Long-Suffering
This day has been a little everywhere, it seems. Father, I would ask that You bring my mind into order. Use me to communicate what You need to communicate. Amen.
1 Corinthians 15:12-28 (<<click here to read the passage)
We’ve not had syndicated news for quite a while now, and really, I don’t miss it. For some time, I had a couple of news-oriented network sites on the opening page of my search engine. But I grew tired of those, and now…I don’t. Recently, I have listened – some – to a local news radio station, but with clashing political stands, the abortion debate, the war between Israel and Hamas, the battle involving LGBTQ individuals, and on and on and on…I am worn out and frustrated to the max!
Yesterday, as I was inundated with all these things and the innumerable opinions on these issues, it got me thinking, why hasn’t God just thrown His hands up and bellowed throughout the cosmos, “ENOUGH! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! THAT. IS. IT! I AM SOOOO DONE WITH YOU ALL!”
…but He hasn’t…
He could, at any given moment…but He hasn’t.
One of my favorite Biblically oriented words is long-suffering, and God is the epitome of long-suffering. One online source states,
In the Bible, long-suffering is a word that combines two Greek words: macro, meaning “long or slow,” and thumia, meaning “anger.” It literally means to be long-tempered, or to be patient and enduring, even when facing suffering, challenges, or the shortcomings of others. A long-suffering person is someone who is not quick to take retaliation or to punish.
Another source adds, “A person who is long-suffering is someone who shows restraint when stirred to anger.”
As I said, God is the epitome of long-suffering. He is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9b AMP
My Life Application Study Bible goes on to say,
World events may seem out of control, and justice may seem to have vanished. But God is in control, allowing evil to remain for a time until he sends Jesus to earth again. Then he will present to God a perfect new world.
God is sovereign. God is just. And that is the final task of Jesus: He will, in the end (or at the new beginning?), defeat evil as He has sin, death, and Satan. All will succumb to His glory and might.
Philippians 2:9-11 has this to say about Jesus and the world’s response to Him in the end.
For this reason also [because He obeyed and so completely humbled Himself], God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow [in submission], of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess and openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (sovereign God), to the glory of God the Father. AMP
Feb 29th, 2024, Thurs, 6:06 pm
His Victory Can Be Our Victory
Thank You, Father, for watching over me and the other bus drivers, teachers, and students this morning with the major storm that came through this morning.
1 Corinthians 15:12-28 (<<click here to read the passage)
I spoke yesterday of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, but there are two more things that He has (and will) overcome in setting things right for us and all creation – Satan and evil.
Satan (and I hate even typing his name) likes to have us believe that he’s powerful and unstoppable, and in reality, he has a snowball’s chance in…well, you know where. He is already defeated but does what he does, not because God Almighty supports or encourages it but because He allows it.
He has many convinced that he is that way, but Jesus, in a heated tongue-lashing of the Jewish spiritual leaders of His day, had this to say of him.
You [the Pharisees] are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths. John 8:44 AMP
Ouch! When it came to His interactions with the ones who should have known better, Jesus sugarcoated nothing!
Satan is that father of lies and half-truths, and he may have thought he won when Jesus proclaimed from the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Jesus’ work was done. He had completed the task assigned Him by the Father that would save our souls and seal Satan’s fate.
First, read this encouraging passage as penned by the Apostle Paul,
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 AMP
Jesus has triumphed over Satan and his minions, and it is also true that Satan was also finished by Jesus’ victory!
He tries his best to hinder us because Satan knows his days are numbered. He hates passages like the one found in Romans 8:37-39,
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us]. For I am convinced [and continue to be convinced—beyond any doubt] that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the [unlimited] love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. AMP
In Christ, we are invincible! Nothing and no one can stand in our way!
Next time, we will examine Jesus’ ultimate victory over evil!
Feb 28th, 2024, Wed, 12:47 pm
What Brings True Satisfaction?
I am greatly comforted by the assurance of Your presence, Father. You are here for me; all I have to do is call out. Praise Your Holy Name!
1 Corinthians 15:12-28 (<<click here to read the passage)
One of the many struggles in life is living life itself. Many of us (and I’m sure I could say all of us) struggle in our attempts to just get through the day sometimes. Even those who are successful according to the world’s standards are often overridden by the demands and pressures of living. There are far too many suicides and attempted suicides amongst the powerful and famous.
So, I would ask, why are so many of us dead set against almost anything to do with God? Think about it. Our greatest struggles are against sin and death.
Yeah, we scream for control of our destiny and delve into sin at the slightest whim, but I think we all have to admit that though our fulfillment may last for a time, that over time, it all loses its shine. What brought us excitement just doesn’t do it anymore, and we need bigger and better and more of whatever it was that lured us in, to the point that it just doesn’t do anything for us anymore. And then we have to start all over, searching for something that will light us up – it’s a vicious, never-ending circle.
And death? That’s pretty much a no-brainer. For all of time, we have been chased and overcome by it. No one (except Jesus, of course) has succeeded. We all eventually succumb to its power over us, for we have no power, in and of ourselves, to oppose it.
So why do we fight against the one Person who overcame them both? Jesus Christ, with His sacrificial, voluntary death on the cross, defeated them both.
Peter, having firsthand experience with Jesus, had this to say,
He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross [willingly offering Himself on it, as on an altar of sacrifice], so that we might die to sin [becoming immune from the penalty and power of sin] and live for righteousness; for by His wounds you [who believe] have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 AMP
For indeed Christ died for sins once for all, the Just and Righteous for the unjust and unrighteous [the Innocent for the guilty] so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit… 1 Peter 3:18 AMP
The dead-end roads we go down in search of something that will fulfill us will never, ever accomplish that task. We will continue to fail, time and time again. Only the Conqueror of sin and death can bring us fulfillment…eternal fulfillment. All that we invest our lives in, in accordance with His will, will bring us true satisfaction.
Lord Jesus, we would cry out that You would help us to seek out that which would satisfy the thirst of our parched souls.
Feb 27th, 2024, Tues, 12:54 pm
Hankies and Tears of Joy
It is a glorious day! Thank You, Great Creator of the Universe, for Your wonderful gift!
********
One of the oddest things triggered a memory for me today on my bus. After asking for a tissue, one of my kindergartners asked to throw it away after using it. What triggered my memory was, when she asked to do so, her little hand raised above the top of the seat, and she waved it in the air.
You may think, “What in the world could a waving used tissue bring to mind?” Well, let me tell you.
I’ve mentioned before that I had a pretty conservative upbringing – no dancing, no movies, no playing cards (ones with diamonds, spades, clubs, and hearts), etc. Today, the word “Pentecostal” brings different thoughts to different people. Back at the turn of the 20th century, when a group of holiness-minded folk pulled away from the Methodist church, the original name they took for themselves was the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. Some leaned a little heavier in that direction, and within a few years, they pulled away, and those that remained changed their name to the Church of the Nazarene.
The Church of the Nazarene at that time (the early 1900s) embraced what many today would label “emotional” worship experiences that, for me, were still a normal part of worship in the 60s and 70s. The things I’m talking about were when men and women would get “blessed” in a service and pull their hankies out and wave them about. Often, that would be accompanied by shouts of “Praise the Lord!” and “Glory!” Others would “run the aisles”. They would be so full of the Lord’s presence that they would run up and down the church’s aisles (or the tabernacle – the big worship center still at the West Virginia District Campgrounds.)
Now, if you’re thinking that is just a bunch of bologna, just a bunch of trumped-up emotion on the part of the participants, let me set you straight! When you looked into the faces of those hankie-waving, aisle-running, Glory-shouting folk, they were so filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives that they just had to express it! Their faces glowed with the joy of the Lord moving in and through them. Tears of joy would run down their cheeks, with smiles from ear to ear!
It wasn’t a show. It wasn’t something they did because others expected it or deemed it necessary if they were indeed followers of Christ; it was an outward expression of an inward experience!
It was definitely a bit more demonstrative than the lifting of hands common in many worship services today. Still, I am sorry to say that though I am not in the least bit offended by those who expressed their worship in such ways, I have never been inclined to do so.
Lord Jesus, I would pray that at some point in my life, I would be so blessed, so infilled with Your presence, that I would have to let it out some way. I would pray that it would be genuine and that if any were to witness it, they would know that You were at the center of it – the sole reason for its existence! Amen.
O clap your hands, all you people;
Shout to God with the voice of triumph and songs of joy.
For the Lord Most High is to be feared [and worshiped with awe-inspired reverence and obedience];
He is a great King over all the earth. Psalm 47:1-2 AMP
Feb 26th, 2024, Mon, 12:43 pm
True Humility
Father, may our time together be profitable. May the words that come forth be impactful for those who would take the time to read them. May Your blessing be upon me.
1 Corinthians 15:5-11 (<<click here to read the passage)
In the body of Christ, there is no room for pride and arrogance. Humility must reign in our hearts and minds. But far too often, that is not the case. In just about every area of life, there are individuals who are exceptionally good at what they do. They are masters of their trade. When we get to that level, people begin to treat us like we are something special. Some find it easy to believe, and others, with enough persuasion, can also come to believe it. And I’m sure it is no surprise that the church and its people – clergy and laity – are not exempt from these mindsets either.
Reading Paul’s words in the middle of verse 10 of today’s text – For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles… – we may be tempted to think that Paul thought too highly of himself, but reading through the entirety of his writings we know that that is not the case. When we honestly examine the lines of today’s text, we can readily see that Paul was not promoting himself but God.
My Life Application Study Bible states, “This was not an arrogant boast, because he knew that his power came from God and that it really didn’t matter who worked hardest. Because of his prominent position as a Pharisee, Paul’s conversion made him the object of even greater persecution than the other apostles; thus, he had to work harder to preach the same message.”
What grabbed my attention regarding this passage was what the notes had to say about verse 10 – first, the verse itself.
But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. v10a
Paul knew that he had worked hard and accomplished much but only because God had poured kindness and grace upon him. (emphasis mine)
True humility is not convincing yourself that you are worthless but recognizing God’s work in you. It is having God’s perspective on who you are and acknowledging his grace in developing your abilities.
In the sight of God, we are more than useless, and I believe that more today than ever. We serve a mighty God, and as Jesus Himself said in Matthew 19:26,
“With people [as far as it depends on them] it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” AMP
Cling to that promise today!
Feb 25th, 2024, Sun, 6:04 pm