“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are one.”
This is one of Jesus’ prayers for His disciples in His prayer in John 17. He says that we should be one as He and the Father are one. I believe that He meant that. I do not want to give the impression that I think we need one big super church. I don’t have a problem with denominations. I realize that some people do, but I don’t see any way out of it. I would definitely not want to be the pastor of the super church. But there are some ways that we can be one and cooperate together as a witness for Christ to the world. First, I think that we can be one in Christ. We can disagree about a lot of things, but we cannot disagree about Christ. The New Testament plainly teaches that the coming of Christ was prophesied throughout the Old Testament. The New Testament plainly teaches the virgin birth of Christ, as well as the fact that He never sinned. The New Testament plainly teaches that Christ was crucified on a Roman cross, buried in a Jewish tomb and arose on the third day. The way that we are saved is as Ephesians 2:8-9 explains: “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” According to James, saving faith includes works. We are not saved by works but to work. When people try to change the witness and ministry of Christ, which some have tried to do, they are leading people astray. A lot of the New Testament was written because people were trying to change who and what Christ is. We are one in Christ, we just need to remember that. Second, I think that we can be one in love. In John 13:35 Jesus said: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” In John 15:12-13 Jesus said: “This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you. 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In 1 John 4:10-11 we read this: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11.Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” Just as we can’t put denominational lines around Christ, we can’t put denominational lines around the command to love one another. It is not a suggestion but a command, and we need to work on it. Third, I think that we can be one in prayer. All who are believers in the finished work of Jesus Christ, should be willing to pray for each other and to pray with each other. I think that Billy Graham’s ministry proved that when Christian people want to serve the interests of Christ, we can come together and pray and see God do remarkable work among us. We need to pray for each other. I have found that I cannot fight with a person that I constantly pray for. The Christians who pray together do not spend as much time fussing as they do witnessing and ministering in the name of Jesus. If we are all busy doing that, we will not have time to fuss with each other. All that I have written above does not just apply to Christian denominations, they apply to individual Christians as well. They apply to all Christian churches. If we will see ourselves as one in Christ, love each other as Jesus commanded, and pray together, we will find that we can reach the world for Christ. People want to be with people who love each other and pray together. In these ways, we should all be one. I was saved a Baptist, live as a Baptist, and will die a Baptist, but that doesn’t mean that I am not one with all true believers in Jesus Christ. Bro. Joe
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“He erected the pillars at the portico (porch) of the temple. The pillar to the south he names Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.”
The entire Bible is the word of God and I read every word of it every year, but I have to admit that some parts of it are more exciting than others. Take for example the building of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem in 1 Kings. We are told all of the materials that Huram (the builder) used. In fact, we are given a blow-by-blow account of the construction of the temple. But I have discovered that if I don’t read all of it, I will surely miss a treasure that God has for me in the passage. This was true this morning when I read 1 Kings 7:21. This was surely not the first time that I have read this verse, but this morning two words jumped out at me – "Jakin" and "Boaz." Huram built two pillars on the porch of the temple. Pillars are built to hold the structure up. The two pillars were given appropriate names, and were reminders of who the temple belonged to and the purpose of the temple. These two names are what I am calling “Unexpected Treasure.” These treasures were not a surprise to me, but this time I remembered their significance. Let’s start with Jakin. Jakin means “He establishes.” On the front of the temple on the porch, this pillar was a reminder of the God of the temple. The temple was to stand through the years as a reminder to Israel that their nation was established by God. Israel was not chosen and established because of their goodness, but because God in His mighty grace called them out and established them as His people. When the people looked at the temple, they saw “Jakin” and they were reminded that their establishment was God’s work and this temple stood as a reminder of God’s work. We need to remember this in our own lives as well. We no longer have a temple like the temple in Jerusalem. In fact, we are told that, because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we are God’s temple. But we need to be reminded of Jakin, because, like Israel, we are not God’s temple, or God’s people, because of our innate goodness, but because of the grace of the Almighty God, who has established us in His Son. As Jakin held up the porch of the temple, so Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, holds our lives up. We are never independent of Him, because He is a vital part of our lives. Let’s just conclude that we have a “Jakin” that holds our lives up, and that is the Holy Spirit, who establishes us in the faith. Ephesians 4:30 reminds us of this: “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed until the day of redemption." The next word is Boaz. This name means “in Him is strength.” Boaz stood as a reminder to Israel that they were not established because of their own strength, but by the strength of God. All they had to do was to think back over their history, and they would remember that it was God who got them through the Red Sea. It was God who enabled them to stay together through their wilderness wanderings. The Bible reminds us over and over again that we cannot live the Christian life on our own strength. As we face all of the issues of life, we are reminded that we can face them because we have God’s strength to keep us going. When we try to do God’s work, or live our lives on our own strength, we find that we do not have the strength to do it. Boaz stands as a reminder to us of the strength of our Lord, and of our need for His strength every day that we live. There is a neat reminder of our dependence on God’s strength in Nehemiah 8:10: “Then he (Nehemiah) said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto the Lord: neither be ye sorry; For the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Rejoice! Claim Jakin and Boaz for your life today, for, in Jesus, you have them. Again I say, "rejoice!" Bro. Joe “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, with all your strength, and with your entire mind.”
I was perusing last year’s copy of David Jeremiah’s devotional book Discovery when I came across this text. I read it several times, knowing that I had to write something about it. When a text “jumps out” at me, I just know that the Lord has something that He wants me to say, or write about it. It occurred to me as I thought about it that Jesus was telling us how to love the Lord. I have never seen it exactly that way before. How are we to love the Lord? Jesus told us to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts,and with all of our souls. This is where the Christian faith is different from all other world religions. Religions tend to begin on the outside of a person.and make demands on that person to do some religious ritual. The Pharisees are an example of this with their penchant for following the “traditions of the fathers,” which went far beyond Mosaic Law. The Christian faith begins on the inside and works out. We do not practice the Christian faith; rather, we live it from within. This is why Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.” We love Him from deep within ourselves, where He has sent the Holy Spirit to live within us. Real love of any kind comes from the heart and the soul. The point is that we are to give our hearts and souls to the Lord. We can entrust our hearts and souls to His great hands. He has proved His love for us in sending His Son to save us from our sins; we should reciprocate with deep inner love for Him. Jesus told us to love the Lord with all of our strength. I really had to think about this one, for God does not need our physical strength. My conclusion on the matter is that we are to love the Lord with the strength of our faith in Him. When Jesus comes into our lives, He comes in by faith, but faith in Jesus is not a one-time thing. Faith in Jesus changes the course of our lives and becomes a part of our lifestyles. It is certain that different Christians have different levels of faith. I think that the strength of our faith depends on the strength of our love for the Lord, and that the more we love Him the greater our faith grows. The great Christian martyrs over the last two thousand years sacrified their lives, not because they were physically strong, but because they were spiritually strong. They were spiritually strong because they had great faith in Jesus and a great love for Him. We need to realize that the stronger our faith, the stronger our commitment, and the stronger our commitment, the greater our love for Him. Jesus told us to love the Lord with all of our minds. It is in our minds that we form our actions, whether good or bad. That’s why it is so important for us to love the Lord with our minds. We need to surrender our hearts and minds to the Lord in order for us to live effective Christian lives. On top of that, it means that when we take Jesus into our lives, He does not kill our minds. There are people who think that you have to be a real mental doofus to be a Christian. I think that Christians with great intellect like C.S. Lewis, show us the loving the Lord does not kill our minds. It is safe to say that a mind that loves the Lord is a purer mind than the mind of one that does not. It is also safe to say that the mind that loves the Lord is not intellectually weak, but immensely sharper than the mind that ignores the Lord. Ask yourself if this is how you love the Lord? It is straight from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Himself. Bro. Joe “In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.”
This text is typical of Jesus. He was constantly calling people to Himself. In this case, He invited people who were in Jerusalem during “the Feast of Tabernacles” to come to Him and drink. What Jesus was doing was publicly declaring His purpose for coming to the world. He didn’t come just to perform miracles and do mighty things; rather, He came to call people to Himself. I thought about the implications of this and I want to share with you what I think is the reason Jesus calls us to Himself. Jesus calls us to Himself to save us. At the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem that day Jesus called people to come to Him and drink. You remember that in John 4, when Jesus encountered the woman at the well in Samaria, He spoke to her of “living water.” The prophet Isaiah gave a similar invitation in Isaiah 55:1: “Ho, everyone that is thirsty, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money without price.” This is a prophetic word of what Jesus would offer when He came to earth. The invitation to drink, is the invitation to take the salvation that God offers a sin-thirsty world. Jesus invites us to partake of the salvation that He offers. He paid a great price by dying on the cross to give us the opportunity to drink from the well of salvation. Jesus calls us to Himself to bless us. Here is what He offered in this invitation in John 7:38-39: "He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39. (But He spoke of the Spirit, which they which believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given: because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" When Jesus calls us to Himself, He calls us to partake of the Holy Spirit, who comes into our lives when we are saved. He comes into our lives to empower us, teach us and bless us every day. There are people who will not accept Jesus’ invitation because they think that Jesus will take something from them, but that is not the case at all. Jesus wants to add His blessings to our lives. He wants to bless you. Jesus calls us to Himself to use us. When He called His first disciples Jesus said: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” What we don’t seem to understand is that part of the blessings of Jesus on our lives is the challenge that He gives to us to go out and serve Him. In His prayer in John 17:15, Jesus prayed: “I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil (one)." Jesus didn’t call us to live “other worldly” lives as though other people do not count and do not need Him. He called us to live in this world as a witness to the world of His saving grace. We do this by word of mouth, but we also do it by the lives that we live. If we don’t “walk the walk” it will do no good to “talk the talk.” Jesus wants to use you. Jesus calls us to Himself to live in heaven with Him when this life is over. The promise that Jesus gave in John 14:2-3 to His disciples is a promise to us as well: “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there you may be also.” When you surrender to Jesus to be saved, to be blessed and to be used, you also claim a place in heaven with Jesus forever and ever. If you have accepted this invitation, rejoice. If not take Jesus up on it today. Bro. Joe “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
I read this verse this morning and knew that I would write about it, but I did not know how I would entitle it. The best that I could come up with was “A Loaded Verse.” When we look at the content of it, I think that you will agree that Isaiah 55:7 is, indeed, loaded. Isaiah is full of verses that stand alone and gives some wise advice about living for the Lord. Let me share with you what I found in this “loaded verse.” The first thing that I saw was some sound advice: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” Since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, human beings do not seem to understand the utter futility of sin. The “forbidden fruit” is forever tempting to us and the devil knows it. The devil knows all of our weaknesses and he will give us every opportunity to encounter an occasion for our favorite sins. It seems to be difficult for us to understand the wisdom of forsaking wickedness. We just run headlong into it and the pleasure of it is great, but it deteriorates our witness and our relationship with God. “Unrighteous thoughts” are easy to come by today. We have so many ways to encounter these thoughts. We have television, the internet, movies, etc. All of these are good things and can add joy to our lives, but, like all good things, they have a tendency to appeal to our penchant for the forbidden fruit, enter our thoughts and end up in wicked actions. The sound advice that we are given in this verse is to turn away from those things which would tear us down morally. Life is so much better when we follow this sound advice. The second thing that I saw was some wise counsel. What should we do when we know that our wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts are taking over our lives? The wise counsel here is that we “return unto the Lord,” or we might say “turn to the Lord.” It is always wise counsel to make God a part of all of our decisions. I imagine that you are like I am at times: We know the right things to think and to do, but somehow we surrender to the baser side of ourselves. We have to stay alert to Satan’s ploys in our minds, hearts and actions. It is a good idea to have a friend with whom you can discuss the things that you know are counter to your relationship with God. But that friend cannot do for you what the Lord can do. We actually have two choices when we encounter temptation. The first choice is to go ahead and do the wicked thing and pay the price for it. The second, and best choice, is to turn that moment over to the Lord and let His power help us overcome the temptation. The third thing that I saw was some good news. When we decide that we are going to take the high road, we will find the Lord ready and willing to have mercy upon us and to abundantly pardon us. This is so much better than sinking deeper and deeper into sin. God’s mercy and abundant pardon are illustrated for us by Jesus’ parable by what we call “The Prodigal Son.” When the prodigal returned home, he found that his father was there waiting for him and to abundantly pardon him. If we will turn to God, we will find this same welcome. God loves it when we repent and turn from our wicked ways and thoughts. Think about this sound advice, wise counsel and good news for your own life – and take it! Bro. Joe “The Jews then murmured at him, because He said, I am the bread of life which came down from heaven.”(41) “I am the bread of life.” (48)
Jesus had just fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two small fish. Evidently, the people thought that He would be a good source of food for them. On top of that they tried to make Jesus their king. They misunderstood the purpose of Jesus. They were looking for a king, or a Messiah, who would deliver them from the oppression of the Roman Empire, but His purpose was higher than providing bread and killing Romans. Jesus was thinking of eternity, the Jews were thinking only of the here and now. It is important to point out here that Jesus is not indifferent about the here and now. He did provide for people who had needs, like the people for whom He multiplied the bread and fish. Jesus went about healing people and giving them better lives here and now. He does the same today. Many people have better lives here and now because Jesus has touched their lives. I think that my own life is immensely better because Jesus touched me. We should never think that Jesus is indifferent about lives here and is only concerned about taking us to heaven. Yet, we still need to look beyond this life to find the true purpose of our lives. The eternal life that Jesus gives does not begin in heaven; rather it begins when we take Him into our hearts and lives. Jesus does provide for us in this life, but that is not His only purpose, as He pointed out to those who wanted Him to provide bread for them and deliver them from the Romans. Jesus does not just want to provide physical things for us; He also wants to call us to His service to promote His kingdom on this earth. He called disciples to follow Him. Jesus did not say when He called them that He would be a constant source of earthly provision for them, or that He would overrule the Roman Empire. He called them to be “fishers of men.” They, who were given eternal life, were to invite others into eternal life as well. This is not what the people wanted of Him. They wanted Jesus to be what they wanted Him to be. This attitude has not died. People today hear of a Jesus that does not exist in the New Testament. He came to be our Savior and for us to be His servants, not to take over the world, but to introduce people to the next world. I want you to notice that after the people realized Jesus’ real intentions they were not enthusiastic about Him anymore. Jesus said in John 6:51: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Whoa! Jesus came to sacrifice Himself for the sins of men. The people were not interested in His real purpose. He came as a living sacrifice, and calls us to be living sacrifices. Sadly, we read in verse 66: “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with them.” There you have it: All but Jesus’ real disciples turned away from Him when they realized that He did not come to give them lives of ease, but to call them to live sacrificially. People still aren’t interested in that Jesus. They want a Jesus who provides for them, but makes no demand on their lives. They want a Jesus who smiles on sin, and doesn’t really care how they live. Which Jesus do you want? The only real Jesus is the one who proclaimed Himself to be “the bread of life.” Bro. Joe “The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.”
David had consolidated his strength and had begun to defeat the enemies that had held Israel in bondage during the period of the Judges. In 2 Samuel 8, we are given a look at his victories over the Philistines, the Moabites, Syria, and the Arameans of Damascus, who tried to rescue the Syrian king, Hadadezer. Then this one little line of scripture explains David’s power: “The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.” Don’t misunderstand what I am about to write about David, for he was a courageous man who had great faith in the Lord, as we saw when he defeated Goliath when he was only a boy. But David gave credit to the Lord for his victories. Why did the Lord give “David victory wherever he went”? David knew that his strength came from the Lord. David had no illusions about his own power. David knew that he was a strong man, and that he was a celebrated figure to the Israelites. But he also knew that his personality and personal strength were not enough to give him the victories that he won. Here is what David said to Goliath just before he defeated him: “Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day will the Lord deliver you into my hand; and I will smite you, and take your head from you…” (1 Samuel 17:45-46a) I think you get the point: David depended on the Lord for the victory not on his own strength. This should be a lesson to us that when we serve the Lord in any capacity, we need to depend on his strength and not our own. This does not mean that we should not use all of the talents and gifts that God has given us, but ultimately, the victory belongs to the Lord. Thinking about this theme, let’s go forward in the Bible a few hundred years to the time of Jesus. Jesus told his disciples about His coming demise in Jerusalem. Simon Peter told Jesus that he would defend Him at any cost. You will remember that Jesus told Peter that, not only would he fail to defend Him, but that he would deny Him as well. This is exactly what happened. Peter had to learn the lesson that David had learned, i.e., that we cannot depend on our own strength if we want to be successful warriors for the Lord. I think that Simon Peter drew on that experience a lot as he lived out his life in Christ. He was reminded, as we should remind ourselves, that real strength comes from the Lord. Again, this does not mean that we should not use the gifts and talents that God has given us, but it does mean that our gifts and talents alone are not enough to be successful in serving God. Now, think about your own service for the Lord. I don’t know what your God-given talents and gifts are, but I do know that they were given to you by God. If you are wise, you have honed those God-given skills in order to be the most effective servant that you can be. But whatever God wants to use you to do, whether in your church or in your community, you won't be effective if you depend on your gifts and talents alone. No matter what you do for the Lord, sing in the choir, teach a Sunday School class, minister to people in a nursing home, preach the gospel, whatever, you need to depend on the strength of the Lord if you want to succeed in what you do. And when success comes, have the humility to give God the credit, because you could not have done it without Him. Whatever you do today, remember this: “The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.” “And I say unto you, Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”
The point of Luke 11:9 is that we need to persevere in prayer. We have the idea that when we pray, we should expect God to immediately give us what we pray for. Sometimes He does, but what He wants us to do is pray and keep on praying. There is no such thing as “amen” in our prayer lives. It is a never-ending joy and privilege that God has given us. What does Luke 11:9 teach us about perseverance in prayer? It tells us to ask. James wrote in James 4:2b: “You have not because you ask not.” Sometimes we fret and worry and get all tied up in knots because we forget the simple thing of asking God. There are other times when we ask, but we ask with wrong motives and God knows that we do not need what we asked for. Here is what James wrote about it in James 4:3: “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lust.” This is also translated: “so that you may spend it upon your pleasures.” We need to weigh our motives for asking for whatever we think we need. God knows our hearts and He knows our real needs, and He answers our prayers based on what He knows we really need. Anyway, we are told to ask, and the idea is to keep on asking. I have heard people say that we need to ask one time and stop asking for that particular thing. I haven’t found that to be true in my life. It tells us to seek. I know what “seek” means, but to be more precise I decided to look it up in the dictionary. It means to “search, inquire, to endeavor.” This is where perseverance comes in. When we ask and seek it means that we are endeavoring to realize God’s answers to our prayers. Sometimes this can mean that while we pray, we are endeavoring to find out what God wants us to do in answer to our prayers. When we pray and seek it is important that we seek that which will be productive in our lives. It is this kind of praying and seeking that will keep us from straying from what God really wants of us. One of the most important elements of prayer is to find out what it is that God wants us to do – and then do it. It tells us to knock. When I read this, I thought of the word “opportunity.” It is in praying, seeking and knocking that we discover the great opportunities for our lives, meaning the opportunities that God wants to give us. In Acts 16, Paul wanted to go into a place called “Bithynia,” but the Holy Spirit didn’t let he and his party go there. In Acts 16:9, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia, who said: “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” In other words the real opportunity that Paul had was in Macedonia. He went to Macedonia and opened up a whole new frontier of missions in Corinth and Greece. I think that Paul grasped this opportunity because he asked God for His guidance, he sought what it was that God wanted him to do, and he kept knocking in prayer until he got an answer. When God closes a door, it is because He has something better and more productive for us. Grasp the real significance of Luke 11:9 for your own prayer life. Bro. Joe “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. 6. For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
In this world, change is one thing that we can count on. Things change around us all of the time. If you have a difficult time believing this, look at some pictures from your younger days, and then look in the mirror. You cannot do this and tell me that nothing has changed. You can probably look around you at the town in which you live and see a lot of changes there in the past ten or twenty years. We can depend on change and sometimes this is good and sometimes it is bad. But there is One who never changes and that is God. He told Malachi: “I am the Lord, I change not….”Let’s look at some important ways in which He has not changed. God has not changed in his view of sin: He still hates it. If you listen to some people, sin is no big deal to God. Read verse 5, written above, and look at the short list of sins. Of course, that is not an exhaustive list of sins, but it does reveal some things that we need to be careful about. Also, there are no big sins and little sins where God is concerned. We might think that because we have not murdered anyone, we have not done anything to displease God. But have we lied? Have we hated another person? Have we been filled with false pride? Have we failed to do the things that God would have us do. God punished Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. After David’s sin with Bathsheba and the other sins that accompanied that, he was never the same again. He paid for his sins. The whole nation of Israel is an example of God’s feelings about the sin of disobedience. This nation gave up a great deal because of the sin of disobedience. Do not let anyone tell you that because this is the twenty-first century, God does not still hate sin. God has not changed in His love for the world. John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…” Isn’t it comforting to know that the God who hates sin has made it possible for us to overcome the main thing that He hates? If a person does not go to heaven, it will not be God’s fault, because out of His love and grace, He has made it possible for people to be saved through His Son. I know that a lot of people, mostly unbelievers, have a difficult time with the fact that the God who hates sin also loves the sinner. Get this down: GOD DOES NOT HATE PEOPLE. He longs for those who do not know His Son to turn to Him in repentance and faith. Look at Malachi 3:6: “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.” If God had changed from His covenant with Abraham, the “sons of Jacob” would have been consumed. It was because of God’s great love, mercy and grace that we could be saved. That hope is held out to all who will come to Jesus. God has not changed in His desire to forgive people for their sins. God is not overlooking sin today. He has already judged sin. If God declares something as sin in His word, then it is still sin today. We do not have the power to overturn God’s judgment. People overcome sin by falling on God’s forgiveness in true repentance and faith. God’s longing to forgive us has not changed. He also forgives us when we sin after we believe on His Son. You can depend on the fact that God will forgive your sins. God has not changed, but He wants to change us, and has made the way through Christ. Bro. Joe “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is filled with promises of God’s provision. For example, throughout the Israelite’s trek in the desert after their escape from Egypt, God provided for all of their needs, to the point that at the end of it, their footwear, whatever that was, was not worn out, nor was their clothing. He supplied manna each morning for their sustenance and provided quails for them at one point. Then we come to the New Testament, and we find a promise of God’s provision. After all, God’s providence had a good history to that point, and Paul promised that God would still provide for His people. Paul wrote: “My God shall supply…” After All He is God and everything ultimately belongs to Him. When we go to Him we can draw from an abundant supply. Psalm 24:1 tells us that: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, and they that dwell therein.” We are also told in Psalm 50:9-12: “I will take no bullock out of your house, nor he goats out of your fold. 10. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills, 11. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. 12. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullnes thereof.” The promise in Philippians 4:19 draws from that supply and from the supply of His riches in glory.” (more on this later) Notice that Paul wrote “my God shall supply…” Paul wrote with confidence, “My God shall supply,” because Paul himself had lived off of that supply. Furthermore, Paul wrote: “My God shall supply all your need…” We do not like to think of ourselves as needy, but in reality we are all needy to a certain extent. I know that in wealthy America we have a standard of living that no one has ever had in history. Think about it: We have air-conditioning, and we have entertainment twenty-four hours a day via television, Netflix, movies, etc. We have access to literature that is unparalleled in history. Don’t you know that Socrates and Plato would have loved having libraries like we have today? We have all of this, and more, yet we are needy in so many different ways. Then Paul wrote: “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory…” We have plenty of the world’s resources, but we are severely lacking in God’s “riches in glory…” For example, we have access to Bibles like no one in the world. In fact, in a good part of the world people cannot even own Bibles. Think of the riches that God provides in His word, yet we let His word gather dust on a shelf, while we go about doing what we really want to do. We have the riches of God that money cannot buy. To make a long story short, Jesus referred to this as “abundant life.” The world cannot give these riches, they come only from God. Finally Paul wrote: “My God shall supply all your needs, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” It is through Christ that we receive the great blessings of God. The greatest thing that the Father offers us through Christ Jesus is salvation from sin, which provides abundant life here, and eternal life in heaven. Paul wrote that all of God’s promises are “yes” in Christ Jesus. On top of all of that, He provides those who trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord with the Holy Spirit, who makes it possible for us to live the Christian life in this world. Partake of the abundance that only Christ can give and rejoice!!! Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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