Give no place
The man goes to work wearing a suit and sits in the nice wood paneled room filled with expensive leather chairs. Nobody would guess that it is not his title or position that shape his life the most, but his heart.
It always will be, until he is healed and set free. He will always be affected in some way every day by his past. The father who committed adultery and left the home or the time when his friend died after he gave him too much to drink or the trip overseas when he visited a prostitute, nags away at his heart and the devil will keep him captive to that secret shame, till he is set free.
When there are unresolved or un-confessed issues in our life, it gives a place in our lives, for him to occupy areas in your life; it gives him a foothold and it may ultimately affect those in the family and around you. The devil prowls around seeking who he can devour. And the only way Satan gets a place and keeps a place in our lives is by places of brokenness and damage in our lives through our sin, or others sin or his lies about us or about others.
Friend, every person either looks back or looks forward. We are either more conscious of our past or more conscious of our future. And while our brokenness is not healed and the devil still has hooks into our life because of the wounds, we will be hindered in some measure to be able to go where Jesus wants to take us.
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Suffering of the Cross
It was necessary for the Messiah to die, but he couldn’t die in a painless way. He needed to suffer for our salvation. It was an essential part of Jesus’ ministry, and an essential part of the gospel. Jesus had predicted his own suffering and death, even his death on a cross. For the transgression of my people he was stricken.... Though he had done no violence ... it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer ... the Lord makes his life a guilt offering.... He will bear their iniquities.... He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. The cross allowed for suffering. Jesus even refused to speed up or dull the suffering with wine. On the cross he took the curse upon himself that was upon mankind. Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. He was made sin for us and bore our curses so we could be righteous and blessed. Since we failed to keep the law perfectly, we fell under its curse and we all deserved death. Jesus, being sinless, did not need to die, but he willingly died for us. The righteous died for the unrighteous. He received death so that we might receive life.
Friend, it is through the cross that we can be given the blessing promised to Abraham. It is through the cross that we are reconciled to God. It is through the cross that God forgives our sins, taking away the written note of debt that was against us. Thank God for the One on the Cross!
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Blessed are the peace makers
We know God is on a peace mission. There was peace in the Garden of Eden, and history closes with peace in eternity, but soon after the man was created, peace was taken from the earth when man sinned. There has been trouble on earth ever since. There seems to be no economic peace, religious peace racial peace, social peace, family peace or personal peace on earth.
There are strikes, referendums rallies and riots. There are demonstrations and wars are multiplying: the need for peace has never been greater than today. God never forgot His plan for peace, so God ramped up his peace mission in Jesus Christ. When He was sent, the angels announced peace on earth and good will to men. And in this verse in Matthew, Jesus says whoever joins Him in this peace mission, will become a son of God or a daughter of God. The one blinding fact about this verse is that peace makers are blessed. Not the peace lovers, it’s not those who love peace that are blessed or called sons of God. Not the one that heads for the hill, buys a block of land in the county to get some quiet. It’s not the one that withdraws from confronting those that need it, but the peace makers.
Friend, we are peace makers when we confront the problem, seek to solve it and after the problems is solved, seek to build a bridge between those who were separated by the problem.
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Forgiveness
Paul said that he had tried to avoid offending God or men. We should too and sometimes we need to ask somebody for forgiveness, if we know we have offended them. You may need to ask your parents to forgive you or a friend to forgive you for your unkind words.
On the other hand Jesus said if you come to the altar and you know someone has something against you should leave the altar and put things right with that person before you carry on to worship. Sometimes we may even have to ask Gods forgiveness for the sins of our grandparents as well as forgiving those who have sinned against us. We need to clear our conscience before God and people.
That doesn’t mean we go and confess all our sins to our parents, wife or a person we are secretly jealous at, unless they know of our sin. We don’t tell people that you had something against them for the last 10 years, if they didn’t have a clue. That may just create un-necessary problems.
Friend, a principle to live by is: Ask forgiveness from only those people that know of your sin or wrong attitude toward them; nobody else needs to be involved, apart from Our Heavenly Father who will forgive you completely as you confess your sin to Him.
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Truth and Grace
Fred who is a believer has a short temper and always seems to be blowing up his wife and kids. He makes yet another commitment to God to really try to not get angry so soon. The next day he fails again and feels like a hopeless failure. He will never break the cycle because he personally has no ability to help himself and the law (do not be soon angry) doesn’t empower him either.
He feels that he should be free but doesn’t seem to know-how. Jesus said “If you know the truth it will make you free. So true freedom is not from a physical problem but from something mental or spiritual.
Grace is a gift come to us from Jesus, but sometimes believers don’t seem to appropriate the gift of grace as we could. Often believers live more by self-effort.
God has revealed two weapons to smash off us, every bondage that the devil has put upon us - Grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. Grace is the unmerited favour of God that God has shown us as sinners. Grace credits to us the righteousness of God. But grace is not just His righteousness but His ability too.
Now, what happens when Fred lives under grace or should we say understands the grace of God and Truth? Fred knows God is not angry with him and that God actually likes him. God has proved that by giving Fred His power, Spirit and Life.
He knows God actually loves him and wants Fred to have a healthy home and relationships even more than Fred does, so he comes boldly to the throne of grace to find help in a time of need. Fred is so in love with his heavenly Father now that he seeks to please Him even in the way he handles disappointments and he finds a new power at work in his life.
Friend, its grace that allows us to come feeling un-condemned before God our Father and ask for help. Grace teaches us that God is not surprised that you can’t control your anger or you lust or your fear without Him and grace will be given freely to you in your time at the throne.
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Altar Call
While Israel was languishing in Egypt’s as slaves, they lost much of their understanding of God. God began to teach his people how to approach Him. “An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you”. Exodus 20:24. For hundreds of years they bought their sacrifices of worship to the altar at Moses Tabernacle. This altar was only a type of the final altar, Jesus. His final blood sacrifice for us, reveals completely Gods fullest mercy toward us. Today we still have an altar that God has placed his name upon. “We have an altar they have no right to eat Hebrews 13. Speaking of Jesus Christ the ultimate altar. God said everyplace that he recorded his Name on the altar, He would meet with them there. The altar was the place where God was going to meet with mankind and Jesus is the only place we can meet with God. Jesus is the final place of slaughter and the final altar. He is the only “place” that God will come to bless mankind. Jesus is the altar as he alone is named with the name of God. Altars were the place that God revealed himself to mankind and we can surely see that Jesus was God revealing Himself to us. Today we come to our altar Jesus, to offer worship to our Father God. When we came to the altar, we are not coming to a raised part of the stage or to some shiny table but we are coming to Jesus Christ to receive forgiveness, life, healing and blessing. He is the blood stained altar! “By him or through him (through Jesus our altar) we can offer to God our spiritual sacrifices (Heb.13.15).
Friend, He is the place God has recorded His name. He is the only place to meet with God and as we come to Him, He promises to meet us there.
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Disciples making disciples
Jesus last orders crashed on the disciple’s ears as they stood on the Mt of Olives “Go and make Disciples…”, but it seems often the same words bounce off deaf ears in the church today. We say we want a harvest but we won’t sow the field; we say we love the lost but we don’t spend any time with them. We think prayer alone will bring in the sheaves or that tearless sowing of seeds will penetrate the stony ground. We work harder and even try to work smarter but the days tick by and we wonder where the increase is. Often we are waiting for one to be given to us after the altar call or we wait to be asked to follow up a new believer in the church. We’re trying to make disciples in the wrong places. Go into all the world and make disciples means into all nations. For the Jewish disciples it meant gentiles; people unlike them, and for us, it means people not like us. That is the genius of this command; they are shocked straightaway at your concern or interest. Jesus chose his disciples before they had become Christians and we should too. He chose some to be with him when they were unsaved! If everyone chose and made a disciple of someone that is not like us, we would see the harvest begin to come in and it may still take time. When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples they started preaching and making disciples. When Jesus came out of the wilderness, in the power of the spirit, the first thing he did was chose disciples; then he started preaching.
Friend, the evidence of being in the power of the Spirit is choosing and making disciples. It not feeling goosebumps; it’s not having gifts of healing its making disciples.
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Restored
Another day in the desert came and went; another day to see what was in their heart. Today the people found fault with Moses and God himself. There are people who think they could teach God a few things. Lord you not doing this right. The complained about their present circumstances and they complained about their future challenge. The two who didn’t complain should have gone in but were hindered by the rest for another forty years. (sobering) but the point is that your attitude will keep you in the same circumstance you’re complaining about and until our attitude glorifies God, we won’t be delivered.
It’s not suffering that glorifies God; anyone can suffer but suffering with an attitude that glorifies God. We don’t look for suffering; it’s coming anyway. Jesus suffered gloriously without complaint, but with trust. God is looking for settled character, where we remain stable and constant in trust because the ability is shown by stability. Some people are great today, but tomorrow they are negative, critical, cynical and flaky.
God is in charge and He hasn’t changed since yesterday. He hasn’t changed his plans and purpose for your life since last week or last year.
Friend, God only needs to see us keep the right attitude before He brings the release and the increase.
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