Month: April 2023

“And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee…” Deuteronomy‬ ‭15:15‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this chapter the Lord is speaking about having compassion on the poor and those less fortunate than us. He reminds us, like Israel once was, that we also were poor slaves serving under a cruel taskmaster. For them it was a physical slavery in Egypt. For us, it was spiritual bondage in a life of sin. But the point is, we should always remember where we were when the Lord found us! We should never forget that it was He Who redeemed us from the hand of our enemy, and not ourselves. And when we were in that pitiful and helpless condition, we were bankrupt spiritually. We were in deep poverty of soul. But thank God, when Christ redeemed us, He made us children of God! And now, we are rich beyond measure! Now we are blood bought, blood washed children of the King and a part of His royal family. It is important for us to remember where we once were. That is one of the things that helps us to be humble and compassionate to those who are poor. But even more important, that is what keeps our hearts open to helping those who are lost and without a Saviour. By God’s grace, let us remember where He found us and then go out and find others for Jesus.

Sunday Devo
“He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭6‬ ‭KJV‬‬. HE IS RISEN! What glorious words these are. The grave could not hold Him. Death could not keep Him. The powers of hell could not defeat Him. He is the Risen Lord of Glory! How we should praise the Lord for His triumphant resurrection. And now, by faith in His atoning work, we are buried with Him and raised to new life. But how much of our lives still reside in the graves of our past? How many old ideas do we carry that are not reflecting the resurrection life of Christ in us? A part of the purpose of true salvation is that old things pass away and all things become new. And yet, our stubborn humanity tries to cling to every remnant of the past. As we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, let us pause to consider what it means to us, and what it brings to us personally. It means a brand new life can be ours! It brings the very life of Christ into our souls. May we be able to say of our old life as the songwriter does of Jesus: “Up from the grave He arose! Let us live our lives as those ‘risen with Christ and seeking those things above’. And may the words, ‘HE IS RISEN’ be true of Christ in us.

“And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;” Matthew‬ ‭27‬:‭51‬ ‭KJV‬‬. As Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross, this great miracle took place. It was not done from below, as if any man had part in it. Rather, it was torn from above by the very hand of God. It was a testimony to the Divinity of Jesus Christ and to the fact that His atoning work was complete. It marked the end of the Old dispensation with all of the ceremonial duties. But also, it speaks to us of ACCESS! Through the sacrifice of Christ we now have ACCESS to the presence of God. For long years that veil had separated sinful man from the Holy of Holies where God’s presence dwelt. Only once a year could the high priest enter and only then with the blood of an animal sacrifice. Because of sin, man had no access to the Holy God. And nothing man could ever do could gain access. But let us praise God, that when we could never find a way to God, Jesus made a way. In fact, He became the Way! And now, through the shed blood of Jesus we can come into the Holy presence of God. Now we can enter in to personal communion and enjoy a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. Let us never take this for granted. Let us praise God for granting us ACCESS to Him Whom our soul was created for.

“And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the Chosen of God.” Luke‬ ‭23‬:‭35‬ ‭KJV‬‬. As Jesus hung on the cross suffering for our sins, He kept hearing these words, “Save Thyself”. The people, the religious rulers, the soldiers and one of the thieves who was being crucified with Jesus, all said these same words. To selfish human beings this has always seemed the most reasonable choice. Especially if someone has the power to do so. But Jesus was unlike other men. He did not come to save Himself but to lay His life down as Sacrifice for our sin. Certainly, He could have come down from the cross if He chose to. He could have destroyed the world and everyone in it and avoided all of the suffering and shame. But rather than come to destroy, He came to save! It was because He was the Christ that He refused the path of selfishness. It was because He was the Chosen of God that He stayed on that cross. And because He would not save Himself He now offers salvation and hope to every soul. How different our world would be if His followers would do the same. May God help us, to choose the path of Christlike selflessness rather than the selfishness that grips most of modern religion.

“And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.” Luke‬ ‭22‬:‭41‬-‭42‬ ‭KJV‬‬. As we follow our Lord into this sacred place called Gethsemane, we should realize this is holy ground. Here the salvation of man hung in the balance. Here the forces of evil confronted the Son of man. And here, our Saviour was given a bitter cup which we know so little about. It was so dreaded that He prayed that if it be possible, God would remove it from Him. But it was not a cup of human suffering and death He dreaded, as many imagine. It was not the physical agony Jesus asked to be spared from. Nor was it the rejection of men that filled that bitter cup. What Jesus faced in that cup was ‘being made sin for us’ and being separated from His Father. Our minds cannot conceive of how revolting that cup was to Him, Who was perfectly pure and holy. We cannot grasp the pain of that separation He would soon endure, when the Father had to turn His eyes away from the Son. And yet, while we cannot fully understand His cup, we should rejoice that He chose to do the Father’s will! As our minds focus on the price our Saviour paid for our salvation, let our souls sing, “Oh, what a Saviour!”

“And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,” Luke‬ ‭9‬:‭51‬ ‭KJV‬‬. We should always know in reading and studying about the life of Jesus, that the cross was ever before Him. There was never a time that He lived for anything else except perfectly fulfilling the Father’s will. And He knew the Father’s will for Him was an old rugged cross where He would lay His life down as the sacrifice for our sins. This is what He set His face towards! This is what the prophet wrote about the coming Messiah in Isaiah 50:7, “therefore have I set my face like a flint…” May God help us to grasp more of the heart and Spirit of our Blessed Saviour. He didn’t avoid the cross, He went straight to it. He was not taken and cruelly treated against His will. NO! He willingly laid His life down. He freely yielded His body. He was not a martyr like other men. Rather, He was a willing sacrifice and knew He had come for this exact purpose. While His humanity dreaded all that would happen on that cross, yet His Spirit always said to the Father, “Not My will but Thine be done”. Let us be thankful that Jesus never deviated from that path of suffering. Let us bow before Him and lay our lives at His feet, because He willingly laid His life down for us.

“Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” John‬ ‭14‬:‭30‬ ‭KJV‬‬. As we look forward to celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, we should pause to consider that only Jesus could become the Sacrifice that was needed. With every other person who has lived, satan has come and always found something to take hold of. There was something in man that he could identify with and relate to. There was something in which he could get a footing to launch his attack. This is because we are fallen creatures. Sin has marred and tainted every life. But when satan came to the God Man, Jesus said these amazing words, “he hath nothing in Me”. This means that satan had nothing to use against Him. There was no part of His perfect life that satan could lay claim to or fasten hold of. Every choice Jesus had made was pure and holy. Thank God, the enemy had no hold upon the heart or life of Jesus in any way! And we should rejoice in this, because if he had found something in Jesus, even one blot, then we would be hopelessly lost with no salvation. Let us praise our Blessed Lord that He was the pure and spotless Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! Let us thank Him that He lived a life of perfect love in every way. And by God’s grace, let us open our hearts to to all that He has so freely provided for us.

“The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places…”Habakkuk‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬ ‭KJV‬‬. What a glorious truth this is, for us to know that God Himself will be our strength. Many are the days we feel the weakness of our human existence. Most every time our spiritual enemies oppose us we feel our own spiritual feebleness. But when the Almighty God is our strength, who or what can we fear? When He is our strength, He makes our steps secure as we journey through this world of woe. It is He that makes our feet able to rise above the difficult places of this sinful world. It is He that elevates our souls to the spiritual high places where we can enjoy the blessed freedom of His redeemed. But this privilege is only granted to those who are experiencing intimate, personal communion with Him. Far too many times we hang our heads and settle for the low places of spiritual doubt and confusion. We sometimes get weary in well doing and slow our pace. But let us draw near to God and rejoice only in Him, and He will quicken our steps so we can run the race and walk upon the high places.

“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” ‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭7‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this verse Jesus is reminding us of the importance of His Word to our prayer lives. Prayer is much more than simply telling God what we want or need. It is not a monologue in which we do all of the talking. Prayer is a dialogue between our hearts and God. So we must listen to what God is saying and maintain a right attitude towards His Word. It is only as we open our hearts to believe and receive God’s Word that we are able to pray effectively. We should understand that it is one thing to read the Bible but another thing to actually listen so we can hear what God is saying to us. It is this spiritual listening that enables us to pray effectively. We learn from our physical bodies the relation between hearing and speaking. If a person cannot hear they have great difficulty being able to speak. So it is spiritually. If we are not consistently hearing from God through His Word then our prayer life will always be weak. True prayer is both hearing from and speaking to our Father in Heaven. Let us listen so that God’s Word can abide in us.

“He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭13‬:‭6‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this parable and in several other passages God’s Word makes clear that God expects spiritual fruit to be produced in our lives. Just as when Jesus came to the fig tree with only leaves, He comes seeking fruit in our lives. And we have the promise of Jesus in John 15:5, “he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit”. But what is the fruit that our Lord desires? Is it mere profession or mental belief? Is it church joining and membership? Or does God expect to see the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit and the life of Christ within us? Anyone who believes God’s Word recognizes what Scripture says about this. We are to bear the fruits of righteousness in our lives. We are to ‘have fruit unto holiness’. For those who truly abide in Christ, the fruit of the Spirit will become evident. That fruit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. But what is a life that lacks spiritual fruit? It is like the barren fig tree that only had leaves. And though God gives us time and extends great mercy, yet if we do not produce the fruit He desires then we prove that we do not belong to Him. By God’s grace, let us bring forth fruit for His glory.