TerryLema

Ok, enough, I’m tired of the world’s news. Today I want to think about something beautiful and lovely instead. I want Good News, not the news proclaimed by the ‘god of this world’ who seems very adept at blinding the eyes of unbelievers.

I want to think about Jesus. I want to think about the fact that when sin abounds, grace will abound even more! I want to think about falling in love once again with the Savior of my soul. I want to sing the great doxology with Jude, a servant of the Lord and a brother of James (both of whom were “brothers” of our Lord Jesus).

“Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.” [Jude 24-25 NLT]

He will keep us from falling … even while the enemy of our soul is doing everything he can to trip us.

He will present us before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy … even while the enemy of our soul is doing everything he can to tempt us to sin and bear guilt and shame.

Our Savior, the only God, reigns with all glory, majesty, power, and authority, now and forevermore. And we are secure in Him.  Yes, that is what I want to think about today. Amen and Amen.

I am amazed when I look at the Apostle Paul’s life and accomplishments. When God sent him off to be the Messenger to the Gentiles, to those outside the nation of Israel, no one would have thought that he could have accomplished what he did. Yes, he did have helpers, Luke, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Titus to name but a few. He, however, was the tip of the spear that carried the message of Christ’s cross throughout the known world and saw that world change in the span of one generation.

His prayers, his desires, his thoughts are plainly evident in his writings and are summed up truly in that one verse at the end of Galatians. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” [Galatians 6:13-14]

 For Paul, it was all about Jesus. He lived what John the Baptizer prayed, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

Paul set such a high mark, such an illustrious example for us to follow. What does it matter if we testify to thousands or a few? What does it matter if we are called to a national platform, or minister in a rural setting? What does it matter if we touch people in churches, or hospitals, or homes, or in the marketplace? What does it matter if we take the message of the cross to small babes in Sunday School or the elderly in assisted living facilities?

What matters is that we truly find our boasting not in what we do or where we go, but in the message we bring … the message of the cross. The importance is found in what our Savior did, in how God came down from His throne and got His feet dusty on this earth. The amazing thing is that cross where the blood of Christ was spilled.

May we never boast in anything other than the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

To me, evolution is one of the saddest theories ever embraced by man. It is a theory of hopelessness. It says we have no purpose in being here; we are a random act of nature, a happenstance, a fluke, an accident. And because we are a random act, a fluke, there is no purpose for us.

God’s Word gives me hope. From God’s Word I learn that I was created with purpose, to know, to love, to serve the living God. I was created to worship my Creator, to live a life worthy of Him. That is my purpose as a child of my Creator.

I also have another purpose … as a child of my Father, one who was saved and adopted into His family as His daughter. That purpose is what Paul declares in Colossians 1:28, to “proclaim him [Christ], admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.”

 Not only do we have purpose as children of our Creator; we have purpose as children of our Father. That purpose is to bring others into the family, to introduce them to the Savior of their soul.

We are not a random act of creation; neither are we a random act of salvation. It was not a fluke that we were brought into this world; neither is it a fluke that we were brought into the family of God. Let us live our lives always with Godly purpose.

Back when God was calling Abraham and telling him that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, there was a mystery abiding in the heart of God. Back when God changed Jacob’s name to Israel and made him the father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, there was a mystery abiding in the heart of God. Back when God brought His chosen people out of Egypt by the hand of Moses and gave them the law and took them to the Promised Land, there was a mystery abiding in the heart of God.

Paul now reveals in Colossians 2:25-27 what that mystery was. “God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret [kept hidden for centuries and generations past): Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory [the hope of glory].” [NLT]

In Christ, that mystery was manifested for all to know. Not just Jews, but Gentiles also, in fact all who come to God by faith in Christ, share in the promises of eternal life—Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Read the phrase again, “Christ in you.” Now read it this way, “Christ in me.” The mystery is not just for groups of people; it is for individuals. Christ abides in people now by faith. Christ lives in you and in me now by faith. That is our life, our present life.

But there is more. There is the “hope of glory,” the promise of a future manifested life in His presence forever. I would be less than honest if I told you that I lived in this “hope of glory” all the time. Sometimes when I’m struggling with temptation and sin, when the disappointments and sorrows of this life outnumber the triumphs and joys, I forget. I take my eyes off God and see only earthbound circumstances. Yet, even more real than what I see around me or in me daily, is what I cannot see … those things that are mine in God. The greatest of which is “Christ in [me], the hope of glory.”

There are three verses in Colossians 1 that contain three of the most amazing truths found in Scripture. Verse 21-22a speaks of our separation and reconciliation, verse 22b gives us the result of that reconciliation and verse 23 provides a warning.

“But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.” [Colossians 1:21-23 NLT]

We were separated from God because of our rebellion and inability to live according to God’s holy standards. Christ brought us reconciliation through His cross. Now as we stand before God, our Father only sees us covered in the blood of Christ and sees us as holy, blameless and without even a single fault.

But there is a warning that accompanies that Good News. We must stand firmly in the truth of God’s reconciliation … we cannot allow ourselves to “drift away” from the Good News.

The Greek word for “drift away” expresses the idea of being shifted, displaced, or removed from a fixed position. In Scripture it is used figuratively of a believer’s spiritual or moral footing being dislodged.

There are all kinds of forces in this life that seek to dislodge our spiritual and moral footing. We need to stay grounded in Christ Jesus, steady in our reconciliation through the power of the Holy Spirit in us so we do not “drift away” from the truth.

There are three verses in the first chapter of Colossians (vs21-23) that contain three of the most amazing truths found in Scripture. Verse 21-22a speaks of our separation and reconciliation (yesterday’s devotion), verse 22b gives us the result of that reconciliation and verse 23 provides a warning.

“As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” [NLT]

Pastor Jim, my former pastor, mentor, and friend always quoted the above verse. I don’t know if it was his “life verse” but it certainly was the verse he lived all his life.

God brought us reconciliation through the sacrifice of His Son Christ Jesus. God transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His Dear Son. As a result of that act of reconciliation, God now sees us as holy, blameless and without a single fault!

How can that be? I have a lot more than a “single” fault. I am far from God’s holy standard. How can God see me as holy, blameless and without a single fault?

As Pastor Jim always said – the Blood of Christ covers us and when our Father God looks at us, He “looks” through the Blood of His Dear Son and sees only Christ’s holiness in us.

We can only stand before God in Christ Jesus. Thankfully, because of Christ’s willing sacrifice, we can now do that!

You can probably tell from the last couple devotions that I have been reading in Colossians, specifically that first wonderful chapter. There are three verses (vs21-23) that contain three of the most amazing truths found in Scripture. Verse 21-22a speaks of our separation and reconciliation, verse 22b gives us the result of that reconciliation and verse 23 provides a warning. I want to look at what those verses mean for us over the next couple days.

Colossians 1:21: “This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.

Once we were alienated. We were banished from the presence of God. We were estranged. We were habitual enemies of God because of our sin. God was holy; we were not. Ezekiel 18:4 reminds us of that: “Behold, all souls are Mine…. The soul who sins shall die.”   

Doesn’t come much plainer than that. The soul who sins shall die. Before we came to Christ, we may have been good people or evil people according to the world’s viewpoint, but to a Holy God, we deserved nothing less than death. Each of us had broken the first and greatest commandment to love, “the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.”

No one was able to keep that commandment, even if we did well with others. And breaking one law, just one, makes us a lawbreaker under judgment. “Yet now” the most amazing transformation; God has reconciled us through Christ’s death.

I don’t want justice. Justice demands my death as a lawbreaker, and my condemnation and eternal alienation from God. I need a Holy God to be merciful to me, a sinner. I need a Holy God to make the way for me. I need a Holy God to enable me to come into His presence. I need His mercy and His grace.

Want to hear something that will take your breath away?   “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.”

 Not enough? There’s More! “Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” [Colossians 1:15-20 NLT]

This passage declares the Supremacy of Christ. This, in all its radiance, is the very nature and the prerogatives of God that Christ relinquished when He came to earth, and what He reclaimed when “God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names….”  [Philippians 2:9 NLT]

This is the God we serve. When we are feeling discouraged or frightened, we should remember that He created everything, all things in heaven and on earth.

When we wonder if the church will ever get its act together, we need to remember that He is the head of the body, the church.

When we are feeling adrift or disjointed or alone, we need to remember that He holds it all together and it is through Him that all things are reconciled.

When we are in a battle, we need to remember that His blood, shed willingly on the cross, brought us peace.

When we aren’t sure we know God, we need to remember that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, and we can be comforted.

“For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.” [vs13-14 NLT]

God rescued us; we didn’t rescue ourselves. It can’t get any plainer than that. It was His idea, His plan, and His Son that carried it out on Calvary. If we ever get the feeling that God is lucky to have us, those three little words–God rescued us–should put it all back in perspective. We were dead; God gave us life through His Son.

God rescued us from the kingdom of darkness. The Greek word for darkness is used throughout the New Testament as the equivalent of physical darkness, intellectual darkness, blindness, the place of punishment, moral and spiritual darkness, evil works, evil powers that dominate the world. That’s the ugly stuff that held us in its powers.

God transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son. He didn’t rescue us from the power of darkness and drop us just anywhere. He brought us into the kingdom, into the kingdom of the Son He loves, the Son who gave His life for our rescue.

It is in God’s very own Son that we find redemption. We have been redeemed and set free by the very blood of God’s own Son. Even more, we have the forgiveness of sins. God has forgiven my sins. They will never be thrown up in my face, they will never be put on display, they will never be whispered about in heaven, they are forever covered by the Precious Blood of God’s Lamb.

Two short verses, a couple of lines in my Bible, a few words and held within those few words are our lives, past and present as well as the hope for a glorious eternal future. Glory to God.

In the first chapter of Joshua, Joshua is commanded to “Be strong and courageous.” The LORD commands him three times between verses 6-9. (The people will echo that command in vs 18.) Along with “Be strong and courageous,” Joshua is also instructed to “not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

I often hear those commands quoted. What I seldom hear quoted are two verses around those commands that are equally important.

“Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left.”  and “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” [vs 7b, 8]

Joshua not only needed to be strong and brave, but he also needed to be diligent to study God’s word and to obey it. God is clear when He tells Joshua, “…only then will you prosper and succeed ….”

Too often we focus on the “strong and courageous” and fail to realize that you cannot have strength and courage apart from obedience, and you cannot be obedient apart from knowing what God demands.

We must study and prayerfully consider the Word of God. Then obedience will follow and courage and strength will arise.