Presented

Romans 3:25-26 ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus  (NIV)

God presented Christ.  He presented Christ to all in the world.  He presented Christ for Christ to demonstrate His righteousness.  The word “present” is being used as a verb.  It means “to deliver something.”  What was it God was delivering through presenting Christ?  He was delivering a way to righteousness.  It is only through righteousness (a right relationship with God) that we can have any kind of relationship with God.  Jesus Christ is the only one who is righteous.  Without receiving God’s delivery through Jesus Christ of His righteousness we have no relationship with God.  It is the righteousness of Jesus which justifies us, but only if we have faith in Jesus.  Faith is defined as complete confidence or trust in someone or something.  Trust is believing in the reliability of someone or something.  Throughout history, God has proven He is true and reliable in His word.  God isn’t a man that He could lie.  God can’t lie.  God is truth.  For us it is a matter of choice.  We can choose to believe and come under the covering of Jesus and His righteousness or we can choose to ignore what has been proven throughout history.  God, through Jesus Christ, is the only way presented freely to us.

Fall Short

Romans 3:23 ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  (NIV)

To understand this verse we must first know what sin is.  Sin is a singular tense.  Jesus died for our sin; He didn’t die for what we call sins.  The word sin is an old archery word meaning miss the target.  When an archer shot, if he didn’t hit the bullseye it was said he sinned – he missed his target of the bullseye.  The above verse goes on ti say sin is falling short of the glory of God.  We are here to be in the image of God.  We should reflect the unseen character of God by displaying it in our lives.  What is the character of God?  God is love.  Look up 1 Corinthians 13.  As we read it, substitute our own name every place the word love appears.  These are the characteristics of God.  We fall short of those characteristics.  We reflect some of them some of the time but we are not consistent.  God is consistent.  We must all agree we are all sinners because we all fall short of the glory which is God.

Thanks Expressed

Bible Trivia for Thanksgiving Day

Thank is in the Bible 75 times

Thanks is in the Bible 35 times

Thanksgiving is in the Bible 30 times

Thankful 3 times

Thankfulness 3 times

Thanked 2

Thanking 1

That’s 149 expressions of thanks.  How many times a day do we thank God?  How often do we thank our family members?  How often do we thank others?  Let us develop the habit of expressing our thanks.

 

Thanksgiving Eve

1 Corinthians 14:17 ¹⁷ You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.  (NIV)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  It was intended to be a day we set aside to thank God for the freedom we have at the present in our country to worship God and tell of His glorious works.  Yet, for most, this day has become a day to edify our favorite sports team.  It is also now a day when many stores open in the afternoon to get a jump-start on what has become known as Black Friday.  We can’t wait to buy more stuff.  As we prepare for tomorrow, let us be sure to take time to thank our God for the freedom we still have but are in danger of losing.  Let us also spend some time in intercession for those elected to lead our country.  Let us also spend some time in intercession for those who want to deny us the right to worship and express our beliefs and hold fast to the precepts in God’s written word, the Holy Bible.  Let our thankfulness outweigh the time and enthusiasm we spend on watching our favorite sports team or the good price we might be after for more stuff.  Let us truly be thankful and give thanks.

No Monuments

Genesis 11:4 ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”  (NIV)

We, as sinful mankind, think we can build a way to heaven with our own hands and works.  There is no work, regardless of how good we might think it is, that will get us into heaven.  The only way to heaven is through the door Jesus, the Son of God, provided for us.  That door is accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior and committing to live in obedience to His word.  We build monuments to ourselves in an effort to say how good we are.  In and of ourselves there is no goodness.  It takes the love of God for goodness to exist.  Only when we release the Holy Spirit Who resides in us when we accept Jesus, will real good come through us.  Jesus didn’t tell us to build monuments to Him.  He left us with 2 basic things in His honor; the bread representing His body and the wine representing His blood.  Here are the words to a song I wrote.

Two Simple Elements

No fancy statues, no monuments tall

To remember the Savior Who died for us all.

Just two simple elements, that’s all we need

To remember our Jesus our Lord and our King.

 

As they were eating He took up the bread,

He blessed it and broke it and gave it and said,

This is My body, take it and eat.

It’s broken for you in remembrance of Me.

 

After the bread He took up the cup

He blessed it and gave it to all and said.

This is My blood, the new covenant.

Take it and drink it be free from your sins.

 

Lord Jesus, I thank You for taking my place.

For giving Your body to strengthen my faith.

Lord Jesus I thank You for spilling Your blood.

It cleanses and washes and makes me God’s child.

 

Just two simple elements, that’s all it takes.

Take them and eat them and drink them in faith.

The Lord will sustain you and cleanse all your sins.

He wants to be in you, oh let Him come in.

He wants to be in you, your Lord and your King.

 

1976 Copyright

Holy and Blameless

Ephesians 1:4 ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love  (NIV)

There are a few things in this verse to pay close attention to.  The first is God chose us even before He started creating the universe as we know it.  He had plans for us from before the beginning of time as we know it.  For what did God choose us?  He chose us to be holy and blameless in His sight.  How can we, being full of sin and because of sin, separate from God, be holy and blameless.  Red the last 3 words.  In His sight.  When God looks at us, He sees the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Because of that blood God sees us holy and blameless.  His Son took our sin and our blame on Himself.  The last 2 word in this verse are “in love.”  It is only in love that God allowed His Son to experience the pain and suffering and separation from Him to take on our Sin and blame.  What wonderous love is this!

Spiritual Blessings

Ephesians 1:3 ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  (NIV)

There are a couple things to understand about this verse.  One, God will only bless us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  It is only through Jesus that we can approach God.  The other is, because of Jesus, God blesses us with every spiritual blessing.  Notice the word “every.”  Every spiritual blessing is there, waiting for us to receive and incorporate in our lives.  What are the spiritual blessings?  They are recorded throughout the written word of God, the Holy Bible.  So often the word, “promise” is substituted for the word “blessing.”  As we read, meditate and study the words in the Holy Bible, let us pay attention to the promises or blessings recorded, receive them and incorporate them in faith into our everyday life.  We can only do this through faith and trust that God is true to His word.  Faith and trust is a choice.  The Holy Spirit enables us to choose to believe and trust.  Let us study and incorporate at least one promise/blessing each and every day.

Identification

Philippians 2:6-8 ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!  (NIV)

In our sinful, human state, we struggle and fight for importance.  We want titles in front or behind our names.  We want to be the ones in power, the ones to make the decisions.  Jesus is in the very nature of His Father, God.  It was through Jesus, the Word of God, that the Father created all that is.  Yet, Jesus was willing to take off the nature of His Father and become in the nature of man.  Instead of the privileges of the Sonship of God the Father, Jesus became a servant in the fleshly form of mankind.  It is our sense of false pride that leads us to strive for importance and fame.  God created us with a need to be filled by Him.  Sin separated us from that filling.  Mankind tries all sorts of things and ways to fill that void with us.  The void can only be filled through coming to the cross of Jesus and allowing Him to forgive us and fill us with the Holy Spirit.  We don’t need titles, fame or rewards.  We only need Jesus in our minds, hearts and lives.  The title, Christian an the job description follower of Jesus is all we need for identification.

A Strong Tower

Proverbs 18:10 ¹⁰ The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.  (KJV)

There are tall microwave towers all over our country.  I pass several daily.  A few weeks ago, while passing one of he many all towers this verse, in song format, came into my mind and I started singing it.  It stayed in my mind for many days and still pops up as I pass one of those towers.  It makes a good reminder for us as we pass those towers.  When we find ourselves in trouble or in need of a decision, all we need to is call out the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.  It is knowing and looking to God, through Jesus, that we are safe.  Decisions made through prayer are wise decisions.  When trials try to weigh down our emotions, remembering to say the name of our Lord can lift us up.  When looking down we can fall into depression.  Looking up keeps us safe from depression.  Let us keep looking to our Lord for He is our strength and shield.

Starting the Day

Psalms 143:8 ⁸ Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.  Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.  (NIV)

How do you start the morning?  What is the first thing on your mind?  What is the first sound you hear?  This verse shows the best way to start the morning.  Starting listening to God before anything else sets the tone for a wonderful day ahead.  Asking Him for directions for the day and trusting Him to lead us produces a day of fulfillment and a day that brings glory to God.  Being woken up by an alarm is a harsh way to wake up.  With a regular schedule alarms won’t be needed.  Setting the alarm for a several minutes latter than we need to wake up will put our mins at rest about starting our day in time for necessary things like dressing and getting to work or school on time.  Hitting a snooze rather than getting up and opening our minds and hearts to God just produce a rushed day.  Let us learn to start our mornings saying, “Good morning, Father.  Show me the way You have for me today.”