All Hostile to God

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. (Colossians 1:21–22)

The best news in all the world is that our alienation from God is ended and we are reconciled to the Judge of the universe. God is no longer against us, but for us. Having omnipotent love on our side mightily steels the soul. Life becomes utterly free and daring when the strongest being in the universe is for you.

But Paul’s message of salvation is not good news to those who reject the diagnosis in Colossians 1:21. He says, you “were alienated and hostile in mind.”

How many people do you know who say, “Apart from God’s grace, I am hostile to God in my mind”? People seldom say, “I hate God.” So, what does Paul mean that people are “hostile in mind” to God before they were reconciled by the blood of Christ?

I think he means that the hostility is really there toward the true God, but people do not allow themselves to think about the true God. They imagine God to be the way they would like him to be, which seldom includes any possibility that they might be in really serious trouble with him.

But concerning the God who really exists — a God who is sovereign over all things, including sickness and calamity — we were all hostile to him, Paul says. Deep down, we hated his absolute power and authority.

That any of us is saved is owing to the wonderful truth that the death of Christ obtained the grace by which God conquered our hearts and caused us to love the One we once hated.

Many are still learning not to be hostile to God. It is a good thing that he is gloriously patient.

John Piper 

You can be a fragrance, not an odor

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savior of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savior of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. 2 Corinthians 2:14-15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you know how incense is made? By cutting or breaking herbs, then crushing them into a fine powder. Then water is added to this powder to create a clay to form into sticks or cones. What is the purpose of incense? To burn and create a fragrant aroma.

When we understand that, being in Christ, we are going to triumph, and we realize in the spiritual realm, we are living with Christ in victory, we will be giving off a sweet, pervasive perfume of His glory.

ACTION POINT:

When we are praising God in the midst of trials, singing songs of glory in the midst of persecution, claiming His victory when a problem arises, then we are emitting a sweet aroma that is unmistakable to the nostrils of God. This is the sweet smell of victory!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Cheapening of Your Soul

To reduce the worth of, that is the definition of cheapen.

God has given humans, His creations, eternal souls.

They live on, whether in heaven or hell.

That soul life is spiritual.

The soul is who you are!

Our outer bodies die and become corrupt.

If you are God's, your soul will go into a glorified body.

The death and resurrection of Christ assured this marvelous mystery.

God's word never fails!

His kingdom is forever!

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:  - Isaiah 42:5

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.

43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

45 Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.

47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. - 1 Corinthians 15:42-49

The oracle of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: - Zechariah 12:1

and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. - Ecclesiastes 12:7

14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 

15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 

16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. 

17 But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, 

18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. 

19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.  - Psalm 103:14-19

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. - 1 Peter 1:3-5

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

24 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 

25 but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.  - 1 Peter 1:20-25

Dependable in the Mundane

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

One of the most powerful testimonies to the all-sufficiency of God’s future grace is the “faith principle” that has governed the lives of so many missionaries, notably those of Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF).

Without condemning those who follow a different pattern, it has been the practice of those who follow in the steps of Hudson Taylor and George Mueller to move the hearts of supporters to give by directing their requests to God and not to people.

James H. Taylor, the great-grandson of the founder of OMF, explains how this faith in future grace, rooted in demonstrations of bygone grace, honors God.

We . . . begin from a position of faith. We believe God does exist. We have become convinced of this in a variety of ways, but all of us have experienced the grace of God in bringing us to know Himself through Jesus Christ and through rebirth by His Spirit. We believe we have good grounds of believing in Him through the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: we believe that someone who said He would die and rise again, and did it, is credible in every other way. Therefore we are prepared to trust Him, not only for the eternal salvation of our souls, but also for the practical provision of our daily bread and financial support.

OMF publishes testimonies of God’s amazing faithfulness to demonstrate the glory of his all-supplying future grace. “We want to demonstrate that God can be trusted to do all that He says He will do, by sharing how He has provided for such mundane needs as plane tickets, meals, medical expenses, and the regular support of a whole group of Christian people for well over a hundred years.”

What OMF is devoted to is glorifying the dependability of God — in their message and in their method. Hudson Taylor put it this way: “There is a living God. He has spoken in the Bible. He means what He says and will do all that He has promised.”

Lives of faith are the great mirror of the dependability of God.

John Piper 

Are you praying for protection?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matthew 6:13

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Why do you think we return to God time and time again asking Him to forgive us? I think it is partly because we fail to pray the other part of the Lord’s Prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

You wouldn’t come to the end of the day and say, “Lord, give me this day my daily bread.” It’s too late! The day is over. “Lord, protect me” is not a prayer for the end of the day; this is the prayer to begin your day.

We wake up in the morning, come to the end of the day, and say, “God, forgive me. I blew it.” And He does. Do you know why we fail? We’ve learned how to pray “Lord, forgive me.” But we’re not praying, “Lord, protect me.”

ACTION POINT:

Each day this week, begin your day with this prayer. Let it become a habit. Expand your prayer to encompass putting on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18).

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What Makes God Proud

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)

I want very much for God to say to me what he said about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “I am not ashamed to be called your God.”

As risky as it sounds, does this not really mean that God might actually be “proud” to be called my God? Fortunately this wonderful possibility is surrounded (in Hebrews 11:16) by reasons: one before and one after.

Take the one after, first: “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

The first reason he gives why he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has done something for them. He made them a city — the heavenly city “whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). So, the first reason he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has worked for them. Not the other way around.

Now, consider the reason he gives in the front. It goes like this: “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

“Therefore” signals that a reason has just been given for why God is not ashamed to be called our God. The reason is their desire. They desire a better country — that is, a better country than the earthly one they live in; namely, a heavenly one where God is.

When we desire this heavenly city — this dwelling place of God — more than we desire all that this world can give, God is not ashamed to be called our God. When we make much of all that he promises to be for us, he is proud to be our God. This is good news.

So, open your eyes to the better country, the city of God that he has prepared for us, and let yourself desire it with all your heart. God will not be ashamed to be called your God.

John Piper 

Do you have a generous heart? Or a stingy one?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. John 12:25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Two men were discussing the issue of tithing. The first one asked, “How do you figure your tithe? Before taxes or after taxes?” The second answered, “Oh, I figure my tithe before taxes.” “Why do you figure it that way?” he asked. His friend responded, “Because the Lord gets more that way.”

That’s the kind of man who is going to get a blessing from the Lord. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said the Pharisees were so bound up in being sure they gave God one-tenth—but not a penny more—that they even tithed from the mint plants and small herbs. They would have an herb in their hand and count out each leaf one by one to give their exact tithe to the Lord—just enough, yet not too much. How precise they were! Yet there was poverty of heart.

ACTION POINT:

Oh God, give us men and women who say, “Dear God, I’m going for You with all that I am. I’m getting out of the boat with both feet. If You tell me to hit the ground, I’m going to hit it until You tell me to stop.”

 LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers