Friday, October 30, 2009

Devotional 301009

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It is a blessing to work in a very beautiful environment along the water front of the Bay. I enjoy the beauty of His creation and the indwelling of His presence. Nothing can compare the precious grace of God, who give us this new life in Christ. I can’t imagine how my life may become without this relationship with God. His presence is my wisdom and my strength, which gives me this inner joy and peace that surpasses all understanding. Praise the Lord!

"Without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relation. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual. "We know that all things work together for good," then no matter what happens, the alchemy of God's providence transfigures the ideal faith into actual reality. Faith always works on the personal line, the whole purpose of God being to see that the ideal faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of the common-sense life, there is a revelation fact of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle which always puts Jesus Christ first – “Lord, you have said that seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33), it looks mad, but I am going to venture on your word.” To turn head faith into a personal possession is a fight always, not sometimes. God brings us into circumstances in order to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we can not have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say - "He that has seen Me has seen the Father," we have something that is real, and faith is boundless. Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Some people said that faith is like our muscle. The more you use it the stronger it becomes. You cannot take a pill or eat special diet to grow muscle. You just have to exercise your muscle daily in order to grow it. In the same token, God in His design wants us to grow faith accordingly. Our experience with God grows when we exercise our faith to obey His words each day, no matter how irrational or illogical it may seem.

When I look back in my life, Loretta and I followed Matthew 6:33 as the anchor verse for our marriage and life. And indeed God provides us more than we can imagine as we seek Him first in our lives. God gave us abundant provisions to meet all our daily needs. He gave us two children and they grew up without lacking anything. We grow in Him each day as we continue to put Him first in our lives in whatever we do. I sincerely believe that God honors those who honor Him. I am not perfect, and I can’t say I honor Him in every aspect of my life. But I seek to grow toward this goal and press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me (Phil 3:12b). I encourage you to put Him first in your life and expereicne Him today...

Love you by faith in Christ,
Lawrence

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