Waiting for the Promise

I have a confession to make. I don’t like to wait, but waiting is a part of life. When I was I child, waiting for Christmas seemed like an eternity. Then I couldn’t wait to become a teen, and then an adult. Still we wait. Driving to visit my family on the busiest travel day of the year we found ourselves waiting in traffic. Whenever I checkout at the store, I have a tendency to pick the slowest moving line, and so I wait. When I go to Starbucks, all I want is a plain old cup of black coffee, but I have to wait for the woman who wants a Venti, sugar-free, non-fat, vanilla soy, double shot latte, no foam, extra hot, Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with light whip and extra syrup, double cupped. And so I’m learning to wait.

In the Garden of Eden, God made a promise to Adam and Eve after they sinned. He promised to send a Redeemer who would crush Satan, but the world had to wait thousands of years for the promise to come to fruition.

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15

Two thousand years later, there lived a man named Abraham. God asked him to leave his country and his kinfolk and go to a foreign land that God would show him. He obeys and God makes a promise to Abraham.

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2-3

All people on earth would be blessed through the coming Messiah who would descend from Abraham. But it all began with one child of promise. God promised Abraham and Sarah a son, but they waited twenty five years for Isaac to be born. 

The nation of Israel began with Abraham and one of his best known descendants was King David. When the prophet Samuel anointed David to be the next king, David still had to wait. He waited over 15 years before he would take the throne of Israel. And several years later God makes this promise to David.

The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 2 Samuel 7:11-13

Israel waited another thousand years before the Messiah would come. Three hundred years after King David, God raised up the prophet Isaiah. This promise came through the prophet.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

The virgin birth is important. We’re all born with a sin nature because of Adam and Eve. In order for God to take on flesh and blood without the sin nature, he bypassed the earthly father. The child in Mary’s womb was miraculously conceived by Holy Spirit. Therefore, Jesus was able to live a sinless life and become the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God.

After the prophecy of Isaiah, Israel still had to wait seven hundred more years for the coming of Messiah. And many didn’t even recognize Him when He came. They didn’t realize that He would first come to suffer and die and at His second coming He would establish His earthly kingdom. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  Many didn’t understand that the promised one is Jesus.

In his gospel record, Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus all the way back to Abraham.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew 1:1

And so after the world waited four thousand years, the promised Messiah came to earth to save His people from their sins. Jesus the Christ lived a sinless life, was crucified, died and on the third day He rose again victorious over the grave, death and hell.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12 

And now we still wait. For two thousand years we’ve been waiting for His promised return.  

God’s timetable is not the same as ours. One day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day to the Lord. So from His perspective Jesus has only been gone for a couple of days! Peter encourages our hearts and reminds us why Jesus has not returned yet.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient and merciful toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9  

Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

There is so much for which to thank God. Thank God that we still have our freedom in America and that we worship Him without government interference. Thank you Lord that you set your plan for mankind into motion long before you created the world. Thank you for revealing yourself and your plans for us through your Word. Thank you for your love, your redemption plan, your patience and for your forgiveness.

Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to earth and taking on flesh and blood. Thank you for your sinless life and your sin bearing death on a cross. God made you to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in you Jesus. Thank you for being our substitute, paying the price that we owed for the penalty of our sins. Because of your sacrifice we can come boldly and with confidence to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need. Thank you Lord for enduring the cross, scorning its shame, and now you sit at the right hand of the throne of God, ever making intercession for us. Now God has exalted you to the highest place and given you the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Thank you Father for my spouse who is the perfect complement for me, thank you for our children, our extended family and our church family. Thank you for our Christian friends and for those friends who have yet to join your family. Thank you for life, health and strength, for the activity of our limbs, for the experience of our senses. Thank you for the beauty of the world around us, the sun, moon and stars, all of nature and the beautiful colors we experience each year. Thank you for food, clothing, shelter, material blessings, for our jobs and the ability to do our work for your glory. Thank you Lord for giving us a future and a hope. We eagerly await the day when the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise. Then we who are still alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Our hearts are filled with gratitude because we are called, chosen and kept by the power of your Holy Spirit. All glory, praise and honor is due to you O God our Father, in the matchless name of Jesus our wonderful Lord and Savior, Amen.

Jesus Christ is our hope!

I grew up in Philadelphia in a very dysfunctional family. My father was a verbally and physically abusive alcoholic. There were many times my mother, my sister and I had to flee for safety to a relative’s house.

My mother put us in Catholic school to get a good education. We also got a good dose of religion. Catholic school taught me that if I was good enough, I would get to heaven. So I tried to please God by doing good. Only problem was I wasn't very good at being good or doing good.

In 1969 we moved to New Jersey and I started attending public school. That was around the time when both my parents became Christians but I became disillusioned with organized religion. So I turned to drugs and alcohol and lived a very wild and self-destructive life for many years.

At 21 years of age, a Christian bookstore owner invited me to church where I first heard the gospel and gave my life over to the control of Christ. Jesus Christ can bring hope to an otherwise hopeless life.

When you become a Christian, something supernatural happens! You receive the Holy Spirit. This physical body becomes the temple of God. The Holy Spirit gives us assurance that we're in God’s family.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:16-17

When you're a member of God’s family, you're an heir to a spiritual inheritance.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14

The Holy Spirit is the earnest, the down payment, the guarantee of our inheritance. Now you have the Spirit living within but one day we get to cash in the Holy Spirit for our full inheritance, living eternally with God.

I know what it’s like to be without hope. Maybe you feel hopeless today. You may have a degenerative or terminal disease. Your marriage may be on the rocks. You may be a drug addict or alcoholic. You may be on the brink of financial failure. You may have given up all hope and want to end it all. That’s not the answer. Jesus is the answer. There is no problem so big that God can’t solve it. Your life may be a chaotic mess but there is hope in Jesus Christ. Stop running from God. Turn and run to Him!

Walk the Walk

When the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the saints at Colossae, he wanted to encourage them to continue to walk the walk of faith. That means that their daily conduct and character should exemplify Christ and bring honor to His name. Just like today there were false teachers creeping into their church, so Paul prayed that the Colossians would have godly wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:9-10

What a contrast between Paul's prayer and most of the prayers we hear today. Usually we pray for physical healing and blessing or for material wants and needs. However, Paul prayed for their spiritual growth. When is the last time you prayed for someone's spirtual growth rather than their physical well being?

Paul prayed for their spiritual knowledge so they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him. Since these things were written down for our learning, how do we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord? The answer is right there in his prayer. We walk in a worthy manner by growing (bearing fruit in every good work) and knowing (increasing in the knowledge of God).

Just like a fruit tree, God designed Christians to bear spiritual fruit. Jesus said this brings glory to God and lets others know that we belong to Him.We also should be increasing in the knowledge of God. There is nothing worse than an immature adult, and as you grow from a spiritual baby to spiritual adulthood you should become mature. Maturity comes by studying and applying the word of God. Another way to walk worthy of the Lord is to be strengthened with His power and to be thankful.

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:11-14

When we are relying on the Lord for our strength, He gives the power to endure life's circumstance with patience and joy. In these verses we also see several reasons to have thankful hearts. We give thanks to God the Father because He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Our bodies are the temple of the indwelling Holy Spirit and we have the promise of eternal life in Jesus Christ. We are also grateful that God has delivered us from Satan's snare and transferred us into the kingdom of His dearly beloved Son. Through Jesus' death, burial and resurrection we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins. So, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ today...growing, knowing, strong and grateful!

Substitutionary Atonement

You’re not a sinner because you sin; you sin because you’re a sinner. We were born sinners and sin separates us from God. You can try in futility to atone for your sins or accept the price that has already been paid for our sin through Jesus Christ.

Have you ever wondered why people die? It all began with our ancestors Adam and Eve. They were warned not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said that if they ate from that tree they would surely die. They disobeyed God and death came into the world. The penalty for our sin is death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. Hebrews 9:27

But if you die without Christ you will experience spiritual death, eternal separation from God.

Yes, God is love but sin’s penalty must still be paid. So the Son of God decided to become our divine substitute. This would require Him to leave heaven, come to earth and take on flesh and blood. 

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Jesus Christ our sinless Savior bore the sins of the world on the cross.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 

When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, a merciful and loving God was able to pardon and cleanse everyone who would receive Him, because the divine substitute took upon Himself the penalty for our sin.

To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12 

 

The atonement is unlimited in scope, available for all. The love of God reached out to the whole world when God gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

Scripture undoubtedly shows the universality of the provision of the Atonement. Jesus clearly died for everyone. The opportunity to be born again is now given to you.

The atonement is sufficient for all men, but it is only efficient only for those who believe! The atonement becomes effective when you receive Christ by faith. Jesus Christ died for the entire world, but if you don’t accept God’s gift, you have no other recourse.

The Mind of Christ

In Christ do you have any encouragement?
Any comfort from his love?
Are your hearts tender and compassionate?
Any fellowship from the Spirit above?

Then make me truly happy
loving one another, be kind,
agree with each other wholeheartedly,
work together, one purpose, one mind.

Life is too short to be selfish
there’s no need to try to impress.
With humility put others first.
Don’t look out for your own interests.

Have the same attitude as Christ Jesus
who took the humble position of a slave
and was born in human flesh
to offer the way to be saved.

When he appeared in human form,
in humility He obeyed God’s plan
died a criminal’s death on the cross
provided redemption for every man.

God granted Him the highest honor
His name is above all other names
every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
Jesus Christ is Lord, heaven and earth proclaims.

Based on Philippians 2:1-11