Apr 25, 2023
God’s ways seem paradoxical to the human mind. He says, “To live, you must die. To find your life, you must lose it. To become strong, you must first become weak.”
One of the greatest paradoxes of all is this: To be truly free, you must become bound. To gain the greatest liberty in God, one must give up all rights and become a lifelong bondservant to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a glorious servanthood that leads to the highest form of freedom. It is a voluntary surrender born out of love and affection, causing one to consider servitude even greater than liberty.
In a time when God’s people are obsessed with claiming their rights, taken with the Lord’s blessings and benefits, it would profit us all to allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to a place in God beyond anything we’ve yet discovered. It is in perfect divine order to receive all the good things from the hand of God, and no child of the Lord should feel guilty about the blessings and benefits poured upon him.
Yet we need to see there is something better than blessings and prosperity, something far more rewarding than all the other manifold benefits he daily gives us.
A bondservant is one who has entered a sacrament of service with his master. It is beautifully described in the following Scripture: “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. …But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master… I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever” (Exodus 21:2-6, NKJV).
This is a picture of God’s concern for servants, but it also clearly portrays in type and shadow the bondservants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the master in this account, and we are the servants whose freedom has been purchased. The cross is God’s Sabbath, the year of release for all prisoners, captives, slaves and servants, and we who were sold under the Law have been set free by grace! We are freed from sin, yet bondservants to Christ, all our days, by choice.
Apr 24, 2023
One of our directors recently went to Turkey to check on our partners who have been affected by the terrible earthquake there. Let me say from personal experience, when you see devastation like what they are currently living in, the overwhelming human loss and suffering, there are images and memories that will never leave you.
You hardly need me to tell you that there is much suffering in the world, though. Everyone has been touched by anguish in some way. Whole books have been written on this single topic. It would be impossible to touch on every aspect of such a complex subject, but I wanted to reflect for a moment on those who suffer because of circumstances outside their control. Their pain doesn’t come as the consequences of their own sin or from others sinning against them; it’s simply from living in a fallen world.
Like Jesus’ disciples, though, we can be tempted to offer simple answers for pain. Like them, we ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” I believe God’s response to us is the same as it was to his disciples. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:2-3, ESV). Sometimes we can suffer in ways that have nothing to do with our sins, like with natural disasters; but God still has a purpose for pain.
This is why Peter later wrote, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Pain can rock us to our core. It can prompt us to harden our hearts to protect ourselves. Sometimes, it can shake us to the point of jettisoning our faith. Let nothing I say trivialize the magnitude of suffering.
However, suffering is never neutral. It will either draw us closer to God or harden us to his voice. As Charles Spurgeon said, “The same sun which melts wax hardens clay.” We can suffer well if we invite Christ into our pain and lives.
Apr 21, 2023
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV). We become what we observe! The focus of our attention spreads its influence all through our lives. What we behold with our spiritual eyes obsesses us; it takes over.
Paul chose to be obsessed with Christ; the Savior became the sole object of his thinking, preaching and doctrine. “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). He kept his eyes on the Jesus as the head of the body and not on the problems in the body.
God’s desire for us is that we be clothed with Christ’s presence. Do you want victory over sin and deliverance from all the power of the enemy? Diligently pray for a manifestation of Christ’s presence. If you are serious about it, his loving eyes will melt you and bring you to a place of brokenness and contrition.
That same tender presence of the Lord will become the very heart and life of your soul. You will not want to leave his presence. You will lean on his arm and all fear will go, replaced by perfect peace and rest. You can face sin and Satan while clothed in the glorious power of Christ’s presence. God’s Word promises, “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels” (Revelation 3:5).
The church goes into the last days as “a woman clothed with the sun…” (see Revelation 12:1). This is Christ, our white raiment! We have put on Christ and are abiding in his presence above all principalities and powers. You will be above it all and, like Stephen, you will behold him in heaven (see Acts 7:56).
It really is not complicated. In fact, it can be summed up in four words: Stay close to Jesus. Live in his presence and by faith take your seat beside him in heavenly places. Behold him standing at the right hand of the Father on your behalf and nothing can hinder you.
Apr 20, 2023
The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin; it is our atonement. First of all, it is our security. It is God’s way of securing to himself a people ready for a full deliverance. Remember that on the night of the Passover the Israelites were safe but not yet delivered. They still had to face a Red Sea, a wilderness, warfare with giants, imposing walls and enemy strongholds.
I am convinced that before I can do battle against principalities and powers, before I can resist the lust and temptations that are our modern giants, I must have the knowledge that under the blood I am secure. Though I am not yet fully delivered, I am out of judgment. The fleshly enemies loom ahead, but the blood has made me a confident soldier.
You cannot pull down strongholds or stand against overwhelming odds unless there is an assurance of absolute security under the blood. No matter what my heart says, no matter how guilty or condemned I feel, no matter what whispering voices I hear, I must know beyond a shadow of doubt that I am safe. I am not going to judgment because the blood on the door of my heart secures me in God’s sight.
If God based our security on our love for him or on personal goodness, we would be in more danger than those who broke the law, for under grace there is a higher claim. God must take security out of our hands so that it stands on his pure mercy and grace alone, not our devotion, our obedience or our goodness.
It was not the unleavened bread that saved the children of Israel but the blood. Not one Israelite moved “in and out” of safety because of some personal fault. They were all safe until judgment had passed. Obedience was to apply the blood to the doorpost. We are called to confess and trust Christ’s redeeming blood. Obedience and devotion are the results when we recognize how safely we are held in the Father’s hands.
God never intended for his children to live in fear. He prepared a rest for them, the perfect, absolute security of the blood of his own dear Son. The apostle Paul states, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Romans 5:9). The inalterable fact is that not one thing can be added to Christ’s blood to make us more secure! The blood perfectly shelters us, makes us acceptable to God and saves us from wrath.
Apr 17, 2023
Paul wrote two moving and fascinating passages that I want to look at here. “You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first” (Galatians 4:13, ESV). “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this [thorn], that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12.8-9).
The apostle Paul, man of God, power preacher, church planter, author of two-thirds of the New Testament, was also a person suffering terribly from what is pictured in the Bible as a thorn in the flesh. What could it be? For two millennia, theologians have remained divided on the exact manner of this infirmity. Was it a physical disability, an emotional problem, a spiritual problem? Was it chronic depression or medical issues caused by intense persecution? We will probably never know.
However, I would like to suggest that the nature of Paul’s thorn in the flesh was deliberately left vague. That way, we can consider our own major challenges and make God’s promises our own. The ‘thorn’ represents the father who has inherited a generational vulnerability to alcohol or other addictive substances. It is the mother who grew up in a home where depression reigned and who worries that she’s also at risk. It is the stroke that sweeps away a parent’s autonomy in an instant and upsets the balance of an entire family. It is sterility for a young couple. This is the eating disorder of a young teenager. These are panic attacks. It is the illness of a young child that blurs the future of a family. It is the rebellion of a young adult that undermines the hearts of his parents. It is the abuses of childhood that haunt your adult life.
Personalize it: my thorn in the flesh is __________. Take up the promise that God gave Paul! “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God revealed to Paul, and to each one of us, that he is not limited by our faults, struggles or wounds. On the contrary, he will use our thorns to glorify himself and accomplish his plans for our lives and loved ones.
Apr 14, 2023
The Holy Spirit gave David the key to deliverance from his sorrows. David could say, “The reason God delivered me is that I am precious to him. My God delights in me!”
“He also brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me because he delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19, NKJV).
In Song of Solomon, the Lord says of his bride, “How fair and how pleasant you are, O love, with your delights” (Song of Solomon 7:6)! In turn, the bride boasts, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me” (Song of Solomon 7:10). These same thoughts are also found throughout the psalms. “For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he will beautify the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4).
You may think “That’s sweet, but it’s only a lovely concept.” No, this truth is much more than that. It is the key to your deliverance from every battle that rages in your soul. Until you lay hold of it, you won’t be able to withstand the trials of life.
Isaiah wrote of God’s great delight in us. “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you’” (Isaiah 43:1-2).
Isaiah wasn’t talking about literal natural disasters. He was referring to what we go through spiritually and mentally. These were all Satan’s attempts to overwhelm and destroy God’s people. Isaiah’s words were a message of mercy to Israel. The people were in captivity because of their own stupidity and foolishness, but God sent them a brokenhearted prophet who said, “You belong to God.”
The Lord does not always calm the waters, but he does promise this: “I will walk with you through it all. This trial or circumstance will not destroy you. Walk on! You’ll come out on the other side with me beside you.”
