keep before us the fact that we are not making demands of God. We are coming to the sovereign Ruler of all that is and asking for favours, because He says we may.
 
Hallowed Be Your Name
 
Hallowed be your name is more accurately –  “Cause your name to be hallowed”. Let people know that you are holy. It is a petition, a request. We are asking God to make sure that His name is held in high regard by the world. Cause your name to be holy is a prayer that the world would know that God is holy. People do what seems best in their own minds. We have a very dim view of the holiness of God. 
 
“Name” is not just something we know God by. “Name” is not Jehovah as the JWs so erroneously think. “Name” means character. It is what a person is. We say “Don’t drag my name in the mud”. We do not mean “Don’t write my name on a piece of paper and haul it through a puddle. This is a prayer that God be revered and worshipped and bowed down to and not have His name dragged in the mud.
 
This prayer is a request that God be held in high esteem; that He be regarded as the holy God that He is; that people come to know Him and acknowledge His absolute holiness. And how will people come to know about our great holy God? They will hear of Him from us. This is a prayer that we be holy because He is holy. This is a prayer that we live in such holiness that it is remarkable. Holiness means “separation” from sin and godlessness. This is a prayer that God be seen to be holy through the holiness of His children. This is a prayer that we be used to tell others of the glorious holiness of God.
 
Psalm 34:3 – Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
       and let us exalt his name together! 
 
But it cannot be just a prayer for others to come to know the holiness of God. It is to pray that we live in the knowledge that our God is most holy. We are guilty, dear ones, of putting the sovereign Creator of the universe in our back pockets as if He were a small thing. We need to start our days with prayer that He will not allow us to forget that He is holy and that we will remember it when we are tempted and when others are “O my God”ding all over the place. 
 
This phrase is a reminder to us that He alone is holy. HIS name – not ours is to be hallowed. Life is about the praise of HIS glory. We want to be liked and well regarded and famous and popular and we want people to perk up simply because we are about to speak … . Want such things more – for HIM.
What a privilege it is to go to the only God there is and because of Jesus Christ, be able to call Him “Father”.  And what a great help it is to us to remind ourselves just who it is we are able to call “Father”. The ruling sovereign of all things who reigns over all the earth from heaven.

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Delivered from an Evil Age

Posted on June 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

Galatians 1:1-4

1Paul, an apostle— not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2and all the brothers[a] who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:3-4 – Verses 4 says that Jesus died for us to deliver us from this present evil age. Are we living in a way that demonstrates that we have been delivered from the evils of sin in our day? There is no reason, other than our own sinfulness, why we should be characterized by the sins of our times.

Some thoughts about this:

1) Holiness is accomplished first of all by the death of Christ on the cross for our sins. The Holy Spirit Himself will not sanctify anybody who is not a blood bought sinner.

2) There is no other way to holiness than through the cross. This is where Paul is headed in this text. He will get to verses 8 and 9 and say that to preach any other Gospel is to preach damnation on oneself.

3) Sanctification begins now. This text alone smashes any doctrine of grace absent of holiness. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness (Titus 2:11-13).

4) We cannot be rescued from sin now except by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

5) The present age is evil.

6) We are called to be separated from the evil that marks the world. In verse 5 we are told that this deliverance is according to the will of our God and Father. This at least means that the Father and the Son are in complete agreement about what must be done; about their love for us; about the only solution. It means that the cross is the Father’s will (see Isaiah 53:10 and Matthew 26:39). We must never think that Jesus is the God of mercy in the New Testament while the Father is the God of wrath and justice in the Old Testament. We have the Gospel because God the Father loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son. In no way ever does the Son counteract the will of the Father. In no way ever does the Son do or try to do anything that is not what the Father wants Him to do. He and the Father are One. Jesus came into the world to do the Father’s will. He came to save those the Father would give to Him.

7) The evil of this present age takes the death of the very Son of God to overcome and it takes conscious, Spirit empowered effort to overcome it in our lives.

8)  We must not think of evil as only those big sins of murder, sexual immorality, drunkenness etc. It is also a matter of thinking unbiblically, conformity to the world in how we approach life and its problems, and how we view the world. We are all probably more conformed to evil than we are aware.

We need to get into the Scriptures and receive what God has for us there and know the benefits of being set free from this present evil world. What a great thing He has done!

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Fear Not

Posted on June 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Proverbs 28

Verse 1- The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.

To put trust in anything that has any potential of failing whatsoever is to have a trust that can fail at some point. If what you are trusting is able to fail then you will run away when things get tough since you cannot be sure that what you are trusting won’t also run away. Your faith is only as strong as the thing you are trusting. Those who trust what can never be overcome are the ones who have no need to fear – ever.

The problem with Christians who live in fear is the size of their God, their understanding of His absolute control over absolutely everything and, no doubt, their failure to look up when everything is taking them down. The wicked flee because they should. Against our God they should be terrified. The righteous who live in fear are denying the power that is theirs in Christ.

What causes you to fear? It is not as big as God and God is for you. There are many things that make people afraid – life threatening illness, unemployment, opposition, persecution. The list can get very long. Proverbs 28:1 says that it is the wicked who flee and it is the righteous who are bold.

Being cowardly is to be like the wicked. Those who trust Christ will not flee like the wicked. Why? Because the One whom we trust is greater than everyone and everything. All things come from Him. He works out everything for our good. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. He has not given us a spirit of fear. The wicked fear even when there is no trouble. But we will not fear even when there is. Why? Because of the One we trust.

Only when God ceases to be in control will we give way to fear. And when will that be? Never. Christian, whether someone pursues you or not, you do not need to fear.

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