2010 – November 25 – A Rough Road to the Kingdom

Special Blogger's Note: Your ElderBerry friend, Bill, here wanting to relate to any/all who come here - maybe today and maybe other days - to read or even meditate on what God leads me to write here in these daily devotional blogs. It's THANKSGIVING DAY; and I'm so very thankful to be reading through the entire Bible this year (still on track into the 11th month). And I'm thankful to have followers like you, who, knowing you're there, have helped to keep me accountable and motivated to <'KOKO>< , which means "to keep on keeping on in Christ!" Thanks to you, to God's willingness to give me a little more than a month more, and mostly to God's enabling grace, keeping me on track in this covenant to Him on January 1, 2010, I'm going to read/study through the entire Bible this year; and doing it will be all to God's glory. Thanks, some of you, for coming along with me. I'm so grateful for your presence. =====================

Study from God’s Word… Acts, Chapters 13 – 15 … Passage for Reflection: Acts 14: 21 - 22 … NIV Then they [Paul, revived after being stoned by offended Greek Jews on his first missionary journey to Asia-Minor, and Barnabas, traveling with Paul] … returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch (in northern Syria), 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

My Journal for Today: Okay, today is Thanksgiving in this year as I read today’s chapters from Acts and, led by Dr. Smith’s devotional, highlighting a passage attributed to the teachings of both Paul and Barnabas, who were teaching Jewish and Gentile Christians on their first missionary journey to Asia Minor. And in this study, I come upon another of those perplexing doctrinal conundrums which cause us to pause to ask how much of good works, in the face of persecution or worldly, human trial, is necessary for a believer in Jesus, as The Christ, to enter the kingdom of God, which is our heaven-bound home as born-again Christians after we’ve lived out our lives here on this earth.

We know a lot as Christians; and we really learn the basics from the Bible about salvation by God’s grace, through faith, leading to good works and kingdom as we read and internalize Christ’s sermon on the mount and then Paul’s letters later to the Church. In passages like Ephesians 2: 8-10, we read that salvation only comes through receiving the free gift of God’s saving grace by faith in Christ’s death and resurrection for our sins; and then in verse 10 of that passage, we see that fully receiving this saving grace leads to the enabling/empowering and sanctifying grace of God which shapes Christians to be able to withstand the very “hardships” which Paul and Barnabas are teaching Christians about in today’s passage.

The question and the Christian conundrum though the age of the Church has always been what Dr. Smith wrote out in his devotional challenge for the day, writing, In light of Jesus’ teaching, how far do I have to go to enter the kingdom of God?” Well, let me comment on that briefly.

I KNOW that I will enter the kingdom of God upon my exit from life because first of all my commitment in faith to Christ as Savior AND LORD, is very real. I KNOW and have declared repeatedly to others that I was (and still remain) a sinner; but I’m a sinner who was saved by the blood shed by Christ on the cross; and furthermore I believe and KNOW the truth of His resurrection from the dead to show God’s power over death. And then finally, KNOWING the truth of God’s word in Romans 10: 9-13, where the process of salvation is clearly laid out, my life since I let Christ into my heart has been a process of confrontation with the world, Satan, and my own sinful flesh. But these hardships have happened with me experiencing the enabling grace given to me by God’s presence in my heart to become the “living sacrifice,” described by Paul in Romans 12: 1-2.

I believe; and I KNOW it’s true, as Paul/Barnabas taught to Christians (in the above verse) that one cannot expect to be in the kingdom of God unless the trials of life have shown the believer that he/she has the presence and power of God’s Spirit in them and working through them in order for us, as true, born-again believers, to exhibit the fruitfulness described in John 15 and Galatians 5: 22-23.

I’ll leave it to you, if you don’t know those passages I’ve referred to above, by heart, to look them up and meditate on them here at Thanksgiving; and if you are like me on this special day, you’ll be so thankful that you let God’s grace into your life so that you can be saved from your self and allowed and empowered to deal with the hardships of life. Be thankful today, my Christian friend, that you are in, and always will be in, the Kingdom of God.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, on this Thanksgiving Day, I’m so thankful that You, Lord, led me into Your Kingdom. Amen

2009 – Day 327.Nov 24 – Genuine Thanksgiving

Passage for Study: Acts 16: 16 - 40 … Acts 16 linked for study …

2nd Scripture Reference: Philippians 2: 1-18… Phil. 2 linked for study …

My Journal for Today: If you’ve been following what I’ve posted the last few days, led by my use of Chuck Swindoll’s devotional book, Great Days with the Great Lives, the focus has been on Paul’s model and Christlike attitudes of joy, contentment, and determination in the face of dire circumstances (i.e., imprisonment and threat of death). And obviously it flushes out a self examination (like Paul himself exhorted in 2nd Cor. 13: 5). We’ll get back to that in moment.

But today we focus on Paul’s attitude of thanksgiving so that we can look at whether we can have an attitude of gratitude in the face of pain or trials. And again, Paul shines the light of a Christlike model when it comes to thankgiving; and we can also read about it in another of his prison epistles (see Col. 4: 2 - 4) where he wrote, "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; 3 meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, 4 that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. " Note how, in this passage, Paul requests prayer so that he can, with a thankful attitude, speak the Gospel clearly and powerfully to others. That was also his exhortation to the Philippians in Phil. 4: 6 - 7 [as I hope you have memorized that powerful passage].

Here was Paul, thinking that he could die any day during his imprisonment; and yet, he had a thankful heart for the love of other Christians whom he knew were praying for him and for his opportunity to share the truth of Christ with others [yes, even in prison]. So, let’s return to the self exam. How are we doing when it comes to an attitude of thankfulness in the face of ... well, you fill in the blank here with any test, trial, or trouble you’re facing or have faced? Does the light of gratitude shine through from us to others.

And Swindoll turns the spotlight directly on us in his devotional for today, asking several questions about our attitudes, remembering that God’s word, from the Apostle Paul, has charged us to have attitudes like that of Christ (see Phil. 2: 5). Let me quote these questions from Swindoll today for you to join me in doing a pop quiz for ourselves. Quoting C. Swindoll:

>>> Are you making a difference in the lives of those closest to you by the way you respond to your circumnstances?

>>> Are others impacted by your faith, or are they discouraged by your fears?

>>> Are the attitudes of unselfish humility, joyful acceptance, strong determination, and genuine thanksgiving evident in the way you’re dealing with life?

Personally, my friends, I’ve got a way to go after taking this “check-up from the neck up.” How about you?

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me be more like You no matter where You may lead me Amen