For The Goodness of God

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8).

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9).

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32).

For the Goodness of God; that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. That while we were still sinners God sent His only begotten Son to redeem mankind from the power of Satan. God’s gift of eternal life, extended and available to all who believe. To all who call upon the name of the Lord. The goodness of God; patient and longsuffering that all should come to repentance. That all should come to the knowledge of the truth, to understanding, having their eyes opened.

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-7).

Having our eyes opened. For there are many who walk in spiritual darkness. There are many who have a “form” of godliness. There are many who proclaim the name of the Lord but their hearts are far from Him. Their are many who know of Him but who don’t know Him. Who speak of Him yet who do not understand the truth of His sayings. Who cannot fathom His greatness. Who do not revere or fear Him.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:1-5).

Do you understand it? Even the demons believe there is a God and even they tremble. Simply believing that there is a God is not enough. You must be “born again!” So who of you still walks in spiritual darkness? And who lacks understanding?

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5)

For God desires that no one should perish. Look at the life of Saul before becoming Paul. Who walked in spiritual darkness. Who knew the scriptures yet persecuted Christians because he thought he was doing God a great service. Even Saul, who before he came to the true knowledge of Jesus Christ, even he thought he knew God but was walking in spiritual blindness. Who by God’s might and by God’s goodness was changed from Saul to Paul. Paul, who fell on his face in fear and trembling before a mighty and an awesome God. Paul, who for lack of seeing, became blind until the scales fell from his eyes that he then could finally see. For the goodness of God. That all might come to a saving faith. To a faith like that of Paul’s. That counts all as rubbish except for Christ. Paul, who ran the race to win it. Is this not the kind of faith God wants to form in us? Not a faith that conforms to the world. Not a faith that makes excuses for sin. But a transforming faith, full of the awesome power and goodness of God. That has the ability to open the eyes of men. That has the ability to save even the “chiefest of all sinners.” Is this not the kind of faith God calls us to have? For the goodness of God. For the goodness of God. And do I see? Am I reaching those who are perishing with all that I am, all that Christ is within me, to proclaim the truth of His Word that is able to save and pull many from the enemy’s hand? “For to live is Christ, but to die is gain.” And is this my mentality? and if it is not, then should it not be? I ask you, for the goodness of God… that while I was still a sinner Christ died for me.

Saul’s Conversion (Acts 9:1-19)

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

And Phillippians 3:7-21 (written by Paul)

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing on Toward the Goal

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

When All Else Fails

It’s funny, sometimes I come to the keyboard and I think, “I just need to write something,” but what? I have no idea. Than a title pops into my head and I think to myself “I’ll write about that!” When All Else Fails.

Have you ever felt like that? You’ve gotten to a place where everything, and I mean everything has fallen away, or literally, it’s as though someone’s pulled the rug out from beneath you and what have you got left to hang onto? Well, what do you? What do you have left to hang onto?

I know for all of us, there will be times in our lives that we feel we have nothing left to hang onto. There is no one there to catch our fall or perhaps no one cares or even knows. No one notices when we hit the floor. No one that is except for one. There is one who knows, one who notices when it seems everything and everyone else has deserted us. And His name? His name is Jesus.

Does it feel as though you’re hanging by a precipice? Well if so, Jesus is there. “Take my hand,” He says. We look up, perhaps clinging to one scraggly branch, “take my hand,” He says again. “Can we trust Him?” we wonder. “Should we?” Perhaps some of us might even be blaming Him for the current state we’ve found ourselves in and then again we hear Him, “you can trust me.” He says, “take my hand. Take my hand.”

How many of us really take His hand? “Take my hand,” He says. Imagine it. The God of the Universe longs to help you. The God of the Universe knows when you have nothing left to hang onto, “take my hand” He says. “Take My hand.” And what if you do? What if you finally realize, “there is no one who will love me more. There is no one who can fix this. No one else who could possibly get me through this.” And what if you do? What if you throw everything at His feet and finally, forsaking all those little things you thought might save you, instead you say, “God, save me! Save me!” And so what if you do?

Looking up you see God’s hand outstretched to you and letting go of the very last thing you thought might save you you place your hand in His. “I won’t let go,” He says and pulling you up He sets you back on your feet and though still a mess and irregardless, “I love you,” He says, “I always have.”

If you’re hanging by a precipice take His hand, and He who died for all mankind, He alone will save you.

For if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:9-13).

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10).

Love is the Answer

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31)

Love is the answer.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Love is the answer.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Love is the Answer

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:8-12)

Love is the answer. Love is the answer. Hold all that you are up to the greatest two commandments. Am I loving God with all that I am? And if I am not, since love comes from God then how can I possibly love my neighbor as myself? I cannot. The only way God’s love can be revealed in me is if I am submersed in Him. The only way God’s love can be revealed in me is if I am identified with Him. The only way God’s love will be evident in me is if I am crucified with Him. Daily we must make this conscious decision; we will either choose to follow Him or we will choose to forsake. Daily we must ask ourselves, “is God’s love evident in me?”

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Love is the answer.

Nothing But a Blip!

“A blip!” Your watching a radar screen and then you see it but only for a second and then it’s gone; “a blip!” Now imagine if you will that blip is what your life here on earth is like; “nothing but a blip” that lasts for no more than a second. But the radar screen what does it represent? Eternity.

Your life here on earth in comparison to where you will live out eternity is this; nothing but a blip. Watch it; a blip is pretty short lived isn’t it? No wonder Paul could say with all assurity even in the midst of suffering:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Do you like Paul have an eternal mentality? Are you looking at your life here on earth as but a moment in comparison to where you will spend your days eternally? The prophet Isaiah said:

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8)

Are not our very lives but as a flower or the grass of the fields? Here today yet gone tomorrow? Nothing but a “blip! on a radar screen? But… how we live it, yes, how we live it will determine everything.

We must have the mindset of Paul; eternal thinking. But for our light affliction. Are you suffering? Are you struggling? But for our light affliction. Your life here is only temporary. You are only sorjourning to a final destination. Yes, how you live it will determine everything.

For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. (1 Peter 1:23)

If you have received Christ as your personal Savior, if you have been born again, then your new life has already begun.

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:2-3)

Yes, eternal thinking; “our life on earth is nothing but a blip!” Why then should we worry about it? Why then should we live only to please it; our flesh? It is nothing but a blip. Rather, should we not live our lives to glorify our Father in heaven? Run the race as if to win it? Pass every test our enemy, Satan throws at us? Then great will your reward be in Heaven (Luke 6:20-23). For then we will get to spend all of eternity with the only one who truly completes us; Jesus. Yes, Jesus.

All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And God, in his mighty power, will protect you until you receive this salvation, because you are trusting him. It will be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead , even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while.

These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day that Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy. Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1: 3-9)

“A blip! Nothing but a blip!” So pass the test and run to win!

But The Greatest of These is Love

If you have never had the opportunity to hear Corrie ten Boom speak then now is your chance! I remember seeing a television broadcast of her once and thinking, “wow, now there is someone who has a testimony of just how deep, how wide, how far, and how high is the love of Christ!” Someone who’s really been through it, who’s seen some of the worst atrocities in the last century, yet not only lived to tell about it but lived to tell about how Christ’s love always wins out.

When and if you have the time just click this link www.archive.org/details/SchoolOfPrayer-TheGreatestOfTheseIsLove-ByCorrieTenBoom-Sermon to hear one of her sermons; “The Greatest of These is Love.”

It’s about an hour long so make sure you can set aside the time to listen but I promise you won’t be disappointed. Whenever I have had the opportunity to hear Corrie ten Boom speak or have read any of her writings I have always been blessed. She is full of insight and wisdom and I especially liked her flashlight analogy in this sermon.

Be blessed! For the greatest of these truly is… love!