Month: May 2015

…it is often the case, as all the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest.
–J. I. Packer

The testimony of martyrs who sang, testified, and had joy at the moment of their deaths are examples of this truth. The persecution of Christians continues to occur all over the world today. Some are even giving their physical lives for the sake of the gospel. Stop and take a moment to pray for those who are being persecuted for their faith – ask the Father that they would stand strong and find deep fellowship with God through their experience.

And pray that God would continue to help you experience great joy even when the cross is heavy in your life.

Luther said, “Let us not be anxious, the gospel does not need our help; it is sufficiently strong of itself!”

It is the Spirit’s role to convict of sin and convince the seeker of God‘s truth. Our task is to share the story of Christ and to ask the Spirit of God to make the message of faith credible and knowable. Yes, we take their questions seriously and answer them as best we can. We work hard to relate the gospel to the cultural context of our hearers. We want to make the Christian position intellectually viable to searching persons. But to refrain from sharing the most glorious news ever announced to humanity because we might be asked a question that stumps us is a tragedy.
–Rebecca Pippert

Are you willing to be obedient in fulfilling your role to share the story of Christ – and His impact on your life?

But what kind of person was he? According to all the data we have, he was a sage, a wise man, a trustable teacher. That is, he was neither deceiver nor deceived; neither an immoral, selfish, lying conniver nor a sincere but naive, out-of-touch, insane idiot. He made an almost unbelievable claim: He was God. But he was a believable person. To those who met him, this was the fundamental challenge: They had either to believe his almost unbelievable claim or disbelieve his very believable person.
–Peter Kreeft

Have you investigated the claims and character of Jesus?
Have you found out that He is exactly who He said He was?
And if He is who He claimed to be – Lord of all – will you serve Him well today?

By every human standard of reckoning, the cross was a waste — the waste of a young life, a prophet’s influence, and a leader’s potential. We know the secret of its meaning and achievement only from God’s own statements. Similarly, the Christian’s guided life may appear as a waste — as with Paul, spending years in prison because he followed God’s guidance to Jerusalem, when he might otherwise have been evangelizing Europe the whole time. Nor does God always tell us the why and wherefore of the frustrations and losses which are part and parcel of the guided life. Sooner or later, God’s guidance, which brings us out of darkness into light, will also bring us out of light into darkness. It is part of the way of the cross.
–J. I. Packer

Wherever God has guided you to right now, know that the experiences you will have there are not a waste. Even in areas of difficulty you will find that Jesus is there to help you grow in trust and faith and love for Him.

As Walter Wink puts it, “The contagion of holiness overcomes the contagion of uncleanness.” In short, Jesus moved the emphasis from God’s holiness (exclusive) to God’s mercy (inclusive). Instead of the message “No undesirables allowed,” he proclaimed, “In God’s kingdom there are no undesirables.”
–Philip Yancey

And if that is the case, it is our responsibility to take God’s same view – removing all prejudice, bias, and judgment that puts anyone in a “lower” category than ourselves. In fact, the Scripture tells us that we are to put ourselves in the lowest position: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.”

Tough to do.
Yet commanded by God.

Father, help me to see others through Your eyes and love them with Your compassion.