Daily Devotionals: Wil Pounds, Section B - In Search Of A Better Tomorrow

Daily Devotional: Abundant Life

Abundant life as Jesus described it is the life of God Himself.

God places the new spiritual life within the individual the moment he responds to God’s grace and believes on Christ as his personal Savior.

That is the beginning of a new life for one who was spiritually dead in trespasses and sins.

Jesus said, “I am come that you may have life, and keep on having it in abundance” (John 10:10b). The abundant life is a growing thing. It is the increasingly abundant present life of the believer that is emphasized.

God plants His life in the person who hears the Word of God and believes. The born again believer increasingly enters into the experience of the new spiritual life by believing and yielding to Christ. It is like a spring of water that perpetually springs up in an abundant flow from resources deep within. The Christian is to live in an abundant way of life now.

Are you living in God’s abundance? You can be a Christian and miss the abundant life. God invites you to enter into it increasingly as you trust in Jesus to change your life daily.

This overflowing life is Christ living His life out in you as you make yourself available to Him and trust Him to new areas of spiritual growth.

As the believer yields to the Holy Spirit he realizes that God’s grace and power is sufficient for every genuine need in our lives. The life of abundance comes from this awareness that nothing can suppress God’s grace.

Salvation in Jesus Christ is not a fire insurance policy. It is life—God’s kind of life—given to everyone who believes on Christ. It begins in the moment of spiritual birth, or regeneration. We have the privilege of participating in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). What began in the spiritual birth will go on forever. It is eternal and indestructible because God is. Instead of a static life, our new relationship with God is continually entering into that life that possesses all the qualities of God. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).

If “eternal life” could be lost, renounced or taken away from us it would not be eternal. It would be as temporal as our physical life. It would not be the eternal life that God gives.

God is sovereign and He is eternal. Therefore, His gifts cannot be withdrawn. Since He has given us eternal life, that life is eternal life. We have confidence that we shall be glorified with our Lord.

Have you entered into that great love and provision of God? When you do your face will shine and your heart will be full of joy because of the indwelling of Christ.

If we will allow Him to lead us to the fullness of the Christian life we will find our table in His presence prepared, our heads anointed with His pure oil, and our cups overflowing with His wine of joy.

We will know God’s love and abundance not only for today, but for eternity.

The abundant life assures us that we can experience God’s blessings in this life and heaven, too. We can enter into the fullness of our great salvation today, and we will experience God’s goodness forever.

Philippians 4:19 says, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” The person who enters into this new, abundant life in Christ shall not lack any good thing.

Have you entered into the perfect peace of knowing that God is equal to every emergency and crisis you face? Have you experienced the fullness of His presence in you everyday life experiences? Do you allow Him to break in upon your awareness anytime He so chooses throughout the day?

The life He gives is overflowing in rising waves of a spiritual tide. It is like a river overflowing its banks in which nothing can suppress it. God’s favor toward us is unending because He gives a genuine unending supply.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Absolute Truth

Josh McDowell said recently that most evangelical Christian youth in the United States no longer believe in “absolute truth.”

“In 1991, 52 percent of our born again church kids said there is no absolute truth. In 1994, 62 percent said there is no absolute truth. In 1999, 78 percent of born again church kids said there is no absolute truth. In 2002, 91 percent of our born again church kids said there is no absolute truth.”

The cause of this problem is the influence of secular education and secular media since the 1960’s. This adverse effect upon moral authority is also reflected in the beliefs and attitudes of these teens’ parents.

Until recent years, Christians throughout history accepted the classic evangelical doctrine of the absolute authority of God’s Word. The Bible is the Word of God, and it is infallible and inerrant.

Jesus taught the authority and complete reliability of the Bible in everything it teaches. Whether our generation accepts or rejects it or not, the Bible is still God’s Word and is inerrant in whatever it teaches.

Jesus affirmed the Bible’s total inspiration, inerrancy, and utter indestructibility when he said, “The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

There are teachers in our day who foolishly play Jesus against the inspiration and infallibility of the Word of God. The Bible is about Jesus and demonstrates that He is its fulfillment. Jesus perfectly fulfills the Law and the Prophets. They point to Him, and He is their fulfillment (Luke 24:25-27, 44-47). Jesus fulfilled the moral laws by His obedience, the prophesies by specific events in His life, and the sacrificial system by His own substitutionary once for all atoning death on the cross.

When people reject the unique, divine character of the Bible, they reject its authority, too. God stands behind His Word.

For the last half century, the church has bought into the world system of beliefs instead of the divine authority of the Word of God.

Second Peter 1:21 tells us the men whom the Holy Spirit chose to record the Scriptures were carried or born along with their writings to produce the words that God intended to be recorded. The word in the original text meaning to be carried, or borne along was used of a ship carried along by the wind (Acts 27:15, 17). Here it is a metaphor that the prophets raised their sails and the Holy Spirit filled them and carried their craft along in the direction He wished. Men spoke; God spoke. These men wrote as men, but as men moved by the Holy Spirit. “No prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” Men wrote but God the Holy Spirit was the inspiration of the writings. The men used their literary style, vocabulary, and personality, but the Holy Spirit guided them in the final choice of the words and guaranteed the accuracy of the original manuscripts.

We need have no reserve in regard to the Word of God, recognizing its full authority. Second Timothy 3:16 tells us the Scriptures are “God-breathed,” “breathed into by God,” hence inspired. Holy men spoke and wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This was the unanimous view of the early church.

John Calvin wrote, “This is the principle that distinguishes our religion from all others, that we know that God has spoken to us and are fully convinced that the prophets did not speak of themselves but as organs of the Holy Spirit uttered only that which they had been commissioned from heaven to declare – all those who wish to profit from the Scriptures must first accept this as a settled principle, that the law and the prophets are not teachings handed on at pleasure of men or produced by men’s minds as their source, but are dictated by the Holy Spirit. We owe to the Scriptures the same reverence as we owe to God, since it has its only source in Him and has nothing of human origin mixed with it” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, Vol. 10, p. 330).

John Wesley said, “In all cases, the church is to be judged by the Scriptures not the Scriptures by the church.” The Bible is still the supreme authority for the Christians in all matters. It is not what we think Jesus would do or how we feel He would interpret the Scriptures, but “Thus says the Lord.”

In their original from, the books of the Bible are free from factual error, and they possess absolute, binding authority. “If the Bible is inspired at all, it must be inspired verbally. And verbal inspiration means infallibility.” “Is not My word like fire? And like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces” (Jeremiah 23:29). God has spoken infallibility in His book.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Abide in the Holy Spirit

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come the disciples realized why Jesus ascended up into heaven. He left them in order that He might be with each one of them in a more intimate relationship.

The Holy Spirit came to fulfill the ministry of Jesus Christ. “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly,” Jesus said (John 10:10b). He indwells so that He can reproduce the character and likeness of Jesus Christ within the born again believer. He continues to do and teach all that Jesus began to do and teach when He was here on the earth (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13-17).

He longs for us to respond to His love and make ourselves available to Him to live His life in and through us (1 Cor. 3:16-17).

What does the Spirit find in the temple of our body? Too often the temple looks like a desecrated shrine, unkempt, unclean, perhaps even defiled.

We grieve Him, and quench His fiery presence by our attitudes and behaviors. The Holy Spirit is always ready to use us, and longs to make us His instruments of grace and mercy to a lost world. How tragic when we deny Him His rightful place in our hearts?

We have each learned again and again that our God is the God of a second chance. How grateful we are that He “will restore the years the locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). “This is the everlasting mercy,” says Fitch. “He gave us another chance of doing what we have failed to do” (p. 125).

We abide in Him as we die daily to self-love and reckon to be dead unto sin and alive to God.

Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

We usually treat ourselves as if we are the only ones of significant value, the most important person in the world. Instead of Jesus being our most valued person, we make ourselves the priority. Jesus said we must die to self-love and make Him our first love.

The apostle Paul applied this great truth to the believer when he wrote, “Even so consider [be constantly counting upon the fact, reckon] yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

As we daily die to sin and self and reckon upon Jesus we abide in Him. This is the vital ministry of the Hoy Spirit in our daily lives. This is an important aspect of our spiritual growth.

God is with us and in us by the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to make ourselves available to Him. He will take us and cleanse us and use us to fulfill His eternal purpose in and through us.

The Holy Spirit has come to fulfill the ministry of Jesus Christ. He does that in those individuals who have believed on Christ and who make themselves available to the Spirit without reserve. Allow the Spirit of holiness the freedom to apply the blood of Jesus to keep on cleansing us daily, moment by moment from all sin. Permit Him to apply it to your conscience daily and serve the Lord with the fullness of His Spirit. We walk in the light with Him and abide in His presence, as we allow the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin. As a result the Holy Spirit strengthens our conscience and deepens our faith in Christ. In doing so we give Him the freedom to use us to His glory.

When we are cleansed and restored daily we keep short agendas with God and the Spirit keeps our hearts tender to the slightest whisper of His will. The Holy Spirit gives us a sensitivity to the disquiet when we are tempted to sin or not walk by faith. He makes us hate sin as God hates sin, and realize that sin breaks our fellowship with God. As Charles Wesley wrote, “Ah give me, Lord, the tender heart that trembles at the approach of sin.” And may He constantly remind us that the only way to restoration of that abiding fellowship is the cleansing blood of Jesus.

Keep your heart tender toward Him and He will abide in you and you in Him.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Are You the Christ, the Son of God?

Are You the Christ, the Son of God?

At the Jewish trial of Jesus, the high priest Caiaphas found himself in a dilemma. He was losing his case before the Roman governor Pilate. The evidence did not add up. The false witnesses did not agree with one another (Mark 14:59; Matt. 26:59-62).

The star witness did not show. According to Jewish law, Judas who arranged for the arrest of the offender had to be the person to make the formal legal accusation. Because Judas realized he had betrayed innocent blood he did not arrive at the hastily arranged trials and the Sanhedrine lost valuable time trying to come up with witnesses to sustain their accusations. By not being at the trial Judas was actually testifying the opposite that Jesus was innocent.

Pilate, knowing Jesus was innocent tried to set Him free.

Jesus had remained silent before His accusers, and this astonished Pilate, and frustrated the high priest.

Suddenly in desperation Caiaphas turned on Jesus and demanded, “I charge You under oath by the living God that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matthew 26:63).

The form of the question put to Jesus was brilliant. If Caiaphas had asked if Jesus were the Messiah, it would not have been a capital offense.

Furthermore, concerning the question of being the Son of God Jesus earlier had quoted Psalm 82:6, “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.” In the context God was calling the Jewish judges “gods,” therefore they could not accuse Him of blasphemy for calling Himself God’s Son. God was not speaking of a divine nature in man when He called them “gods” (Ex. 21:6; 22:8). Moreover, they called themselves “gods” because they were created in the image and likeness of God, and were His representatives. The point Jesus was making was if God calls human judges “gods” then why should they stone Him? He proved to the Jews that when He calls Himself the Son of God, He did not blaspheme God (Jn. 10:34-36). His whole life is done in the perfect will of the Father. Jesus uses the Psalm to contrast His divine sonship, prior to time, with theirs which began only in the present time.

However, the high priest so phrased his calculating question in such a way that He would have to respond to it. “I adjure You by the living God,” he asked Jesus, “that you tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

How did he know to ask that question? Judas had instructed him.

Now if Jesus answered, “Yes” to the statement it would be blasphemy to His accusers.

Jesus spoke up for the first time in the proceedings saying, “You have said it yourself” (Matt. 26:64). This is an affirmative reply in the original language. “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied (NIV). “Plainly, I am” (Mk. 14:62).

Then Jesus quoted the Old Testament prophet Daniel to give evidence to the declaration. “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heavens” (Matt. 26:64).

Jesus clarified for His judges the kind of Messiah and Son of God He was by quoting Daniel 7:13-14. “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”

Caiaphas got more than he wanted. He got a conviction from the lips of the accused, but he also got the powerful evidence that will one day convict Him before God’s great throne of justice. The day will come when Jesus will be the Judge of Caiaphas.

Jesus quoted a passage that will be fulfilled at His Second Coming (Matt. 24:30; 25:31; Rev. 11:15; Psa. 2:6-9; Phil. 2:11). The Son of Man will establish “an everlasting dominion.” His kingdom will never be conquered and will never come to an end. He will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords for all eternity (Matt. 24:30; Mk. 13:26; 14:62; Lk. 21:27; Rev. 1:7, 13; 14:14).

“The high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’ ‘He is worthy of death,’ they answered” (Matt. 26:65-55).

The judges came to the right conclusion, but the wrong judgment. According to the testimony of the Jewish Scriptures Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of God.” But the judges refused to personally believe the evidence before them. They remained in their stubborn, willful unbelief. They were blind spiritually and dead in their trespasses and sins. A dark veil remained over their minds.

Jesus is the only legitimate Jewish Messiah. He is the King of righteousness (Isa. 32:1-10; Jer. 23:5-8; 30:8-9; 33:14-18); the Divine servant of Yahweh (Isa. 52:13-15); born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14; Lk. 1:26-30; Matt. 1:24-25); in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Lk. 2:1-7); from the royal line of King David (2 Sam. 7:12-16; Isa. 11:1-23; Matt. 1:1-16; Lk. 3:23-37); performed the works of righteousness (Isa. 61:1-2; Lk. 4:16-21; Matt. 11:1-6); the coming Messiah Prince (Dan. 2, 7, 9, 12); entered Jerusalem as a king (Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:1-11); betrayed by a friend (Psa. 41:9; Matt. 26:14-15; 27:3-8); the precious fountain opened (Zech. 13:1-7); the Messenger of the Covenant (Mal. 3:1); the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:1), etc.

Jesus Christ is the only unique Son of God (Psa. 2:7; Isa. 9:6; 7:14; John 3:16). He is God with us (Isa. 7:14; John 1:14, 18; Lk. 1:35; Rev. 21:3; John 20:31). He is the child with many names (Isa. 9:1-6), and our blessed hope (11:1-12).

“Why do we need any more witnesses? . . . What do you think?” We, too, are in the same position as Caiaphas and his friends. What will you decide to do with Jesus based upon the facts from God’s Word? Just like Caiaphas your decision will determine your eternal destiny.

For a more detailed study of these great evidences in Scriptures, please go to our studies on Christ in the Old Testament.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Appropriating Christ Daily

Appropriating Christ Daily

Just as it was the supreme mission of Jesus to give eternal life, so it is the supreme responsibility of the believer to appropriate that life.

God contemplates the believer even now in the image of Christ. We can rejoice as those who are already justified.

Our pardon is full and it is secure. God put the terms of salvation so high that we could never measure up to them, and therefore has saved us by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Therefore, the “title-deed” to our salvation is so high that we can never void it because “we are hidden with Christ in God.” God keeps the original copy of His eternal covenant with us in heaven with Himself. The Lord Jesus’ atoning sacrifice is our only reason for acceptance with God. Nothing can remove us from our standing with Him because the righteousness of Christ is upon us by our vital union with Him.

Our imputed righteousness is still in Christ, and not in us, even when we are made partakers of the benefit of it.

When we are in Christ we can look back upon our lives and see that everything in time past of our unregenerate lives ended at the cross. Moreover, we look at our lives since we believed on Christ as our Savior and see it in the risen Christ in a fresh new perfect blessing in eternal life.

All that we are and all that we need to live the Christian life are found in Christ and His perfect provision for us.

In Christ our perfect righteousness we see all that we shall become when He is finished with us. Being in Christ is the greatest motive for living a pure life. When we realize who we are in Christ we want to become that in practice.

Our justification pledges a holy life just as truly as it pledges eternal life on the part of Him who gives it to us. The apostle Paul wrote, “He also did predestinate us to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29).

Low views of both justification and sanctification will produce low advancement in the likeness of Christ, whereas high views of justification and sanctification will produce a high level of motivation to grow in His image and likeness.

Evidence of a vital union with the Lord is found in the constant flowing into us of the life that is in Him and the death which He died.

How is that possible? Communion with Christ in our daily life ought to make us holy in practice. There is no escaping the words of Jesus, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” We die to sin and are alive to the new life in Christ.

Our faith rests upon Christ. With every assault upon the soul we hear the Spirit of God whispering the words of the Father into our spiritual ear, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The blood of Jesus Christ alone answers every accusation against us. My soul responds in faith saying, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.”

We appropriate God’s perfect provision for the present life in Christ and our eternal life in the future by trusting Him. In response to His love toward us we obey His word. “If you abide in Me you will keep My commandments.” Any obedience problem is truly a love problem.

Christ is received into the soul as we feed upon Him. There is a repeated partaking of the One who is and gives eternal life. We grow from life to life in the new person in Christ and we grow from death to death in the dying of the old self. We are to “put on” Christ, and “take off” the old self. Because we have been clothed in His righteousness we want to become like Him in our daily practice.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Anointed Preaching

Preaching is preaching only when the messenger is anointed with the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Paul tells how he arrived in the city of Corinth not dependent upon self-assurance, self-assertiveness, or a powerful personality, “but in demonstration of the Spirit and power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). In fact, Paul stresses the contrasting difference, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (vv. 2-5).

Only the anointing of the Holy Spirit can make great preaching. Paul was concerned that nothing distract from the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We live in a day that puts much of the emphasis on the attractiveness of the clever mind and entertainment.

Lloyd-Jones was a prophet when he wrote in Preaching and Preachers, that we take “so much time in producing atmosphere that there is no time for preaching in the atmosphere!” The church has turned to entertainment “as she has turned her back upon preaching.” The first century preachers “refused to pander to the tastes of their listeners.” They did just the opposite by admonishing, warning, rebuking, and reproving their listeners.

Over and over again in the book of Acts we are told of the preachers “being filled with the Holy Spirit.” They proclaimed their message as the Holy Spirit enabled them. Their message and deliverance were under the control of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit had baptized them when they first believed, and they had been filled on many occasions since then. One baptism, many fillings is still a Biblical truth for every preacher.

Biblical preaching is still the greatest instrument the church possesses. Every preacher should ask himself, “Do I have the anointing?” And “if not, why not?” Unless we have the sweet anointing of God’s Spirit we cannot bring the message of the Gospel with authority and power. “Am I anointed by the Holy Spirit?”

When we come with the holy anointing we will be as John the Baptist saying, “I must decrease; He just increase.” “I am a voice,” and nothing else.

How do we know when we have the anointing? The apostle Paul said, “Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance” (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Who gives the assurance and the power? Only the Holy Spirit can do that.

But it is not just the preacher who needs to be under the control of the Holy Spirit. His desire is to fill ordinary people with extraordinary power. Every anointed preacher longs to have anointed listeners!

We need the continuous infilling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Men will listen to what we speak, souls will be saved, and saints edified when we are “filled by the Holy Spirit.”

“It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21), and it still does.

The anointed preaching God uses is preaching that is centered in the Bible. It let’s the Bible tell its own eternal message. On the road to Emmaus the resurrected Jesus explained to two disciples that He was found in “all the Scriptures.” Thus Biblical preaching is Christ-centered. Since the sermon is biblical, and the Bible is Christ-centered, then a biblical sermon is filled with Jesus Christ. Because Christianity is Christ, all anointed preaching is centered on the person and atoning work of Jesus Christ (John 15:26; 16:14). The Spirit of God is at work whenever and wherever men are being pointed to Jesus Christ. Anointed preaching declares that God sent Jesus to die for our sins and calls men and women to turn and put their faith in Him for salvation (1 Cor. 15:3-6). We need bold, biblical, Christ-centered preaching in our day. That is anointed preaching.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Always in Abundant Supply

Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to meet our every need, but if He is going to meet our needs we must be wiling to recognize our needs and call upon Him. There must be a turning to Him for help. He can supply every spiritual need we face in life if we respond to His abiding presence.

At the feeding of the five thousand Jesus provided food in abundance, and it is always that way with God (Matt. 14:15-21; Mk. 6:33-44; Lk. 9:12-17; Jn. 6:1-15). The interesting thing is Jesus initiated the feeding of the people. He knew in advance that He was going to meet their need. He was interested in their welfare. He was able to do it.

What is your attitude toward being fed by God? Do you feed upon Him?

God never ceases granting our petitions until we cease asking. True, He does not always answer the way we would choose, but it is always with our very best in His mind. I thank God that He has not always granted my requests from my selfish, ignorant perspective. He often says no, in order to give me His very best.

Jesus is ever coming to bankrupt sinners and placing His hand on the bank draft of heaven and says to us, “Write on it what you need.”

We have so little faith in things unseen and eternal. We draw so little on the resources of our heavenly Intercessor. “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory.”

Have you humbly asked God to supply your needs from His all-sufficiency? He is able. Jesus tells us He is always willing to fill our empty buckets.

The wise person recognizes his need and asks God to meet every need as it arises.

God has not forgotten where you are. He is fully aware of your need and He is vitally concerned about your Christian life. He will supply all your need according to His abundant resources in accordance with His eternal purpose.

How do the circumstances of your life fit into His will? Is He not committed to your very best? Does He not see the full span of your life and your current life situation?

Has God forgotten you? Indeed not.

He does not base His giving on our merits, yet He invites us to come to Him again and again. His abundant supply never runs out.

“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Always in Abundant Supply

What is your attitude toward being fed by God? Do you feed upon Him?

Jesus is ever coming to bankrupt sinners and placing His hand on the bank draft of heaven and says to us, “Write on it what you need.”

We have so little faith in things unseen and eternal. We draw so little on the resources of our heavenly Intercessor. “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory.”

Have you humbly asked God to supply your needs from His all-sufficiency? He is able. Jesus tells us He is always willing to fill our empty buckets.

The wise person recognizes his need and asks God to meet every need as it arises.

How do the circumstances of your life fit into His will? Is He not committed to your very best? Does He not see the full span of your life and your current life situation?

Has God forgotten you? Indeed not.

He does not base His giving on our merits, yet He invites us to come to Him again and again. His abundant supply never runs out.

“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Selah!

Daily Devotional: All Things for and Through God

Old Bishop John Ryle said truthfully: “It is not open sin, or open unbelief, which robs Christ of His professing servants, so much as the love of the world, the fear of the world, the cares of the world, the business of the world, the money of the world, the pleasures of the world, and the desire to keep in touch with the world. This is the great rock on which thousands of young people are continually making shipwreck. They do not object to any article of the Christian faith. They do not deliberately choose evil and openly rebel against God. They hope somehow to get to heaven at last, and they think it proper to have some religion. But they cannot give up their idol: they must have the world. And so after running well and bidding fair for heaven while boys and girls, they turn aside when they become men and women and go down the broad way which leads to destruction. They begin with Abraham and Moses and end with Demas and Lot’s wife.”

What a contrast with the life of Christ who lived to please the Father alone. Man was created to bring “glory, honor and power” to the LORD God. “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Hebrews 2:10 reads, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.” God created you and me for the purpose of showing forth His glory. God is the cause of every object in nature and its only reason for existence is that the grace and power of God may be seen through it. Everything finds its reason and justification in its relationship to Him. He is the final and efficient Cause of all things. It is for His sake that the whole universe exists. All things in the universe exists for God’s glory.

Instead of all things being “for Him” and “through Him” man rebelled against the Creator and chose to reign for self and through self. History has demonstrated that this self-centered life ends in vanity for the individual and dishonor to God’s eternal purpose.

Jesus Christ came to redeem man from his self-centered life, and to bring us back to a right relationship with God that we may serve Him “for whom are all things and through whom are all things.” The Creator is also the Redeemer. God’s plan was to bring “many sons to glory,” i.e., to bring many to a saving relationship with Himself through the atoning work of His Son, Jesus Christ who is the Leader in bringing “many sons” to God.

Jesus lived His life on this earth absolutely and entirely for His Father in heaven. He says to us, “All things are for My Father.” His commitment was absolute. His blessedness and everlasting glory are found in living wholly for the Father.

“Through whom are all things” was also true of Jesus. He declared that He could do nothing of Himself because He did only that which the Father showed Him and said to Him. “But He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.’ . . . Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. . . I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me’” (John 5:17, 19, 30). Jesus counted it all joy to do everything in total dependence upon His Father. It was “all things through God.” He did not do anything of Himself, but in continual dependence waiting on the Father working in Him.

The great truth of the Christian life is “all for God,” and “all through God.” The more intimate is our daily walk with the Father, the more we will love and please Him.

“All for God” without exception for a moment, a thought, a word, a promise, a person, a passion, or a possession is the goal of believer. This is the manner in which we please Him perfectly.

“All through God” is the only way we can live a life pleasing to Him. The clearer we focus on doing everything for God the greater is our sense of utter frustration and impotence because you and I cannot do it in our own strength. Only Jesus Christ can live such a life. I cannot in my sinful nature which is prone to please self. But what I cannot do, God can do. God the Holy Spirit works in us to do God’s perfect will. Because it is “all of God” the Holy Spirit does it “all through God.”

As we make ourselves available to Him, He does in and through us all that pleases Him. What is demanded of us is a life of union with Jesus Christ. “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). To live in that oneness is to do “all for God” and “all through God.” The only way to please God is to make ourselves available to Jesus Christ living in us.

The disciple of Jesus Christ no longer lives to please himself. He lives for the Kingdom of God. Whatever happens to him is unimportant; “all for God” is all-important to the disciple. In place of all selfish attainment, however noble, must be a desire, in deed a passion that demands “all for God.” If it is “all for God” then He will be honored and glorified throughout all eternity. To God alone be the glory!

Selah!

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Daily Devotional: Always in Abundant Supply

Daily Devotional: Always in Abundant Supply

Daily Devotional: All Things for and Through God

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