The Name of the Lord - Multi-faceted

 

As Believers, we are called by the name of the Lord. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture (Isaiah 43:7; Jeremiah 14:9). In His name we are washed, sanctified and justified in the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

God chooses individuals to stand and serve in His name; and requires that some cities and houses are dedicated to His name (Acts 9:15; Deuteronomy 18:5, 7; 1 Samuel 17:45; 1 Samuel 7:13; 1 Kings 8:19, 18:24; 2 Kings 21:4, 7; 2 Chronicles 7:16, 12:13; Nehemiah 1:9).

Jesus is the King who came in the name of the Lord (Luke 19:38); His name is also Emmanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23). When we call on His name, we are saved (Acts 2:21).

Those who believe in the name of God's Son receive eternal life (1 John 5:13). Those who do not believe in His name condemn themselves to eternal judgement (John 3:18).

When we receive Jesus and believe on His name, He gives us the right to become His children, and we receive forgiveness for all of our sins (John 1:12; Acts 10:43).

If we realize our reliance on God, obey His Word and do not deny His name, God opens doors for us, which no one can shut (Revelation 3:8). The power, provision and protection of His name are always near to us (Psalm 75:1).

The Lord appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, but He did not reveal Himself to them as Lord (Exodus 6:3). He set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark, to serve Him and to bless His name (Deuteronomy 10:8; 18:5).

The one hundred and forty-four thousand will have the name of the Lord and the Father written on their foreheads (Revelation 14:1, 4). We also overcome our enemies in the name of the Lord (Psalm 44:5).

When we come in the name of the Lord, we are blessed (Psalm 118:26). The Father keeps and protects us in His name, which He gave to Jesus (John 17:11-12).

Prayer:

Father God, if we are hated, ostracize and insulted for our stand for the name of Christ, we are also blessed, because Your Spirit and glory rest on us (Matthew 10:22, 24:9; Luke 6:22; 1 Peter 4:14). We rejoice when we realize that we are considered worthy to suffer for Your name (Acts 5:41).

Remind us to make disciples from all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Help us to cast out demons and to heal the sick in Your name (Mark 9:38; Acts 3:6); and whatever we ask, for the sake of Your name, we know that You will do it (John 14:13-14).

Thought for the Day:

The Holy Spirit, our Helper, comes from the Father in Jesus' name to teach us all things and bring them to our remembrance when we need them. - John 14:26 

Many thanks to Matt Milligan Photography for photo.

Moving Forward through Forgiveness

God became man in order to atone for our sins, because we could never pay the debt on our own (1 John 4:19). Jesus loves us more than a pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45).

Jesus relinquished his royal status and gave His life, so that we can live as God's adopted children and joint heirs with Him to receive all that the Father owns in His Kingdom (Romans 8:16-18).

God forgives us of every transgression of His law; but unless we forgive our self, Satan keeps us under his bondage to degradation and sin. The shame we feel for our behavior is fed by Satan's lies, which He whispers in our heart day and night (Revelation 12:10).

Satan knows that if we ever forgive our self, and dedicate our life completely to the God who saved us, he will lose us forever. There is no thought, word or deed, which we commit, that is too horrific for God to forgive (Romans 5:8).

Most of our choices are mistakes that we make without thinking, although some of them are premeditated. Yet, God forgives each one, which we confess, according to His mercy and justice (1 John 1:9, 3:9). He erases the injustice of our behavior with His goodness and grace.

God has a perfect plan for us and our true joy lies in following that plan (Ephesians 2:10). It is never too late to change. We can lay down our shield of lies and our heavy burden of pain at Jesus' feet.

We come to God in our weariness and hopelessness, and He gives us rest for our soul and births life into our dead spirit, which we carried around within us for our whole life, until the day we repent (Matthew 11:28).

Prayer:

Father God, Your Spirit joins Your Bride in encouraging anyone who reads or hears Your Word to come to Your river of life (Revelation 22:17). Your voice penetrates the hard wall, which we build around our soul to keep out the pain of the past and the eventual pain of the future.

This wall crumbles when we face life's difficulties with Christ in us. Help us not to patch up the wall of defenses and build it higher and thicker, and to realize that only Your love can protect us from life's hardships and storms (Isaiah 4:6).

Complete surrender to Your call on our life will put us under Your umbrella of protection (Job 11:13-15). You give us a place of repose (Isaiah 28:12). You refresh and satisfy our faint heart (Jeremiah 31:25). You give us Your living water to drink for eternity (John 7:37).

Thought for the Day:

Forgiving others and our self is the key to freedom from the destructive aspects of life and it is the door to our freedom in Christ.

The Mind of Christ

Jesus laid down His life for everyone ever born in the entire world throughout the ages of time (John 3:16). However, most people reject His provision. This also occurred in the days of Noah. There was plenty of room in the Ark, but only one family chose to believe God. Jesus asks us to take up our cross daily (Matthew 16:24). He commands us to love one another with the same sacrificial love that He has for us (John 13:34-35).

Jesus gave up His home in glory, humbled Himself and took on the form of a man in order to pay the sin debt we owed (2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:7). He came to serve, not to be served (Matthew 20:28). We take His yoke upon us and learn of Him (Matthew 11:29). Then, we allow Him to meet the needs of the saved and unsaved through us. We take on one another’s burdens, just as He took our sins upon Himself.

Jesus wants us to network with others to provide for the needs of our community. Each day, as God gives us an opportunity, let us do good things for everyone, and especially for those in God’s family (Galatians 6:10). God equips us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30), and then provides us with His strength to minister to His Body. He is our constant help and our refuge in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1).

God’s grace is totally sufficient for us, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Therefore, we can actually boast in our weaknesses, because then the power of Christ is manifested through us. We take pleasure in trials and tribulation, because when we are weak, He is strong within us (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). There is no need for us to entertain fearful or depressing thoughts over our circumstances, because God’s joy becomes our strength (Nehemiah 8:10; Isaiah 12:2).

God is never far from us, and He always hastens to help us, even when His timing is not as fast as we would like it to be (Psalm 22:19). At times, spiritual warfare is taking place in the heavenly realm, just to provide us with our needs (Daniel 10:12-14). When the fiery darts of Satan descend upon us, God is our shield. Our heart safely trusts in Him, because He always helps us. His provision gives us joy and fills our heart with songs of praise for Him (Psalm 28:7-8, 118:14).

Prayer:

Lord God, be gracious to us, as we wait upon You. You give us your strength with each new morning and You save us in our times of trouble (Isaiah 33:2; Isaiah 40:29-31). You give us stable passage as You call us to walk among the mountain tops with You (Habakkuk 3:19). You gave us Your example by forfeiting Your home in glory and by taking the form of a servant in human likeness (Philippians 2:7). Therefore, we lay down our life for You and for those You bring our way, because we want to love You as You have loved us.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus loved us so completely that He gave up His heavenly identity and humbled Himself as a man.

God's Foreknowledge

Read: Psalm 139:15-16

“Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.” – Psalm 119:73

God created each and every one of us with a purpose in mind. He wants to bless us and shower us with His love as we perform His will for our life. Jeremiah gives us a great picture of this truth. Before God formed him in his mother’s womb, God set him apart and appointed him as His prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).

Paul made this same statement. He realized that God set him apart from birth and called him by His grace. God was pleased to reveal Jesus to Paul, so that Paul would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. No human being revealed this to Paul. God called Paul Himself (Galatians 1:15-16). God is not hindered by time, because He lives in eternity. He created life and He sees the past, present and future all at once without the restrictions of time. God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

Jesus existed before anything was created. He actually created everything – the visible and invisible things, as well as all the dominions and rulers and authorities. They were created through Him and for Him, and He holds everything together (Colossians 1:16-17). God chose us in Christ according to His foreknowledge, saved us by the blood of Jesus and sanctified us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (1 Peter 1:2, 20; Ephesians 1:4).

 

God knew before the foundation of the world who would believe in Him. Therefore, He predestined all Believers to become conformed to Christ’s image (Romans 8:29). Jesus was the firstborn, and we are co-heirs with Him and adopted into God’s family (John 3:16; Romans 8:17).

Those whom God predestined because of His foreknowledge, He also saved; and those He saved, He also sanctifies them throughout their lifetime; and those He sanctified, He will also glorify their body when they joined Him in heaven (Romans 8:30, Romans 11:2). By God’s set purpose and foreknowledge, He handed Jesus over to wicked men, who put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross (Acts 2:23). This was part of God’s plan before He even created the universe; because He knew mankind would need a Savior (Revelation 13:8; Acts 2:3).

Jesus also had foreknowledge of His death. He knew from the beginning of time and creation which of His apostles would believe in Him for salvation and who would betray him (John 6:64; 13:11). When Judas led the soldiers into the garden, Jesus willingly gave Himself over to them (John 18:4). He readily gave up His life, because Jesus came to seek the lost, to pay our sin debt and to save us for eternity (Luke 19:10).

The Lord keeps His promises to us. He is patient with us, calling us over and over again, because He does not want anyone to perish in eternal damnation, but for everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). God also came to give us abundant life on this earth, as well as in the next life with Him (John 10:10).

Prayer:

Father God, You are like the wind. We cannot see the wind. It blows wherever it pleases. We hear its sound, but we cannot see where it comes from or where it is going; just its affects as it passes by (John 3:8). We are amazed at how You formed us in our mother’s womb. Your ways are far above our understanding. You are the Maker of all things (Ecclesiastes 11:5). We find comfort in Your foreknowledge and we thank You for including us in Christ’s Body

Thought for the Day:

God did not design mankind with a predisposition for belief or unbelief, but He had a foreknowledge of our choices (1 Peter 1:2; Acts 2:23; Romans 8:29).

What Does It Mean to be Saved?

Read: John 3:16-18

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." - Galatians 2:20

God issued a universal call to all men to come to Him for eternal life (John 3:16). Due to our unbelief, we are lost in our trespasses and sins. We are condemning ourselves to eternal doom, because we refuse to accept Jesus’ death as a ransom for the penalty of our sins (John 3:18). We cannot cross over from spiritual death to everlasting life until we do surrender our life completely to Christ. Jesus took our sins and received the punishment of that sin on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21). In exchange, He gave us His righteousness.

When God sees the Believer now, He no longer sees our faults, but only sees the perfection of Christ within us (Philippians 3:8,9). Once we do accept Christ as our Savior, our old, sinful nature is crucified with Christ on the cross (Galatians 2:20). Sometimes, we are still enticed by the lusts of our flesh, the draw of Satan’s deceitfulness, or the temptation of the world. Then we allow sin to war in our soul – our mind, will and emotions - against the things of the Spirit. Thankfully, our carnal nature no longer holds power over us, because we are set free through Christ’s redemptive work on the Cross (Romans 8:2).

Though we still struggle with sin in the flesh, the Bible declares we have victory over both the penalty and the power of sin. As we walk in the Spirit, we will no longer fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16, 18, Romans 7). Once we see ourselves as being crucified with Christ, we can also see ourselves as resurrected with Him. This resurrection life starts with salvation and is ours now and for all eternity (Romans 6:4-5).

As we walk in this crucified life, our lives are a witness to the freedom of the gospel message to everyone who knows us.  We receive power to live a victorious life free from sin. We are made alive in the peace and joy of Christ to live righteously (Romans 6:18). We are set free from sin and are now slaves to God. Eternal life is our reward for living in holiness (Romans 6:22). We eventually come to a point where we stop living according to the flesh, and we set our mind only on the things of the Spirit instead.

Whoever is born of God does not live in habitual sin, because God’s seed remains in us. Our spirit is eternal, holy and spotless. We are no longer slaves to sin, but set free to enjoy God’s glorious freedom (Romans 6:2). We cannot live a sinful lifestyle, because we have been born of God through Jesus’ death on the cross (1 John 3:9). Christ lives in us now and His power breaks the yoke of bondage to sin in us, so that we are continually growing closer to the point of being totally dead to sin of any kind (Colossians 1:27; Romans 6:11).

Pledge to surrender your life to Christ, then to fill your life with Bible reading, praying, serving and worshipping God. Attend services with your church family. Surrender to the guidance of His Holy Spirit all day long. The more time we spend in God’s presence, the less time Satan will have to tempt us to sin. Salvation is something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about God’s gracious salvation prepared for us (1 Peter 1:10). The reward for trusting Christ is the eternal salvation of our souls (1 Peter1:9).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you for the undeserved favors of Your mercy, the power of grace to resist sin, the peace of a spiritual walk, the discernment to detect Satan’s wiles and the wisdom to walk away from them. We know that to be carnally minded is death; so we choose to be spiritually minded and to enjoy Your life and peace (Romans 8:5-6). Let our light so shine that everyone we know will see our good works and glorify You and want to join us in heaven.

Thought for the Day:

Live a life, which is both dead to sin and raised to walk in the freedom of Christ.