LOOK FORWARD IN HOPE!
KEEP LOOKING UP IN EXPECTATION!
With all going on in the world, let’s keep hope alive in Christ Jesus and our eyes focused heavenward. The day of the Bridegroom’s return is one day closer and one year closer than last. Let His Bride be waiting and ready for His great day! God Bless to all our Brothers and Sisters in this New Year of hope and expectation!
According to the legend of the candy cane, this candy was first created back in the 18th century. At that time, in certain areas of Europe, there was said to be a ban on public displays of Christianity. Christians were oppressed and no Bibles or crosses could be owned at the time. One man found this oppression distressing and wished he could share the love of Jesus and the joy of Christmas with the rest of the world. When Christmas came around, children didn’t get to see nativity scenes or enjoy learning about the truth of Christmas. As a candy maker, this man prayed to find a way that he could offer local children a Christmas gift that would allow him to communicate the real message of Christmas.
Although no one is quite sure if the legend of the candy cane is really true, the beauty of the legend is such a reminder of God’s love for us around Christmas. In this legend, it was a way that the candy maker could tell the children the story of Christmas and still today, we have candy canes as a reminder of the real reason we celebrate Christmas.
Another Take On The Legend
It is widely believed that the candy, which earlier was straight as a stick, was given its distinctive J-shape by a German choirmaster. It is said that during service one evening, the children were being very loud and noisy, creating quite a ruckus and not paying any attention to the choirmaster. To keep them quiet and still for the nativity ceremony, he gave them a long, white, sugar candy stick. Since giving chocolates and candies at church was considered sacrilegious, he bent these sticks at one end to make them look like a shepherd’s cane and thus, attached a religious significance to them. In Christianity, Jesus is regarded as the Good Shepherd and so, the staff is considered to be a sacred symbol. The Staff also represents the shepherds who came to visit the infant Jesus.
The candy cane became popular when, in 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant in Wooster, Ohio, who liked candy canes a lot, decided to string them on his Christmas tree as decorations. The idea soon caught up became quite a fashion in no time. By 1900, candy canes, which were earlier only white, came in red stripes, and with peppermint and cinnamon flavoring. Of course, now it’s a popular tradition everywhere.
The candy canes became a much sought-after Christmas-decoration item as the ‘hook’ in the candy made it easier to hang them on the Yule trees, and the unique shape made it an eye-catching attraction.
Symbolism
Traditionally, the only symbolism that was associated with the candy was that of the shepherd’s staff. But now, there is a modern allegorical interpretation of the candy cane. It is said that since the candy cane, when inverted, becomes J-shaped, it is a direct representation of Jesus Christ. The white color of the candy denotes the purity of Christ while the stripes represent His sacrifice and the whipping he received at the hands of the Romans, the color red symbolizing his blood. It is believed that even the peppermint flavor of the candy is so because it is similar to hyssop which, according to the Old Testament, symbolizes purification and sacrifice.
Another Telling
A candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy: white to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the Foundation of the Church and firmness of the promises of God.
The candy maker made the candy in the form of a “J” to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. It could also represent the staff of the Good Shepherd with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who like all sheep have gone astray. Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes for the blood shed by Christ on the cross. So that we could have the promise of eternal life.
Over time the humble candy became known as the Candy Cane. It became more noticeable as a decoration to hang on the tree seen at Christmas time. But the TRUE meaning is still there for all those who “Have eyes to see and ears to hear.” We pray that this symbol will again be used to witness to the wonder of Jesus and His great love that came down at Christmas.
Whatever the truth may be, the fact remains is that the simple, modern-day Candy Cane is and can continue to be a reminder of the real reason we celebrate this time of year!
“Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” Now drink in verse 8. “The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me—A prayer to the God of my life.” In verse 11 he sings, “Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.”
The psalmist was willing to rest his case with God, to lay it at His feet. Those troubles only led him to God. Do your troubles, discouragement, and depression lead you to God? Do they cause you to fall on your knees and come to God? In the darkest hours He is able to reveal His best to you and to me. We are to delight in God. Our faith and hope are undergirded with strong convictions. In verse 6 he wrote, “I will remember You from the land of the Jordan.” He recalled when he went into the house of God. He reminisced about what God had done in his life in the past. If you look into the past and merely see yourself, then you will begin to contrast those circumstances you’ve been through, and your depression will worsen. But if you look in the past and remember what God has done for and in you, then God will use that to help you delight in Him.
The answer to depression is hope, and our hope is not in ourselves but in God. He speaks of delighting not only in the hope of God but also in the help of God. Each time the psalmist mentioned hope, he also spoke of the Lord’s help. “For I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” In verse 11 he spoke of God “the help of my countenance.” The thought here is that God’s face is never marked with disappointment. God is never discouraged.
The psalmist frankly laid the issue before the Lord Himself. The moment he admitted that he had an unfulfilled desire, he began to delight in the Lord, and was on the way to recovery. God’s song would be with him, and his prayer would be unto God in the night as he wrote in verse 8. If you wait for the daylight it may never come. In the dungeon of depression, in the night, may God’s song be in your heart, and may your prayer be unto Him.
How will you face your depression? Endure it? Escape it? Or learn from it? William Cowper wrote numerous poems and hymn lyrics. Many folks do not understand that William Cowper was constantly besieged by depression, and many times even endeavored to commit suicide. Yet, Cowper wrote these words:
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mind Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs, And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take:
The clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.
His purpose will ripen fast, unfolding every hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain.
Despair. He knew it, but he also knew that in the midst of the night, God was there.
What is your desire? Is it for God? Whether you know it or not, it is. Whether you admit it or not, the longing, the frustration, the emptiness, the searching of your heart is for God, He created us to have that longing deep within. Despair may overwhelm you at times. Troubles and trials may overwhelm you, but if you will delight yourself in the Lord in the night, in that darkness, God will bless you in the midst of the experiences when Satan intends to tear you down.
The best holiday gift you can have/give: Clinging to Jesus as a cure for depression and despair, not in all of our schemes and all of our strength, but in thirsty and panting desire to have Jesus supreme in our hearts!
John the Baptist became dreadfully depressed. He certainly had valid reasons. John was in prison and eventually was beheaded for his preaching. He was “the second Elijah,” the “forerunner” to the Messiah, who had, upon seeing Jesus, authoritatively announced, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). He who had preached Jesus began to doubt Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew we find:
“And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:2-3).
Can you imagine that? The man who had preached with an exclamation point now queried with a question mark.
He was down in that moment, but Jesus did not reprimand him. In fact, it is amazing that on the day when John the Baptist said the worst thing he had ever said about Jesus, Jesus said the best thing He ever said about John the Baptist! Jesus praised John with:
“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).
When the prophet was caught in the trap of discouragement and despair, Jesus added the most unfamiliar Beatitude in the Bible. In fact, if I asked you to list all of the Beatitudes you would never think of this one, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Matthew 11:6). Here is a twentieth-century translation of that. “Blessed is he who does not become upset by how I run my business.” The Lord is running His business on schedule, carrying out His program according to His plans and His specification. God does not operate on our timetable, and sometimes it does not add up in our computers. But God is still in control, and we need to realize we can trust Him. We cannot always trace God, but we can always trust Him.
Many Christians themselves are in the dungeon of despair. It may be illness or bereavement. It may be your heart lies in the grave. It may be financial; it may be relationships. “Iron bars do not a prison make,” and we find ourselves in the cage of despair.
I do not understand everything God does or why He does it, but I refuse to be upset with how He does it. I refuse to find in Him a stumbling block. Isaiah 8:14 states that you will either perceive in God a sanctuary or a snare, a stumbling block or a snare on the one side but sustenance on the other side. God will either be to you a problem or a profit. If you try to explain God’s strategies with your logic, and you demand that God satisfy your reason, then God is going to be a snare to you. I choose to locate in Him a sanctuary.
The psalmist was extremely depressed. Great people of God over the years have faced the same kind of experience. It is not wrong to be depressed. Read of Jesus’ emotions in the garden of Gethsemane, and you will discover discouragement and depression. “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). He cried, He wept tears freely. It’s what you do with depression, how you handle it, how you act and react in the midst of it.
We have first the psalmist’s desire, his basic need. Then he painted a picture of despair. But then the psalmist speaks of his delight.
The important thought about your depression is not that you get out of it but what you get out of it. What do you learn from it? If your heart genuinely desires God, then the experience that could tear you down will actually build you up! (Romans 8:28). The darkness of depression eventually can become the most fruitful time of your life.
I heard that plants do not grow in the daytime but at night. They receive the supply of the sun and the atmosphere in the daytime, and at night they expand and grow. This is also true of individuals. Your most significant growth is not when all is rosy. We do not grow in the sunlight but rather in the darkness of life. Everybody desires the “mountain-top” experiences, but our real growth happens down below, in the valleys.
So, what can a Christian do amid despair? The victorious Christian life is not without struggle. The apostle Paul in Ephesians 6 reminded us that we are in a spiritual warfare, a serious business. Many of God’s greatest leaders have fought with depression, and God was able to use that depression. Martin Luther, the founder of the Reformation, was known to have deep fits of depression. Nothing would help, even when he was able to translate the Bible into German. Listen to his own words:
“For more than a week I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all of my members. Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and by blasphemy of God.”
Does that sound to you like a hero of the faith? Depressed. Discouraged. Yet, Luther also confessed that depression was beneficial, for he said without those experiences no one can understand scriptural faith and the fear and love of God. In other words, if we never were depressed we would never realize God could help us with it. It can become a precious opportunity for us to discover God.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, extolled as one of the greatest preachers of all time, was often “down in the pits.” In the latter years of his life he spent months at a time on the French Riviera to escape from the pressures that complicated his life, and most of the time he was physically and emotionally in despair. Spurgeon wrote a letter to his church after being gone several months. Part of it went:
“The furnace still glows around me. Since I last preached to you I have been brought very low. My flesh has been tortured with pain and my spirit has been prostrate with depression. With some difficulty I write these lines in my bed, mingling them with the groans of pain and the songs of hope. I am as a potter’s vessel when it is utterly broken, useless and laid aside. Nights of watching and days of weeping have been mine, but I hope the cloud is passing. There are dungeons, beneath the castle of despair.”
He often found himself in those dungeons.
My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”
Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me.
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? (Psalm 42:3, 5-7, 9-11).
A horrid picture of despair! This psalm gives us a clue to most of our depression. Oftentimes, depression is selfish, when we focus on ourselves too much, when we begin to dwell on our problems, our needs, our wants, our desires. In verse 4 the psalmist was upset because his plans were not fulfilled. He wanted to return to the house of God, and he couldn’t. In the previous he was “bluer than blue.” His feelings needed improving. He was in the midst of the people but apparently was extremely lonely. He seemed to cry all the time. He literally drank or ate his tears. “My tears have been my food day and night.” Throughout both Psalms 42 and 43, he wanted his questions answered, his plans fulfilled, and his feelings improved. In fact, in the sixteen verses of these psalms, the psalmist asks “why” ten times. In one instance he asked “when” once and “where” twice, thirteen questions in total. He merely wanted his questions answered.
He was so wrapped up in himself that he had trouble seeing God. If you want to stay depressed, major on yourself alone. Examine yourself, think of yourself more than others. This will absolutely keep the cycle going.
His emotions had become ingrown. “My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, ‘Where is your God?’ ” He was a grown man, but his tear ducts were overactive. How often our tears reflect the depression and the discouragement we feel. Floods of tears he describes. He moaned about “the noise of God’s waterfalls.” Verse 7 refers to the turmoil of a river flooding and monstrous rapids and cataracts boiling and churning. Then he gives a gripping picture of an overwhelming flood that inundates him, “all Your waves and billows have gone over me.” That phrase is almost the same as Jonah used (Jonah 2:3) when he lamented, “All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.” He next refers to floods of trouble. “Deep calls unto deep” is as if he saw a wave rolling down the river with another right behind, with the one in front calling out to the one in back. Floods of trouble plagued him. Then there were floods of testing. In verses 9-10 his enemies reared their gross heads, asking, “Where is your God?” He was tested at the point of his faith. The committed Christian faces this today. “Where is your God? Why does He allow you to suffer like this? Why doesn’t He come to your rescue? Doesn’t He care? Is He unable to do it? Where is your God?” All the psalmist could do was weep and suffer and long for a visitation from God.
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast” (Psalm 42:1-4).
His basic desire, first of all, was to have a heart for God. Within his heart there was a consuming passion to have spiritual intimacy with God, to feel Him, to sense His presence in an intimate way. I am convinced every individual has that same desire and longing. The person separated from the grace of God, who has not received eternal life, may not be aware there is an emptiness in his life that only God can fill. Those of us who have been saved through the experience of conviction, repentance, and faith, know that what we really need in our lives is the Lord. The writer’s desire was to once again be able to worship in the house of the Lord, sensing close to his heart the presence of the Lord.
The question for many of us is, does God hear us? Does God really intervene in our lives? Can God honestly make a difference? Remember that Jesus invites:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).
As the classic hymn says, “O yes, He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief.” Absolutely.
Every person who hungers and thirsts after God’s kingdom will gather the bounty of God’s response. Billions have cried, thirsting for Him, and He has met their needs, and He will continue to do it for us today. Also, the psalmist’s desire was not only for the presence of God but also for the house of God. In verse 4 he remembered a vast procession winding its way to the house of God. There were jubilant songs of praise to God going to and in the house of worship. In Psalm 43 there is a similar situation:
“Let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God . . . and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God” (Psalm 43:3-4).
God intends for us to have a place where we worship together. The entire history of human relationship with God refers to sacred places where people commune with God. Sometimes it was in the isolation of a Jacob at Bethel, but it still involved a sacred place. When you have a longing for God, you will also pine for His house, for the fellowship of other believers. Remember His house is not the one built with human hands (see Acts 7:48-50; Hebrews 9:24).
Love for God that does not result in a corresponding love for His house and His people is unnatural. God has commanded us to gather together. The born-again believer is inextricably joined to his spiritual brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. We are many members, but we are “all one” and we, the body, need to be united (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27). In spite of the psalmist’s discouragement, he had a burning desire for God and His place of worship.
We cannot minimize corporate worship. When we meet together we draw strength from one another. First there is a desire. This man recognized he had a deep desire for the things of God.
Then, continuing on this psalm speaks about the despair of the psalmist.
Believe me, depression is a normal part of our lives. Rain, for instance, is absolutely essential for health and life on this planet, but we wouldn’t want rain all the time. Right? When there is too little rain, parching drought is the result. When there is too much rain, there is flooding, and we are overwhelmed with it. Yet, we need some rain. We can’t have all sunshine. We also must have night. God set it up where we have daylight and darkness. So both darkness and daylight are necessary. We need balance. Without balance there is chaos and God separated the chaos for a reason in the beginning of our creation story.
But the problems still arise. There is a normal depression we will experience in the course of our lives, but it becomes abnormal when it lingers without abatement, and sometimes nothing we can do helps. Everything we try seems to make it worse. When it hangs on, then the depression gets out of hand. Most of us can readily identify with the psalmist in this matter, and we need to examine it. How does the Christian reach up from despair? How does the Christian yearn for God when we don’t feel like yearning?
The Christian has supernatural resources the non-Christian does not have. When an unsaved individual comes to discouragement, despair, and depression, he may use drugs, alcohol, recreation, or sex as escape valves. But the unbeliever finds that when he tries to escape into these devices, ultimately he has not escaped himself and must face himself. In fact, his escapist tactics only become links in a chain that strengthens the imprisonment he has experienced. Escapism only forges another link in that chain. But the Christian does have resources he can call upon, and that is the main principle of this inspired psalm.
Now this is for sure from the very start. Making us feel guilty because we are discouraged or depressed is not the answer; in fact it is a trick or tool of the enemy. It only drives us further into depression. Our emotions can’t and don’t change on command. If I tell you, “Don’t feel depressed,” that is an impossible command. The answer is not trying to feel bad because we feel bad; not becoming depressed because we are depressed. All of that compounds the problem.
There are times when our depression has physical causes and ought to have medical attention. For instance, certain forms of illness can cause depression. Erratic blood pressure, abnormal blood sugar, and other chemical imbalances can contribute to depression. We also need to remember that our brain is a physical organ just like our other organs and there are natural things that can affect it. When there is acute or severe depression, a competent Christian counselor ought to be enlisted. But there are steps all of us can take to overcome depression. Just as surely as night follows day, all of us have periods of discouragement. So depression and discouragement are a normal part of our lives, but they can become a wedge to drive us away from God, to separate us from those we love, and to destroy our lives. That has always been the enemy’s tactic; to destroy relationships.
However, there is practical, applicable help in this psalm. There are three things that I want to show you in this psalm. First of all, there is the desire of the psalmist.
Coming upon the holidays through the next couple of months (end of 2024), it’s not unusual in the least for people to experience that “blue” period in life. Let’s call it what it is: depression. We tend to get excited initially and our adrenaline starts flowing freely during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s season, but when the season is over, it feels like we take a fall in our emotions. This is nothing new to mankind.
That old song “Am I Blue?” could easily have been written by the psalmist. In Psalms 42 and 43, which could have easily been one psalm, the psalmist was “in the pits” as it were. You name it, it’s apparent that he was depressed, disappointed, discouraged, down, stressed out. He was feeling “mighty low.”
This psalm lays before us two aspects for every believer’s life. On the one hand we are called to begin living in eternity (while still in the natural) with our minds and hearts set on God; on the other, we are also commanded to live in time with our minds and bodies under pressures that cannot and should not be ignored. How can we possibly do both? This psalm instructs us to take seriously both of these aspects in our lives. It is always tragic when a person seems to lie separated from the presence of God. It is sad when a person who once walked with God intimately seems to backslide into their former ways and then no longer senses His presence and the deep joy that flows from that presence.
In the context of both psalms we view not only a heart hungering for God but also literally gasping for worship in the sanctuary. For whatever reason, the psalmist who wrote these words was separated from the presence of God’s people. Sometimes illness, infirmity, or other circumstances will keep us from fellowship and worship. When a person drifts away from God, and God doesn’t seem as precious, or close to him as before, it is doubly sad. There is severe cause for alarm and concern when such is the situation. What happens many times, and we have all experienced it, is that suddenly we realize how spiritually thirsty we actually are, and how desperately we miss that close, intimate presence of God. There is an emptiness and a dissatisfaction when we wander away from the Lord and we no longer walk in companionship with and obedience to Him.
Psalm 42 is a portrait of an individual who was climbing from the depths to the heights. This is where most Americans are. Depression has become epidemic; I’d almost go on to say, pandemic. Statistics tell us there are at least 2,000 suicides every day in the world. In the United States alone there are more than four million people who require special medical help for depression, many times very severe, every year. All of this is especially relevant to our relationship with God. How does it all come and work together?
Our enemy, Satan, wants to discourage us and will do all he can to make us despair. He throws his monkey wrench into our lives at every opportunity. Having to live in a hostile world doesn’t help, does it? Living and working around people who don’t give a rip for God certainly is not easy. With the availability of instant news on television, radio and social media, a person can’t escape much of the onslaught that comes straight on. There are many factors besides the news that add to our depression; then many Christians add to their guilt by feeling they shouldn’t be depressed! Even the greatest men of God were depressed at one time or another.
Paul’s prayer:
That He [the Father] would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love (Ephesians 3:16-17.
The first part of Paul’s request is that God, might strengthen, or, “cause to be strong to overcome resistance,” with power, in other words, “dynamic living power,” (see Ephesians 3:20) through the Holy Spirit in a believer’s innermost being. The result of this is that through faith Christ may dwell in believers’ hearts, that is, their whole personalities. The word used for “dwell” here refers not to the beginning of Christ’s indwelling at the moment of salvation. Instead it denotes the desire that Christ may, literally, “be at home in,” that is, at the very center of or deeply rooted in the life of a believer.
Paul continued his prayer by repeating his request that Christ be the center of believers’ lives. They are to let Christ become the dominating factor in their attitudes and conduct, very thinking and behavior. He stated this in a mixed metaphor of biological and architectural terminology: being rooted (like a plant) and grounded (like a building on a foundation) in love. The key words, “being rooted and grounded” are indicating a past action with continuing results. They could be translated “having been rooted and established.” As believers, we have been “rooted and grounded” and continue to be “rooted and grounded.” The whole purpose of this request is that believers may have power (see again, Ephesians 3:20), in other words, “have inherent strength” in and through Christ Jesus! What an awesome and glorious prayer!
December 01, 2024
John 16:14
He will glorify Me . . .
The pietistic movements of to-day have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them; there is nothing about them that needs the death of Jesus Christ, all that is required is a pious atmosphere, and prayer and devotion. This type of experience is not supernatural nor miraculous, it did not cost the passion of God, it is not dyed in the blood of the Lamb, not stamped with the hall-mark of the Holy Ghost. It has not that mark on it which makes men say, as they look with awe and wonder—”That is the work of God Almighty.” That and nothing else is what the New Testament talks about.
The type of Christian experience in the New Testament is that of personal, passionate devotion to the Person of Jesus Christ. Every other type of Christian experience, so called, is detached from the Person of Jesus. There is no regeneration, no being born again into the Kingdom in which Christ lives, but only the idea that He is our Pattern. In the New Testament Jesus Christ is Savior long before He is Pattern. Today He is being dispatched as the Figurehead of a religion, a mere Example. He is that, but He is infinitely more; He is salvation itself. He is the Gospel of God.
Jesus said—“When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, . . . He will glorify Me.” When I commit myself to the revelation made in the New Testament, I receive from God the gift of the Holy Spirit Who begins to interpret to me what Jesus did, and does in me subjectively what Jesus Christ did for me objectively.
Scripture References: 2 Kings 23:36, 24:8; Acts 21:37-38
The Navy twice arrested William Finch and hauled him in as a deserter, though he is not in the Navy. Someone used his name and social security number when enlisting, then went AWOL. At Great Lakes Training Center, contradictions between the real culprit and Finch became obvious: Finch is five feet seven inches, the culprit is five feet four inches. Finch weighs 220 pounds; the culprit weighs 140.
Marine veteran Richard Cronin was baffled when the FBI arrested him on a drug charge. A day later the FBI decided they had the wrong Cronin. Had they checked the vital statistics of both men, they wouldn’t have made the mistake. The Marine veteran Cronin was forty-nine; the drug dealer Cronin was in his twenties. The Marine veteran, while from Massachusetts, didn’t have the same accent as the Massachusetts Cronin on the FBI tape. Their wives also had different names.
Our spiritual separation from God hasn’t destroyed our inventive genius, but it has robbed us of infallibility. That is why we can compile complete dossiers on all known criminals, but we cannot keep law enforcement officials from misidentifying suspects. When we bring back to God the mind he created in his image, we will immediately experience a sharpening of our senses and discover ways to unerringly express ourselves. That repentance will not occur in this world, but our reborn soul gives a hint of what the next world offers, when all our senses will be perfected and glorified, and totally at God’s behest!
Some even call it the “C” word today, as if to shame commitment. The demands and costs of commitment seem too great to many people, and convenience often wins out over the sacrifice involved in being committed to someone or something.
It was the same in Jesus’ day. As He began to unveil a new way of life, critics challenged Him on the difficulties of keeping the marriage commitment (Matthew 19:3, 7). Later, even His own disciples wanted to send away some “bothersome children” in order to deal with more “important” things (Matthew 19:13). But Jesus remained committed to the children.
The discussion of divorce followed appropriately on the heels of Jesus’ remarks about the merits of boundless forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35). What better way to lead into the topic of commitment? Jesus didn’t ignore the problems and failures of human relationships. Those very shortcomings are what make forgiveness, which is a special kind of commitment to others, crucial.
The vital necessity of commitment is also reinforced in Jesus’ next encounter, with a rich man who wanted to ensure his possession of eternal life (Matthew 19:16-30). The man proposed rule-keeping as the standard by which he should be judged, but Jesus countered with an appeal for service (Matthew 19:21). True wealth involved a higher commitment: serving the Lord and others rather than the idol of material gain (Matthew 19:23, 29).
Followers of Christ are known for their commitments, to marriage, to family, to community, to work, and above all to Jesus Christ. Such loyalty today is much needed, when people often make vows of convenience rather than of commitment.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations (Psalm 100:4-5).
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful (Colossians 3:15).
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
I believe that the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, or Republicans and Democrats. The real difference is between the aware and the unaware.
When somebody is aware of the love that the Father has for Jesus, that person is spontaneously grateful. Cries of thankfulness become the dominant characteristic of the interior life, and the byproduct of gratitude is joy. We’re not joyful and then become grateful—we’re grateful, and that makes us joyful.
~ BRENNAN MANNING
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.
If we endure, we shall also reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12).
Bless God for the wilderness; thank God for the long nights; be thankful that you have been in the school of poverty and have undergone the searching and testing of much discipline. Take the right view of your trials. You are nearer heaven for the graves you have dug if you have accepted bereavements in the right spirit; you are wiser for the losses you have bravely borne, you are nobler for all the sacrifices you have willingly completed. Sanctified affliction is an angel that never misses the gate of heaven.
~ JOSEPH PARKER
“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you” (Genesis 28:15).
God had promised Abraham that His covenant would be established with Isaac, and with his seed after him (Genesis 17:19). Thus was Jacob involved in the confirmation of the covenant, which eventually was called “God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Exodus 2:24; 2 Kings 13:23).
Jacob himself received in addition this beautiful personal promise from God regarding His presence, protection and provision. So then, Jacob having left Beersheba because of Esau’s hostility after the blessing incident, and to seek a wife, received a dream from God. In this dream a ladder, upon which angels ascended and descended, reached from earth to heaven, with God at the top of it. This was when God confirmed His covenant with Jacob. In John 1:51 our Lord interpreted this dream as applying to Himself, the Son of Man, who would bridge heaven and earth, picturing the complete provision which grace has made for sinners, and Jacob was a recipient of this grace. He called the place “Bethel.”
God would reiterate His covenant twenty years later, and give Jacob the name Israel (meaning “God rules” or “prince with God”).
Many dislike Jacob, calling him a cheat, a liar, and a schemer. However, Jacob pictures the believer with two natures in conflict. Lessons from Jacob’s life can be learned based upon the fact that God made promises to him, and positive aspects can be seen in his being submissive and obedient, rendering faithful service with sincerity (see Genesis 27:13; 28:7; 30:29; 31:38).
Jacob can also be viewed as the substitute, replacing Esau, a principle seen in Scripture, such as, the Lord Jesus and Adam, Abel and Cain, Isaac and Ishmael, David and Saul.
Lessons in family life can also be gleaned from Isaac’s family. Favoritism led to much sorrow, strife, rivalry, deception and separations.
So the promises God gave to Jacob were all given through His sovereign grace alone and this is the basis upon which He gives grace to us today.
From Last Lesson: Indeed, it is for this very purpose that God blesses us, that we might praise His wonderful and glorious name! Every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ, and according to the riches of God’s grace, for one purpose:
To the Praise of His Glory (verse12)
Here is another refrain that is repeated in this first chapter of Ephesians. God has predestined and adopted us, and he is making us holy, “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” He has given us our inheritance “to the praise of His glory.” He has made us His very own possession “to the praise of His glory.” God has bestowed every blessing upon us, He has opened up the treasure chest that is in Jesus and lavished gift after gift upon us, not merely so that we might enjoy the gifts, but so that we might praise and glorify the Giver! We have been made Christians, not first of all for our own sakes, but for God’s, “to the praise of His glory!”
So much of modern culture, even modern Christian culture, is geared toward the happiness and fulfillment of the individual. This is why the aforementioned televangelists have gained such a foothold. They say what we like to hear: “God wants to make me happy; to make me fulfilled; to give me blessings.” And they are not all wrong, of course. God does want to fulfill and delight His people. Nothing could be clearer when we read this first chapter in Ephesians! But where the prosperity teachers have erred badly, and where many other Christians fall into error as well, is by overlooking the fact that God blesses us and brings joy and fulfillment into our lives, not simply for the sake of our own joy and fulfillment, but so that we will turn around and bless Him, just as Paul is doing throughout this letter.
I say that many Christians, even those who see right through the sham of the prosperity gospel, sometimes miss this point. So what are some of the implications of that phrase “to the praise of His glory”? What does it mean, in practical terms? It means that we are made more holy, not so we can admire our reflection in the mirror, but so that we will admire the One whose image we reflect more and more! It also means that we are adopted into God’s family, not only so that we can revel in our possessing the rights of children, but also that we might revel in the Father Himself! We are forgiven of sins, not simply so we can feel a sense of relief from conviction, but also that we might praise and magnify the kindness of the God who forgives! We will someday receive our inheritance in heaven, not merely so that we will be able to sit back and think about how wonderful it is to live without sin, tears, or pain, but so that those blessings (and they will be spectacular!) will urge us to press as close as possible to God’s throne and praise Him, the Giver of the blessings!
The Apostle Paul in this opening to Ephesians challenges us and dares us to consider not just the fact of our “every spiritual blessing,” but also the why! Let’s continue to give thanks above all and to do so “to the praise of His [God’s] glory!”
“Every spiritual blessing” is ours only “in Christ.” The Christian faith and the Christian life are all rooted and grounded in Jesus. This is what Paul is getting at in that difficult series of phrases in verses 9-10. In “the fullness of the times,” God made it clear that His whole plan, the whole mystery of His will for mankind, is summed up in Christ! Jesus is the key that unlocked our salvation. Jesus is the treasure chest from which all God’s blessings are drawn. Jesus is the axis point on the timeline of human history. Jesus is the center of heaven’s attention. God has ordered the world, Paul instructs us, that “He [Christ] might gather together in one all things” and that “all things” would be “in Christ.” Therefore, not least in Paul’s understanding of “all things” are the blessings of our salvation. We therefore have “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
Paul reminds us that we are also gifted with these blessings . . .
According to the Riches of His Grace (verse 7)
In verse 3, we are told God is the one who has blessed us. He has done so, not because we deserve blessing, but “according to the riches of His grace.” He has blessed us, not because of some goodness in us, but “according to the good pleasure of His will.” God treats us far better than we deserve! That is the very essence, the very definition of grace!
Grace is a theme that Paul elaborates famously in the second chapter of Ephesians. But even here in chapter one we are reminded of it again and again. We are “in Christ,” we possess “every spiritual blessing,” we have assurance of sins forgiven and heaven awaiting us, all simply because God is kind and gracious; because He, above all, is good and merciful. Instead of rewarding us according to the poverty of our characters, God rewards us “according to the riches of His grace.”
Once again, we ought to pause, with the apostle, and simply revel in the kindness and graciousness of our God! Think, for a moment, about what our sins deserve. Think about how we might have gone astray even in the last week. How might one feel about someone who snubbed, forgot, or ignored us over and over again? Yet, how does God feel about us according to verses 3-14? How kind is He, really, especially when we consider what we actually deserve from His hands? No wonder Paul revels as he writes these verses! No wonder he can scarcely put down his quill or finish his sentence! The kindness of God is too great for words! Paul could go on and on, describing “the glory of His grace” and “the good pleasure of His will.” Surely we ought to do so as well. Surely we ought to sometimes lose all track of time, and perhaps even sentence structure, as we praise “the riches of His [God’s] grace.”
Indeed, it is for this very purpose that God blesses us, that we might praise His wonderful and glorious name!
Assurance (verses 13-14)
So then, in verses 13-14, Paul reminds his readers that this inheritance cannot be taken away. For, when we believed, we were “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.” The Spirit’s presence in our lives is a seal, an evidence of the fact that we really are God’s people. He is like God’s wax signature stamp on the scroll of our lives, indicating that we are the genuine article, that we really do belong to God. Further, if the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is evidence that we belong to God, it is also a pledge, a promise, that, since we surely belong to God, God’s “inheritance” surely belongs to us! The Spirit’s presence in our lives, convicting (convincing, not sentencing) us of sin, illuminating God’s Word, helping us to pray, ordering our daily steps, and so on, brings about an assurance that we really are God’s people and that we will, therefore, surely inherit all the blessings the Apostle extols in this first chapter of Ephesians.
So, says Paul, we have been given “every spiritual blessing” in Christ. Moreover, through his own excitement and exultation, Paul informs us that, far from merely listing these blessings and mulling over each for a moment or two, we ought to bless God for them! Remember, Paul began this long sentence with the words, “Blessed be . . . God!” I hope you might pause, even in the middle of this study, to say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing!”
Now, let us continue on with the concept that we have every spiritual blessing “in Christ!”
Perhaps you noticed that the words “in Christ,” and “in Him,” as well as other similar formulas are repeated over and again in Paul’s register of spiritual blessings:
Paul is emphatic about this point. Yes, God has given us spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing. But He does not snatch these blessings out of thin air. No: the blessings of God are all ours “in Christ.” He is the chest in which are stored the treasures of sanctification, redemption, forgiveness, and so on. We would not (and could not) possess any of these things if Jesus hadn’t come and lived sinlessly where we didn’t and couldn’t; if He hadn’t died the death that we deserve; if He hadn’t risen on the third day; and if He wasn’t seated at the Father’s right hand, even now, interceding for us. “Every spiritual blessing” is ours only because of what Jesus has done on our behalf; only because God loved us enough to give us His only begotten Son; and only if we ourselves are truly “in Him.”
We can never sincerely and truly speak of heaven, of Christian growth, or of being God’s children without speaking of Jesus. We only possess these things “in Him!” Indeed, we should never even speak of the Holy Spirit divorced from Christ. For it is “in Him” that we have been “sealed . . . with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
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FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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