Deity Demonstrated (Radio / Podcast)

This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
(Romans 3:25b – ESV)

With the text of Romans 3:25-26, when we start with a man centered, “what’s it mean to us” then we cannot appreciate the “what this means about God” aspect. God put Jesus on the cross to demonstrate His own righteousness, which is what the text declares as primary.

In this passage Paul’s emphasis is not so much on the righteousness that God has provided in Christ as the righteousness that God has demonstrated through Christ. This distinction may seem subtle, but it is one of great significance. Our minds like to avoid this truth, and we much rather focus on what He has done "for" us. It is too easy to fall into the trap of sentimental thinking about the Gospel, and we need to be reminded that the love of God makes absolutely no sense apart from the wrath of God. Take away the latter, and all you have is the image of a kindly old man who wouldn't hurt a fly, much less punish sinners, and then we start thinking that maybe our own sins really aren't that bad. We cheapen His love by downplaying His wrath.

When we choose to look at salvation from a merely human perspective, we see salvation from the standpoint of what it does for us. God becomes the One who “meets our needs.” While salvation does do something for us, and God does meet our needs, the focus is wrong. Paul portrays this passage from the divine point of view, fixing our attention on God’s purpose for saving men: the demonstration of His righteousness. If you can see this, you will see the value of a God entranced worldview, not one where we say it but we actually have it, and we can see with God’s eyes, and we will begin to learn the value of God, not simply as someone who gives us the treasure of forgiveness, but as the very treasure itself.

The death of Christ proved God’s righteousness. Hebrews 9:15,26 – in His forbearance He passed over the former sins, made during and before the old covenant, knowing justice would be served by a new covenant. People just want God to pardon but that doesn’t demonstrate His righteousness. That would be saying that sins are really no big deal to God, and it would also mean that offending God and despising Him isn’t all that important. The sins are real and they must be paid for, and yet God seemingly overlooked them before. The problem in God's passing over sin (which the natural mind does not grasp) is that God's worth and glory and righteousness have been despised, and passing over it makes him look cheap. God would be unrighteous if He passed over sins as though the value of His glory were nothing.

God’s worth and His name are dishonored by our sins, but He vindicated His glory by slaying His Son. That is how valuable His glory is and how awful sin really is and what it requires. It is not that we were worth it, that we were worth saving, but that God’s glory was worth vindicating, and that Christ was the only payment that could satisfy the justice of God for us offending and despising His glory. That is what sin is, falling short of and devaluing God’s glory. We have done violence to the throne of God. That is why hell must last forever because you can never pay it back, your worth is nothing compared to His, no amount of penance can offset the terrible injustice you have done against the infinite worth of God.

This is all about the value of God not the value of man, how much He is worth not how much we are worth. Now we square this with John 3:16 by saying that His love for us is so great that He paid the only way it could be done. God, out of His love and justice, renders Himself favorable to us by His own action. He suffers the ultimate offense and yet He takes on the punishment for that Himself. He passed over sins before Christ because He knew the plan, it was the plan all along, and that is why He could wait until it was the right time (Galatians 4:4).

Did Jesus really have to die to pay for our sins? We say, “Certainly we’ve done bad things, but what we’ve done isn’t so bad that a merciful God can’t overlook our failings.” We are wrong on two counts. First, what we have done IS so bad, that we cannot even begin to fathom how horrible it is. Second, God cannot overlook, He cannot wave His hand and let bygones be bygones. He may freely forgive us, but He Himself must bear the cost.

The wrath of God had to be satisfied. God could not simply overlook sin; it had to be judged. And so God provided men with salvation in such a way that He demonstrated His righteousness and satisfied His wrath, all at the same time. God’s forgiveness costs something, He freely forgives but it cost Him something. It is the heart of the good news...a bloody yet beautiful thing that proves God's worth, not ours...

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Majesty of the Master (Radio / Podcast)

Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty.
(Isaiah 2:10 – ESV)

As human beings we stink, and in saying that it is not self loathing but realizing that the higher we get up into God the further we have to go. We don’t preach and teach the depravity of man so as to keep men down, but so as to show them the only way up. That way is Christ, but even when we have been redeemed, in our flesh we are still low down dirty rotten scoundrels compared to God. It is only that now He has condescended to us in the person of Jesus, and having come down to save us and to bring us to God we are positioned with Him in the heavenlies. In His grace we are already arrived at our destination, we simply await glorification.

Now then, in this life we can because of His grace become more and more sanctified, we can scale the heights of God holiness. On this side of eternity we can get a small glimpse of the reality of God, because we now climb up to God on the back of our beloved Savior. And this we do by God’s grace. We are still imperfect, and as Paul said we haven’t arrived in fullness, but we can press on toward the upward call, we don’t have to stay in our sin.

So realize that when we say we stink, we stink less than we did before, but the more we see of God the more we realize our stink. No I am not worse than I was before, by the grace of God I am more holy than I have ever been, and by the grace of God I am becoming more holy every second of every day, all praise to His name. But the more light that we have the more dust that we see. We do go up into the heights, but then we see just how much higher the Lord is than we had thought.

The more holy I become, the more holy I realize He is, and how much further from Him I am than I ever could have imagined had He not graciously allowed me to ascend to the heights I now scale. The higher I get the more beautiful He appears, even as the more awful my sin appears. I am sick of the false humility that says we cannot dare ascend higher up in the mountain of God’s majesty. Having said that, I want to go higher up into God, not so as to glory in my climb, or in its own heights, or to look down on others, but so as to revel in the majesty of my Master. Oh, just how lofty are you, my Lord? Only heaven will begin to reveal it, and even then, it will take forever to explore it.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Judgment Day Delay? (Radio / Podcast)

God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie
(Romans 1:24-25 – ESV)

Often we hear that if people are not repentant then God is going to visit America with judgment, or the church with judgment, or many other variations on this theme. The truth is, judgment is already here, and that is why we see what we do.

In this text those who dishonored God were given up to dishonor themselves. The impurity Paul is speaking of in this text is mainly sexual, sensual disorder. This type of disorder is a prime example of spiritual disorder. In many lives this is the starting place for the downward slide. However, all the disorder we see in the world, in the social chaos, sexual confusion, and sinful carrying on are a judgment of God because we exchanged the value of God for other things; we turned our knowledge of God into images.

Now let’s get the order of this disorder right in our minds. People believe that we do these vile things we see, and so God is displeased, and He is, but the process is vice versa. God is displeased and we do these vile things as a result.

When God speaks of judgment, often it is not that God will lay His hand on us, but take it off us. He will leave us to our own depraved devices. The restraining power of God's grace is being lifted and man is being left to himself (a temporal and an ongoing fulfillment, a parallel of what we see in Romans 1:18-32). Judgment is here, the wrath of God is being incrementally revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down, or suppress, the truth with their unrighteousness. It is not that these vile things bring God's wrath, but that these vile things are signs of God's wrath. The Hand is coming off but some will be saved out of the midst of this corruption even as the whole is being damned.

When Paul wrote this it had happened before, but he says it was happening then, and it is happening now, the question is, is it happening to you? We make an image of God even as Christians and we serve and worship it instead of God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible, and we only see the Bible as we want to.

Get it right – It is idolatry first, immorality second. Everything sinful hinges upon this exchange in all its forms. We don’t like God as He chooses to reveal Himself, and/or we don’t like the restrictions God places upon us, and we create a god of our own image. Apply this to order your sanctification. Stop the idolatry first, and you’ll stop the sin. We want to stop the habitual sin first, so that we can please God, but we need to please God, and He will stop the habitual sin. Get the order right and you will be in order. We have habitual sin because of how we habitually see God. With God’s guidance you can judge yourself rightly, so don’t delay.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

They Are Connected (Radio / Podcast)

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
(Ephesians 5:32 – ESV)

The whole of Ephesians 5 is referring to relationships, and Paul gives us some invaluable insight, as through this chapter we see that marriage, church, and God are all connected. The commitment to one and the others are all mirrored by each other. These aspects about commitment are something we dare not gloss over. Let’s take a look at marriage, and then connect the other relationships.

Whether it is for premarital or marital counseling, we need to be clear about commitment. We often understand the bottom line, “I will not quit” facet of our vows. We are committing to covenant with the other person in an unbreakable bond, with God as the glue. However, we often are not told or do not understand that this also includes positive action, the “I will keep building this relationship” facet. It is a continuing project, with Jesus being the foundation stone and the mortar between the bricks.

The truth is that when making a marriage covenant, it is not just a commitment to avoid breaking up the relationship; it is also a commitment to be actively building up the relationship. It isn’t just “I won’t cheat on you” it is “I won’t cheat from you” by failing to give your all to the relationship, holding back a corner of your heart.

This is true for all types of counseling, and discipleship. Liken these “breaking up” and “building up” principles to our relationship with the Lord, which Paul does liken to marriage and our relationship to the church. These things are connected, so says Paul with words written with the pen of Inspiration. If you are not building your relationship to your wife, your relationship to God is suffering. If you are not building your relationship to your God, your relationship to your wife is suffering. If you are not building your relationship to your local church, your relationship to God is suffering, and your relationship to your brothers and sisters in Christ is suffering.

If you are not actively building your relationship to your wife, your God, and your local church, what exactly are you spending your time on? Paul was in jail when he wrote the book of Ephesians, yet he was still focused on building up the local bodies of believers.

Do you realize that if you are not building these things that you are in effect breaking them down? We can say that we will never lose our trust in the Lord, and we will be committed to the church, but are we actively building up those relationships, or are we fooling around in our marriage to God and our brothers and sisters? It is time to stop being just a cheerleader who says they are on the team while wearing another team’s jersey. It is time to start building your relationship to your wife, to your church, and to your God. Not just “I won’t break up”, but “I will build up”. Many think they haven’t broken up but they have broken away, and that certainly isn’t building up, it is tearing down.

All the assertions of “I won’t give up” are no good if there is not an active “I will build up” attached to it. They are connected. Are you?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Majesty of the Master (with audio)

USE THE PLAYER ABOVE TO LISTEN TO THIS POST

Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty.
(Isaiah 2:10 – ESV)

As human beings we stink, and in saying that it is not self loathing but realizing that the higher we get up into God the further we have to go. We don’t preach and teach the depravity of man so as to keep men down, but so as to show them the only way up. That way is Christ, but even when we have been redeemed, in our flesh we are still low down dirty rotten scoundrels compared to God. It is only that now He has condescended to us in the person of Jesus, and having come down to save us and to bring us to God we are positioned with Him in the heavenlies. In His grace we are already arrived at our destination, we simply await glorification.

Now then, in this life we can because of His grace become more and more sanctified, we can scale the heights of God holiness. On this side of eternity we can get a small glimpse of the reality of God, because we now climb up to God on the back of our beloved Savior. And this we do by God’s grace. We are still imperfect, and as Paul said we haven’t arrived in fullness, but we can press on toward the upward call, we don’t have to stay in our sin.

So realize that when we say we stink, we stink less than we did before, but the more we see of God the more we realize our stink. No I am not worse than I was before, by the grace of God I am more holy than I have ever been, and by the grace of God I am becoming more holy every second of every day, all praise to His name. But the more light that we have the more dust that we see. We do go up into the heights, but then we see just how much higher the Lord is than we had thought.

The more holy I become, the more holy I realize He is, and how much further from Him I am than I ever could have imagined had He not graciously allowed me to ascend to the heights I now scale. The higher I get the more beautiful He appears, even as the more awful my sin appears. I am sick of the false humility that says we cannot dare ascend higher up in the mountain of God’s majesty. Having said that, I want to go higher up into God, not so as to glory in my climb, or in its own heights, or to look down on others, but so as to revel in the majesty of my Master. Oh, just how lofty are you, my Lord? Only heaven will begin to reveal it, and even then, it will take forever to explore it.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Deity Demonstrated (with audio)

USE THE PLAYER ABOVE TO LISTEN TO THIS POST

This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
(Romans 3:25b – ESV)

With the text of Romans 3:25-26, when we start with a man centered, “what’s it mean to us” then we cannot appreciate the “what this means about God” aspect. God put Jesus on the cross to demonstrate His own righteousness, which is what the text declares as primary.

In this passage Paul’s emphasis is not so much on the righteousness that God has provided in Christ as the righteousness that God has demonstrated through Christ. This distinction may seem subtle, but it is one of great significance. Our minds like to avoid this truth, and we much rather focus on what He has done "for" us. It is too easy to fall into the trap of sentimental thinking about the Gospel, and we need to be reminded that the love of God makes absolutely no sense apart from the wrath of God. Take away the latter, and all you have is the image of a kindly old man who wouldn't hurt a fly, much less punish sinners, and then we start thinking that maybe our own sins really aren't that bad. We cheapen His love by downplaying His wrath.

When we choose to look at salvation from a merely human perspective, we see salvation from the standpoint of what it does for us. God becomes the One who “meets our needs.” While salvation does do something for us, and God does meet our needs, the focus is wrong. Paul portrays this passage from the divine point of view, fixing our attention on God’s purpose for saving men: the demonstration of His righteousness. If you can see this, you will see the value of a God entranced worldview, not one where we say it but we actually have it, and we can see with God’s eyes, and we will begin to learn the value of God, not simply as someone who gives us the treasure of forgiveness, but as the very treasure itself.

The death of Christ proved God’s righteousness. Hebrews 9:15,26 – in His forbearance He passed over the former sins, made during and before the old covenant, knowing justice would be served by a new covenant. People just want God to pardon but that doesn’t demonstrate His righteousness. That would be saying that sins are really no big deal to God, and it would also mean that offending God and despising Him isn’t all that important. The sins are real and they must be paid for, and yet God seemingly overlooked them before. The problem in God's passing over sin (which the natural mind does not grasp) is that God's worth and glory and righteousness have been despised, and passing over it makes him look cheap. God would be unrighteous if He passed over sins as though the value of His glory were nothing.

God’s worth and His name are dishonored by our sins, but He vindicated His glory by slaying His Son. That is how valuable His glory is and how awful sin really is and what it requires. It is not that we were worth it, that we were worth saving, but that God’s glory was worth vindicating, and that Christ was the only payment that could satisfy the justice of God for us offending and despising His glory. That is what sin is, falling short of and devaluing God’s glory. We have done violence to the throne of God. That is why hell must last forever because you can never pay it back, your worth is nothing compared to His, no amount of penance can offset the terrible injustice you have done against the infinite worth of God.

This is all about the value of God not the value of man, how much He is worth not how much we are worth. Now we square this with John 3:16 by saying that His love for us is so great that He paid the only way it could be done. God, out of His love and justice, renders Himself favorable to us by His own action. He suffers the ultimate offense and yet He takes on the punishment for that Himself. He passed over sins before Christ because He knew the plan, it was the plan all along, and that is why He could wait until it was the right time (Galatians 4:4).

Did Jesus really have to die to pay for our sins? We say, “Certainly we’ve done bad things, but what we’ve done isn’t so bad that a merciful God can’t overlook our failings.” We are wrong on two counts. First, what we have done IS so bad, that we cannot even begin to fathom how horrible it is. Second, God cannot overlook, He cannot wave His hand and let bygones be bygones. He may freely forgive us, but He Himself must bear the cost.

The wrath of God had to be satisfied. God could not simply overlook sin; it had to be judged. And so God provided men with salvation in such a way that He demonstrated His righteousness and satisfied His wrath, all at the same time. God’s forgiveness costs something, He freely forgives but it cost Him something. It is the heart of the good news...a bloody yet beautiful thing that proves God's worth, not ours...

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

God Knows Your Heart

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
(Psalm 139:23-24 – ESV)

How many times have you thought, said, or heard, “well, God knows my heart”? This happens often with people who want to justify themselves from the fact that they are blatantly ignoring the teachings of the Bible. We must be careful, for our motivations are not always as pure as we think them to be, and even if we are sincere, this doesn’t mean we are right. In fact, some might think that they want to do what is right but what they actually want is to get out of having to do what is biblically right. They say, well God knows my heart, and I say yes, He absolutely does, they are right about that (1 Samuel 16:7 / 1 Kings 8:39 / 1 Chronicles 28:9 / Proverbs 15:11 / Jeremiah 17:10 / Acts 1:24, 15:8 / Revelation 2:23).

Read through those scriptures and realize something important here. The problem is that while God knows your heart, YOU don’t know your heart, and let me further prove it to you.

Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

You say God knows your heart, and God says the Bible is how you know what He is thinking about your heart. God knows your heart and He shows you what He wants you to know about it in His Word. In His Word your heart is revealed. His Word reveals the condition of your heart, and so no matter what you think your heart looks like, God says that if you are directly disobeying some explicit command of His, then you are not as pure an innocent as you assume your sincerity makes you. Sincerity is no substitute for truth. The truth is that just because no one else is fulfilling their obligations, this doesn’t excuse you from fulfilling yours. Their disobedience doesn’t justify yours.

Yes God knows your heart, and He uses His Word to reveal to you the condition of it.

Proverbs 28:26 (KJV) – He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Proverbs 21:2 – Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.

Perhaps it is time to pray in accordance with Psalm 19:12-14 / Psalm 139:23-24, and ask God to show you from His Word about that “heart surgery” you need.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

I BELIEVE

People have a lot to say about and who they think Jesus is and what His coming into the world means, but the authority on the matter is the Bible.

I BELIEVE IN…I BELIEVE JESUS IS…

Light (John 1:9, 3:19, 8:12, 11:27, 12:46 / Philippians 2:15 / Matthew 5:16)

Promise (Genesis 3:15 / Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, 11:2 / Micah 5:2 / Romans 1:1-4 / Galatians 4:4)

Righteousness (Romans 3:25-26 / 2 Corinthians 5:21 / 2 Peter 1:1 / 1 John 2:1)

Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30 / Colossians 2:3)

Mercy (Matthew 9:27 / Mark 5:19 / Luke 1:50 / Ephesians 2:4-10)

Love (John 3:16 / 1 John 4:10-11 / John 15:13 / Romans 8:35-39)

Joy (Luke 2:10 / John 15:11, 17:13 / Hebrews 1:9)

Peace (Luke 2:14 / Mark 4:39 / John 14:27, 16:33 / Acts 10:36 / Romans 5:1 / Ephesians 2:14)

Hope (Romans 15:12-13 / Ephesians 1:12, 2:12 / Colossians 1:27 / 1 Timothy 1:1)

Grace (John 1:14 / Acts 15:11 / Romans 5:15)

Truth (John 1:14, 14:6)

Purity (1 John 3:2-3)

Revelation (John 1:18 / Matthew 1:23 / John 10:30 / Hebrews 1:3)

God the Son (John 1:3, 14 / Philippians 2:5-11 / Colossians 1:15-19 / Revelation 1:8)

Forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7)

Redemption (Romans 3:24, 8:23)

Resurrection (John 11:25 / Acts 24:15)

The Vine (John 15:5) a lifeline (Galatians 5:22-23 / Colossians 1:10)

Salvation (Matthew 1:21 / 1 Timothy 1:15)

Investment (Ephesians 1:3-14 / 1 Peter 1:3-9).

He invested in you, made you valuable, worth something to God. God gave His greatest, most precious and valuable thing, His Son as the asset, invested in you, with the Spirit as the down payment. The return on that investment was not a risk, it was a guaranteed harvest. I believe in your dream, because I believe in His reality. I believe in God’s investment.

What came into the world? It was and is something to believe in, and something worth sharing.

I BELIEVE! The question is, do you believe?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

God’s New Year’s Resolution

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,
(2 Thessalonians 1:11 – ESV)

Upon each New Year we often think ahead about what will happen in the world in general, and in our own slice of the world. We think about what we might like to get accomplished in the coming months. To that end we try and “resolve” to do something we feel would be good for us or others in the coming year. About 45-50% of people make “New Year’s Resolutions”; everyone at some time has, and even when you say you won’t you just resolved not to do it!

Yet even with so many making these resolutions, they rarely ever “stick”. Research over the years has concluded that about 80% of all New Year’s Resolutions are broken by the end of January. Of resolutions having to do with health and fitness, 90% will be broken by the middle of January. By the end of the year, less than 5% will have kept their resolutions. Articles are written every year to help us keep our goals intact this year, finally.

Why do we make them? We want to make ourselves better. Why do they fail? For many and various reasons, but as a Christian, I want you to think about something. Too often, resolutions are about our will but we are supposed to be concerned with God’s will. We are trying to triumph over our own selves when we should be advancing in the grace that has us submitting our will to God. We might think that by making resolutions we are doing this, and that in this or that way is where we would like to see God move this next year. But is that where God wants to move this year? When it becomes obvious during the year, during each day where He is trying to shape us, do we still have the will, or does He control it? It is God who controls the situations, not we, and to try and control every situation is to be controlled by every situation. Think about it in the context of the following verses from that most practical of books, James 4:13-17:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t make “resolutions”, not at all, as we consider the opening verse of this post. However, we must consider more carefully our motives. We cannot simply say I’m going to do this or that; we may want to “do” something but the “source” and the “motive” are most important. You cannot just tack on “I’m doing it for Jesus” because you think that is the right answer. That would be just like those little prayers that someone who feels guilty at the moment says but doesn’t really mean; it is man power not God’s power doing that. Did you ask God what He wanted you to do for this New Year? You can be sure that through your experiences this year that He will let you know (if you are truly listening) what He would like you to be doing. As in stop speeding your car when you get caught again.

The truth is that we can say we want something “For His glory” and still have mostly selfish motives. Do you know why this or that would give Him glory? Even if it is a good thing that would glorify Him, do you want that thing to change so that it will satisfy you more than wanting it to glorify Him? Check yourself. Oswald Chambers said, “You cannot sanctify to God that with which you aim to satisfy yourself”. Let us look at a few verses and apply them to this context.

Psalm 139:23-24 – Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 19:12-14 – Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 51:6 – Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

He will lead you and you must follow, and you know this to be true, He puts you in situations to let you know where your faith is. Stopping sin in its tracks is well, of course, but we often want only to be rid of embarrassing things rather than root causes which will pop up in some other form unless dealt with. We too often want to treat the symptom instead of God bringing the cure. Instead of wanting to get rid of that glaring sin, how about the sin no one sees, which may very well be the reason you stay in this other, more gross and overt sin, because if you were not, you would be swelled up with pride, perhaps, and so you must be kept down lest you become spoiled in your gifts. God will lead you to this end, but you must submit when the opportunities present themselves. In this way you will know Gods’ power, as you submit, and work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and see that it is indeed He who is working both to will and to do of His good pleasure in conforming you to Christ. Renew your mind around these meditations.

We make New Year’s Resolutions because we think we want to “turn over a new leaf”, but as Christians we have already turned ourselves over to Christ, and sometimes our efforts at turning over a new leaf are just as if it was Adam and Eve turning over their fig leafs! It isn’t what we really need, and it is works righteousness, when what we need is to live in the grace and godliness that God Himself provides and directs us to as we submit to Him through our experience. This is not willpower but living God’s will.

Let me give you another example. Your resolution might be to lose weight, and you may even have reasoned that it would give God glory because it is taking better care of the body He has given you. It will give you more energy to witness more or whatever, and it will stop your gluttony. This can be good of course, but we ought not to avoid those other things that keep popping up in places we should submit but never have. This is where God is obviously leading, He wants us to do right in those areas, and we keep seeing opportunities to submit and obey, but we want our agenda first. It would be even better if you paid attention to what God is bringing your way this week as you get caught once again for speeding, or someone reminds you that they haven’t talked to you in a while or seen you at church, or your friend or relative comes to mind for you to pray for, etc. Our resolution should be to submit. Do you see what I mean now?

Our New Year’s Resolution should center on asking God that in His grace we would submit to His will more as it appears before us. That we would trust Him, and instead of trying to make ourselves into some type of thing we think God would be pleased with, we would actually start becoming it by following where He is leading. Again, I am not saying we shouldn’t make resolutions, but I am saying we should pay attention to what God puts on our plate and not avoid that thing as if our agenda is more important. “No God, not that, do this” is in effect what we are saying. Perhaps, instead of telling God in what areas we would like molded, we would ask that we might submit to His molding process this year.

Each morning, ask for wisdom (James 1:5). “Father, give me the grace to realize opportunities to be submitted to your will this day, in Jesus name”, and then expect opportunities. It is submitting to God’s plan as revealed in time by circumstances presenting themselves to you.

Then the question is do you have faith? Our problem is that we just don’t want to be vulnerable; we cover it all up. All this does is delay the divine directive. Instead, the more we submit to it the more we will see it work. Yes we are to be willing and intentional about killing off sin, but we must remember, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD” (Proverbs 21:31), and He is the one who brings us to battle. Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered (Proverbs 28:26). Stop trying to fit yourself into the mold you think Jesus will be pleased with, and start letting it happen for real. After all, it is Jesus who tells us to take up our cross and follow Him, not the other way around.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Speech and Reach

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
(1 John 3:16-18 – ESV)

As Christians we are to demonstrate sacrificial love for those of the household of faith, but also to those who are not (Galatians 6:10). As we lay down our lives in service, we are doing so as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23), knowing that our labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). This is the driving force behind our benevolence, and the truth is that Christians have shined as lights in the world (Matthew 5:16 / Philippians 2:15), and as showers of blessing upon mankind (Ezekiel 34:26).

Now it is also certainly true that many horrible things have been done in the name of Christianity. However, for all of our many problems, it is the church that has maintained the moral standards that are the fabric of our society. The church has built the hospitals, the schools, the orphanages, and was the backbone behind the civil organizations as they were born. The church fed the poor, and ministered to those whom the world forgot. It is the church that is the first to respond to disasters, personal, regional, and national, giving sacrificially and giving when no one is looking.

Yes there are humanitarian and other religious efforts not associated with Christianity that reveal God’s love in an indirect way by their sacrifices to help other people, and these give glory to God even if they do not subjectively do so, because objectively speaking, they show forth the fact that God shows mercy through other people and that the Christian ideals are the right ones. But this does not constitute saving faith or Christianity. It is not Jesus teachings, but Jesus Himself that makes Christianity what it is.

Now as Christians, when we do these things, but also by our words and hearts give glory where it really belongs, to God, and do so proclaiming the gospel while we do it, then we subjectively and objectively give glory to God, and not only are people helped, God is praised and pleased as we rightly give Him what He is due in a conscious fashion. It is not merely social action; it is spiritual action. We speak of Christ, and His sacrifice, as the ultimate demonstration of God’s love, which is why we reach out to others.

It is not that these things aren’t good, in many cases they are, but the fact is that as non-Christians they are not thanking God for them, and God is the source of all that is good. It is good that they do civil good, but it is God that has made them do any good at all. This speaks of common grace, but as Christians we must speak of saving grace as we reach out to help. Let us thank God that we can do any good at all.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Value the Vision

So these came to Philip… and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."
(John 12:21 – ESV)

People often believe that God is able to help them, but they don’t believe He is willing to, at least not in their particular circumstance. They want to blame some curse or something else, but fail to see the plan of God. The truth is that they want to be helped in the way they want to be helped, and if they aren’t helped in that way, they don’t actually want to be helped, and they will grumble about not being helped.

Into this idea of wanting to see God help us walks Jesus. The passage from John 12:20-36 is very instructive in many things. Jesus teaches us that to die to self and to serve Him will bring honor from God the Father to that person who does so, and spiritual light will be the result. Walking in this light will increase our fruitfulness, our faithfulness, and our fulfillment in God and His plan.

We say we see this, and that we believe it, but then we ask, “Why is it so hard?”

This is not just about Jesus and the plan of salvation, but the plan for our personal deliverance from those sins that we cannot see our way out of. God uses the Bible and your individual experience to craft a personal attack plan for rooting out the sin in your life. Oh, it is the same methods and instruments as He uses for everyone else, but it is indeed a unique plan suited for you. The Holy Spirit is truly guiding the child of God to walk in faith, in the Spirit, to continue down Believer’s Boulevard, turning onto Repentance Road, finding Submission Street.

If you are willing to submit to God’s plan He is willing to help you see it more clearly, as far as the goodness of it goes, and to see how it shapes you, and to have a vision for knowing that He and His plan are righteous and to pursue His righteousness despite circumstances. This all takes spiritual vision, and our focus must be honed, and this happens through submission leading to obedience from the heart of the person who sees the value in it. You have to submit yourself to the vision, the plan of God for your life.

The truth is we don’t submit fully and so we see the obstacles to faith not the object of it.

This lack of true submission can be in particular circumstances that challenge our vision for faith, where we see Jesus as our all in all in general terms, but something else looms larger in the moment. We stop walking and the Light grows dim, we can’t see where we are going, and we fail to move from fear.

This lack of true submission also manifests itself in the larger arena, with people who struggle with an overall level of submission. For them their spiritual vision is mostly an idea, Jesus really isn’t in focus day by day, and He is just turned to when everything else is closing in on them. Many people want just enough God to get out of trouble, but only so as to try it their way once again. The problem with this is that if you get out of trouble, but you don’t get into truth, you will get back into trouble again. Your way won’t work, and you have to see that submission to God is the way into true fulfillment for you.

This is not about everyone else’s idea of God’s plan for you, but God’s own plan just for you. Be honest friend, you know some of it right now, you know how you have to start, and you just won’t do it, because you don’t believe it is actually right. You say it, but you don’t feel it, and so you don’t live it. The walk of faith is fraught with steps of submission, and your strength is in yourself, not in God, and you realize you cannot do it. You fail to submit once again, and you are on your knees, crying, or on your back, dying, or even on your feet, trying, but God just doesn’t seem to be helping you.

However, this plan, as you walk it out and value it, you will see the steps and learn to love the new you, instead of wanting to keep just enough of the old you to feel comfortable.

In either case, whether in momentary lapse of vision, or lack of any real focus within an individual’s life, the diagnosis is the same.

This is the true problem; people don’t believe God will do right by them, as far as their measures are concerned. They feel and live as if their ultimate good must also include their temporal satisfaction. They may indeed let God define a good ending but they define a good life.

You must follow Christ to the Cross by faith. There is no side road to salvation, or deliverance. If you want the power of God, if you want to learn to value the vision, to see how good God really is, you must go down Repentance Road, and make sure you stop at Submission Street. If you don’t, believe me, you will have made a wrong turn.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

God So Loved

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16 – NET)

Many bible versions render the opening words of John 3:16 as “For God so loved the world”. Of course this is true, but the way that this is worded can confuse the primary meaning for some folks. When the bible says, “God so loved the world”, it is primarily speaking of the manner in which God loved the world. It is not simply that He loved the world “so much” as in the degree, but also the manner of that love, that He loved it in this way, that He gave His Son. John is emphasizing the manner in which He chose to express His love to the world, through the giving of His Son, which itself portrays the degree to which God loved the world as well.

Hebrews 11:17-18 uses the same Greek word for “only son” – Isaac wasn’t Abraham’s only son, but he was one of a kind, the heir. The Apostle John uses this word to differentiate Jesus from the other children of God (John 1:12). We are sons (children) of God by faith, but Jesus remains unique. 1 John 4:10 – In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

You see, you can love someone so very much but still not be able to help them overcome that problem they may have. Our love may be absolutely pure and sincere, and we may muster all the power we can, but it still not be enough to save someone from their situation. Yet God loves us so much and was and is able to overcome our greatest problem, our only problem in being reconciled to Him, our sin. And so in this way, through the giving of His Son Jesus Christ, God loves the world and whoever believes in Christ will be reconciled, redeemed, in right standing before God. They will not perish in eternity but have everlasting life. His love is enough.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Don’t Deny It

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…
(James 5:17a – ESV)

As we first begin to age into adolescence, we begin to see the world through looking at others, and not simply from our own view. As this happens, we often find ourselves looking at heroes, and how we love to have them inspire us. Inevitably, as we reach a greater maturity, we find out they had feet of clay, they had flaws, as do all people, greater and lesser.

Yet this fact should not discourage us all that much. Their failures do not change the great things they did; it only makes the fact that they were able to do them more appreciable. Instead of wondering how they could do such great things while being so inconsistent, marvel at the wonder that God was able to use them to do such great things in spite of themselves.

To deny the complexity of men is to deny the human condition. To deny the achievements of a man because of his flaws is to deny the very power of God that shines through them.

Instead of looking to men as our ultimate example, let us look at God’s light through men to see its source, our ultimate example, Jesus Christ, who is able shine His radiant light through our dark humanity.

Don’t deny our Lord His glory.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

How Could He?

Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword
(Joshua 6:21 – ESV)

It is often misunderstood as to why God had ordered the Jews to kill all the inhabitants of Jericho and certain other people they were warring against. It happened more than once. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey'" (1 Samuel 15:3). These slaughters are often used as an objection against Christianity, or at least against the “Old Testament God”. If one is not careful it can seem like a good argument. Many Christians I have known have not known how to answer this accusation. How can God be so good when He ordered His people to slaughter innocent babies? If He is loving and righteous, how could He?

Well, lets look at this from a different perspective, a more complete understanding. First of all, this wasn’t always the case. Also, have you ever considered that God also allowed most of His own people to die in the wilderness, before they entered the Promised Land? God was against rebellion and unrighteousness, and meted out punishment against His own people, before they ever crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. More than 1 million souls that didn’t believe they could take the land, because of the giants (Numbers 13-14), died in the wilderness, save those under 20 years of age, and Joshua and Caleb, who believed in God’s promise.

Now the people of Canaan, like the Amalekites and others, were guilty of abominable sin and had filled up the cup of God’s wrath already, so it wasn’t like they were innocent. But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God (Deuteronomy 20:16-18). Perhaps by having children killed, God was sparing them worse punishment than they would have had if they had grown to maturity and committed more injustice and gross rebellion. Even so, before we can ask, “how could He” about the Canaanites, how about His own people? God allowed all those deaths in the wilderness.

Why does God order the annihilation of entire nations in the first place? Some were peoples who possessed the Promised Land, which God gave to Israel. The primary reason stated above is that these peoples are exceedingly wicked. If they are not totally wiped out, they will teach the Jews their sinful ways and thus bring them under divine condemnation. God was against rebellion, and was preserving the birth line of the coming Messiah, both by filtering the Jews, and the killing of the others.

That may seem like a wholly unsatisfactory answer to you. However, consider this: this slice of redemptive history must be looked at within the overall context of God’s plan. And that plan included pouring out His wrath upon His own Son to pay for our sins. So before you can ask about the Canaanites, and the Jews before them, how about the fact that God poured out His wrath upon the sinless Son of God?

Love must be seen in its full context. If you had a child learning to ride a bike, and you were that day going to remove the training wheels, you would realize that they might fall, and skin their knees. They would be hurt, and would be very angry with you. However, you know that in the long run it was good for them. You knew the big picture. They might be mad for a while, perhaps a long while, but when they learned to ride that bike they would be glad you helped them learn how.

God gives us the big picture of redemption, and all we have to do is look at the cross to see that God is vitally concerned about punishing sin. Yet he allowed His own Son to pay for that sin because He is also vitally concerned about demonstrating His love. So instead of looking at only those early moments in redemptive history, be sure to look to the climax of it, Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, dying on a cross to reconcile you to a loving God.

So there is an answer to, “How could He?” It is because He loved us.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Majesty of the Master

Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty.
(Isaiah 2:10 – ESV)

As human beings we stink, and in saying that it is not self loathing but realizing that the higher we get up into God the further we have to go. We don’t preach and teach the depravity of man so as to keep men down, but so as to show them the only way up. That way is Christ, but even when we have been redeemed, in our flesh we are still low down dirty rotten scoundrels compared to God. It is only that now He has condescended to us in the person of Jesus, and having come down to save us and to bring us to God we are positioned with Him in the heavenlies. In His grace we are already arrived at our destination, we simply await glorification.

Now then, in this life we can because of His grace become more and more sanctified, we can scale the heights of God holiness. On this side of eternity we can get a small glimpse of the reality of God, because we now climb up to God on the back of our beloved Savior. And this we do by God’s grace. We are still imperfect, and as Paul said we haven’t arrived in fullness, but we can press on toward the upward call, we don’t have to stay in our sin.

So realize that when we say we stink, we stink less than we did before, but the more we see of God the more we realize our stink. No I am not worse than I was before, by the grace of God I am more holy than I have ever been, and by the grace of God I am becoming more holy every second of every day, all praise to His name. But the more light that we have the more dust that we see. We do go up into the heights, but then we see just how much higher the Lord is than we had thought.

The more holy I become, the more holy I realize He is, and how much further from Him I am than I ever could have imagined had He not graciously allowed me to ascend to the heights I now scale. The higher I get the more beautiful He appears, even as the more awful my sin appears. I am sick of the false humility that says we cannot dare ascend higher up in the mountain of God’s majesty. Having said that, I want to go higher up into God, not so as to glory in my climb, or in its own heights, or to look down on others, but so as to revel in the majesty of my Master. Oh, just how lofty are you, my Lord? Only heaven will begin to reveal it, and even then, it will take forever to explore it.