Reflection

All of us started out as innocent children, readily reaching for the lollipop a stranger offers to us.  As we grow older, we learn to  be more guarded and discerning, to be careful of someone who hands us goodies.  Paul’s words to the Philippian church  exhorts people to grow in knowledge and discernment so that their love may abound.  The word love used by Paul here is agape, meaning charity, brotherly love, good will…but doesn’t this sound contrary to what we know about the ways of the world?  In trying to discern what’s truly good we can become cynical; the more we know about someone, we trust them less and love with reservation.

I had the mistaken notion that we should be innocent like children who love wholeheartedly and without judging, until I read the June 24 entry by Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest”, a daily devotion I’ve read many years ago that stuck with me:

Jesus Christ never trusted human nature, yet He was never cynical nor suspicious, because He had absolute trust in what He could do for human nature. The pure man or woman is the one who is shielded from harm, not the innocent person. The so-called innocent man or woman is never safe. Men and women have no business trying to be innocent; God demands that they be pure and virtuous. Innocence is the characteristic of a child. Any person is deserving of blame if he is unwilling to reconcile himself to the fact of sin.

Reconciled to Christ, we can distinguish between good and evil in spite of what we know of this world and of human nature.  To the devil’s dismay, this discernment does not make us shy away from loving people or doing good works, but as Paul says, should abound more and more.  This is the excellent thing we are to pursue, so that we remain pure and blameless until the day of Christ.  And, we can do this because of Jesus.

Thoughts for the day

Reflection

We are bombarded by advertisements all day long, selling products that will help us look younger, feel better, live healthier. It’s easy to spend our money and energy on outward appearance. When God says that He does not look at appearance or physical stature, but the heart of a man, I am convicted because too often the tendency is to neglect what goes on inside: thoughts of anxious worry, greed, lust, anger, jealousy…the list goes on. Self-help books may address many of these issues, but it requires much discipline to follow through with the advice, and that is if we even recognize our problems and want to deal with them.

As I meditated on this verse during a quiet moment, God encouraged me because I realized that God not only looks at my heart, He can CHANGE my heart so that I don’t remain in my miserable state.    God knows my weaknesses, so it’s comforting to know that He sees my heart, rather than at my failed attempts to slay the giant.  “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NKJV).  When we allow our hearts to be changed by God, the way we perceive our problems will change as well. A negative outlook becomes brimming with hope, a deep rooted sin can be conquered with power from Him. When God looks at our hearts, He is seeing whether we are willing to be changed too. He makes all things new, so why not trust Him to do the same with you!

Thoughts for the day

Reflection

In Acts chapter 13, Paul and Barnabas received the commission to go out and preach the gospel.  Certain of their calling, they went to many cities bringing the good news to people.  However, they were stopped twice by the Holy Spirit during their missionary journey.  Something similar has probably happened to many of us:  when we hit a roadblock on a path that we thought God wanted us to go, we think: “Am I doing something wrong?  Was it really God who told me to do this?  If so, why am I being stopped?”

What encouraged me about today’s verses is that Paul and Barnabas didn’t just give up after the first “no”— they didn’t stop after the second “no” either!  Instead of going home, Paul and company continued westward to Macedonia and began the long and fruitful evangelism into Greece.   What made them continue is what’s important: certainty of their purpose, and being open to God’s leading.  The Bible doesn’t tell us what the Holy Spirit did to stop Paul and Barnabas.  I believe this is because we need to learn how to hear from the Holy Spirit for ourselves.  After we hear the first “go!” we need to continually seek direction from God, and let Him adjust every twist and turn.   We should not think that just because God said “do this”, that we won’t encounter hardship or opposition.  Some of us get very uncomfortable and discouraged when there is no discernable plan of action, or what we so carefully planned is disrupted.   From today’s verses we see that even the apostles learned to discern the Holy Spirit’s leading and to be open, which ultimately shows their trust in God.

Thoughts for the day

Reflection

Jesus, praying for His closest disciples, prays that God the Father will not take Jesus’s disciples out of the world but protect them from the evil one.

God wants us to live in the world but He does not want us to be influenced by the world. The world or the system of the world is under the influence of Satan. As a result, the world promotes the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Every imaginable sin can be summed up in those three evils. The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to be in the world, as we are the salt of the earth in a rotting, decaying world, we are the light of the world in a world in darkness, we are Christ’s ambassadors. The Lord is counting on us to do the ministry of reconciliation, to preach the Gospel to non-Christians, so that they can be reconciled with God. As we live in the world, we will encounter trouble, tribulations, but we should take heart, for Jesus has overcome the world. We should be at peace knowing that, Jesus will always be with us (Matthew 28:20).

Thoughts for the day

Reflection

Today’s verse falls in Jesus’s prayer to God the Father. Jesus talking about His closest disciples, indicates that He (Jesus) revealed God the Father to His disciples. He also indicates that His disciples who belonged to God the Father were given to Him by the Father, and they have obeyed the Father’s word.

Knowing or entering into a personal relationship with God the Father, is as much as important as knowing God the Son, Jesus Christ. For eternal life depends on knowing both, the Father and the Son (John 17:3).

Jesus who is the image of the invisible God, revealed God the Father to us. We get to have  the revelation of the love, goodness,  righteousness, grace and holiness of God the Father through Jesus.

As did Jesus’s disciples back then, we should also obey God’s word, for by doing so, we show that we have come to know Him. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth (1 John 2:3-4).

Thoughts for the day