2022-04-16
1 Corinthians 15:55 NKJV
In a “sting” operation, law enforcement agents set the bad guy up in order to bring him down. That’s what God did to Satan at the cross. For three days it seemed as though Satan had won. Then Jesus rose from the dead and turned his plans upside down: “He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by His victory over them at the cross” (Colossians 2:15 NLT).
The thing Satan feared most, the birth of a church with the power to change the world through the gospel, had come to pass. “The rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord” (1 Corinthians 2:8 NLT).
Christ’s enemies even tried to stop the truth of the resurrection from getting out: “They decided to give the soldiers a large bribe… ‘You must say, “Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body'”… So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say” (Matthew 28:12-15 NLT). Normally hatred for a person ends when they die.
So why then do some people hate Jesus? Because the resurrection is the ultimate proof that He is Lord! Indeed, you cannot be saved unless you believe in the resurrection: “For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10 NKJV).
Soul food: Lev 26-27; Luke 23:50-56; Ps 69:7-21; Pro 10:6-7
2021-06-27
Galatians 5:22 NIV
Everybody has influence over somebody. It’s what you do with that influence that determines whether it’s negative or positive. Sociologists tell us that over a lifetime even the shiest and most introverted person will influence about ten thousand people. Every interaction you have with another person enriches or impoverishes them. Influence is never neutral. And you can’t turn it off, because it’s built into the structure of life itself. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter what your title is. Ultimately, your character will determine if the title fits you.
The Bible says, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NAS). When you have those qualities, people will line up to help you, love you, and follow you. You ask, “How can I display all these qualities?” Humanly speaking, you can’t. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that it’s not only a possibility but a distinct reality – when you’re under the influence of God’s Spirit.
The story is told of a little boy who kept falling out of bed each night and waking his mother up with his crying. One night after tucking him in yet again she asked, “How come you keep falling out of bed?” He thought about it for a minute and then said, “I guess I just stayed too close to where I got in.”
Salvation is the starting point, but unless you spend time each day under the influence of Jesus, you won’t mature, you won’t maximize the spiritual gifts He has given you, and you won’t discover and fulfill your God-given assignment in life.
Soul food: 1 Ki 17:17-24; Mark 5:21-43; John 11:1-45
2021-05-27
Luke 4:18 NCV
Michelangelo’s masterpiece David is in a gallery in Florence, Italy. Thousands of tourists wait for hours every day to get a glimpse. But many of them never notice the series of unfinished sculptures that line the corridor on the way to David. Their forms are identifiable – a hand here, a torso there. The statues were intended to adorn the tomb of Pope Julius ll, but they were never finished. It’s almost as if these sculptures are trying to break free and become what they were intended to be, but they are stuck in stone. Michelangelo called them captives.
We can sometimes go through times of feeling like captives. We can’t seem to break free from habitual sins that hold us back. We know who we want to be, what we want to do, and where we want to go, but we can’t seem to make any progress in getting there. But no matter how long we’ve been stuck, God wants to finish what He started in our lives.
Jesus said His mission was to set captives free (see Luke 4:18). We often tend to think of that statement in legalistic terms, as if salvation is a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card. But it’s much more than that. Maybe we should start to think of that statement in artistic terms. Salvation also comes to release the person we were destined to be before sin distorted the image of God in us. We’re held captive by our imperfections and insecurities, our guilt and anxieties. But Jesus died to set us free from all of that. And He doesn’t just set us free from who we were, He sets us free to become who we were meant to be.
1 Ki 14-15; Mark 12:1-12; Ps 101; Prov 12:12-13
2021-04-21
2 Corinthians 5:10 KJV
Paul writes: “We make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (vv. 9-10 NKJV). If you are wise, you will live each day with this truth uppermost in your mind. You’ll have a “preparation perspective!”
Think about it this way: You don’t just wake up one morning and say, “I’ve decided to be a lawyer, or a doctor, or an accountant, etc.”; no, you make that decision many years earlier, and then you work toward it. Now let’s be clear. As a Christian, you’re not working to earn your salvation, but to earn your reward in heaven. Salvation is the foundation you build on, and the Bible says, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have – Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11 NLT).
Then Paul goes on to say: “Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials – gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” (vv. 12-15 NLT).
When you stand before Christ, you have two options – rewards or regrets. So get a “preparation perspective.”
Soul food: Dan 11-12; Mark 3:7-19; Ps 16; Prov 10:15
2021-04-09
2 Corinthians 11:3 NLT
Have you heard of the velvet ant? It has a coat of tiny hairs that feel smooth and velvety. But it’s all a disguise. It isn’t an ant at all, but a wingless wasp with a nasty sting. After injecting its victims with a venom, it lays eggs in their incapacitated bodies.
One of Paul’s greatest concerns was that, after being saved by grace, the churches would go back to living under the Old Testament law. He constantly warned them about basing their salvation and their relationship with God on their own performance. “I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed” (vv. 3-4 NLT). Another Jesus! Another spirit! Another gospel! Again Paul warns, “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (v. 14 NLT).
Yes, your work for God on earth determines your rewards in heaven. But only by trusting in the finished work of Christ will you get to heaven. No one in heaven will say, “Look what Jesus and I did!” Legalism will not only infect you, it will incapacitate you. Scottish minister Horatius Bonar wrote, “Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole eternity.” How do you protect yourself against “the sting” of legalism? By depending on God’s grace alone.
Soul food: Lev 15-17; Mark 1:14-20; Ps 25:8-15; Prov 10:1
