Month: January 2022

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”James‬ ‭1:12‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In most places today, church people are encouraged simply to believe, or to have faith. They are told only a part of the message which causes them to think that their ‘belief’ will qualify them to go to Heaven one day. But James makes it clear here that God’s purpose goes far beyond mere belief. He wants us TO LOVE HIM! This is so important that Jesus said it is the greatest command of all, ‘To love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength’. This means that God wants us to love Him supremely! Our love for Him must be greater than any other love in our life. And these are the one who are promised a crown of life. Only those who love God supremely will be able to make Heaven their home. Above all else, this is what enables us to endure the tests and trials of life. We endure because we love Him Who first loved us. May God help us to love Him and thus be able to join Him for all eternity. May our song always be, ‘Oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me’.

“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James‬ ‭1:8‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In the previous verses the writer is talking about asking God for wisdom and how God is faithful to answer our prayers. But how can a person truly seek God’s divine wisdom if he is double minded? That means that in some ways he is trying to be religious and seek the wisdom of God. But in others ways he is still leaning on his own understanding and the wisdom of this world. We should realize that most religious people today are in this category. They imagine that their life is divided into two parts. The religious, which includes church and spiritual things, and then their secular life, which is most everything else. They want God to lead them when it comes to things they consider ‘spiritual’. But then for the bigger part of their lives they are content to do what they want and follow the counsel and ways of this ungodly world. But this attitude produces the kind of instability that we see in religion today. People are trying to live with one foot in the world and another foot in the church. And it is not working. It has produced a miserable and weak people with no real spiritual stability. May God help us to have the attitude of the Psalmist, who said “My heart is fixed O God”. May our heart and mind be fixed solely on pleasing God in all things.

“knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”James‬ ‭1:3‬ ‭KJV‬‬. Our human nature desires the life of ease and comfort. We like it when everything is going well. We do not want trials or troubles to come to our lives. But when it comes to our spiritual life, we should understand that true faith will be and must be tried and tested. The very nature of faith in God is that it will be revealed and strengthened as we encounter the many challenges that come our way. An untested faith is not a genuine faith. One of the qualities God is seeking to develop in us is this virtue called ‘patience’. But this word means so much more than most people understand it. The Greek word translated here actually means ‘steadfast endurance and perseverance’. It is referring to that ability to endure difficulties with a calm spirit that does not react in the wrong ways, all while we press on in our duties. And because this is not natural to us, our wise Heavenly Father uses the trials we go through to develop this Christlike virtue in us. This is part of the reason James says in the previous verse, “To count it all joy when you encounter these tests of life”. We can do this because we know, our Father is working good in us through them.

“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: For my soul trusteth in Thee: Yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.” Psalm‬ ‭57:1‬ ‭KJV‬‬. At this time in David’s life, he was fleeing from King Saul and being hunted ruthlessly. He was falsely accused, treated unjustly and now his very life is under threat. So he cries out to God for mercy. His soul is trusting in God. And as he is hiding in a cave, his mind goes to the little chicks who find refuge under their mother’s wings. He knows that under those wings they are safe and secure. They are at perfect peace. No matter what goes on outside they can rest here. And to David that symbolized his relationship with God. Outside may be many threats and troubles. The winds of opposition may blow. But when he rested his soul under the shadow of God’s wings, he knew that all is well. May we take comfort in this truth when we face the troubles and trials of our lives. We should realize that we can rest under those Almighty wings. The One Who spreads His wings over us is the Almighty God Who will not fail to protect His own. And He is our Father! He cares for us far more than any creature does it’s offspring. To every weary and struggling soul, Jesus says, “Come to Me and I will give you rest”.

“…O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?” Matthew‬ ‭18:32-33‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this parable about forgiveness, one of the things Jesus is showing us is the magnitude of our sins against God, compared to the relatively small things that people do against us. And yet, for most people, they have little idea, nor would they even accept that their sins against God are so great. We like to imagine that we are pretty good people. We like to think that our sins are not nearly so bad as the next person. In fact, many people have such a distorted view of themselves, that they cannot understand why God would have any trouble forgiving their sins. But all of this is because people do not recognize the wickedness of sin. However, when we finally allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the greatness of our sins against God and how our sins sent His Son to the cross, we will have a different view of sin. And then, we will be eternally grateful for God’s forgiveness that has been granted to us. And we will be quick to forgive others because such great mercy has been shown to us. May we believe what Jesus said, that if we do not forgive, then we cannot be forgiven. And let us be thankful, that through the sacrifice of Christ, our sins can be forgiven.

“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and up on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew‬ ‭16:18‬ ‭KJV. Many people mistakenly think that Jesus was telling Peter that he would be the rock upon which the church would be built. But the reality is, Jesus was referring to the declaration Peter had just made, that ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God’. That truth is the Rock, the Foundation of the New Testament Church! That truth is what we anchor our souls on and put our faith in. And thank God, He did build His church. He built a church that will never be defeated by the forces of darkness. His church is still going forth conquering and to conquer! So we must not mistake what we see in most of modern religion for His church. We must realize that only the redeemed, those walking in daily relationship with and following Jesus, are a part of that triumphant church that Jesus built. And the security of the church is because Christ Himself established it, He sustains it, He protects it and He is the Head of it. If it was built or organized by men, it would not stand. So in these uncertain days we live in, let us rejoice that we can be a part of His triumphant church.

“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?” Matthew‬ ‭16:15‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this passage Jesus had asked the disciples “Who do other people say I am?”. And of course, people had different opinions of Jesus much like today. But the real question is for us as professed followers of Christ. Who do we say that He is? The easy answer is simply to repeat, verbally, what Peter said. And then, religion will provide us with additional words to say, because most religious people assume this is only about our verbal confession. But the bigger answer is being provided every day by the life we live. What does our life say about Jesus? May we realize that as we live each day our life is making a statement about Who Jesus is to us! Are we living devoted and consecrated lives that declare He truly is our All Sufficient Saviour and we honor Him as the Lord of our lives? Can people see by the values we have and the priorities we set that we honor Jesus as the Son of the Living God? Or do others see us defeated by sin, overcome by the world and realize that our life is declaring we don’t truly believe in Who Jesus is? Paul wrote that we are to be ‘living epistles’ which means our life is a book that people can read. By God’s grace, let us live so that we are giving the correct answer about Who Jesus is.

“…The goodness of God endureth continually.” Psalm‬ ‭52:1‬ ‭KJV‬‬. Because people see so much instability in those around them, they tend to project those ideas on to God. We see someone act good for a while but then have a bad day and act in wrongs ways. We see the goodness of churches in one area but then see how bad they can be in others. But let us be confident that our God is forever the same! He does not have any bad days. He is not good in one area and then not so good in others. His goodness is continual! He is as good now as when He first created this world. His goodness is the same today as when He sent His Son to this world over 2000 years ago. He is good when our life is nice and comfortable and He is good when we receive chastening from Him and go through dark valleys. He is good in life and He is good in death. We will experience many variations in the goodness of people. But thank God, every day we wake up we can rest secure in the unwavering goodness of God.

“And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.” Psalm‬ ‭50:15‬ ‭KJV‬‬. As God’s children we know what it is to call upon our Heavenly Father when we are in trouble. We have learned that there are things in this life that we cannot handle on our own. Even more, we believe that God is true to His Word and will be faithful to help and deliver us in the way we need. But too often, we call and He delivers, but then we fail to give Him the glory! He is so faithful that we tend to take for granted the many ways that He delivers us. But let us remember that our entire lives are supposed to glorify God! And certainly, when He answers our prayers and delivers us from our troubles, we should take time to thank and praise Him. We should tell what He’s done for us. A few verses later (vs 23) God says “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me”. May God help us not to miss these opportunities to glorify and praise our God when He is so faithful to hear and answer our prayers. He is worthy of our praise.

“For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Hebrews‬ ‭10:36‬ ‭KJV‬‬. Today there is much said about claiming the promises of God. And certainly God’s promises are all yeah and amen in Christ! We are tremendously blessed to be able to stand on the promises. And yet, there are some who don’t understand that many Biblical promises are conditional. This means that our ability to claim and receive them is conditioned upon some response on our part. Here, we are reminded of one of the primary conditions that we must meet before we can receive the promise. And that is, we must do the will of God! It means God is waiting on our obedient response when He has shown us His will. For anyone to live or walk contrary to God’s revealed will, such as living in known sin, is to place themselves in a position where they cannot receive God’s promise. May each of us set our hearts to do God’s will. This makes it possible for us to have faith to claim God’s great and precious promises. And then, having received the promise,  we can do as the song says, and ‘Stand on the promises of God’.