Study from God’s Word… Both Letters to Colossians and to Philemon, written while Paul was a prisoner in Rome … Passage for Reflection: Colossians 3: 1 – 2 … NIV 1 Since, then [upon receiving Christ as Lord; see Col. 2: 6], you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
My Journal for Today: The third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians in and around Colosse, Laodicea, and Hierapolis, delivered by Epaphrus, who had been a missionary there, is very edifying and convicting for me. It speaks, as Dr. Smith brings out in his devotional today, of moving from lower, worldly, values, which, before Christ, we lived so easily as non-Christians; and moving to the higher, Godly values which come so challengingly to Christian living. As it is depicted in Colossians 3, it is “putting off” the old and “putting on” the new. It is moving from the lower, sin-directed life to the higher, Savior-directed life.
And Paul writes to these Christians in Asia-Minor (and to us), when we die to self, we must be raised to the newness which is life in Christ, which is the life unto which we witness in Baptism, being raised from the depths of sinfulness to a life of victory and freedom in Christ. Dr. Smith, challengingly asks much the same question of his readers (i.e., me today), ”Just how high has my spiritual life soared since I first died to sin and rose to a new life in Christ?”
I don’t know about you; but, bragging only about my surrender to God’s Spirit, this born-again believer [i.e., yours truly], has become a poster boy for the life exhorted by Paul in Colossians 3, or perhaps also 2nd Cor. 5: 17, which I hope you have deeply implanted in your heart’s memory. Let me quote it from my NKJV memory verse: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
What about you? Have you put on the newness, which is available to any born-again Christian, by receiving and “putting on,” by God’s enabling grace, the new Spirit-empowered life provided by your Savior and Lord? Anybody who really knew the Bill Berry, BC (i.e., before Christ), would testify to observing an angry atheist who was deeply involved in obsessive/compulsive sexual sin. But those who now know the Bill Berry, AC (i.e., after dying to self and being raised again in Christ), will give witness to a man driven (by God’s Spirit) to obsessively and compulsively know and serve The Lord. Yes, …, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new
So, in doing my self-directed, God-inspired, inventory today, I ask myself (and you ask yourself), “Am I daily moving higher and higher in mind and spirit, putting on the newness Who is Christ, and setting aside the lower, corrupted self, unto which I must choose daily to die?” Or, “am I holding on to the old, sin-driven self, which goes lower and lower as I choose self over Savior?”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, today I choose to die to me and put on You. Amen
Showing posts with label Baptism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baptism. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
2010 – July 28 – The Ins and Outs of Faith
Study from God’s Word… Jeremiah, Chapters 7 – 9 … Passage for Reflection: Jeremiah 9: 25 – 26 … NIV 25 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh - 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."
My Journal for Today: Interesting, … almost fun, … that my devotional Pastor, Dr. Smith, begin his study today, from Jeremiah 9 by making reference to belly buttons, noting that there are “innies” and “outies,” which, of course, are created by how the umbilical cord is separated from the body at birth. But we know that it makes no difference in life whether we have an “innie” or an “outie,” does it?
But in the times of Jeremiah, and for all of ancient Israel/Judah, there was a physical mark which meant almost everything to the male Jew; and that, of course, was circumcision. For any Jewish man to be “Jewish,” he had to have had the foreskin of his maleness removed. It was to be the physical mark of The Old Covenant. Now, in the New Covenant times in which we live, we have the sign of Baptism to indicate our outward declaration of being sealed by Christ in His New Covenant where a true believer is sealed for eternity inwardly as well as outwardly. To be baptized as a repentant and born-again believer is the outward sign of the inward newness of God’s Spirit sealing our soul for an eternity with Christ. To be baptized outwardly, with no real repentance, is to become a very wet, but unredeemed, sinner.
So, today as in the days of Jeremiah, one could be circumcised outwardly and even physically but not have a “circumcision of the heart.” There were many in the house of Israel in those days who had the outward mark of their declared faith but they did not carry it inwardly in the heart. Today we have many who outwardly call themselves “christian,” yet inwardly they do not possess the real faith in Jesus that will one day, in glory, allow Jesus to declare, “Well done, my faithful servant.”
Oh how I pray that any who read this have both an “innie” and an “outie” faith, being able to declare their allegiance to Christ but living out that faith by the way their lives worship their Lord. When we, as Christians, were baptized, did it really signify the reality of a “circumcision of the heart?” I will pray today that it did.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You know that my heart is outwardly – and INWARDLY – given over to You. I pray it be so for any who read this. Amen
My Journal for Today: Interesting, … almost fun, … that my devotional Pastor, Dr. Smith, begin his study today, from Jeremiah 9 by making reference to belly buttons, noting that there are “innies” and “outies,” which, of course, are created by how the umbilical cord is separated from the body at birth. But we know that it makes no difference in life whether we have an “innie” or an “outie,” does it?
But in the times of Jeremiah, and for all of ancient Israel/Judah, there was a physical mark which meant almost everything to the male Jew; and that, of course, was circumcision. For any Jewish man to be “Jewish,” he had to have had the foreskin of his maleness removed. It was to be the physical mark of The Old Covenant. Now, in the New Covenant times in which we live, we have the sign of Baptism to indicate our outward declaration of being sealed by Christ in His New Covenant where a true believer is sealed for eternity inwardly as well as outwardly. To be baptized as a repentant and born-again believer is the outward sign of the inward newness of God’s Spirit sealing our soul for an eternity with Christ. To be baptized outwardly, with no real repentance, is to become a very wet, but unredeemed, sinner.
So, today as in the days of Jeremiah, one could be circumcised outwardly and even physically but not have a “circumcision of the heart.” There were many in the house of Israel in those days who had the outward mark of their declared faith but they did not carry it inwardly in the heart. Today we have many who outwardly call themselves “christian,” yet inwardly they do not possess the real faith in Jesus that will one day, in glory, allow Jesus to declare, “Well done, my faithful servant.”
Oh how I pray that any who read this have both an “innie” and an “outie” faith, being able to declare their allegiance to Christ but living out that faith by the way their lives worship their Lord. When we, as Christians, were baptized, did it really signify the reality of a “circumcision of the heart?” I will pray today that it did.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You know that my heart is outwardly – and INWARDLY – given over to You. I pray it be so for any who read this. Amen
Thursday, February 25, 2010
2010 – Feb. 25 – Water, Water, Everywhere
Study from God’s Word… Lev. 12: 1-8; Lev. 14: 1-32; Lev. 15: 13-15, 28-30; Num. 19: 1-22 [Num. 9: 10]; … Passage for Reflection: Lev. 14: 8a … NIV "The person to be cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair and bathe with water; then he will be ceremonially clean. …”
My Journal for Today: My readings for today focused on the ceremonial cleansing, such as actions or offerings, which were required by God and the Israelite Priesthood, especially when God’s people confronted certain elements of life such as childbirth, certain diseases [especially skin diseases], bodily secretions, and contact or close presence with a dead body. My devotional shepherd, Dr. Smith, had me reading about many of the Hebrew ceremonies, offerings, and actions required of the people who were confronted with some of these life challenging issues which God’s Law had laid out to help protect His people.
For example in my focus verse/passage for today, I read about how someone with a skin disease was required to be cleansed by the Priests, … first outside the camp; and then, after that ritual cleansing, he was to stay outside his own tent for seven days and be cleansed for a week with ceremonially blessed waters by the Priests until he was bodily healed and ceremoniously cleansed.
As Dr. Smith points out, many religions have ceremonial cleansing with water in their rituals; and often these rituals picture the basic sinfulness of man and the need to be cleansed from sin. Hindus actually “bath” themselves in the polluted waters of the Ganges, believing that it cleanses the soul of the one so cleansed. I’ve been to the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem; and I know that the Muslims entering their temple there have to be “cleansed” by a ceremonial washing before entering the Temple. And even Christ submitted Himself to the ceremonial cleansing of the waters of the Jordan River as He, being baptized by John, the Baptistizer, wanted to paint the picture of the need for man to be cleansed of sinfulness by submitting himself to the cleansing of God’s Spirit. This latter process, of course (i.e., Baptism) doesn’t save the believer who is baptized. No, it merely signifies that the person has surrendered to God, in submission to the cleansing of the blood of the Lamb of God, who shed His blood for our sins on the Cross at Calvary. And if you go back to Leviticus 14: 1-8, you’ll read how the blood of a clean dove was sacrificed by the Priest who combined that blood with the ceremonial water for cleansing of the one with the skin disease. All of these are pictures of God’s desire that we be cleansed of our sin and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God.
When asked about the saving power of baptism, I once heard a preacher say, “That water [in the Baptismal font] doesn’t save anyone. If you haven’t surrendered your life to the Lordship of Christ when you’re baptized, you’ll come up out of the water, and all you’ll be is a wet sinner.” And that is Dr. F. LaGard Smith’s point today, as he closes his devotional entry with this application question, “If God has painted me pure in the waters of baptism, have I allowed myself to become polluted?” And it is so true that we can be made positionally holy by believing in and receiving the baptism of God’s Spirit with our faith in the atoning and finished act of Christ’s death and resurrection; but practically, our sin choices can make us as unclean as those Jews with skin diseases who needed to be ceremonially cleansed from their disease.
We need to ask ourselves if we are living out the holiness which became our right of cleansing when we were cleansed by the blood of Christ. If not, we need to be cleansed by our own personal surrender in confession to God so that we can receive His promised cleansing by His Spirit (see 1st John 1: 9 - linked) How about it? Are we keeping short accounts for our sins; and are we living out the cleansing which has been given to us by our Savior on the Cross?
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to live holy because You are holy; and my only reflection of Your holiness comes in the way I make my choices and live my life. I am cleansed by the blood of the Lamb; and so, may I live cleanly to show Your presence in my life. Amen
My Journal for Today: My readings for today focused on the ceremonial cleansing, such as actions or offerings, which were required by God and the Israelite Priesthood, especially when God’s people confronted certain elements of life such as childbirth, certain diseases [especially skin diseases], bodily secretions, and contact or close presence with a dead body. My devotional shepherd, Dr. Smith, had me reading about many of the Hebrew ceremonies, offerings, and actions required of the people who were confronted with some of these life challenging issues which God’s Law had laid out to help protect His people.
For example in my focus verse/passage for today, I read about how someone with a skin disease was required to be cleansed by the Priests, … first outside the camp; and then, after that ritual cleansing, he was to stay outside his own tent for seven days and be cleansed for a week with ceremonially blessed waters by the Priests until he was bodily healed and ceremoniously cleansed.
As Dr. Smith points out, many religions have ceremonial cleansing with water in their rituals; and often these rituals picture the basic sinfulness of man and the need to be cleansed from sin. Hindus actually “bath” themselves in the polluted waters of the Ganges, believing that it cleanses the soul of the one so cleansed. I’ve been to the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem; and I know that the Muslims entering their temple there have to be “cleansed” by a ceremonial washing before entering the Temple. And even Christ submitted Himself to the ceremonial cleansing of the waters of the Jordan River as He, being baptized by John, the Baptistizer, wanted to paint the picture of the need for man to be cleansed of sinfulness by submitting himself to the cleansing of God’s Spirit. This latter process, of course (i.e., Baptism) doesn’t save the believer who is baptized. No, it merely signifies that the person has surrendered to God, in submission to the cleansing of the blood of the Lamb of God, who shed His blood for our sins on the Cross at Calvary. And if you go back to Leviticus 14: 1-8, you’ll read how the blood of a clean dove was sacrificed by the Priest who combined that blood with the ceremonial water for cleansing of the one with the skin disease. All of these are pictures of God’s desire that we be cleansed of our sin and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God.
When asked about the saving power of baptism, I once heard a preacher say, “That water [in the Baptismal font] doesn’t save anyone. If you haven’t surrendered your life to the Lordship of Christ when you’re baptized, you’ll come up out of the water, and all you’ll be is a wet sinner.” And that is Dr. F. LaGard Smith’s point today, as he closes his devotional entry with this application question, “If God has painted me pure in the waters of baptism, have I allowed myself to become polluted?” And it is so true that we can be made positionally holy by believing in and receiving the baptism of God’s Spirit with our faith in the atoning and finished act of Christ’s death and resurrection; but practically, our sin choices can make us as unclean as those Jews with skin diseases who needed to be ceremonially cleansed from their disease.
We need to ask ourselves if we are living out the holiness which became our right of cleansing when we were cleansed by the blood of Christ. If not, we need to be cleansed by our own personal surrender in confession to God so that we can receive His promised cleansing by His Spirit (see 1st John 1: 9 - linked) How about it? Are we keeping short accounts for our sins; and are we living out the cleansing which has been given to us by our Savior on the Cross?
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to live holy because You are holy; and my only reflection of Your holiness comes in the way I make my choices and live my life. I am cleansed by the blood of the Lamb; and so, may I live cleanly to show Your presence in my life. Amen
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