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Tag Archives: Promises
Daily Encouragement
The difficulty in reaching people in the nation and community in which I live with the gospel is that most people seem very comfortable and really think they don’t need anything. We find ways to block out the bad news and brokenness within our own hearts.
For those who have been redeemed, we see our neediness and the evil of this world. We may wonder why the wicked prosper. We may see the foolish and arrogant rule us. We may become weary under their reign and cry out to God, “How long, O Lord?”
The reply is always this—“Not forever. Wait patiently, dear child. Trust me.”
Thanksgiving Day
What is giving thanks?
—it’s a response to someone who gave things to you. And the things given were not earned. (For example, our paycheck is something you shouldn’t give thanks for because you worked for it).
—the response is vocalized which should be accompanied by a particular disposition toward the person who gave to you.
—the response of thanksgiving does not require that the person who gave to you be superior to you. Most certainly God is worthy of our thanksgivings everyday but other people who have given to you ought to receive a thankful response too.
—thankfulness requires that you notice these things. You must be aware of what you have been given was undeserved.
—because to be generous here, we can possibly forget. An opposite response to someone who gave is to forget the response of thanksgiving. This could be due to not stopping to think about what has occurred or there’s just too much going on in life therefore you did not remember the kind deeds done to you.
—while forgetfulness is a possibility for not being thankful, more often than not it is out of pride. We think we deserve everything and the world ought to take notice. They ought to be thankful for the opportunity to give to me kind of attitude. On a more subtle note of pride, we might abhor the gift and in doing so we abhor the giver. Now, we will likely respond with the words of thanksgiving but they are just words. The gift isn’t what I wanted or needed and we think there’s no benefit from it.
—though we could breakdown piece by piece the steps from pride to unbelief I don’t think that’s necessary. The major problem with not having a heart of thankfulness is unbelief in God. This is the root of unthankfulness. Because if we trust in the Lord, we of all people know and understand that God has been gracious and merciful to us in every respect throughout our entire life. When we turn our attention on the fact that we deserve the consequences of our sin—the miseries of this life and eternal death itself. But Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners like us. He took the death that we deserved and we get forgiveness and counted righteous by faith in him. To all who have turned from their sins and trusted in Jesus, we will be saved. From that understanding, we of all people ought to be thankful!
Daily Encouragement
As I was reading along in my normal plan this morning, I read (hopefully) a summary of the sermon from this past Sunday. As I read it, I thought to myself, that’s what I was saying, I think. It was encouraging to hear this so clearly and succinctly stated by our Lord Jesus.
Here it is—John 12:23-26
[23] And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. [24] Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. [25] Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. [26] If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
Faith in Christ is the dying. The fruit of the seed dying is good deeds. Hating one’s life is dying. Dying is faith in Christ. Hating one’s life is hating the things God hates. It’s also hating the guilt and shame that comes from our sin.
To die is to repent and believe in Jesus. There you lose your life but gain eternal life. But in the meantime, we serve our Savior and King. To serve Christ is to follow Christ. And to follow Christ is eventually to be with Christ. Where he is we will also be.
The result of a seed falling into the dust and dying is fruit! No fruit, no dying. No dying, no eternal life. You can have your life now and be god of your own life but just know that it’s temporary and you will eventually lose it, not save it.
Daily Encouragement
As the story of Lazarus wraps up at the end of John 11, there are different responses to this amazing resurrection. Some believe. They see the signs as from the only place they could be—God. That makes Jesus unique in some way to them. At the very least they believe Jesus is from God.
Others do not believe. In fact they begin to plan his death. They say it out loud if you were wondering why—John 11:47-48
[47] So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. [48] If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
They didn’t see the evidence that others saw. What they wanted was to keep their place and nation at the expense of not believing that Jesus was the Son of God. They should have seen it through the many signs. The evidence is stacked against them. Anyway, they gave up trusting in God to keep the temple and nation. These were not to be substituted for God himself but it seems that’s what they had become.
Instead of seeing God through the obvious signs Jesus was showing them they looked to the temple and nation as evidence or maybe something else. Are you satisfied with a dead building as evidence of God? I’m not. And you shouldn’t either.
So how do you get people to see Christ for who he is? How do you cause people to hear the gospel and believe? Warnings or wooings? Or both?
This Lazarus event was a clear example of wooing. They should have seriously wrestled with the signs not against them. God has used both with the people and Pharisees. Why did neither of them work with some?
Notice this statement by Jesus about warning and wooing—Matthew 11:16-19
[16] “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,[17] “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ [18] For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ [19] The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
To simplify what Jesus is saying here—I came wooing you with wonderful signs and John came warning you to flee the wrath of God through repentance. Jesus played the beautiful flute and John sang the funeral song (a lament—dirge).
Why did they not listen? There are a few possible answers but only one satisfies to me. What is it?
Daily Encouragement
1 John 4:4
[4] Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
This could stand alone without any explanation and likely encourage you. However there’s more to consider here than only thinking, “I’ve got this! God is in me!”
This verse is in the context of deciding who to listen to. It began in 4:1 by saying do not believe every spirit. You might ask, what is a spirit? Well, he defines what he means. Spirits in the plural here means people who speak or attempt to speak on God’s behalf.
False prophets would be an example of a spirit that you should not believe. Then you might ask, how do I know whether this is a false spirit or not. John says this—1 John 4:2-3
[2] By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
My guess is that you might think, can someone confess Jesus Christ has come from God to deceive me? Well in fact they can. There a tons of examples throughout the bible showing us that.
The next test is this—1 John 4:5-6
[5] They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. [6] We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
People/spirits that do not listen to God’s word are not of the Spirit of truth. They are the spirit of error. They may say they love Jesus but it usually shows up very clearly in their actions. Like the previous encouragement, you can say you love your brother but if you see him in need and refused to give him what he needs then the love of God is not in that person.
There are likely people who can put on a show over some period of time. But eventually and usually in private they are who they really are. I’d pay attention to the people who listen to them. The world listens to these people but God’s people do not. They like people listening to them and that weakness usually exposes them.
But remember, he who is in you is greater than those false spirits that are in the world. The Lord will protect you. And I would strongly suggest that you know the Spirit of truth by knowing the Spirit inspired Word of God.
Daily Encouragement
I suppose that it’s easy to doubt the things we believe about God. We have an enemy that is working to deceive us. It seems that there is a passive deception in the world when we see so many things that are evil and wrong. The glimpse of reality is darkened by the clouds of doubt that actively or passively seek to hide the truth.
There’s a clear connection between our confidence in God and our obedience to the Lord’s commands. When people who claim to believe the truth do not do what he commands of us that actively and passively hides the truth and attempts to deceive us.
When we gladly obey the good things God has told us to do such as loving our brothers not only word but in deed then we not only display that we believe the truth but we also know that we are of the truth. This assures our hearts before God. No doubt it also assures others that we and they are of the truth. Instead of deceiving your fellow brothers by disobedience you encourage them actively and passively.
1 John 3:16-21
[16] By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. [17] 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? [18] Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
[19] By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; [20] for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. [21] Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God
Let us know the love of Christ in that he didn’t merely say he loved us but proved his love by laying down his life for us. So too, prove your love for Christ by loving your brother and then you will also prove your love for your brother. And you will be confident in the truth because his love and truth have become visible and abides in you.
Daily Encouragement
The cross comes before the crown. Suffering comes before relief. Immaturity comes before maturity. Unbelief comes before belief. Darkness comes before light. Chaos before order. War before peace.
In John 11, Lazarus dies. He was Jesus’s friend. Indeed, Jesus was not only friends with Lazarus but his two sisters, Mary and Martha. They send word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick and near death. It says very strangely that Jesus hears the news and because of his love for them he delays his response for two days knowing that Lazarus will die. Or to put another way, he delayed so that he died.
It states clearly that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. However this act doesn’t seem loving at all. When Jesus has the power and availability to stop this he decides the best thing for those whom he loves is to see his glory. But to see his glory they must experience a great deal of pain. Pain that could have been avoided but pain that was necessary.
We all know how the story ends but are we okay with how Jesus loves here? Is Jesus on some ego trip to make himself look good? How is pain like this in our best interest?
The Bible often uses the birth of a child to explain this. When the baby arrives the pain is forgotten about. No doubt the joys of life swallow up the pain. The sting of death doesn’t get the final word. God does. And he will burst open the graves and clothe us with a new body that will never die again.
The second death is the worst and eternal death. If you want heaven NOW hell comes later. If you want light now darkness will come later. If you avoid suffering now it will come later.
There are two paths or we might say two ways of life: a crown now and a cross later. Or a cross now and crown later. The death of Lazarus gives us a visual picture of that reality.
And Jesus wasn’t on an ego trip, he was giving them and us the best thing he could possibly give us—himself.
Daily Encouragement
After preaching and hearing a strong warning from Hebrews 6 on Sunday, it is fitting to hear the assurance offered to those who believe. However one works out assurance of salvation, we must at least hold to that the promises of God are only for those who believe.
And if you believe which was a work of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Good Shepherd that laid down his life for the sheep then assurance is available because of the Good Shepherd.
John 10:14-16
[14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16] And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
He’s not like the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. He’s not like the hired hand who abandons the sheep when the wolf comes. He saves the sheep by laying down his own life for them. The thief and hired hand always seek to save their own lives but not the Good Shepherd.
It might seem strange that the sheep are saved by way of the death of the Shepherd. It seems normal to think that the life of the sheep lie in the life of the Shepherd. In this analogy, the life of the sheep that is eternal life rests in the death of the Shepherd but this Shepherd doesn’t remain dead.
John 10:18
[18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
He died but was raised to Shepherd his sheep to eternal life. Because he’s alive, we will be kept safe forever by our loving Good Shepherd.
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.
The Word Is Not Imprisoned 