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"And just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, 'What do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are - the Holy One of God!'" (Mark 1:23-24)
I wasn't quite sure what to entitle this week's devotional thoughts, beloved. I considered something like A Great Sermon from a Bad Spirit and then Three Things the Devil Knows that He Doesn't Want You to Know. As you can see here, I opted for a shorter version of the second choice. Whatever it might have been called, however, one thing is sure. Here are three truths of which the enemy is convinced but which he hopes you and I never learn!
Note first here what the demon that confronted Jesus in the synagogue in Capernaum said to Him as he railed against His presence there. In his question concerning what they had to do with Him, we discover the glorious truth that the holy and the unholy have absolutely nothing in common! Do you recall what the Apostle Paul wrote to the saints in Corinth about this very issue?
"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?" (2 Corinthians 6:14-15)
As darkness is merely the total absence of light, beloved, so personal righteousness and unrighteousness have nothing whatsoever in common. We cannot walk both sides of the street as Christians and still expect that we shall be witnesses of God's grace to others.
Secondly, the demon asked Jesus if He had come to destroy them all. In that question put to the Master he acknowledged clearly that Satan knows for certain that he has already been defeated. Jesus made that truth completely clear Himself when He said of the Holy Spirit:
"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged" (John 16:8-11)
So we discover thus far, beloved, that the holy and the unholy have nothing in common and that Satan knows that he has already been judged by God and is a conquered foe - two truths that the enemy certainly does not want the believer to know, much less act upon!
Finally, the demon declared aloud before the entire assembly there in the synagogue that He, Jesus of Nazareth, was in fact "the Holy One of God." In other words, that minion of Satan acknowledged openly that Jesus is Lord!
"Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11)
Our personal righteousness as Christians can have nothing to do with the unrighteousness of this sinful world!
Satan is, beyond all else that he may boast to be, a defeated foe!
And whatever we face at whatever time in life, Jesus is Lord!
No wonder that the devil does not want us to know these truths or to act upon them in our daily living, beloved! My prayer is that you not only know these things but that you are living them out for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom!
Ron
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
His Word My Hope Secures
"In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:17-18)
John Newton has probably one of the most heart-touching personal testimonies of any sinner saved by God's grace, beloved! Because of a hard life as a youth, Newton ended up as a crew member on ships involved in the deplorable slave trade during the 1700's. He was in and out of trouble until in a storm at sea he professed his faith in God's grace and his life changed. After leaving the sea, Newton married and he and his wife became involved in the church community. He met and became friends with a gifted writer named William Cowper and in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England where Newton served as pastor, they wrote poems and hymns together to be sung in worship services at the church. Among those famous "Olney Hymns" was the beloved Amazing Grace. Among the words written in one of the verses in this well-known hymn are those found in the title of this week's devotional thoughts:
The Lord has promis'd good to me,
His word my hope secures,
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures
For Newton it was the unfailing promise of God's grace that "secured" his hope for eternal life, his assurance of his salvation. And why should we today feel just as he did about our own security before God? Because as the author of Hebrews has written - "it is impossible for God to lie"! What greater foundation could possibly rest beneath our faith than this, beloved? If God said it, He'll do it! If God promised it, He'll bring it to pass!
Let me encourage you to allow God's unfailing word to "secure" your hope today. If a slave trader turned preacher like John Newton can find assurance for the promise of God's grace, then you and I should be just as astounded at how "amazing" that grace truly is! And recall with me just where that eternal hope is leading as expressed in another verse added later and published in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852:
When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we first begun
How secure is your hope today, beloved? It is if your hope is resting solidly on God's unfailing word. May it be so in all of our lives today!
Ron
John Newton has probably one of the most heart-touching personal testimonies of any sinner saved by God's grace, beloved! Because of a hard life as a youth, Newton ended up as a crew member on ships involved in the deplorable slave trade during the 1700's. He was in and out of trouble until in a storm at sea he professed his faith in God's grace and his life changed. After leaving the sea, Newton married and he and his wife became involved in the church community. He met and became friends with a gifted writer named William Cowper and in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England where Newton served as pastor, they wrote poems and hymns together to be sung in worship services at the church. Among those famous "Olney Hymns" was the beloved Amazing Grace. Among the words written in one of the verses in this well-known hymn are those found in the title of this week's devotional thoughts:
The Lord has promis'd good to me,
His word my hope secures,
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures
For Newton it was the unfailing promise of God's grace that "secured" his hope for eternal life, his assurance of his salvation. And why should we today feel just as he did about our own security before God? Because as the author of Hebrews has written - "it is impossible for God to lie"! What greater foundation could possibly rest beneath our faith than this, beloved? If God said it, He'll do it! If God promised it, He'll bring it to pass!
Let me encourage you to allow God's unfailing word to "secure" your hope today. If a slave trader turned preacher like John Newton can find assurance for the promise of God's grace, then you and I should be just as astounded at how "amazing" that grace truly is! And recall with me just where that eternal hope is leading as expressed in another verse added later and published in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852:
When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we first begun
How secure is your hope today, beloved? It is if your hope is resting solidly on God's unfailing word. May it be so in all of our lives today!
Ron
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Traveling with the Right People
"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14)
That which really comes to mind when I think about this week's closing theme - "traveling with the right people" - has to be those occasions when I have been privileged to be involved with missions teams in sharing the good news of Christ not only here in the continental U.S. but also internationally. Talk about traveling with the right people! What a blessing to work side by side with devoted followers of Jesus Christ on such occasions!
As we wrap up our consideration of Jesus' discourse concerning the "narrow" path and the "broad" path, we find ourselves faced with this very issue - those who travel each of these thoroughfares. Note here that Jesus said of the broad way that "many' are those who walk it. And why do you suppose the broad way that leads to destruction is today so well-traveled? I believe that it is so first of all because it attracts so many different types of people. While it is true that many atheists and pagans will travel its wide path, still it is also true that many a devout "religious" person will walk it as well. Very simply, it will be traveled by all of those who have never genuinely put their trust in Jesus Christ so as to be saved by the grace of God.
But this "broad" way is also flooded with so many people because they will think that they are safely on the other road. Jesus warned men of His day that all of these will face Him ultimately having lived under such a veil of satanic deceit:
"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness'" (Matthew 7:22-23)
These folks, then, will have convinced themselves that they were on the "other" road the whole time, all because of their supposed "religiosity." Yet Jesus will destroy their delusions by revealing to them that they have been on the wrong road the whole time!
Jesus also told His listeners that the "narrow" way by contrast will only be found and entered by the few. Once again few will travel here because on the other road are so many who believe themselves to be traveling on this road instead. You see, beloved, God's gate is not small nor His road narrow because God's love and grace are limited. Not at all! Rather they are so because those whom He loves so much are not willing to pay the price to walk here.
Finally, this will be a road walked by so few because in the final analysis people simply do not want Jesus Christ. That is an extremely bitter pill for us as Christians to swallow today! Yet the Scriptures teach us that those who want to come to Jesus can come to Jesus. But as we find so clearly spelled out in the words of the Apostle John:
"This is the judgment, that the Light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil" (John 3:19)
How sad that the reality which we must face is that so many today choose to walk the "broad" way because they believe that it will lead them at last to a loving and non-judgmental God! As the Apostle Paul expressed to the saints in Corinth concerning this greatest of all tragedies:
"And if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
What pathway are you walking today, my friend? This is a wonderful moment for each of us to take a long look and make sure that we are, indeed, on the "narrow" way that leads to eternal life. Quoting Paul's words to the Corinthians once again:
"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Ron
That which really comes to mind when I think about this week's closing theme - "traveling with the right people" - has to be those occasions when I have been privileged to be involved with missions teams in sharing the good news of Christ not only here in the continental U.S. but also internationally. Talk about traveling with the right people! What a blessing to work side by side with devoted followers of Jesus Christ on such occasions!
As we wrap up our consideration of Jesus' discourse concerning the "narrow" path and the "broad" path, we find ourselves faced with this very issue - those who travel each of these thoroughfares. Note here that Jesus said of the broad way that "many' are those who walk it. And why do you suppose the broad way that leads to destruction is today so well-traveled? I believe that it is so first of all because it attracts so many different types of people. While it is true that many atheists and pagans will travel its wide path, still it is also true that many a devout "religious" person will walk it as well. Very simply, it will be traveled by all of those who have never genuinely put their trust in Jesus Christ so as to be saved by the grace of God.
But this "broad" way is also flooded with so many people because they will think that they are safely on the other road. Jesus warned men of His day that all of these will face Him ultimately having lived under such a veil of satanic deceit:
"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness'" (Matthew 7:22-23)
These folks, then, will have convinced themselves that they were on the "other" road the whole time, all because of their supposed "religiosity." Yet Jesus will destroy their delusions by revealing to them that they have been on the wrong road the whole time!
Jesus also told His listeners that the "narrow" way by contrast will only be found and entered by the few. Once again few will travel here because on the other road are so many who believe themselves to be traveling on this road instead. You see, beloved, God's gate is not small nor His road narrow because God's love and grace are limited. Not at all! Rather they are so because those whom He loves so much are not willing to pay the price to walk here.
Finally, this will be a road walked by so few because in the final analysis people simply do not want Jesus Christ. That is an extremely bitter pill for us as Christians to swallow today! Yet the Scriptures teach us that those who want to come to Jesus can come to Jesus. But as we find so clearly spelled out in the words of the Apostle John:
"This is the judgment, that the Light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil" (John 3:19)
How sad that the reality which we must face is that so many today choose to walk the "broad" way because they believe that it will lead them at last to a loving and non-judgmental God! As the Apostle Paul expressed to the saints in Corinth concerning this greatest of all tragedies:
"And if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
What pathway are you walking today, my friend? This is a wonderful moment for each of us to take a long look and make sure that we are, indeed, on the "narrow" way that leads to eternal life. Quoting Paul's words to the Corinthians once again:
"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Ron
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Are We There Yet?
"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14)
Any parent who has ever taken a trip of any length with a child in the car has no doubt heard the famous question: "Are we there yet?" I know that we heard it many times from our kids and I admit reluctantly that my sisters and I asked it of our parents years before that. It seems that we have an amazing fascination, then, with getting to our destination as human beings! What is less certain, however, is what the exact destination may turn out to be.
As we return once again to Jesus' parable about the broad and narrow roads entered by the wide and small gates, we turn our attention this week to the issue of the final destination to which each road leads. Jesus said that the broad way leads to "destruction." The Greek word apoleia refers to a "loss of well-being" and not to a loss of personal being. Simply the one on this road is separated eternally from the love and mercy of God. So if the "broad" way leads to such everlasting destruction, why is it that so many people go there? One reason I believe that this path is so well-traveled is because it hides its true end from all who choose it. No traveler on the broad way, beloved, will ever see a road sign reading "Hell - 25 miles"! Not one person will know what awaits him until he arrives there and it is too late.
By contrast Jesus said that the narrow way leads to "life" and that few people ever find that road. And why would a path in life leading to such a glorious destination be so infrequently traveled? I believe that one reason is that sin wants nothing to do with God in this life. No one who is presently enjoying the passing pleasures of sin even wants to know that such a path as this one exists! They would rather choose to believe that a "God of love" would never judge anyone or consign them to eternal perdition. Yet on this "narrow" way is the sweetest fellowship with Jesus to be found! We can actually enjoy His company in the here and now, beloved. Thus, eternal life is a destination which we may know and a lifestyle which we may choose to experience every moment of every day right now.
Are we there yet? Not yet. But our arrival at this eternal destination is assured, beloved, as long as we have chosen to enter by the "small" gate and are walking the "narrow" way. As we travel this road daily, Jesus Himself desires to walk with us and to guide us every step of the way. We have His promise of that!
Ron
Any parent who has ever taken a trip of any length with a child in the car has no doubt heard the famous question: "Are we there yet?" I know that we heard it many times from our kids and I admit reluctantly that my sisters and I asked it of our parents years before that. It seems that we have an amazing fascination, then, with getting to our destination as human beings! What is less certain, however, is what the exact destination may turn out to be.
As we return once again to Jesus' parable about the broad and narrow roads entered by the wide and small gates, we turn our attention this week to the issue of the final destination to which each road leads. Jesus said that the broad way leads to "destruction." The Greek word apoleia refers to a "loss of well-being" and not to a loss of personal being. Simply the one on this road is separated eternally from the love and mercy of God. So if the "broad" way leads to such everlasting destruction, why is it that so many people go there? One reason I believe that this path is so well-traveled is because it hides its true end from all who choose it. No traveler on the broad way, beloved, will ever see a road sign reading "Hell - 25 miles"! Not one person will know what awaits him until he arrives there and it is too late.
By contrast Jesus said that the narrow way leads to "life" and that few people ever find that road. And why would a path in life leading to such a glorious destination be so infrequently traveled? I believe that one reason is that sin wants nothing to do with God in this life. No one who is presently enjoying the passing pleasures of sin even wants to know that such a path as this one exists! They would rather choose to believe that a "God of love" would never judge anyone or consign them to eternal perdition. Yet on this "narrow" way is the sweetest fellowship with Jesus to be found! We can actually enjoy His company in the here and now, beloved. Thus, eternal life is a destination which we may know and a lifestyle which we may choose to experience every moment of every day right now.
Are we there yet? Not yet. But our arrival at this eternal destination is assured, beloved, as long as we have chosen to enter by the "small" gate and are walking the "narrow" way. As we travel this road daily, Jesus Himself desires to walk with us and to guide us every step of the way. We have His promise of that!
Ron
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