March 23, 2011 … Jesus’ Humble Identification with Sinners

Passage of the Day: Philippians 2: 7 - 8 - 7 … but [Jesus] made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!

My Journal for Today: Though Jesus walked among mankind in those three years of ministry where people, especially His chosen Disciples, followed Him around, witnessing miracle after miracle, most of these people, who were looking for a Messiah, did not really recognize Christ’s Lordship. As I said, even His closest followers, the twelve Disciples, couldn’t or wouldn’t accept Jesus’ claim to being THE Son of God, the Second Person of the Godhead … even though He did many things they witnessed that only God could do (see all of John 6).

In Christ’s humility and manhood, Jesus, except for His sinlessness (see Heb. 4: 15 cited below) was fully identified with man in His incarnation and walk on this earth. And that’s why His being 100% man actually added something, i.e., perfect empathy, to His omniscience, rather than His being reduced by His emptying of His majesty in the kenosis of becoming “human likeness.” [see again Phil. 2: 6-7] So, now, we look back on THE LORD in His ascension, coronation, and re-glorification, especially after the reality of this resurrection with awe; well, at least I do! Now, we know we have a risen Lord, still sinless as the God-Man, Who could become our High Priest, fully able to have perfected, infinite empathy with our plight and weakness as mankind. He is everything declared by Heb. 4: 15 …

SCRIPTURE: Heb. 4: 15 … we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

As we’ve been reviewing this month, Christ’s humility is our great, yes, even perfect, model for the pursuit of the attitude God’s Spirit, through Paul, exhorted us to have in Phil. 2: 5 – an attitude just like Jesus! We often think that it would have been an advantage to have been there and witnessed Christ’s deity on display, seeing all those miracles first hand. But you know, as I alluded above, the Disciples saw all of that; and yet, they still had doubts and fears … fears that led even their strongman, Peter, “the rock,” to cringe in fear and even deny to his Lord.

Well, today we actually have one advantage over those who walked with Jesus and saw Him first hand. We have the codified history – inspired by God Himself – in the collated and cannonized Bible. We have the very real and historically documented resurrection, which only a few were able to see and touch the resurrected Lord in those days of the cross. Yes, men like the eleven remaining Disciples, and others, had the opportunity, to see the resurrected Christ first hand, even touch Him as did Thomas [read John 20]. But anyone who delves into the truths of the New Testament and reads the true account of Jesus can have, as MacArthur recounts, “… heart-felt assurance that He (Christ) was perfectly man and perfectly God.”

My Prayer Today: To know You, as my Lord, even as imperfectly as I do, dear Jesus, is my hope of salvation. Amen

January 14, 2011 … Identifying With Those In Need

Passage of the Day: Hebrews 13: 3 – Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

My Journal for Today: Today’s exhortation from the Author of Hebrews takes the love of God to an even higher level of commitment. The word picture of that day used by this author would have been very personal since many Christians were being imprisoned, tortured, or even killed for their faith. The extension of this would have any believer, like you and me, reach out to fellow Christians if we see them being persecuted or suffering in some way.

The Apostle Paul wrote quite a few of his epistles from the cells of prisons (as in Col. 4: 18 or Phil. 4: 14-16); and he humbly asked his fellow believers to remember and pray for him, also expressing thanks for those who had sent help to him. So, the exhortation of today’s verse is simply an extension of Christ’s pronouncement to reach out to the “least” of those in need … in His Name; for when we do, we are doing so to/for Him.

This verse hits home for me; because some time ago a young Christian whom I had been challenged, by divine appointment, to mentor by mail in prison for several years was released from his incarceration. No, he had not been imprisoned for his faith; but rather for a self confessed sexual offense. However, God had led me to him; and I had been convicted/directed to reach out to him, as was Christ’s mission charge of Luke 4: 18 (see below).

>>> SCRIPTURE: Luke 4: 18 [Jesus quoting from Is. 61: 1-2] "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

This, for me, has always been a daunting proclamation by Christ. In these words Jesus gave the church of His day (and to us) His worldly mission statement, which was prophesied by Isaiah hundreds of years before as the mission of the Messiah. As Christians who aspire to Christlikeness, Christ’s mission statement should be (and, in actuality, IS) ours as well. So, when Jesus says His Father and the Holy Spirit had charged Him to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners” and to “release the oppressed,” that has become the heartbeat of the personal ministry (Battle Plan Ministry) to which God has called me to found and lead. And today’s verse and devotional simply reinforces my calling in this regard.

If one is reading this, I guess I would ask you to find yourself somewhere in Luke 4: 18, using your grace-given Spiritual gifts to reach out in Christ’s Name to those who need to hear the Good News or those who need to be freed from the prisons of their own hearts or to be helped to see God’s Way, to which they may be blinded. And when we do this, according to our verse today, we are walking as worthy as prisoners of and for our Lord [again see Eph. 4: 1], especially to those who are prisoners of this world.

My Prayer Today: Help me, Lord, to carry out Your mission in my life. Amen