February 2009

Monthly Archive

February 24, 2009

Weekly Word- a RIVER of Pleasure

Posted by Jessie under knowing God
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Eternal Pleasures vs. worldly Pleasures (aka: Sin)

 
Psalm 36
1 An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked:
       There is no fear of God before his eyes.  2 For in his own eyes he flatters himself
       too much to detect or hate his sin.  3 The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful;
       he has ceased to be wise and to do good.  4 Even on his bed he plots evil;
       he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.  
5 Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
       your faithfulness to the skies.  6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
       your justice like the great deep.
       O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.  7 How priceless is your unfailing love!
       Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.  
8 They feast on the abundance of your house;
       you give them drink from your river of delights.  9 For with you is the fountain of life;
       in your light we see light.  10 Continue your love to those who know you,
       your righteousness to the upright in heart.  11 May the foot of the proud not come against me,
       nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.  
 
12 See how the evildoers lie fallen-
       thrown down, not able to rise!
 
This Psalm presents such a profound picture of the living “according to the spirit” or “according to the flesh”.  It would be easy to read this Psalm, see the word “wicked” and immediately think that it refers to some really horrible people, or more likely, just the “unsaved”.  However, I would say that we find ourselves many times living in verses 1-4 than we might be willing to admit. 
 
How many times are we blind to our own sin?  How often do we find that we LIKE our sin, even though we know that it’s wrong?  How prone are we to think that we are “good”, flattering ourselves, patting ourselves on the back, when we compare ourselves to those “other” people, or “sinful” people? 
 
In all these situations we have “ceased to be wise and do good” (v.3)!!
 
What is the key?
 
See verse 1: the fear of the Lord!!  We MUST keep the fear of the Lord before our eyes!  And, it’s not a fear that causes us to run from God, but TO Him.  It’s a fear that makes us want to say NO to EVERY kind of sin. 
 
Easy enough, right?  Well, once we’ve said “no” to sin, then what?  Do we settle ourselves for a dry, boring existence?
 
NO WAY!  See verses 5-11.  We made our stand to HATE sin, so that we can say YES to the expanse of God Love, faithfulness, righteousness and justice!! 
 
The value of knowing and EXPERIENCING His love cannot even be quantified — it’s absolutely PRICELESS (v.7).  Not only that, He has an ABUNDANCE of good things for us to feast on, and a flowing RIVER of delights for our soul and spirit!  So, why do we find that we don’t experience them much? 
 
1.  We are too attached to the pleasures of this world.  We find so many things that make us “feel good”, that we never sense the need to seek something else. 
2.  We don’t know too many people who really seem to enjoy God “that much”. 
3.  As a result of 1 and 2, we don’t have much faith that these “eternal pleasures” exist for us today, even if we believe that we might have them in Heaven. 
4.  It costs our most precious commodity to get them:  TIME!  We must give time to His Presence. We MUST. 
 
But, why should we settle for fleeting, momentary pleasures that fade so quickly, when we could begin to dip into a RIVER of excitement, pleasure, and thrills for our heart, soul, mind, and yes, even our bodies — that will go on for BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of never-ending years?!?!
 
I say, ditch the other stuff, believe for the BETTER and enter in!  Unlike the others, there will never be any regret here. :)
 
How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure!
 
-Jessie 
 

February 16, 2009

Living Eternally – the fullness of Salvation

Posted by Jessie under knowing God
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I’m going to start posting a weekly Scripture chunk for you to devour.  I’m motivated by the recent study in Revelation that “eating the Scroll” is something we must do more and more of.  These will be my little way of spurring you into it deeper.  Please leave any thoughts/comments/questions. . .

I Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
 
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

 
Peter’s epistles are stunning in their clarity, forcefulness and their endtime/eternal focus.  I love them!  And think — this guy was appointed, by Jesus Himself (!), to be the Lead Apostle of the Church as it was being born!  We, as the current Church can learn well from his words recorded in Scripture. 
In this passage, he is declaring the glory of our new birth, what we would call our “salvation experience”.  “In (God’s) great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope . . . into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (v.3-4).  In recounting to us the glory of our rebirth through Jesus’ resurrection, Peter connects it immediately with eternity.  This tells us a few things:
 
1.  The glory of our salvation is not just in being saved from sin and hell, and being made into a new creation, though these are all true and wonderful.  Our ETERNITY begins when we are reborn!!
 
2.  Salvation is not just the moment we surrender to the calling of Jesus, and receive Him as Lord and Savior.  That is the beginning, but the fullness of our salvation comes “in the last time” (v. 5).  In other words, what we enter into reaches it’s completion when Jesus returns to reign on the earth and restore paradise on the planet;  where God and man dwell together in face to face intimacy free from the curse of sin.
 
Do you see it?  Our salvation changes our citizenship from earth to Heaven, setting us on a course of Life that is Eternal!  As such, it sets our vision on a life that is WAY beyond a few decades, but one that stretches on forever!  It should cause us to long for and love the day of Christ’s return, so that we can receive the fullness of what He paid for!!   This is much different than the common Christian mindset that views salvation as a “get out of Hell free” card, which we stick in our back pocket and go ahead with our lives as “usual”.  This salvation is an ongoing process of change, which hardly leaves us to live “life as normal”.  No!  It calls us to change EVERYTHING about the way we live as we focus on Eternity!
 
So, what happens now?
 
1.  EXTRAVAGANT WORSHIP!  “In this you greatly rejoice” (v.6).  We THANK Him for saving our souls and we worship Him for inviting us into His eternal Kingdom.  We worship Him NOW because it is a precious gift of faith that we give to Him.  For, when He appears, our faith will become “sight”, and worship will be automatic!!  Today, we make a CHOICE — and this blesses Him even more.  Our short lives in this “tent” (our unglorified body). 
 
2.  Trials (v.6-7).  I call this the “suffering of faith”.  Paul called it “fighting the good fight of faith”.  Peter tells us we WILL “suffer grief, in ALL KINDS of trials”.  These are NECESSARY components to purify and strengthen our faith.  Our natural inclination in trials is to doubt everything we believe.  But, as we stand firm, with our eyes on eternity and worship Him in the midst of trouble, frustration, etc. — our faith becomes real.  Faith that isn’t tested isn’t really true or trustworthy.  Trials are a gift to strengthen us so that the faith we have has true SUBSTANCE. 
 
3.  We Love Him, NOW.  We love him know, KNOWING that we will see him, SOON.  And, as we look forward to our Eternity with him, and give Him the gift of our voluntary love today, WE ARE FILLED WITH SUPERNATURAL, OVERFLOWING JOY! (V.8).  Why?  Because as we set our heart and mind on the things that are Eternal, we actually begin to taste of the eternal pleasures of God, NOW!    
 
Oh, how I love Jesus!
Because He first loved me!
 
-Jessie