September 10, 2017

Spiritual Preparation

“Before a girls’ turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women… “Esther 2:12

Esther was allowed entrance into the king’s palace.  There she underwent beauty preparations.  The church is undergoing spiritual beauty preparations, to be found fit and ready for her Bridegroom.  The beauty preparations included: oil of myrrh for six months, and perfumes and other beauty preparations for an additional six months.  We see a similarity in the gospel account of the women with the alabaster jar of expensive perfume, pouring it over the feet of Jesus and washing his feet with it.  Our beauty preparations are spiritual: so that we might acquire a spiritual beauty pleasing unto God.  Myrrh is symbolic of suffering and death; in this we learn that we have to die to the flesh in order to live to the Spirit, and to gain unity within the body of Christ.  Isa. 61:10 indicates that we are “clothed with garments of salvation and robes of righteousness.”  2 Co. 11:2 finds Paul writing to the church: “We are a chaste virgin to Christ.”  The palace is the place of preparation for the bride.  It is in the palace that we receive expensive and exquisite beauty treatments and bridal preparations of humility and holiness.  Peter calls upon the Scripture in Leviticus when he writes: “Be holy, as thou art holy.” 1Peter 1:16.  The called out ones are to put on myrrh, die to the flesh, and receive a robe of righteousness in preparation for the marriage supper of the Lamb.  He will not return for an unprepared bride!  We are called to be set apart.  Ephesians 5:27 says that “…Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her; that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”   Our Lord desires us to be set apart and cleansed with His exquisitely powerful combination of the water (Spirit) and the word (truth). 

Esther continually found favor in the sight of God and did what seemed impossible.  Church, we have found favor in the sight of God.  Because of Jesus Christ, we are walking, talking, living, breathing, and favored children!  With God, all things are possible.  Esther got access into places other people couldn’t.  She went places no one else would dare to go.  She risked her life to save her people.  Church – we have access into places!  We have natural access and we have supernatural access!  Bars can break and walls can shake – all because of access.  Esther recognized the favor upon her life.  Do we?  Does the church risk its life, or even its reputation, to save her people?  We are being reminded that favor has been extended to us, and we are exhorted by the Lord to use it!  We are blessed and highly favored!

September 9, 2017

Manna

“And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.  And Moses said, ‘This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.’  And Moses said unto Aaron, ‘Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.’  As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept.”  Ex. 16:31-34 

The word manna means “what is it?” in Hebrew.  It was provided daily by God for the Israelites, as food for the journey.  Any manna that was left on the ground overnight was found rotted and uneatable the next day.  And so it became the daily bread for the people.

Upon entering the Promised Land of Canaan, there was no longer any provision of manna.  The wilderness journey had ended; the sojourners were home.  We find that when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to the Temple of Solomon, the golden pot of manna was no longer included.  The journey had ended; the Ark had found its home.

Jesus declares that He is the Bread of Life in John 6:35. He formulates a powerfully convincing position in verses 25-51, which can be summarized below:

Ø  The followers had come for more food;

Ø  Jesus explains HE is the real food – believe (v.29);

Ø  Jesus is the fulfillment of manna in wilderness  - refer to Ex. 16:15 (v. 31);

Ø  Jesus is Living Bread - eat of His flesh and have eternal life (v. 48-51).

September 8, 2017

Appearance of Wisdom

“These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”  Col. 2:23

These things can be summed up by our carnal thoughts that do not line up with Christ.  They are thoughts of no eternal value.  Let’s break this verse down to identify each aspect of Paul’s message, all under the “appearance of wisdom:”

o   Self imposed religion – not true religion, but rather what is called “will-worship.”  Will worship can be defined as the actions taken because they please the worshiper, but not the Lord.  In other words, it feeds the soulish part of the person, rather than worship done “in spirit and in truth.”  It is of course all aspects of man-made religion that come from men, not from the Lord.

o   False humility – this speaks to the motivation of the heart and why we do what we do.  True humility acknowledges the need for Jesus Christ in all things. 

o   Neglect of the body – this refers to fasting which is done publicly or the results are shared publicly.  It can also refer to abasement of the body.  Unless called to fast by the Lord as a spiritual discipline – fasting will have no value or impact.  It isn’t the fast or isolation of a person that has power – it is Christ in us that has power. 

Note Paul’s sobering conclusion:  such things “are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”  In actuality, false humility is filled with self; neglect of the body is filled with self; and self-imposed religion is filled with self.  It completely feeds the flesh, rather than applying the cross of Christ to the flesh.  It all stems from being deceived in the mind with thoughts that are not in the Kingdom. 

September 7, 2017

A New Heart

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.”  Ezk. 36:26-27

The Lord promises in Ezekiel 36 to bring His chosen people back from the places they have been scattered to as a result of captivity.  The Lord indicates that He will cleanse Israel from all impurities and idolatry.  Beloved, these truths apply to us as well.  For those who are held captive by fear, worry, doubt, or oppression, the Lord wants to encourage us that He will gather us and return us to where we belong.  He will cleanse us and we will be clean.

He continues in the verses above: after gathering and returning and cleansing us, He then will do some major spiritual surgery in our lives –part of being a new creation in Christ Jesus.  He will give us new hearts.  They are hearts of flesh, hearts capable of love, compassion, mercy, and grace.  They are hearts capable of empathy and bearing one another’s burdens.  As the Lord removes our old hearts of stone and through His precise surgical procedure gives us our new heart, we become more fully human.  We begin to walk in our new identity with this great gift of a heart that functions the way it was ordained to function from before the foundation of the earth. 

He adds to that putting a new Spirit within us.  This again is part of His spiritual surgery as we say Yes to Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  That Spirit is His Holy Spirit – which God puts in us as the seal of the New Covenant and representation of Christ in us, the hope of glory.  This Holy Spirit will communicate with us in such a way that we will understand a whole new way of life.  A life more fully human; the life we were created to live from the beginning.

September 6, 2017

To Him Who is Able

“To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!  Amen.”  Jude 24-25

This doxology is questionably the finest in the New Testament, especially when read in the context of this brief letter written by Jude.  It is a letter of warning for the early church to notice that people have infiltrated with a message of “cheap grace” and denial of Jesus as the only Lord and Savior.  The letter is stark, to the point and gives pause to every reader through the generations.

At the end is this grand conclusion in which Jude provides ample reason for us to give all glory, majesty, power and authority and praise to God.  What are those reasons?  First Jude states that the Lord is able to keep us from falling.  The Greek word for falling here is aptaistos and means not stumble or stand firm.   Another way to read this is that Jesus is able to keep us standing firm.  Our best efforts will fall short; we need King Jesus and we need to reach out to Him to keep us from stumbling over deceptions, lies, and the like.

Jude continues by stating the Lord is able to present us before God without fault and with great joy.  I love that combination!  Because of the powerful blood of Jesus at work in our lives, we who call Him Lord are presented to God without spot or blemish.  We are presented – faultless.  We are also presented with great joy.  I imagine this as both Jesus having great joy in presenting us and our having great joy in being presented.  It is a win-win! 

And so to Him – to the only God our Savior – to Him be glory, majesty, power and authority, now and for all eternity.  Let all His people praise Him.

September 5, 2017

Blessed is the Man

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.”  Ps. 1:3

Psalm 1 is practical and useful; in many ways similar to Proverbs.  It begins by describing ways a person is blessed by God.  That person doesn’t hang out with bad company and take advice from those who want to bring the person down.  Instead our approach is to delight and meditate on the law of the Lord.  We find the law of the Lord in the word of God, Scripture.  As we delight in reading our Bibles and we take time to chew it over (meditate on what it is saying to us), the Psalmist tells us we are blessed.

Such a person is then depicted as a tree.  Not just any tree, but a tree that has planted by streams of water.  Streams are important because that tells us the waters are running and living.  Such trees will bear fruit in the right season.  Such trees will have leaves that are healthy and vibrant. 

If you would engage in a picturing exercise for a moment, go back to a recent Scripture that has had an impact on you.  Maybe you read it in a devotional and it really spoke to your heart.  Perhaps you ran across several times recently, as if God was getting your attention with it.  Or it is one that just keeps coming to you, even when you are driving the car, doing laundry and don’t have a Bible close at hand.  Your spirit brings it to you.  Once you have the verse, now see it being planted in you as you imagine yourself as a tree.  Picture that word beginning to work in your life as it takes root in the base of the tree and slowly over time grows and spreads and reaches other parts of the tree.  See it spreading to the branches and those leaves.  See fruit developing and growing and being strengthened by that word working in you.

Friends this is the power of God’s life giving word.  When we encounter it, it gets in us and it changes us.  Get in God’s word and it will get in you, transforming you and shaping you into the person God created you to be.

September 4, 2017

Repay with Blessing

“Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”  1 Peter 3:9

Love defined and displayed by Jesus was this: overcome evil with good; repay evil with blessing.  It was a revolutionary idea when Jesus introduced it and remains revolutionary to this day.  The untamed and untrained human response to evil is revenge, retaliation, and yes, more evil.  Brutality meets up against brutality to see who can “win.”  When one side wins, the other loses and so we are guaranteed another round in the battle.  On and on it goes, so that indeed there is nothing new under the sun.

The crowd gathered around Pilate yelled out for blood, “Crucify Him!”  The Roman soldiers stripped Him, beat Him, mocked Him and watched Him suffer.  His own circle of closest friends abandoned Him.  Evil was in the air.  Yet Jesus did not retaliate.  He loved, and in so loving, overcame evil with good and with blessing.  After His death and burial, when it was a certainty that evil had won the day, goodness was at work.  Love was working “underground” for three days.  They couldn’t find Him and then He appeared.  Jesus was not overcome by evil; He had overcome evil with good. 

There is evil at work in the world and the question staring at us is, how will we who follow Jesus respond to evil?  Will we be caught up in its web or will we overcome it with good and with blessing?