- araratchurch
- Jul 26, 2024
- 3 min read
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
Romans 8:28 NLT
There is an old gospel song (1956) that has a line in it that has always struck me as being a little funny: “Surely I will Lord; surely I will. If anyone makes it precious Lord, surely I will.”
Sometimes Christians throw around promises from the word of God as if they are certain of their eligibility to receive the promise. Indeed, they may become indignant, supposing that God has “shortchanged” them if they don’t see what they have been promised.
Now certainly, our hope is in what God has promised through Jesus Christ. But in order to receive the promise(s), we must meet the condition(s).
Consider this often quoted promise from our Lord:
“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
Matthew 6:33 NLT
Jesus, in teaching about the fact that we should not have anxiety over the things we need, makes the point that God will give us what we need. But what is the condition? We must put the Kingdom of God first in our lives.
God, speaking prophetically through the psalmist, addresses the people of His covenant who are not keeping their part of the covenant. The Lord basically tells them that they have no right to speak of the guarantees in His covenant with them, because of their wickedness.
“But God says to the wicked: “Why bother reciting my decrees and pretending to obey my covenant? For you refuse my discipline and treat my words like trash. When you see thieves, you approve of them, and you spend your time with adulterers. Your mouth is filled with wickedness, and your tongue is full of lies. You sit around and slander your brother— your own mother’s son.”
Psalms 50:16-20 NLT
The verses just before the above scripture, give the remedy for God’s people and their wayward ways:
“Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High. Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.””
Psalms 50:14-15 NLT
The remedy for these covenant breakers is also repeated after this passage:
“While you did all this, I remained silent, and you thought I didn’t care. But now I will rebuke you, listing all my charges against you. Repent, all of you who forget me, or I will tear you apart, and no one will help you. But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.””
Psalms 50:21-23 NLT
Make no mistake, Jesus has done for us what we could not do for ourselves, taking our sin upon Himself and paying the awful price for our transgression.
However, the work of Jesus has not freed us from our responsibility to keep the word of God, following close behind Him, living lives reflecting His nature.
In fact, it is the very work of the cross that has enabled us to receive God’s Holy Spirit Who leads us into all truth and all righteousness.
Our opening scripture is one of those scriptures Christians embrace, often leaving off the second part of it. We cannot suppose that God is working all things together for our good if we are not living our lives in the fear of the Lord and in obedience to His will for us.
But if we do come to Jesus, if we do get under His yoke, following on to truly know Him, then we can be certain that we will receive every promise given from the Lord to His children. And yes, God will then make all things work together for our good!
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Jul 25, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 15, 2024
“Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.”
Galatians 6:7-8 NLT
Shakespeare’s Juliet famously said that, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The context was that the one who she loved (Romeo), had a family name (Montague), at war with those of her family name (Capulet). We could extend Juliet’s adage and say, “You can call a rotten fish a daisy but it will still stink.”
A particular name may become associated with certain traits; but renaming something, does not change traits.
Rationalizing our sinful behavior is a way of putting a better name onto something we are doing that is not good. And, in doing so, people may actually become self-deceived, somehow believing that what they are calling, what they are doing, will change the outcome for which they are actually working.
In our opening scripture we see Paul reminding the Christians at Galatia that mocking, taking lightly, the judgment of God, will not change the certainty of the same.
Indeed, he reminds them that living a life aimed at satisfying sinful lusts will reap the wages of sin: death. On the other hand, those who live their lives aimed at pleasing God will reap everlasting life.
Another dimension of the law of sowing and reaping not taken into account by those who would mock it, is the fact that whatever is sown will be multiplied: We will not just reap a crop of exactly what we planted. That is to say, planting three apple seeds will not produce three apples. Far to the contrary, planting three apple seeds, can result in three apple trees, on which there will eventually be multiplied hundreds of apples.
That calculus may render a wonderful result if we were only talking about apples. But make no mistake, the multiplication, the certainty of multiplication, is not negated by what we called what we were sowing.
Again, not only will we reap what we have sown, we will get it back in abundance.
“They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind. The stalks of grain wither and produce nothing to eat. And even if there is any grain, foreigners will eat it.”
Hosea 8:7a NLT
In the above scripture, the Lord, speaking prophetically through Hosea, said that the evil being done by the children of Israel was going to be returned to them as destruction.
Child of God, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us to be honest about what we are doing. Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking we can “repackage” sin such that it will not produce what God said it would produce.
I’ll leave you with the instruction that comes right after our opening scripture:
“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
Galatians 6:9 NLT
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Jul 24, 2024
- 3 min read
““Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation: “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.”
Revelation 3:14-19 NLT
There is a saying that goes, “There is none so blind as he who will not see.” The meaning here is that the one who has been given the opportunity to see the truth, but will not accept that truth, has blinded themselves.
Indeed, our Lord addressed this concept when His disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables.
“His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.”
Matthew 13:10-16 NLT
Again, when people are given the opportunity to see the truth, and choose not to see it, they become blinded.
The parable Jesus had given before the disciples asked their question, was that of the sower. In this parable we see that the state of the soil (referencing the human heart), determined the viability of the seed (His word).
The parable of the sower illustrates the different degrees and causes of hardness of heart, ultimately showing that if the Word will not be received and protected, it will not grow.
In our opening scripture we see Jesus, speaking to John on the Isle of Patmos, referencing the church at Laodicea. We see that Jesus notes that they are blind to their actual condition.
Now, they have not been blinded by forces beyond their control, but have—because of their lukewarm spiritual state—become blind to their actual condition.
We may wonder why someone cannot see what we see. Perhaps we can see that their life is headed in the direction of destruction, yet they don’t seem to see what is obvious to us. How are they missing what we see clearly?
Child of God, “blindness” means something. When a person has become self-blinded, you can try to reason with them all you want. Indeed, knock yourself out if you’re so inclined. But given the scenario of dealing with someone who is spiritually blind, we should understand that only the Lord can open their eyes to their potentially desperate situation. Our part is to pray that their eyes will be opened while also asking the Lord if there is anything He wants us to say or do to encourage them in that process. Arguing with someone who is blind about what they are not seeing, is generally a waste of time.
Obviously, we are not here advocating that a person not be warned who is in immediate danger. We are speaking of spiritual blindness wherein a person has been given the opportunity to see the truth, but has chosen to be blind.
Finally, our first order of business should be to make sure that we are not the one who will not see.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!