God never promises to keep us from the fire, rather He does promise to meet us and go with us through the fires of life (see Isa 43:1-2)...
Daniel’s three friends would rather die than compromise their faith.
Here’s the Backstory
Daniel and His Friends Chosen to Be Court Officials (1:1-7).
In 605 b.c. the Babylonians marched against Judah and besieged Jerusalem.
They took some temple articles to Babylon, as well as some of Judah’s finest young men.
Nebuchadnezzar ordered Ashpenaz, his chief court official, to choose the very best of these men and train them for the king’s service.
Among this group were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
They were given Babylonian names, trained in Babylonian language and literature, and placed on a special diet.
Daniel and His Friends Refuse Unclean Food (1:8-16).
Daniel regarded the food offered by the Babylonians to be defiling.
The Mosaic law forbade God’s people to eat unclean animals or flesh that had not been drained of blood.
Portions of the wine and meat presented by Ashpenaz may have been offered to idols.
Daniel convinced the Babylonians to allow him and his three friends to follow a different diet, consisting only of vegetables and water.
After a ten-day trial period they looked even healthier than those who were following the diet prescribed by the king.
Consequently they were not forced to eat the king’s food or drink his wine.
God Rewards Daniel and His Friends (1:17-21).
In response to Daniel’s and his friends’ faithfulness, the Lord gave them superior intellect and gave Daniel the ability to interpret dreams and visions.
When the king interviewed the trainees, he found Daniel and his friends to be the cream of the crop and appointed them to his service.
Their abilities far surpassed those of the king’s wise men and diviners.
Then comes the real test of their faith…
3:1-18 Nebuchadnezzar made a huge, gold image. The image may have represented his sovereign authority or one of his gods.
The king ordered all of his subjects to attend a dedication ceremony for the image.
At a designated time they were to bow down to the image.
All who refused to worship the image would be thrown into a fiery furnace.
When Daniel’s friends refused to bow down to the image, the angry king gave them an ultimatum and warned them of the consequences of disobedience.
They explained that their loyalty to the Lord prevented them from worshiping images.
They also told the king that the Lord was able to deliver them from the furnace if He so desired.
Daniel’s Friends Delivered from the Furnace (3:19-30).
After ordering the furnace to be heated to its maximum temperature, Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel’s friends tied up and thrown in.
The fire was so hot that its flames killed the soldiers who threw them in.
However, when Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, he saw the three men walking around unbound, accompanied by an angelic being.
When the king ordered them out of the furnace, they were completely unharmed.
Nebuchadnezzar praised the Lord for delivering His faithful servants, decreed that anyone who slandered the Lord be executed, and promoted the three men.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were ordered to deny God, but they chose to be faithful to Him no matter what happened.
They were confident that God could deliver them, but they were determined to be faithful regardless of the consequences, even if it threatened their personal safety.
Today, many Christians believe that if we just have enough faith, God will protect us, rescue us, or answer our prayers in the way we desire.
But Jesus taught that His followers would often find trouble while in this world for their faithfulness (John 16:33).
Only in heaven, before God, will we finally have complete peace and healing.
Remain faithful as these three men did, and cling to the hope that God will walk with you through the fire.
Our eternal reward will be the confirmation that any suffering we had to endure in this earthly life was worth it.
The enemy is always trying to apply pressure in order to get us to compromise our faith.
These three young Hebrew men made the decision that they would rather die than compromise their faith in God.
What say you?
Are you going to give in to the enemy’s pressure, or are you going to stand on God’s Word and trust Him for whatever the outcome?
Let us always resist the urge to allow the world around us to press us into its mould.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Saturday, April 29 The Winning Walk by Dr Ed Young
A HILL WORTH DYING FOR
The sergeant has received his orders. “At any cost, take that hill.” He turns to his men and says, “Check your rifles…affix your bayonets. At my signal we charge and take the hill!”
The men in his company have been in the trenches for days. They’ve seen other men try to take the hill and fail.
They know the enemy is heavily entrenched and determined to hold their ground. And each man, as he waits for the command from his sergeant, is asking himself one question: “Is this a hill worth dying for?”
Those of us who have never been to war cannot completely understand the anguish of such a moment where life hangs in the balance, but we have asked the same question in different, if less threatening, terms.
“Is this principle worth risking my job?”
Or,
“Is this argument worth the damage it might cause in my marriage?”
On what basis do we choose which hills are “worth dying for?”
I believe if we have made the right life commitments, the question answers itself when it arises.
Our problem is we don’t nail down the big questions at the outset, and so we waver on the smaller ones.
The book of Daniel records the story of four young men who were kidnapped and carried into a foreign land.
As the prevailing powers in this new country tried to “assimilate” them, they received a shock!
These young men had made up their minds not to defile themselves or turn their back on their God, so when the questions of diet and prayer practices came up, their decisions were already made.
When we nail down the big choices, the other decisions fall more readily into place.
Memory Verse
Daniel 3:17
“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and he will deliver us out of your hand.” ____
We have seen God’s mercy and wisdom: how shall we respond?
“With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him.
Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”
— Romans 12:2 (J.B. Phillips New Translation)
Paul appealed for the dedication of the whole of life to God.
The basis of the appeal rested in the mercy of God.
As believers are transformed in their minds and conformed to the image of Christ, they will be able to discern, desire, and approve the will of God.
God’s will is good and holy; it is sufficient for every need.
Only through spiritual renewal can believers do the will of God.
Jesus’ followers must possess a strong passion to honor Him in every aspect of life.
Out of gratitude to God for his mercy and salvation, we should be completely devoted to loving Him, living by His standards and serving His purposes for our lives.
(1) Our goal should be to show God’s holiness (i.e., moral purity, spiritual wholeness, separation from evil and complete dedication to God) in all we do.
This requires separation from the patterns and practices of the world so we can pursue a deeper relationship with God.
As we consider His sacrifice for us, offering ourselves to Him as “living sacrifices” is good and pleasing as our spiritual act of worship (v. 2).
(2) We must offer our bodies to God as dead to sin and alive to God (see 6:11; 8:10, notes on being “dead to sin”) and as the temple of the Holy Spirit (see next note; cf. 1Co 6:15, 19).
(3) We must realize that true godly worship involves a lifestyle that brings honor to Christ in words and actions.
It is not necessarily a great sacrifice to voice our worship to God in a church service where people are gathered for that very purpose (cf. Eph 5:2; Heb 13:15).
Worship becomes a true sacrifice when we take it outside of the church by living in a way that truly honors, exalts and brings positive attention to God.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things) ____
Only God has the power to recycle men and women’s lives and to make all things new.
There are two types of people in jail or prison:
1. those who were wrongfully accused and victimized by an unjust system, and
2. those who are guilty and whose punishment is just according to the system of law they have broken.
The Bible has something to say to both the innocent and guilty who are in jail / prison.
To the guilty, the Bible recommends truth and submission to the laws of the government, and it offers freedom from the spiritual prison of sin—freedom that comes through the person of Christ (Romans 6:18).
To the innocent and wrongfully accused, the Bible offers peace, patience, and hope in difficult circumstances, as well as the hope of heavenly reward.
There are also many outside the Prison Walls who are also in a jail of their own making, who are bound by the chains of their own life’s circumstances, the consequences of their upbringing and the mistakes of the past.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says…
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new. ____
When Jesus first started His earthly ministry, in Luke 4:18, He gave us the reason for His God-given mission:
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.”
In the above verse, Jesus boldly announced,
“The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
Jesus was proclaiming Himself as the Messiah, the one who would bring the Good News to pass, but He would do so in a way that the people were not yet able to grasp.
His neighbors could hardly believe such a remarkable claim.
And yet this is the very reason why the Father sent Jesus to Earth, to pay the penalty for ALL of our SINS, through His propitious sacrificial death on Calvary’s Cross and to bring His lost children home.
No matter how dark your past, or how many grievous sins you may have committed in your life, the promise of the Cross is that Jesus will wipe all your sins away!
Listen to what God is saying to each of us in the following verse:
Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’ “
All we have to do is repent, renounce our sins and turn back to God; and these are the benefits for all who do, their sins are forgiven, through Jesus’ shed blood on the cross, and God now puts our sins in the deepest part of the ocean, with a sign that says no more fishing!
Psalm 103:1-14
1 Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
2 Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.
4 He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5 He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
6 The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly.
7 He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever.
10 He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12 HE HAS REMOVED OUR SINS AS FAR FROM US AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST.
13 The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate TO THOSE WHO FEAR (REVERENCE) HIM.
14 For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Saturday, April 15 The Winning Walk by Dr Ed Young
KISSED AND TUCKED IN
Bob McAllister met Rusty Wellborn on death row.
Bob was the Assistant to the Governor of South Carolina; Rusty was an inmate.
Bob was a Christian man who routinely visited death row to talk to prisoners. And Rusty was one of the worst.
He had been physically and emotionally abused, and had never known a loving home.
He had been on death row for ten years for a brutal crime spree that involved four murders.
The first few times Bob visited, Rusty never spoke.
He lay curled up on the floor, broken, filthy and unresponsive.
Gradually, Bob got him to talk, and eventually, to read the Bible with him.
Weeks and months passed, but finally God broke through-and Rusty Wellborn received Jesus Christ.
When all appeals for Rusty’s life were exhausted, an execution day was set.
Bob visited him the night before, and Rusty asked him to read from the Bible until he fell asleep.
When Rusty’s breathing was even and his eyes closed, Bob closed the Bible, crept over to Rusty’s bunk, pulled up the blanket and gently kissed him on the cheek.
The next day as he was led to his death, Rusty turned to the guard who was escorting him, and said,
“It’s sad, isn’t it, that a man has to wait until his last night on earth to be kissed and tucked in?”
When we receive Jesus Christ, it is as if we are kissed and tucked in each night by the Holy Spirit.
He watches over us, and makes our sleep sweet. But we are also to “kiss and tuck in” one another-as Bob did for Rusty.
To show the love and compassion of Christ at every opportunity.
Rusty was right: no one should have to wait until his last night on earth to be kissed and tucked in.
Memory Verse
PSALMS 121:3 He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. ____
In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul informs the Ephesian Christians:
“God has revealed to me a great mystery, namely that both Jews and Gentiles are united as one in the body of Christ, and He has called me to proclaim this message.
For this reason, I pray that you might be strengthened with POWER through His Spirit in the inner man so that you might mature spiritually, be able to comprehend the magnitude of God’s love, and be filled with the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:1-21
Paul’s Doxology (An expression of praise to God)
3:20 This prayer closes with a soul-inspiring doxology.
The preceding requests have been vast, bold, and seemingly impossible.
But God is able to do more in this connection than we can ask or think.
The extent of His ability is seen in the manner in which Paul pyramids words to describe superabundant blessings:
• Able • Able to do • Able to do what we ask • Able to do what we think • Able to do what we ask or think • Able to do all that we ask or think • Able to do above all that we ask or think • Able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think •Able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think
The means by which God answers prayer is given in the expression according to the power that works in us.
This refers to the Holy Spirit, who is constantly at work in our lives, seeking to produce the fruit of a Christlike character, rebuking us because of sin, guiding us in prayer, inspiring us in worship, directing us in service.
The more we are yielded to Him, the greater will be His effectiveness in conforming us to Christ.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things) _________________________________
Wednesday, April 12 God Calling by Two Listeners
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. — Ephesians 3:20
I am your Guide. Strength and help will come to you; just trust Me wholly.
Fear not. I am evermore ready to hear than you to ask. Walk in My ways, and know that help will come.
Man’s need is God’s chance to help.
I love to help and save. Man’s need is God’s golden opportunity for him of letting his faith find expression.
That expression of faith is all that God needs to manifest His Power.
Faith is the Key that unlocks the storehouse of God’s resources.
My faithful servants, you long for perfection and see your bitter failures.
I see faithfulness, and as a mother takes the soiled, imperfect work of her child and invests it with perfection because of the sweet love, so I take your poor faithfulness and crown it with perfection.
Now unto Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25 _____
I always enjoy studying the life and ministry of Paul…
The Apostle Paul was truly God’s Champion!
So let’s take a look at Paul’s life and ministry:
Paul the Apostle, original name Saul of Tarsus, (born 4 BC?, Tarsus in Cilicia [now in Turkey]—died 62–64 AD in Rome [Italy]),
The Apostle Paul was one of the leaders of the first generation of Christians, often considered to be the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity.
In his own day, although he was a major figure within the very small Christian movement, he also had many enemies and detractors, and his contemporaries probably did not accord him as much respect as they gave Peter and James.
Paul was compelled to struggle, therefore, to establish his own worth and authority.
His surviving letters, however, have had enormous influence on subsequent Christianity and have secured his place as one of the greatest religious leaders of all time.
Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 are attributed to Paul, and approximately half of another, Acts of the Apostles, deals with Paul’s life and works.
Thus, about half of the New Testament stems from Paul and the people whom he influenced.
Paul was a Greek-speaking Jew from Asia Minor. His birthplace, Tarsus, was a major city in eastern Cilicia, a region that had been made part of the Roman province of Syria by the time of Paul’s adulthood.
Two of the main cities of Syria, Damascus and Antioch, played a prominent part in his life and letters.
Although the exact date of his birth is unknown, he was active as a missionary in the 40s and 50s of the 1st century AD.
From this it may be inferred that he was born about the same time as Jesus (c. 4 BC) or a little later.
He was converted to faith in Jesus Christ about 33 AD, and he died, probably in Rome, circa 62–64 AD.
In his childhood and youth, Paul learned how to “work with his own hands” (1 Corinthians 4:12).
His trade, tent making, which he continued to practice after his conversion to Christianity, helps to explain important aspects of his apostleship.
He could travel with a few leather-working tools and set up shop anywhere. It is doubtful that his family was wealthy or aristocratic, but, since he found it noteworthy that he sometimes worked with his own hands, it may be assumed that he was not a common labourer.
His letters are written in Koine, or “common” Greek, rather than in the elegant literary Greek of his wealthy contemporary the Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, and this too argues against the view that Paul was an aristocrat.
Moreover, he knew how to dictate, and he could write with his own hand in large letters (Galatians 6:11), though not in the small, neat letters of the professional scribe.
Until about the midpoint of his life, Paul was a member of the Pharisees, a religious party that emerged during the later Second Temple period.
What little is known about Paul the Pharisee reflects the character of the Pharisaic movement.
Pharisees believed in life after death, which was one of Paul’s deepest convictions.
They accepted nonbiblical “traditions” as being about as important as the written Bible; Paul refers to his expertise in “traditions” (Galatians 1:14).
Pharisees were very careful students of the Hebrew Bible, and Paul was able to quote extensively from the Greek translation.
(It was fairly easy for a bright, ambitious young boy to memorize the Bible, and it would have been very difficult and expensive for Paul as an adult to carry around dozens of bulky scrolls.)
By his own account, Paul was the best Jew and the best Pharisee of his generation (Philippians 3:4–6; Galatians 1:13–14), though he claimed to be the least apostle of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:22–3; 1 Corinthians 15:9–10) and attributed his successes to the grace of God.
Paul spent much of the first half of his life persecuting the emerging Christian movement, an activity to which he refers several times.
Paul’s motivations are unknown, but they seem not to have been connected to his Pharisaism.
The chief persecutors of the Christian movement in Jerusalem were the high priest and his associates, who were Sadducees (if they belonged to one of the parties), and Acts depicts the leading Pharisee, Gamaliel, as defending the Christians (Acts 5:34).
It is possible that Paul believed that Jewish converts to the new movement were not sufficiently observant of the Jewish law, that Jewish converts mingled too freely with Gentile (non-Jewish) converts, thus associating themselves with idolatrous practices, or that the notion of a crucified messiah was objectionable.
The young Paul certainly would have rejected the view that Jesus had been raised after his death—not because he doubted resurrection as such but because he would not have believed that God chose to favour Jesus by raising him before the time of the Judgment of the world.
Whatever his reasons, Paul’s persecutions probably involved traveling from synagogue to synagogue and urging the punishment of Jews who accepted Jesus as the messiah.
Disobedient members of synagogues were punished by some form of ostracism or by light flogging, which Paul himself later suffered at least five times (2 Corinthians 11:24), though he does not say when or where.
Paul was on his way to Damascus when he had a vision that changed his life: according to Galatians 1:16, God revealed his Son to him.
More specifically, Paul states that he saw the Lord (1 Corinthians 9:1), though Acts claims that near Damascus he saw a blinding bright light.
Following this revelation, which convinced Paul that God had indeed chosen Jesus to be the promised messiah, he went into Arabia—probably Coele-Syria, west of Damascus (Galatians 1:17).
He then returned to Damascus, and three years later he went to Jerusalem to become acquainted with the leading apostles there.
After this meeting he began his famous missions to the west, preaching first in his native Syria and Cilicia (Galatians 1:17–24).
During the next 20 years or so (c. mid-30s to mid-50s), he established several churches in Asia Minor and at least three in Europe, including the church at Corinth.
During the course of his missions, Paul realized that his preaching to Gentiles was creating difficulties for the Christians in Jerusalem, who thought that Gentiles must become Jewish in order to join the Christian movement.
To settle the issue, Paul returned to Jerusalem and struck a deal.
It was agreed that Peter would be the principal apostle to Jews and Paul the principal apostle to Gentiles.
Paul would not have to change his message, but he would take up a collection for the Jerusalem church, which was in need of financial support (Galatians 2:1–10; 2 Corinthians 8–9; Romans 15:16–17, 25–26), though Paul’s Gentile churches were hardly well off.
In Romans 15:16–17 Paul seems to interpret the “offering of the Gentiles” symbolically, suggesting that it is the prophesied Gentile pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem, with their wealth in their hands (e.g., Isaiah 60:1–6).
It is also obvious that Paul and the Jerusalem apostles made a political bargain not to interfere in each other’s spheres.
The “circumcision faction” of the Jerusalem apostles (Galatians 2:12–13), which argued that converts should undergo circumcision as a sign of accepting the covenant between God and Abraham, later broke this agreement by preaching to the Gentile converts both in Antioch (Galatians 2:12) and Galatia and insisting that they be circumcised, leading to some of Paul’s strongest criticism against the old school Judaizers, who were in opposition to the New covenant message that we are saved by faith alone (galatians 1:7–9; 3:1; 5:2–12; 6:12–13).
In the late 50s Paul returned to Jerusalem with the money he had raised and a few of his Gentile converts.
There he was arrested for taking a Gentile too far into the Temple precincts, and, after a series of trials, he was sent to Rome.
Later Christian tradition favours the view that he was executed there (1 Clement 5:1–7), perhaps as part of the executions of Christians ordered by the Roman emperor Nero following the great fire in the city in 64 AD.
Paul believed that his vision proved that Jesus lived in heaven, that Jesus was the Messiah and God’s Son, and that He would soon return.
Moreover, Paul thought that the purpose of this revelation was his own appointment to preach among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:16).
By the time of his last existing letter, Romans, he could clearly describe his own place in God’s plan.
The Hebrew prophets, he wrote, had predicted that in “days to come” God would restore the tribes of Israel and that the Gentiles would then turn to worship the one true God.
Paul maintained that his place in this scheme was to win the Gentiles, both Greeks and “barbarians”—the common term for non-Greeks at the time (Romans 1:14).
“Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them” (Romans 11:13–14).
In two other places in Romans 11—verses 25–26 (“the full number of the Gentiles [will] come in” and thus “all Israel will be saved”) and 30–31 (“by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy”)—Paul asserts that he would save some of Israel indirectly, through jealousy, and that Jews would be brought to Christ because of the successful Gentile mission.
Thus, Paul’s view reversed the traditional understanding of God’s plan, according to which Israel would be restored before the Gentiles were converted.
Whereas Peter, James, and John, the chief apostles to the circumcised (Galatians 2:6–10), had been relatively unsuccessful, God had led Paul through Asia Minor and Greece “in triumph” and had used him to spread “the fragrance that comes from knowing him [God]” (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Since in Paul’s view God’s plan could not be frustrated, he concluded that it would work in reverse sequence—first the Gentiles, then the Jews.
During the first two centuries of the Roman Empire, travel was safer than it would be again until the suppression of pirates in the 19th century.
Paul and his companions sometimes traveled by ship, but much of the time they walked, probably beside a donkey carrying tools, clothes, and perhaps some scrolls.
Occasionally they had plenty, but often they were hungry, ill-clad, and cold (Philippians 4:11–12; 2 Corinthians 11:27), and at times they had to rely on the charity of their converts.
Paul wanted to keep pressing west and therefore only occasionally had the opportunity to revisit his churches.
He tried to keep up his converts’ spirits, answer their questions, and resolve their problems by letter and by sending one or more of his assistants (especially Timothy and Titus).
Paul’s letters reveal a remarkable human being: dedicated, compassionate, emotional, sometimes harsh and angry, clever and quick-witted, supple in argumentation, and above all possessing a soaring, passionate commitment to God, Jesus Christ, and his own mission.
Fortunately, after his death one of his followers collected some of the letters, edited them very slightly, and published them.
They constitute one of history’s most remarkable personal contributions to religious thought and practice.
Despite Paul’s intemperate outburst in 1 Corinthians—“women should be silent in the churches” (14:34–36)—women played a large part in his missionary endeavour.
Chloe was an important member of the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:11), and Phoebe was a “deacon” and a “benefactor” of Paul and others (Romans 16:1–2).
Romans 16 names eight other women active in the Christian movement, including Junia (“prominent among the apostles”), Mary (“who has worked very hard among you”), and Julia.
Women were frequently among the major supporters of new religious movements, and Christianity was no exception.
Although in his own view Paul was the true and authoritative apostle to the Gentiles, chosen for the task from his mother’s womb (Galatians 1:15–16; 2:7–8; Romans 11:13–14), he was only one of several missionaries spawned by the early Christian movement.
Some of the other Christian workers must have been quite important; indeed, an unknown minister of Christ established the church at Rome before Paul arrived in the city.
Paul treated some of these possible competitors—such as Prisca, Aquila, Junia, and Andronicus—in a very friendly manner (Romans 16: 3, 7), while he looked on others with suspicion or hostility.
He was especially wary of Apollos, a Christian missionary known to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 3:1–22), and he vilified competitors in Corinth as false apostles and ministers of Satan (2 Corinthians 11).
He called down God’s curse on competing preachers in Galatia (Galatians 1:6–9) and asserted that some of the Christians in Jerusalem were “false brothers” (Galatians 2:4; compare 2 Corinthians 11:26).
Only in the latter two cases, however, is the nature of the disagreement known:
Paul’s competitors opposed his admitting Gentiles to the Christian movement without requiring them to become Jewish.
The polemical sections of Paul’s letters have been used in Christian controversies ever since.
Paul’s Basic Message
In the surviving letters, Paul often recalls what he said during his founding visits.
He preached the death, resurrection, and lordship of Jesus Christ, and he proclaimed that faith in Jesus guarantees a share in His life.
Writing to the Galatians, he reminded them “it was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified” (Galatians 3:1), and writing to the Corinthians he recalled that he had known nothing among them “except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
According to Paul, Jesus’ death was not a defeat but was for the believers’ benefit.
In accord with ancient sacrificial theology, Jesus’ death substituted for that of others and thereby freed believers from sin and guilt (Romans 3:23–25).
A second interpretation of Christ’s death appears in Galatians and Romans:
Those who are baptized into Christ are baptized into His death, and thus they escape the power of sin (e.g., Romans 6).
In the first case, Jesus died so that the believers’ sins will be purged.
In the second, He died so that the believers may die with Him and consequently live with Him.
These two ideas obviously coincide.
The resurrection of Christ was also of primary importance, as Paul revealed in his Letter to the Thessalonians, the earliest surviving account of conversion to the Christian movement.
Written to Thessalonica in Macedonia possibly as early as 41 AD and no later than 51—thus no more than 20 years after Jesus’ death—the letter states (1 Thessalonians 1:9–10),
“For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.”
Since Jesus was raised and still lives, He could return to rescue believers at the time of the Final Judgment.
The resurrection is connected to the third major emphasis, the promise of salvation to believers.
Paul taught that those who died in Christ would be raised when He returned, while those still alive would be “caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:14–18).
These and many other passages reveal the essence of the Christian message:
(1) God sent his Son;
(2) the Son was crucified and resurrected for the benefit of humanity;
(3) the Son would soon return; and
(4) those who belonged to the Son would live with Him forever.
Paul’s gospel, like those of others, also included
(5) the admonition to live by the highest moral standard:
“May your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things) ____
Our Spiritual Union with God happens only through Jesus’ propitious sacrifice on Calvary’s Cross, and His poured out life and blood…
“I must die or get somebody to die for me. If the Bible doesn’t teach that, it doesn’t teach anything. And that is where the atonement of Jesus Christ comes in.” — Dwight L. Moody
In chapter 2, Paul tells the Ephesian Christians:
As Gentiles, you were once spiritually alienated from Israel, but now you have been spiritually united with them into a living spiritual temple of God.
In the first half of Ephesians chapter 2, Paul traced the salvation of individual Gentiles and Jews.
Now he advances to the abolition of their former national differences, to their union in Christ, and to their formation into the church, a holy temple in the Lord.
In verses 11 and 12 the apostle reminds his readers that prior to their conversion they were Gentiles by birth and therefore outcasts as far as the Jews were concerned.
First, they were despised. This is indicated by the fact that the Jews called them Uncircumcision.
This meant the Gentiles did not have the surgical sign in their flesh that marked the Israelites as God’s covenant people.
The name “uncircumcised” was an ethnic slur, similar to the names that people use today for despised nationalities.
We can feel something of its sting when we hear David say concerning the Gentile Goliath, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Sam. 17:26).
Before Christ’s coming, Gentiles and Jews kept apart from one another. Jews considered Gentiles beyond God’s saving power and therefore without hope.
Gentiles resented Jewish claims.
Christ revealed the total sinfulness of both Jews and Gentiles, and then He offered His salvation to both.
Christ breaks down the walls of prejudice, reconciles ALL believers to God, and unifies us in one body.
Pious Jews considered all non-Jews (Gentiles) ceremonially unclean.
They thought of themselves as pure and clean because of their national heritage and religious ceremonies.
Paul pointed out that Jews and Gentiles alike are unclean before God and need to be cleansed by Christ.
In order to realize how great a gift salvation is, we need to remember our former, natural, unclean condition.
Have you ever felt separate, excluded, hopeless?
These verses are for you.
Christ’s love overcomes all feelings of alienation and brings outsiders into the body of believers.
Jews and Gentiles alike could be guilty of spiritual pride—Jews for thinking their faith and traditions elevated them above everyone else, Gentiles for trusting in their achievements, power, or positions.
Spiritual pride blinds us to our own faults and magnifies the faults of others.
Be careful not to become proud of your salvation.
Instead, humbly thank God for what He has done, and encourage others who might be struggling in their faith.
Ephesians 2:13-16 New Living Translation
13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us.
He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.
15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations.
He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.
16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. ____
Christ has destroyed the barriers people build between themselves and others.
Because these walls have been removed, we can have real unity with people who are not like us.
We have true reconciliation with God and with each other. Because of Christ’s death, we are all unified, on the same side, citizens of the same Kingdom (2:14); our hostility against each other has been put to death (2:16); we can all have access to the Father by the Holy Spirit (2:18); we are no longer strangers or foreigners to God (2:19); and we are all being built into a holy temple with Christ as our chief cornerstone (2:20-21).
There are many barriers that can divide us from other Christians: age, appearance, intelligence, political persuasion, economic status, race, theological perspective.
We stifle Christ’s love when we befriend only those people whom we like or with whom we share similar characteristics.
Fortunately, Christ has knocked down the barriers and has unified all believers in one family.
The Holy Spirit helps us look beyond our potential barriers to the unity we are called to enjoy.
Focus on the cross, which unites all believers.
By His death, Christ ended the reason for angry resentment between Jews and Gentiles, caused by the Jewish laws that favored the Jews and excluded the Gentiles.
When Christ died, He accomplished the purpose of that whole system of Jewish laws.
Then He took the two groups who had been opposed to each other and made them parts of Himself.
“One new people” refers to the single entity that Christ made out of the two. Thus, He fused all believers together to become one in Himself.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things) ____
The hour of prayer and Bible reading is probably the most neglected discipline of our spiritual walk.
Jesus asked His disciples to tarry with Him in prayer for one hour.
Are we willing to give Him that one hour a day?
God is calling for His church to awake, to arise to righteousness (His way of doing and being right).
This includes a life dedicated to prayer – communion with the Holy Trinity, the great Three in One.
Prayer isn’t something a person does; it is something he lives.
Prayer is where you find mercy and grace—it is where you learn to move throughout the day in the rhythms of grace.
If you are a Christian – a disciple of Christ, which means a follower of Christ, then Jesus needs to be the hub of your life around which everything in your life revolves.
There are too many people who are Nominal Christians, I know because I used to be one of them, meaning I was Christian in name only, but did not have a relationship with Jesus.
That’s where the necessity of our being born-again comes into play.
Jesus said that, “If you love Me you will keep My Word and obey My commandments and then My Father and I will come and make our abode with you” (read John 14:15, 23).
1 John 2:4-6 tells us (in the J.B. Phillips New Testament)
3-6 It is only when we obey God’s laws that we can be quite sure that we really know him.
The man who claims to know God but does not obey his laws is not only a liar but lives in self-delusion.
In practice, the more a man learns to obey God’s laws the more truly and fully does he express his love for him.
Obedience is the test of whether we really live “in God” or not.
The life of a man who professes to be living in God must bear the stamp of Christ.
The New King James Bible puts it this way, “He who says he abides in Him (in Jesus) ought himself also to walk just as He (Jesus) walked.”
Jesus is our hub, our focus, and the way we do this is that we learn to walk daily, by faith, in obedience to His Word, and not by sight.
Listen to what Paul said:
Romans 12:1-2 J.B. Phillips New Testament
We have seen God’s mercy and wisdom: how shall we respond?
1-2 With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him.
Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity. _____
By immersing ourselves in the water of God’s Word and in the Holy Spirit, we are then allowing the Holy Spirit to rewrite the code – the corrupt programming that we all have received from this world, and replace it with God’s programming.
This is the importance of prayer in our life, in fact in First Thessalonians 5:17 we are told to “pray without ceasing.”
In other words what this is saying is that prayer is mostly our listening to God, and in order for us to do this God wants us to keep that vertical connection with Him 24/7 365, just like we read in the Bible that Jesus did.
The Power of Prayer
Prayer moves the arm that moves the world
“God has of his own motion placed himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated himself to answer the prayers of men.
He has ordained prayer as a means whereby he will do things through men as they pray, which he would not otherwise do.
If prayer puts God to work on earth, then, by the same token, prayerlessness rules God out of the world’s affairs, and prevents him from working.
The driving power, the conquering force in God’s cause is God himself.
‘Call on me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not!’
Through prayer, God is challenging us to seek His face and His wisdom, in order that we may gain knowledge on how we should live our lives.
[This is, in fact, the reason we were created, to have this unending communion and fellowship with our Creator, and without that vertical connection with Him, in our life, we are all like fish flopping around on the shores of life, looking for our way back home.]
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, in the face of any and all contradictory feelings and/or circumstances.
Faith is not based on what we see or feel, it’s based on what we believe.
The man with the epileptic son came to Jesus, and in desperation he said “Master, if you can please heal my son!
To which Jesus responded:
“[You say to Me,] ‘If You can?’ But I say to you, ‘ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE for the one who believes and trusts [in Me]!’ ”
if we are to walk this Christian walk, then it is imperative that we learn to live by faith and not by sight, which means we have to learn to hang our life and all of our life circumstances on the trustworthiness and reliability of God and His Word!
Faith is action, based upon belief in God and the truth of God’s Word, sustained by confidence that when God promises something God will keep that promise.
God’s promise to all of us is, if we take the risk and stand on His Word, using our faith, it will not return void, without accomplishing the purpose wherein it was sent.
_______________________________________
Wednesday, March 27, 2023 Kenneth Copeland Ministries Blog
3 KEYS TO DEVELOPING SKILLED FAITH
Have you ever met someone truly skilled at something? It could be a trade, hobby or craft.
They are so adept at what they do that its impressive to watch.
Maybe you know someone like that.
Well, did you know that just as one can develop being highly skilled at a trade, you can develop being highly skilled with your faith? You can!
God has given each of us faith that we can develop (Romans 12:3, New King James Version).
You can grow your own skilled faith and put it to work not only in your life, but you can also use it to help others.
You can become someone who knows how to stand on the Word, declare and release their faith, and see their prayers working.
As you read these 3 Keys To Developing Skilled Faith, receive what Christ has paid for and refuse to accept anything contrary to what the Word says. Grab hold of these truths and begin to walk in more victory in every area of life!
1) Be Moved Only by the Word of God.
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” – Romans 10:17, NKJV
It’s easy to be moved by what we see, what we feel, and what we experience.
It’s a discipline to only be moved by the Word of God. But learning to be moved by the Word is not only possible, it’s valuable when it comes to developing skilled faith.
Study the Word by reading it and meditating it.
Listen to messages, and as you do, your faith will develop. You’ll find yourself having more faith in the Word than what you’re experiencing.
The Word will begin to take precedence over what you see in the natural realm.
As you grow and continue these practices, no matter the size of any challenge that comes your way, you’ll be able to remain steadfast in the Word.
Because you will have renewed your mind to what the Word says (Romans 12:1-2), the Word is what you will think and what you will say when challenges come.
Granted, it’s easier said than done, but our goal is to remain unmoved in the face of adversity.
Let’s face it, in such times, our emotions can get the best of us, but if we have hidden the Word in our hearts, the Word is what will come to mind and that is what we’ll speak.
We’ll speak faith!
When David faced Goliath, the giant looked troubling before hundreds of cowering, fearful soldiers.
He appeared so big and strong that not even the king or any of his generals stepped out to face Goliath.
The Israeli Army just kept repeating what they saw: a giant who was taunting them night and day, intimidating them.
With an entire Israeli Army befuddled in fear, a young boy, David, stepped forward.
Full of faith and adept with a sling, he fearlessly faced and defeated Goliath.
You see, David wasn’t moved by what he physically saw in Goliath’s size.
David was only moved by his spiritual promises in the living God.
Instead of speaking confusion, disappointment and fear at a bad report (Goliath), David spoke the promises of God, thus releasing his faith, and he defeated the giant easily (1 Samuel 17).
2) Develop a Spirit of Excellence.
“My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.” – Proverbs 4:20-22
God has called each one of us to develop a spirit of excellence and to operate in it in everything we do.
It’s something that should be part of our character.
We develop a spirit of excellence by first hiding the Word in our hearts, abiding in it, and then applying it in every area of our lives.
It’s not only a standard of living, but also a description of how we live, work, conduct our affairs, and manage our relationships.
It’s going the extra mile and doing the right thing at all costs. It’s living a life of integrity at all times.
Now developing and acting upon a spirit of excellence doesn’t mean we have to be perfect.
But it does mean that we have a desire to live a godly life and do things the right way as defined by the Word.
It means being Christ-like in all our affairs.
After all, the ministry of Jesus was one of excellence, and one that laid the foundation for success.
This is why people who operate in excellence do their job unto the Lord and let Him do the promoting (1 Corinthians 7:17; Psalm 75:6-7).
No matter what position God has called you into, He fully intends to lead you into excellence, success, and a life beyond what you could ever imagine on your own, equipping you every step of the way. Your responsibility is to develop a spirit of excellence and walk in it.
3) Do Not Waver.
“But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” – James 1:6-7
When we waver between listening to God and standing on His promises, versus entertaining all the thoughts running through our minds that are contrary to the Word, our loyalty becomes divided.
As much as we want to stand on God’s Word and cling to His promises, we’re lending our ear to the devil and what the world is throwing at us.
When we speak what we’re hearing that’s contrary to the Word, we give it authority in our lives. And just like it says in the verse above, our choice is simple: We can waver, or we can receive.
God makes it clear that we cannot waver and receive at the same time.
Knowing this, Satan has one tactic in mind—to get us to doubt.
If he can get us to doubt who we are in Christ Jesus, and how effective we are with the Word, then he can deceive us out of our BLESSINGS.
In fact, that’s the only power he has. All other power he has over humanity was stripped by the Son of God.
The only way he can steal, kill or destroy is through telling us idle threats and lies.
So, the next time Satan tries to lie to you, start laughing, “Ha, ha, ha!
You have no power over me, Satan!
It is written that I live by the faith of the Son of God who died for me (Galatians 2:20)!”
When you do this, you’re not taunting Satan, you are refusing to believe what he is telling you and answering his lies, out loud, with the Word of God—the ultimate truth.
Jesus answered Satan’s threats with the Word when He was confronted in the wilderness, and that’s what we’re to do, too (Matthew 4:1-11).
The next time Satan tries to encircle you with lies, submit your thoughts to the Word, and resist the devil by answering with the Word, speaking it out loud (James 4:7; Romans 12:2).
As Kenneth Copeland says, “Your faith is how you access those BLESSINGS and promises.
Don’t let the devil steal your faith—what you believe.
When it looks like things are going the opposite way, Hold fast. When it looks like you’re going under. Hold fast.”
There’s a story Gloria Copeland tells that illustrates this so well.
At a time when helium balloons were used to transport product, one of the large helium balloons became unhinged and started to fly away.
Several men jumped up and held onto the rope to try to hold the balloon down, but it still shot up, and most of the men let go.
However, there was one man that astonishingly kept holding on, no matter how high the balloon flew up.
It was a very long time before they could get the balloon down.
Once they got this man back on the ground, they noticed he wasn’t exhausted, shaking or unconscious, he was absolutely fine.
The medical team asked him, “How did you do that?”
And he said, “Well, when I saw what happened, I just took the rope that I was holding on to, and I tied it around myself. And instead of me holding the rope, the rope held onto me.”
This is an illustration of how we hold fast and conquer with the Word of God—by wrapping our minds, our hearts, and our mouths with the Word and allowing it to hold us up through any trouble.
If we intently apply the Word like this, then we will overcome wavering between thinking what’s contrary to the Word and believing God’s promises.
Grab hold of these 3 Keys To Develop a Skilled Faith, and you’ll learn how to be moved only by God’s Word no matter what situation you’re facing.
As you develop a spirit of excellence and refuse to waver, you’ll walk in total victory and help others along the way!
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things) _____
In Luke 22:37, Jesus quoted Isaiah 53:12 to help His disciples realize that others would regard Him as a criminal.
Therefore it would be very difficult for His disciples.
They would face intense opposition, as Peter experienced in the high priest’s courtyard.
Jesus did not want them to underestimate the strength of the opposition they would face, so that they would depend on God alone, and not on themselves, to help them remain faithful.
“At this point Christ emphatically applies to Himself a portion of Isa. 53.
Therefore, to deny that the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah predicts Christ’s passion is to contradict the Savior’s own interpretation of the prophecy.”
It was the false charges that Jesus had claimed Himself to be a king in opposition to Caesar that identified Him as a criminal.
Jesus faced Calvary from Gethsemane, submitting to the Father’s will but still having to warn the disciples to pray in the midst of temptation.
Prayer was a way of life for Jesus. He had a special place in the Mount of Olives where he habitually went for prayer.
The disciples followed, an ironic statement in light of Christ’s original call to “follow me” (5:8-11,27-28; 9:23,59,61; 18:22,28).
Now they followed, but only to fall asleep in Jesus’ greatest moment of need and in the face of Satan’s renewed attack on them.
They followed, but not in the way a person takes up a cross and follows.
22:40. Jesus gave them a prayer assignment. It centered on their chief need.
The renewed activities of Satan called them to pray to escape temptation as Jesus had escaped Satan’s temptation.
Judas and Peter were not the only ones Satan wanted.
He wanted all of Christ’s disciples and would tempt each of them.
Only prayer and Scripture can successfully fight such evil power and overcome temptation.
Very soon, the disciples would be sleeping in Gethsemane when they should have been praying (vv. 40, 46).
Similarly, we often fail to ask God to help us, and instead rely on our own resources.
THE ARREST OF JESUS 22:39-53
This section in Luke’s Gospel consists of two incidents:
Jesus’ preparation for His arrest and crucifixion, and the arrest itself.
The subject of the whole section is proper preparation for persecution.
Jesus’ preparation in Gethsemane 22:39-46 (cf. Matt. 26:30, 36-46; Mark 14:26, 32-42; John 18:1) Luke organized his narrative so Jesus’ praying in the garden follows immediately His instructions to the disciples about their preparation for the crisis to come.
The present situation shows Jesus’ proper approach to it, and the disciples’ improper approach.
The next pericope reveals the consequences of their actions.
22:39-40 Luke earlier revealed that during this week, Jesus had been spending His nights on the “Mount of Olives” (21:37).
It was apparently to this “custom” that the writer referred to here.
Judas would have expected Jesus to go there, and Jesus did not try to elude Judas.
Jesus’ control over His own destiny is again evident in His leading the disciples out of the city to the mount.
Luke did not identify “the place” where Jesus prayed as “Gethsemane” (Matt. 26:36; Mark 14:32), perhaps because he did not want to detract from the action in the pericope.
Jesus focused the disciples’ attention on their need for God’s protection from “temptation” (Gr. peirasmon), and instructed them to “pray” for it (cf. 11:4).
Only Luke wrote that He told them to pray specifically for this, and only Luke mentioned that Jesus gave this command to all the “disciples.”
The effect is that the reader sees all the disciples as needing to pray because of the danger of failing.
22:41-42 Luke presented Jesus praying as any disciple could pray (cf. Rom. 11:4; 14:11; Eph. 3:14; Phil. 2:10).
His posture reflects His submissive attitude: “He knelt down.”
Luke did not record that Jesus lay prostrate during part of His prayer vigil (cf. Matt. 26:39; Mark 14:35).
The prayer itself reveals complete dependence on the Father’s will.
Jesus asked for removal of the “cup,” the symbol of His sufferings consequent to God’s judgment on sin (cf. Ps. 11:6; 75:8; Isa. 51:17; Jer. 25:15-17; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24).
He requested it only if it was possible, i.e., if the Father was “willing” (Gr. ei boulei).
In any case, He submitted to His Father’s will above all.
Throughout his Gospel, Luke made frequent references to Jesus’ conscious fulfillment of God’s purposes.
The submissiveness of Jesus’ prayer is a model for all disciples.
When we do not know God’s will specifically, we can voice our request, but we should always submit our preferences to God’s will.
Luke pictured Jesus as a real man, not a demigod.
“The effect of the saying is that Jesus, facing the temptation to avoid the path of suffering appointed by God, nevertheless accepts the will of God despite His own desire that it might be otherwise.
He does not seek to disobey the will of God, but longs that God’s will might be different. But even this is to be regarded as temptation, and it is overcome by Jesus.”
One very important lesson that we can learn from the Bible is that in spite of how bad things may look, in the end God is ALWAYS in control and He always has the last word!
From Max Lucado:
Christ Through the Bible Jesus: Master of God’s Domain
God hasn’t kept the ending a secret. He wants us to see the big picture.
He wants us to know that He wins. And He also wants us to know that the evil we witness on the stage of life is not as mighty as we might think.
Many passages teach these truths, but my favorite is a couple of verses recorded by Luke.
Jesus speaks the words on the night before His death. He is in the upper room with His followers.
They are shocked to hear His prophecy that one of them will betray the Master.
Their defensiveness leads to an argument, and the argument leads Jesus to exhort them to servanthood.
Then in an abrupt shift, Jesus turns to Simon Peter and makes this intriguing statement:
“Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31, 32).
This passage gives us a glimpse into an unseen world. It raises many questions, but it also affords many assurances, the chief of which is the chain of command.
God is clearly in control, and the devil is on a short leash.
Did you notice the verb that followed Satan’s name? Ask.
“Satan has asked. . . .”
The devil didn’t demand, resolve, or decide. He asked.
Just as he requested permission to tempt Job, he requested permission to tempt Simon Peter.
Sort of recasts our image of the old snake, doesn’t it?
Instead of the mighty Darth Vader of Gloom, a better caricature is a skinny, back-alley punk who acts tough, but ducks fast when God flexes.
“Uh, uh . . . I’d . . . uh . . . like to do a number on Peter—that is, if you don’t mind.”
The chain of command is clear. Satan does nothing outside of God’s domain, and God uses Satan to advance the cause of His kingdom.
(From When Christ Comes by Max Lucado)
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things) _________________________________
Sunday, April 2 The Winning Walk
GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
“And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.” — Luke 22:39-44
Before Jesus would endure the physical suffering you’ve just considered, He would experience emotional and spiritual torment that was far greater.
In the garden, the full scope of Jesus’ mission became readily apparent.
Jesus knew, once He left the garden, all that would occur: the treacherous betrayal by one of His own; being derided and made sport of by soldiers; a circus trial in which guilty politicians proclaimed judgment on an innocent man; brutal beatings; and then, the cross, the bearing of your sin and mine.
Without a doubt, this was the most terrible of missions ever given to an individual.
As you imagine the serene garden scene, contemplate the anguish Jesus must have felt; the mental strain as He tried to grapple with His Father’s will:
“Are you sure this is what You want Me to do?”
Take your time; there is no hurry. Allow your thoughts to center on Jesus in His most holy moment.
Remember that His anguish was so great, His sweat became like drops of blood.
Next, reflect on the cup set before Him.
Throughout the Old Testament, the cup signified God’s wrath; it was a symbol of God’s judgment against sin from which God makes the rebellious nations drink.
Jesus is the only one who ever lived whose sin didn’t contribute to that cup, who didn’t deserve to drink God’s wrath – and yet, here, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He surrendered to His Father’s will:
“Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?”
Having considered Christ’s obedience, think about your own life mission.
Are you in a Garden of Gethsemane moment?
Is God calling you to do something you naturally want to resist, but His persistent voice is calling you forward?
Following God’s will often requires substantial sacrifice.
Is there a sacrifice God is asking you to make, perhaps on behalf of your family, for the sake of a friend, to serve your church?
Let our Lord’s example guide you to a new commitment to be faithful and obedient to your mission, regardless of the cost.
Prayer Lord, thank You for accepting Your mission; now I pray that You will grant me a willing heart to accept mine.
I can be so mindful and even resentful of the sacrifices required to love my family, serve in my vocation, be a part of Your family and church, that I forget the glory of Your prayer, “Not My will, but Yours be done.”
SB SALT AND LIGHT MINISTRIES 