Tag: Speaking about our faith

Spiritual Perception:”The Word of the Lord Was All Too Rare in Those Days.” 1 Samuel 3:1-10

1 Samuel 3:1-10 Amplified Bible

The Prophetic Call to Samuel

3 Now the boy Samuel was attending to the service of the Lord [a]under the supervision of Eli. The word of the Lord was rare and precious in those days; visions [that is, new revelations of divine truth] were not widespread.

2 Yet it happened at that time, as Eli was lying down in his own place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well). 3 and the [oil] lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, 4 that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.” 5 He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call you; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. 6 Then the Lord called yet again, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli answered, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7 Now Samuel did not yet know [or personally experience] the  Lord, and the word of the Lord the third time. And he stood and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you did call me.” Then Eli understood that it was the Lord [who was] calling the boy. 9 So Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and it shall be that if He calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 Then the Lord came and stood and called as at the previous times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

The Word of the Lord was TOO Rare in Those Days …

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “I wish God talked to us the way He spoke to His people in the Old Testament”?

Many times, Scripture describes God speaking to His people through a voice or an angel or through a dream. He even writes on a wall in one account (Daniel 5).

So it’s natural to want to hear God’s voice or see a big sign that will help you feel confident in God’s direction.

We all experience confusing circumstances.

Sometimes you may just want God to send you a text message to tell you what to do.

Maybe you feel far from God and want Him to reach out to reassure you He’s still there.

Maybe you’ve heard people say the God of the Bible is personal, but you have never interacted with God before and wonder how to begin.

He is the same God today that He was in the time of the Old Testament.

He still speaks to us today.

He made it possible for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him, which involves talking together every day.

He communicates with us. 

1 Samuel 3:1 English Standard Version

The Lord Calls Samuel

3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

The Word of the Lord was “rare” in those most ancient days.

In the period of time between the words of the Prophet of Malachi to the New Testament Gospel Narratives and Apostolic writings of Paul and Peter, James, Jude and John, Hebrews, some 400 years had passed without a Word from God.

How frequently do we recall Jesus using the words: “He who has ears let them hear?” [Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 15, 16, 43, Mark 4:9, 23, 7:33, 35, 8:18, Luke 8:8, 9:44, 14:35]

I also recall this verse from Luke 1:44 when Elizabeth uttered the words to her cousin Mary: “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” and we preach it: “how miraculous was that?”

It begs the question, how rare is the Word of the Lord in contemporary times?

Could it be that one too many of us have just never learned how to recognize His voice, have we gotten confused or have we forgotten how we heard in the past?

The young Samuel was confused and unsure of who he was hearing calling him.

He “clearly” heard a voice and thought it was his mentor, Eli, calling for him.

He kept going to Eli’s room until even the aged, tired, and confused, and nearly blind Eli finally realized that the voice was God trying to get Samuel’s attention.

Hearing and listening for God, hearing and listening to God, is an important life skill for us to remember to give our full attention to for our God is never silent.

We live in a divisive noisy, politically correct “woke” culture that often speaks in ways which are considerably devastating and utterly contrary to God’s voice.

It can be difficult to hear God if we are more in tune with the voice of this world.

As we listen for God, we will be more in tune with his leading in our lives.

Listening, Samuel “Heard!”

1 Samuel 3:9-10 New American Standard Bible

9 And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 Then the Lord came and stood, and called as at the other times: “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”

Hannah had named her son Samuel, which means “heard by God.”

When he was weaned, she brought him to Shiloh to present him to Eli the priest for uniquely specialized training as a spiritual leader of God’s people Israel.

God called on Samuel to listen to and bring the word of the Lord to his people.

God wanted Samuel to dedicate his life to this service.

Samuel became a prophet, and he led Israel in that role for sixty years as Israel moved from a loosely organized group of clans to a peaceful monarchy ruled by King David, an ancestor of Jesus Christ.

We live under the peaceful reign of the voice of one true, good, just King today.

“Peace on earth,” the angels sang to shepherds watching their flocks on the night that King Jesus was born (Luke 2:14).

Our Advent and Lenten peace is found in the birth of this child, who grew up to establish, by dying, the kingdom of peace over all on whom God’s favor rests.

Do you know this voice of peace?

Do you hear this voice of peace?

Are you listening for this voice of peace?

Are we paying any meaningful attention to this voice of peace?

Are we giving any meaningful thought towards this voice of peace?

Ask Jesus to rule in your heart and life, and He will welcome you into his kingdom of peace.

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can rest in true peace because we know he is our King and in control of all that happens in the world and our lives.

This is a peace not “as the world gives” (John 14:27); it is God’s peace, “which transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

Eli mentored Samuel by teaching him how to daily worship God, and how to respond to God’s voice: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”—in other words, “I am ready to hear what you have to say, and I am ready to obey!”

How Rare is the Word of God in These Days?

God speaks to us in many ways.

He speaks through creation, giving testimony to his faithfulness and creativity. [Psalm 19]

He speaks through his Word, where we come to understand his salvation and purpose for us.

He speaks through wise mentors in our lives.

He speaks through life situations, opening and closing doors.

God speaks by his Holy Spirit, equipping us with gifts and passions to use for service in his kingdom.

Are we listening?

Are we listening?

Do we even care if there is a voice of God speaking to us today?

Why should we care if there is a voice of God speaking to us today?

How are we listening, hearing, experiencing God’s leading in your life?

Are you and I numbed to hearing, listening attentively for God’s voice?

So in a world full of noise and distraction, should we care if God speaks?

Does it matter one iota whether or not God speaks to us if we take one long, view of the world versus God, to say: “how miraculous would that truly be?”

Do we actually desire, want or need “God’s miraculous voice” speaking to us?

So in a world full of noise and distraction, how does God actually speak to us?

So with many questions, how ought we to “miraculously” respond back to God?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 19 The Message

19 1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
    God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
    Professor Night lectures each evening.

3-4 Their words aren’t heard,
    their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
    unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.

4-5 God makes a huge dome
    for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
    leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
    racing to the tape.

6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
    from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
    warming hearts to faith.

7-9 The revelation of God is whole
    and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
    and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
    showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
    and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
    with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
    down to the nth degree.

10 God’s Word is better than a diamond,
    better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
    better than red, ripe strawberries.

11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
    and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
    Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
    Keep me from stupid sins,
    from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
    scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
    these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
    on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
    God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia! Amen.

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Loved by and Belonging to God, the Giver of Law and the Giver of Liberty. Exodus 20:1-2

Exodus 20:1-2 Complete Jewish Bible

20 Then God said all these words:

א 2 “I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

The Ten Commandments are some of the most recognizable words in the entire Biblical Canon, yet they are often among the most misunderstood.

How has the coming of Jesus transformed these ancient laws?

Do these commandments still matter to Christians today in 2023?

What does it look like to obey them in today’s world?

What do they tell us about God and His Love for His beloved Children?

In this devotional message we see in verses 1-2 three truths about the Law: it’s given by God, it follows the Gospel, and it’s the path of freedom.

Loved By and Belonging to God

Adonai, The Lord who claims our allegiance is God, our Creator and Savior.

God delivered Israel when he brought them out of Egypt.

They had been slaves there for hundreds of years.

Faithful to his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:13-21; Exodus 3), God called this people his own and continued his work of making them into a nation through which all other nations would be blessed.

Then, many years later, through Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, God brought salvation to the world—and today God includes all who believe in Christ as his people, his worldwide family.

So if we believe in our Savior Christ, we belong to God, and we are His alone.

1 Peter 2:9-10 Complete Jewish Bible

9 But you are a chosen people,[a] the King’s cohanim,[b] a holy nation,[c] a people for God to possess![d] Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; before, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.[e]

1 Peter 2 puts it, we are a holy nation set apart to be “God’s special possession.”

From the beginning, it was love that created us and has bound us to God.

And since our relationship with God is based on love, God’s law is not a burden but a means of unconventional liberty towards showing love to our neighbors.

God, The Giver of Law and Liberty

Exodus 20:1-2King James Version

20 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

To faithfully read and respond to the Ten Commandments, we must first make a diligent effort to pray and study them, understand what they are and are not.

We find clarity in the truth that lies at their head: “I am the LORD your God.”

This poignant reminder of who God is precedes the instructions that follow.

In other words, the I am of God’s person grounds the you shall of His commands.

He can command us because of who He is.

The psalmist further expresses this:

“Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his” (Psalm 100:3).

God created us, and His being our Creator grants Him rights and authority over His creation.

Regardless of the efforts of our world to reject the creational handiwork of God, thus His authority over our lives, His role as our Ruler remains unthreatened.

He has made us; we are His.

When we should remember who spoke the law, we are in a position to grasp the purpose of the Ten Commandments as well as to understand what they are not.

First, the commandments are not a formal list of dos and don’ts given to restrict our personal freedoms.

God is NOT the Ultimate Cosmic Killjoy

God is not the Ultimate cosmic killjoy.

In fact, if you wanted to provide a heading for the Ten Commandments, you could instead call them “The Ultimate Guidelines to Freedom and Joy.”

They do not restrict our freedom but rather give us a blueprint for joy, showing us how life works best.

Second, the commandments are not intended as a ladder up which we climb to attain acceptance with God.

No such ladder has ever existed!

God brought His people out of slavery—from Egypt in the exodus, and from sin and death at the cross—before He called us to obey Him.

So we obey God because we have been “brought out by God,” not in order for us to somehow believe we could ever persuade Him to do so on our own time line.

If that were the case, why then did the bondage last as long as it did despite all the years of crying, pleading by the generations of Israelites held in bondage?

Until Moses had been prepared by 80 years of life at the pinnacle of authority, then at the bottom of authority for His “Burning Bush” encounter with God.

Rather than being rules that save us, the Ten Commandments serve as a mirror in which we should see ourselves, revealing the depths of our sin and our need for a Savior—and they show how we can all live every day to please our Savior.

Third, the Ten Commandments have not been rendered anywhere near obsolete by the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When Jesus said the two greatest commandments were to love God and love our neighbor, He was summarizing the Ten Commandments (Mark 12:28-31 AKJV).

28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

What does it mean to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength?

The first four commandments tell us. [Exodus 20 verses 3-11]

What does it look like to love our neighbor as ourselves?

The final six commandments flesh that out. [Exodus 20 verses 12-17]

Jesus, master teacher that He was, summed up the ten with the two.

When we see all this, we are ready to read the Ten Commandments and let them transform our lives.

We must see the sin that the commandments reveal and respond in repentance and faith in the only One who fulfilled the law and offers Himself as our Savior.

He, the Lord Jesus Christ, will ensure that this law is not merely etched into our conscience but also inscribed upon our hearts and upon our souls.

Give yourselves unto the Lord our God and His way, and His Truth and His Life you and I will find everlasting love, everlasting joy and His everlasting liberty.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit …

Let us Pray,

Psalm 40The Message

40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
    At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
    pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
    to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
    a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
    they enter the mystery,
    abandoning themselves to God.

4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
    turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
    ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
    compares to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
    and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
    account for you.

6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
    that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
    that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
    so I can listen.

7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming.
    I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
    you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
    became part of my very being.

9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
    let the congregation know the whole story.

11-12 Now God, don’t hold out on me,
    don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
    are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
    a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
    I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
    so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.

13-15 Soften up, God, and intervene;
    hurry and get me some help,
So those who are trying to kidnap my soul
    will be embarrassed and lose face,
So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable
    will be heckled and disgraced,
So those who pray for my ruin
    will be booed and jeered without mercy.

16-17 But all who are hunting for you—
    oh, let them sing and be happy.
Let those who know what you’re all about
    tell the world you’re great and not quitting.
And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing:
    make something of me.
You can do it; you’ve got what it takes—
    but God, don’t put it off.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen

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Psalm 46 Be Still and Ponder Upon the Importance of How We Each View God.

Psalm 46 Amplified Bible

God the Refuge of His People.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to soprano voices. A Song.

46 God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable],
A very present and well-proved help in trouble.
2 
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas,
3 
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains tremble at its roaring. Selah.

4 
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
5 
God is in the midst of her [His city], she will not be moved;
God will help her when the morning dawns.
6 
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered and were moved;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.
7 
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

8 
Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has brought desolations and wonders on the earth.
9 
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
10 
“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

Be Still and Know that I Am God.

We will tend to believe of being “busy” as something positive—something of a measure of our true success in life, maybe even a compliment—especially when we consider the negative implications of its opposites, being “idle” or “lazy.”

But we should not always assume, consider “busyness” as a Christian virtue.

Have you ever thought that busyness might just be a sign of Christian betrayal rather than Christian commitment?

We should definitely be thankful that many believers are busy for the Lord.

Giving, sacrificing our time and ourselves in service to God’s kingdom is an absolutely essential part of the believer’s life and the Christian experience.

But mere busyness does not necessarily equal faithfulness in the Christian life.

In a time of great social economic political upheaval and national crisis, God emphatically urged his people to simply “be still” and know that he was God.

Twice in Psalm 46, God’s people heard the assurance that the Lord Almighty was with them.

He would be their comfort and mighty fortress.

The key to experiencing that assurance, though, would be to approach God with a stilled heart and quiet trust.

When we actually withdraw from our busy lives to spend time with God, we find ourselves discovering, enjoying, experiencing the truest reality of his presence.

While we are not called by God to be either lazy or idle, neither are we called to a life of non-stop activity and service.

God’s gently emphatic invitation, “be still” unlocks for us the opportunity to experience the maximum allowable joy of actually, genuinely, knowing him.

What a blessed comfort this verse has been to multitudes of believers in Christ, down through the ages, who have heeded God’s invitation and rested on these words of the Psalmist and had their hearts stilled in the presence of the Lord.

What refreshment these simple words have bestowed on many little lambs who have listened to the voice of their Good Shepherd – that Great Shepherd of the sheep Who opens His arms wide to embrace all who will truly trust in His name.

But in context, we see another component to these words of reassurance.

We see a genuine plan to glorify His Name and to exult His Person among the nations of the world who rage against the God of heaven and His anointed King.

He is our Defense and our Defender against the enemies of our soul, and all who rest in Him find courage and strength.

He is our impenetrable refuge from the storms of life and our shelter in the midst of oppression, and we are called to be still and to know that He is God – for His purposes will never fail, He will be glorified throughout the whole earth.

It is of the greatest encouragement, both to His people Israel, and to His children of every age, that men who follow their own atheistic ‘will’ and construct their own anti-God plans, will finally be brought to nothing.

For God, and God alone will be exulted among the heathen and His purposes alone will come to fruition – but we who have trusted Him for salvation are to sit serenely in His presence, in quiet assurance, confidence and in godly trust.

Like the people of Israel in times past, Church-age believers are invited, called upon to ponder, remember the mighty deeds that God has done and to recall the myriad beyond myriads of miraculous, wondrous works that He has performed.

We are to rest confidently in the knowledge that He is our faithful God – the supreme Creator of all and Commander of the armies of heaven Who redeems us by faith in the shed blood of Christ, and will never leave us nor forsake us.

We are to:

rest peacefully in the truth of His Word and be still in His holy presence.

We are to know in our heart, by faith with thanksgiving, that He is the Lord our God Who alone pardons all our iniquities, heals all our diseases, Who redeems our life from the pit, and Who crowns us with lovingkindness and compassion.

He alone is our God Who satisfies our years with good things, renews our youth like the eagle.

He performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious… slow to anger and abounding in steadfast and immovable lovingkindness.

He is our Redeemer our Saviour and Friend.

He alone is our hope and strength, He will be exalted, for it is He who has made us, not we ourselves, for we are His beloved people, the sheep of His pasture.

Although the nations rage like the billows of the sea and the people imagine a vain thing against the Lord God Almighty, we are invited, called to be still in the presence of the Lord and to know Him in our heart by faith, with thanksgiving.

May we ponder what it means to be still in His presence and cease from all our strivings… and truly be at peace in His company – Whom to know is life eternal.

The Importance of How I View God

In light of the past few weeks’ of worldwide revival events, I have been taking more time to reflect and ponder.

My emotions have created a mixed bag, from skepticism to doubt, disbelief, questions, and indescribable awe. 

On one hand, I decisively, definitely praise God if He is using these services to truly speak and to deeply ignite and inspire and move to transform lives.

I have not been to any of the services, but I have watched many of the streams and videos and I have been “stilled” and moved to tears of indescribable joy.

I know that God is powerful and can do anything He chooses, especially when we are not expecting it – but witnessing those students, images of people into the streets of our nation’s cities, into prisons and many international cities?

Such an inexplicably powerful experience to see the people acting on their belief that God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is “on the move.”

On the other, however, I think it’s a good and righteous thing to be cautious and careful with what we quickly interpret as come to believe to be the Spirit of God. 

Even the Bereans in Acts 17 do this when Paul presents the gospel message to them.

Though eager to hear Paul’s teachings, they move to test them themselves in the Holy Scriptures, Study, Pray, Ponder, and then decide what is from God. 

“As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men” (Acts 17:10-12, NIV). 

Paul was known as an excellent teacher and an even better friend.

He truly cared that every person heard and had access to the Bible after his conversion from Saul to Paul.

This is why Paul felt called to attend as many missionary journeys as he did!

But no matter how great the speaker, one’s credibility and ability to represent the gospel should always be prudently studied analyzed in light of the Bible.

People are not the source of light themselves but are the ones pointing to the Light. 

For this reason, 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 further notes,

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil” (NIV). 

While I am not one to debate or judge if these revival services are real or not, their appearance has caused me to think about how I view God.

And more importantly, if I understand Him. 

How Do You View God?

I was born into the Evangelical United Church of the Brethren.

Growing up, I was raised in a traditional EUB Church until 1968 when the churches merged to become the United Methodist Church.

I remember every service, worship session, and layout for an event looked exactly the same.

Over time, I didn’t know why I was doing or saying what I did.

Being so young as I was [7 years old] I didn’t even understand the Apostle’s Creed that I recited by heart every Sunday.

Quickly, God and my relationship with Him became routine, just rehearsed words that needed to be prayed to maintain my perfection status. 

By the time I reached high school, my father had remove us from the Methodist Church and we then became members of a local conservative Jewish Synagogue.

My view of a God as my father became fractured was immensely distorted, and I truly started to wonder and ask, where is God, Jesus in the midst of my separation? 

Verses that call God our Abba, or Father, have been an enormous challenge for me to understand and accept.

I have wrestled for years with how God can be “One God,” for everyone, angry and loving, forgiving and punishing, reachable, yet above and beyond us all. 

But it wasn’t until a recent “live” revival streaming session that I realized I should give my current view of God so much more contemplation – and that led me to todays verse, to ask these questions: “Be Still?” “Do I Understand Him?”

Do I Understand Him?

While I might dare to believe we would all like to say we know and understand God fully, from how He works to why things happen the way they do, I do not think nor do I believe that “understanding God” is even remotely possible. 

It is possible to know and have an intimate, close, and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is why Jesus came and died for us, so we could partake in this personal relationship with Him.

That’s the core essence of the gospel message.

However, God never expected us to try and figure out all His ways. 

Isaiah 55:8-9 notes, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, ESV). 

1 Corinthians 2:15-16 furthers this point when it says:

“The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ” (ESV). 

While we can obtain a mind like Christ’s, in purity, hope, and love, this does not mean that we will know and understand all that He does.

He is still God, and we are not.

He is still all-powerful, and we are not.

His ways are not our ways, and that is for a reason.

Should We Know It All?

When I was younger, and far more naïve than I am right now, I used to believe that if I knew “everything that would happen to me”, my life would be better.

If I always knew exactly what God wanted me to do, where He wanted me to go, and what He was doing, my life would be easier.

I look back now over the course of the last 43 years and I can only laugh. 

As an anxious person, not only would I find all of this information to be rather overwhelming and paralyzing, but I’m confident that if I indeed “knew it all,”

two things would happen:

one, I would not rely on God to get through them,

two, I would try to convince Him, like Moses or Jonah, that I was never ever going to be the right person for whatever task He “dared” called me into. 

In Jonah 1, beginning in verse 1, Jonah runs from God because of his fears.

God calls him to a high-caliber task, but Jonah doesn’t feel up for the journey.

Even later, when he runs back to God, he becomes angry at God for His grace, the same grace that was given to him earlier in the chapter. 

Countless people in the Bible tried to understand God.

From Abraham, to Moses to Aaron, Job, and David and all the biblical writers.

But if I’ve learned anything from their interactions, it’s that God cannot be entirely understood, and while we can have a close fellowship with Him, He will still be above and beyond anything we could fully comprehend here on earth.

What Have I Learned About How I View God?

So what have I learned about how I view God?

I have learned that while God is a loving Father figure.

He is also so much more than I will ever be able to grasp. 

He is unpredictable. 

He is unlikely. 

He moves in ways we’d think He would and ways we wouldn’t. 

He is a quiet, still whisper but also a mighty and powerful storm.

He’s an oxymoron to those who don’t believe in Him and a mystery to those who do.

Today, I am learning that I have many more years of learning to go.

I will not understand Him entirely, but I’m choosing every day to grow closer to Him through prayer, reading the Bible, studying, meditating, and experiencing Him as I live – and something tells me that it’s okay-This is a life-long process.

How I view God is still growing.

I anticipate your view of God is growing as well.

I want to know Him as a Father.

I want you the reader to know Him as a Father.

I’ve known Him as a Friend.

I want you the reader to know Him as a Friend.

And I want to know and view Him for all that He is.

And I want you the reader to know and view Him for all that He is.

Even if it takes the maxed our entirety of a thousand lifetimes to experience:

“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah. [Psalm 46:10-11 AMP]

The predicted and the unpredicted. 

The known and the unknown.

However He is, that’s how I want to know and view Him.

Why ever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.

Whenever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.

Where ever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.

Perhaps, you the reader, from wherever you are, will join in the joy?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord God Almighty, we rejoice that you are with us. Teach us to be still so that increasingly we can experience your presence in our lives through your Holy Spirit within. Father, I praise You that Your Word stands fast for ever and ever and that Your precious promises encourage me to rest in Your love and drink deeply from the Rock of my salvation. Draw near to every member of Christ’s Body and protect Your people Israel against the increasing roar of the nations. I pray for the salvation of the lost and for Your soon return, when Your name be exalted throughout all the earth and the nations will KNOW that You are God. I ask in the name of my Savior Jesus.

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Are we Looking Through Heaven’s Open Door? 10 Reasons We Should Believe in Heaven. Revelation 4:1-4

Revelation 4:1-4Amplified Bible

Scene in Heaven

4 After this I looked, and behold, [a]a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a [war] trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” 2 At once I was in [special communication with] the Spirit; and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne. 3 And He who sat there appeared like [the crystalline sparkle of] [b]a jasper stone and [the fiery redness of] a sardius stone, and encircling the throne there was a rainbow that looked like [the color of an] emerald. 4 Twenty-four [other] thrones surrounded the throne; and seated on these thrones were [c]twenty-four elders dressed in white clothing, with crowns of gold on their heads.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Once John was charged to write the book of Revelation, when he met with the resurrected, glorified Lord Jesus in chapter 1, and having received Christ’s 7 letters to the 7 churches in chapters 2-3, he is given a vision of the throne room of God and commanded to, “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

Not only was John given important information for the Churches, but he was also commanded to ‘see’ and to ‘hear’ what was going to happen beyond the current Church age, “after these things.”

After acting as God’s heavenly, High Priest to the Church-age saints and interceding as heaven’s Mediator between God and man, John is shown how Christ will begin to take on His role of Judge, before returning to earth to claim His position as King of kings and Lord of lords.

“I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven,” John writes, “and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me.”

The angel who met John in the prologue was the same angel who accompanied him throughout the entire revelation of Jesus Christ – which the Father gave to His Son… to give to John through His angel.

The apostle John was about to receive a preview of the future, which began with a vision of heaven in chapter 4 and moved to the worship of the Lamb of God in chapter 5.

He saw One seated on the throne which had the appearance of crystal-clear jasper and a blood-red Sardis stone, and John recorded that there was a rainbow surrounding the throne that reminded him of a brilliant green emerald. 

Twice he was summoned to, “come up here.”

The same voice which sounded like that of a trumpet in chapter 1, commanded him to join the heavenly host of angelic beings that surrounded the throne of God, by means of a door which was standing open in heaven.

And being, “in the spirit on the Lord’s day,” John was given an amazing insight into the future.. and greater revelation of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God and Lion of the tribe of Judah.

After Christ’s revelation to the Churches ended, John’s vison changed, and he was ushered into heaven – in spirit and in truth.

He discovered that the heavenly scene into which he had been brought, was preparing to unseal a special scroll which had been securely sealed by God Himself with seven seals.

As the heavenly scene unfolded, John discovered that he was witnessing to the precursor of the prophesied judgement on earth – the Day of the Lord which he recorded in chapters 6-19 when the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. 

The sight that John saw during chapters 4-5, were the heavenly preparation for that future time of Great Tribulation, recorded in chapters 6-19, which is to fall on a Christ-rejecting sinful world and which will bring Israel to national repentance and punishment to the God-hating, Christ-rejecting, sinful world.

While John’s body remained on earth, his spirit was translated into heaven where he witnessed a vision of the angelic host that surround the throne of Almighty God – the Ancient of Days.

As he looked, John was introduced to four living creatures who worship God day and night and 24 elders who were clothed in white raiment with crowns of gold on their heads. 

The vison of the throne-room of God, the worship of the Lamb Who was slain, and the presentation of a seven-sealed scroll, which no-one but Lamb could break, are all part-and-parcel of the heavenly vision John saw in chapters 4 and 5.

It was after he had received Christ’s revelation to the Church (chapters 1-3) but before the revelation of Christ to the world in His role as Judge (chapters 6-19) when the wrath of God is poured out upon the children of disobedience, that the aged apostle John looked,

“and behold, a door was standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said to him, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.'”

In chapters 4 and 5 of Reve­la­tion, the focus shifts to a new and powerful story of God’s ongoing mission.

This new section begins with John seeing “a door standing open in heaven.”

This picture surprises us because we know that an open door often extends an invitation to come in.

This is an enticing opportunity to believe because heaven is often considered a place of mysteries that we do not have access to.

For the most part, it is God’s secret—at least from our day-to-day living in this life.

But here Jesus opens heaven’s door.

And in a voice like a trumpet, he welcomes us, saying, “Come up here.”

The invitation promises to reveal “what must take place after this.”

But as John tells the story of walking through heaven’s open door, the future is not the first thing that catches his attention.

Instead, he sees “a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.”

Heaven’s open door has us standing before the throne of all thrones, from which everything in heaven and on earth is loved and cared for.

Still today, the Holy Spirit opens heaven’s door wide so that we can visualize, believe, this scene and let its story encourage us to live by faith in Jesus today.

Considering Reasons to Believe in Heaven

Let us strive to remember that the one who reads, hears, and takes to heart this amazing revelation is blessed.

“Blessed is he that reads, and those that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand.”

Believing in Heaven …

“Heaven is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.” –Stephen Hawking

I’m afraid of the dark.

If we are talking about the endless kind of darkness which offers us no light anywhere, no hope ever, and nothing but nothingness, who among us would not panic at the thought of that?

I expect people like Mr. Hawking simply find the idea of Heaven too good to be true, and thus conclude that it must be a product of man’s delusional yearning for “pie in the sky by and by.”

And yet, there are solid reasons for reasonable people to believe in the concept of a Heavenly home after this earthly life.

Here are some that mean a lot to me.

By no means is this list exhaustive.

It’s simply my laymen’s thinking on the subject.

The God who made us created us with a longing for Himself and a satisfaction in nothing less. {Ecclesiastes 3:1-22}

When we get to Heaven, we will finally be satisfied, but not until then.

“I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15).

“I go to prepare a place for you,” said our Lord. “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.” (John 14:3).

If it were not so, I would have told you.

Jesus said that.

I believe Him.

I choose to believe.

1. Jesus Believed in Heaven

In fact, He claimed to be a native.

The Lord said to Nicodemus, “No one has been to Heaven except the One who came from there, even the Son of Man.” (John 3:13). No one knows a place like a native.

Jesus told the dying thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43).

So, wherever we go when we die, it’s a paradise.

True, He left us a thousand unanswered questions on the subject, but what He told us is pure gold.

For instance, when He returns, the dead in Christ accompany Him (I Thessalonians 4:14).

It appears that our eventual destination is somewhere different from the initial, intermediate place called “Paradise,” but we should have no trouble leaving the details to Him – after all, we can trust the One who died for us.

2. Scripture consistently teaches the existence of Heaven.

We must not let people get by with saying the Old Testament knew nothing of Heaven. 

“I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” said David in everyone’s favorite psalm.

Or this one: “As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15).

Job said, “My Redeemer liveth and at last shall stand upon the earth; yet even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes shall see and not another” (Job 19:25-27).

Neither must we cave to those who say the only way to understand such verses is to get inside the mind of the one who said those words originally, as if what they said is determinative and authoritative.

Peter said the prophets said more than they understood and even angels could not fathom some of these things. (I Peter 1:12).

3. I believe in Heaven because I believe in earth.

It’s so wonderful.

There is nothing else like it in the universe.

Suppose we lived in some distant world and all we knew was the planets we have seen–the barren, rocky planets that are molten in the day and frigid at night, those covered with acidic clouds or endless hurricanes–

and if someone told us about earth, with its steadiness, its atmosphere, its lovely scenery and its plant life and the richness of its minerals and a thousand other delights, we would find it hard to believe.

And yet here it is.

We are residents of this amazing planet.

We take the earth in stride because it’s all we know.

4. There has to be a heaven to even up the earthly hell God’s most faithful sometimes endure for Jesus’ sake.

Those of us who are “carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease,” to use Isaac Watts’ unforgettable image, have little idea of the price some have paid for their loyalty to Jesus Christ through the centuries.

Many live under oppressive regimes in our day, punished for doing nothing more than meeting in someone’s living room to worship or giving a friend a Bible.

I’m tempted to say “God owes them, big time,” but I don’t believe I want to be presumptuous or blasphemous.

“God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love that you have shown toward His name in having ministered to the saints, and in still ministering” is how Hebrews 6:10 puts it.

If God were not to reward the faithfulness of the most loyal, it would be sin on His part.

After all, “this momentary light affliction is working for us an exceeding weight of glory far beyond all comparison” says 2 Corinthians 4:17.

5. Every caterpillar/butterfly testifies to our heavenly future.

Suppose we could inform that caterpillar crawling across a leaf of the glorious future just ahead of him (it?).

Would that humble creature believe he (it) would someday have gorgeous wings and flit through the sky?

So, why do we have such difficulty believing in the destiny God has planned for and promised to His own?

6. I believe in Heaven because the alternative belief is in despair.

“I would have despaired had I not believed I would see the goodness of God in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).

This world, by the way, is not the land of the living, but is the land of the dying.

The “land of the living” is just over the next ridge, immediately following our final breath here.

Jesus said, “Because I live, you too shall live.”

Who among us has not grieved at the thought of never seeing a precious loved one again, as we have left the cemetery.  

The alternative to faith is despair.

7. I believe in Heaven because some of the best people who ever lived believed in Heaven.

Pick up a Bible and read it ….

A whole lot of formerly ordinary people from literally all walks of life had come to faith in God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit long before I was ever even told there was a God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [Hebrews 11, Hebrews 12:1-2.]

8. I believe in Heaven because I believe in hell.

Luke 16:27-28Amplified Bible

27 So the rich man said, ‘Then, father [Abraham], I beg you to send Lazarus to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may solemnly warn them and witness to them, so that they too will not come to this place of torment.’

There has to be a hell.

I don’t like to think much about hell.

But I have to because God’s Word teaches about it.

The plain truth is that hell is real, and real people go there forever.

Several times in the Gospels we read Jesus was grieved when people turned away from him–grieved because he knew they were walking down the road that eventually would lead to hell.

The message Jesus brought is simple: Unless you turn and put your trust in me, you will die in your sins and face an eternity without me.

In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we see the rich man begging for a little relief from his suffering.

Father Abraham explains that this kind of relief is not possible.

The rich man then turns his attention toward his brothers who are still living.

“Then I beg you … send Lazarus… Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.”

Notice a short time in hell turned this unbeliever into a motivated evangelist.

In a sense the rich man is saying,

“Someone has got to warn people that hell is real and that real people go there.”

How tragic that the man in this story found out too late.

What’s it going to take for you to become motivated?

Pray God’s grace, not his wrath, will fill your heart with a passion to save the lost.

9. I believe in Heaven because it’s a great incentive to responsible living and compassionate everything.

Skeptics will point to the shallow sayings of some believers that for the Heaven-bound this world does not matter, and that improving life on Earth is just so much arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Those who say such are wrong, their thinking unbiblical, their teachings are misleading.  

We have great responsibilities here in this life, and it’s not just to get people to (ahem) “pray the sinner’s prayer” so they can go to heaven.

We were commissioned to make disciples, a far bigger thing.

“The heavens are the heavens of the Lord,” says Psalm 115:16, “but the earth He has given to the sons of men.” 

We are stewards of this planet, and thus answerable to Him.

I’ll go so far as to say those who are working to give the planet clean air and pure water, safe streets, are also doing the work of the Lord in their own way.

10. I believe in Heaven because of reasons I’m yet to discover.

There is so much more.

As some have said, we are “hard-wired” to believe in God and likewise in Heaven.

I willingly accept that and see it as residue of the creation.

The God who made us created us with a longing for Himself and a satisfaction in nothing less.

When we get to Heaven, we will finally be satisfied, but not until then. “I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15).

“I go to prepare a place for you,” said our Lord. “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.” (John 14:3).

“If it were not so, I would have told you.”

Jesus said that. I believe Him.

I simply choose to believe.

God, the Father …

God, the Son …

God, the Holy Spirit …

The Revealed Word of God …

The Resurrection ….

In Heaven …

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Heavenly Father, thank You for the book of Revelation and for the greater insight and understanding it gives us into the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus, of what is to take place after He comes to take the members of His mystic Body to be with Himself, and how we should live in this present age. I pray that You would bless me as I read and take to heart all that is written in this final book of Scripture. Thank You that You are the eternal and immutable God Whose plans and purposes can never fail. Thank You for the Cross of Christ and His glorious Resurrection, which secured for us an eternal inheritance, by faith. I pray that all I say and do would give glory to You and that one day I may cast my crown before His feet. Thank you for all Your goodness and grace to me and to all men. This I pray in Jesus’ wonderful name.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen

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Our Lives For the Sake of the Gospel. Philippians 1:12-14.

Philippians 1:12-14The Message

They Can’t Imprison the Message

12-14 I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

How passionate are we about sharing the Gospel?

How much or how little are we willing to extend ourselves, sacrifice and take risks so that unbelievers may become followers of Jesus and believers may become that much better equipped to share the good news of our salvation?

As we approach the Lenten Season and consider these questions, are we helped by the example of the apostle Paul, who heroically, single-mindedly, pursued God’s call through all manner of difficulties and persecutions and throughout the Mediterranean world—all so that others may come to know Christ as Lord?

If nothing else, we we learn that nothing would stop Paul from preaching and teaching about Jesus—not a trial before royalty, a storm at sea, a shipwreck, a poisonous snake bite, chains, or even prolonged wrongful imprisonment.

Paul was hyper-zealous to make all of his days and deeds count for the Gospel.

His dramatic missionary journeys, and finally his journey to Rome to face down the Roman authorities on their home ground, illustrates God’s faithfulness and encourages us to see our circumstances as “God” opportunities for us to throw all of ourselves into our own mission, ministry journey’s to share the Gospel.

As I sit on a pillow in my dining room recovering from “urological surgery,” yesterday, my only thoughts were to start writing another devotional entry.

I can sit here in some fair measure of discomfort with my God, my Savior and the Holy Spirit and my caregiving wife at my side, to feel enormously blessed, so fully and completely grateful for what is stirring me to write and not rest.

God has formed and shaped out a place of such an enormous and intense joy in my heart, in my soul just for sharing of His Gospel, no matter the discomfort.

I have this ministry and mission of writing which Reverend John Wesley states:

“I look on all the world as my parish, thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of the world I am in … I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.”

Even if my only place in the world is my very own dining room in my own home.

As of now, by God’s grace, the matchless power and purpose of His scriptures, His own grand plan, [Isaiah 55:10-13] these writings have reached 125 nations.

I cannot speak to the work God has done, but I am still writing after 18 months.

For GOD my Savior and for the Sake of the Gospel

Philippians 1:12-14Amplified Bible

The Gospel Is Preached

12 Now I want you to know, [a]believers, that what has happened to me [this imprisonment that was meant to stop me] has actually served to advance [the spread of] the good news [regarding salvation]. 13 My imprisonment in [the cause of] Christ has become common knowledge throughout the whole [b] praetorian (imperial) guard and to everyone else. 14 Because of my chains [seeing that I am doing well and that God is accomplishing great things], most of the [c]brothers have renewed confidence in the Lord, and have far more courage to speak the word of God [concerning salvation] without fear [of the consequences, seeing that God can work His good in all circumstances].

Follow Paul through Acts and he leaves you breathless.

He’s constantly on the move, going from place to place.

One moment he’s stitching tents together, then he’s bringing Eutychus back to life, and then he survives a snakebite and heals the sick on Malta.

It’s almost as if you can’t imagine ever being able to keep up with him.

Surely the worst thing that could ever happen to someone like Paul is to be stuck in one house for two years.

But at the conclusion of Acts, that’s exactly how we find him (Acts 28:30-31).

You can just imagine the devil’s response to Paul’s imprisonment: 

Now I’ve shut him down! That’ll get rid of him. He won’t be able to go anywhere for a long while. He’ll just shrivel up and die a prisoner. 

Not a chance!

It is during Paul’s imprisonment that he penned some of his most noteworthy letters under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—letters that God is still using to transform lives these long and tornado twisting, storm driven 2,000 years later.

And, remarkably, the gospel has continually advanced not only despite Paul’s chains but because of them.

Paul was likely very different from other prisoners.

The soldiers who guarded him would have probably said to one another, 

He is the most remarkable person we’ve ever had. We’re used to people constantly cussing, screaming, agitating, and complaining. But this Paul has joy and purpose, and he just preaches!

As a result of Paul’s daily ministry among these soldiers, word began to spread throughout the entire palace guard: The reason this guy is a prisoner is because of Jesus. 

They got the point: He’s chained to us, he says, because he’s chained to this man Jesus Christ. 

And it appears that some of these guards not only heard the gospel but responded to it.

As they were redeployed throughout the Roman Empire, arriving at their new posts as new men, the gospel would advance to different places through them.

And so Paul’s imprisonment, which at first appeared to be diametrically opposed to the spread of the gospel, actually proved to be essential to it.

You do not need to be a prisoner, a missionary, or an apostle to be used by God in spreading the gospel, nor do you need to wait for all the circumstances in your life to line up just as you want them to before you simply talk about Jesus.

Whether you are in your home, prison, a hospital, an office, a field, or wherever, and whether you realize it or not, you are never far from someone who needs to hear the amazing story of God’s grace.

What are the situations you face that you naturally see as obstacles to sharing the gospel, and how might they in fact be opportunities?

Who are the lost and longing people that God has placed in your life today?

They need God.

And they might only meet Him through your loving, sacred, holy boldness.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 40The Message

40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
    At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
    pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
    to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
    a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
    they enter the mystery,
    abandoning themselves to God.

4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
    turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
    ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
    compares to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
    and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
    account for you.

6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
    that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
    that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
    so I can listen.

7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming.
    I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
    you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
    became part of my very being.

9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
    let the congregation know the whole story.

11-12 Now God, don’t hold out on me,
    don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
    are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
    a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
    I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
    so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.

13-15 Soften up, God, and intervene;
    hurry and get me some help,
So those who are trying to kidnap my soul
    will be embarrassed and lose face,
So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable
    will be heckled and disgraced,
So those who pray for my ruin
    will be booed and jeered without mercy.

16-17 But all who are hunting for you—
    oh, let them sing and be happy.
Let those who know what you’re all about
    tell the world you’re great and not quitting.
And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing:
    make something of me.
You can do it; you’ve got what it takes—
    but God, don’t put it off.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria, In Excelsis Deo, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia Amen.

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Growing Up to Become a Child – Descriptions of a Childlike Faith. Matthew 18:1-5

Matthew 18:1-6Amplified Bible

Rank in the Kingdom

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 He called a little child and set him before them, 3 and said, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless you repent [that is, change your inner self—your old way of thinking, live changed lives] and become like children [trusting, humble, and forgiving], you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4  Therefore, whoever [a]humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives and welcomes one [b] child like this in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin [by leading him away from My teaching], it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone [as large as one turned by a donkey] hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Growing Up to Become a Child

What does the man, Rabbi Jesus, mean by saying to his disciples that we each need to “change and become like the little children who are among us”?

One clue we have here is that Jesus is responding to the question “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

And he replies, “Whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

In the Gospel narratives about Jesus and his disciples (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), we somehow find that the disciples often argued over which of them was, is and is about to become greatest; they seem to have been a competitive group.

And it seems they were thinking of greatness in terms of authority, leadership, knowledge, ­power, influence, “one above equals,” thrones and of other things.

So Jesus is seemingly telling all of his disciples that they need to change their attitudes about greatness and to become lowly and humble like little children.

Jesus’ followers, whether ancient or contemporary need to die to their selfish ambitions, realize that, just as little children depend on parents and caregivers, we are all totally dependent on Father God for all our needs and future living.

Here’s another hypothetical thought. A man in his sixties said, “Last week my five-year-old grandson said he wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up. I replied, ‘And when I grow up, I want to be a five-year-old boy.’ My grandson stared at me with wide, wondering eyes.”

Have you looked around at your own children or grandchildren and pictured yourself having such a “wide eyed wondering hypothetical conversation?”

Have you looked around at God’s world with “wide, wondering eyes” lately?

That’s something which I long for when I look at my own almost nine year old grandson when hear the clarion call to change and to become like a little child.

Descriptions of a Childlike Faith

Rabbi Jesus’ statement to His disciples in Matthew 18:3 about them not entering the kingdom of heaven unless they are converted and become as little children speak volumes and volumes of truth of the importance of living a childlike faith.

But what is childlike faith?

What makes one’s faith childlike?

Faith which is Rooted in Security

During the days of childhood, one learns how to survive and prosper, how to live under authority, how to live, love and share, and how to serve and praise.

A well-cared-for child has no worries about house or car or any credit card payments, no anxious moments over getting married to the right one, career or job opportunities, no apprehensions about failure, no thoughts of vengeance.

David exemplified this kind of faith while he was on the run from Saul.

Psalm 131:1-2Amplified Bible

Childlike Trust in the Lord.

A Song of [a]Ascents. Of David.

131 Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
2 
Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child [resting] with his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me [composed and freed from discontent].

In Psalm 131:1-2, David compared the calmness and serenity he had in the Lord to that of a weaned child with his mother.

Composed, content with God and the works He was doing in his life, David did not concern himself with great matters such as any selfish ambition and self-promotion – rather, he found serenity and security in his relationship with God.

Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord. (Psalm 23:6)

To have a childlike faith is to find serenity and security in our relationship with God no matter the circumstance.

Faith Which Praises

Jesus loved children. He loved to use children to teach hard-headed and hard-hearted grown-ups about faith and praise.

While preaching in the region of Judea, Christ was encircled by a great crowd.

Matthew 19:13-15Amplified Bible

Jesus Blesses Little Children

13 Then children were brought to Jesus so that He might place His hands on them [for a blessing] and pray; but the disciples reprimanded them. 14 But He said, “Leave the children alone, and do not forbid them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 After placing His hands on them [for a blessing], He went on from there.

He later reminded the priests and scribes that “the mouth of babes and nursing infants” would offer praise fitting for God’s Anointed (Matthew 21:16).

When Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, a very great multitude that included children cried out saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9)!

The sound of the children praising Jesus in the temple courts made the chief priests and scribes indignant.

In response, Jesus quoted from Psalm 8:2.

God does not only want prayer in His house, He also delights in praise.

To have a childlike faith is to have a heart that always longs to praise and glorify God in each and every life’s circumstance.

Faith Which Believes

Jesus used the lad with the five barley loaves and the two small fish to feed five thousand people (John 6:9).

To show His power over death, Jesus used a little girl. Jairus, a ruler in the synagogue, fell at Jesus’ feet begging Him to come to his house and save his dying twelve-year-old daughter.

Jesus agreed and tried to make His way with Jairus, but the surrounding crowd made the trip difficult.

Word came that Jairus’ daughter had died.

But Jesus responded, “Do not be afraid, only believe and she will be made well” (Luke 8:50).

At the house, as the parents wept over their loss, Jesus said, “She is not dead but sleeping” (Luke 8:52).

Through tears, the people laughed at the impossibility of what they heard.

Jesus then asked everyone to leave the room, and then He said, “Little girl, arise” (Luke 8:54), and she did!

Romans 4:17 says that “God gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.”

Jesus spoke to the girl with the power of God, and she was raised from the dead.

Jairus’ faith definitely played a part in the miracle healing of his daughter just like the faith of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years had made her well (Luke 8:43-48).

Nothing is impossible with God if we would just believe.

This is what it means to have childlike faith.

Faith Which is Humble

Another time, Jesus used a child to teach humility.

In Matthew 18:1-5, we read how the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” and how did Jesus respond?

He called a little child to Him, set the little child in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

He then went on to say, “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.”

The fact that Jesus had been sharing with the disciples that truth about His approaching suffering and death did not affect them for they were thinking only of, about themselves and what position they would have in His Kingdom.

So self-absorbed were the disciples in this matter that they actually argued with each other in the presence of Rabbi Jesus himself (Luke 9:46).

Pride – the very sin that caused Satan to be cast down from heaven is what’s causing people to think of themselves more highly than others.

When Christians are living for themselves and not for others, conflict and division are bound to result (James 4:1-2).

True humility means knowing ourselves, accepting ourselves, and being ourselves – our best self – to the glory of God ALONE!.

It means avoiding two extremes:

Thinking less of ourselves than we ought to (as did Moses when God called him, Exodus 3:11), or thinking more of ourselves than we should (Romans 12:3).

The truly humble person does not deny the gifts God has given him or her but uses them to the glory of God.

The truly humble person also helps to build up others, not to tear them down.

Hebrews 12:1-3Amplified Bible

Jesus, the Example

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of [a]witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, 2 [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, [b]disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work].

3 Just consider and meditate on Him who endured from sinners such bitter hostility against Himself [consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

This person is a stepping-stone, not a stumbling block.

This person is a building block not a stumbling block.

Thus, we must seek to remove from our lives anything that makes us stumble.

If we don’t, we will cause others to stumble as well.

Which Jesus Himself said was not a very good, very healthy, very wise, idea.

Matthew 18:6Amplified Bible

6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin [by leading him away from My teaching], it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone [as large as one turned by a donkey] hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

An unspoiled child has the characteristics that make for humility: trust, dependence, a desire to make others happy, and an absence of boasting or selfish desires to be greater than others.

By our nature, we are all rebels who want to be celebrities instead of servants.

And so we need a great deal of teaching for us to learn the lesson of humility.

Concluding Thoughts ….

As Christians, we are encouraged to have childlike faith.

To have faith like a child is to completely embrace, trust our heavenly Father’s goodness, care, provision, leadership, His security, vigilance and protection.

Have you experienced the peace of a well-cared-for child in letting Jesus take care of your worries?

Have you found the healing that faith in Jesus brings?

Have you praised His name with the joy of a child?

Have you answered Jesus’ call in childlike faith, asking Him to be your Savior?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 17The Message

17 1-2 Listen while I build my case, God,
    the most honest prayer you’ll ever hear.
Show the world I’m innocent—
    in your heart you know I am.

3 Go ahead, examine me from inside out,
    surprise me in the middle of the night—
You’ll find I’m just what I say I am.
    My words don’t run loose.

4-5 I’m not trying to get my way
    in the world’s way.
I’m trying to get your way,
    your Word’s way.
I’m staying on your trail;
    I’m putting one foot
In front of the other.
    I’m not giving up.

6-7 I call to you, God, because I’m sure of an answer.
    So—answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Paint grace-graffiti on the fences;
    take in your frightened children who
Are running from the neighborhood bullies
    straight to you.

8-9 Keep your eye on me;
    hide me under your cool wing feathers
From the wicked who are out to get me,
    from mortal enemies closing in.

10-14 Their hearts are hard as nails,
    their mouths blast hot air.
They are after me, nipping my heels,
    determined to bring me down,
Lions ready to rip me apart,
    young lions poised to pounce.
Up, God: beard them! break them!
    By your sword, free me from their clutches;
Barehanded, God, break these mortals,
    these flat-earth people who can’t think beyond today.

I’d like to see their bellies
    swollen with famine food,
The weeds they’ve sown
    harvested and baked into famine bread,
With second helpings for their children
    and crusts for their babies to chew on.

15 And me? I plan on looking
    you full in the face. When I get up,
I’ll see your full stature
    and live heaven on earth.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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What Is this Spiritual Gift of Faith? 1Corinthians 12:4-11

1 Corinthians 12:4-11Amplified Bible

4 Now there are [distinctive] varieties of spiritual gifts [special abilities given by the grace and extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit operating in believers], but it is the same Spirit [who grants them and empowers believers]. 5 And there are [distinctive] varieties of ministries and service, but it is the same Lord [who is served]. 6 And there are [distinctive] ways of working [to accomplish things], but it is the same God who produces all things in all believers [inspiring, energizing, and empowering them]. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit [the spiritual illumination and the enabling of the Holy Spirit] for the common good. 8 To one is given through the [Holy] Spirit [the power to speak] the message of wisdom, and to another [the power to express] the word of knowledge and understanding according to the same Spirit; 9 to another [wonder-working] faith [is given] by the same [Holy] Spirit, and to another the [extraordinary] gifts of healings by the one Spirit; 10 and to another the working of [a]miracles, and to another prophecy [foretelling the future, speaking a new message from God to the people], and to another discernment of spirits [the ability to distinguish sound, godly doctrine from the deceptive doctrine of man-made religions and cults], to another various kinds of [unknown] tongues, and to another interpretation of tongues. 11 All these things [the gifts, the achievements, the abilities, the empowering] are brought about by one and the same [Holy] Spirit, distributing to each one individually just as He chooses.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Spiritual Gift of Faith

Today, let’s learn something about the spiritual gift of faith.

Your first reaction to this might be, “How can faith be a gift?

Aren’t we all supposed to have faith as believers in Jesus Christ?”

Faith is absolutely a gift!

It is specifically mentioned as a spiritual gift in scripture (1 Corinthians 12:9).

Because it is a spiritual gift, that means not everyone has the gift of faith.

And that’s okay.

We can all strive for faith, but for some people the confidence in the truth of God comes more naturally than to others.

Do you know a person who can continue to trust in God no matter what comes their way?

A person who can see where God is working in your life when you can’t see it?

People with the spiritual gift of faith are unshakeable in their reliance on God’s promises and are a source of encouragement for the rest of us when we feel like embracing the world or giving up on God or think that God has given up on us.

Here is how we can define the gift of faith:

Faith is the exceptional ability to hold fast to the truth of God in Jesus Christ in spite of pressures, problems, and obstacles to faithfulness.

Much more than just belief, faith is a gift which empowers an individual or a group of people to hold fast to its identity in Christ in the face of any challenge.

The gift of faith enables believers to rise above pressures and problems that might otherwise cripple them.

Faith is characterized by an unshakable trust in Jehovah God to deliver on God’s promises, no matter what.

The gift of faith inspires those who might be tempted to give up to hold on.

Those gifted with Faith create a foundation upon which true community can be built and sustained.

It is critical for people possessing the gift of Faith to make, take opportunities to share their beliefs, their learning, most importantly, their life experiences.

Faith stories have powerful and transforming effects.

Faith is a prominent gift in witnessing congregations, where personal stories are shared in group settings, worship, Sunday school classes, or Bible studies.

Faith is the exceptional ability to hold fast to the truth of God in Jesus Christ in spite of pressures, problems, and obstacles to faithfulness.

Our Bible gives us many examples of individuals with the spiritual gift of faith.

Hebrews 11:1-12 The Message

Faith in What We Don’t See

11 1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

3 By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.

4 By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.

5-6 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. “They looked all over and couldn’t find him because God had taken him.” We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken “he pleased God.” It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

7 By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.

8-10 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.

11-12 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That’s how it happened that from one man’s dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.

  • Verse 4 – By faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain
  • Verse 5 – By faith, Enoch skipped death
  • Verse 7 – By faith, Noah built a ship
  • Verse 8 – By faith, Abraham said yes to God
  • Verse 11 – By faith, barren Sarah became pregnant
Faith in Scripture ….

Mark 9:23 (NRSV)
Jesus said to him, “If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.”

Luke 8:48 (NRSV)
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Luke 17:19 (NRSV)
Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 18:42 (NRSV)
Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”

Romans 4:18-21 (NRSV)
Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

God gives us believers gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We do not know why exactly God’s will is for us to have any of these gifts, but we are thankful for any blessings, gifting’s, and corrections that He gives us.

Faith — it is a gift, and all we need is about the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20).

To each and every one of us, a measure of faith has been assigned by God (Romans 12:3).

Moses had faith to lead Israel to the Promised Land, Sarah had faith that she would conceive even in her old age, and Noah had faith that God had spoken to him to build the ark even when everyone thought he was crazy (Hebrews 11).

There isn’t any formula that is alongside this gift of faith, and to think that there would be, it would be much more difficult to have faith.

Believing in faith is easy, but in our finite minds, thoughts barricade what is truly simple.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Faith without proof

There are miracles everywhere mentioned in the New Testament.

Many people today have seen what the goodness of God can do through miracles.

In Mark 2, Jesus was in a crowded house in Capernaum.

There were four men carrying a paralytic man, trying to reach Jesus.

They had to make a hole in the roof of the house in order to bring the paralyzed man to be healed by Jesus.

This act was an act of faith by the four men, and Jesus saw their faith in the man being healed of his affliction.

Well, the man not only got healed but his sins were forgiven.

Miracles are a wondrous gift, but having faith without seeing is believing that it is possible even though it seems impossible (2 Corinthians 5:7).

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). 

Our hope is in Christ alone.

Without faith, there is no hope.

We have faith that when winter begins to thaw, and all the snow begins to fade away, that the seeds that were planted in the previous season shall burst forth.

Springtime is a time of refreshment, a time of anticipated, expectant joy to see what was planted, will be planted and is to soon come up from the cold ground.

We don’t see the seeds with our own eyes, but by faith, we have the hope to see green leaves, diverse colors of flowers coming up to bring out joy and harvest.

Childlike Faith ….

Matthew 18:1-6 Amplified Bible

Rank in the Kingdom

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 He called a little child and set him before them, 3 and said, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless you repent [that is, change your inner self—your old way of thinking, live changed lives] and become like children [trusting, humble, and forgiving], you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4  Therefore, whoever [a]humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives and welcomes one [b] child like this in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin [by leading him away from My teaching], it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone [as large as one turned by a donkey] hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Children are like sponges.

Children are naturally inquisitive about almost everything in their little world.

They max out their efforts absorbing everything they can see, smell, taste, and touch, and hear.

In a classroom, it is a teacher’s job to assure that the children are learning what is being taught.

Children learn from their families as to what is wrong and what is right.

But what they are the best at is having faith.

Think about the inquisitiveness of your own children right now.

What are they constantly getting themselves into?

What holds their “undivided” attention?

What is their “wish-list?”

What are their dreams?

As it might be applicable, be observant and give an answer to those questions for those of us who have grandchildren or great grandchildren inside our lives.

Think about when you were a child, what did you have hope for?

I hoped that I could see the world that God created.

As I got older, I realized what goes into making those dreams come true.

I then began to see that it may not ever happen, and my faith became less in that area of my life.

I let my fears become more and more of my reality because I didn’t truly believe that I could travel the world.

But, perhaps, one season, by God’s Grace, that dream of travel will come true.

I believe and have faith God will bring me to places that He wills for my life. 

In Romans 10:17, the Bible states, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” 

Our thoughts can be louder than the Word of God if we let them.

The Holy Spirit within us shows us what is truth and what is not.

The gift of faith is truth and grace that has been given to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The spiritual gift of faith is steadfastly believing the truth, God’s truth alone.

No matter what happens whether you receive what you are believing in or not, your confidence cannot be swayed.

The fear, worry, and circumstances do not determine your level of faith.

If God has given you this spiritual gift of faith, then trust, without doubt, that He will absolutely do as He absolutely wills for your life.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

All-Powerful Father, I bow before You because You are awesome and worthy of all the praise. Your word declares that I can do all things through You who strengthens me! I put all my trust in You. You alone are my God. You alone are my joy. You are my heart and my soul. You are the grass under my feet and the sky above. You are seen and unseen, Father. Keep me at Your right hand forever, fill me with Your grace, and make me Yours all the days of my life. Father, we thank you for everything, and we love you with all that we are. I pray that those that have been given this spiritual gift of faith will never waiver. I pray that we will trust and believe you always God. 

 Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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For We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight. 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

2 Corinthians 5:6-10Amplified Bible

6 So then, being always filled with good courage and confident hope, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in a manner consistent with our confident belief in God’s promises]— 8 we are [as I was saying] of good courage and confident hope, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore, whether we are at home [on earth] or away from home [and with Him], it is our [constant] ambition to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we [believers will be called to account and] must all appear before the [a]judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be repaid for what has been done in the body, whether good or [b]bad [that is, each will be held responsible for his actions, purposes, goals, motives—the use or misuse of his time, opportunities and abilities].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

What does it mean to live by Faith?

Those words seem simple enough, yet it may be a lot tougher than we think.

It requires tremendous courage and strength.

Preaching the gospel to the world brought Paul and his co-workers much suffering.

Yet they continued the work contending for the faith.

They refused to quit and “pressed toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)

Living in the end times requires living by faith and not by what we see going on around us.

Yet it is a journey of tremendous hope, blessing and reward.

Walking by faith and not by sight requires you to trust God, not knowing where you are at times in the larger scope of God’s plan and purpose.

Take the example of Abraham, “when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going”. (Hebrews 11:8)

That’s walking by faith.

Walking by faith requires a strong determination to follow God’s plan as outlined in the bible, regardless what life throws your way.

Like 2 Corinthians 4:18 urges us, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

It is a deep trust in what cannot be seen that provides hope.

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth that “we walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Jesus stated, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Jesus ascended and left his Spirit as a guarantee.

Walking by faith is sometimes lonely, except for the presence of Christ by his Spirit, left to all believers as a “guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:5).

Christians are frequently called to stand firm in spite of the isolated place their faith leads them to.

Our faith is reasonable, but there are aspects of the gospel we accept on faith and are unable to see.

What are these invisible things?

And what is the walk of faith?

The Second Letter to Corinth

First of all, here is some context for 2 Corinthians 5:7.

Paul’s relationship with the church at Corinth was a difficult one.

Paul had led them to faith with the assistance of mature believers in Christ, but when Paul was gone the church was easily swayed by outsiders who opposed his teaching.

In Paul’s absence, they fell apart and it was easy for opponents to convince the church that his suffering was a sign that Paul’s faith was actually folly.

If Jesus Christ has really come to save sinners, how could the apostle’s life be so horrendous?

To Paul’s mind, his way of life represented faith.

How else could someone suffer so much, if not for the reasonable expectation of eternal gain? (ESV Study Bible, Introduction to 2 Corinthians).

The Corinthian church was struggling, and Apostle Paul’s letter suggests a big part of the problem was the followers trusting the Holy Spirit to work in their lives and coming to that place in their life of trusting in the promise of Heaven.

Faith is trust.

Fabulous Adventures In Trusting Him!

Fantastic Adventures In Trusting Him!

Fulfilling Adventures In Trusting Him!

Futuristic Adventures In Trusting Him!

But faith in Christ does not come in the exact instant we snap our fingers.

Time and effort, trials and tribulations, radically counter cultural responses.

Faith not in what we see ‘Now’ but what we cannot see in Eternity

2 Corinthians 5:1-5Amplified Bible

The Temporal and Eternal

5 For we know that if the earthly tent [our physical body] which is our house is torn down [through death], we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our [immortal, eternal] celestial dwelling, 3 so that by putting it on we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened [often weighed down, oppressed], not that we want to be unclothed [separated by death from the body], but to be clothed, so that what is mortal [the body] will be swallowed up by life [after the resurrection]. 5 Now He who has made us and prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the [Holy] Spirit as a pledge [a guarantee, a down payment on the fulfillment of His promise].

What does the gospel tell us which we cannot prove by way of anything other than faith?

For one thing, we cannot see what awaits the faithful around the next bend in their roadways, over the next mountain— eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Apostle Paul is confident: “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God” (verse 1).

That building is the individual body, the church body, a real Kingdom, invisible to us for now. “We know,” says Paul; not “we believe,” or “we imagine.”

The original Greek uses “eidó,” which means “be aware, behold, consider, perceive.” “Knowing” in this sense combines knowledge with an intelligent perception of an idea, which cannot be physically represented —just yet.

Paul based his belief in eternal life on sound, objective evidence as well as his subjective, personal experience of Christ.

His suffering could have become a distraction from this truth — it certainly was for the Corinthians.

To Paul, his counter cultural response to immediate suffering was supposed to demonstrate his deep trust in what could not be seen, provide a reason to hope.

Christians “look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

A Connecting Faith

Christ’s message of eternal salvation through his death and resurrection was explosive.

Master Pharisee Saul, before becoming Paul, had originally sought to persecute these blasphemers, run them all to ground, imprison them all until he realized that the Old Testament had been leading Israel unto the empty tomb all along.

When Apostle Paul described the body as a “tent” (2 Corinthians 5:1), he was also connecting the new church with the Old Testament.

God’s people had frequently been sojourners, both in the days before Solomon and during Jesus’ ministry.

Moses and the Israelites followed a pillar of smoke and a pillar of fire, setting up temporary Sukkoth shelters to cover themselves against cold desert nights.

They had nowhere to permanently call “home” until Solomon built the temple.

The body as a “tent” evokes the Israelite’s trust God would meet their needs day by day.

A tent is impermanent, just like a body is temporary, but once this covering is shed God provides something eternally better.

Faith in the Spirit

2 Corinthians 3:15-18Amplified Bible

15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil [of blindness] lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom]. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.

As believers, to some extent, we already see more than those who choose to turn their faces from God.

We have an “unveiled face,” although we only see “in a mirror dimly” for now, it is by faith we believe we will one day see Christ “face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Meanwhile, we have the Holy Spirit.

Here is one aspect of the Christian life we cannot lay hands on and inspect up close.

There are ways to detect the Spirit in us; evidence of “fruit.” 

Galatians 5:22-23 describes this fruit: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

When one has grown in any of these ways, the Holy Spirit is responsible, and we are invited to delve into and recognize this gift living inside of us and in others.

The Spirit is not a virus or an implant; it cannot be scrutinized with the naked eye or under a microscope.

Everyone holds a belief in something, and Paul says we can be confident.

That is the word used in the NIV and KJV for “courage” so “we are always of good courage” (2 Corinthians 5:6, ESV) is a statement of certainty.

Faith is not blind; it merely sees in other ways.

Every Faithful, Faith-Filled Christian

1 Peter 3:13-15Amplified Bible

13 Now who is there to hurt you if you become enthusiastic for what is good? 14  But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness [though it is not certain that you will], you are still blessed [happy, to be admired and favored by God]. Do not be afraid of their intimidating threats, nor be troubled or disturbed [by their opposition]. 15 But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord. Always be ready to give a [logical] defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect.

Every faithful believer sees something that is not visceral but still real — much of our knowledge is like that.

We believe someone is trustworthy based on actions, which demonstrate their character.

We know that an event took place in history based on statements of witnesses and on physical remains.

We must examine the evidence and be ready to give our testimony, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).

We all live by faith in something, although not the same things.

It is theologically accurate to say and to insist that the Christian must always seek to live by faith and trust in God and his promises, and not be motivated by only what he or she can see and hear in their present circumstances.

But the Apostle Paul says the church at Corinth is already doing that.

Apostle Paul “directly and unequivocally says that we, all believers, do, in fact, live by faith.”

This faith must also stand firmly by the strength of internal reasoning, against external forces, and without an apostle to hold one’s hand in a spiritual sense.

The Corinthians’ faith was strong in the presence of mature disciples such as Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:18) but definitely blindsided by “partisanship, with the Corinthians factionalizing behind rival leaders.”

Paul knew what made “considerate and appropriate relating especially hard at Corinth,” which was an “unusually diverse” and tough, working-class culture.

Paul sought to “overcome the tensions these differences were bringing into the community” by talking about how to just love one another in Christ-like ways.

What Does it Mean to Walk by Faith?

Ephesians 4:1-6 Amplified Bible

Unity of the Spirit

4 So I, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to you to live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called [that is, to live a life that exhibits godly character, moral courage, personal integrity, and mature behavior—a life that expresses gratitude to God for your salvation], 2 with all humility [forsaking self-righteousness], and gentleness [maintaining self-control], with patience, bearing with one another [a]in [unselfish] love. 3 Make every effort to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the bond of peace [each individual working together to make the whole successful]. 4 There is one body [of believers] and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when called [to salvation]— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,6 one God and Father of us all who is [sovereign] over all and [working] through all and [living] in all.

And what about the action of walking in faith? “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,” wrote Paul (Ephesians 4:1).

Our walk as Christians should be identifiably different from the walk of one who does not believe and has been saved by grace.

There is a practical element, which must not be overlooked, for if we love God there will be an outpouring of that love towards others.

Jesus embodied a unifying love for the marginalized and Paul taught that their Savior was the best example of “what a Christian leader should look like. It could hardly be more dramatically countercultural, and Paul lived out this leadership style in person.”

Yet walking, or living, by faith, is also about our relationship with Christ “God is looking for not only a clinging bride but also a walking partner.”

13 No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you keep on doing what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father. 16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give to you. (John 15:13-16)

When we walk with him, we recognize that worship of Christ is not so much a “catalyst” to action but “an everyday walk of unbroken communion with our Lord and friend.”

Jesus calls us “friend,” and we are called to live our lives close to him, confident and worshipful.

This is personal and real — other people cannot fill in for Jesus, whether they are our pastors or mentors or BFFs.

Such individuals promote growth, but they are not the vine.

Only Jesus is the vine (John 15).

Is Sight Coming?

Will we see Jesus when we die?

Paul says it himself: We see dimly today, but the mist will lift one day revealing his face – the veil between God and man was torn when Jesus died on the cross.

John 20:11-18Amplified Bible

11 But Mary [who had returned] was standing outside the tomb sobbing; and so, as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?” She told them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”  14  After saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? For whom are you looking?” Supposing that He was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you are the one who has carried Him away from here, tell me where you have put Him, and I will take Him away.” 16  Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in [a] Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “[b]Do not hold Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene came, reporting to the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had said these things to her.

So, while we cannot fully see him as Mary Magdalene did right now, this definitely does not mean that we are cut off from fellowship with the Lord.

Living by faith, not by sight, is no hindrance to communion with our Savior.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 24The Message

24 1-2 God claims Earth and everything in it,
    God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
    laid it out on River girders.

3-4 Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.

5-6 God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.

7 Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.

8 Who is this King-Glory?
    God, armed
    and battle-ready.

9 Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.

10 Who is this King-Glory?
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
    he is King-Glory.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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What Does it Mean to Really Walk with God in Faith? Genesis 5:21-24

Genesis 5:21-24Amplified Bible

21 When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he became the father of Methuselah. 22  Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God three hundred years after the birth of Methuselah and had other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And [in reverent fear and obedience] Enoch walked with God; and he was not [found among men], because God took him [away to be home with Him].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Walking with others is often a time of sacred, deeply personal fellowship.

As people traverse a trail or path together, they can talk to one another about their struggles, goals, or worries.

Many people might not even ever think about those steps they take with a friend, but walking with a friend can truly help a relationship grow stronger.

The same is true about our relationship with God.

From the very beginning, He wanted to walk with us, to know us personally, and for us to follow Him all of our days – we were created to walk with God.

When we choose to place our faith in Christ for salvation, we can walk with Him in fellowship.

No longer, do we or must we, live our lives according to the ways of our sinful nature, but we can out the days of our lives by the Spirit.

Biblical Examples of Walking with God

When God created humans, we almost immediately read He walked with them. 

Genesis 3:8 describes how Adam and Eve heard the Lord walking in the Garden, they heard Him walking on leaves and branches which prompted them to hide.

They did not want Him to discover they had sinned.

Adam and Eve recognized the sound of God coming towards them, indicating apparently that He regularly walked on earth with them in Eden before the fall.

However, after Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord had hid, God could no longer physically dwell with humankind because of the presence sin.

Later, the Bible describes how other people “walked” with God, although He was not physically dwelling with them as He did in Eden.

Enoch loved the Lord and “walked faithfully” with Him (Genesis 5:24). 

Interestingly, Scripture tells us that Enoch did not taste death but was taken up by the Lord (Genesis 5:24 and Hebrews 11:5).

Noah, the great-grandson of Enoch, is also described as someone who walked with the Lord (Genesis 6:9).

His close fellowship with God is significant when we remember that the people during Noah’s time were wicked and did not worship the Lord (Genesis 6:5-7).

When God the Son took on human flesh and came to earth to save humankind from their sins, He dwelled among us (John 1:14).

As part of His ministry, Jesus walked everywhere, traveled by foot constantly.

In fellowship, Christ talked to them and taught them as they walked.

For example, after Jesus was resurrected, He walked with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and taught them (Luke 24:13-35).

In the future, when God establishes the New Heaven and New Earth, He will physically live and walk among humans again.

John describes this truth in Revelation 21:3:

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

The Lord will dwell with and walk with believers for all eternity.

A Relationship with the Lord

Based on the examples of those who walked with the Lord in the Bible, to walk with God means we have a relationship with Him.

Adam and Eve walked with God physically but also had a close relationship with their Creator.

After the Fall of Man, humans lost the privilege of dwelling physically with God.

Also, sin separated them from the Lord (Isaiah 59:2).

Only those who had faith in the Lord, like Enoch and Noah, were able to have a close relationship with God.

The reason Jesus came to earth was so we could receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

When a person trusts in Christ’s death and resurrection for salvation, they receive an everlasting relationship with Him (John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Compared to knowing Jesus, everything else seems like trash (Philippians 3:8).

At salvation, we enter a relationship with the Lord.

However, just as people need to spend time with each other and communicate to build a relationship, we also need to spend time with God and talk to Him.

To “walk” with the Lord involves communicating and listening to Him.

Praying to God is essential, but we must also read and study and pray through His Word, which is the way He speaks to us (Hebrews 4:12).

Furthermore, Christians need to discipline themselves to regularly examine their lives to ensure nothing hinders their walk with God. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Sin interferes with a believer’s relationship with God. 

If we confess our sins, telling God that we know we did wrong, then He is “faithful and just to forgive” (1 John 1:9, NLT).

Thus, we need to examine ourselves regularly and confess our sins to the Lord.

In addition to confessing sins, believers need to be aware of anything that distracts them from walking with Christ.

Some of these distractions include sinful thoughts, behaviors, and doubt (Matthew 6:14-15, 24; James 1:6-7).

However, good things can also distract us, such as focusing too much on a career, a family, a human relationship, a comfortable home, or a hobby.

In these instances, we need to obey the words of Scripture and die to ourselves, so we can learn better follow the Lord and invest in our relationship with Him (Matthew 16:24).

A Way of Life

A Way of Life

In the Bible, to walk with the Lord involves having a relationship with Him, but it also means living a specific way.

To walk with God means we are living in obedience to His standards instead of our own.

Scripture poignantly, succinctly, tells us to “walk humbly with your God,” which means humbly submitting ourselves to His direction (Micah 6:8).

At salvation, we receive the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who baptizes us (John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Titus 3:5).

Holy Spirit enables us to live and walk in the way God desires.

In turn, we must follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our own Christian walk (Galatians 5:16).

As Paul emphasizes in his letter to the Galatians, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25, NKJV).

To live in obedience to God, we must have faith.

The Bible tells us that “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7, ESV).

Often, when we follow the Lord’s leading, we will not know what lies ahead.

For instance, Abraham had to walk by faith when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, his promised son (Genesis 22:1-2; Hebrews 11:17-19).

For clarity, God did not want or command human sacrifice (see Jeremiah 19:5; 32:35).

He wanted to see if Abraham would trust Him (Genesis 22:12).

Likewise, some of the things that the Lord asks us to do might not make sense at the time, but we can trust Him and step out in faith.

Finally, when individuals walk with God, others will take notice.

The fruit of the Spirit and Christlikeness will characterize their life (Galatians 5:22-23; 1 John 2:6).

Those who walk with Jesus will talk about His love and demonstrate that love practically to others.

Instead of seeking their desires or preferences, they will want to obey God’s Word no matter the risk.

This does not mean they are perfect.

All believers will continue to struggle with sin.

However, Christians who are walking (Micah 6:8) with the Lord will enjoy a strong relationship with Him, will seek to live according to His principles, morals and ethics, instead of the sinful standards of the flesh and the world.      

What Does This “Walking With God” Mean for My Life?

Walking with God means having a connectional relationship with Him and living, walking, a certain way that follows His standards based on Scripture.

This is important to all people because humans were created by God to love God and ultimately give all the glory, honor and praise and their thanks to God.

However, our sin separates us from Him.

Believing in Jesus’ death and resurrection is the only way to restore this vital relationship.

Once we trust in Christ (John 14:1-14), we can begin walking (Micah 6:8) with Him.

As part of our walk with the Lord, we need to prioritize our relationship with Him by spending quality time in reading, studying His Word and talking to Him.

Also, we need to examine ourselves regularly to see if any sins or other things in our life are hindering or distracting us from spending time with God (Psalm 51).

Finally, we need to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance so that we live and walk in a way that is more consistently pleasing and perpetually honoring the Lord.

“Walking” with our Lord in fellowship and obedience is the best way to live.

More on this tomorrow ….

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 15 The Message

15 God, who gets invited
    to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?

2 “Walk straight,
    act right,
        tell the truth.

3-4 “Don’t hurt your friend,
    don’t blame your neighbor;
        despise the despicable.

5 “Keep your word even when it costs you,
    make an honest living,
        never take a bribe.

“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.”

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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Evidence God Is at Work in Our Lives. John 5:17

John 5:10-17Amplified Bible

10 So the Jews kept saying to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and you are not [a]permitted to pick up your pallet [because it is unlawful].” 11 He answered them, “The Man who healed me and gave me back my strength was the One who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the Man who told you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away [unnoticed] since there was a crowd in that place. 14 Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 For this reason the Jews began to persecute Jesus continually because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now [He has never ceased working], and I too am working.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

“My Father is always working, and so am I” (John 5:17).

Always is a big promise.

We cannot uphold the promise of always meaning always any more effectively that we can uphold the promise of never saying never again.

But God can.

He is always working.

Jesus is always working.

The Holy Spirit is always working.

But what is all of this work, and what does it have to do with us?

“Man was created from the beginning in God’s image that he might image forth God’s glory,” John Piper wrote. Paul wrote to the Corinthians,

“So whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Jesus was in argument about working on the Sabbath with Jewish leaders when He said, “My Father is always working, and so am I.”

They were upset Jesus had performed a miracle on the Sabbath.

The Life Application Bible explains

“Genesis 2:2 says that God rested on the seventh day, but this does not mean he stopped doing good. Jesus was saying that when the opportunity to do good presents itself, we should not ignore it, even on the Sabbath.”

Work, in the context of John 5:17 and translated from the original Greek language it was written in, means to work out. 

The days on our calendars flip over with purpose.

God goes before us, behind us, and is with us.

We were created to bring glory to Him with our everyday lives.

Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear” (Philippians 2:12).

Work, in this context, means to bring about.

We bring glory to God by obediently following His lead on our lives, as the Holy Spirit progressively sanctifies us.

Everyday life may seem ordinary, but if we stretch our perspective to align with the Lord’s, we will certainly start to notice the extraordinary in our daily lives.

What is God’s Work?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

God’s plan all along was to save us from ourselves.

He gave us free will, and we chose to rebel against Him.

It began with the original rebellion in the garden, and continues to flood into our current existence. Jesus didn’t pop onto the pages of the Bible in the New Testament Gospel accounts.

The apostle John clarified, He was with God in the beginning. (John 1:1-5)

Jesus was sent to live among us and die for our sins.

Through Him, we are justified by His atoning sacrifice, once for all (Romans 3:25-26).

He did this to accomplish the will of His Father, so we can live life to the full (John 10:10).

He came to give us an example to live by, though we will never accomplish it in perfection as He did, without sin.

Jesus came to serve not be served (Mark 10:45).

Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)

Jesus came …. (John 10:14-17)

14 I am the Good Shepherd, and I know [without any doubt those who are] My own and My own know Me [and have a deep, personal relationship with Me]— 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My [very own] life [sacrificing it] for the benefit of the sheep. 16 I have [a]other sheep [beside these] that are not of this fold. I must bring those also, and they will listen to My voice and pay attention to My call, and they will become [b]one flock with one Shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My [own] life so that I may take it back.

Jehovah God’s work is infinite and ongoing, and never ends from the scenery surrounding us to the days of our lives and onto eternity. (Psalms 121, 139)

What is Evidence of God’s Work?

Genesis 1:26-28 Amplified Bible

26 Then God said, “Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

We are evidence of God’s creation.

“Very good,” is the way He described His creation.

“In His image” gives us a sneak peek into the question of what God looks like and is like.

“The existence and attributes of God are evident from creation itself, even though sinful human beings suppress and distort their natural knowledge of God,” James N. Anderson wrote. 

Psalm 19 vividly expresses a doctrine of natural revelation: the entire created universe ‘declares’ and ‘proclaims’ the glorious works of God.

Beautiful sunsets and scenery around the globe automatically give way to the evidence of God’s creation.

But He isn’t done yet.

He’s still creating.

Scripture says He knit us in our mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)

We have unique purpose on this earth, as evidence of Him. 

In a parable Matthew recorded, Jesus said,

“The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’” (Matthew 25:23).

The evidence of His work in our lives is the by-product of the work He has given us to do based on the talents He’s placed in us.

Whatever our age and stage in life, He is working through our relationships with the people He has placed around us.

The work we do is meant to point to Him.

The way we live is meant to lead others to Him.

We are made in His image.

We are evidence of God.

The Great Commission utterly envelopes us as it did those disciples, to ‘GO!’

God’s goal is to reach every heart and soul, and eye and ear, hand and foot with the Gospel, and He’s never failed to keep a promise.

We are part of that promise.

Not because He needs us, but out of His love for us.

The work He gives us isn’t easy, but it’s light. 

 Matthew recorded Jesus words:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

The evidence of God’s work in our lives is the way we live them, in our active and daily pursuit of Him.

Telling of Him, not only with our mouths delivering Gospel truth, but our lives putting it on full display, bringing above and beyond maximum glory unto Him with everyone who comes to know Him, experience Him, love Him through us.

What is Our Part?

Colossians 3:22-24Amplified Bible

22 Servants, in everything obey those who are your masters on earth, not only with external service, as those who merely please people, but with sincerity of heart because of your fear of the Lord. 23 Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is, put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing [with all certainty] that it is from the Lord [not from men] that you will receive the inheritance which is your [greatest] reward. It is the Lord Christ whom you [actually] serve.

Life has a purpose we cannot fully see from our limited perspective.

Whatever we find ourselves doing, we are called to do with all of our hearts.

Not perfectly, because that’s an impossible thing for us to attain.

God wants the totality of our hearts to be dedicated to Him.

Our part is to put Him first, not ourselves and not the opinions or approval of other people. Jesus came to serve, not to be served.

Our part is to serve others, get our hands and feet dirty with all of our hearts.

Paul wrote to Timothy,

1 Timothy 1:14-16 Amplified Bible

14 The grace of our Lord [His amazing, unmerited favor and blessing] flowed out in superabundance [for me, together] with the faith and love which are [realized] in Christ Jesus. 15 [a]This is a faithful and trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance and approval, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost [of sinners], Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example or pattern for those who [b]would believe in Him for eternal life.

Our part is not to lose perspective on our dependance upon Christ alone and our need for constant forgiveness and redemption in this life.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost,” Luke recorded Jesus’ saying (Luke 19:10).

Our part is remembering we once were lost, now are on a mission for the lost.

Our part is communicating we once were lost, now on a mission to labor in the fields of God’s kingdom, to give aid and comfort, a living hope of a true future.

Hebrews 11:1-2 Amplified Bible

The Triumphs of Faith

11 Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. 2 For by this [kind of] faith the [a]men of old gained [divine] approval.

To lead, guide and direct others towards the voice of their Savior Jesus Christ.

To be evidence of Jesus to the people in our lives, which brings glory to God.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

God, Builder of all things, I know that when I acknowledge your authority and your power that you will make my paths straight in front of me. Please empower me to live a greater life in Christ. May your Holy Spirit who lives in me draw me closer to you. Give me a mind of understanding. Let me see as you see, and not as the world sees. Let me labor as You labored, Let me serve as You first served, let me love as You first loved. I trust your judgment fully and know that my own judgment is limited. I believe you have everything in control, and you will guide me and my hands and my feet, my heart and my soul to labor to exactly where you require me to go. Amen.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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