Tag: The Word of God for the Children of God

To Whom Shall We Go? John 6:60-69

1. Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
through eternal ages let his praises ring;
glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
standing on the promises of God.
Refrain:
Standing, standing,
standing on the promises of Christ my Savior;
standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

2. Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
by the living Word of God I shall prevail,
standing on the promises of God.
(Refrain)

3. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
bound to him eternally by love’s strong cord,
overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword,
standing on the promises of God.
(Refrain)

4. Standing on the promises I cannot fall,
listening every moment to the Spirit’s call,
resting in my Savior as my all in all,
standing on the promises of God.
(Refrain)

John 6:60-69 The Message

Too Tough to Swallow

60 Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.”

61-65 Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, “Does this rattle you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”

66-67 After this, many of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”

68-69 Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

What If We See A Vision of the Ascended Savior?

John 6:60-65 Amplified Bible

60 When many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This is a difficult and harsh  and offensive statement. Who can [be expected to] listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, aware that His disciples were complaining about it, asked them, “Does this cause you to stumble and take offense? 62 What then [will you think] if you see the Son of Man ascending to [the realm] where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh conveys no benefit [it is of no account]. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life [providing eternal life]. 64 But [still] there are some of you who do not believe and have faith.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “This is the reason why I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him [that is, unless he is enabled to do so] by the Father.”

“Jesus Saves! Jesus Saves! Jesus Saves!

It may seem easy, at first, to line up, follow Jesus when we hear His promise of forgiveness, mercy and grace and salvation, and the promise of new life for us.

We naturally latch onto Jesus’ words of encouragement and reassurance.

The words are a source of great comfort, a source of Shalom Shalom we have been searching for, been reaching far into the depths of the vast universe for.

They are strange words at first because no one has taken the time to teach us, no one has taken the time to converse with us, nor even introduce them to us.

They are the “gotcha” words meant to immediately draw our attention away from all of the unholy hullabaloo which surrounds and swirls like a whirlwind.

Yes! Undoubtedly, these words will gain our attention at there spoken sound.

We will look at each other in wonder – “did we actually hear them?” gravitate towards the speaker of such unheard of words – highly curious – not really are we focused on anything of consequence beyond just the hearing and the talker.

What are they supposed to mean to us?

What are they meant to inspire us to do?

Are we just supposed to stand there and listen to someone give a short speech and then when they are done – then what – walk away for whatever reason?

We have heard these “motivational speeches” before – “Take them or Leave?”

Walk away, inspired or uninspired or disappointed, discouraged because we have no idea what was said or its implications means we have to commit to something we are sure we are no where near convinced of its true necessity?

And besides, the speaker is only going to go their own way and make the same speech somewhere else down the road – like any politician we have ever known.

“Get Out the Vote!” “Get Out and Vote for Me” “Because “Promises, Promises!”

Except, in our text, Jesus is not trying to be some sort of short term, mouthy political figure, another self absorbed, egotistical Temple Leader or any divine cheerleader waving those first century pom poms in all, every which direction.

He is the Savior who gave his life for our sake.

In our Bible reading for today, Jesus has pointed out the victory he would win, explaining to them that salvation comes only through his “flesh and blood.”

But that is not a message that sits easily with us.

In any age, it is a message anyone would scratch heads, mightily struggle with.

Because we have this innate, natural desire to try to save ourselves rather than to rely, try to understand, on the daily bread of life that Jesus gives “for the life of the world”—by laying down his own life, his own flesh his own life blood.

Jesus comes right out with these assembled disciples, demands total surrender to his authority and unto the gift of the salvation we cannot earn for ourselves.

The ascension makes clear that Jesus has this authority.

It reveals to the unspiritual and spiritual mindset that he is truly God, and it is from that place of undeniable authority He sends the Spirit to all who believe.

As followers of Jesus, we listen not only to His words that are easy to hear; we listen also to his words that call for our harsh, difficult, challenging obedience.

We are summoned to put our whole trust for salvation not in ourselves but in Jesus’ flesh and blood, given willingly by our heavenly Lord at a severe cost.

Jesus calls us to give of ourselves willingly for his sake. Can we accept that?

Can we take the not too difficult teachings and be inspired, and empowered?

Can we take the all too difficult teachings and be inspired and empowered?

To remain faithful, faith-filled, steadfast, immovable disciples for Jesus Christ?

Or do we shy away?

Quietly, indiscreetly, return to the peaceful non threatening confines of home?

To Whom Then Shall We Go to “hear” Words of Life?

John 6:66-69 Amplified Bible

Peter’s Confession of Faith

66 As a result of this [a]many of His disciples abandoned Him, and no longer walked with Him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve [disciples], “You do not want to leave too, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You [alone] have the words of eternal life [you are our only hope]. 69 We have believed and confidently trusted, and [even more] we have come to know [by personal observation and experience] that You are the Holy One of God [the Christ, the Son of the living God].”

Here is the mark of the true believer: Peter Cannot and Will Not Quit on Jesus!

When Jesus looked at them, when Jesus said to them, Will you go away also? 

It is clear that Jesus would have let them go their own way if they had wanted to.

He does not hold anybody against their will.

Responding to his Rabbi’s words, Peter says three wonderful things:

First,

Peter says, in effect, Rabbi, Teacher, Messiah, we have been thinking about it.

Rabbi, Teacher, Messiah, we have investigated the alternatives.

You are not easy to live with.

You embarrass us.

You frighten us.

We don’t understand you at times.

We see and hear you do things that simply blow our minds.

You offend people who we think are important.

You burn bridges best left intact for those of us who remain with you.

We have looked at some alternatives, but I want to tell you this,

Rabbi, Teacher, Messiah: We never found anyone who can do what you can do, who can dare to say what you can say with the same or with an equal authority. 

“Rabbi, Teacher, Messiah, to where shall we go, to whom shall we go?” 

“You have two things that hold us together, two things no one can dare deny, and the first is your words.”

“What you say to us has met our deepest need, has delivered us from our sins and freed us from our fears.”

“Your words, Lord, are the most remarkable words we have ever heard. You teach what no one else does, they explain us, they explain life to us. They satisfy us. Nobody speaks like you do, nobody understands life like you do. That holds us!”

Secondly, Lord, we have seen your character. 

Notice how Peter puts it: We have believed, and have come to know. 

That statement implies a process which has perhaps gone on over the course of months and years.

Peter is saying, 

We have carefully watched you, and we have come to see that there is nothing wrong in you. You are the Holy One of God, you are the Sinless One. You fit the prophecies; you fulfill the predictions. You speak with authority. You have drawn us, compelled us. You are the incomparable Christ, thus there is no place else to go.

I have found this to be, authentic, genuine, faithful and true of real Christians.

Those who steadfastly continue on always feel this way about Jesus.

They know their own failures, their own weaknesses.

They know that despite the many times they cannot nor do not understand what is happening to them, yet they cannot leave, they are compelled to stay.

This is the testimony of those who walk faithfully with him and follow him.

I have often said the best definition of a Christian is someone who cannot quit. 

Do we find being a Christian just too hard sometimes?

Are we ready to throw in the towel and walk away from your faith?

I had a phone call once from a young man, a relatively new Christian who said, 

“I cannot make it. I cannot understand it. I cannot apply it to my life. I cannot continue to be a Christian. It’s too hard. It’s too complicated. Everyone hates me now. No one wants to be a friend. I blow it all the time. I’m going to hang it up.” 

I had heard that kind of thing before, so I said to him, 

“That’s a good idea. Why don’t you do that? I think you’re right. Hang it up.”

“There was a pause on the line, then he said to me, You know I can’t do that.” 

I said, “I know it. Of course you can’t. You can’t quit. You wont quit. Who can you go to? Where can you find answers, resources such as you have drawn on?” 

This is what Peter is saying to Jesus.

This is what Peter is saying to us as believers today

This is what Peter is saying to the Body of Christ, the Church, today!

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
through eternal ages let his praises ring;
glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
standing on the promises of God.
Refrain:
Standing, standing,
standing on the promises of Christ my Savior;
standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 139:1-12 The Message

139 1-6 God, investigate my life;
    get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
    even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
    I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
    before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
    then up ahead and you’re there, too—
    your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
    I can’t take it all in!

7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
    to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
    If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
    to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
    you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
    At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
    night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

Father, hallowed be thy name! Help us to believe! Holy Spirit, strengthen us for obedient living! Lord Jesus, speak your words of authority to us, that we may accept and follow you. Lord, there is nowhere else to go because only you have the words of eternal life. Help me to cling to your words, to search them out and understand them and obey them and believe that they alone are the words that give life. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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“God, How May I Know What Your Will For My Life Is?” John 7:16-19

1. Take my life, and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee.

2. Take my voice, and let me sing
always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be
filled with messages from thee.
Take my silver and my gold;
not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use
every power as thou shalt choose.

3. Take my will, and make it thine;
it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour
at thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself, and I will be
ever, only, all for thee.

John 7:16-19 The Message

16-19 Jesus said, “I didn’t make this up. What I teach comes from the One who sent me. Anyone who wants to do his will can test this teaching and know whether it’s from God or whether I’m making it up. A person making things up tries to make himself look good. But someone trying to honor the one who sent him sticks to the facts and doesn’t tamper with reality. It was Moses, wasn’t it, who gave you God’s Law? But none of you are living it. So why are you trying to kill me?”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus Dominum.

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

Is Jesus For Real?

Do you ever wonder if Jesus actually was what he claimed to be?

Do we have trouble at times struggling with understanding what he is saying in these tremendous passages, especially in the Gospel narrative of John?

Well, if that is the case, Jesus tells you what to do: Practice what he says.

Obey his words.

Repent of your sins.

Come to Him.

Cast yourself upon his mercy.

Believe in his forgiveness, and go out in obedience and treat people the way he says to.

Then we will know from an inside knowledge that no one can take away that what He says is true, because His authority, teaching, is in line with the reality we are seeing of God at work through us.

This is a sacred principle that runs all through our life: We all learn by doing.

A doctor may learn all that the medical books can teach them, but until they get their hands into their clinical specialty, area of expertise, surgery or dispenses medicines to people who are in critical need of their service, never really learns.

The same is true in any field: We all learn by Our Doing.

When we do what Jesus says, we practice obedience and discipline ourselves, we begin to understand with a deep conviction that He knows what life is all about.

This explains the phenomenon of certain people who become Christians—some of them early, some late in life—and who immediately practice what they have learned through study of God’s Word, and then grow with astonishing rapidity.

They subtly become “more” grown up, capable, well-adjusted whole persons, seemingly almost overnight, while others who sit under the teaching of the Scripture for years hardly seem ever to grow at all; they are still childlike in their behavior, emotionally upset, anxious, timid, stagnant and fear-ridden.

This is because they are not doing what they hear.

They are only maintaining themselves in a “milk and cookies” Christianity.

Those who put into practice the truth they hear begin to grow immediately.

Now, it is graduating into whole hearted “meat and potatoes” evangelism.

They have entered the place called the tried, true, “Will of God For Their Lives.”

Ways to Know God’s Will for Your Life

When I was a young (in the faith) Christian, I seemed to continually wrestle with knowing to know what God’s will was for my life.

I wanted more than anything to follow His plan.

Interestingly, now that I’m “older” (currently 62 years old), I still wrestle with knowing and doing God’s will in my life.

Over the years of “near continual discernment” I have come to learn that this is not just something that many young persons does early in life; it is that lifelong pursuit, through study, prayer, in order to stay in the exact center of His plan.

So, then, how can we authentically, faithfully know God’s plan for our lives?

Over the past twenty-some years that I have been in both lay and lay pastoral ministry, I have discovered several vital keys to genuinely knowing God’s will.

Here they are:

1. Walk with God.

Proverbs 3:5-12 The Message

5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
    don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
    he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
    Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
    your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
    give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
    your wine vats will brim over.
But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
    don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
    a father’s delight is behind all this.

For starters, if you are authentically interested in knowing God’s plan for your life, then you must genuinely learn to walk faithfully, faith-filled, with God.

You need to engage, work literally all of the soils of your life cultivate, develop and sow, plant the seeds of a harvest, then bear fruit – a relationship with Him.

Matthew 13:10-17 The Message

Why Tell Stories?

10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”

11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward a welcome awakening. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:

Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
    Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are stupid!
They stick their fingers in their ears
    so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
    so they won’t have to look,
    so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
    and let me heal them.

16-17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.

Christianity is all about working the soils, relationship rather than just religion.

And so you must cultivate your relationship with God.

We must seek to know Him through our labor, not just seek to know about Him.

We will cultivate that relationship best by spending time in His Word, taking time for prayer, and taking every opportunity you can to be involved in church and fellowship gatherings small group Bible study and prayer, opportunities.

When we seek “work these soils” cultivate these disciplines in, within our life, God will begin the first steps, plant the first seeds, to revealing His plan to you.

2. Surrender your will to God’s.

Romans 12:1-2 The Message

Place Your Life Before God

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Far too many times when we say we are seeking God’s will, what we are really wanting to say to God is this: “OK, God, here’s what I’m planning to do.” “Now I need you authentically, faithfully [automatically] to rubber stamp this, all right?”

I must break into your Theology to tell you that this is not really going to be an effective thought or planning, process in discovering and finding His true will.

Before God will begin to allow the seed to germinate, reveal His will to you, you must be committed, faithful, to doing whatever it is He desires for you to do.

God will likely be slow, not as we understand slow, but God understands slow, to show you His true plan if He knows you will likely not do that plan anyway.

Jesus was willing come to die for us, so shouldn’t we be willing to live for Him?

When we surrender to Him, that is when He really begins to direct our steps.

3. Obey what you already know to be God’s will.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-18 The Message

The Way He Wants You to Live

12-13 And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!

13-15 Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.

16-18 Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

Many people seem to want to know what God’s plan is for their lives, but they overlook the fact that 98% of His will is already delineated carefully through His Word – God is very authentic, clear about many, many aspects of His will.

Honor, respect those leaders and authority figures who work so hard for you, who have been given by God, the true responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your faith journey, in your wisdom and understanding and practice of obedience.

Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part to get along with others.

Warn the “freeloaders” to “get with the plan for the community” and start earning their keep, “get along with God’s plan for His Kingdom” and to laboring for God.

Gently encourage and inspire and empower the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet, showing them places where they may rest.

Be patient with each person, attentive to their individual needs.

Be careful that when we get on each others nerves, we do not snap at each other.

Look for the best in each other and always do your best to bring out their best.

Be Cheerful – no matter what!

Pray all of the time.

Thank God – no matter what happens!

If we do not practice His Presence, obey the things God has shown us clearly to be His will, why then would we think He would reveal any further information regarding His plan for our lives?

Practice Obedience and Practice His Wisdom are critically important first steps.

4. Seek godly input.

Proverbs 11:14 The Message

14 Without good direction, people lose their way;
    the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.

One key component to finding God’s will is to seek the input of godly advisors in your life.

If you don’t currently have 3-4 godly mentors, then I would highly recommend that you seek them out right away.

Think of it this way: you should understand that you are basically a composite of the five people you spend the most time with.

So, then, it is vital that you choose those five people well.

If you choose to surround yourself with godly advisors, they’ll be instrumental in helping you discern God’s plan for your life.

But if you surround yourself with people who are far from God, your hope of finding His best for your life will be greatly diminished.

The church is designed to help you greatly with this.

I would encourage you to be in church every single time the doors are opened.

The more you involve yourself with a community of believers, the greater your chances will be of finally finding authentic godly men and women who can help you discern God’s will.

5. Pay attention to how God has wired you.

1 Peter 4:7-11The Message

7-11 Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

God has created you and me to fulfill a specific role in this world.

There is no one else who can achieve completely what God has purposely created us to do.

God has gifted every one of us to perform a special mission for which we alone were created.

How amazing is that?

Wow!

So, when you seek to discover God’s will for your life, pay attention to how He has gifted you.

His plan for you will always be directly related to the gifts that He has bestowed upon you.

The great news is that you will automatically be good at whatever it is that He has called you to do!

6. Listen to God’s spirit.

John 16:12-15The Message

12-15 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’

I experienced a major turning point in my own prayer life when I learned simply to shut up while I was praying.

That may sound odd to you, and it seemed odd to me at first.

You see, I used to do all the talking when I prayed to God.

But then, several years ago, I read Bill Hybel’s book, Too Busy Not to Pray.

That book completely changed the way I approached God through prayer.

Since reading that book, I have added a significant component to my prayer life: listening.

I take time to “very carefully” listen to what God might have to say to me.

Practically, the way I go about this is to bring a notepad with me when I sit down to pray.

Then I contemplate at the top of several thoughts things like the following:

  • “What is the next step in my career?”
  • “What is the next step in my ministry?”
  • “What is the next step for my family?”
  • “What is the next step for my marriage?”
  • “What is the next step in my education?”
  • “What is the next step in my finances?”

During my prayer time, I meditate on questions such as the above.

Often, God will start flooding my heart with ideas and information regarding one or more of those questions.

Sometimes, not all of the time I write as fast as I can as He speaks to my heart.

What a glorious experience to sense His Spirit on me, guiding my thoughts and words, guiding my personal studies of the bible, writing of these devotionals.

Through experiences like this, He has shown me many times with great clarity what His will is for my life.

I long for those experiences when He speaks to me like that.

Those times are truly, authentically, life changing.

7. Listen to your heart.

Psalm 37:3-6 The Message

3-4 Get insurance with God and do a good deed,
    settle down and stick to your last.
Keep company with God,
    get in on the best.

5-6 Open up before God, keep nothing back;
    he’ll do whatever needs to be done:
He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day
    and stamp you with approval at high noon.

In addition to listening to the Spirit, I also recommend listening to your heart.

I love this passage, because it shows me that, when I am walking with the Lord, He will actually let me do many really cool things that I actually love to do!

When you are close to Him, He actually begins to shape your desires so that you desire the things that He has already called you to do.

So then, His plan actually becomes a super-exciting adventure.

I always have the most fun in life when I am doing God’s will.

And that is because He shapes and transforms every single one of my “wants” to always wanting to do all those things for which He has actually created me.

8. Take a look at your circumstances.

Acts 16:6-10 The Message

6-8 They went to Phrygia, and then on through the region of Galatia. Their plan was to turn west into Asia province, but the Holy Spirit blocked that route. So they went to Mysia and tried to go north to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let them go there either. Proceeding on through Mysia, they went down to the seaport Troas.

9-10 That night Paul had a dream: A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news to the Europeans.

God often clearly demonstrates His desired plan for our lives by His lining up circumstances in obvious ways.

And He also shows us what His will is NOT for us to do in that same way.

It is not His will for you to take the job that is not offered to you.

If you are of short stature it is not likely that God has created you to play 60 plus minutes of professional American NFL football.

But then again, there is the opportunity to play sports like professional soccer and be successful at a host of other amateur, professional sports opportunities

Over the years, I’ve discovered God is pretty good at opening and closing doors.

He even did that for the Apostle Paul and his entourage in the Book of Acts. 

So, even Paul had to face closed doors in his ministry.

God often uses closed doors to show us clearly what He does NOT want us to do.

And He also uses open doors at times to show us what He DOES want us to do.

Of course, this does not mean that every single open door is definitely God’s plan, but it surely and certainly does help to give you some basic direction.

A Closing Thought:

Psalm 27:7-10 The Message

7-9 Listen, God, I’m calling at the top of my lungs:
    “Be good to me! Answer me!”
When my heart whispered, “Seek God,”
    my whole being replied,
“I’m seeking him!”
    Don’t hide from me now!

9-10 You’ve always been right there for me;
    don’t turn your back on me now.
Don’t throw me out, don’t abandon me;
    you’ve always kept the door open.
My father and mother walked out and left me,
    but God took me in.

The next time you begin to ponder God’s plan for your life, I would encourage you to study and pray over the Word of God and mull over the above eight keys.

In fellowship with your brother and sisters in Christ, use these principles to help you to hone in on His plan.

And when you earnestly and fervently seek His will alone, you will 100% find it!

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 84 The Message

84 1-2 What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
    I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house,
    where I could sing for joy to God-alive!

3-4 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
    sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
    singing their songs in the place where we worship.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!
    How blessed they are to live and sing there!

5-7 And how blessed all those in whom you live,
    whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
    discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
    at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!

8-9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
    O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
    our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

10-12 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
    beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
    than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is God,
    generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
    It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus Dominum.

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

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Authentically, Genuinely, Faithfully, Following God and Graduating Into Our God’s Life Long Desires for Us. Proverbs 19:20-21

It is graduation season.

It is a time for celebrating God and celebrating families, celebrating what we have learned and the prospect of living into our life’s dreams and aspirations for our soon to future.

Every true follower of Jesus Christ says he wants to do the will of God, yet most Christians think of God’s will as something that is imposed on them — something distasteful and difficult that they are forced to do.

They picture God demanding that they give in to a hard set of rules and conditions: “Do it my way or you’re on your own!”

How very wrong they are.

When a believer knows the glory of doing the Lord’s perfect will, he embraces it with joy and hope. To embrace means “to clasp, as in your arms” as an expression of love and affection.

God’s will is not just for ministers or deeply spiritual saints, but for all his children.

The New Testament exhorts us, “[God makes] you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight” (Hebrews 13:21).

God desires that you enter into his plan and will today.

The early apostles had one desire for all the churches — that every single member know God’s perfect will and embrace it.

Paul wrote of a brother named Epaphras “who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ … always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12).

Epaphras knew God had a perfect will for everyone in the congregation and that if they entered into it, they would find joy and have their needs met.

Christ told his disciples, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30).

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (6:38).

There was never a moment in Jesus’ life when he wasn’t aware that his purpose on earth was to do the will of the Father. And this ought to be true of you and me as well.

Once you and I explore, discover, then embrace the will of God, something incredible happens—Jesus manifests himself to you and me in new ways!

Proverbs 19:20-21 The Message

20 Take good counsel and accept correction—
    that’s the way to live wisely and well.

21 We humans keep brainstorming options and plans,
    but God’s purpose prevails.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

Life Is No Different than Building a Mansion of Cards

Proverbs 19:20-21 Amplified Bible

20 
Listen to counsel, receive instruction, and accept correction,
That you may be wise in the time to come.
21 
Many plans are in a man’s mind,
But it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand (be carried out).

We all have dreams and high aspirations for our lives.

Now that Graduation season is upon us in full force, dreams and aspirations are practically all that is being talked about, dreamt about, extensively planned out.

Some may dream of being a ballerina, a singer, an actress, a teacher, a doctor or a lawyer, successful business person, an accountant, a nurse or a social worker.

As many jobs and opportunities as there are, possibilities are literally endless.

As many careers and career paths there are we are only too limited by ourselves.

If you can think of it, they say, you can quite literally do anything when you put your heart, body, soul, mind and strength and resources to do that something.

High School and College students are often encouraged to have a 5-year or 10-year plan for their life, a backup plan if their first career goal doesn’t happen.

No matter what our age group, we all have dreams and aspirations we have high hopes of accomplishing – being successful, going into business for ourselves.

We do not want to be stagnant nor stagnated in our career paths – we deeply desire to prosper at what we set out to do in life and we will work very hard.

Sometimes we get the itch to try dream higher, aspire higher, to something completely different, something more exciting and challenging and fun too.

We will then plan our resources to go back into school for new career paths.

New vocational opportunities are always presenting themselves at various points in our life – we consider them – then decide on if it is the right time.

Ultimately, we are encouraged to go for our dreams and not to be distracted. 

But what happens when we struggle, when our dreams are slow or slower to develop to bear our desired fruits, or slowed or in the end, do not come true?

Is all hope lost?

Should we just give up on our dreams and aspirations and throw in the towel?

Should we necessarily settle for a life dream far less than what we imagined?

I believe that depends on your perspective – worldly view or heavenly view.

There is a transition going on here which we may not be fully appreciating.

Aside from high school or university guidance and career counselors, are we “faithfully” making our own plans without consulting our faithful God first?

Are we faithfully praying to the Lord, asking Him to align our will with His?

As parents or step parents or grandparents of these new graduates, are any of us faithfully counselling the graduate to pray or are we praying with, for them?

The Bible says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33 NIV).

Are we teaching our children from the Word of God about making wise choices?

Are we teaching our children from the Word of God about making hard choices?

Are we teaching our children from the Word of God the meaning, the wisdom of and behind the admonition of Jesus: “let your YES be YES and your NO be NO?”

Are we teaching children from the Word of God about God’s wisdom over ours?

Over-all, are parents teaching their children about life from the Word of God?

I believe those things include teaching children about the dreams of our hearts.

Then again, are we teaching and admonishing each other from the Word of God as adults to adults from and within whatever age groups these biblical truths?

How to raise children (of whatever their ages are) in the “way they should go?”

Teenagers are still somebody’s children and have to navigate an extraordinary level of life’s complexities – as do the young adults in their college age years.

Even more mature adults well into their careers and family’s require parental guidance from time to time as they make their own major life path decisions.

However, as much as our own life lessons taught us about pursuing our dreams, for graduates, it can be a great adventure that will only work if we put God first. 

A few days ago, I remembered I heard a sermon from Pastor Steven Furtick.

In it, he said something that still resonates with me today.

When I heard it a few years ago, I recall in so many words, he explained,

“The Bible doesn’t tell us to follow our dreams. It tells us to follow God!” 

After many fruitless efforts of trying it on my own, I found that to be true.

Raised in the USA, I have always heard phrases like, “Follow your heart” and “No pain – No Gain” “Take your passion and by all means, make it happen!” 

But the older I got, the more I remembered my life’s “best efforts” then recalled how the Bible says that “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9).

So, why are we so focused on what our heart desires?

The circumstances of life can change in less time than it takes for one heartbeat.

In the time it takes for us to take one short or long breath, our world, our own dreams, our own aspirations are undone, thoroughly being turned upside down.

Just ask the Patriarch Abram when He was commanded to leave his home and his family behind for some far off place which he had not one single clue where.

Just ask the Patriarch Job whose entire life was upended.

Just ask the Patriarch Noah when all of a sudden God told him to build an ark of immense proportions and do it alone- Did Noah possess those carpentry skills?

Just ask the Prophet Jonah when God commanded him to travel to Nineveh and to become everyone’s evangelist – demanding repentance and transformation?

And with Jonah, what if those desires of God were not even minimally believed to be any part of our own destinies – do we flat out reject God and all His ideas?

Whether we are teaching our children the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6) or as we are growing older and more mature we are planning for our retirements, we can easily be led astray by self if we let our hearts lead us instead of Jesus.

However, the Bible also advises all of His beloved Children to delight ourselves in the Lord (not self), and He will give us the desires of our hearts. (Psalm 37:4)

So there is hope – in the Lord much more so than hope in ourselves, right?

God cares about everything that affects us, including our 5-to-10-year plan.

He wants you and me to dream, not by following your heart but by following His heart first and foremost.

The Bible does not say we need to have everything single thing figured out.

But it does say we need to trust God in everything, more than we do ourselves and He’ll make our paths straight, it will be health to thy navel refreshment for our bones (Proverbs 3:5-8 KJV). 

It gives me comfort and hopes to know God cares about my children’s dreams and my own and my wife’s and that He’s willing to give all of us the desires of our hearts according to His will – not one centimeter according to our own.

If my dreams and plans are outside God’s will for my life, they will not happen.

I am more than okay with that because the Bible says in Proverbs 14:12, “What you think is the right road may lead to death.” (GNT)

What a powerful point!

It helps me remember God knows best.

That the will of God is more faithful, more genuine, more authentic than mine!

The Genuine Article, The Authenticity of God’s Will

Sometimes the dream we desperately want to come true could end our lives.

We cannot see that from our limited human perspective.

However, we serve a God who can see the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), so counselling each other toward asking Him for His plans for our lives is vital.

You and I can rest assured God knows you better than you know yourself.

He knows what path will bring you the most joy and peace.

He knows the gifts and talents He’s given us and the best way those blessings can be discovered and explored, developed and encouraged, and be shared too. 

Remember, God’s dreams for you and me are not just to help you and me to be an individual success story but also help the world by edifying God’s Kingdom.

If we encourage each other, ask Him to align our will with His, we will want to align, then realign our Kingdom dreams the same Kingdom dreams He wants.

Often, you and I may actually discover the dream God has for you and me is far greater than you or I could ever possibly imagine and will make us the happiest.

Our Authentic, Genuine, Faithful Alignment With God

1 Peter 1:6-7 The Message

6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

Some things can only be tested by time.

If you have ever attempted to buy a new car, a house, or a dresser or cabinet at a reasonable price, perhaps you’ve considered whether to buy a used vehicle first, a secondhand piece for nearly the same price, a new piece from a discount store.

The problems associated with a new vehicle are obvious – you do not know how it was driven, how well it was maintained, traded in because of a nuisance issue.

The drawback is that such pieces of furniture may prove, when they’re opened and closed, have doors and drawers that are warped, won’t go back into place.

The vehicle may be clean and wonderful on the outside – but when driven off the lot for a couple of hundred miles – may quickly become a mechanical WOW!

We may find ourselves paying our favorite mechanic more than we first paid.

The item of furniture quickly becomes a real mess.

It may look good on the outside on first inspection, but the real issue is with its day-by-day use and what the test of time will show, which will prove whether you and I have the genuine article or an authentic unsellable, unusable, mess.

On the same note, how do we know whether or not our faith is the real thing?

The answer, at least in part, is that authentic, genuine faith is to be discovered in our day-by-day “opening and closing” “success and failure responses—in facing up to the subtle, not so subtle challenges and trials that come our way.

Some suggest, even teach and worse preach that victorious Christian living means the absence of trials—that if we are really men and women of authentic, genuine faith, then trials will be an uncommon experience because of “grace.”

Peter says the exact opposite is true: the experience of trials and difficulties is not uncommon, unusual, or unproductive in a Christian’s life, but is purposeful and an authentic and essential, absolutely genuine component, of God’s plan.

We must rigorously, vigorously teach this as preparation for Kingdom living.

We prove to ourselves and those who may be watching that our faith is genuine when we face challenges and refuse to run away, instead holding on to our trust in Christ’s goodness no matter how difficult the path He is leading us all along.

By such preparation, when (not if,) trials come and everything goes askew, we find out whether our testimonies and the professions we’ve made about God’s grace, peace, and securing providence are authentic, genuine, faithful to God.

Reverend Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote in Morning and Evening,

“The one who would glorify his God must be prepared to meet with many trials. No one can be illustrious before the Lord unless his conflicts are many. If, then, yours is a much-tried path”—that is, a path of many trials—“rejoice in it, because you will be better able to display the all-sufficient grace of God. As for His failing you, never dream of it—hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now should be trusted to the end.“

Will your faith, will my own faith, will your graduates faith in God over self prove authentic, genuine through life’s current, coming greatest challenges?

By learning from success and learning from our failures, it is not only possible to hold on by God’s grace, but it is also profitable on account of God’s grace.

As we learn from success and failure, as we fall, but then learn how to raise again, as we trust in His grace, we will discover we can rejoice, because our happiness ultimately is not tied to circumstances but found in persevering in your faith—in knowing the sufficiency of Christ in circumstances would never would have chosen, in looking forward to the day when your Savior is revealed.

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross with my Children

What dreams and aspirations has God placed on your heart?

What dreams and aspirations has God placed on your graduates heart?

How does it bring you hope to know following God’s plan for your life is best?

How does it bring the promise of hope to your graduate to know God’s will?

What hopes and aspirations and dreams does it raise up inside my own heart?

What about all the opportunities, possibilities, the Holy Spirit just revealed?

“Come Holy Ghost My Heart is Now Inspired – Come, Let us Build a Mansion.”

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

Let us Pray,

Father God, We pray for graduates in their walks with You. Give them a hunger to know You more deeply, more intimately, and more personally than they ever have before. We know that You are the Living Water that can quench their spirits, and Lord we pray that You would pour out Your Spirit upon them.  We pray that they would see their lives in the present and in retrospect with the full comprehension that You are working and weaving things together for their good. We pray for them to have a strong relationship with You that will withstand any storms life throws at them.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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With or Without God in the World? With or Without the Christ in the World? With or Without the Holy Spirit in the World Today? Psalm 49

1. Reflect: How does wealth tempt us to trust in it rather than God? What does it mean that God redeems his people from Sheol?

2. Remember: In this life, we often find ourselves struggling and suffering. We may look on the wealthy and envy them, hoping that we too could be wealthy and live an easier life. The temptation is great. But Psalm 49 reminds us that wealth is fleeting. Treasures on earth do not last, and they can never redeem a person from the grave (Sheol); even the wealthy go to the grave. On the other hand, it is God alone who has the power to ransom a person from death and to grant eternal life. Jesus Christ, in his life, death, and resurrection has ransomed his people from the power of the grave (Mark 10:45).

3. Rejoice: Trust in Christ alone for salvation. Faithfully trust in the fact that he died for you so that you may have eternal joy with him in the new creation. Rejoice that Jesus did what no mere person can—he has ransomed you from death itself so that you may live for him in gratitude with love.

Psalm 49 The Message

49 1-2 Listen, everyone, listen—
    earth-dwellers, don’t miss this.
All you haves
    and have-nots,
All together now: listen.

3-4 I set plainspoken wisdom before you,
    my heart-seasoned understandings of life.
I fine-tuned my ear to the sayings of the wise,
    I solve life’s riddle with the help of a harp.

5-6 So why should I fear in bad times,
    hemmed in by enemy malice,
Shoved around by bullies,
    demeaned by the arrogant rich?

7-9 Really! There’s no such thing as self-rescue,
    pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
The cost of rescue is beyond our means,
    and even then it doesn’t guarantee
Life forever, or insurance
    against the Black Hole.

10-11 Anyone can see that the brightest and best die,
    wiped out right along with fools and idiots.
They leave all their prowess behind,
    move into their new home, The Coffin,
The cemetery their permanent address.
    And to think they named counties after themselves!

12     We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
    Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.

13-15 This is what happens to those who live for the moment,
    who only look out for themselves:
Death herds them like sheep straight to hell;
    they disappear down the gullet of the grave;
They waste away to nothing—
    nothing left but a marker in a cemetery.
But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death,
    he reaches down and grabs me.

16-19 So don’t be impressed with those who get rich
    and pile up fame and fortune.
They can’t take it with them;
    fame and fortune all get left behind.
Just when they think they’ve arrived
    and folks praise them because they’ve made good,
They enter the family burial plot
    where they’ll never see sunshine again.

20     We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
    Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

With or Without God in the World?

For centuries, Western society has benefited from the widespread influence of the Christian faith.

While the history of our World is filled with too many soul chilling examples of human depravity, where there has been a consistent Christian presence it has, in many ways and at many times, with great struggles, stayed the hand of evil.

Most, but not all of us, have not had to experience the full weight of what a society looks like, when it completely and utterly rejects and forgets God.

The Scriptures, however, do give us a decidedly grim picture of what happens when people have convinced themselves and many others that there is no God.

It is a picture of a rejection of humility, where “the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul” and rejects God in pride (Psalm 10:3-4).

Humility is the first place where the knowledge and the wisdom of God begins; therefore, those who reject God in their life reject humility’s place in their life.

Psalm 10:3-4 The Message

3-4 The wicked are windbags,
    the swindlers have foul breath.
The wicked snub God,
    their noses stuck high in the air.
Their graffiti are scrawled on the walls:
    “Catch us if you can!” “God is dead.”

Not only do people reject God; they also revile Him, cursing, renouncing Him declaring God to be dead, buried in an unknown paupers grave (Psalm 10:3-4).

It is often prosperity that leads people to curse God and bury God in the woods.

Their lives are going so well, so perfectly, so perfectly hidden, that they believe nothing can, ever will touch them and they will give no account to their Maker.

Their prosperity gives them a false sense of security.

Psalm 10:10-11 The Message

10-11 The hapless fool is kicked to the ground,
    the unlucky victim is brutally axed.
He thinks God has dumped him,
    he’s sure that God is indifferent to his plight.

They think they can live as they like, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, He will never see it” (v 11), that there will be no repercussions for their behavior.

Psalm 10:7-9 The Message

7-8 They carry a mouthful of spells,
    their tongues spit venom like adders.
They hide behind ordinary people,
    then pounce on their victims.

9 They mark the luckless,
    then wait like a hunter in a blind;
When the poor wretch wanders too close,
    they stab him in the back.

With no accountability for how people live, there is no need for the powerful to serve or the strong to be gentle: we can treat others however we please, so the godless person can behave as if there’s no restraints placed upon their actions.

“tongues that spit venom like adders,” “hide behind ordinary people” “sits in ambush, he murders the innocent, he lurks that he may seize the poor” (v 7-9).

It is with good reason, then, that the psalmist says, “Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.” Psalm 49:20

When we act and behave, reject and revile God, we foolishly think we are secure, which convinces us that it’s acceptable for us to freely mistreat, reject others.

It is tempting to think that passages like this one only describes other people.

But we should not be too quick to look away from ourselves.

Are there ways we have rejected humility, believing ourselves to be sufficient without God?

Have we let our alleged prosperity numb us to our neediness and accountability before God?

Has our “humble” treatment of those around us been marked by self-interest and arrogance instead of love and service?

We may confess to have faith in God, but perhaps there are areas of our lives that require an intensely rigorous and vigorous Psalm 51 brand of repentance.

The picture of man “in the fullness of his pomp yet without understanding” is indeed a grievously and tragically bleak one—both in this life and at its end.

So perhaps it is the perfect time to praise God that this is not the whole picture.

Psalm 49:13-15 The Message

13-15 This is what happens to those who live for the moment,
    who only look out for themselves:
Death herds them like sheep straight to hell;
    they disappear down the gullet of the grave;
They waste away to nothing—
    nothing left but a marker in a cemetery.
But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death,
    he reaches down and grabs me.

If you and I can reach a place of understanding that we have a Creator to whom we are valuable and accountable, and that that Creator has ransomed your soul and will receive you into eternal life (Psalm 49:15), then the pomp of this world will assume its proper place, and in Jesus Christ you and I will arrive at a place where we can enjoy a purpose, hope, forgiveness, and pleasures forevermore.

Depending on our own personal relationship with God, today’s Psalm 49 will either be the aroma of life, or the stench of death to you (2 Corinthians 2:14-16).

With or Without the Christ in the World?

Psalm 49:5-9 English Standard Version

5 Why should I fear in times of trouble,
    when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
6 those who trust in their wealth
    and boast of the abundance of their riches?
7 Truly no man can ransom another,
    or give to God the price of his life,
8 for the ransom of their life is costly
    and can never suffice,
9 that he should live on forever
    and never see the pit.

We will either read Psalm 49 and have our soul refreshed, comforted, and filled with joy and hope; or we will read this Psalm 49 and it will fully expose our pride our delusions and our illusions of self-sufficiency, which will cause our soul to become embittered, angry, and insulted – in which case we wont read Psalm 49.

For those of us who respond to God’s summons to repent of our sins and fully trust in Jesus for this life and the next, this Psalm 49 is another beautiful and comforting reminder of God’s love and faithfulness to us because of His Son.

Mark 10:35-45 English Standard Version

The Request of James and John

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39  And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[a] 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave[b] of all. 45  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:5-11 English Standard Version

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Because I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who willingly disrobed Himself of His glory in Heaven where He was perfectly worshiped, honored, and obeyed;

That because Jesus came to earth in sackcloth and ashes (skin and bones);

to pay the high cost of the ransom for my soul drenched in sin, which I could not pay, nor hope to pray, by suffering the punishment I justly deserve from God Almighty, and dying the second death (spiritual) that my sins earned me,

yet because He alone is God, had the power to raise Himself from the dead,

so I would only die the first death (bodily), and in Him, would never die the second death, but have been freed, raised to live the resurrected life now and forevermore,

the entirety of this Psalm 49 becomes nothing but the truest and purest salve for my Christ upon the Cross, fully ransomed soul and a joy to my innermost being!

I pray it is the same for all who read this.

With or Without The Leading of the Holy Spirit

Romans 8:12-14 The Message

12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

Where do you and I need leadership in our lives?

What challenge, decision, or circumstance is weighing on you and me?

Where do you and I need a timely word from God today?

We have available to us the most perfect guide to lead us throughout the twists, turns, and challenges of this adventurous life.

The Apostle Paul writes these words of wisdom to the followers in Romans 8:14, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

As beloved children of the Most High God, we are each granted full access to the leadership of the Holy Spirit who richly makes His home in us, dwells within us.

No child of God is exempt from the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

We do not earn access by our own merit.

We do not gain more favor to receive more leadership.

God gave us all the gift of the Holy Spirit because God loves us (John 3:16-17).

God has filled us with His Holy Spirit because God longs to lead us into the abundant life He alone has planned for us from the beginning of time.

So, let’s start learning today how we might better explore, discover and follow this gift of leadership we’ve all been granted through Christ in the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-18 The Message

16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

First, it’s crucial to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit and the word work perfectly together.

One does not contradict the other.

Both the Holy Spirit, the word He inspired are vital in living the Christian life.

And God’s Word says in Galatians 5:16-18,

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

The leadership of the Spirit is in direct opposition to the lifestyle of the world.

His desire is always to lead us away from the weight of sin that entangles us in the perspectives and pressures of the world toward a lifestyle of peace, joy, and intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.

All of His leadership is directed, purposed, toward one and singular the goal of abundant life in God, of the fullness of satisfaction in God rather than the weak, fleeting, prideful, ultimately self defeating pleasures in the things of the world.

With or Without God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit

John 16:12-15 The Message

12-15 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’

John 16:13 says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

The Holy Spirit is indescribably excited to speak to you and me what He hears from the heavenly Father.

He longs to declare to you and me God’s plans to love you and me, provide for you and me, heal you and me, transform you and me, and deliver you and me.

He longs to lead you and me to the fullness of life available to you and me here.

Spend time getting to know the Holy Spirit in the secret place today.

As you and I pray today, let us ask God to reveal himself to you and me.

Spend time in prayer resting in the maximum presence of the God who dwells within you and me, who is nearer to us than the very ground beneath our feet.

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

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God’s desire to lead you into abundant life.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” > Romans 8:14

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” > John 10:10

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal himself to you. 

Spend time learning about who Holy Spirit is.

Ask Him to speak to you and to reveal the way His leadership feels.

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Romans 8:16

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” > John 16:13

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” Acts 13:2   

“For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements.” Acts 15:28

3. Open up your life to the Holy Spirit. 

Ask Him to reveal to you things He wants to lead you away from.

Ask Him to show you the life He wants to lead you to.

And commit to following His leadership today.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” > Galatians 5:16-18

When you and I have opportunities to indulge in the flesh, choose life in the Spirit instead.

When you and I feel a desire to avenge ourselves, promote ourselves, slander ourselves or someone else, or engage in an obviously sinful activity, please do choose life in God, the Father, in God the Son and in God the Holy Spirit instead.

Choose to love God and others.

Live in step with the Spirit!

Explore and discover the amazing life He longs to guide us all into today.

Dear ABBA, my true Father, I come to you today asking for guidance. I feel lost and overwhelmed, and I need your help in finding my way. Please open my eyes and heart to the direction you want me to take. Help me to make wise decisions that will lead me closer to your path for my life. Give me the strength and courage to persevere when times are difficult. Lead me with your truth and love, so that I may live a life that brings glory to your name. Thank you for your guidance and protection. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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Being Anointed and Taught by the Holy Spirit of God. 1 John 2:20-21

We have perfectly powerful guidance in Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

The pairing of God’s written word and the very God who authored the word have the power to lead us into a life of all wisdom, understanding, and revelation.

But we must choose to live this life in light of eternity.

We must choose success in heaven over success in the world’s eyes.

Scripture and the teaching of the Holy Spirit only have power in our lives if we follow their leadership and principles.

Choose today to be a doer of the word instead of a hearer only and discover freeing and empowering wisdom that has the power to transform your life.

1 John 2:20-21 Amplified Bible

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One [you have been set apart, specially gifted and prepared by the Holy Spirit], and all of you know [the truth because He teaches us, illuminates our minds, and guards us from error]. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie [nothing false, no deception] is of the truth.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

As believers in God and our Savior Jesus, we have been given the Holy Spirit as an Advocate, Helper, Intercessor, Teacher, Friend, and Seal for the promised inheritance of eternal life with God.

His living presence, guidance, and wisdom ministering, working in and within our lives, are our greatest gifts while here on earth.

Through Holy Spirit, we have access, we have a direct line, and an unbreakable connection with our heavenly Father.

Through him we receive spiritual gifts to empower us.

And through him we are able to bear the incredible fruit of abundant life.

In our response to these gifts of presence, and purpose, open your heart and mind to all the Holy Spirit would give you, show you, and lead you to this week.

God’s Holy Fire: ‘The Promised Coming’

John 14:26-27 The Message

25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.

We have in the Holy Spirit the same Teacher who faithfully breathed the perfect and practical words of Scripture to imperfect men across thousands of years.

And Jesus said in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” 

Not only did the Holy Spirit teach the disciples, but he also longs to teach us.

He longs to reveal to us the depths of God so that we might learn what it is to be a true follower of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Holy Spirit longs to show us the wisdom of God, reveal His Ways, His Truths, His Life, so that we might live and minister to and into the Kingdom of God as men and women empowered and inspired by God rather than nearly complete fools who only seek and find their knowledge only in the matters of the world.

Let us take a few steps back into His Humility, let’s open our minds and hearts to receive the wisdom that can only come from God himself in the Holy Spirit.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:10, “These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” 

The Holy Spirit who dwells within us searches the depths of God and longs to reveal to us the ways of our heavenly Father.

He longs to teach us what it is to be a lover of God in a world set in opposition to the ways of God.

He longs to reveal to us the greater wisdom of God’s plans above our own and show us the folly, Psalm 14:1 foolishness, that comes from living for the world.

Being Taught by the Holy Spirit

1 John 2:20-21 The Message

20-21 But you belong. The Holy One anointed you, and you all know it. I haven’t been writing this to tell you something you don’t know, but to confirm the truth you do know, and to remind you that the truth doesn’t breed lies.

The Holy Spirit desires to be your Teacher today.

The questions before you and me today are:

Are you and I willing to be his diligent and disciplined student?

Are you and I willing to submit our submit and surrender our understanding to the Holy Spirit, to live and move and minister and build in light of his teaching?

Are you and I willing to appear foolish for God at times when the world doesn’t understand the wisdom of God, to speak, teach above that misunderstanding?

Are you and I willing to live wholeheartedly and steadfastly unashamed for the gospel, the pleasure of our heavenly Father over the fleeting opinions of man?

If we will surrender ourselves to the humility of Jesus, open our heart and mind today to being taught only by the Spirit, will we discover, explore a wealth of truth having the power to set us free from the bonds and burdens of this world?

The undefinable measure of truth coming from diligently studying Scripture will begin to change your life as the Holy Spirit reveals to us how these words written thousands of years ago are entirely 100% applicable to your life today.

Receiving the teaching of the Holy Spirit is as simple as submitting our lives to Him one day at a time, making time to listen to Him, study the word with Him.

As important, helpful, as gifted and inspired as they are, we don’t all have to be pastors, ministers, theologians, or scholars to understand what the Bible says, to speak, to teach, to live, what the Word of God for His Children means .

The Holy Spirit will be our teacher the way he was for the disciples.

He will teach us how Scripture applies to our life, guide us into the way of truth.

It’s incredibly important that we make time to study Scripture, but it’s equally important we all read the Bible along with the Spirit instead of apart from him.

The Bible is an immensely comprehensive, thoroughly practical message meant to greatly impact the lives of those who read it under the influence of the Spirit.

It’s a manual for living life in the abundance of relationship with God, not a book to be read apart from the reality of God’s nearness.

Scripture is meant to guide us into direct connection, direct communication with our heavenly Father, not substitute real, direct relationship with him.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” 

Trust in the leading, ministering and teaching of the Holy Spirit today.

Lean into and upon His wisdom instead of your own.

Acknowledge the reality of his nearness in your life.

And discover knowledge that has the power to fill you with abundant life.

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

Let us Pray,    

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the Holy Spirit’s desire to be your teacher.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:26

“But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.” 1 John 2:20

2. Choose to be a student of the Holy Spirit. 

Choose to follow what He reveals to you to be wisdom over the ways of the world.

Choose His opinion over man’s.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

“But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” 1 John 2:27

3. Spend time studying Scripture with the Holy Spirit. 

Pray and ask the Spirit to reveal to you what wisdom He wants to show you.

Ask Him to show you the meaning of the words you are reading.

Allow Him to apply Scripture directly to your life.

“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:10

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5

We have perfectly powerful guidance in Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

The pairing of God’s written and living word and the very God who authored the word have the ultimate power to lead, guide and direct and move each of us into a life of all wisdom, understanding, and revelation.

But we must choose to live this life in light of eternity.

We must choose success in heaven over success in the world’s eyes.

Scripture and the teaching of the Holy Spirit only have power in our lives if we follow their leadership and principles.

Choose today to be a doer of the word instead of a hearer only and discover freeing and empowering wisdom that has the power to transform your life.

O Father, I join my heart with the words of your servant David, who said: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Please transform my thinking and my living by your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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Born of God: Our Believing, Receiving and Rejecting the Light. John 1:9-13

Not everyone rejected Jesus.

In fact, everyone who believed in him and accepted him was given an incredible gift: They were made children of God!

The same is still true for us who believe and accept Jesus.

This special gift is something that God alone can give.

It is also something about which both Jesus and our author John will have more to say.

Today, however, think about what it means to be God’s child!

Our Father paints the sunrise and displays his artistry again at sunset. He set the boundaries of the universe, which we cannot begin to see.

He is the greatest Father anyone could ever have, and he chose us to be his children!

Our adoption into the Father’s family is something God did for us to include us as his children.

We couldn’t make ourselves part of God’s family any more than children can accomplish their own birth or their adoption.

We are God’s children because of his love and grace and Jesus’ sacrifice.

In fact, Jesus came as the Father’s Word of grace and truth and life so we can be children of God, born from above!

John 1:9-13 The Message

9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
    Every person entering Life
    he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
    the world was there through him,
    and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
    but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
    who believed he was who he claimed
    and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
    their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
    not blood-begotten,
    not flesh-begotten,
    not sex-begotten.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

In the Beginning

In the prologue to his Gospel, John presents the Lord Jesus Christ as “the Light” that shines in darkness, it was John the Baptist who bore witness of His Light.

The Light of Christ is offered to everyone, yet not all wanted the Light of Christ to shine upon them, and they rejected Him.

Those who embraced Christ, those who believed Christ, were given the blessing of peace with God, and freedom from the bondage of sin, and eternity with the Father in heaven by the work of the Son (John 1:5-9, 14:6).

The inescapable truth is that this self same mindset is with us and among us even in in these last days before His promised return to make all things new.

Why do people choose, decide to not receive the offer of forgiveness and rest offered freely by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:28-30; John 10:28-30)?

There are several reasons given in the Scripture, and none of them are valid excuses or explanations in terms of where we stand before our Sovereign LORD.

From the Beginning

Genesis 3:8-13 English Standard Version

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool [a] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”[b] 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

From the beginning, the world in general did not and still does not want to receive the Light, even though it is a free gift from God to HIs fallen creation (John 1:4, 9-10, 8:12, 12:46) Whom He made in His image (Genesis 1:26, John 1:3).

He came into HIs own land and among His chosen people Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6, 18:15-18; Jeremiah 2:7).

Both John, Luke and the Apostle Paul writes Jesus’ own family did not believe Him until after HIs resurrection (John 7:5; Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8).

John also lists other reasons why Jesus’ teachings and claims were rejected, and again, not one of them are the least bit excusable.

He tells us that there were some who deliberately loved darkness more than light, which is in line with what the Apostle Paul says about the condition of sinful humanity and their rejection of God’s glory, existence, and direction (John 3:19-20, 5:42-43; Romans 1:18-32, 3:10-18, 23).

Some were just plain fearful of what others would think of them, or what might happen to them, how they would be punished, how they would be disciplined, how their families would just flat reject them if they followed Jesus, preferring their approval over the welfare of their souls (Mark 8:38; John 7:13, 9:22, 12:42-43).

Some were badly taught by their teachers, or deliberately misinformed about the facts concerning Jesus, but there is no account of any of them taking the effort to check out the truth about Him, save for Nicodemus (John 3:1-21, 7:40-43).

Many of HIs disciples could not nor would not understand the depths of His teachings and simply quit following Him (John 6:6) instead of thinking about them and consciously expanding their knowledge of the deeper things of God.

In the context of our 21st century attitudes of Christ, things haven’t changed.

We want easy belief and shallow teaching that sooth our emotions and tickle our ears, preferring to remain deaf to His call to salvation (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

This goes hand-in-hand with another lame reason why people chose to reject Jesus, and that was they loved their traditions and history (John 9:13-16 Amp).

Controversy over the Man

13 Then they brought the man who was formerly blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was on a Sabbath day that Jesus made the mud and opened the man’s eyes. 15 So the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He smeared mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.” 16 Then some of the Pharisees said, “This Man [Jesus] is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner (a non-observant Jew) do such signs and miracles?” So there was a difference of opinion among them.

People, as a whole, will rush to flat out reject, flat out resist, do not like any kind of change, accept any truths, but their own alternative methods of doing things.

They have long been comfortable and complacent with things as they are and anyone who suggests any kind of change usually does not end very well for the people who dare to rock the boat or shake the system in order to make it better.

Jesus came along, vigorously casting out the money changers in the Temple, declaring the religious work and manner of the Pharisees and other officials was no better than rotting corpses in tombs and were hypocrites headed to hell (Matthew 21:12, Matthew 23:27, 33, John 2:14-16).

He cursed cities that saw His miracles, yet rejected Him (Matthew 11:21-23), chastised His apostles for their unbelief and dullness of mind (Mark 8:14-21), and sharply, publicly, rebuked officials who tried to discredit Him by asking about taxes to Caesar and the issue of the Resurrection (Luke 20:19-40).

People who tend to dwell on “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”, need to re-read the Gospels and see that He was not nice and sweet all the time, but laid it on the line in terms of waking up all people to the fact of accountability before God, the reality of sin its consequences, that He is the ONLY way, truth, life, to salvation (John 14:6).

What if “our God worshipping church” today was “our God worshipping church” in the 1st Century?

I would even dare to say that if the Rabbi Jesus showed up at the average house of worship today and did the exact things He did in the Gospels, the cry for His betrayal, his arrest, his death, would be as loud as those who lived in His day.

However, God’s plan for our salvation would remain God’s plan, and Jesus’ resurrection would still take place to the world’s regret and the devil’s fears.

What about those who receive the Light of Christ?

John tells us that by giving our lives over to Jesus, we have the authority to be called sons and daughters of God, heirs and joint heirs with Him, a wonderful manifestation of the love of Almighty God (John 1:12; Romans 8:14-17; 1 John 3:1).

The privilege of being born of God is not by physical descent, or the work of our flesh, or virtue of power by our will, but is a spiritual rebirth made possible by the Sovereign, merciful, and benevolent act of the Spirit of God alone (John 1:13, 3:5; Titus 3:5).

We receive this free gift by repenting of our sins (Psalm 51:1-17) and asking the Lord Jesus to forgive us and save us (Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9-13), and that we each choose to come to God, give our lives fully over to Him as Lord and Savior.

We belong to Him from that time onward into eternity.

We are to serve Him by sharing what He has done for us with others (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 4:12, 19-20).

We are to reading and studying HIs Word to grow spiritually (John 17:17; Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 2:15, 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21).

We are to find and support a body of like-minded believers who teach the Scriptures faithfully and who confess Christ as Lord (Hebrews 10:24-25).

We are to follow the Lord’s example by a public confession of faith in Christ and be baptized as a sign of obedience and affirmation to follow Him. (Acts 2:43-47)

Believing and Living as Children of God

John 1:12-13Amplified Bible

12 But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name— 13 who were born, not of blood [natural conception], nor of the will of the flesh [physical impulse], nor of the will of man [that of a natural father], but of God [that is, a divine and supernatural birth—they are born of God—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified].

John’s gospel tells us that to receive Jesus is to believe in his name.

To believe in Jesus’ name is to acknowledge that Jesus is the Word become flesh.

Others may pass him by, others will pass him by, think him a stranger, or, even worse, call him an impostor and blasphemer–but believers will see his glory.

Psalm 27:8 Amplified Bible

8 
When You said, “Seek My face [in prayer, require My presence as your greatest need],” my heart said to You,
“Your face, O Lord, I will seek [on the authority of Your word].”

The Psalmist David, recognized the need to seek after God’s face everyday in prayer and in the reading and the diligent personal study of The Word of God.

John wants us to look on the face of Jesus until the conviction becomes so rooted in our hearts that we are looking into the human face of the living God.

Perhaps for us, in this day, age, this face of God comes most into focus when we see it “eye to eye” (Luke 22:60-62), “face to face” wearing the crown of thorns.

It is said of God no one can behold his face and live. I always thought this meant no one can see his splendor and live. But perhaps, even far deeper, it meant that no one could look upon his true sorrow and live. Or perhaps his sorrow is his splendor.

Believing is more than seeing.

It also involves following and even carrying on a sort of love affair.

Believing is a verb, and in our Scripture reading it is followed by the preposition “in,” suggesting that it unites us to the one in whom we believe.

It is through this union that we His Children are ushered into the family of God.

I pray that if we are seeking the Light of Truth and we have come across this devotion, I invite and implore us read and study and pray the Word of God, to repent of our sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life.

Consider please, quit stumbling around in the darkness and turn to Him today.

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

Let us pray,

Psalm 84 The Message

84 1-2 What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
    I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house,
    where I could sing for joy to God-alive!

3-4 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
    sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
    singing their songs in the place where we worship.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!
    How blessed they are to live and sing there!

5-7 And how blessed all those in whom you live,
    whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
    discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
    at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!

8-9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
    O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
    our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

10-12 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
    beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
    than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is God,
    generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
    It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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When We Need a Friend. Growing in Our Friendship with the Holy Spirit. Genesis 14:13-16

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love.  Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created.  And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy Your consolations. ​Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Holy Spirit, please become my best friend. I will submit to Your will. I will ask for Your input and wait for Your guidance. I will listen for Your voice and trust You as You speak to me. Amen.

Genesis 14:13-16 The Message

13-16 A fugitive came and reported to Abram the Hebrew. Abram was living at the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and Aner. They were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken prisoner, he lined up his servants, all of them born in his household—there were 318 of them—and chased after the captors all the way to Dan. Abram and his men split into small groups and attacked by night. They chased them as far as Hobah, just north of Damascus. They recovered all the plunder along with nephew Lot and his possessions, including the women and the people.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

On Those “Rare” Occasions When We Need a Friend

The Holy Spirit would drive one thing home to our hearts through Abram’s experiences in this passage.

We do not lead our Christian lives in isolated seclusion—we are each members of one another, the Body of Christ, and in circumstances of this nature, one Christian can often be the means of deliverance of a weaker brother or sister.

From our text, there was nothing Abram could do to deliver Lot from Sodom.

Sodom represented an inward choice in Lot’s heart to live in the materialistic, sensualized atmosphere of Sodom.

If a child of God chooses to be materialistic, sensual, commercial, and greedy for things of the world, not much can be done for him or her.

Only Lot could take himself out of Sodom.

But from this circumstance that threatened Lot’s very life and liberty, Abram’s heart and soul and his personal resources were amply sufficient through prayer.

Admitting To One Another Our Need For a Friend

James 5:16-18 The Message

16-18 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

James 5:16b tells us, The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 

There is another translation of that verse which I have read that is excellent: 

The earnest, hot-hearted prayer of a righteous man releases great power. 

That is certainly the case in this incident.

The prayer offered in faith, we are told in the same chapter of James, will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up (James 5:15).

Many have been puzzled by this verse, but if we carefully read and study the context, we see clearly that the source of the affliction here is one which has arisen because a child of God has become involved, entangled in deliberate sin.

Such a one is to call upon the elders of the church together and confess his or her faults, and then the prayer of faith of the righteous will save the sick, and the Lord shall intercede, through the Holy Spirit and raise him or her up again.

It is indeed deep, wonderful experience, this power of prayer for someone else.

The history of the church is replete with instances of such deliverances through faithful prayer.

A wise and experienced ministry leader, speaking to a small group on the tough subject of intercessory prayer, addressed the matter of overwhelming sin that so grips the human heart as to enslave the life and frustrate all activity for God.

He gave some very wise words of advice. 

Perhaps some younger Christian, he said, may find themselves in such a circumstance, and the things they are doing is so shameful that they cannot bring himself to confess it publicly; then let him seek out some older man of God, someone he can trust, and asking the Holy Spirit into the fellowship, lay the whole matter before that person and ask him to pray concerning this. 

It is wise counsel, indeed.

When Lot could not possibly help himself, Abram, separated in heart from the wildly sinful Sodom-like attitudes that rendered Lot so powerless, was able to lay hold of God and affect a great and mighty witness, testimony of deliverance.

Friendship with the Holy Spirit

As believers in God, we have been given the Holy Spirit as a Helper, Teacher, Friend, and seal for the promised inheritance of eternal life with God.

His presence, guidance, and wisdom in our lives are our greatest gifts while here on earth.

Through him we have access to direct connection with our heavenly Father.

Through him we receive spiritual gifts to empower us.

And through Him we are able to bear the incredible fruit of abundant life.

Open your heart and mind to all that the Holy Spirit would give you, show you, and lead you to in these days and this week and the weeks and months ahead.

Psalm 25:14 The Message

14 God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.

In friendship with the Holy Spirit we begin to experience a sense of wholeness and joy unattainable through any other relationship or aspect of life.

Rapid and wonderful transformation results when you discover the wealth of love that comes with continual, real friendship with the living God.

In friendship with God comes peace, security, honesty, healing, and freedom.

As you live your life in step with the Spirit, you experience what Adam and Eve experienced as they walked with God himself in the Garden of Eden.

You discover the vast reservoir of love, affection, and perfect help that’s available to you in the Holy Spirit.

Open your heart today to receive a fresh revelation of God’s desire for friendship with you through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” 

God longs for an eternal friendship with all of His Children.

And through the Holy Spirit we have a continual connection with God available to us.

The Spirit desires to do life with you.

He wants to guide you, speak to you, and love you.

He wants to satisfy your longing for relationship and can do so in greater ways than you can imagine.

John 14:16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

By God’s grace we have been filled with God himself.

We have dwelling with us the same Spirit who authored Scripture, raised Christ from the dead, empowered the disciples, and in the beginning, hovered over the waters at the creation of all things.

And Scripture says that He longs to help you!

Jesus calls Him the “Helper.”

How incredible is the grace of our God to offer us relationship with the Holy Spirit!

How great is his love that God would send his Son to the Cross at Calvary to die that we each might have abundant life for all of eternity, including right now!

So, how do we grow in friendship with the Holy Spirit?

How do we allow him to satisfy our desire for relationship? 

Psalm 25:14 says, “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.” 

And Ephesians 4:30 says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” 

Friendship with the Holy Spirit starts like any other true friendship.

We must respect, love, and make time for the Holy Spirit.

We must learn what He likes and dislikes.

And we must apologize when we do something that grieves Him.

The Holy Spirit has feelings like any other person.

But He is also full of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and unconditional love.

Friendship with Him comes about by following his leadership, making time to ask him how he feels about things, and following his guidance away from a lifestyle of sin into the righteousness available to you through Christ Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is waiting right now to guide you into friendship with him.

He’s excited about the idea of pouring out His love and affections on you.

He longs to lead you away from the sins that hurt you and grieve him.

And He longs to guide us toward a life of walking with Him in relationship.

Spend time in fervent prayer being filled with the Holy Spirit afresh and making room to explore, discover the enlightening reality of His presence in our lives.

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

Let us Pray,

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God’s desire for friendship with you.

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15

“The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.” Psalm 25:14

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to pour His love out on you. 

Ask him to make the reality of his nearness known to you.

Be filled with desire to live your life in relationship with this real, tangible God who loves you.

3. Ask the Holy Spirit what he likes and doesn’t like. 

Open your life and let him speak to you about whatever is causing you trouble.

Ask Holy Spirit how He feels about our relationships, situations, thoughts, and “eternal” perspectives we have – the Holy Spirit loves to speak to us, to help us.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17

Often we separate out what we think God cares about and what just seems to be normal, worldly parts of life.

But God wants to be involved in every part of our lives.

He wants to be there for us in everything we do.

He wants to fill us with grace and joy to do all the things set before us, from taking out the trash to washing dishes to leading thousands of people in prayer.

Are we able to aid and and assistance unto our brothers or sisters in Christ with helpful counsel from the Word of God and with fellowship and fervent prayers?

Have we engaged in faithful fervent prayer for those in sinful circumstances?

Invite, allow the Holy Spirit to come in and work in every area of your life and may we discover the wealth of knowledge, love your God has to share with us.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love.  Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created.  And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy Your consolations. ​Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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“and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,” Just Who Do We Say Jesus Is? John 1:1-5

When Christians answer the question “Who is Jesus Christ?” they build their answer on the Bible – on things Jesus said about Himself, on prophecies from the Old Testament that foretold His coming, and the doctrines laid out about Jesus Christ and His Church through the rest of the New Testament.

There is little historical question that Jesus Christ existed, but people do often wonder about everything else: His divine nature, His miracles, God’s offer of eternal salvation by grace through Jesus Christ “first to the Jew and also to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16)… in other words, to all of mankind who would believe.

Because the love Jesus offers comes in the form of an “intimately personal relationship, intimately connectional relationship” with Him, many believers have particular definitions, understandings about who Jesus Christ is to them.

I want to try to give you the Biblical basics about this amazing, paradoxical Savior who purports to be simultaneously the Son of God and Son of Man.

The gospel of Jesus is literally “good news,” so we hope you enjoy exploring the miracle and wonder of what the God of all creation did for you through His Son.

John 1:1-5 Amplified Bible

The Deity of Jesus Christ

1 In the beginning [before all time] was the Word ([a]Christ), and the Word was with God, and [b]the Word was God Himself. 2 He was [continually existing] in the beginning [co-eternally] with God. 3 All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him not even one thing was made that has come into being. 4 In Him was life [and the power to bestow life], and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines on in the [c]darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

I believe in God,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

Who is Jesus?

The Deity of Jesus Christ

1 In the beginning [before all time] was the Word ([a]Christ), and the Word was with God, and [b]the Word was God Himself. 2 He was [continually existing] in the beginning [co-eternally] with God. 3 All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him not even one thing was made that has come into being.

John’s Gospel Narrative says without any doubt that Jesus is God.

He declares that Jesus is the Creator of all things.

This accounts for Jesus’ singularly unique and remarkable personality.

He is the originator of all things.

Eight times in the opening chapter of Genesis it says, “And God said.” 

God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 

God said, Let there be a firmament between the heavens and the earth and there was. 

God said, Let the earth bring forth trees and vegetation, and these sprang into being.

The Son of God, was speaking into being, what the Father had designed in that amazingly, incredibly, indescribably and also infinitely complex mind of his.

Any scientist who gears their education, who directs their lives into the studies in the natural realm always seem to be astonished when they come to conclude the complexity of life, the marvelous symmetry of things, what lies behind all visible matter, the molecules, the atom, the make-up of a flower or of a star.

The obvious order, design and symmetry of every created thing is astonishing.

We have all sat back at one time or another and wondered at what we have seen through some of the discoveries of science, looked at the stars thru a telescope.

All of that and more was in the thoughts of God, but it never would have been expressed until the Son said it; He spoke and all these things came into being.

So this amazing Man, Jesus of Nazareth, in the mystery of his being, was not only a human being here on earth with us, John’s narrative says, but was the One who in the beginning spoke the very universe we “see” into its existence.

He understands it!

He knows exactly how it functions!

He is able to direct it!

He is able to guard it and to guide it!

He spoke it into being!

Furthermore, John says, Jesus sustains it: 

Without him was not anything made that was made. 

He is essential to it;!

He is what keeps it going!

He is who holds it in existence!

In the first chapter of John, we immediately read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

Throughout the centuries, many have pondered this statement.

What does this mean?

How can somebody be with someone and also be that someone?

So the Overarching Question: Who is Jesus?

Immanuel God with us … Christ the Messiah… The Prince of Peace… The Word made Man… Savior and Lord… The King of Kings… The Lion of Judah… The Lamb of God

When Christians answer the question “Who is Jesus Christ?” they build their answer on the Bible – on things Jesus said about Himself, on prophecies from the Old Testament that foretold His coming, and the doctrines laid out about Jesus Christ and His Church through the rest of the New Testament.

There is little historical question that Jesus Christ existed, but people do often wonder about everything else: His divine nature, His miracles, God’s offer of eternal salvation by grace through Jesus Christ “first to the Jew and also to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16)… in other words, to all of mankind who would believe.

Because the love Jesus offers comes in the form of an “intimately personal relationship, intimately connectional relationship” with Him, many believers have particular definitions, understandings about who Jesus Christ is to them.

I want to try to give you the Biblical basics about this amazing, paradoxical Savior who purports to be simultaneously the Son of God and Son of Man.

The gospel of Jesus is literally “good news,” so we hope you enjoy exploring the miracle and wonder of what the God of all creation did for you through His Son.

Who do we say Jesus Christ is?

Matthew 16:13-17 Amplified Bible

Peter’s Confession of Christ

13 Now when Jesus went into the [a]region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they answered, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or [just] one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16  Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of the living God.” 17 Then Jesus answered him, “Blessed [happy, spiritually secure, favored by God] are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood (mortal man) did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

The same questions are being asked to this day:

Who does everyone else say Jesus Christ is, but then, who do we say He is?

We must ultimately decide.

It is the perhaps the most important question to settle during our lifetimes, for reasons we will try to examine shortly.

The New Testament book of Hebrews is another source that attempted to answer the same question.

As the Ryrie Study Bible states, “The theme of the book is the superiority of Jesus Christ and thus of Christianity.”

Superior to what?

Among other things: prophets, angels, Moses/The Law, priests, and other powers.

In other words, Jesus Christ is supreme among any thing or any one – even things and people that issue from or are beloved of God.

“For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it,” says Hebrews 2:1 about the nature of the Messiah’s identity.

This is why even Christians of all theologies continually study these precepts.

It is not merely skeptics, seekers, and unbelievers who benefit from asking the question, “Who is Jesus Christ?”

The Apostle Paul, before his sudden Damascus Road conversion, was known as Saul, a very legalistic Jew who persecuted Christians… until he was confronted with the answer to our question in a most dramatic way, a way that changed his life and the course of history (Please read and study about it in Acts Chapter 9).

After that miraculous conversion experience, Paul would then often refer to himself as a “bond-servant of Christ Jesus,” someone who is little more than a voluntary slave, but one sharing in the same servitude.

In Philippians 1:21 Paul would express his secure devotion to the Lord as well as give another clue towards answering our question when he would write: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” 

You see, finding the answer to “Who Jesus Is to us?” can be an incredibly jarring, topsy-turvy, and life-altering experience – one that sends us back on our heels.

It can also be one which will fill what has always seemed to be missing inside you, since the Father sent His Son to reconcile you to your original purpose – communion with a wonderful, holy Creator.

So as you pursue knowledge of the Savior, consider yourself joyfully warned.

Who Jesus Said He Was

1. He claimed to be the Son of God, equal with God, and with authority from the Father.

“Then they all said, ‘Are You then the Son of God?’ So He said to them, ‘You rightly say that I am’” (Luke 22:70).

“For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50).

“Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’” (Matthew 28:18).

“Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:17-22).

“27 The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever [by any means] perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand. 29 [a]My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are One [in essence and nature].” (John 10:27-30)

Bear in mind that while a man claiming to be God is a radical thought, Jesus is the only leader of a world religion to have made the claim – not to mention to have also completely, fully and utterly backed it up.

How?

2. Incredibly, He claimed to live a sinless life.

“Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?” (John 8:46, The Message).

Jesus had the ability to sin; if He weren’t able to sin, He could not have been tempted genuinely and would be unable to be our sympathetic High Priest (Hebrews 4:15).

When He was tempted by the devil, He always rebuked the thought with scripture. (Matthew 4:1-11)

Because He didn’t sin, God was able to accept His sacrifice. 

1 Peter 3:18 says, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”

3. He claimed to be the one and only way to God.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

It’s also interesting to me to note that Jesus did not call himself the destination, but the way, indicating that our Christian walk is a journey.

4. He claimed He had the power to forgive sins and provide everlasting life

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25).

“When Jesus saw their faith, He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’ The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, ‘Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’” (Luke 5:20-21).

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40

“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.” (John 6:47).

5. He predicted his own death and resurrection.

“Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, ‘We are going up into Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again’” (Luke 18:31-33).

6. He’s said He would come back.

Matthew 24:27-30 “So as the lightening comes from the east and flashes to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man… At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.” 

Mark 14:61-62 “Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,’ said Jesus. ‘And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.'” 

Jesus clearly knew He was the Lamb of God, the Messiah spoken of in the Old Testament.

He knew He had to live a life without sin, no matter what.

When He returns, He will judge the sins of the world… except for those who have already acknowledged conviction, entered a plea of guilty, and sought His forgiveness and mercy by believing on Christ. (Psalms 32, 51, Romans 10:9-13)

How the New Testament Answers “Who Is Jesus?”

“So Jesus tried again. ‘When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am – that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught Me. The One who sent Me stays with Me. He doesn’t abandon Me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing Him’” (John 8:28-29, The Message).

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3, NASB).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NLT).

From The Book of Acts

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles describes how Christianity moved from being seen as a new radical fringe sect of Judaism now into a world religion because the spirit of God moved in the lives of those who had physically witnessed Jesus, and who now carried His message of salvation for all into all the world.

At Pentecost, Peter preaches,

“Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:22-36).

From Paul’s Letters

The Apostle Paul wrote numerous letters to the churches he helped establish in southern Europe and Asia Minor, helping to answer questions or solve disputes over Christian theology.

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

“For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

“Just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:5).

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free” (Galatians 5:1).

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25).

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-7).

“And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15).

From The Book of Hebrews

The Book of Hebrews is about the superiority of Christ – over prophets, angels, Moses, and priests.

He made Himself our High Priest, so that we can all become priests with our own access to the Father.

“God… has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

From The Book of Revelation

“Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5).

The Significance of Christ’s Humanity

Living on earth for 33 years, Jesus experienced every temptation we face, which is why “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation” (2 Peter 2:9).

He also showed us how to model our behavior. 

1 Peter 2:21 says, “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”

So, He knows what we go through.

A God-Savior could forgive sins but would not be able to relate to the sinners.

A man-savior would be able to relate to our humanity but would not have the authority or power to forgive sins or return from the dead.

It was necessary that Jesus be both.

In doing so, he became “the New Adam.” 

“For as in Adam [the first man, through whom sin entered the world] all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45; NASB).

To All Who Believe

John 1:14-18Amplified Bible
The Word Made Flesh

14 And the Word (Christ) became flesh, and lived among us; and we [actually] saw His glory, glory as belongs to the [One and] only begotten Son of the Father, [the Son who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, who is] full of grace and truth (absolutely free of deception). 15 John testified [repeatedly] about Him and [a]has cried out [testifying officially for the record, with validity and relevance], “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me [b]has a higher rank than I and has priority over me, for He existed before me.’” 16 For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift]. 17 For the Law was given through Moses, but grace [the unearned, undeserved favor of God] and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God [His essence, His divine nature] at any time; the [One and] only begotten God [that is, the unique Son] who is in the intimate presence of the Father, He has explained Him [and interpreted and revealed the awesome wonder of the Father].

As we have seen, a major part of the story of Jesus is the shocking, history of how the Son of God is despised, rejected, and betrayed, crucified, dead, buried.

But, as each of today’s verses also remind us, from the beginning, God’s light shone in the darkness, and (good news!) “the darkness has not overcome it.”

Instead, the reverse is true: the light overcomes the darkness.

And the darkness was clueless as to what to do about it.

Amazingly, the Holy Spirit can use darkness to lead us to the light.

This is the light that brings us back into God’s presence as his loved children—the light of life that lasts forever.

At the end of John’s gospel, after he tells the story of Jesus’ life, suffering, death, and resurrection, John clarifies why he has told Jesus’ story:

“that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

That opportunity to receive Jesus, to believe in him, is for everyone. 

Revelation 7:9 describes “a great multitude. . . from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”

Will we be a part of that vast uncountable multitude on the day when our Savior Christ returns, or when our Shepherd calls each of unto our eternal homes?

So, we all, as sinners, have to turn to God for forgiveness of sin, and trust Jesus died to give us new life that we may be “born again” (John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:23). 

Faith is the key.

It’s the cause and effect of our hope for salvation.

If there is truly “no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), then our acceptance of God’s gift, our own admission that we are a sinner, our repentance (changing mind), and our faith in the real and alive saving Lord is all that can bring eternal and abundant life.

If knowing about Jesus has stirred your heart to read, study, hear even more, receive forgiveness for your sins, renew your Christian walk, receive a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit and get involved in mission and in ministry.

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

Let us Pray,

Lord God, thank you for loving me enough to send your one and only Son to die for me. I know I am a sinner, and that Jesus was crucified and raised to life to pay a debt I was unable to pay, in order that I may live with You forever. I want to turn from my way of life and follow Jesus. I invite Jesus into my heart as the Lord of my life. Thank you muchly, Father, for giving me new life in the name of my Savior Jesus. Amen!

Lord Jesus, I receive you as my God; I believe in you as my Savior; I embrace your Father as my Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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Out Of The Darkness: “God Said” Let There Be Light, Let There Be Day One. Genesis 1:3-5

In the beginning, there was God.

And God spoke all of creation into being.

God created ex nihilo (God created out of nothing).

God spoke, and light appeared.

By the power of His Word, land, air, and sea were formed out of nothing.
There is power, wonder-working power in the wonderful Word of God.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

He created all things and the Word was light.

He was the light that lightens every man that comes into the world.

There is light and life and power, wonder-working light and life and power in the wonderful Word of God.

Genesis 1:1-5 Amplified Bible

The Creation

1 In the beginning God ([a]Elohim) [b]created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was [c]formless and void or a waste and emptiness, and darkness was upon the face of the deep [primeval ocean that covered the unformed earth]. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, [d]“Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good (pleasing, useful) and [e] He affirmed and sustained it; and God separated the light [distinguishing it] from the darkness. 5 And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was [f]evening and there was [g] morning, one day.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

“I believe in God,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,”

The first verse of Genesis begins with the greatest observable fact known to man: the existence of the universe, the heavens and the earth, (Genesis 1:1b); and it links to that the greatest fact made known by revelation:

“I Believe in the existence of a God who creates.”

There is thus brought together in this simple verse at the beginning of the Bible the recognition of the two great sources of human knowledge:

nature, which is discoverable by the five senses of our physical life; and revelation, which is discoverable only by a mind and heart illuminated and taught by the Spirit of God.

These things “are spiritually discerned,” says the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 2:14 Amplified).

14 But the natural [unbelieving] man does not accept the things [the teachings and revelations] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness [absurd and illogical] to him; and he is incapable of understanding them, because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated, [and he is unqualified to judge spiritual matters].

Both of these sources of knowledge are from God, and each of them is a means of knowing something about God.

The scientist who studies nature is searching ultimately for God.

One Christian scientist declared, “I am thinking the thoughts of God after him.”

That is an excellent way to describe what science basically is doing.

Also, those who seek to understand the Bible, to grasp its great themes and to understand the depths that are revealed there, are likewise in search of God.

Nature is designed to educate and teach humanity certain facts, truths, about God, but revelation is designed to lead us to the God about whom nature speaks.

So the two are ultimately complementary.

They are not contradictory in any sense, but definitively complete one another.

Genesis 1:3-5 – The First Day: “And God Said …”

Repeatedly throughout Genesis 1 we read those words, “God said,” followed by an act of creation.

God speaks and it is there.

God creates by speaking.

What does this mean?

In seeking an answer, we must be governed by what Scripture tells us.

Several passages come to mind.

One can think of Psalm 33:8 and 9. “By the word of the LORD, the heavens were made and all their host by the breath of His mouth … He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood forth” 

(compare also Psalm 148:5b, “…He commanded and they [His created works] were created”).

God created by His word.

What was involved with the creation by the Word is made clearer as we go to the New Testament.

As the reader of Scripture knows, “the Word” is a name for the Son who was involved in the work of creation! 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:1-3, 14; cf. 1 John 1:1-3; 5:1; Revelation 19:13).

The reference to the Word in creating is further also illuminated by 1 Corinthians 8:8, 

“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 

One can also think of Colossians 1:17 and 18, “For in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (cf. Revelation 3:14).

If we read the words “and God said” in Genesis 1, in the light of Scripture, then what is not immediately obvious in Genesis 1, becomes more clear elsewhere.

God’s creating by the word involved the Son.

The word that God spoke was not without content.

It was a powerful and living word.

The word by which He called into being things from nothing was powerful for it was spoken in and through the Son. 

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

“‘Let there be Light’ and there was Light”

After God’s creation of heaven and earth, His first work of creation was light.

Light as we know it is part of creation. It was made. God spoke and it was there.

The importance of light is evident, not only from its place in God’s work of creation, but also from our own experience.

Who can imagine the possibility of life without light?

It is significant that light was created independently of the sun, moon, and stars which were created on the fourth day.

Although I hope to be coming back to this in a future devotion, suffice it for now to note that I would have thought there was a time when men said that this was a scientific error, but I guess men do not, would not, speak like that anymore.

Rather than my trying to ridicule or dismiss this order, or try to explain it, or put it on “social media” trial we should carefully try, consider the implications of this sequence of God’s first creating light and later the sun, moon and stars.

This order of God’s creation work reveals to us that all light comes from God.

God spoke into the prevailing darkness, light was revealed, the light – made it.

Light does not come in the first instance from the sun, the moon or the stars.

Light is a gift of God, not of the sun!

What a tremendous revelation!

What a tremendous gospel revelation this is for our naturalistic age in which people speak so freely and so scientifically of the sun, moon stars, as if alone, in the absence or dismissal or ridicule of their Creator, makes all of life possible.

For this reason people can even fret about the future horror of a spent sun.

For Israel this order of God’s creating activity was also of great comfort over against the host of pagan religions which regularly worshipped the sun.

It is not the sun, which is a part of creation, but the Creator, the Creator’s Son, who alone gives light, who alone is the Light (John 8:12) who is to be adored.

Jesus Is the Light of the World

12 Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, “[a]I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

“And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4).

God’s work was pleasing in His eyes.

It was as He wanted it to be so that the light could serve the purpose for which it was made.

Notice that the phrase “God saw that… (it) was good” was not used with verse 2 where we read: 

“The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” 

God’s creation was not yet as He wanted it.

The earth was not yet suitable for the purpose for which God had summoned it away from the prevailing darkness of chaos, ultimately then called it into being.

The fact the created light was pleasing to God doesn’t mean an end to darkness.

No. God makes a separation between light and darkness.

Each gets its proper place in the Created order.

God had made both (Psalm 104:20 Amplified; Isaiah 45:7 Amplified).

20 
You [O Lord] make darkness and it becomes night,
In which prowls about every wild beast of the forest.

7 
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing peace and creating disaster;
I am the Lord who does all these things.

Both are absolutely needed.

Both are absolutely required.

Think, for instance, of how darkness helps in sleeping!

What the place of light and darkness is, is clear from verse 5.

“God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night” (Genesis 1:5a).

It appears from this verse that the light which God had made functioned in a way similar to the sun; that is, it was not always going, required to be daytime.

Also nighttime was to have its regular place.

It has been suggested that this could point to a light source outside and beyond the world with the earth rotating.

In any case, the fact that God assigned names to the periods of light and periods of darkness is significant.

This reveals God’s power and sovereignty.

Think of Psalm 74:18a, “Thine is the day; Thine also the night.” 

God made the separation between light and darkness and God gave each their name and God made known to man of these names through His spoken Word.

“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5b); that is nighttime and daytime making one day.

From Exodus 20:11 Amplified we know God created heaven and earth in six days.

11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy [that is, set it apart for His purposes].

We may therefore probably assume that the first day began in darkness with God’s work of creation in the beginning (vv. 1, 2).

This darkness was followed by the creation of light.

The first day ended with the coming of evening, which was counted with the following day (Genesis 1:8; similarly with the other days, vv. 13, 18, 23, 31).

In view of the way the first day was made, it is understandable the Bible reckons a day from evening to evening (e.g., Leviticus 23:32; Psalm 55:17; Luke 23:53-54).

32 It is to be to you a Sabbath of complete rest, and you shall humble yourselves. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your Sabbath.” (Amplified)

17 
Evening and morning and at noon I will complain and murmur,
And He will hear my voice. (Amplified)

53 And [after receiving permission] he took it down and wrapped it in a linen [burial] cloth and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had yet been laid. 54 It was the day of preparation [for the Sabbath], and the Sabbath was dawning. (Amplified)

There was a Day When Everything Was New

Genesis 1:1-5 The Message
Heaven and Earth

1 1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

3-5 God spoke: “Light!”
    And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
    and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
    he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day One.

Once, the whole world was new.

Out of nothing, God spoke, God created the heavens and the earth.

The Bible describes the process of creation:

God spoke, and the world came into being.

And what God made was good.

It shone with delightful diversity, reflecting the richness of God’s character.

We do not always see the goodness and brilliance of God’s creation because sin and brokenness obscure our vision, bring decay to what was once brand-new.

Every day, our complete delight in the newness of God’s work just wears off.

So, daily, we need our attention called back to the character of the Creator.

Genesis tells us that God can and does bring goodness and light out of chaos, and in this way God blessedly assures us that the world is firmly in his control.

In all of the coming coming days and years ahead of us, we will all, without any exceptions, face times when the newness of our abundant blessings wears off, when the brokenness of our lives keeps us from receiving each day as a new gift.

When that happens, let’s remember that God spoke, God made all things good, and let’s just trust that He has the power to make all things new and good again.

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

Let us Pray,

Creator God,

As we are made in Your image, we give You thanks for the seed of creativity You planted within each person. We praise You for the clean lines of the sculpture, the complexity of the musical concerto, beauty, eloquence of the poet’s spoken words.

Grant us, we pray, the greater capacity to more fully appreciate creativity where we don’t always notice it: the perfectly clean and useful lines of a row of coat hangers with our wardrobes of praise hanging up neatly and orderly in our closets, say, or the complexity of a computer that brings the world to our doorsteps, crashes (some days) but most days does not, or the beauty in a text message carrying everyday news.

Forgive, us we pray, for those times when we have sadly squandered with aimless disregard our capacity to create, and for those times we have used our creativity as a force for destruction rather than reconciliation and reparation. Help us truly to live in deep appreciative awe of the creativity that you’ve already planted within each of us.

Give us the patience and courage to nourish that creativity, and the strength and truest persistence to express it, witness to it, everyday. In Your name we pray.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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Pondering: “In The Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth.” Genesis 1:1-2

I love how the Bible never seeks to prove the existence of God.

It never tries to explain him or try to classify or try to categorize Him.

It isn’t a study on Him.

It is a revelation.

Simply, “In the beginning God.”

In what beginning?

Throughout the Bible we see God as the beginning and the end.

He is the Alpha and the Omega (He’s A through Z).

He is the first and the last.

We know that God is eternal.

We know that he has always been and always will be.

That is how he reveals himself to us.

So what does the Word of God for His Children mean when it says,

“In the beginning God?”

Genesis 1:1-5 Names of God Bible

The Creation

1 In the beginning Elohim created heaven and earth.

2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Ruach Elohim was hovering over the water.

3 Then Elohim said, “Let there be light!” So there was light. 4 Elohim saw the light was good. So Elohim separated the light from the darkness. 5 Elohim named the light day, and the darkness he named night. There was evening, then morning—the first day.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

Each of us has exactly one thing in common, we all began life as a baby, and we were all unaware of what was going on around us or what the world was like.

But as we grew older, we started to take note of the world—the sky, the sea, the winds, the birds, the flowers, the animals, the trees, and all of life around us.

As we became aware of the world, we inevitably asked some questions about it.

Just a few weeks ago, our Pastor began a lengthy study on the Apostle’s Creed.

The first line of the Apostle’s Creed is;

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty …”

In my own short 20+ years of Christian experience, this is the very first time I actually sat down and considered the enormous brevity and depths of the Creed.

“All Christians believe more than is contained in the Apostles Creed, but no one can believe anything less.” writes the Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler the studies author.

“What is this all of this about?

“Who is it all about?”

“When did it all begin?”

“Where did it all begin?

“How did it all begin?

“Who started it all?”

“Who is all of this for?”

Those questions, undoubtedly more will come to mind, are the ones answered for us in the brief compass here in the opening verse of the Book of Genesis.

Genesis 1:1 Amplified Bible

The Creation

1 In the beginning God ([a]Elohim) [b]created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth.

Again, what are the questions we are asking of this opening verse of the bible?

First, we ask ourselves, 

“What is all this?” 

Driven by an insatiable curiosity to know, humans have been attempting to answer that most basic of questions ever since they first appeared on earth.

Driven forward, they seek to push themselves into great, greater and greatest boundaries and limits, to explore the universe and the world in which they live.

Another question, we ask, “How did it begin?” 

This question is the emphasis of science.

Then we ask, “When did it all start?”

How long has ‘Creation’ been going on like this?”

How long has the world been going on like this? 

Finally, we come to the great philosophical question, “Who is behind it?”

“Who is back of these indescribably mysterious and remarkable processes?“

These questions are answered in the first verse, and thus it serves for us as a tremendous introduction to the great themes weaved in and through the Bible.

Take the first question,

the one most obvious to us—the wonder of the universe itself. 

In the beginning, we read, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

Someone has said that this phrase is the beginning of true science, because a fundamental part of the task of science is to observe and classify all that can be observed in the makeup of the world of nature.

Here is an early and primitive attempt at classification.

What do you see around you?

You see two great classes of things—the heavens and the earth.

One of the marvels of the Bible is that it uses language that communicates with people of the most primitive and limited understanding, while at the same time it still has significance and inexhaustible meaning for the most erudite and too, learned scholars and addresses itself with equal ease to all classes of humanity.

That is the beauty of Bible language.

The Bible avoids the philosophies of some of the early myths about creation found in other religions.

It was the Bible that first said the number of the stars is beyond computation.

It declares that God stretched out the heavens (Isaiah 51:13) into limitless expanse that can never be measured and God filled it with stars that are as numerous as the uncountable grains of sand upon the seashore (Genesis 22:17).

15 The [a]Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “By Myself (on the basis of Who I Am) I have sworn [an oath], declares the Lord, that since you have done this thing and have not withheld [from Me] your son, your only son [of promise], 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies [as conquerors]. (Genesis 22:15-17)

Modern science has now established this to be true.

It is also the Bible that says the earth is suspended over nothing (Job 26:7).

7 “He stretches out his heavens[a] over empty space.
    He hangs the earth on nothing whatsoever.

In that eloquently poetic way it describes the mysterious force of gravity that no one even yet completely understands.

It was the Bible that said that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3 Amplified), thus predating by many centuries the discoveries of science that finally recognized that all matter is made up of invisible energy and that matter and energy are interchangeable.

3 By faith [that is, with an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, and wisdom and goodness of God] we understand that the worlds (universe, ages) were framed and created [formed, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose] by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Why Ponder “In the Beginning, God” Today?

Matthew 1:1 English Standard Version
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Luke 3:23-38 New King James Version
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

23 Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Semei, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, 27 the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

The opening words of Mat­thew’s Gospel narrative presents us with a list of historical names in the family line of Jesus to the Patriarch Abraham.

Some readers skip over such lists, seeing them as boring or only filled with names that are hard to pronounce, and mostly not mentioned anywhere else.

The Gospel Narrative account of Dr. Luke has a long list of names like this too.

These lists are selective genealogies of Jesus—and in them, God is saying,

“See, I have kept my word; the promised Messiah and Savior has come through my chosen people.”

The list in Luke’s gospel includes many names different from those in Matthew, possibly because Luke lists the ancestors of Mary, the mother of Jesus and also goes back to Adam the first human – “The son of God.”

The list in Luke’s Gospel Narrative is also longer than the one in Matthew’s, going back all the way to the beginning, to connect Jesus with God himself.

This helps us see that the story of salvation—indeed, the story of the whole world—is really all about God.

God created a good, amazingly complex perfect world, only to have it scarred by sin because our very first human parents disobeyed God’s command (Genesis 3).

But God did not sit idly by.

In the beginning, from the beginning, God got personally, intimately involved.

He immediately set out to redeem and restore His Creation – including us!

From the beginning, God planned to renew us through his Son, Jesus. And when Jesus, the Savior, was born in Bethlehem, God’s plan took a major step forward.

So as we look ahead to pondering God and Jesus, let us join with the angels who announced Jesus’ birth, singing out, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14)!

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

Let Us Pray,

Lord, I praise You as the Creator and Sustainer of all things. From the very beginning of time, You have not changed, and I am grateful to know You as the One who has made all things. Creator God, thank you for your true and everlasting faithfulness unto all future generations in sending your Son, our Savior, Christ the Lord! Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

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

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