Memorials
In Joshua 4, God ordered that twelve stones were to be taken from the midst of the Jordan River bed as the Israelites crossed through, God having parted the waters for their passage on dry land, to be set up at Gilgal for a memorial for future generations. When their children would inquire as to the meaning of these stones, they were to tell them how God had parted the waters for Israel to pass over. “That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever.” Joshua 4:24
Genesis 6:3 refers to the work of God’s Spirit striving with man. 1 Peter 3:19-20 speaks of God preaching unto spirits in prison with longsuffering in the days of Noah. For anything to be undertaken, there has to be a starting point. This is where the testimony of a Christian life (1 Peter 3:1-2), Christian convictions being maintained in an ungodly time (Matthew 5:13), and Christian testimony in word and deed (Matthew 5:15-16) become starting points for the Holy Spirit to work with upon the hearts and minds of lost people. We must not concede Godliness to appease an ungodly world. If so, we have lost our salt and quenched the light. “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14
Christmas-time still affords a memorial for the Spirit of God to use to strive with the hearts of men. I have learned that rather than critique the excess of the season, it is best to raise up the testimony of the truth of the season. Give the Holy Spirit a testimony to use to strive with mankind. As people focus on the truth, error will be diminished. Christmas is still a memorial in our society that makes an allowance for Christ in the thinking of people.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11
SHARING
Have You Thanked Him Lately?
“The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” Psalm 34:17
“And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel” 1 Chronicles 21:1. Satan is the author of sin. Put any sin under a microscope and you will see Satan’s virus. It is very hard to keep Satan’s hand off the scales of our lives. No matter what or when, he seems to sneak in as a little fox to spoil the vines.
But thank God, we have One who knows what the Devil is up to all the time! And as a loving Father, “He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust” Psalm 103:14.
The greatest indebtedness we have with God, is that He has redeemed us from our sins. Remember, it is our own sins we must be redeemed from or we will perish. The second indebtedness is that God redeems us from our transgressions against our brethren. There is no one who doesn’t owe God big time on this one. And the third and least of the three is that God delivers us out of the troubles that others cause for us. While we usually make the biggest fuss over someone else’s transgression against us, it is the least of the transgressions that we should be concerned about. In terms of my sins against God, the transgressions of others against me is pittance.
In view of the magnitude of our own transgressions against God, dwarfing the transgressions of others against us, we have the great teaching of Matthew 18:21-35. We might be inclined to forgive our brother or sister if they do us wrong on an occasion. But if two or three things happen to us, we begin to think of ourselves as a martyr that has become everyone’s fair game, that there is some great conspiracy out to get us, and that we are being abused beyond what Christian fellowship should tolerate.
Brethren and sisters, please observe the discourse between Christ and Peter on this painful subject, Matthew 18:21-22 “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Apparently they had problems back then, too! JESUS SAID, not seven times, not seventy times, but seventy times seven, which is FOUR HUNDRED NINETY! WOW! This is the standard of Christian fellowship! This is what makes enduring Christian fellowship. And may I point out, this is what gives the needed depth to Christian fellowship. For it takes the grace of God working in our hearts to mortify fleshly passions and tempers, unto finding real spiritual grounds to respond to our brethren on these certain occasions as God responds to us on a regular basis in forgiving us our sins. Unless we follow Christ in doing this, we will not find a fellowship that is deep enough with our Christian brethren, but we will just be constantly uprooted by the winds and waves of human relations (imperfection). Aren’t you glad Christ forgives us more often than seventy times seven?
Christ requires that we forgive our brethren–“But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespass.” Mark 11:26 If we don’t do this, we are making a lot of trouble for ourselves and everyone else! Just as we can appreciate how essential God’s forgiveness of our sins is, we must appreciate how necessary and meaningful our forgiveness of our brethren is unto the cause of Christ. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:35
THANK GOD FOR HIS FORGIVENESS BY FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER!
SHARINGHE IS
HE IS the first and last, the beginning and the end!
HE IS the keeper of creation and the Creator of all!
HE IS the architect of the universe and the manager of all times.
HE ALWAYS WAS, HE ALWAYS IS, and HE ALWAYS WILL BE…unmoved, unchanged, undefeated, and never undone!
HE WAS bruised and brought healing!
HE WAS pierced and eased pain!
HE WAS persecuted and brought freedom!
HE WAS dead and brought life!
HE IS risen and brings power!
HE reigns and brings peace!
The world can’t understand HIM,
The armies can’t defeat HIM,
The schools can’t explain HIM, and
The leaders can’t ignore HIM.
Herod couldn’t kill HIM,
The Pharisees couldn’t confuse HIM, and
The people couldn’t hold HIM!
Nero couldn’t crush HIM,
Hitler couldn’t silence HIM,
The new age can’t replace HIM, and
Doubters can’t explain HIM away!
HE IS light, love, longevity, and LORD.
HE IS goodness, kindness, gentleness, and GOD.
HE IS holy, righteous, mighty, powerful, and pure.
HIS ways are right,
HIS word is eternal,
HIS will unchanging, and
HIS mind is on me!
HE IS my Redeemer,
HE IS my Saviour,
HE IS my guide, and
HE IS my peace!
HE IS my joy,
HE IS my comfort,
HE IS my LORD, and
HE rules my life!
I serve HIM because HIS bond is love, HIS burden is light, and HIS goal for me is abundant life!
Charity, The More Excellent Way
1 Corinthians 12:31-14:1
The argument is that wonderful as a “way” is that is enriched by miracles and healings and tongues, a walk with God, in the energy of the nature of God–that is, love–is much more wonderful, and very much more to be desired. Love is conformity to the nature of God–the expression of what He is.
Love acts in benevolence to others; it is the opposite of selfishness. It has its source within. It is not moved fundamentally by circumstances. Its strength is independent of outward things–even of the objects which it blesses. Thus it can bless men in circumstances which usually produce irritation or jealousy. It acts according to its own nature, for love is its own motive.
It feeds others, not itself; hence the first eight qualities of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-5) express renunciation of self. Where love is, reality is; it never changes; it is always itself.
Miracles, like childhood, pass away, but love never does. A man may possess all “gifts”, but if destitute of this Divine Nature, he is a stranger to God and to grace. For gift is not grace. Balaam was a gifted man, but he was by choice an enemy of the truth.
Miracles, healings, and tongues characterize childhood, but love and preaching characterize manhood (1 Corinthians 14:1). Love saw nothing in these miraculous powers, but instruments to be used for the good of others and not for the gratification of self, or for the promotion of self-importance. The great things that love aims at is the profit of others; hence the importance of preaching, for it edifies, encourages, and comforts.
But in Corinth, as today in Christendom, men exercised spiritual gifts for their own selfish enjoyment, or in order to attract the admiration of others unto themselves. This is selfish vanity, rather than love.
The God of all grace may not withdraw the gifts from those who use them unworthily, but this by no means indicates He approves of how they are being used. God blessed Solomon in measures far above the usual. But in the end, Solomon did not use what God had given him to glorify the Lord. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25) reveals that the giving of gifts do not guarantee those who receive them will, or are, using them for the God intended purpose. But in the judgment, all the gifted will be judged as to whether they used their gifts for the God intended purpose.
SHARINGJudging Ourselves
“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:31-32
It is very hard to undertake the task of being our own judge. I said undertake, not do. For the doing of it, if we undertake it, will have God’s blessings. Plus, we know more about ourselves, thus we have the greatest ability to undertake this noble effort.
Good character is the product of being objective minded about ourselves. For it is through wanting to see ourselves as we really are, versus what we should be, that we become able to recognize needed changes on our part. To care not to prove ourselves, leaves us lopsided, one-sided, and blinded to what we really are.
God’s challenge to judge ourselves is not to shame us, but to perfect us. A good navigator is constantly checking his instruments to make sure he is on course. A good builder checks everything he puts together to assure the measurements are correct. Steering wheels are put on cars so as to constantly correct the course of the vehicle. Should a navigator, builder, or driver resent and resist the “check and correct” process because they see it as an affront to them personally, they are headed for disaster.
God’s challenge is to judge ourselves when things are going good, as well as when things are bad. For the most part, when we are comfortable with ourselves the way we are, that is when we are most likely to be distracted from where we should be. It is easier to build a wall to separate ourselves from our problem than it is to resolve our problem, but then to solve the problem, we have to tear the wall down again.
In judging ourselves, we take everything, whether we are comfortable with it or not, and say, “Is this really the way it should be?” The church at Ephesus, in Revelation 2:1-7, was very comfortable in their unconcerned state. Human nature is very comfortable with the state of having sinned and come short of the glory of God. But we must address the issue, “Is this the way it is supposed to be?”
God wants us to accept the responsibility for “what should be”. He will judge us if we fail to do this. Our testimony, and thus our over all life, is measured by what should be. Simply put, to ignore what should be, testifies that what we are doing is not the way it should be.
SHARING
