Here’s the link to download the manuscript if you are interested:
Tag Archives: Faith
Daily Encouragement
As I was reading these psalms together, I kept hearing a lot of the same things but presented differently. By that I mean for example the statements made in Psalm 23 given as what is believed. They declare certain things to be true.
Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
But notice this…
Psalm 25:4–5 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 25:6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
I only offer two parallels though there are more to be sure. I’m sure you noticed that Psalm 25 sounds like petitions to the Lord to do and be what David believes to be true of the Lord. Both are necessary. In fact, I’m not sure why you would pray these things if you did not believe them to be certain of God’s nature.
We don’t pray to change his nature but rather we appeal to him to be who he be! So, the exhortation is to believe and pray. Hold confidently these amazing truths about who God is and hold him to be who he says he is.
Maybe to understand this on a more human level let’s think about it this way. Let’s say I’ve neglected to be the father I should be and the kids notice it. Would it not make perfect sense for the kids to ask the father to be who he is supposed to be? Would it not be fitting for the father to hear that and rejoice in the desire of his children to want that to be so of him?
In other words, not asking may indicate that you do not want or have even noticed or need your father or the Lord to be who they are supposed to be. This is a relationship in which we walk with the Lord now albeit in a strange and distant land for which we long to be in his presence forever on that glorious day.
Let us love the Lord now by believing and pleading and longing for this…
Psalm 26:8 O Lord, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells.
Daily Encouragement
The sheep are scattered when Jesus, their Shepherd, was struck. I’m glad they ran for the hills or I might suspect this story to be a fraud. Yet they respond as we all expect but it’s Jesus that does the unexpected.
He being the Good Shepherd goes after the scattered sheep.
Luke 24:36
[36] As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”
This is one of the more encouraging responses to me. When people abandon me the betrayal is hard for me to overcome. It’s hard to want people who do not want you. But Jesus isn’t like us.
He goes after his disciples. He meets them in their unbelief and gives them evidence beyond measure. He continues to keep them and protect their faith not only for these disciples but for us too.
Your desire to question and touch the real thing—Jesus himself—was done by others so that you might believe in the resurrection. And if the resurrection is true then that changes everything on this side of the grave.
Live with the assurance that if you are united to Christ by faith then eternal joy awaits us when we behold his face!
The Lord’s Day Sermon Manuscript for September 24, 2023
Here’s the link to download the manuscript if you are interested:
Daily Encouragement
The faith of the thief on the cross was sufficient to save him. It seems clear there was evidence of faith by his words and actions until he died. It was necessary for him to endure to the end of life as it is for all who believe. That length was short for him yet his reward will be far less.
With that said, those who believe and continue to live are in need of endurance too. Hebrews 12 makes that point very clear as it flows from multiple examples of those who did. The promises of God are conditional and only for those who have faith.
Part of the way we endure is through the discipline of the Lord. If the Lord does not discipline us then we are not a legitimate child of God. This is one of the ways he keeps us believing. There will be a mixture of those who “believe” that are illegitimate children. We can only know that by the fruit of our lives.
Additionally, we ought to lay aside every sin and weight that so easily entangles us. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. There are sins and things that are not necessarily sin that will hinder the race. Let us gladly put them aside knowing what awaits on that glorious day!
Daily Encouragement
This passage might not seem encouraging but their choices as pilgrims of this strange land point us to something much, much better to come.
Hebrews 11:35-38
Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.
To refuse release is not to say what they were going through wasn’t severely painful. Their release may have demanded some sort of denial of the faith by which they were approved before the Lord. Whatever the case, they saw beyond the suffering of this world to the promise of a better resurrection—a better life. To give up the faith would have been to forfeit the greater for the lesser.
What these people endured in this brief life, show us their faith and the extreme value they had in Christ. The witness they are to us should stir our hearts to press on in faith as Hebrews 12 concludes.
Your life may show others your faith and your value of Christ as you refuse to deny the One who suffered in your place and long for the better resurrection. Jesus is worth it. And that which is coming to us will not only be void of suffering, it will never come to an end.
Daily Exhortation
Everyone is prone to hard heartedness. The following proverb gives us the solution to fighting against it.
Proverbs 28:14[14] Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
This is very similar to Hebrews 4:1 where it instructs us to fear unbelief.
Here’s a quote to think about…
Paul Tripp
Proud people are
◦ Defensive
◦ Entitled (they deserve things that other people don’t deserve)
◦ Use people instead of serve people
◦ Pride allows me to convince myself that I can step over God’s boundaries without any consequences
◦ Long before a fall, the proud person has lost his functional fear of God and so he’s not afraid anymore to write his own rules
Pride must be a symptom of a hard heart that no longer fears the Lord or fears where unbelief ends. Let’s watch out for each other in love.
Daily Encouragement
Daily Encouragement:
Faith is necessary to understand God and his creation. It makes sense of the sufferings and trials of life. Without faith, it’s impossible to understand the world and it’s impossible to please the Lord.
Faith changes how you live now because you trust in what is coming later. Abel can offer the better sacrifice because he believes God rewards those who trust him. He can offer up his best now when he trusts in better things to come.
Enoch walked with the Lord by faith. Not in Eden as it was meant to be but by faith in this cursed world. He had fellowship with God outside of Eden but that same faith delivers him to Eden when he is taken up.
In other words, you can have fellowship with the Lord too by faith in his name. You can understand the world in large part because you understand what’s coming later. Abraham can live as a foreigner in the land because his eyes are fixed on the heavenly city that is to come.
Why would we, let’s say, cheat on our taxes or on a test to live in a city that will pass away when we have the promise of living in the heavenly city? We must look to the prize that comes at the finish line.
Let’s live in the desert now as though Eden is our forever home with him. Let’s live in fellowship with the Lord by faith through the Holy Spirit now in this strange land knowing that better country awaits us. Now we see dimly. Now we fellowship in the Spirit which is a down payment of our inheritance to come. One day we will see his face!
Hebrews 11:1
[1] Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The Lord’s Day Sermon Manuscript for September 3, 2023
Here’s the link to download the manuscript if you are interested:
The Word Is Not Imprisoned 