So my original title was going to be “The Providence of God in Our Sanctification Through Enduring Being Wronged” but that seemed to be a mouthful, so I shorted it some.  Nevertheless, that’s what I want to look at today.  How do you respond when you are wronged?  What happens when things at work don’t go your way, when someone takes credit for your work, or a boss is being unreasonable?  Our emotions rise up within us, and can seemingly be overpowering.  How often have you said things in that moment, and later regretted it?  Have your words helped offer peace to a situation, or continued the escalation?  I must admit this is a struggle of mine both generally, and currently, so it’s to my benefit and hopefully our mutual edification to see what the Word of God has to say.

Ecclesiastes 10:4 – ^“If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.”

Proverbs 10:19 – “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.”

It’s funny how some of the world’s cliche’s are actually somewhat Biblical.  Have you ever heard the saying that if you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything at all?  Obviously there are points where we need to give rebuke in a loving way, but these two books of wisdom, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, are both giving instruction on how we can help diffuse situations, but mostly they give a picture of Christ, who although all sorts of false accusations were levied against Him, calmly responded to each situation, even as He was being led to the cross.  We have a unique opportunity when we are wronged, to show the surpassing worth of Christ, and our salvation through Him.  So then, if we are best to restrain ourselves when wronged, how then should we speak?

James 1:19 – “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Ephesians 4:29 – “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

I love James 1:19.  Not only does God give us instruction on how we should speak, but He explains why we are to struggle to that end – namely producing the righteousness of God, our own sanctification.  Does that make sense?  God actually allows you to be led into situations where people are going to wrong you, and speak falsely against you.  Why?  Because He loves you.  There is no greater good than God Himself.  There is no greater joy than knowing God.  When you find yourself in difficult situations, where your flesh is eager to respond in anger, remember that every moment of every day is an opportunity for your sanctification, a gift from God to reveal His glory, and produce righteousness in yourself and know Him even more.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Galatians 5:16-17 – “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”

What does it mean to walk by the Spirit?  If it is the means by which we can put to death the deeds of the flesh, and grow in our sanctification it’s a very important question.  I will try to explain that some from scripture, but maybe before we come to answer that question, we have to ask ourselves another question first – do I have a genuine desire for righteousness?

Apathy in the heart of a believer is as dangerous as outright rebellion against God.  In Revelation 3:15-16 God says – “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”  This is the great danger of religious morality – that we can over time, work ourselves to look better than most of the people around us, and fall into apathy about personal righteousness, drifting from the faith and dependancy on Christ in which we began.  A better way to ask this question to ourselves is “Does my love for God compel me to desire greater personal holiness and obedience to God daily?”  Religious morality will only sanctify you to look better than most of the people around you, but it will never save you.  Does your heart, out of a response to the cross, desire personal holiness?  If you lack that desire, pray for it, and be encouraged, God will run to meet you in that prayer wherever you’re at (Luke 15).  For those for whom righteousness is the desire of your heart, be encouraged, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matt 5:6)

Now that was a big opening to explain one thing which is often misunderstood, walking by the Spirit is not a primarily a matter of outward actions, but an inward matter of the heart.  It begins with a heart that is transfixed on the cross, lost in awesome wonder at a perfect God of love, the Holy One of God, Jesus, who absorbed the wrath of God for the very people who mocked Him, and purchased with His blood the reconciliation of sinners to God.  The heartbeat of a Christian is Christ, and our justification through His death, burial, and resurrection.  Walking by the Spirit is a heart that is at peace, fulfilled, and joyful; at want for nothing beyond Christ, and at peace knowing that all that He is, is ours already.  That heart, a heart that sees the infinite value of Jesus, the worth of the Righteous One, will have an passion for His glory.  Walking in the Spirit is the overflow of that heart.  Walking in the Spirit, is a heart that pursues God in His Word, to know Him, desiring to conform our hearts and minds into His image.  Walking in the Spirit is living in the light, confessing sin to others, so that we know more of the glory of God  with our lives.  Walking in the Spirit is a heart that rejoices, thanking God for all that He has accomplished and granted us through Christ.  Walking in the Spirit is prayerful and dependant, that God’s will would be accomplished in our lives because of our love for Him.  Walking in the Spirit is a fullness of joy in the love of God, and that love overflowing to others, to love others as Christ loves us.  Walking in the Spirit is a heart that prays expectantly of our future hope “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

In full confidence of the Word of God and the Spirit, I’ll tell you taht there is no greater joy than to walk by the Spirit, to have a heart that is joyfully obedient to the Lord.  ANY decision apart from the Spirit’s leading is to our own detriment, no matter what that may look like.  Even if that means a decision that means you will starve, you will starve with joy, knowing a greater hope awaits you for eternity.  If you make a decision to eat for the next 70 years, you will starve for the want of the joy of knowing God for those years, and starved of his presence for eternity.  My exhortation is make your heart fully God’s.  Return your heart to be like a child when you first stood in awe of the God of your salvation.  Slow your heart to rest in awe of Jesus, the cross, and your reconciliation to God. Walk by the Spirit, and live boldly in the shadow of the cross.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

2 Timothy 3:14-17 – “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Have you ever done a job without the right tools for the job?  If any of you have done yardwork or work around the house, you’ll know just how beneficial it is to have the right tool for the work to be accomplished.  Just this last weekend, I myself was working out in my backyard, taking out a piece of fencing that had been put up by the previous owner, but split my side yard in two unnecessarily.  Getting the fence down was the easy part.  Underneath that, however I found a slab of concrete that had been reinforced with rebar.  Now, at first I thought this would be an opportunity to use my sledghammer – always an exciting time for me, but after a few smashes without making a dent in the concrete, I realized I’d need a jackhammer.  Needless to say, a jackhammer made short work of said concrete.

This is how many of us try to go through life as Christians.  We rely on our faith in the gospel for salvation, but then we go about life constantly doing what seems right in our own “moral” eyes.  The problem with that is that we’re still sinners.  While we have the Holy Spirit in us, that does not guarantee that we will choose God’s will from moment to moment, nor does it gaurantee that we will even know God’s will for us.  What is does gaurantee is that we have access to God, and we have spiritually enlightened eyes that can open the Word of God, and search for the truth of who God is, and His will for us.  This is my exhortation today – are you going through life sustained by your own power, choosing what seems best to you?  Someone once said, that there are always three options in any given situation, the wrong way, the right way, and God’s way.  Knowing the heart and mind of God from His Word is how you will have peace in your life knowing that regardless of the circumstances you are pursuing God’s will in everything.  The Bible is not a means to show you how to live a perfect life, but it is the means by which you come to know the One who is perfect, and being conformed into His image, you will walk in His will.  It isn’t something to be picked up from time to time when things get bad, but it is meant to be the steady diet of the Christian.  Even Jesus when confronted with temptation in Matthew 4:4, having fasted 40 days and with the power to turn rocks into bread, told the tempter, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” 

Do you carry in your heart the words of life throughout your day?  The Bible is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that you will be equipped for every good work.  How are you equipped?  One of Satan’s greatest desires is to separate you from the Bible.  He will fill your life with business, and seek to have you delight yourself in any temporary fleeting pleasures rather than enjoying God from His Word.  My encouragement to us all is to be diligent in asking God to grant grace to pursue Him in His Word passionately, and that we would discipline ourselves in discipleship in this way.  There is no better place to be, no better medicine for the troubles each day will bring than delighting in God from the Word.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

There are only a couple places in the Bible where God literally tells us exactly what His will is for us, universally.  One is James 1:27 – “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” and the other is 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 – “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”

So we are exhorted by God, as redeemed creations by the Spirit to love the least among us sacrificially, and to pursue personal holiness in all areas of our life, specifically in our sexuality.  Now I fail at both of these things, and trust me, so do you.  Before you start patting yourself on the back because you’ve never committed adultery, or never had sex before marriage, remember that you are not judged by other men, but by Jesus Christ, who lived a perfectly holy life.  His standard is that we have no lustful intentions of the heart.  Further, before you congratulate yourself for the last Sally Struther’s child you’ve adopted, remember that God does not judge you by the amount of money you give away, but by what you decide to keep.  How does your heart break for the orphan and widow that will go to sleep hungry and homeless tonight?  How does that impact your life decisions?  Look above to James 1:27 – God doesn’t ask about how much you gave to orphans and widows, but how you visited them in their affliction.  Do you love them enough to get involved?  That is how you will be judged.

Now, my goal isn’t to beat ourselves up here, only to give us each a clearer picture of our own depravity, and the battleground we are to wage war in.  My goal is to encourage all of us, to shine the light of God’s Word on our hearts to see sin clearly, and then to intentionally make war on it.  How do we do this?  We’re given a battle plan in 1 Thess 4 above.  By grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are positionally right with God.  This means the battle is already been decided, and guess what?  Jesus won.  Jesus, as a perfectly Holy and righteous sacrifice, absorbed the wrath of God for our sins.  The price has been paid.  By God’s grace through faith, the perfect righteousness of Christ has been credited to us, through no merit of our own.  If you don’t allow your heart to rest in the foundational truth of your justification by faith, apart from works, you’ll never be able to attack sin in your life with joy.  It is the ONLY foundation from which you can attack sin, and have true victory.  Another way to say this, is that you can only defeat, defeated sin.  So the first step in the battle plan is to rest our hearts in the foundation of our justification in Christ.

So if the first step of our war on sin is a battle to rest our hearts in our relationship with God, positionally, the next step is to rest our hearts in our relationship with god experientially or manifestly.  As new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), a very real change has occurred.  Gone is the old heart, that was hardened to sin, and at enmity with God.  In has come a new heart, that is being molded into the image of God, by the Holy Spirit that dwells in us.  Experientially, our heart now rejoices in obedience to God, and manifestly we are indentified with Christ, as Christ dwells in us as the Holy Spirit.  What this means is that we already posess every tool necessary for our fight against sin.  The Word of God is with us and in us, bringing to light the truth of all scripture, a full revelation of God, growing us in wisdom, and providing for us the weapons of war.

Now, with our position secure, and our weapons ready, we can deal with the fact that we are fallen creatures living in a fallen world.  The reason I go into so much effort to discuss our position, and identity with Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is because if you don’t rest in that daily you will have no joy in pursuing obedience to God.  If you do not delight in obeying God, you are not really killing sin, you’re just finding sin substitutes – usually pride.  God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him – John Piper (paraphrase of Phil 1:21)  Most people think of attacking sin as stopping some behavior, but fighting sin God wants us as Christians to be unimaginably happy – in our relationship with Him.  Now I don’t want to leave you here, without given you some pragmatic means by which you can attack sin.  So here are two separate thoughts, hopefully one of them or both will be helpful

1)  Make it a point to delight your heart in the goodness of God every morning – Psalm 37:4 – Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart (Himself)

2)  Saturate your heart in God’s Word – Psalm 119:9-11 – “How can a young man keep his way pure?  By guarding it according to your word.  With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!  I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

3)  Purpose your life to live sacrificially for others – James 1:27 above

4)  Surround yourself with fellow Christians who will love you and speak the truth of God’s Word into your life

Separate, John Piper has a tool based on the acronym ANTHEM that is helpful both in sexual sin, and in any kind of temptation.

A – Avoid temptation as much as is reasonably possible.
N – Say NO to every lustful thought within five seconds.
T – Turn your mind forcefully toward Christ as a superior satisfaction.
H – Hold the promises and pleasure of Christ firmly in your mind until they push out the other images and ideas.
E – Enjoy Jesus. Sin cannot keep its appeal when it is compared to the pleasure of knowing Christ.
M – Move into a useful activity away from idleness and other vulnerable behaviors.

For Our Sanctification with Joy,
Adam

First, I’d like to again apologize for the timing of my WFTD‘s.  This week has been incredibly busy at work, and I don’t like to send out an email, just for the sake of sending on out.  I don’t think that’s being a good steward with the time of the reader, and I like to be able to have God lead what is written.

The focus of my message today is to gain clarity on temptation and sin, and how we can guard ourselves against it.  What is sin?  What does it mean to be tempted?  Perhaps if we could better understand those questions, we would better be able to get to the root of our problem.

In Matthew 4, Jesus was led into the wilderness after His baptism to be tempted by Satan.  How did Satan tempt Christ?  First by appealing to His physical needs.  Satan tempted Jesus to make the rocks bread.  Now it’s important to know that Jesus had the authority to do it, and there is nothing wrong with eating food, but this wasn’t the will of God the father.  It was the Father’s will that Jesus go to the wilderness and fast to be tempted.  Jesus rebuked Satan with scripture.  Jesus revealed that man was not to trust in Himself, but in God who provides.

Satan then keyed in on that, and tempted Jesus to “trust in God completely” by throwing Himself off of the temple.  Now again Jesus had the authority to do what Satan said, and could have personally commanded angels to come down to fulfill scripture.  Further, this would have instantly gained Jesus great fame to accomplish such a feat – but this was not God’s plan.  Jesus did not come to be famous and well liked, but to be despised, stricken by man, to go to the cross for those who mocked Him.  Again, Jesus again rebuked Satan with scripture.   Jesus revealed that man does not exist to have their will supercede God, but man exists to submit to God, that the glory of God would be known and enjoyed.

Lastly, Satan tempted Jesus with all of the wealth and possessions the world had to offer.  Again, all of this was rightly Christ’s already, but Satan was offering it to Him now, without the cross, without the pain.  Thankfully Jesus rejected Satan again.  It would not have been wrong for Jesus to take His rightly place as King over all creation, included those kingdoms he was tempted with.  What made it wrong was that it was not the will of His Father, at that time.

What was common through each of these temptations?  If we can see what that is, then we can get a better picture of sin, than just what can be seen outwardly.  In every case, the temptation of man is the same – to pursue his own will apart from God.  What then is sin?  Romans 14:23 says “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”  What is faith?  Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Whatever does not come from a desire to pursue the will of God, is sin.  So then, this is where our battle must begin.  Do we delight in pursuing the will of God above all else?  Do we pray as Jesus modeled for us, that His will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven, in us, in our heart’s desires?  Seldom are we tempted towards things that are outright evil.  Usually we will be tempted to pursue something good, just in our own time instead of God’s.  Other times we will be tempted to pursue a physical “need” at the expense of spiritual needs.  Lastly we will be tempted to replace the joy in God Himself with the joy in what God has created.

How are you going through life?  Are you haphazardly walking through life doing what seems right to you, or are you disciplining yourself, to look into God’s Word, prayerfully seeking His will for your life to be done?  It’s a basic truth, that you will always be moving in your relationship with God; either toward Him or away from Him.  Temptation strikes, and gives way to sin when we stop actively pursuing God’s will moment to moment day to day.  Be encouraged, the victory is won through Christ who overcame all temptations to perfectly obey the will of our Father.  In Christ, we too have everything necessary to obey God.  This is why no temptation will ever come upon you that you cannot defeat.

1 Corinthians 10:13 – “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam

From time to time, I will hear from people that I can be harsh with my application of God’s Word.  Usually the complaint centers around my exhorting people to make their calling and election (salvation) sure.  Implied of course is that there may be some among the body of professing believers that are in fact self-deceived and not saved.  This idea will rattle many who hear it (as it should us all), and can be a source of discouragement.  I would agree, that sometimes the tone of what I write can be harsh.  Everything I write or say, is stained to some degree by my own sin. I own that, and is just another reminder at how much we are all in need of constant prayer.  What I want to challenge us all with, however, is that I believe the Bible is no less harsh.  Specifically, I believe Jesus challenged people’s salvation no less than I do, and He is the measuring stick for the overall message I try to deliver.  Ultimately, no matter how it looks outwardly, it is not loving to allow someone to continue to profess Christ as their savior, to walk in that assurance, when there is no fruit in their life.  That being said, Jesus was also very gentle with those who followed Him, always correcting, but with a meekness that cradled the spirits of those struggling sinners, the disciples, and others.  My Word for the day today is meant to encourage you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, who are struggling in sin.  My affection for you, and hope for you in Christ is great, and so I want to take today as a time of reminder, to reinforce the doctrinal truth that we are justified (declared righteous) by God separate from our being sanctified (being made holy as God is holy).  I want you to know that at every moment of every day, each believer is struggling with sin, that our assurance of salvation isn’t measured by whether or not we have “conquered” certain sins, but by the inclination of our heart, the evidence of God’s transforming work in us fueled by our faith in Him.   

This is so important for each of us to see and rest in, because there are always going to be times when Christians fall.  For those of you who know me well personally, you know I have experienced both the sweetness of joy in my relationship with God, and periods of sin and struggle, where my joy in God was strained at best.  There may be seasons where for whatever reason, be it sin, or otherwise, that all Christians struggle to find joy in God, when they really want to.  If Christians do not know that their position before God, in every moment of every day (yes even when they sin) is based not on their performance, but on the righteousness of Christ, there will be little joy in their walk with God.  In every season of struggle for me, my rising above that season began and was sustained with my justification by faith alone before God.  When satan tempts the heart of EVERY believer to despair in their sin, to believe that they are not good enough for God, where else will they turn?  How will they fight back against that challenge, because Satan is exactly right – we are not good enough for God.  But as Satan often does, he only tells part of the story – he won’t remind you that, while you were far from God, He brought you near by the blood of Christ, that Christ is all sufficient, that every ounce of every sin you have committed and will ever commit was paid for by Christ on the cross, and His perfect righteousness is yours in God’s eyes, in every moment, of every day. 
 
For you who love God and want to draw closer to Him, but struggle along the way, be comforted by the words of Christ; you did not choose God, you were chosen, apart from your works, to be reconciled to God.  Nothing can separate you from His love – He is enough, His blood was enough, His resurrection is your eternal hope, and what God has done, and declared, no one can change.  He is sovereign over everything, and will surely do exactly as He has promised.  His love is everlasting, a steadfast love that is unlike any we can know as fallen creatures.  It is in His steadfast love, despite our failings, that we can find peace, where we can renew our hope daily.  My prayer is this – that many among you will learn to delight in God every day, but even more, that when you struggle, even your struggles will offer opportunities for God to be glorified.  My hope is that you would not rest in despair, but that your struggles would remind you that you cannot accomplish what God already has done, and that truth, the Truth on the cross, would well up in you a faith that burns without end – God is mighty to save.  I’ll leave you with God’s Word, and trust that it will accomplish, what I cannot – for your peace and joy.

Psalm 59:10 – “My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.”

2 Corinthians 2:14 – “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”

James 2:12-13 – “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Ephesians 2:1-9 – “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Romans 8:1 – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:38-39 – “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Dwight L. Moody, an evangelist during the late 19th century said of the Bible, “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”  A good friend of mine, when asked why he is constantly reading the Bible and why he believes that the Bible is the literal Word of God, responded by saying that he doesn’t read the Bible, the Bible reads him.  The Bible reads his heart, and exposes what is truly there, in a way that could only come from God.  Now that may not satisfy the skeptics, who would rather debate about fulfilled prophecy, literary records and methods, etc, but I like that answer, and it is the one I often give myself.  There simply is no other book like the Bible.  We live in a blessed time in history when each of us has the opportunity and privilege to have it available to us in entirety.  My purpose today is singular, I want to spark in us a passion for the Word of God.  I want it to saturate our minds, and penetrate our heart to where it is leading us through our days.  I want us to see, what God has to say about His Word, from His Word, and for us to resolve to be men and women of the book.  I want us to see and delight in the glory of God in the Bible, to feel inwardly the joy that comes from 2 Corinthians 4:6 – “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

God has said many things about His Word, and I cannot cover them all today, but here are a few:

1)  First and foremost, God claims within His Word, that He is the author of the Word.  He further claims it is useful for teaching, rebuke, correcting and training in righteousness, so that we can be prepared for what each day will bring.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 – “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

2)  His Word is meant to give direction on how you should live.

Joshua 1:8 – “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

3)  His Word is the means by which we are sanctified, that is conformed into the image of Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:15-18 – “Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

4)  His Word is able to expose our hearts intentions to us.

Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

5)  His Word is the only offensive weapon we have.  You can also see this in Matthew 4, when Jesus is being tempted by Satan.  Jesus’s responses to Satan’s misuse of scripture by quoting scripture back to him that exposes his deception.

Ephesians 6:16-17 – “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”

Many people often say that they struggle with reading the Bible because they don’t like to read, etc.  I used to buy that, and just encourage people to continue to pray for that desire.  Now, however, I want to be more direct.  The Bible isn’t good because it tells you how to live and not have God mad at you – the Bible is good because it is the literal revelation by God, of Himself, to us.  Therefore, when I come across people who say they’re a Christian, but don’t read their Bibles, I just tell them that what they just said isn’t possible.  The whole of creation reveals the glory of God, but it cannot save someone, only Jesus can.  We are saved, not because we know a fact claim, but because we love our savior, our trust is in Him alone, and we follow Him, not begrudgingly, but in joy awaiting the day when we see Him face to face.  If you have in your possession a book that reveals in amazing beauty, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, yet ignore it, you expose not a struggle with reading, but a lack of love for your savior.

Saying all of that, my exhortation is to ask yourself the right questions.  Am I at peace with the amount of time I spend knowing and delighting in God from His Word?  Does the will of God from His Word impact my day to day decisions consistently?  Can I manifest Christ to others, confidently, knowing that my love is rooted in God as revealed in Jesus Christ from His Word?  Is my time in the Word, engaging my heart’s affections to delight in God, or is it just an intellectual chore done to check a box on a list?  I’ll leave you with this encouragement.  Without exception, every single person who is growing in their walk with the Lord, and who is mature in faith, has a consistent regular time delighting in God in His Word.  You don’t have to be a great student, you don’t have to be a great reader – just spend time with God in prayer over His Word, you will be blessed immensely.  For many, this isn’t going to come without a fight.  Discipline your body and mind to pursue the Lord in His Word, and pray that God would incline your heart towards Him to delight in the Word, God will run to those who come to Him.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

When you were a child, do you remember how everything seemed so big to you?  As you got older, things got smaller perhaps, but then you were able to travel to places like niagra falls, the grand canyon, the redwood forest, or see the vastness of the ocean, and again feel small if not smaller than you did as a child.  Each day, we walk down steps, subconsciously judging the distance from one step to the next to be small, and trust that we will survive the step.  What if your next step was over the ledge of the grand canyon?  That’s a big step!  Your decision not to take that step is based on your understanding of the vastness of distance, and the implications to your health if you take the plunge.

My question today is, have you allowed yourself to define time in the same way?  When you were growing up, a year seemed like such a long time.  As you grow older, time seems to speed up, but really it’s just that you are understanding time more clearly, and having lived through 20, 30, 60 years – one year seems like such a short time now.  If you ever struggle with pride (we all do) you can always be humbled by a man that was the wisest person who ever lived, Solomon, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.  Here is what he has to say about our time here before we die.

Ecclesiastes 11:9-13 – “What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.”

Further in James 4:14 – “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

Do you stand in awe of the idea of eternity?  If you can allow you mind to rest there on that idea, how would this change how you live?  Would your perspective on things change?  The Bible says that God has put into the heart of each of us the understanding of eternity, and we can live life boldly in wisdom from that understanding, or we can choose to ignore it.  We can live based on what is seen, or in faith on what is yet unseen.

My encouragement is to take stock of your life.  God is probably not calling you to give up all you have, or to move to another country to be a missionary (He might be), but what about smaller life decisions and how you spend your time each day?  Are you making short term decisions that when put up against the light of eternity, do not make sense?  We do not know when the Master will come for us, but we know that our time is fleeting in light of eternity.  My exhortation is to give praise to God for all He gives you, but do not seek or hold on so tightly to earthly things as if to forget that they hold no value in eternity.  Invest your lives joyfully in people, and God’s kingdom.  These are things that will be with you for eternity.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

I often hear from people that they don’t feel comfortable evangelizing.  I understand the nervousness about opening yourself up to others, but I encourage people to remember how they felt before they came to know and follow Christ.  Jesus has powerfully drawn us from darkness to light, from death to life, and there are many who are painfully in bondage apart from God.  Beyond that, I will tell someone that it helps to have a witness with your life, and it helps to have the Word of God in you of course, but the root of my own evangelism is that I understand a very simple truth about people:

1)  People were made for joy, and each person pursues their own happiness to this end
2)  Jesus Christ, God, is infinitely good, infinitely magnificent, and our relationship with Him, and worship of Him, is the greatest joy that is imaginable
3)  All other things, are good, and a source of joy only in as much as they reflect God, and offer worship to Him in obedience to His will

What does this mean?  It means that everything the world offers, if it is not done with a heart to see and worship God in that thing, will not make someone happy, but actually draw them further away from joy in God.  It means that no matter how adamant and hard hearted someone may be, no matter how outwardly happy they appear, the reality is that deep down they are not.  Here some may say to me, well hey, my neighbor has a great family, a great house, and two new cars, and he’s the happiest person I know!  Is he?  What happens when one of those things is taken away, and that perfect life he’s worked so hard to build up, comes crashing down around him?  Often times it is only then, that you will hear that person honestly say, that those things in his life were never satisfying, his joy was counterfeit.  The things that we think will bring us happiness are often the chains that keep us from it.

So how do we evangelize?  Simple – you love people, you manifest Christ to them, and you share the gospel with them.  You boldly share the good news that because of the shed blood of Jesus, we have new life in Him, we have liberty from the bondange that comes from sin and pursuing happiness apart from God, and a freedom to pursue infinite joy in God.

What about us, whom have already believed on Christ, and have tasted the delight of the sweetness and goodness of God?  This truth is no less valuable to us.  We are free from bondage to our sin, but we are still in the flesh, daily making a choice of where we will pursue happiness.  Does that mean that if you read your Bible today, you’re going to have infinite joy in God?  No, it means that you’re stepping closer to Him, and in time your joy in Him will grow.  Does it mean that if you sin, you will be miserable?  Maybe, but probably not right away.  Sin has a way of slowly killing a person, one decision at a time.  Likewise, our pursuit of God is not won based on a decision, but on daily choosing to pursue joy in Him.  This is God’s will for us, that we would be infinitely joyful in Him.  This joy, rooted in God Himself, comes with our obedience to Him, conforming more into His image, and walking in a close fellowship with Him.

Psalm 16:11 – “You make known to me the path of life;in your presence there is fullness of joy;at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

John 15:9-11 – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Here’s something I really want you to know – God is serious about your being joyful in Him.  God does not want you merely to obey Him, he wants you to know Him, and Him know you, and for that relationship to be the source of your joy in life.  How serious is God about being the source your happiness?  How about this?  If you’re not happy in Him, he’s going to kill you!

Deuteronomy 28:47-48 – “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.”

Now of course this doesn’t mean that there will not be times where we struggle for joy, but what this means is that the abundance of things in our lives should never be a substitute for joy in God.  That lie, is what is killing the rest of the world – as they try to keep up with the Jones’s for 60 or 70 years, on their way to a grave where none of those things will come with them – a life wasted, and a judgment to come.  God loves you too much not to warn you away from that.

Take an inventory of you life.  Where are you trying to find happiness?  Are you making choices that are drawing you closer to God, or are you finding God substitutes for happiness in places like work, relationships, material things?  By the way, the Bible calls those things idols.  That is a bad trade, if you’re making it.  God has made a way for us to enjoy life, pursuing exceeding joy in Him.  Root yourself in His Word today.  Seek wisdom from God’s Word to put to death sin in your life, and draw closer to Him.  In Him, is the fullness of deity, in His presence there is a fullness of joy.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Hello my friends!  For some of you, the title of todays WFTD is seemingly contradictory.  We know that God is just, and yet there is injustice in the world we live in, so how do we deal with this?  Some people would have you believe that God is not sovereign over all things, to which I would say, if someone is taking advantage of another, and God is powerless to do anything about it, then God isn’t God.  Rather, God allows injustice, not because He is powerless to stop it, but because God is using it to accomplish His purposes, which are good.

As a believer, how do you respond to injustice?  How do you respond when you are wronged?  These times can be very helpful in gauging where your heart is truly at.  Do you run to find comfort apart from God in sin, or do you cling to God during these times?  At first this may seem hard, and I definitely admit that it is against your flesh to do so.  What can be helpful, I believe, is to see God’s good purpose in injustice, for believers.  Why does He do it?

1)  To strengthen and grow the faith of the believer

James 1:2-4 – “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

2)  To provide an opportunity to reveal to the world through the believer His glory as being infinitely more valuable than what is lost in injustice

Philippians 3:7-8 – “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”

3)  To accomplish His sovereign will to sustain and grow His Kingdom

Genesis 50:17-21 (After Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery, but Joseph became a ruler in Egypt in charge of excess food when there was a famine in his native land) – “Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”

4)  To provide an opportunity to love our enemies, and make Christ’s glory known in a personal way to someone

Luke 6:32-36 – “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if youlend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

5)  To remind us that this fallen world is not our home

Romans 8:18-21 – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

My encouragement today is when injustice happens to you (and it will), do not run from God, but run to Him.  When things are at their worst, and every hope that this world has for you is lost, cling to hope you have apart from the world, the only lasting Hope you have, the Hope you have in Christ.  Cling to the cross, the shed blood of Christ for you, and know that God is good and in control.  The most unjust act of all time was a perfectly righteous God, being condemned and bearing the punishment for sin that was not His.  This is the hope and joy we carry with us day to day, that our future is secure because at the appointed time, the Righteous died for the unrighteous, that those of us who were far from God, would be brought near, and the justice of God has triumph over the injustice of the world.

Grace and Peace,
Adam