Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Devotional 081209

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Praise God for a cold winter morning. It reminds us how our Creator God designs this planet for us to witness the cycle of death and rebirth through weather. By the mercy of God, we may encounter destitute of winter in life, but we know that spring is on the way. It is the hope of spring that gives us strength to face the unbearable winter in life. We know that life is not as predictable as four seasons in life. Devastation or calamity could suddenly rush into our lives without warning. It caught us totally unprepared. During this very difficult season of life, we can only find hope and strength in His promise and goodness. Only God can carry us through winter into unforeseeable spring. And we learn to support each other through the trials of winter as a Body of Christ. Amen?

"For by one offering he had perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews10:14). We trample the blood of the Son of God under foot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only explanation of the forgiveness of God and of the unfathomable depth of His forgetting is the Death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the outcome of our personal realization of the Atonement which He has worked out for us. "Christ Jesus . . . is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." When we realize that Christ is made all this to us, the boundless joy of God begins; wherever the joy of God is not present, the death sentence is at work.

It does not matter who or what we are, there is absolute reinstatement into God by the death of Jesus Christ and by no other way, not because Jesus Christ pleads, but because He died. It is not earned, but accepted. All the pleading which deliberately refuses to recognize the Cross is of no avail; it is battering at another door than the one which Jesus has opened. I don't want to come that way; it is too humiliating to be received as a sinner. "There is none other Name . . ." The apparent heartlessness of God is the expression of His real heart, there is boundless entrance in His way. "We have forgiveness through His blood." Identification with the death of Jesus Christ means identification with Him to the death of everything that never was in Him.

God is justified in saving bad men only as He makes them good. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The Atonement is a propitiation whereby God through the death of Jesus makes an unholy man holy.

We are holy not because we are good or intrinsically righteous. Our nature is sinful; therefore we easily fall into sins or develop sinful thoughts. We have to try hard not to sin or react to sinful temptations. Temptation is so powerful in detouring us from sin because our nature is sinful. We don’t need people to remind us that we are sinners. We know from day one that we are sinners, even though we try to pretend we are not. We cover up well. And we don’t want people to come too close or reveal who we really are because we are afraid that they will reject us.

But by admitting that we are sinners do not give us a way out of our helplessness in sins. It will definitely not capable to remove us from the consequence of sins – which is death and eternal damnation. The atonement of Christ is our only way out. Jesus came to offer Himself as living sacrifice, so that we know that we are helpless sinners and His death removed us from the consequence of sins. Praise the Lord! As Christmas is approaching, let’s remind ourselves the precious gift of Christmas is the birth of our Savior who came to die for our sins and make us whole again. Our wholeness is when we allow Jesus to born within our souls by accepting Him as our personal Lord and Savior. Amen.

Love you because of the birth of Christ.
Lawrence

No comments: