October 13, 2017
Paul prayed for the believers in Thessalonica. In all the things he prayed for them, he prayed that Jesus would get the glory for it. Three questions/observations concerning this glory:
1) What is glory?
Some synonyms are: Honor, credit, renown, praise, worship, beauty, splendor. What is this glory? It is about who gets the honor and who gets the praise.
2) How might Christ’s name be glorified “in you?”
It begins with your self-acknowledgement that all you are and all you have comes from Him. You glorify Christ in your heart. Then, it radiates outward into your words and deeds, so that the name of Christ is glorified in all you say and do.
3) How are you to be glorified “in Him?”
Is this true? Will we share in Christ’s glory? Yes, but not because of our own accomplishment, but “according to the grace” of God, accomplished in Christ. By faith we have become God’s children and “joint heirs” with Christ, so that all that is His, is now also ours, including His glory. As Paul wrote to the Romans, “And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory” (Rom. 8:17). So, this glory is part of our inheritance in Christ!
If we live for our own glory, we will not share in Christ’s. But if we live for His glory, according to His grace, then we will share in Christ’s glory forevermore!
October 12, 2017
Instructions to the people of God for the poor, the fatherless, the afflicted and the needy:
1. Defend them. They are among the least powerful in society. They need your defense. Stand with them when more powerful people and power centers mistreat them.
2. Do justice towards them. Treat them fairly and with dignity. Don’t join those who look down on them.
3. Deliver them. Give them the message of deliverance, which is the gospel. And with it, help deliver them from their physical needs for food, clothing and shelter.
4. Free them. Many of them are enslaved by addictions. Be involved in ministry to them that would break their changes.
Jesus taught that when we care for the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the naked, the sick and the prisoner, then we have cared for Him. Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40).
How will we involve ourselves in this ministry to the “least of these?”
October 11, 2017
Here we have worship instructions for God’s people. Six ways to get your praise on:
1) “Sing aloud.” Come on! Let loose. Really sing out to God for He is our strength.
2) “Make a joyful shout.” Shout it out. Not just any kind of shout, but a joyful shout. And this to the Lord.
3) “Raise a song.” Get others singing with you. Sing until others join in and raise the roof.
4) “Strike the timbrel.” Now we’re breaking out the percussion. The timbrel was either a tambourine or finger cymbals.
5) “…the harp. Today’s piano.
6) “… the lute.” Today’s guitar.
Worship the Lord. You were made for it. And He is worthy of it.
October 10, 2017
The apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the new believers at Thessalonica after hearing Timothy’s report concerning them. He was working in Athens when he felt compelled to send Timothy back to check on them. When Timothy returned to him with his great report of their continued faith in the Lord and their longing to see Paul again, he was overjoyed. He thanked God for them to such degree that he questioned how he might be even more thankful for them. Perhaps his thankfulness could be better expressed if he could only see them face to face and continue to “perfect” (“bring to completion”) their discipleship, he reasoned.
Paul was a firm believer in life on life discipleship. He always wanted to be face to face with those he was mentoring that he might “perfect” their discipleship, training them up to maturity in Christ. As he mentioned earlier in his letter, his discipleship included not only giving them the gospel, but also giving them himself because of his love for them (1 Thess. 2:8). This is the combination of spiritual and relational power that life on life discipleship brings to bear.
October 9, 2017
The Lord often gave the prophet Jeremiah physical assignments in order to illustrate His feelings about Israel and Judah. After Jeremiah would perform the assignment, the Lord would explain its significance. The “linen sash” was one such assignment. The Lord would later explain that, “as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me” (Jer. 13:11).
The linen sash was to be worn about the waist. This would speak of the close intimacy with which God had joined Israel and Judah to Himself.
That it wasn’t to be “put in water,” may have referred to the normal bleaching and washing in water that linen cloth would be put through to make it clean and white. This symbolized Israel and Judah, whom by grace God had adopted as His own, even while still in a rough and unwashed state (Eze. 16:4).
After Jeremiah had worn the linen sash around his waist for a while, the Lord told him to go to the “Euphrates and hide it there in a hole in the rock” (Jer. 13:4). After several days, the Lord had him return and retrieve the sash. But it was ruined by its exposure to the elements, “profitable for nothing” (Jer. 13:7). Jeremiah could no longer wear it.
The Lord told Jeremiah that His intent was that Israel and Judah would have clung to Him. But instead, they had fallen into the “hole” of idolatry with the foreign peoples of the land. His desire was that they would have become His people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear” (Jer. 13:11).
Can you picture Jeremiah holding the ruined sash up over his head and preaching to Israel and Judah? Can you hear him saying, “You were meant to cling to the Lord for glory and praise, but you ruined yourself by choosing to cling to false gods instead!”?
To whom are you “clinging” today?
October 8, 2017
The Lord reminded Jeremiah that the Mosaic Covenant was conditional. It contained both blessing and curse that was conditional upon their obedience to the law. Obeying the law, they were under its blessing. Disobeying the law, they came under its curse. Israel was unable to obey the law, so they fell under the curse of the law.
However, the Abrahamic Covenant was unconditional. God gave it freely by His grace. It was based on God’s promise, not God’s law. This covenantal promise was given to Abraham that in his “Seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 22:18). The apostle Paul said that this “Seed” is Christ (Gal. 3:16).
A promise must be believed to be received, but a law must be obeyed. Yet, both the promise and the law were fulfilled in Christ Jesus. For He who knew no sin, became sin for us and has “redeemed us from the curse of the law” by becoming accursed Himself (Gal. 3:13). Christ has taken our curse that we might receive His blessing.
The promise reveals God’s GRACE, but the law reveals our GUILT. So, let us rejoice and be glad that the blessing of salvation depends on God’s PROMISE, not our PERFORMANCE!
October 7, 2017
The LORD had revealed the coming destruction of Jerusalem to the prophet Jeremiah. He had called Jeremiah to warn the people of Judah of God’s coming judgment. Yet, such a calling and such foreknowledge was nearly more than Jeremiah could bear. He was heart broken over his people’s sin and rebellion. His sorrow was so deep that he wished for an unlimited supply of tears that he “might weep day and night” for his people. Yet, he was the only one weeping. The people continued going about their day to day tasks, as if no warning had been given. They scoffed at Jeremiah’s preaching and gathered to themselves false prophets who were saying, “‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace” (Jer. 8:11). To them, Jeremiah was just a gloomy, weeping prophet with nothing good to say.
However, Jeremiah’s tears came from the same source as his message, namely, the Lord. For the Lord was heartbroken over His people’s rebellion, which He called adultery because of their idolatrous ways. Jeremiah was surely feeling God’s grief just as he heard God’s words of wrath.
I wonder, who feels God’s grief for their people today? Who is weeping as Jeremiah did for the people of our cities, our nation, and our world to turn from their wicked ways, and turn to God through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord?
October 7, 2017
Christ Jesus is “all” God and “all” man. This is a paradox, yet precisely what the Bible reveals. As the second person of the “Godhead,” which is the Trinity, He was, and is, absolute and perfect God. All the “fullness” of the essence of God is in Him “bodily.” As the apostle John wrote, “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). Jesus is God in the flesh. When we receive Christ as Savior and Lord, He is the “Head” and we are members of His body. Having received Christ, we are “complete in Him.” There is nothing missing, nothing to be added. So, the apostle Paul argued against the Judaizers, who would require Gentile believers to be circumcised and follow Jewish laws, on this basis. In Christ, believers are “complete.” They are already “circumcised with the circumcision made without hands” (Col. 2:11) because they have been made “complete in Him.”
Dearly beloved, you are complete in Christ!
October 5, 2017
The psalmist wrote of a troubled and sleepless night when even his prayers were difficult to speak. Yet, he began to remember the mighty works of the Lord in days past and was determined to sing and meditate on them. He took advantage of his sleepless and troubled night to focus on God.
The 15th century writer, St. John of the Cross, referred to such times as a “Dark Night of the Soul.” He saw such a time as both a God-given trial and an opportunity to grow closer to the Lord.
The modern response to depression and sleeplessness is medication. We focus on alleviating the symptoms. I wonder, are we missing an appointment with God at such times? Perhaps it is as the psalmist surmised and it is the Lord Himself who is “holding our eyelids open.” What if God wants us to get out of the bed and talk with Him? Perhaps we should respond as Eli taught young Samuel, “Speak, for your servant hears” (1 Sam. 3:10).
October 4, 2017
In the heights where Israel had once committed idolatry, she now wept with prayers of supplication for God’s help. She had awareness of her own crooked ways and her failure to remember God first. Yet, God was still waiting for her to repent.
There is a difference between being sorry for our sins and repenting of our sins. Often we are more sorry for the consequences of sin, than the sin itself. We weep over the brokenness of our world and cry out to God, but we don’t repent. Repentance is more than sorrow. In repentance we simultaneously turn from sin and turn towards Christ by faith. It is the prayer of repentance that God answers.
There is much weeping in our country these days, but little repentance.