Are you willing ... ?

One morning I was just thanking God that He loves us - loves me! - enough to send His Son to die for me so I could be reconciled to Him.  I went on from there to thank Jesus that He was willing that His body be broken and His blood spilled for me, to atone for my sins.  It was then as if I heard, "Are you willing to be broken for the sins of others?" 

Somewhat confused, my immediate reply was, “But I thought Jesus did that?”  Then I remembered a Scripture that said something about completing the Lord’s sufferings:

Colossians 1:24 (NRSV)

²⁴ I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.

We had a few discussions about this as I questioned to see if I could tell if this was indeed the Spirit of God, but (like the song lyrics of For Your Glory by Tasha Cobbs) I finally tearfully came to the confession, "For Your Glory, I would do anything" - believing that if this brokenness will give God Glory, with His help and in His strength, I submit (as Jesus did in Gethsemane) that not my will but His be done; (as Mary said in Luke 1:38) "let it be unto me" according to His Word. 

I found other Scriptures (AMP) about sharing in Christ's sufferings:

Romans 8:17

And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.

2 Corinthians 1:5

For just as Christ’s [own] sufferings fall to our lot [as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us.

Philippians 1:29

For you have been granted [the privilege] for Christ’s sake not only to believe in (adhere to, rely on, and trust in) Him, but also to suffer in His behalf.

Colossians 1:24

[Even] now I rejoice in the midst of my sufferings on your behalf. And in my own person I am making up whatever is still lacking and remains to be completed [on our part] of Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church.

2 Timothy 3:12

Indeed all who delight in piety and are determined to live a devoted and godly life in Christ Jesus will meet with persecution [will be made to suffer because of their religious stand].

1 Peter 2:21

For even to this were you called [it is inseparable from your vocation]. For Christ also suffered for you, leaving you [His personal] example, so that you should follow in His footsteps.

1 Peter 4:1-2

 So, since Christ suffered in the flesh for us, for you, arm yourselves with the same thought and purpose [patiently to suffer rather than fail to please God]. For whoever has suffered in the flesh [having the mind of Christ] is done with [intentional] sin [has stopped pleasing himself and the world, and pleases God],
² So that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by [his] human appetites and desires, but [he lives] for what God wills.

1 Peter 4:13

But insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, so that when His glory [full of radiance and splendor] is revealed, you may also rejoice with triumph [exultantly].

… and my journey with Him continues …

Childlike correction

Not too long ago I was with one of my grandchildren who was talking about a car he saw on the street.  He called the car green, but when I looked to see what he was talking about, I saw that the car was blue.  I told him that the car was blue and not green, and the next time he mentioned the car, he called it a blue car.  His willingness to receive correction – a childlike, humble, teachable quality – made me think of Jesus’ words to His disciples:
 

Matthew 18:1-5 Amplified Bible (AMP)

 ¹ At that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, Who then is [really] the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 
² And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them, 
³ And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. 
⁴ Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 
⁵ And whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me.

I also remember reading a devotional about a pastor who graciously accepted public criticism (http://odb.org/2003/01/22/the-critic/), humbly acknowledging that “God may be in it, and if He is, I need to hear what He’s saying.”

Proverbs 3 Amplified Bible (AMP)

 ¹ My son, forget not my law or teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;
² For length of days and years of a life [worth living] and tranquility [inward and outward and continuing through old age till death], these shall they add to you.
³ Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart.
⁴ So shall you find favor, good understanding, and high esteem in the sight [or judgment] of God and man.
⁵ Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
⁶ In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.
⁸ It shall be health to your nerves and sinews, and marrow and moistening to your bones.
⁹ Honor the Lord with your capital and sufficiency [from righteous labors] and with the firstfruits of all your income;
¹⁰ So shall your storage places be filled with plenty, and your vats shall be overflowing with new wine.
¹¹ My son, do not despise or shrink from the chastening of the Lord [His correction by punishment or by subjection to suffering or trial]; neither be weary of or impatient about or loathe or abhor His reproof,
¹² For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
¹³ Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is the man who finds skillful and godly Wisdom, and the man who gets understanding [drawing it forth from God’s Word and life’s experiences],
¹⁴ For the gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver, and the profit of it better than fine gold.

 

Hebrews 12:5-14 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁵ And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him;
⁶ For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.
⁷ You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline?
⁸ Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all].
⁹ Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live?
¹⁰ For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness.
¹¹ For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].
¹² So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees,
¹³ And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.
¹⁴ Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.

As Proverbs is a book of instruction, my plan, with God’s help, is to begin again reading a chapter of Proverbs every day.

Proverbs 1:1-7 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹ The proverbs (truths obscurely expressed, maxims, and parables) of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
 
² That people may know skillful and godly Wisdom and instruction, discern and comprehend the words of understanding and insight,
 
³ Receive instruction in wise dealing and the discipline of wise thoughtfulness, righteousness, justice, and integrity,
 
⁴ That prudence may be given to the simple, and knowledge, discretion, and discernment to the youth—
 
⁵ The wise also will hear and increase in learning, and the person of understanding will acquire skill and attain to sound counsel [so that he may be able to steer his course rightly]—
 
⁶ That people may understand a proverb and a figure of speech or an enigma with its interpretation, and the words of the wise and their dark sayings or riddles.
 
⁷ The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence]; but fools despise skillful and godly Wisdom, instruction, and discipline.

… and my journey with Him continues …

Write!

Habakkuk 2:2-3 (AMP)

² And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.

³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day.

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It’s still January and I am already behind.  In checking the God at Eventide devotional (www.twolisteners.org), my spirit is stirred when I see that the January 1^st entry begins with what feels like a command personally directed at me:

“Write for all things are now ready.”

I asked what I was supposed to write.  Getting no answer, I went back to my first blog entry where I asked the same thing.  Since I’ve not gotten different instructions in this regard, I am trusting that the answer I got then is the answer for now:

What you have experienced with and of Me.

So … now the question is which thing I am to write.

John 21:25

And there are also many other things which Jesus did. If they should be all recorded one by one [in detail], I suppose that even the world itself could not contain (have room for) the books that would be written.

Something that has come up a couple of times today is the question of whether something is just good, or is it (from / of) God – how it aligns with God’s plans and purposes for me.  Increasingly, I find myself in need of God’s wisdom, guidance and discernment in this area.  I am grateful for this truth from Hebrews 4:14-16 (AMP):

¹⁴ Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest Who has [already] ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith in Him].

¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.

¹⁶ Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].

… and my journey with Him continues …

Of what manner of Spirit are you?

Luke 9:51-56  (KJV)

⁵¹ And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

⁵² And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.

⁵³ And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

⁵⁴ And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?

⁵⁵ But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

⁵⁶ For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

 

Hmmm … thinking about what’s been in the news recently about proposed Arizona legislation that, according to the reports, could lead to discrimination based on religious beliefs…

Luke 10:25-37 (KJV)

²⁵ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

²⁶ He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

²⁷ And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

²⁸ And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

²⁹ But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

³⁰ And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

³¹ And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

³² And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

³³ But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

³⁴ And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

³⁵ And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

³⁶ Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

³⁷ And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

More like Christ

On the way to church yesterday, I was thinking how the theme of transformation keeps coming up in the things I’m seeing and hearing.  Then the thought came to me that the Spirit of God takes the written Word of God and transforms it into the living Word of God in me and through me – Christ in me, the Hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).  I thought of the first couple of verses of Romans 12:

Romans 12:1-2 (KJV)

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

² And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

So I was not surprised when something like this was said during the church service I attended, and the subject of becoming more like Christ -as the fulfillment of God’s purpose for us - was brought forth.  It was really a confirmation of what I’ve been getting for a while (I blogged about it in the February 25, 2013, day 13 entry during Lent), and another reason why I feel the Lord is impressing upon me repeatedly the need for me to be and stay in His Word.

I am just marveling at God’s timing, and the mercy manifest toward me in additional confirmation as the 3^rd ODB devotional for this year (which, again, I am reading only on today!) speaks both of the resolution / goal of being more “Christlike”, and of the assistance we have been given in the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s purposes in and through us.  Going back a couple of verses from some of what was mentioned in church gives:

Romans 8:22-30 (KJV)

²² For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

²³ And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

²⁴ For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

²⁵ But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

²⁶ Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

²⁷ And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

²⁹ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

³⁰ Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Of course I was then presented with an occasion to display an aspect of Christ’s character and would have failed most miserably had it not been for the Lord’s assistance and reminder of His purpose for, in and through my life.

Thank You, Lord, for always “being there” in magnificent omnipresence, for being Emmanuel, God with us, with me.  Thank You for Your faithfulness to Your Word to never leave me nor forsake me, for Your patience with me, for Your lovingkindness toward me and toward others.  I cannot thank You, cannot praise You enough …

… and my journey with my God continues …

An Appetite for God’s Word

Many people fast at the beginning of the year, seeking more of God (His Presence, wisdom, revelation, guidance, etc.)  It seems that one of the benefits of fasting is to produce a change in appetite.  The ODB devotional for the 2^nd of January this year also speaks of appetite.

Much encouragement is being given those in Christendom to delve into God’s Word this year – to read, to study, to meditate upon, to live and abide in His Word.  These things together (fasting and being in the Word of God) make me think about Moses’ exhortation to the children of Israel:

Deuteronomy 8:1-3 (KJV)

All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.

² And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

³ And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

… and Jesus’ reference to it during His wilderness fast:

Matthew 4:1-4 (KJV)

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

² And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.

³ And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

⁴ But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Dear Lord, give us Your people (called by Your Name), today and every day (by Your great and tender mercies that are new every morning and endure forever), an increasing appetite for the things of You so that we may desire to live by every word which “proceedeth” from Your mouth.  And as we delight ourselves in You, O God, thank You for Your faithfulness to Your Word to give us this desire in our hearts, and to grant us this desire of our hearts.  In Jesus’ precious Name I pray, Amen.

Song: This Day (Edwin Hawkins)

… and my journey with my God continues …

Enduring mercy

Although it is the 13^th of the month, I’m just getting around to reading any of the Our Daily Bread devotionals for the year.  I had a few minutes, so my thought was to start from the 1^st and read them all, rather than just starting from today. 

For January 1^st, the ODB devotional was about God’s mercy which endures forever, as expressed in Psalm 136.  It just happens that yesterday at Passion City Church, Psalm 136 was read in its entirety in a call-and-response manner between the pastor, Louie Giglio, and the congregation.

All thanks and praise to our God, for His mercy (love / kindness / lovingkindness / faithful love / grace / steadfast love / loyalty / loyal love) endures forever (never fails /never quits / continues forever / is eternal / is everlasting / lasts forever / is without end / [is] to the age / is age-abiding)!  Hallelujah!!!

… and my journey with my God continues …