Matthew 18:4

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Wednesday May 31, 2023

Matthew 18:4
“Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child.”

You will never get a humble heart until it is born from above, from the heart of Christ. For man has lost his own humanity and alas, too often has a demon heart. God wants us, as Christians, to be simple, human, approachable and childlike. The Christians that we know and love best, and that are nearest to the Lord, are the most simple. Whenever we grow stilted we are only fit for a picture gallery, and we are only good on a pedestal; but, if we are going to live among men and love and save them, we must be approachable and human. All stiffness is but another form of self-consciousness. Ask Christ for a human heart, for a smile that will be as natural as your little child’s in your presence. Oh, how much Christ did by little touches! He never would have got at the woman of Samaria if He had come to her as the prophet. He sat down, a tired man, and said: “Give me a drink of water.” And so, all through His life, it was His simple humanness and love that led Him to others, and led them to Him and to His great salvation.

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A. B. Simpson, Days of Heaven upon Earth: A Year Book of Scripture Texts and Living Truths (Christian Alliance Pub. Co., 1897)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Food For Thought 5/31/2023

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Coincidental Journey in South Africa

When the missionary Barnabas Shaw was forbidden to preach in Cape Town he decided not to leave Africa, but to push into the interior. He bought a yoke of oxen, put his wife and his goods into a wagon and started out, resolved to settle wherever he would be allowed to preach.

So they journeyed for three hundred miles. Then while camping one night they discovered that a band of Hottentots were also camping nearby. In conversation with the leader Shaw learned that the heathen were on their way to Cape Town to find a missionary. The similar meeting of Philip and the eunuch (Act 8:26–40) flashed through his mind, when he realized that God had been leading him where He wanted him to go.
~ Gospel Herald

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Spiritual Nuggets 5/31/2023

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When Things Don’t Go as Planned

I live in the world of projects. There are a few things I know for certain about them, aside from all requiring a budget and a schedule to have any hope of success. They will all take more time than I expect (at least 25 percent more), and they will all have problems. It seems that nothing ever goes according to plan. No one will complain, though, if the result, budget, and end date remain the same. There’s a biblical lesson here—Moses’ story is one of the best analogies for this.

Moses had likely planned for the Israelites to enter the Holy Land shortly after leaving Egypt, but mistake after mistake (on his part and the part of others) kept this from happening. In return, he spent years (about a half a lifetime) wandering in the wilderness. In Exodus 33:1, we read one of God’s direct instructions, “Go, go up from here,” but Moses proceeds to argue with God, interceding for the people (Exodus 33:12–23). Things aren’t going according to plan—for Moses or God. Finally, God gives Moses new instructions to solve the predicament the people have gotten themselves into: “Look, I am about to make a covenant. In front of all your people I will do wonders that have not been created on all the earth and among all the nations” (Exodus 34:10).

Here, in the middle of the debacle, God takes care of the problem with a promise. Over and over again, God makes promises; and unlike people, He keeps them. God performs marvels.

We see this in the events in Jesus’ life as well. Jesus doesn’t just feed the people, He overturns their notions about where food comes from (John 6:1–12). Jesus creates marvels like nothing anywhere in creation—other than where God Himself has worked. Of course, this shows that Jesus is indeed God. We’re often waiting for a marvel, and we will truly see them when following the Spirit. But how much more often is God waiting for us to pay attention and see how He can take plan B and make it plan A—like nothing we’ve seen before.

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Adapted and modified excerpts from Connect the Testaments
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Lexham English Bible, LEB © 2012 by Logos Bible Software.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Links open in new window and are in the Lexham English Bible, LEB, unless otherwise noted.
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The Cross and The Crown – 3

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Scripture References: Isaiah 53.10-12

How We Know He Lives

First, we know His presence by His healing grace and His saving power. The only healing is divine healing. A surgeon may sharpen his scalpel and cut, but only God can heal. Jesus is the Great Physician. In how many sick rooms, darkened in despair, have we seen health, life, and length of days given in the gracious and healing hands of our living Lord!

Second, He is alive because He bows down His ear to hear His children when they pray. Without number are the times when we laid before our blessed Lord those decisions, problems, and hurts for which we are not capable of conquering in our lives. We told Him all about it. He, who was tried in all points such as we, has bowed down His ear in sympathy and understanding to hear His children when they pray. He is alive. I know Him in answered prayer. I don’t just believe, but rather, I truly know!

Third, the ability of His power to regenerate, to save, to deliver, to forgive, and to make new men and women can easily be seen. I see His power in the glorious conversions that are daily brought before God, trophies of grace under His saving hand. They are a Simon Peter, a Paul the persecuting blasphemer of the early Christians, an Ignatius who was fed to the lions in the Roman colosseum, a Billy Sunday, and a George W. Truett. Christ moves in saving power today to save you and me as He did yesterday; He is able just the same. His power, authority and will never changes, just as He Himself is unchanging.

Fourth, He lives as He walks in grace and blessing among His churches. In Revelation we again read:

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. – Revelation 1:12-13.

Christ walks among His people, visiting in His churches. There have been times without number when seated in the congregation, I have bowed my head with tears overflowing in the sense of the presence of the power of Christ in this holy place. Our Lord can be found in the midst of His churches.

Fifth, He lives in the victory that He has brought to us over death. “Don’t be afraid! . . . I hold the keys of death and the grave” (Revelation 1:17-18 NLT). Lest one might think that those keys lie in some other hand, He avows that He possesses the key to our lives and to our deaths. I shall not die until He wills my death. Flame or sword, famine or plague can’t touch me until He appoints the time. Neither do I cringe before the specter of that pale visitor, death, for our Lord went to the cross and there He destroyed our enemy death and forever brings victory and triumph out of the tomb. There is no sting in death nor victory in the grave, for Christ has made death for us our entrance, our gateway into heaven. When I die it will be due to His perfect will and in His all-powerful choice. Death to the Christian holds no terror, for death is but a homegoing to be with Jesus.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me.” – Psalm 23:4. The hour of our death is to be the greatest day for a Christian. It is our moment of triumph, when earth recedes and heaven draws near, first the cross and then the crown.

Oh precious cross, Oh glorious crown, Oh resurrection day,
You angels from the stars come down, and bear my soul away.

This is the victory Christ has brought us in His precious, nail-pierced hands.

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Daily Prayer & Praise 5/30/2023

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Lord, hear our prayer:

Father, we come to you in the certain knowledge that the door is always open and you will already be coming to meet us. We come in the midst of our joys and sorrows, with our victories and our defeats. We come knowing we shall be accepted. We come because you are the Lord God Almighty.

Amen.

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Some minor adaptation on some prayers.
David Clowes, 500 Prayers For All Occasions © 2003 by David C Cook Publishing
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Reflecting With God 5/30/2023

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Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.

Tuesday Reflecting

“I, the LORD, search the heart.” – Jeremiah 17:10.

Before men we stand as opaque beehives. They can see the thoughts go in and out of us; but what work they do inside of a man, they cannot tell. Before God we are as glass beehives, and all that our thoughts are doing within us He perfectly sees and understands.
~ BEECHER

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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A Present Religion

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Tuesday May 30, 2023

1 John 3:2
Beloved, now we are children of God.

We need not talk of walking righteously, and soberly, in the world to come—

“There all is pure, and all is clear, There all is joy and love.”

There will be no duty to discharge between the tradesmen and the customers, between the debtor and the creditor, between the father and the child, between the husband and the wife, in heaven, for all these relationships will have passed away. Religion must be intended for this life; the duties of it cannot be practiced, unless they are practiced here. But besides these, there are other duties devolving upon the Christian. Though it is every man’s duty to be honest and sober, the Christian has another code of law. It is the Christian’s duty to love his enemies, to be at peace with all men, to forgive as he hopes to be forgiven; it is his duty not to resist evil, when smitten on the one cheek to turn the other also; it is his duty to give to him that asketh of him, and from him that would borrow of him not to turn away—he is to be a liberal soul, devising liberal things. It is the Christian’s duty to visit his Master’s children when they are sick, so that it may be said to him at last, “I was sick, and naked, and in prison, and ye visited me, and ministered to my necessities.” Now, if religion be not a thing for this world, I ask you how it is possible to perform its duties at all? There are no poor in heaven whom we can comfort and visit; there are no enemies in heaven whom we can graciously forgive; and there are not injuries inflicted, or wrongs endured, which we can bear with patience. Religion must have been intended in the very first place for this world, it must have been meant that now we should be the sons of God.

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C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 1) (Day One Publications, 1998)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Food For Thought 5/30/2023

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A Civil Engineer to India

In 1864 during a crisis at the Telegu Mission in India, John E. Clough offered to go to the “Lone Star” field. But what did the American Baptist Missionary Union want a civil engineer for in South India? Despite mission board misgivings, his zeal paid off and he was on his way.

Thirteen years later, it became apparent why God has called this non-seminary-trained man in India. During the great famine of 1876–77, it was his civil engineering degree that won him the appointment to supervise the digging of the unfinished Buckingham Canal, enabling him to hire thousands of starving natives, and so securing them wages and means to buy food.

And because of such sympathetic contacts with the Telegus, Clough was able to give them the Scriptures and preach to them about Christ.

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Spiritual Nuggets 5/30/2023

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The System

Religion is a tough subject. Jesus staunchly opposed religion for religion’s sake, yet He was a Law-abiding Jew. He recognized the value of worship, community, and discipleship, but not the value of religious constraints: religion can bind someone in tradition and be used for oppression. This knowledge makes it hard to understand why God set up religious systems in the first place. Their purpose is confusing.

In Exodus 30–31, there are full descriptions of altars, taxes, basins, oils, incense, and the Sabbath. In the middle of this, we’re given a glimpse into what it’s all about in a scene where God places His Spirit upon two men so that they may honor Him with a creative craft. They will depict, in art, what it means to know God. Here we get a glimpse into the symbolic work at play. God is not building religion for religion’s sake—He is building systems to help people understand Him. They’re meant to be used for the purpose of knowing Him and nothing else.

Religion is exploited in the narrative in the next chapter, where an impatient Aaron (the man meant to lead God’s people to Him) promotes the worship of another god. (The golden calf was a symbol of Baal, the chief god of a neighboring people group.) Here we are given another glimpse into something deeper, but this situation is not God’s will. We see what happens when people become impatient: they build their own systems, reaching out to something that can’t actually help them.

And this is precisely what we do when we sin. We seek our own way, our own system, when instead we should be seeking God’s way and worshiping Him the way in which He has called us.

Jesus confronts this problem with religion. “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father! The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope! For if you had believed Moses, you would believe me, for that one wrote about me. But if you do not believe that one’s writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45–47). These words would have cut to the core of a highly religious, first-century Jew. Imagine someone claiming that the very way they worshiped and their very book of teachings actually testifies against them. Imagine losing the court case because the authority you appeal to is actually revealing the errors of your ways.

Just a few lines earlier, Jesus provides His reasoning for this statement: “I do not accept glory from people, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me” (John 5:41–42).

Jesus does not seek glory from a religious system—a system that both He and Paul acknowledge was failing because of people’s sinfulness and desires to exploit it. Instead, He’s in the business of relationships. We all have our failing systems, and they’re revealed as we seek Jesus. And when they’re revealed, we must let God work within us and our communities to destroy those systems. A creative act that leads to better worship, discipleship, or community is desirable, but an act that inhibits it must be destroyed.

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Adapted and modified excerpts from Connect the Testaments
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Lexham English Bible, LEB © 2012 by Logos Bible Software.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Links open in new window and are in the Lexham English Bible, LEB, unless otherwise noted.
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The Cross and The Crown – 2

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Scripture References: Isaiah 53.10-12

The Suffering Lamb – Continued

Tread softly around the cross, for Jesus is dead. Repeat the refrain in hushed and softened tone. The Lord of life is dead. The lips that spoke forth Lazarus from the grave are now stilled in the silence of death itself. The head that was anointed by Mary of Bethany is bowed with its crown of thorns, blood streaming from His brow. The eyes that wept over Jerusalem are glazed in death. The hands that blessed little children are nailed to a tree. The feet that walked on the waters of blue Galilee are fastened to a cross. The heart that went out in compassionate love and sympathy for the poor and the lost of the world is now broken. He is dead.

The infuriated mob that cried for His crucifixion gradually disperses. He is dead. The passersby who stopped just to see Him, go on their way. He is dead. The Pharisees, rubbing their hands in self-congratulation, go back to the city. He is dead. The Sadducees, breathing sighs of relief, return to their coffers in the temple. He is dead. The centurion who was assigned the task of executing Him makes his official report to the Roman procurator, “He is dead.” The soldiers who were sent to dispatch the victim, and seeing the man on the center cross was certainly dead, didn’t break His bones but pierced Him through to be sure of His death. He is dead. Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus of the Sanhedrin go to Pontius Pilate and beg the Roman governor for His body because He is dead. Mary, His mother, and the women with her are bowed in sobs and tears. He is dead. The eleven apostles, like frightened sheep, crawl into eleven shadows to hide from the pointing finger of Jerusalem and they cry that He is dead. Wherever His disciples meet, the same refrain is sadly heard: He is dead. It would be almost impossible for us to enter into the depths of despair that gripped their hearts. Simon Peter, “the Rock,” is a rock no longer. James and John are “sons of thunder” no longer. Simon the Zealot is a zealot no longer. Jesus is dead. The hope of the world has perished with Him.

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He Is Alive!

Then men stopped dead in their tracks. A message leaps from mouth to mouth like liquid fire. An angel says, “He is alive!” Mary Magdalene says, “I have seen the Lord!” Simon Peter is filling Jerusalem with the bold and courageous announcement: “He is alive, He is alive!” All up and down the highways of Judaea, along the shores of Galilee, beyond the coasts of the great Mediterranean, on the road to Athens and Rome, in every poor man’s cottage and in every rich man’s palace, there is that glorious news: “He is alive, He is alive!”

The bitter seed brought forth a beautiful and precious flower. The cross magnifies our exalted and risen Lord. Every point in that crown of thorns is now a diamond in His diadem. The crimson of His life that was poured out stained His royal robe with purple. The iron nails of the cross and of the spear are now the rod of His scepter by which He will rule the nations of the world. The wood of the cross is His identity with all humanity. The most sacred spot in the earth is Mount Calvary where He died. The cross itself is the symbol of the Christian faith and our hope in the world that is to come.

If He is alive, where is He now? There are almost two thousand years of the record of His living. Where’s the proof? Where’s the evidence? Had every man in the Roman Empire seen Him walk out of that grave, had Caesar and all of his officers witnessed the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week, had Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius recorded in their historical annals the eyewitnesses of the living Lord, it would not be proof as corroborated as the evidence that we have today in our very lives.

To Be Continued

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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Daily Prayer & Praise 5/29/2023

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Lord, hear our prayer:

Lord, you are the source of all that is good, right and true. Without you nothing will ever really make sense. Without you there will always be an emptiness and a sense of incompleteness to life. We come to you to find meaning and purpose in life. We come to you so that in finding you we may find ourselves; so that in knowing you we may know ourselves and in opening our lives to you we may have the peace and joy that only you can give. We have come to worship you because you are worthy of all our praise.

Amen.

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Some minor adaptation on some prayers.
David Clowes, 500 Prayers For All Occasions © 2003 by David C Cook Publishing
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Reflecting With God 5/29/2023

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Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.

Monday Reflecting

“The heart is deceitful above all things.” – Jeremiah 17:9.

The dank mossy sward is deceitful: its fresh and glossy carpet invites the traveler to leave the rough moorland tract; and, at the first step, horse and rider are buried in the morass. The sea is deceitful; what rage, what stormy passions sleep in that placid bosom! and how often, as vice serves her used-up victims, does she cast the bark that she received into her arms with sunny smiles a wreck upon the shore. The morning is oft deceitful; with bright promise of a brilliant day, it lures us from home; the sky ere noon begins to thicken; the sun looks sickly; the sluggish, heavily-laden clouds gather upon the hilltops; the landscape closes in all around; the lark drops songless into her nest; the wind rises, moaning and chill; and at length, like adversities gathering round the grey head of age, tempest, storm, and rain, thicken on the dying day. The desert is deceitful; it mocks the traveler with its mirage. How life kindles in his drooping eye, as sees the playful waves chase each other to the shore, and the plumes of the palm waving in the watery mirror! Faint, weary, parched, perishing with thirst, he turns to bathe and drink; and exhausting what little strength remains in pursuit of a phantom, unhappy man! he has turned to die. Deceitful above sward or sea, sky or enchanting desert, is the heart of man; nor do I know a more marked or melancholy proof of this than that afforded by our light treatment of such weighty matters as sin and judgment. There is no exaggeration in the prophet’s language, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
~ GUTHRIE

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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Eternally Unchanging

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Monday May 29, 2023

Hebrews 6:17-18
Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable
things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

The perfect and the absolute and the infinite God cannot become anything else but what He is. . . .

If you remember that, it will help you in the hour of trial. It will help you at the time of death, in the resurrection and in the world to come, to know that all that God ever was, God still is. All that God was and is, God ever will be. His nature and attributes are eternally unchanging. I have preached about the uncreated selfhood of God; I’ll never have to change or edit it in any way. . . . I go back over some of my old sermons and articles, and I wonder why I wrote them like that. I could improve them now. But I can’t improve on the statement that God is always the same—He is self-sufficient, self-existent, eternal, omnipresent and immutable. There would be no reason to change that because God changes not. His nature, His attributes, are eternally unchanging.

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Tozer on the Almighty God : A 366-Day Devotional (WingSpread, 2004)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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Food For Thought 5/29/2023

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Ship Steered to “Uninhabited” Island

Admiral Sir Thomas Williams, a straight-forward and excellent man, was in command of a ship crossing the Atlantic. His course brought him in sight of the island of Ascension, at that time uninhabited and never visited except for the purpose of collecting turtles.

The island was barely visible on the horizon, but as Sir Thomas looked at it he was seized by an unaccountable desire to steer towards it. His desire became more and more urgent and distressing, and foreseeing that it would soon be more difficult to satisfy it, he told his lieutenant to prepare to “put about ship” and steer in that direction. The officer respectfully remonstrated that changing course would greatly delay them. This only increased the Admiral’s anxiety, and the ship was steered towards the island.

All eyes were fixed upon it, and soon something was perceived on the shore. “It is white—it is a flag—it must be a signal!” When they neared the shore they discovered that sixteen men, wrecked on the coast many days before, and suffering hunger, had set up a signal, although almost without hope of relief.

What made the Admiral steer his ship in the very opposite direction to what he and his crew wanted was but the superhuman Spirit of God.

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Spiritual Nuggets 5/29/2023

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Liar or Lord?

When Jesus made a defense of His healing on the Sabbath, He was upping the ante instead of defusing the situation: “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). For the Jews, such a claim was blasphemous. Not only was Jesus breaking the Sabbath, He was equating Himself with the Father and thus claiming to be God. He was presenting the people with a choice.

Jesus provides compelling insight into His relationship with God. Jesus’ authority stems from His relationship with the Father, which is one of complete submission. In fact, He can do nothing on His own. Whatever the Father does, He does likewise. There is complete trust and openness—the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He is doing. Both the Father and the Son give life. But with authority, the Father has also given the Son judgment.

Jesus presents His audience with an ultimatum as He carries out God’s will on earth: “The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly I say to you that the one who hears my word and who believes the one who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment” (John 5:23–24). His claims require bold acts—total faith or total rejection. He is not merely a prophet sent from God.

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Adapted and modified excerpts from Connect the Testaments
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Lexham English Bible, LEB © 2012 by Logos Bible Software.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Links open in new window and are in the Lexham English Bible, LEB, unless otherwise noted.
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The Cross and The Crown – 1

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Scripture References: Isaiah 53.10-12

In this chapter we find bound together the humiliation and exaltation of our Lord. Typical of the prophets as they spoke of His coming, Isaiah wrote:

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. . . . Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong. – Isaiah 53:7, 12.

The same marvelous depiction of our Savior as being humble and exalted is found in the apostles. Typical of the presentation is the passage of Scripture found in Philippians:

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:5-11.

In Revelation the Apostle John says:

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. – Revelation 1:17-18.

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” – Revelation 5:11-13.

The Suffering Lamb

Our highest imagination cannot enter into the glory nor comprehend the exaltation from where He came. The immeasurable distance between the glory of our Lord in heaven and the shame to which He descended in earth is beyond human understanding. He was made in the form of a man who is composed of the dust of the ground. He became a servant. Finally, our Lord was sentenced to execution in a death reserved for criminals and felons. He was raised between the heaven and the earth as though both heaven and earth rejected Him.

As though abuse were not vile enough, the cruel jeering crowd covered Him with spittle. They also plucked out His beard. Going further, they crowned Him with thorns, and as though the thorns were not agonizing enough, He was pierced through with a Roman spear. It was the earth’s saddest hour and it was humanity’s deepest, darkest day. At about 3:00 P.M. it was all over. The Lord of life bowed His head and the light of the world flickered out.

To Be Continued

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Saturday Prayer & Praise 5/27/2023

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Philip Doddridge: Piercing Heaven – Puritan’s Prayers

Gracious Emmanuel, send down your spirit of love on all your followers, that we may no longer glory in the little distinctions of any faction or denomination.

Instead, may we show we are Christians, standing together under your glorious banner!

May we wear your mark of honor on our shoulders, or like a crown on our heads.

In that way may the spirit of hatred, disgrace, and persecution vanish like a noxious mist before the sun.

And may it again be said everywhere, as it once was:

“Look how those Christians love each other!”

Amen.

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Faith From The Beginning 5/27/2023

Predestination and Calling

EACH of these men represent one aspect of God’s choosing us, His calling us to Himself. Abraham is the great example of divine, sovereign election and predestination. He was not a Jew when God first called out to him. He was not even a Hebrew. He was a pagan from the land of Ur. In the last lesson, Objects of Faith, I presented a verse from Joshua, chapter 24, where the writer tells us that Abraham came from an idolatrous family. Passing by the whole nation of Chaldeans, God goes to one single family, and in that one family He passes by all except one man, Abraham, and says to him: “I will make of you a great nation.” – Genesis 12:2.  Such action on the part of God is nothing else but sovereign grace, total and complete unmerited, unearned, favor. There was certainly nothing in Abraham. God did not see a thing in him that made him worthy of being called over many others; but in sovereign, absolute sovereign grace, He chose Abraham, according to His own purpose. Abraham, then, becomes the great example of divine predestination.

Then we come to Isaac. In him we have the second step in the plan of salvation in this passage: “Whom He predestined, these He also called.” – Romans 8:30. Isaac is the great example of effective, divine calling. You will recall how Abraham could not wait for God’s promised son to come, so taking matters into his own hands, he raised up a son of the flesh and called his name Ishmael. Even though Abraham had set his heart upon this son, God said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” – Genesis 21:12. God sets aside the oldest, and takes the youngest. The first becomes last, and the last must be the first. In nature, of course, the reverse is always true. The first is always first with us, and we cannot change it. That is the natural order. One is one, and two comes after one. But in grace God always upsets nature, and turns it up-side-down. God makes the last to become first, and the first to become the last. In grace two always comes before one. So He took Isaac, the second, and said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” Thus to reiterate, “For whom He predestined, these He also called.”

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Adapted and modified excerpts from Studies in the Life of Abraham by M. R. De Haan (1891-1964)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Life In Focus 5/27/2023

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Following the Lord – But Not Wholeheartedly

DEMOGRAPHERS today classify roughly one-seventh of the world’s population as Christian. However, church leaders are quick to point out that many adherents of Christianity, particularly in the West, can only be classified as nominal Christians—that is, Christians in name only. They attend church sporadically and show little if any spiritual commitment.

The faith of Amaziah of Judah was nominal. He generally followed the Lord, but not wholeheartedly (2 Chronicles 25:2). Apparently he practiced the Law, but probably did so more out of tradition than out of heartfelt commitment to the Lord. So it is not surprising to learn that Amaziah took ethical shortcuts when it was convenient. For example, he spared the lives of Israelite children of murderers, in accordance with the Law (2 Chronicles 25:3-4). But then he killed 10,000 innocent Edomites (2 Chronicles 25:11-12).

Amaziah’s legacy is a sobering reminder that nominal faith is almost as bad as no faith at all. A person can lead a fine, upstanding life, yet have little or no relationship with God. If the main point of life is to know, love, and serve God, then merely following a noble religious tradition is of little value, and dangerously self-deceiving.

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Courtesy of Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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What Price Unity?

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For Saturday May 27, 2023

Philippians 2:4
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests,
but also for the interests of others.

The greater good is a phrase we hear often today. It has good implications (when a family member gives up a personal preference for the sake of family harmony) and bad (when society decides the unborn and infirm are too big a burden). In other words, the needs of the majority do not always take precedence. But sometimes they do.

In the early church, a situation arose that had the potential to keep the church from becoming the unified body God intended. Initially, the church had a distinctly Jewish flavor—faithful Jews found it hard to immediately give up centuries of laws and traditions that were meaningless to Gentiles. Then Gentiles came into the church, and they found it hard to give up centuries of pagan practices that were offensive to Jews. In Acts 15, we find the church leaders working out a compromise: Jews were to stop insisting the Gentiles keep Jewish laws, and Gentiles were to avoid practices that offended the Jews. The result: peace and unity in the church.

Don’t be afraid to put the interests of others ahead of your own when necessary. The church’s greater good, and God’s glory, will be the result.

In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.
ST. AUGUSTINE

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David Jeremiah, Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions (Tyndale, 2014)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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