April, 2020 - The Text Messages

April 29, 2020

God’s Word is a Mirror

When you look into a mirror and see something out of place, what do you do about it? Assuming that you drag the comb or brush out to fix your hair, or you grab a washcloth to clean your face, or (if you’re a man) a razor to shave your whiskers or (if you’re a woman) you dab some makeup on your cheeks – why? Why, when you see something in the mirror that is out of place do you do whatever you do to correct it?

If we’re honest we might say something like “So I don’t look bad in public.” Or, “So I don’t embarrass myself.” Or, “In order to look good to my girl, my guy, my husband or my wife;” you get the point. It is that last statement which I suspect drives our desire to respond to the reflection in the mirror of God’s word. My daughter had a friend years ago in our churches youth group who gave the following answer in response to a question about why she dressed up for church, she said: “I dress like this because when I come here, I’m out on a date with God.” She valued the relationship that she had with the Lord and dressed like it. I bring that up because as I said last time, I believe that God’s word is a mirror revealing not so much what is on our faces but rather what is in our hearts and, as a Christian, it is my desire to respond to the reflection of myself that I see when I read the word of God not only in order to please and honor Him but also to represent Him well in this world.

The reality is however, that every believer will enter into eternity still working on the man or the woman in the mirror.

When we are “born again” (John 3:3), we become new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17):

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Even so, the New Testament is full of instruction like that found in (Colossians 3:8-10):

“But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him…”

My point is this: in Christ we are made righteous in a moment: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) That exchange is called justification and it happens the moment we believe in Jesus Christ – we are freely forgiven through God’s grace in Jesus Christ; the burden of our sin having been carried and borne on Christ’s cross and paid for with His blood thousands of years before you were born and applied to your life the moment you believe.

But the process of our ongoing transformation to be like Christ, will take a life time. Think about it, the habits and lifestyles which took a lifetime until we met Jesus to develop will take time to change but one thing WILL change immediately along with our standing before God. As T. W. Hunt wrote in a study called The Mind of Christ – “your want to will change.” You will have seen yourself in the mirror of God’s word and you will want to do something to improve your “appearance” as a child of God.

Such ongoing transformation is called sanctification: an ongoing purification of our souls requiring that rather than being “conformed” to the ways of the world around us (Romans 12:2), we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” Such a process requires both the mirror of God’s word and the enabling power of God’s Holy Spirit who lives within every believer (Romans 8:9) along with a daily submission to both.

April 26, 2020

My Journey – Gazing Into The Mirror Of My Soul

People consult me every day; sometimes many times a day – I always tell them the truth. What am I?

A look into the mirror may lead you to think about your younger days – good or bad; it may also lead to wonder about who you are becoming but it only reveals to your eyes who you really are today.

A mirror may take the form of reflective glass in a bathroom or hall, or a photograph or a glimpse into a placid pool of water but God has provided us a different kind of mirror, one which when honestly observed reveals more than meets the eyes in those other types – it is a mirror to your soul. That is what James, the half-brother of our Lord considered the word of God to be:

“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” (James 1:23–24)

I too have always considered the word of God to be a mirror which reveals not the outward appearance of a person but rather the inward appearance of that person and not as they wish they appeared but as they do actually appear. The problem, as James saw it, was that after people have seen themselves in God’s mirror – if they are a hearer of the word and not a doer – they just walk away and disregard what had been revealed to them. Naturally speaking, have you ever done that? As a man I have disregarded my reflection in the bathroom mirror and forgotten to shave but I dare say that a scant few women have EVER looked into the mirror after having just woken up and done nothing to alter the appearance they first saw with their waking eyes. But spiritually speaking, how often have we gazed into God’s mirror and been struck with the fact that something is spiritually out of place with us and done nothing about it?

In (Romans 7:7) Paul declared that he “would not have know sin except through the Law.” The Law of which he spoke was the law of Moses and the Levitical law given to men by God; the words of those laws revealed certain expectations of God; but Paul says that the law also revealed sin to him. The law brought his personal rebellion against God to Paul’s attention – it revealed something of his own heart to Paul.

When the Pharisees and Scribes came to the Jordan to see or else to be baptized by John the Baptist, he said to them:

“Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7)

These people did not see themselves as God did and were under wrath as is every person today who either has not looked into God’s mirror at all or has looked into it and disregarded what they saw.

When I first believed, it was from a place of conviction that I came. I knew that God had expectations of those He created and I knew that I had not lived up to them – I did not yet know that living up to God’s expectation was impossible apart from a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and the residency of His Holy Spirit within me; I learned that the day I was born again and continue to learn it today.

I say this to you today because I believe that two things are necessary or required for the salvation of a soul. First, a warning from God which produces godly sorrow and second, belief or faith in Him whom God has provided to deal with our sins as a ransom and a refuge for our souls. That warning from God will come by God’s Spirit (John 16:8–11):

“And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

and through God’s word (Acts 2:36-37):

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?””

“Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

Truly, I think it is as Oswald Chambers wrote in his book “Our Ultimate Refuge”: “Until a person is hit with sorrow, the last thing they seek God to be is their refuge.” A refuge isn’t a place a person seeks when all is well with them; refuge is sought from danger: from storms, from rain and from terror. But as soon as a person sees him or herself as God does – as a sinner and a rebel possessing no way of justifying or saving themselves, that person won’t glibly walk to Jesus – they will run to Him and by faith in Him they will be born again (John 3:3)

It starts with an honest look in the mirror and frankly, spiritual life is driven in part by returning to the mirror of God daily.

Settled in The Power of God’s Word

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)

Today, in the midst of a global pandemic and the overwhelming political use of it to accomplish certain goals and intentions against our nation and our faith, the population is stuck and divided between two positions: Some of us are in fear and some of us are angry – some are both.

Some of us are in fear – fear for our health and the health of our loved ones, neighbors and friends; fear for our economy and the future of our nation. Others are just angry – angry that some people don’t seem to be as afraid, alarmed or concerned as they are about the health risks concerning the virus and /or that those same people are refusing to heed the cry of the “experts” on the issue (either concerning the virus or the economy) OR they are angry with those leaders who have taken advantage of the crisis to advance their own socio-political and radical environmentalist agendas.

Both the fearful and the angry people have one thing in common – no peace.

Isaiah wrote that perfect peace is only available to those whose minds are stayed (fixed or centered on) God – such a person is at peace because he or she has placed their trust in God. That, “stayed mind” is the third position being expressed today because it takes into account and considers what God’s word says – what it predicts (or prophecies) and what it promises.

Consider this, in (Matthew 24) Jesus both predicts (prophesies) and promises that days like these would come. I say promises because according to (Isaiah 55:11) in which God declares:

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

Every word of God WILL come to pass!

In (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Paul speaks to a young minister about the “perilous times” to come and the kind of behavior and attitudes which will mark those days and be manifested through both false teachers and worldly men:

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

In the gospel of (Luke 17:26-30), Jesus made mention of the days prior to His return characterizing them to be like the days of Noah and Lot:

“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

Was there a great revival in those days? No – they were marked by judgment.

The people ate, drank, gave their children in marriage, they bought, sold, planted, built and they were immoral – they lived but they did NOT seek God!

Some view their political party rivals as their enemy but in (Ephesians 6:12), Paul makes it clear that “we do not wrestle (war or fight) against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

The tension we feel and the stress upon us because of the evil we see in the world may come through or by the hand of our fellow man but it originates with Satan.

The Bible tells us how to wage a spiritual war in (2 Corinthians10:3-6). First, it says that the weapons we wage war with are NOT carnal – “we do not war according to the flesh.” We don’t mock, don’t shoot, don’t slander, don’t assault – don’t let our flesh respond to the emotional and or physical stresses upon it; instead, we bear the weapons of God and wage a spiritual warfare. We prayerfully use the word of God – even if it only assails our own attitudes rather than the issues around us. We bring EVERY thought into captivity (v.5) to the obedience of Christ! Such was Paul’s warfare, so it should also be the warfare of all who have believed in Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ said in (Matthew 24:12) that “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” What love, emotional love, physical love? No, more like empathy and compassion for our fellow man will grow cold. More than that, a lack of “love for the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10) of God – to deny His truth is to reject God. When we face oppression, the flesh wants to lash out against our oppressors but as we have seen, God would not have us to respond according to the flesh. When our answer to His word is “yeah, but…” we are NOT loving His truth! I think that this is part of what the “apostasy” which Paul mentions in (2 Thessalonians 2:3) looks like – a departure from loving God and the people He created AS WELL as a rejection of His authority and truth.

Both are taking place today!

Somehow, those of us clinging to either fear or anger in response to the world around us MUST return to seeing this world and reacting to it in light of the words and promises of God rather than the carnality of our emotions.

April 19, 2020April 19, 2020

My Journey

A brother in Christ asked me recently whether I counted my past life as Paul considered his to have been in (Philippians 3:7-8) – as “loss,” “dung” (KJV), or “rubbish” (NKJV). I said to him, “yes and no,” because I believe that Paul was referring to things like his reputation, education, status among men, and even his passion or “zeal” for God prior to knowing the Lord Jesus Christ – his “confidence in his flesh” (v.3-4) when he said it; I don’t think Paul meant things like the way God was getting his attention in those days. I don’t think that Paul meant “the goads” of the Lord (Acts 9:5) including the devotion of the followers of Christ, whom Paul persecuted, as they faced death or imprisonment for faith in Jesus as Stephen did in (Acts 6:8-7:60).

Why did I say yes and no? Because although my past life was in many ways, a deplorable moral train wreck; along the way, God used some of the things from my past to get my attention.

You see, for most of my life, I have been aware of God because of those things.

As a young teenager I would sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in front of my house in the morning, while I was waiting for the bus or a ride to school – because somewhere I learned that Jesus was a Lion. I wouldn’t have called it worship because I didn’t know what that was but I was singing it to Him.

Silly, I know.

I wasn’t really ‘raised’ in church but I went to CCD as a kid – I was a kind of black sheep to the nuns who taught there, but I learned some things about Jesus there too.

Then I heard the rock opera, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” I didn’t know that it was meant to mock Jesus rather than exalt Him so, year after year as 97 Rock in Buffalo NY played the entire work on Easter Sunday, I would listen and sing the songs as an act of remembrance and one day I watched the movie by the same title. On that day, as I watched, Jesus was nailed to a cross while many stood near Him, mocking and laughing and His disciples boarded a bus leaving Him alone to die on the cross – I wept…I cried hard. I asked my mom, “Why did He die like that?” and “Why did, how could His friends leave Him there to die?” Questions that would be answered several years later, on the day I gave my life to Him who gave His for me.

Just because I was aware of God didn’t mean that I knew Him or had accurate knowledge about Him either; the fact was that I really knew very little about Him. For instance, as I grew older and my sins increased, I came to view God as a “three strikes and you’re out” kind of God. Maybe it was because what little exposure I did have to what He is like came from people who taught that you could earn your way into Heaven by doing good. On Easter Sunday morning 1988, I entered into church with the overwhelming conviction that I had sinned one too many times and after hearing a message that involved a gospel presentation when I finally learned the answer to WHY Jesus died like He did, in tears I came forward to ask Him to save my soul.

Did I come to understand Him fully in that hour? No. Did I turn from all of my sins in that hour? No.

I began a new life in Christ, in that hour. I began a journey of transformation, in that hour.

Have I had doubts about God since then? No.

Have I ever had doubts about myself and my relationship to God since then? …Yes, occasionally and especially when I forget that the only works which count for eternal life are the works that Jesus Christ did to save me.

I’m still on that journey today and I have learned a few things about myself and about God during the 32 years since my first encounter with Him on the road I had been traveling. It is from those lessons that I write in order to help those on the road to keep headed in the right direction and also in order to introduce others to the Son of God who died and rose for them like He did for me.

Over the years, the Lord has used tragedy, danger and answered prayer to draw me nearer to Him in faith but the one thing that He has consistently used to humble, refine and draw me nearer to Himself is the mirror He left for us which is His holy word.

HE IS ALIVE!!!

*Click the link to watch a short video* https://www.thetextmessages.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Hes-Still-Risen-_-An-Igniter-Original.mp4

“He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ”” (Luke 24:6–7)

They had all heard those words before – they had all heard Him say that He would rise again; but all who had followed Him, without exception, had been overwhelmed with grief over the death of their Teacher, Leader and Friend. No doubt this Saturday, the Saturday following His death – Passover on the Jewish calendar – was a day of sorrow.

Sunday morning, some of the women who had followed Him – Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women (see Luke 24:10, Matthew 28:1) were returning to the tomb where two days earlier they had seen Joseph or Arimathea and Nicodemus lay the body of Jesus to rest – they were going to anoint the body of their dead friend not to celebrate their risen Lord (Mark 16:1).

But He wasn’t there.

They thought that someone had stolen it – stolen the body of the Lord (John 20:2):

“Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.””

The disciples did not believe the report of Mary and the women (Luke 24:11):

“And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.”

Two men, Peter and John went to investigate the claim of the women for themselves and wondered after having entered His tomb at the grave cloths in which Jesus had been laid to rest – the blood stained handkerchief which had been around His head and the linen cloths stained with the some of the blood which had flowed from His side on the cross neatly “folded together in a place by themselves” (John 20:5-10). They wondered most of all that Jesus was NOT in the tomb….

But after they had departed the tomb, Mary Magdalene, who had remained there, stood by it weeping. She peered into it and was greeted by two angels who asked her: “Why are you weeping?” (John 20:11) Then she turned and as she did another figure who seemed to her to be the gardener, greeted her saying:

““Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”” (John 20:15)

Then, that gardener spoke her name, “Mary!” and she knew it was Him! He spoke only a few words to her, He told her to tell the others including Peter, who had denied that He knew the Lord, to meet Him at the place in Galilee which he had mentioned to them before (see Mark 16:7).

In excitement she ran to declare the news to the disciples – she had seen the Lord – He is ALIVE!!!

April 10, 2020April 10, 2020

Friday’s Only “Good” Because of Sunday

“What’s so good about Friday” asked the voice over the two way radio; the demands of an understaffed and overwhelming night shift had exasperated the man to the point of asking a question that I could not ignore.

So, what makes this particular Friday – good?

My honest answer and the answer of the scriptures is – nothing….nothings good about it….IF Sunday hadn’t come.

Let me ask you, if death had gotten the last word in Jesus’ life would there be any basis for our faith?

The answer comes from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth where we read the following [1 Cor. 15:12-19] :

“Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

Paul’s answer to our question is “No, there would be no basis for our faith at all if Jesus had not risen.”

The Passion Week as Jesus went through it was the conclusion of the Lord’s mission on earth, the fulfillment of His obsession with the work of His Father to redeem mankind. The Passion Week is, above all other descriptors –the week of Jesus’ most incredible suffering and cruelest torture as our substitute, in our place, paying the price for the sins of all mankind.

At His crucifixion, Jesus Christ was dishonored and humiliated, a fact which led one modern church historian, the late Dr. Bruce Shelly to make this statement:

“Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event, the humiliation of its God.”

With His own blood mixed with the spit of His torturers clinging to and dripping from His face, falsely accused and mockingly adjudicated by the religious leadership of the day, Jesus was nailed to and hung from the cross to pay for the sins of mankind – yours, mine and everyone else”s.

The Apostle Paul said in (Colossians 2:14) that God in Christ had “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.N

The “handwriting of requirements which were against us God nailed to the cross of Christ” was the Law of Moses, both the ceremonial and the moral code. One commentator wrote:

“Three expressions describe the law: (1) it is written in ordinances, expressed in decrees and commandments; (2) it was against us, had a valid claim on us; (3) it was contrary to us, because we couldn’t meet the claim. Paul states that bond was: (1) blotted out; (2) taken out of the way; (3) and nailed to His cross. This was once-for-all removal (2 Cor 5:21; Eph 2:15–16; Gal 3:13). In the East, a bond is cancelled by nailing it to the post. Our bond of guilt was nailed to Christ’s cross.”^[i]

In a very real sense Jesus became not only the perfect and final Passover lamb but the perfect scapegoat and sin offering to God, slain to atone perfectly for our sin (Heb. 9:12) “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” You and I once stood as debtors condemned under the Law of Moses – the Ten Commandments but Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses (Matt. 5:17) liberating us from condemnation and cancelling the debt against us.

The Psalmist wrote in (Psalm 30:5)

“For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.”

What’s so good about Friday? The supervisor who asked that question has, no doubt, long forgotten the answer I gave which resulted in a memorable silence on the usually crowded radio frequency. But I told him what I’m telling you: Friday is “good” because it was on that day that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and on Sunday, He arose from the grave alive again!

Apart from the resurrection, the Lord’s death would have been a painful moment of grief and loss for a handful of men and women who had loved and trusted in Him but because He did not remain dead – because He rose again both His death and His resurrection have impacted the lives of millions upon millions over the ages.

God has placed great significance upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ – He has seen to it that it is written (Romans 10:9-10):

“…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Apart from faith in the Risen Savior and His resurrection – you cannot be saved.

Death did not have the last word in our Savior’s life and I for one rejoice in that fact. The question is, will it have the last word in your life? It doesn’t have to…you don’t have to die in your sins; you don’t have to face God’s judgment alone. Jesus died for your sins as well as mine and he rose again to make everlasting life possible for you in Heaven with Him – all that is required of you to start off is faith.

Joy awaits – will you trust Him today?

^[i] Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (pp. 2461–2462). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

April 8, 2020April 4, 2020

A Light in the Darkness – Sharing the Things Which Make Peace with God Possible

Our celebration concerning the resurrection of Christ, like the ancient Jewish celebration of Passover has certainly changed over the generations since Jesus rose from the grave. In years past, the occasion has been marked by much tradition – sunrise services, special attire (bows, dresses and suits) along with the more secular aspects of the day – Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets full of chocolates and other seasonal candies as well as family get-togethers; but this year it will be different.

This year it will be like the first Passover in this one way: we will all be “staying safe and sheltering in place.” Just like the Israelites in Egyptian captivity, shut in their homes awaiting the deliverance of God from a plague He was using to set His people free (see Exodus 12:13), we will be shut in our homes awaiting deliverance from a plague as well. For those of us who have believed in the resurrected Lord, the passion week, including Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday will be a time to reflect on the salvation made available to us through the suffering, death and resurrection of our Savior – a time to consider the things which made for our peace.

This year, we will not be able to rely on our pastors and special “in house” church services to share the important message of this season with people who would otherwise not come to church. Even if some church doors ARE open, it is doubtful but that a few of the faithful will attend; the unbelieving, because of the pandemic will most likely stay home as ordered. Now it is up to you (as it really always has been) to share either from across the yard, over the phone, through an email or by a text message – the importance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and that what He did, He did for your neighbor too (good or bad); now is the time to let your light shine in the darkness. Perhaps you could start by asking them this simple question:

“What does Easter mean to you?” After giving them time to respond, you might tell them that it made peace with God possible for you and then ask them, “Do you know the things that have been done on your behalf to make peace between you and God?”

You could then tell them what Isaiah the prophet said of Jesus over seven hundred years before Jesus did those things:

“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. “For the Lord God will help Me; therefore, I will not be disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.” [Isa. 50:4-7]

Plucked beard, beaten back, spit covered face…this is only part of the price that was paid for your peace with God. Jesus Christ, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, weeping as He went, was coming there to die on an instrument of torture…for you. He wept not at the apparent futility of His sacrifice nor in fear of His imminent suffering and death. His tears fell with understanding – He knew what His people (the Israelites) would have to suffer in the future because of their present rejection of His gracious sacrifice (see Luke 19:43-44); likewise, He knows what you will have to suffer for your rejection as well.

Amid the noise of the crowd upon the celebration of the Passover, one Man riding on the foal of a donkey entered into Jerusalem with tears in His eyes – His face was set like flint; His destination: the cross of Golgotha there to fulfill His Father’s will in making peace possible to all who will allow Him to apply His blood to their lives. This is the passion of the Christ – He loved His Father so much as to die at His command for us:

“Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)

“…He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5–6)

Point them to Him “… who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

It was God’s plan and will that His Son should come and die in our place and for our sins to make redemption from God and peace with God possible for ALL who would believe in Jesus Christ.

Ask them, “Now that you know the things that made for your peace………will you receive it?”

April 6, 2020April 4, 2020

Considering Things Which Made Peace with God Possible (part 2)

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, tears streaming down His cheek He considered both the first Passover as well as the reason He was there that day. I believe that He remembered “the things that made for the peoples peace” when they were in bondage in Egypt – two things then made for their peace:

…God’s hand and sanctified blood

“Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying…” (Exodus 12:1)

“‘… I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12–13)

As Jesus rode in to the city of Jerusalem, the place where God said he would place His name (2 Kings 21:4), and the place, which after having been renewed one day in a distant future, God will dwell with men face to face (Rev.21:2); He wept because He saw that just as the people had seemed to have forgotten what God had done to deliver them on the actual day of Passover they also did not recognize the things which God was doing in the moment of Christ’s “triumphal entrance” into the city to make peace with God possible for them.

You see, just as in the first Passover, two things were about to work together again for the peace of God’s chosen people:

…God’s hand and sanctified blood.

When we talk about God’s hand we should understand that we’re speaking of God’s strength – He delivered Israel from Egypt by His strong and mighty arm:

“Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” (Exodus 6:6)

He brought the plagues upon Egypt and later in His continuing act of deliverance toward His people He would part the waters of the sea and enable the people to cross the sea bottom as if on dry land.

So, let me ask you something…was there power in the blood of the Passover lamb?

“No.” No there was no power in the blood of the Passover lamb; it’s blood, painted on the lintel and posts of the door (Ex. 12:22) was symbolic of the obedience of those who put it there according to God’s command. There was no power to save in that blood but when God saw the blood, recognizing and honoring both the peoples obedience and His own promise, He spared them from the destroyer (see Exodus 12:23) covering their door Himself. The lamb’s blood was sanctified by God but the power to save was His alone…

…in Jesus Christ both God’s hand and sanctified blood are present.

Jesus is the power of God – today He not only sits at God’s right hand but is in fact God’s right hand man – He is the strength of God and unlike the blood of the Passover lamb Jesus’ blood has power – power to do more than cover one’s sins it cleanses us from sin (1 John 1:7) and removes sins penalty (Ephesians 1:7), power to give one a right standing before God, power to deliver one from death…Jesus’ blood has power. Here’s the thing, the Bible states that “… according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22). In order for the power of Jesus’ blood to be effective in our lives to grant us forgiveness and bring us to peace it had to be shed.

Jesus wept not only because He was about to give His life for the peace and deliverance of his people and they neither knew it nor cared; He also wept because He knew the price that all who reject Him will pay.

It was by God’s hand and sanctified blood that His grace and forgiveness is ours today. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…” (Ephesians 2:8), praise Him for “His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)

April 5, 2020April 4, 2020

Considering Things Which Made Peace with God Possible (part 1)

“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41–42)

Amid the shouts of glad hosanna’s and the celebrations of those who had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to keep the Passover there rode into the city a Man on the foal of a donkey. The Man wore no crown and carried no scepter; He did not wave at the crowd as one might do in a parade; even so the people laid palm branches and robes (John 12:13; Luke 19:36) in the path of the animal upon which He rode to honor Him…

…this man was Jesus.

As he rode, the Bible tells us that the whole multitude of them who were following Him shouted “hosanna to the Son of David” and “blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” The things they were saying and the praise they were lifting up were due to the things which they had seen this man do, for in their sight He had most recently raised the dead man Lazarus back to life with a word (John 11:43). In the weeks and months which had led up to that moment, they had seen Him heal the sick and cast out demons; they saw Him feed huge multitudes of people – thousands of men, women and children – with supplies that appeared to be not nearly enough at first. They heard Him teach, they saw Him live, they believed that He was the Son of God and they believed that He was to be their conquering king; the One who would set them free from the captivity of Rome; thus they celebrated the Man on the donkey making a Passover pilgrimage into a parade.

But the Man on the donkey did not celebrate; He did not ride with His hands clenched together over His head as if to say “look, I’m the champion, the winner, the King!” As Jesus rode into Jerusalem at the beginning of the celebration of the most important holy day in Israel – the Passover; He remembered the things which had made for the peoples peace as they struggled under the heavy hand of bondage in Egypt…He was there.

I wonder….did they remember?

Truly they couldn’t possibly have remembered, they were not there; and as is so often the case, with every subsequent generation more and more was lost of the significance of that Holy day until it became nothing more than a day of coming together and partying. Sure the rules of keeping the Passover were observed, no work on that day, the ritual slaying of a year old lamb and the consumption of that meat with bitter herbs and unleavened bread; there was the religious ritual but it was, I expect, not the holy convocation that God intended for it to be since the only one weeping that day was the Man on the donkey colt…

…the man Jesus Christ.

On that occasion, Jesus was coming to establish a different kind of Passover, one for which He was the sacrificial Lamb whose blood was to be shed for the forgiveness of sins not just of the Israelites, though it seems clear that if they had believed in Him at that moment none of us would ever have tasted of His grace (see Romans 11:25), but for you and I as well.

As we come to the week of His passion – the week when He suffered humiliation and death for our sake it would be good to reflect during the next several days over the purpose of His coming and the price He paid for our salvation and worship Him for His sacrifice.

Join me tomorrow for further reflection…