April 18, 2011 … God’s Sovereign Departure

Passage of the Day: Matthew 27: 46 … About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"— which means, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" [Ps. 22:1]

My Journal for Today: This is a hard saying from Jesus on the cross. My studies reveal that Martin Luther worked diligently for years but had trouble grasping what Jesus said in today’s passage, … our Lord feeling so abandoned on the cross. And so, who am I to be trying to explain this? … Well, the answer lies in the fact that I have the same Holy Spirit to help me lay hold of God’s word just as did Martin Luther. I also have the advantage of centuries of brilliant theologians like Luther and other, more current Bible scholars, …men like John MacArthur in my devotional book, to help me. But the main issue still resides in my willingness to humbly seek after God’s, i.e., the Holy Spirit’s, ministry of enlightenment. So, if I pray for God’s mind and wisdom, He is willing to provide it to me (see James 1: 5, 6). So here goes [but you check me out in the Spirit of 1st John 4: 1 or 1st Thes. 5: 17].

We do know that God cannot abide sin (see Habakkuk 1: 13); and it is truth that Jesus became the sin of all mankind on that cross. And so, a Father-God, Who is perfectly Holy, could not be – in that moment where Jesus hung on the cross having taken on the sins of all mankind – in the presence of sin. Therefore, God, the Father, had to turn His back on His own Son. The horror of that for God, the Son, is unimaginable for me; and it’s heart wrenching to read our Lord lamenting what He had dreaded so heavily earlier during His passion, e.g., when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before being arrested.

But this should tell us how much sin is a curse [see also Gal. 3: 13] as we come into the presence of God; and for Christ becoming the propitiation for our sin on the cross had to be anathema in the presence of His Holy Father. That’s the way it is when we let sin come between God and our own souls (see 1st John 1: 10). God doesn’t hate us (personally) when we sin. To the contrary, He loves us – perfectly! But, He hates our sin; and the only way for us to maintain the intimacy of fellowship with our Lord is for us to be cleansed by the very blood which Christ was shedding on that cross as He spoke the lament we read in today’s verse [again, see that wondrous promise of 1st John 1: 9, which you should have memorized cold by now!].

Gratefully, as in that verse, God has provided a way for this cleansing to take place through confession; and, in that regard, this verse becomes one of the most hopeful passages in all of the New Testament for me (and probably for you, too). And then by repenting – truly repenting – and walking to follow Christ (see Luke 9: 23, which you should also have in memory), we can maintain the closeness that Christ lost by shouldering our sin … the intimacy the God-Man regained when He ascended and was re-glorified by His Father.

My Prayer Today: Lord, hold me close to You! Amen

March 8, 2011 … Realizing the Need for Seriousness About Holiness

Passage of the Day: James 4: 9b – Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

My Journal for Today: The question for Christians in the 21st century, especially in today’s world which mocks or makes light of biblical values is, “Just how serious are we as believers, as born-again Christians, about holiness?”

The Apostle James in today’s passage says that our laughter should become mourning and our joy should become gloom when we see the sinfulness in our own hearts and the outflow of sin in the world. And yet, we giggle at top-rated TV sit-coms making fun of Christian values. I’ve done it; and I would guess that you may have done the same thing. Well, God forgive us for falling into line with the world in such moments. Praise the Lord that His mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3: 22-23) and He cleanses me of my flippancy when I get serious enough with conviction and confess it (1st John 1: 9).

Of course, there is a time to laugh and to revel with joy when we see God’s providence and His purpose being manifest in His creation and our relationship with Christ (see Eccles. 3: 4). However, when it comes to our attitude toward sin, with our mind’s eye being toward Christlikeness, James reminds us that this is serious business.

Our relationship with Christ must begin, as MacArthur points out in his devotional from Strength for Today for this date, “… on a sober, humble, and serious note.” When we consider our love for God in the context of our life in this world, we simply cannot abide the world’s attitude about sin, about which we are warned against in 1st John 2: 15 – 17 [a good passage to have memorized!] …

SCRIPTURE: 1st John 2: 15-17 … Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

If I profess to love God – and I do!! – then my love for Him must be shown in the way I think and live; and as we’ve seen before from Prov. 23: 7 (NKJV), “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” If my heart does not grieve or hold remorse over my own sin and the sin I see in the world, then my love for God is very shallow. And if my living worship for my God does not reflect that hatred of sin with my living to be like Christ, my relationship with my Lord is shallow as well.

May I grow to grieve more over my sin, to hate it in me and the world, and to revel in purity and holiness!

My Prayer Today: Oh, Lord, how I desire to be holy. … How I hate my unholiness! Amen

February 8, 2011 … Becoming Holy

Passage of the Day: 1st Peter 1: 15-16 … 15 But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." [Note: quotation taken from Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7]

My Journal for Today: Besides the reality of God’s holiness and our unholiness, as well as the admonishment of today’s declaration from Peter, which is repeated from the Old Covenant in Leviticus, there are many in today’s culture who would not want to deal with yet another mirror of truth offered by the Apostle Peter (in 2nd Peter 2: 4 – 10). But I’m going to give it to you anyway, since I’m having to deal with it now, having just studied this passage.

SCRIPTURE: 2nd Peter 2: 4-10 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if He did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

Ouch!!! In plain, Southern vernacular, “Them is harsh words [!],” especially since we’re all sinners deserving of eternal damnation for our sins (see Rom. 3: 23). And I believe one must see himself or herself as being unholy in the sight of a Holy God, in total need of a Redeemer and Savior, before it can be possible for God to give His free gift of salvation offered by the death and resurrection of The Christ as well as the completion ministered to justified souls by God’s Spirit.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to righteousness and for our sin account to be paid in full, allowing for God’s Spirit to mold us into the image of Christ (see 2nd Cor. 5: 21 and 1st Cor. 6: 11) …

SCRIPTURE: 2nd Cor. 5: 21 God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
SCRIPTURE: 1st Cor. 6: 11 1Cor. 6: 11 … And that is what some of you [sinners] were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

But as we can see [again] from 1st Cor. 6: 11, those of us sinners, who by faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice, have received the grace of salvation, surrendering to His Lordship, have become provisionally and positionally holy … a sinner becoming a sanctified saint by faith in Christ [look this one up on your own … 2nd Tim. 2: 19].

In today’s verse [above], we Christians are commanded to “be holy” just as God is Holy. And God’s word would never command a believer to do anything that was not possible – with His help [see 1st Cor. 10: 13 and Rom. 8: 31]. 2nd Cor. 12: 9 tells us that even though we are weak in our humanity to be holy, God’s grace is sufficient to provide us with God’s power to be perfected in God’s holiness (see also 2nd Tim. 1: 7). And God doesn’t lie (see Num. 23: 19); so, we can expect that God’s Spirit will minister direction and conviction to lead us to holiness and the peace we will only find as we grow in Christlikeness [Hebrews 12: 11] …

SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 12: 11 No discipline [from God’s Spirit] seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

And when I live holy, i.e., disciplined by righteous choices and reformed by righteous habits, I can sleep in peace, knowing that my life, though challenged by the enemy and the world, and even my own sinner’s heart (see Jer. 17: 9), is being lived in accord with God’s Spirit. And that produces the peace of God (see Isaiah 26:3 and Phil. 4: 6 - 7).

My Prayer Today: Lord, help me to be Holy. Amen

Blogger’s PS: I know that I’ve given any reader here a lot of Scriptures [some provided and others charged], all on which I had to meditate this morning as God brought me this devotional from John MacArthur. However, if you’re willing to take the time, as I did, to take in God’s word concerning His holiness in this entry, … certainly much more so than the thoughts I’ve shared, … perhaps you will come away with the peace of God to add to your positional and practical righteousness in Christ. … I certainly did this morning. I pray you will too. … wrb

February 6, 2011 … God Is Holy

Passage of the Day: 1st Samuel 2: 2 … [see highlighted verse, bold/underlined] 1 Then Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in Your deliverance. 2 There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides You; there is no Rock like our God.

My Journal for Today: Today’s passage is the prayer of Hannah, who has just dedicated her newly born son to the God, in Whom she placed all her trust. In this prayer she declares, “There is no one Holy like the Lord.”

There are many scholars, like John MacArthur in my devotional, Strength for Today, who feel that HOLINESS is God’s most significant attribute. In Isaiah 6: 3 and Rev. 4: 8, we read of visions of Angels crying out to God, “Holy, Holy, Holy!” Moses sang of God’s holiness (see Exodus 15: 11). With a little study on the matter, it is my understanding that the Hebrew word for “Holy” comes from the concept of “separation;” and God’s holiness certainly separates His character from all other created beings. We certainly know that angels can be less than holy, because Satan was a created angel; and he took one-third of the angels into the eternal separation of unholiness with him. Mankind was created holy; but we certainly are less than holy in our humanity now.

In my humble estimation, God’s holiness is the characteristic which most separates Him from our human frailties, making God, especially in the Person of Christ and His holiness, the anti-sin standard. As MacArthur puts it, “[God] does not conform to a Holy standard; … He IS the standard!”

MacArthur, in today’s Strength for Today segment, goes on to discuss how God’s holiness becomes what we see in His righteousness. In other words, holiness is the attribute (i.e., God’s standard) and righteousness becomes the manifestation of that attribute. David wrote of how we perceive God’s righteousness in Psalm 71: 19 – NIV).

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 71: 18 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God, You Who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You?

Unfortunately, however, many Christians have either ignored or humanized God’s holiness and His standard of righteousness, using the world or our own fleshly aspirations as our mark of achievement, rather than God’s holiness as The Mark, … personified in Christ. Hence, we see Christians with the same divorce rate as non-Christians; and closely related to my life and ministry, we see so many Christian men, even Clergy and church leaders, “falling,” by choice, into sexual sin. Let’s face it! If we truly knew, believed, and felt how a Holy God despises sin, we would confess it, forsake it, and seek desperately to walk worthy of a Holy God (again read and meditate on Eph. 4: 1, which was the focus of my devotionals in January).

Today, as I’ve meditated on this [as I pray that you have], and I’m deeply convicted of where I stand, … separated as I am from God’s standard of holiness. But I will not wane from my aspiration toward righteousness, recognizing the truth of 2nd Cor. 12: 9 … that God’s grace is sufficient … and His enabling grace allows His strength to be mine as I move in my own desire for His holiness and righteousness.

My Prayer Today: O, my Lord, You are so Holy; and only through Your grace can I achieve Your standard of righteousness. Amen