Obeying the Gospel

THERE AROSE ANOTHER GENERATION (JULY 28)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/arose-another-generation-july-28/". . . there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10).THE LAND OF CANAAN FINALLY HAVING BEEN GIVEN TO ISRAEL, THEY ENTERED UPON A TIME OF PEACE. “The people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel” (Judges 2:6,7). But then the text says, “All that generation . . . were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel” (v.10). Once the struggles were over, it did not take many generations before God was forgotten.Despite the numerous negative aspects of “warfare,” spiritual as well as physical, it is a fact that strength, not to mention gratitude, is generally built up through struggle and testing. (If you think danger is never one of the “good and perfect gifts” that might come from God, meditate on Judges 3:1-4 for a while.)As far as our dealings with God are concerned, there are many kinds of ease that tend to weaken us spiritually. If there was no more contending for the faith that needed to be done (Jude 3), no more hard work for others’ benefit (2 Corinthians 12:15), no more cost to our discipleship (Luke 14:28), and no more cross to be borne (Mark 8:34), we would be foolish to think that a generation would not arise that “did not know the Lord.” No age, including our own, has ever been exempt from the law of spiritual entropy.I fear that the very fact of social acceptability has hurt the Lord’s people in countries where “Christianity” is the predominant religion. Couple that with the affluence, ease, and comfort that many of us have gotten used to, and the mixture is a lethal cocktail. This essay is not a recommendation for seeing how hard we can make our lives. It is intended to be a warning: we are never in greater peril than when the war is over and peace has broken out."Events and circumstances awaken our religion, as though there were no need to pray to God except in illness and sorrow. As soon as affairs take a turn for the better and the danger is past, our devotion vanishes; the most we think of doing is to thank God for the successful end of our troubles; after a short act of gratitude we forget him and think of nothing but our pleasures" (Jean Nicolas Grou).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

DELIVERED BY A STRONG HAND (JULY 27)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/delivered-by-strong-hand-july-27/"They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand" (Nehemiah 1:10).THE PEOPLE OF JERUSALEM OF WHOM NEHEMIAH SPOKE HAD BEEN DELIVERED FROM THEIR CAPTIVITY IN BABYLON. But this deliverance, as great as it was, foreshadowed a much greater deliverance: the redemption of the human race from slavery to sin.To “redeem” is to rescue someone from a plight in which they are helpless to deliver themselves. In Nehemiah’s day, the Jewish exiles who had returned to Jerusalem had been able to do so only because God made it possible. So Nehemiah could pray to God, “They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed.”When it comes to the matter of our sins against God, none of us can deliver ourselves from the consequences of those sins. No amount of moral effort would ever be enough to restore the innocence we had before we sinned. Our efforts are good as far as they go, but a whole lifetime of self-improvement would not be enough. Our sins have alienated us from our Creator, and that alienation is a wide gulf we are simply not able to bridge by our own diligence.But just as it was by God’s “great power” and “strong hand” that the Jews were delivered from Babylon, the same strength is sufficient to bring us out from the captivity of sin and death. Indeed, the power required to deal with sin is greater than what was needed to release the Jews from Babylon. In both cases, however, it is God’s power. He is our Deliverer just as much as He is our Creator.So heaven will not be for those who have earned it by their own success in being good people; it will be for those who have been rescued by the Great Redeemer. Will we accept this rescue or reject it? Answering that question is the most crucial challenge we will ever face in our passage through this world. But we need not make it harder than it is. Jesus waits eagerly to welcome us to His forgiveness. He is not looking for perfect people. He is looking for sinful people humble enough to see how much they need His forgiveness."If I had the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of John, the meekness of Moses, the strength of Samson, the obedience of Abraham, the compassion of Joseph, the tears of Jeremiah, the poetic skill of David, the prophetic voice of Elijah, the courage of Daniel, the greatness of John the Baptist, the endurance and love of Paul, I would still need redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of sin" (R. L. Wheeler).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

JOB’S FAITH (JULY 26)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/jobs-faith-july-26/"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God" (Job 19:25,26).JOB WAS A MAN WHO RESOLUTELY REFUSED TO GIVE UP HIS FAITH IN GOD. Having seen, when the sun was shining, that there were strong, compelling reasons to trust God, he did not let go of those reasons when the darkness closed in. He hung on to hope. “I shall see God” was the confidence that held him steady.It is always disappointing to me to hear people mock faith as nothing more than “wishful thinking.” Granted, there are some who believe only because it makes them more comfortable (just as there are some whose doubt is mainly emotional), but faith, rightly considered, is not wishful thinking. It is confidence in unseen, intangible realities based on solid evidence. If the evidence is strong enough, there need not be anything flimsy about faith. It can be as strong as the reasons that support it. Faith “is a well-grounded assurance of that for which we hope, and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 Weymouth).It is an obvious fact that this life can be hard. I remember years ago being at Arnold’s Country Kitchen in Nashville, Tennessee, sitting across the table from a crusty old drifter. Somehow we got to talking about death, and he said, “I ain’t afraid to die; it’s gettin’ to that point that’s got me worried.” It reminded me of Napoleon Bonaparte’s saying that “it requires more courage to suffer than to die.” Job would have agreed. And today, we are naive if we think our faith is always going to be easy to maintain. To embark on the Christian life is to enter upon an endurance test in which our resolve will have to be very strong.For all Job knew, he was going to die from his afflictions, but if so, he was unconcerned: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” Job knew God would be waiting for him on the other side. “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” Ultimately, that is what faith always is: trust in the God who is — for now — unseen."Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe" (Augustine of Hippo).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

HOW DO WE “REND” OUR HEARTS? (JULY 25)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/how-rend-our-hearts-july-25/"'Yet even now,' declares the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments'" (Joel 2:12,13).JOEL’S MESSAGE FROM GOD, LIKE THAT OF ALL THE PROPHETS, WAS THAT THE PEOPLE SHOULD TURN AWAY FROM THE SINS THAT HAD CUT THEM OFF FROM GOD. Even when God’s long-delayed judgment had fallen upon them, it was possible, as long as life lasted, for them to repent and be restored to God’s favor and blessing.True repentance from sin is a matter of serious sincerity — much more than a quick “Sorry about that; I guess I could have done better.” With Israel, God pleaded for deep sorrow: “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Hearts touched by the knowledge of sin will grieve in a way that shows up in things like weeping and fasting. But it is the heart that is the primary concern. An outward show of sorrow would mean nothing to God if the heart was not penitent. So God said to the wayward, “Rend your hearts and not your garments.”This does not mean that outward manifestations of godly sorrow are unimportant. The saying in Joel is an example of the familiar “not-but” construction found in the Scriptures: “Not [this], but [that].” When, for example, Jesus said, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27), He was not denying the importance of working for our physical food; rather, He was giving priority to our spiritual concerns. So it is with repentance. Outward expressions of grief are not to be suppressed, but it is in our hearts, first of all, that God looks for sorrow.So how, exactly, do we rend our hearts? We do it by confronting the awfulness of our sin, without self-pity or any evasion of responsibility. We grieve how we’ve selfishly rebelled against God’s love. And we yearn — we weep — to be with Him in eternity, whatever we may have lost by our sins in the here and now."Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms . . . This process of surrender -- this movement full speed astern -- is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death" (C. S. Lewis).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

YOU NEVER KNOW WHO WILL BE RECEPTIVE (JULY 24)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/never-know-who-receptive-july-24/"And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them" (Jonah 3:5).JONAH WAS RELUCTANT TO ACCEPT THE ASSIGNMENT TO GO TO NINEVEH AND PREACH A MESSAGE OF REPENTANCE. But finally he did go, and the people of Nineveh recognized that what Jonah said was true. They repented, turning away from what was sinful in their habits. If Nineveh existed today, it probably wouldn’t be high on our list of places to preach the gospel — yet Nineveh repented.I once knew an evangelist who frequently said, “Let the gospel do the culling.” In other words, rather than predetermine who we think will be receptive to the gospel of Christ, those of us who are Christians need to broadcast the message far and wide — and let the message itself determine who will respond and who will not. We may be surprised that some are more receptive than we thought they would be. We should learn to “never say never.”The fact is, receptiveness to the gospel is determined by hidden factors within a person’s heart. We can’t see these, but God can. He knows who is ready to hear, whether it is someone we might recognize as an honest hearer or not. Even in a place like Corinth, whose depravity was known far and wide, God encouraged Paul: “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people” (Acts 18:9,10).We tend to see people only through the lens of their past. That is understandable because, unlike God, we can’t see their future; the only information available to us is historical. And unfortunately, if a person’s past is so sinful (as was the case with Nineveh) that we deem them unlikely candidates for God’s grace, then we probably won’t “waste the time” it takes to present the gospel to them.But what about our own need for the gospel? Looking only at our past (which may be much like Nineveh’s), we may not be able to see what God could make possible if we would repent and embrace the gospel wholeheartedly. But the gospel can be just as powerful for us as for anybody else. Yes, it will take courage and humility — but repentance is a doorway far too wonderful not to enter."Repentance is another way of saying that the bad past is to be considered as the starting point for better things" (Dorothy L. Sayers).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THOSE WHO TAKE REFUGE IN HIM (JULY 23)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/refuge-in-him-july-23/"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness" (Nahum 1:7,8).IT IS A DIFFICULT WORLD. The expression “survival of the fittest” would never have been coined in a world where there was no resistance to be met, a world where everything was just right for every creature. But obviously, our world is anything but just right for any creature. To survive, and then to thrive, requires struggle, and to lose the struggle is to suffer in many heartbreaking ways.In such a world, the God of the Scriptures presents Himself to us as a God in whom people can find “refuge” — safety, sanctuary, and sustenance. In this life, the promise is not that the struggles will disappear but that there will be His provision of help. And with His promise of help, we can see that He is a God of hope.There are those, of course, who portray faith in God as nothing more than wishful thinking. The argument is that in a difficult world, people naively and superstitiously believe in an all-powerful “Heavenly Father” because they can’t bear to accept the alternative. Unfortunately, there are many for whom faith is nothing more than this. But the fact is, faith can be — and should be — the deliberate, rational choice to trust a God who has revealed Himself to mankind and proven over and over again that He can be trusted to be our refuge. If the God of the Scriptures does not exist, we will just have to do the best we can on our own. But if He does exist, we are fools not to seek His wisdom and strength.Really, it is no different today than it has been since the beginning of recorded history: human beings have always faced an ultimate choice. Do we lay aside our self-sufficiency and trust in our Creator, or do we double down on our self-sufficiency and trust in human effort and ingenuity? This is the basic choice we face.Either way, our choice has momentous consequences. And the worst thing we can do is try to have it both ways. So to my fellow believers, I say: if you don’t trust God, don’t say you do. God “knows those who take refuge in him.” So what does He know about you? Does He see trust? Or does He see just another worldly optimist?"God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves" (Dwight Lyman Moody).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

A DISTINCTION THAT WILL BE UNAVOIDABLE (JULY 22)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/distinction-unavoidable-july-22/"They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him" (Malachi 3:17,18).THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH IN MALACHI’S DAY HAD BECOME CYNICAL ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL. They were failing to make the moral judgments God expected them to make. But there was coming a new day — the day of the Messiah — when valid distinctions would be made. “Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.”It is true that making accurate distinctions requires hard work. It also requires humility, cautiousness, openness, and a courageous willingness to have our previous perceptions corrected. But the fact that we may sometimes err and need to be straightened out doesn’t mean we can play it safe by the avoidance of any distinctions at all. It means that we make the best judgments we can — and then improve our judgments as we go along.Am I in a right relationship with God? What about my loved ones, friends, and neighbors? These are extremely important questions; they can’t simply be waved aside as being unanswerable. With regard to my own salvation, no less than that of the people around me, it is vital to see the truth of the matter. The last thing I would want to do is defer thinking about it until it is too late to do anything about reconciliation to God, for myself and those I love.We must not shy away from saying that there is a difference between those who serve God and those who do not (Malachi 3:18). Since this distinction will be so clear on the Judgment Day that it will be unavoidable, we need to be pursuing a more accurate assessment of the difference right now. Rather than dismissing the question by saying, “Only God knows who His people are,” we need to be prayerfully growing in our ability to make this distinction rightly. Yes, we must be humble. But we must also be honest."Grant to us, O Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to love that which is worth loving . . . Grant us with true judgment to distinguish things that differ, and above all to search out and to do what is well pleasing unto thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Thomas à Kempis).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

LIFE IN THE SON (JULY 21)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/life-son-july-21/"The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:35,36).THERE MAY NOT BE A MORE PREGNANT PHRASE IN THE SCRIPTURES THAN “ETERNAL LIFE.” It conveys a wealth of meaning beyond our present ability to understand (and certainly beyond my ability to describe). At the very least, let’s avoid the mistake of thinking that it is different only in that it lasts longer than our present life. It is indeed “eternal” because it is unending, but more than that, it is of a different quality. It is not only longer, but it is better.Notice that Jesus unequivocally affirmed that eternal life is “in the Son.” When Jesus said that he who “believes in the Son has eternal life,” He made a claim we must either accept or reject. But the witness of the writings in the New Testament is unmistakably consistent: Jesus Christ is the path to eternal life. At the end of his book, John said that he had written of Jesus’ signs and wonders “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).But notice the contrast John makes in 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Having separated ourselves from God by our sin, we stand in the realm of God’s condemnation, and if we refuse the pardon God graciously offers, then condemnation is where we shall stay. If a person rejects God’s forgiveness, he can only expect God’s justice — “the wrath of God remains on him.” Between the grace of forgiveness and the justice of punishment, there is no third, neutral category.Which motivates you more? Is it the joy of eternal life or the horror of eternal death? It is fashionable these days to downplay the fear of God’s wrath as if that motive were merely old-fashioned and not appropriate as a factor in modern people’s thinking. But in the Scriptures, the wrath of God is presented as the stark alternative to His blessing. The fact is, the world stands under the judgment of God, and the gospel entreats us to turn to Jesus Christ “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10)."Life eternal is the supreme good, death eternal the supreme evil" (Augustine of Hippo).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

SIN IS ALWAYS AGAINST GOD (JULY 20)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/sin-always-against-god-july-20/"How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9).WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE GREATEST MOTIVATION TO AVOID SIN? For most people, it would be the prospect of terrible things happening to them in this life as a consequence of their sin. (“If I steal drugs from the hospital and get caught, my nursing license will be revoked.”) A thing may be wrong in principle and should be avoided simply because it is wrong, but most of the time we are more concerned about the consequences of getting caught.But Joseph had the right idea in Genesis 39:9. Tempted to indulge in sin with his employer’s wife, he not only said no, but he said no for the very highest reason: “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” He was a young man at the time of this story, but even at that age he understood that sin is always against God. Yes, it may damage other people horribly, and yes, we may damage ourselves with consequences that follow us for the rest of our lives — but with or without those consequences, sin is always a dishonor to the love of the God who made us.We may see ourselves as being nice people. We may treat our friends and loved ones well, avoiding most of the obvious things that would have bad consequences in our relationships. Our good reputation and the love of so many who know us may testify to the fact that we are decent people for whom sin is not a major problem.But sin is a problem we are all involved in (Romans 3:23). When we recognize that sin is a violation (even privately) of what we know to be God’s will, it is clear that we are not innocent — not a single one of us. And if the gospel is about the forgiveness of our sins and the restoration of a right relationship with God, it is also clear that we all need the gospel. We can’t be forgiven without it.The temporal consequences of sin are certainly serious, and I, of all people, would not advise you to disregard those. But the eternal consequences are far greater. And the fact that, as Joseph knew, sin is always against God should weigh more heavily in our thinking than any social consideration. Separation from God is the worst of the worst things that can happen. And the best of the best news is that in the gospel God is willing to bring us back to Him."Sin is essentially a departure from God" (Martin Luther).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

WHEN WE DON’T WANT TO BE DELIVERED (JULY 19)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/when-we-dont-want-delivered-july-19/"Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness" (Exodus 14:12).HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE IS OFTEN A GREAT BOTHER? Our present situation may not be ideal, but compared to the hardship of getting out of it, it sometimes looks like the lesser of two evils. Perhaps the best thing would be just to tolerate the status quo. After all, it may get better eventually.When Moses agreed to return to Egypt and deliver the people of Israel from their slavery in that land, he had some difficulty getting them to accept him as their deliverer. But the real trouble began after they got out into the desert and realized how hard it was going to be, even with God’s help, to make the trek to Canaan. “Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” From our perspective, we can see the foolishness of their thinking. They were completely out of touch with how desperately they needed to be delivered from Egypt. If they had seen the seriousness of their situation, they would have accepted any hardship in the process of being rescued.In the modern culture of wealth, progress, and comfort, very few people see the need to be saved from anything that might be called “sin.” The motto of modernism might be this: “We’ve still got a few wrinkles left to iron out, but we’re doing pretty well.”Occasionally, however, people do see the truth about their separation from God. Yet they don’t find the cure proposed by the gospel very appealing. When they realize that God intends to completely rebuild their character from the inside out (with radical surgery instead of bandages and pain relievers), their reply is much the same as Israel’s — leave us alone; we don’t want to be delivered.So a choice has to be made. We can stay where we are, which is easier (at least in the short term), or we can let the Great Deliverer begin to break our chains. Between now and eternity, there is a “wilderness” that will have to be traversed. But even the wilderness is part of an extraordinarily good plan to set us free."Many of our troubles are God dragging us, and they would end if we would stand upon our feet and go whither he would have us" (Henry Ward Beecher).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

GOD HEARD THEIR CRY (JULY 18)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/god-heard-their-cry-july-18/". . . and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God" (Exodus 2:23).IT HAD BEEN FOUR HUNDRED YEARS SINCE THE DAYS WHEN JOSEPH ENJOYED THE FAVOR OF PHARAOH, AND IN THE INTERIM THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL HAD BEEN ENSLAVED BY THE EGYPTIANS. In the grief of their bondage and hard labor, they cried out to God — and God heard their cry. We all know the story of Moses being sent by God to deliver Israel from Egypt and lead them to freedom.Whether we are students of the Old Testament, the New Testament, or both, we’ve heard the word “salvation” many times. But the word has become a term with such religious overtones, we may forget the basic meaning of it. To “save” is to “rescue.” I well remember when I was a boy that Mike Williams, my best friend at the time, saved me from drowning. I had dived off the high diving board, had the wind knocked out of me, and was floundering. Mike saw it, quickly swam over, and pulled me to safety. In other words, he “rescued” me (and still it makes me nervous to think what would have happened had he not acted so quickly).When God heard Israel’s desperate cry, He sent them a rescuer, a deliverer — in other words, a “savior.” Moses did for them what they were helpless to do for themselves; he pulled them out of a very bad situation. And it was God who made the arrangements, He being moved by compassion for their groaning.Physical slavery is horrible, but the truth is, we’ve all been in a much worse slavery. Jesus put it very plainly: “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). And unlike physical slavery, slavery to sin reaches into eternity and produces a plight too terrible to contemplate — if we are not rescued from it. But, of course, that is exactly what the gospel is about. God has sent us a Deliverer, and we, like Israel in Egypt, have to decide whether to trust that our Deliverer is telling us the truth about His mission.Israel’s rescue was by God’s grace. So is ours. As with theirs (Exodus 12), ours depends on doing certain things God requires before He delivers us (Acts 2:37,38). The gospel must be obeyed to be effective, but it starts with a heart honest enough to cry for help.Speak to him, thou, for he hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet --Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

JOSIAH, THE TENDERHEARTED (JULY 17)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/josiah-tenderhearted-july-17/"'. . . because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,' declares the Lord" (2 Kings 22:19 NASB).WHEN KING JOSIAH HEARD WHAT GOD HAD PROMISED TO DO IF ISRAEL BECAME UNFAITHFUL, HE WAS STRICKEN WITH GRIEF. A godly man himself, Josiah might have hoped he would be spared the horrors of what was going to happen, but it didn’t matter. If the nation was going to suffer, that was cause for great sorrow. God put it this way: “Your heart was tender and you humbled yourself . . . you have torn your clothes and wept before Me.” Unfortunately, that is not the response that is typical when people are confronted with the reality of God’s judgment upon sin.One dictionary defines “tenderhearted” as “easily moved by another’s distress; compassionate” (AHD). By that definition, Josiah was tenderhearted. If he had been one of the few godly members left in the congregation at Sardis (Revelation 3:4), he would still have been torn with agony to hear the Lord say to the group as a whole, “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (v.1). Tenderhearted people are grieved when others (family, community, church, nation, etc.) are in sin.But as important as this point is, there is another that is even more so. When it becomes obvious that we ourselves are among the unfaithful, what is our response? Do we repent or do we retaliate? Hearing the statement of the gospel that we are under the penalty of death for our sins, are we tenderhearted enough to cry out with those on Pentecost, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37,38), or will we, like the crowd that murdered Stephen after he charged them with sin by his presentation of the gospel (Acts 7:54-60), attack the messenger because we are offended by the message?The gospel “breaks” all of us. Some are broken by the honest recognition of their sin, and in their sorrow they embrace the gospel of God’s forgiveness. Others are broken by an anger and defensiveness that leads only to destruction. O God, please break us in such a way that You may heal us and give us Your eternal life."We must be broken into life" (Charles R. Raven).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

WHOLEHEARTED REPENTANCE VS. PRETENSE (JULY 16)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/wholehearted-repentance-pretense-july-16/"Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 3:10).AS CHILDREN, WE SOMETIMES EXCUSED OUR FAILURE TO KEEP A PROMISE BY SAYING THAT WE “HAD OUR FINGERS CROSSED.” The promise was not binding (we said) because we didn’t really mean it, as indicated by the secret crossing of our fingers. A lawyer would say the contract was not a “bona fide” (“good faith”) commitment — we never intended to do what we said.In the days of Jeremiah, the people in Jerusalem and Judah had become guilty of idolatry just like the ten northern tribes of Israel. Having been called to repentance by the preaching of the prophets, there had been occasional reforms, but the repentance had not been genuine or thorough. “Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”Were their fingers crossed when they said they would return to God? Did they not even intend to repent? We don’t know. But in any case, the Lord said they did not return to Him with a “whole heart.” The person lacking a “whole heart” is one whose mind is not made up. He may not be deliberately dishonest in the statement of what he plans to do, but his plans are complicated by doubts. Like a man in a wedding ceremony who pledges to love his wife with “all his heart” but has not really closed the door of his heart to a previous relationship, the people of Judah only pretended that they had put away every “god” except God.The opposite of wholeheartedness is double-mindedness. It is the problem of the person whose mind is torn between competing loyalties — and it is a problem we are told to get rid of. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8).There is no damage to our souls that Christ cannot repair. But He will not be manipulated by fake repentance on our part. If we expect His forgiveness and help, we’d better lay it all down before Him, with extreme honesty. No exceptions and no excuses will be allowed, and if we have in mind anything other than complete repentance, we’d better not insult Him by saying that we’re sorry."Christ can do wonders with a broken heart if He is given all the pieces" (Old Saying).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE HEARTS OF THE CHILDREN OF MANKIND (JULY 15)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/hearts-children-mankind-july-15/". . . then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways, for you, you only, know the hearts of the children of mankind" (2 Chronicles 6:30).SOLOMON’S PRAYER WAS THAT, IN THE YEARS TO COME, GOD WOULD HEAR THE PRAYERS OF ISRAEL WHEN THEY CRIED OUT TO HIM IN DISTRESS. “Render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways,” he said, “for you, you only, know the hearts of the children of mankind.” Solomon knew that one important facet of prayer is that God knows the thoughts and motives of our hearts.Although it is not always true that our troubles are the result of God’s chastening for our sins, sometimes that is precisely the case (Hebrews 12:5-11). In regard to Israel as a nation, Solomon foresaw the same thing that Moses had warned about: if the people were unfaithful, God would bring calamity upon them (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). At such times, their prayers for relief would need to be prayers for forgiveness. So Solomon hoped that God would “hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive.”When we pray today, three thousand years removed from the days of Solomon, what kinds of things does God know about our hearts when we pray to Him, especially for His forgiveness? It is to be hoped that He sees sincere hearts, truly penitent and willing to accept whatever requirements He has set for our forgiveness. Unfortunately, God often sees today what He saw in ancient Israel: careless, complacent hearts that are deep in denial of the truth.It has cost God an enormous sacrifice to be able to forgive us. Knowing that, we should at all costs avoid presuming upon His grace, flippantly tossing off requests for His forgiveness as if such requests were a casual thing. We are told that, in Jesus Christ, we may come confidently before God’s throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), but we had better not come with anything less than a no-strings-attached commitment to change our ways. “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). We may fool others about our hearts, but God is not deceived. He knows our motives — and His mercy is a severe mercy that screens out the triflers and pretenders.He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat,He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat.(Julia Ward Howe)Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

INCLINE YOUR HEART TO THE LORD (JULY 14)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/incline-heart-lord-july-14/"Then Joshua said to the people, 'You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.' And they said, 'We are witnesses.' He said, 'Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel'" (Joshua 24:22,23).HAVING CHALLENGED ISRAEL TO CHOOSE WHETHER THEY WOULD SERVE GOD, JOSHUA THEN CALLED ON THEM TO PUT THEIR CHOICE INTO ACTION. If it is your decision to serve God, Joshua said, then “incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.”That is a powerful way of putting it, is it not? Incline your heart to the Lord. The NIrV renders it “Give yourselves completely to the Lord,” and the CEV, “You must decide once and for all that you really want to obey the Lord God of Israel.” In a related text, we read of David’s charge to Israel at the end of his life: “Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God” (1 Chronicles 22:19). In all such passages, we hear God commanding His people to think of Him as more than a “maybe.” Their hearts must be inclined to Him. They must fix their minds on Him. They must — and here is the main idea — be devoted to Him. This devotion must be the result of a conscious, deliberate choice they have made.Of course, there is language in the Scriptures where God is the one who is asked to incline the hearts of His people. For example, “May [the Lord] . . . incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules” (1 Kings 8:57,58). And, “O Lord, . . . keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you” (1 Chronicles 29:18). There is no contradiction here. God will help us and surround us with good influences, but it is we who must make the decision. In the end, only we have the power to decide what (or Whom) we will incline our hearts to.If we are deciding whether to obey the gospel of Christ, this is what it all comes down to: having alienated ourselves from God, will we or won’t we give Him back our ultimate loyalty? Had we never sinned, He would have always had our loyalty. But now, in Christ, He is making it possible for us to “incline our hearts” to Him once again. This is good news, much too good not to embrace enthusiastically."It is but right that our hearts should be on God, when the heart of God is so much on us" (Richard Baxter).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

A DANGEROUSLY FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY (JULY 13)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/dangerously-false-sense-security-july-13/"In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, 'There is no God.' His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. He says in his heart, 'I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity'" (Psalm 10:4-6).THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO DISREGARD GOD. In addition to the obvious atheism of denying that God exists, there are many other varieties of atheism. In fact, millions of religious people are guilty of the kind of attitude reflected in Psalm 10 (and Psalm 14). They say they believe, but their lives are independent of Him. In my opinion, there is no worse sin than this “pious atheism.” It is at the heart of many other sins, and it is the soul-cancer eating away inwardly at so many “good” people who are living “well-adjusted” lives in one of the advanced nations of the world.“IN THE PRIDE OF HIS FACE” (V.4). It is nothing but arrogant to think that because we prosper, our self-management must be working well for us. And Christ’s letter to Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) shows just how deluded Christians themselves can be about this.“I SHALL NOT BE MOVED . . . I SHALL NOT MEET ADVERSITY” (V.6). If we’ve shoved God out of the way and gotten away with it, we may think we’re bullet-proof. But “I shall not be moved” is a poor prophecy.“GOD HAS FORGOTTEN, HE HAS HIDDEN HIS FACE, HE WILL NEVER SEE IT” (V.11). We figure we can squeeze in some years of disobedience and get back on track later. God isn’t paying attention. He won’t notice.“YOU WILL NOT CALL TO ACCOUNT” (V.13). In our foolish pride we suppose that we won’t have to answer to God, or if we do, that event is so far in the future it doesn’t make any practical difference.But obviously, living this way is a foolish enterprise (Psalm 14:1; Luke 12:20). In the long run, it will not succeed. It is a precarious life, a house of cards that is going to collapse eventually.But this pride is also satanic. The man in Psalm 10 does not worship Satan directly, but he is doing the very thing Satan wants us all to do: manage our own lives. And that pride is what has led us onto the downward slope of destruction. Since he can make it look so respectable and progressive, I imagine Satan is quite proud of it."For a thing to be satanic does not mean that it is abominable and immoral; the satanically-managed man is . . . absolutely self-governed and has no need of God" (Oswald Chambers).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

YOU SHALL BE HOLY (JULY 12)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/you-shall-be-holy-july-12/"For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:45).BEGINNING WITH ABRAHAM, GOD BUILT A FAMILY THROUGH WHICH HE WOULD BRING INTO THE WORLD HIS SON, THE MESSIAH (“ANOINTED ONE”). When Abraham’s family became numerous enough to be a nation, He delivered them from slavery in Egypt and established them in the land He had promised to Abraham. But prior to their entry into this land, God gave them this remarkable command: “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”The root idea of “holiness” is “separateness.” Synonyms that come to mind are distinctness, uniqueness, unlikeness, and difference. Unfortunately, we often limit our discussions about holiness to moral purity, but moral purity is only one of the ways that those who belong to God are to be separate. God’s holiness does not consist solely in His moral difference; it includes every way in which His character is different from that of His adversaries. And if He commands us to be holy, we must learn to have a character that is distinct in the same ways that His character is distinct.Israel’s separateness from the world of its day anticipated the holiness of God’s redeemed people in Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles. Writing to Christians in the Roman Empire living under the threat of persecution, Peter quoted from Leviticus 11:45: “As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15,16).Sometimes holiness requires physical separation (and we are extremely foolish if we don’t understand this). But with or without physical separation, holiness requires that our principles, our values, and our decision-making — i.e., our character — be different. And how could it not be? If we’ve repented of our rebellion against God, will that not make us unlike those still in rebellion? James asked it this way: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:4). For you and me today, this is an issue that requires some serious thinking and courageous choices."It is time for us Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness . . . It might be well if we stopped using the terms victory and defeat to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms obedience and disobedience" (Jerry Bridges).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD (JULY 11)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/when-i-see-the-blood-july-11/"For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:12,13).READY TO LEAVE EGYPT AS SOON AS THE WORD CAME, ISRAEL HAD BEEN TOLD TO STAY IN THEIR HOMES AND WAIT. Each family had eaten their Passover lamb, according to God’s command, and the blood of the lambs had been put on the doorposts of their dwellings. As God went through the land in judgment that night, the people of Israel waited, trusting the protection of God’s promise: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”Blood represents life, and the sacrifice of the lambs that night was a vivid reminder that death is the consequence of sin (Genesis 2:16,17). If the one who sins is not to die, the blood (i.e., the life) of another must be offered, one without sin and not under the penalty of death. Now, if the Hebrews were spared God’s judgment on that night, it wasn’t because they were free of idolatry (Joshua 24:14). It was in grace and mercy that God exempted them — “passing over” those in the homes where a lamb had been slain. This is a powerful object lesson. What can we learn from it about the gospel of Christ?In the New Testament, there was an occasion when John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Unlike the lambs in Egypt, which by themselves could never take away sin, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, providing our full atonement. And if it was God’s right to say that He would spare only those who put the blood on their doorposts, He can also set the conditions upon which His Son’s blood will provide atonement. In neither case do those spared deserve to be spared. But in His mercy, God “passes over” those who will reverently accept the conditions of His grace. Before time began, it was always His plan to make this gift possible.Before lambs bled in Egypt, One was given.Before the worm tore Eden, pain was faced.Somewhere, before earth’s cornerstone was placed,a hammer crashed in heaven — nails were driven.(Keith Patman).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

YOU SHALL NOT ADD OR TAKE AWAY (JULY 10)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/shall-not-add-or-take-away-july-10/"You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you" (Deuteronomy 4:2).THE FACT THAT GOD HAS SPOKEN TO MANKIND IS A MARVELOUS REALITY. But not satisfied with the contents of God’s revelation, the human race has always had a tendency to “improve” His instructions, trimming away the objectionable parts and adding in other things more suitable. But Moses reminded Israel of the seriousness of this error. Speaking to the nation prior to their entrance into Canaan, he said, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it.” As someone has said, “Where God puts a period, we are not to put a question mark.”On the side of “adding to,” the problem is that we tend to make rules where God has not. Concerning the gospel, for example, if I decided that to receive the forgiveness of sins a person had to be born in Brazil, I would have added to what God has revealed. But an example of “taking away” would be saying that the act of baptism, commanded by God, is not necessary, perhaps arguing that it’s “a good idea” to be baptized but it’s not required for one’s forgiveness.Obviously, we need to be careful to take God’s word as it is — making it neither more nor less restrictive than it is. Our study of the Scriptures must be diligent, and our attitude that of young Samuel: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:9,10).If we accept that God has, in fact, revealed His will, the question is not whether we’d like to modify it but whether we’re going to do it. And this confrontation with the word of God is a test of our character. There can be no salvation for us if we won’t humble ourselves before God, and it is in our attitude toward the commandments of God that we get some of our first feedback as to how far along the road of humility we are. If we would be so presumptuous as to add to God’s word or take away from it, then we’ve got some adjustments to make before any further steps can be taken in accepting the gospel. No doubt this need for adjustment is one reason that relatively “few” (Matthew 7:13,14) will follow Christ."Once you and I are face to face with the Word of God . . . we can only accept or reject it. Jesus becomes the two-edged sword that cuts right down the middle, dividing us into believers and nonbelievers" (John Powell).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

BOTH JUST AND THE JUSTIFIER (JULY 9)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/both-just-and-justifier-july-9/"It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).THERE WAS, NO DOUBT, MORE THAN ONE PURPOSE IN GOD’S GIVING THE LAW OF MOSES TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. But one thing was not in His purpose: to give them a tool whereby they could, as sinful people, work their way back into a perfect relationship with Him. No person who is guilty of sin, regardless of when he lived or what expression of God’s law he lived under, has ever been able to keep enough of God’s commandments to regain the perfection of holiness necessary for eternal life. By law-keeping, we can’t pile up enough credits to counterbalance our debits. It simply can’t be done.But the penalty of sin is death (Genesis 2:16,17; Romans 5:12), and God cannot set aside that law arbitrarily. If He desires to save us from our sins, how can He do that? Is there any way He can maintain His own justice and at the same time justify us from our lawlessness? The answer, of course, is the cross of Christ. By taking upon Himself the death that was our due, He satisfied the law’s demand, but He also made it possible to forgive us and treat us as if we had not sinned. In this way, God became both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”It was a masterful plan, but it was very costly. It required the ultimate sacrifice on God’s part, and our wildest dreams are not enough to imagine that kind of love. Yet the plan also has a requirement on our end: we must be willing to accept it on God’s terms. We must give up the idea that we can ever be righteous enough to save ourselves — we have to accept that we will be saved “not because of works done by us in righteousness” (Titus 3:5) but by a “righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9).Obviously, such a plan leaves no room for us to boast. No human being, from Adam and Eve until the end of time, will ever have succeeded in being good enough to tip the scales of justice in their favor. It was on the cross of Christ that God tipped those scales — and it is in Christ that we enjoy the benefits of that."In the self-offering of Christ, God's own righteousness is vindicated and the believing sinner is justified. For Christ occupies a unique position as God's representative with man and man's representative with God. As the representative Man He absorbs the judgment incurred by human sin; as the representative of God He conveys God’s pardoning grace to men" (F. F. Bruce).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE EXCITEMENT OF FINDING THE MESSIAH (JULY 8)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/excitement-finding-messiah-july-8/"One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah' (which means Christ)" (John 1:40,41).TO BE A JEW IN FIRST-CENTURY JUDEA WAS TO BE IN A CULTURE OF GREAT CHANGE. Politically, socially, and religiously, the pot was boiling with trends and movements. If you cared about what was right, you would have had a number of decisions to make.As various individuals turned up claiming to be the Messiah of Jewish prophecy, their conflicting claims needed to be examined. Were any of these people telling the truth? You could have been cynical (as many people are today in the face of religious confusion) or, realizing what was at stake, you could have dug in, studied the Scriptures carefully, and looked for the right answers.But think for a moment about the hope involved in these world-changing events. Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12, for example, and ask yourself how you would feel if you lived at the same time as Andrew and found out that the person in Isaiah’s prophecy had been born and was now proclaiming the gospel. Could there have been a more exciting prospect than the idea that the Messiah might actually have come into the world? If you, like Andrew, could truthfully say, “We have found the Messiah,” would you not be as thrilled as he was? Andrew did not yet understand much of what was involved in Jesus’ messiahship, but he had seen enough to know that Jesus was the One the prophets had predicted. And he was eager to share the news.Andrew’s example is one we should meditate on. Perceiving that Jesus was the Messiah, he first found his brother and broke the news to him. As one of the twelve who would become the Lord’s apostles, Andrew would later preach the gospel to many people, but he began with his brother. Those closest to us may not listen as receptively as Peter listened to Andrew, but they should be the first ones with whom we share the exciting truth."Andrew is characteristically the man who was always introducing others to Jesus. There are only three times in the gospel story when Andrew is brought into the centre of the stage. There is this incident here, in which he brings Peter to Jesus. There is the incident in John 6:8,9 when he brings to Jesus the boy with the five loaves and two small fishes. And there is the incident in John 12:22 when he brings the enquiring Greeks into the presence of Jesus. It was Andrew’s great joy to bring others to Jesus" (William Barclay).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE LION OF JUDAH (JULY 7)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/lion-judah-july-7/"Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people" (Genesis 49:9,10 NKJV).WHEN JACOB BLESSED HIS SONS BEFORE HE DIED, HE UTTERED A VERY PARTICULAR PROPHECY CONCERNING THE TRIBE OF JUDAH. “Gather together,” he said to his sons, “that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days” (Genesis 49:1 NKJV). The expression “the last days” is a familiar prophetic expression, so Jacob was being moved by God’s Spirit as he made these pronouncements to his sons. This is seen most clearly in his words concerning Judah: the time would come when a person from Judah would arise and “to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”Judah was the tribe from which David later came, and it was to David that God made this promise: “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom . . . your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16 NKJV).Genesis 49:9,10 looked ahead to the kingship of David — and more importantly, it looked beyond that to an even greater King. Jacob’s prophecy meant that Judah would be the royal tribe, the tribe which held the “scepter” (the rod in the hand of a king symbolizing his sovereignty). But there would come another King whose sovereignty would extend far beyond that of any other Davidic king. “To Him shall be the obedience of the people,” said Jacob.Jacob said that Judah would be a “lion.” It is no coincidence that Jesus is described in Revelation 5:5 as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.” He is the King foretold by Jacob when he blessed his sons. His is an eternal kingdom that overarches every other kingdom that has ever existed. Since this kingdom is not “of this world” (John 18:36), it has no earthly throne or apparatus — yet all the kingdoms of this world rise and fall at the will of this King.". . . we are more than justified in concluding that [Genesis 49:10] is a messianic text that adds to the Messiah’s credentials the fact that he will govern, not only the nation of Israel, but all the nations of the world. The reason he can claim such a high prerogative is because it is his right to do so, for all rule and authority are derived from him" (Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

SAINTS (JULY 6)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/saints-july-6/"To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father" (Colossians 1:2).THE WORD “SAINTS” IS A DESIGNATION FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD. As we see in the text above, Paul addressed his letter to Colossae to “the saints and faithful brothers in Christ” in that place. (Notice the same usage in Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; and other letters.) All of the biblical terms used for God’s people are helpful to study, since they give us important information about what God expects of those who are committed to Him. Today, however, let’s focus on “saints” (and also “faithful brothers”).MEANING. To be a “saint” is to be “separate.” A saint has accepted God’s call to be redeemed from sin — seeking salvation, he has obeyed the gospel. But since not everyone has done that, those who have done so are “set apart.” They are in a unique category, and they have a distinct identity. The apostle Peter put it this way: “you are . . . a people for [God’s] own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).PRIVILEGE. Considering the price that had to be paid for our sins, it is the highest of privileges to be among the saints. There is no room for a condescending attitude, for no one who is in Christ deserves to be there. All are there by God’s grace. But surely, we can’t appreciate God’s grace and fail to see the honor which it bestows.RESPONSIBILITY. There are certain things — love for God and moral purity, for example — that are expected of those set apart for Him. God is patient, but ultimately, He will disown those of His saints who reject His lordship over their lives (Matthew 7:21-23).But finally, notice that Paul also describes the saints in Colossae as “faithful brothers.” In Christ, our common attachment to God as our Father creates a bond between us as siblings. We love those who, like us, have been baptized into Christ’s death and are being prepared for an eternity with Him (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). In this family, each of the siblings is a saint. Set apart unto God, each has accepted both the privilege and the responsibility of living in this world as a person reserved exclusively for God."[The word 'brothers'] is a beautiful description of that surprising new fellowship which the church constituted. It was composed of masters and slaves, of rich and poor, of Greeks and barbarians, of Gentiles and Jews; yet all these members recognized themselves as forming an actual brotherhood, a household of faith" (Charles R. Erdman).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

WHAT THE HEIRS WILL INHERIT: ETERNAL LIFE (JULY 5)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/heirs-inherit-eternal-life-july-5/". . . so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7).PAUL’S MEMORABLE STATEMENT OF HOPE IN THIS VERSE IS SET IN THE CONTEXT OF A LARGER STATEMENT ABOUT GOD’S SALVATION. After speaking in v.3 of our sinfulness, he said that “when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us” (vv.4,5). To be in Christ is not to occupy some position which we have achieved by our own goodness; it is to have been rescued by a God whose tender love reached out and saved us.In v.7, then, Paul wrote that those who are in Christ have been “justified.” This language is from the courtroom, and it describes the fact that in forgiving us, God moved us from being “guilty” before His law to being “innocent.” We stood before Him as lawbreakers, but He now treats us as those who have kept His law.As Paul emphasizes, it was “by his grace” that God justified us. He “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (v.5). How humbling this is! And yet, the way in which it humbles us is not humiliating. It energizes us, filling us with a wholesome desire to spend the rest of our days expressing our gratitude to God for His kindness.The result of God’s justification is that we are “heirs.” Far beyond the greatness of any legacy we could receive from an earthly father, our inheritance from God is valuable in the highest sense of that word. When the time comes, we will hear Christ say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).As heirs, we envision our inheritance daily: we live fervently and serve faithfully in “the hope of eternal life.” The life we enjoy in Christ right now is a foretaste of the banquet that is coming, and we should be extremely thankful for it. But our inheritance is still ahead, so we must not lose our focus. “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13 NKJV)."In the cross is health, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is heavenly sweetness, in the cross strength of mind, in the cross joy of the Spirit, in the cross the height of virtue, in the cross perfection of holiness. There is no health of the soul, no hope of eternal life, save in the cross" (Thomas à Kempis).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

TO HIM BE GLORY AND DOMINION (JULY 4)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/to-him-glory-dominion-july-4/". . . from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:5,6).HERE, IN JUST TWO VERSES, IS A WORLD OF TRUTH ABOUT JESUS CHRIST. In his greeting to the seven churches of Asia at the beginning of Revelation, the apostle John ascribed glorious praise and honor to “him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” We could spend a rich lifetime pondering these two verses, learning more deeply to appreciate the King of kings and Lord of lords who has given us salvation and eternal hope.THE FAITHFUL WITNESS. One of the claims of Jesus was that, having come from the Father, He brought us information about heavenly things that we could not know about otherwise. Speaking of Jesus, John the Baptist said, “He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony” (John 3:31,32). And Jesus Himself said, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father” (John 8:38). So when Jesus is described as “the faithful witness,” the point is that His testimony is true — whatever Jesus said about God can be believed and trusted.THE FIRSTBORN OF THE DEAD. When He was raised from the dead, Jesus became the “firstfruits” (or “guarantee”) of our own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20,23). He has broken the power of death, the worst weapon of Satan (John 11:25,26; Hebrews 2:14,15).THE RULER OF KINGS ON EARTH. Jesus has been given “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Earthly rulers are all answerable to Him; none is independent of His power. The kingdoms of men rise and fall only with His permission, and at any instant He can depose any ruler whose power stands against His eternal purposes (Psalm 2:1-12; Daniel 2:44; 7:13,14; Revelation 11:15).Here, then, is One whom we may love and worship. “To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” Eternal with God the Father, He is the Alpha and the Omega. The world was created through Him, and He is moving history toward its final destination. For us, salvation means this: being found “in Christ” when He returns."Christ himself is living at the heart of the world; and his total mystery -- that of creation, incarnation, redemption, and resurrection -- embodies and animates all of life and all of history" (Michael Quoist).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

SOME STRONG STATEMENTS ABOUT THE KINGDOM (JULY 3)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/strong-statements-kingdom-july-3/"Then, hearing this, a number of his disciples said, 'This is a hard saying; who is able to take in such teaching?'" (John 6:60 Bible in Basic English).JESUS’ TEACHINGS WERE NOT ALWAYS EASY. Some of His sayings were, for various reasons, hard to understand, but other things He taught were simply hard to accept. As the disciples said in the text above, “Who is able to take in such teaching?” Let’s look at some of Jesus’ bold statements concerning the kingdom of God.“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). The disciples may have been shocked to hear this. How could anyone’s righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees, of all people?“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). The kingdom could not be entered without accepting the lordship of Christ, but more would be involved in accepting it than a merely verbal acknowledgment of His authority.“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). Material wealth does not, by itself, disqualify us from the kingdom, but its tendency is to pull us away from God, and most people allow that to happen.“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43). Blessings not used are eventually taken away (Isaiah 5:1-7), and so it is with God’s kingdom. If we don’t say yes to its invitation, there are others who will.“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). It is a strong dose of medicine to hear the Lord say that some are not “fit” for the kingdom, but that’s the truth. And we are the ones who decide whether we’re fit or not.If we find ourselves challenged by what Jesus taught concerning the kingdom, it’s because we need to be challenged. Whether we will allow God to rule in our hearts or not is the central concern of the gospel. And it’s not a comfortable subject because, truth to tell, there is still in our hearts a good bit of resistance to God’s rule."The importance of this subject may be inferred from the fact that the New Testament contains more than 100 references to the kingdom. Jesus spent the three and one-half years of His ministry 'preaching the gospel of the kingdom' (Matthew 4:23). Everything He said and did during this period of His life was related to the kingdom" (Sewell Hall).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

PRESENT KINGDOM, FUTURE KINGDOM (JULY 2)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/present-kingdom-future-kingdom-july-2/"The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen" (2 Timothy 4:18).IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD SOMETHING THAT EXISTS IN THIS WORLD OR IS IT SOMETHING THAT WILL EXIST IN ETERNITY? The answer, if we let the Scriptures be our authority, is that it is both.PRESENT. The Scriptures clearly teach that the kingdom is a present reality. Jesus said it was “at hand” (Mark 1:15), and in Mark 9:1, He said, “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” The kingdom began on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 1:1-2:47), and it has existed ever since. Anyone can be in the kingdom who accepts the requirements of God’s forgiveness and lives under the loving rule of God. Paul wrote that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).FUTURE. The Scriptures also teach that the kingdom is a future reality, one the saints greatly anticipate but have not yet entered into (2 Timothy 4:18). Peter urged his fellow Christians to “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10,11).In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote at length about our resurrection when Christ returns. The events surrounding Christ’s return will conclude the history of this world and bring it to its climax. For those who have obeyed the gospel and remained faithful to the commitment they made, that will be the time when they pass from the kingdom of God in this world to His kingdom in eternity. “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (vv.24-26)."To say that we are in the kingdom implies that we have submitted our lives unto the rule of God in His Son. But God’s rule was never intended to be confined in space and time, for it is an eternal kingdom. We simply submit to God’s rule now so that we may live under the rule and care of God forever. We enter the kingdom now . . . in order that we may 'be heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him' (James 2:5)" (Tommy Poarch).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

WHOLE HEART, WILLING MIND (JULY 1)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/whole-heart-willing-mind-july-1/"And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind" (1 Chronicles 28:9).SOLOMON WOULD BE A NEW KING WITH SOME SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES. His father David having subdued all the surrounding enemies of Israel, Solomon (whose name meant “peace”) would have to lead his people in the rightful, godly enjoyment of the peace that David had made possible. But not only that, he was also charged with building the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem which David had planned and made provision for. So in his charge to Solomon, David encouraged his son with the most important advice he could have given him: “know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind.”KNOW THE GOD OF YOUR FATHER AND SERVE HIM. Human beings can’t “know” God in the same sense that we know one another, but God’s character can be known through His revelation of Himself. On the basis of this knowledge, it is possible to enter into a deep personal relationship with God, and no one illustrates that any more than David. Yet God must also be “served”; that is, He must be obeyed. That is the essence of what made David a man after God’s own heart. Unlike his predecessor Saul, David could be counted on to carry out the Lord’s instructions. Even in his repentance, David’s disposition was to bow humbly before God’s law.WITH A WHOLE HEART AND WITH A WILLING MIND. A “whole heart” is one that is given to God completely, with no place in the heart reserved for other gods. Likewise, a “willing mind” is one that serves God gratefully rather than grudgingly. When these two are combined — a whole heart and a willing mind — a person’s character is well on its way to the purity of devotion that God desires.But all of these traits result from personal choice. David would not have charged Solomon to know God and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind if Solomon could not have chosen to have that kind of character. Excuses are futile. It is our hearts that God is seeking, and it is only we who can give our hearts to Him."And what kind of habitation pleases God? What must our natures be like before he can feel at home within us? He asks nothing but a pure heart and a single mind. He asks no rich paneling, no rugs from the Orient, no art treasures from afar. He desires but sincerity, transparency, humility, and love. He will see to the rest" (A. W. Tozer).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE RESURRECTION OF CONDEMNATION (JUNE 30)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/resurrection-condemnation-june-30/"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28,29 NKJV).RESURRECTION! The very word stirs the soul — it is the very essence of the gospel. It was Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). So Paul wrote these unforgettable lines, speaking for all who have obeyed the gospel and live in hope: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51,52).But resurrection is a double-edged sword. Go back and read our text in John 5:28,29. There, Jesus said that “the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” For some, the resurrection will be one of “life,” but to others it will be one of “condemnation.” Human beings have eternal souls — souls that will spend eternity, if not with God, then away from Him.In Revelation 21:8, the eternal destiny of those who have refused God’s salvation is called “the second death.” Jesus said that to suffer that death is far worse than to die physically: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4,5). And when He taught on hell, He used graphic language. At the judgment, the ungodly will hear the words, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). These, Jesus said, “will go away into eternal punishment” (v.46).Our human freedom entails accountability to our Creator. And if, in the end, we have rejected Him, it will be useless to deny the choices we made. While there is time, let’s make the right choice."Hell is paved with great granite blocks hewn from the hearts of those who said, 'I can do no other'" (Heywood Broun).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

AWAY FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD (JUNE 29)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/away-from-presence-lord-june-29/"They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed" (2 Thessalonians 1:9,10).THE STARK TRUTH IS THAT OUR CHOICES WITH REGARD TO GOD WILL HAVE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES. Having been created in the image of an eternal God, we also are eternal. Whether we accept Him or reject Him, we will live eternally. And as Paul taught in the text above, those who reject God will have an eternity “away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”The doctrine of eternal punishment is not acceptable to the modern mind. The current trend, even among conservative Christians, is toward “universalism,” the belief that all human beings are going to be saved (or at least that the unsaved will simply be annihilated rather than punished eternally). Francis Chan worded it well: “Does everyone go to heaven? Based on what I hear at funerals, the answer is an overwhelming ‘Yes!’ How many funerals have you attended where this was even in question?” Yet, as Chan has forcefully argued, the Bible simply cannot be taken seriously if the reality of eternal punishment is not accepted.Unfortunately, many people do not take the Bible seriously. Universalism is fueled not by biblical exegesis but by emotional preferences. Hell is simply incongruent with the way people want to feel about God. As Arthur Climenhaga has said, “The issue of the new universalism is no longer ‘God hath spoken’ but ‘Man hath reasoned.’” So this debate presents a challenge. Will we let Jesus be our Teacher in texts like Matthew 10:28 or will we not?The knowledge that those who are lost right now will, if they fail to receive salvation in the gospel of Christ, be lost in eternity is the reason our evangelism should be so urgent. So let me ask you: is the reason why we Christians are not any more urgent in our evangelism the fact that we don’t really believe the lost will be lost? Why is there so little passion to rescue the lost? Concerning hell, non-Christians need to accept what the Scriptures teach — and the evidence suggests that many Christians need to believe it too."The true universalism of the Bible is the call to universal evangelism in obedience to Christ’s universal commission. It is the conviction not that all men will be saved in the end, but that all men must hear the gospel" (John Stott).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

LEARNING ABOUT LOVE FROM GOD (JUNE 28)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/learning-love-from-god-june-28/"Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father"?'" (John 14:9).NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR CONCEPT OF GOD. What we think of our Creator — both His character and His will — is the principal force that shapes our lives. Since ideas have consequences, the bigger the subject, the more our ideas need to be true. There being no bigger subject than God, we should be extremely careful. In the end, the way we have lived will have been the outworking of our real (not our pretended) beliefs about God.When Jesus said that “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32), He had more in mind than just the truth about God’s plan of salvation. I believe He meant, first and foremost, the truth about God Himself. The path that He has designed for our redemption must be accepted (untruths about God’s plan are deadly), but out of all the errors that must be corrected, none are more crucial than wrong ideas about God. The problem of sin arose when we started acting on the basis of falsehoods about Him, and if the problem is to be fixed, those falsehoods must be rooted out of our thinking.So let me ask you a practical question: what do you think about the “love of God”? And more importantly, where did you get those ideas? Most of us have some concept of what love is and how it behaves, but unfortunately those notions have often been picked up from pop psychology, pop theology, and even pop culture. Rather than letting our definition of love be formed by God, we imagine love as the world has taught us to see it, and we then transfer that shallow, sentimental view to God. Even when we flatter ourselves that we’ve gone beyond the worldly view to an understanding of “unconditional” love, we are still limited by the world’s concept of what love would actually do in specific situations. Clearly, our minds are still fettered by a good bit of untruth.Nothing about Jesus was more revolutionary than His exemplification of love. If we take all of what He did (and not just our favorite parts), even our most “advanced” ideas about love will be disrupted. It will be a disturbing, and truly liberating, experience."The Christian does not understand God in terms of love; he understands love in terms of God as seen in Christ" (Joseph Fletcher).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

JESUS' MISSION: HE CAME TO SAVE SINNERS (JUNE 27)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/jesus-mission-save-sinners-june-27/"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15).EVEN BEFORE JESUS DIED, PEOPLE DISAGREED AS TO WHAT HIS PURPOSE WAS. And those disagreements continue today. Whatever He may have done or not done, what was it that He intended to do? What was His mission (and His apostles’ mission) in this world? What is the main point of the gospel of Christ? In other words, if the gospel is the solution, what is the problem that it was meant to solve?Writing to his young coworker Timothy, Paul left no doubt about the object of Jesus’ work: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). This echoes Jesus’ own words, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).Many secondary benefits flow from the forgiveness of our sins, but we must never forget the message Christ commanded to be preached in His name. Paul never forgot it, because many years later he recalled that Christ had sent him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18). Christ ordered Paul to preach a specific message — and that message was about the forgiveness of sins.But going back to 1 Timothy 1:15, did you notice what Paul said about himself? Christ came into the world to save sinners, “of whom I am the foremost.” If we see the gospel as providing what others need most, the forgiveness of their sins, each of us should see our own need for the gospel very personally. And when forgiven, we must not suppose it took any less of God’s grace to forgive us than might have been required for a really “sinful” person.So let’s not misunderstand what Jesus came to do, and in our preaching, let’s not misrepresent what the gospel offers. Tempted to get lost in details and side issues, let’s come back to the center. The cancer the gospel proposes to cure is this: our sins against God."We shall never understand anything of our Lord's preaching and ministry unless we continually keep in mind what exactly and exclusively his errand was in this world. Sin was his errand in this world, and it was his only errand. He would never have been in this world, either preaching or doing anything else, but for sin. He could have done everything else for us without coming down into this world at all; everything else but take away our sin" (Alexander White).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

LEARNING ABOUT THE FATHER FROM THE SON (JUNE 26)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/learning-about-father-from-son-june-26/"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15).IF YOU HAD DOUBTS ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, WHAT IF SOMEONE TOLD YOU THAT HE HAD COME FROM THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND COULD PERSONALLY VOUCH FOR GOD’S EXISTENCE? And suppose that person gave compelling evidence that he was telling the truth? Well, that is exactly what we have in the case of Jesus.If (1) Jesus of Nazareth lived in the world as a real person, we need to pay attention to the historical data that can be known about Him. And if (2) a historical case can be made for the fact that His resurrection actually occurred, then He was not just a man but the Son of God. This crucial fact means that (3) of all the people who have ever lived, Jesus is the one who had the most direct information about God: everything Jesus said about God should inform our thinking on this, the most important issue in our lives.Jesus is described as “the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5), which means He told the truth in everything He reported to mankind about God. He claimed He came from God, had direct knowledge of Him, and bore accurate testimony about Him. To one audience, He said, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father” (John 8:38). And He said to His disciples, “All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).These are bold claims, but the resurrection proved them to be true. If Jesus said God is real, His testimony should supersede any doubts we may have, since we’ve never been where God is. If Jesus, by His teaching and example, contradicts our opinions about the nature of God, He was in a better position to know what God is like than we are. If Jesus gave commandments for our obedience, these must be seen as having the authority of God. And finally, if Jesus taught that God’s plan for our salvation was based on His death, we can stake our lives on that. It simply can’t be emphasized too much: Jesus is the ultimate proof of God — and of God’s true nature."Jesus' claim to speak the things which he had 'seen' in the Father's presence (John 8:38) echoes his language in John 6:46: 'he who comes from God, he has seen the Father' . . . But no one can speak of heavenly realities except one who has come down from heaven and imparts to his hearers on earth what he has seen and heard in that transcendent realm" (F. F. Bruce).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

GOD’S STEADFAST LOVE (JUNE 25)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/gods-steadfast-love-june-25/"'For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you" (Isaiah 54:10).ONE OF THE GREAT ANCHORS OF OUR CONFIDENCE IN GOD IS THE STEADFASTNESS OF HIS LOVE. Unlike our human love, which is tragically fickle and fluctuating, God’s love will still be there though “the mountains may depart and the hills be removed.”The Hebrew noun hesed is translated as “steadfast love” by some modern translations. Like many of the most meaningful words in any language, hesed is almost impossible to translate. There is no rendering for it that is entirely satisfactory, so translators have struggled to do it justice. Basically, hesed meant “mercy,” and in many contexts it comes close to the idea of “grace.” And yet it also has the connotation of “kindness.” To make matters even more complicated, when used in reference to God, hesed often connotes the covenantal aspect of God’s love, hence “steadfast love.” God’s love is enduring. It is, as Lois Tverberg says, “long acting love.”It would often take a sentence in English to say what Hebrew could say in one word, hesed — but for today’s meditation, let’s stick with “steadfast love.” Because God has entered into a “covenant” or “contract” with us, we can count on Him to be loving, kind, merciful, and gracious to us because He promised He would.The steadfastness of God’s love does not mean He will never discipline us. Indeed it is His love that will move Him to discipline us when that is what we need (Hebrews 12:5-11). Nor does God’s love mean He will not banish us from His presence in eternity if we persist in our earthly resistance to Him and refuse His offer of salvation. But until we have completely exhausted our opportunity to come back to Him and died in our rejection of His forgiveness, He will not give up on us. He will keep His covenant.I don’t know about you, but I’m mighty glad that God’s love is steadfast. Were it not for His lovingkindness, this weak son of His would have been disinherited long, long ago. And, in Christ, I yearn for the sweet day when I shall be able to thank Him more properly."The love of God is consistent and cannot be altered or deterred. His love stands firmly fixed as the motive for all He asks and for all He provides. His love never changes" (Dee Bowman).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE LORD’S SUPPER, THE LORD’S PEOPLE (JUNE 24)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/lords-supper-lords-people-june-24/"On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight" (Acts 20:7).IN THIS VERSE, WE FIND THE CHRISTIANS IN THE CHURCH AT TROAS DOING SOMETHING THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT IN THOSE DAYS THAN MANY PEOPLE THINK IT IS TODAY. They gathered together on the first day of the week to “break bread,” which in this context is a reference to what we know appropriately as the “Lord’s Supper.”The Lord’s Supper is a partaking of unleavened bread and fruit of the vine in memory of Jesus’ death for our sins. The bread represents Christ’s body which was crucified and the fruit of the vine, the blood which He shed. It was instituted by Christ on the night before His execution (Matthew 26:26-29), and we find more teaching about it in texts like 1 Corinthians 10:16,17 and 11:17-34.IN THE ASSEMBLY. The Lord’s Supper is not a private observance. Every word spoken about it in the New Testament presumes that it is to be done when the Lord’s people have come together.EVERY LORD’S DAY. Just as it is linked to the assembly, it is also linked to the first day of the week — the Lord’s Day — that being the day of the Lord’s resurrection (Luke 24:1-3) and the day, a few weeks later, when the gospel was first preached in its completeness (Acts 2:1-4). And it was every Lord’s Day, as we infer from Acts 20:7 (see also 1 Corinthians 16:1,2; Revelation 1:10). Historically, it was sometime later before the Supper was separated from the Lord’s Day.But this essay is not meant as a general discussion of the Lord’s Supper; it is written to emphasize the connection between the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s people. Against the argument that one may be a Christian and not have anything to do with a local congregation, this is a point that needs to be pondered. If we reject “organized” religion and adopt the “spiritual but not religious” approach, where does that leave the Lord’s Supper? It is not Christianity that we are practicing today if we don’t take seriously an observance that, in the New Testament, was so extremely important to Christians on the first day of every week.O Father, bless this solemn day,When we assemble, sing and pray,To honor Christ, Thine only Son,Who tasted death for everyone.(Craig A. Roberts)Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

GOD’S GRACE IS NOT “IRRESISTIBLE” (JUNE 23)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/gods-grace-not-irresistible-june-23/"Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1).IN THE SCRIPTURES, ONE OF THE MOST TOUCHING CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD IS THE FERVENCY WITH WHICH HE APPEALS TO HUMAN BEINGS. In many dire circumstances, God is shown pleading with people to let Him save them. But there was always a choice to be made by those needing God’s help: would they receive God’s grace or not? The basic situation of mankind is summed up well in Paul’s heartfelt exhortation to his brethren in Corinth in which he said, “We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”Sadly, there are those (many of whom I admire for their sincerity) who teach that God’s grace cannot be rejected. Believing that we are born with the “original sin” of Adam’s transgression and are so depraved in our nature that we couldn’t even respond to an offer of salvation if we tried, these teachers insist that God must decide who will be saved — and those whom He decides to save, He infuses with the “enabling power” of the Holy Spirit. This grace is “irresistible” by the recipients, or so says the doctrine. God having decided who will be saved, the chosen ones do not have the power to reject the saving influence which God sends upon them. But surely, many have refused God’s efforts to win their hearts. When, for example, Jesus lamented Jerusalem’s rejection of Him (Matthew 23:37), it is woefully inadequate to say that, since they refused, it must not have really been salvation that He was offering them.As with all the concepts that are central to Calvinism, the doctrine of irresistible grace rests on a mistaken notion of God’s sovereignty. The Calvinist argues that if anyone can say no to God, that means God is not sovereign. In other words, if we can, by the exercise of our will, keep God from saving us, that means God is not all-powerful. But actually, that argument is the one which limits God. It says that God could not have decided to make creatures endowed with a free will. But that is exactly what God did when He created us. And the result is that those who accept Him, whether many or few, do so freely and lovingly — rather than under the compulsion of their “irresistible” programming."It is a denial of the sovereignty of God to say that He could not create persons capable of freely rejecting him" (Curtis Byers).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

SCRIPTURAL TEACHING ABOUT GOD’S “ELECTION” (JUNE 22)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/scriptural-teaching-gods-election-june-22/"Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies" (Romans 8:33).TO “ELECT” IS TO “CHOOSE.” So if we were talking about our salvation by God and we said that it’s a matter of His “election” or “choosing,” what would we mean? John Calvin (and various others before him) argued that before God created the world He chose which individuals would be saved. Yet it goes far beyond the truth concerning God’s election in Romans 8:33 to teach that God unconditionally elected some individuals to salvation. Each of these terms makes a difference. Let’s take them in reverse order:SALVATION. The Scriptures teach that, before the boys were born, God chose Jacob and not his twin brother, Esau, to father the family through whom the Messiah would come into the world (Romans 9:10-12). So yes, God did choose some persons to play specific roles in His plan to bring about salvation. But that is very different than choosing those persons to be eternally saved or lost.INDIVIDUALS. Paul spoke of the Colossians as “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” (3:12). Salvation is surely a matter of God’s choice, and His divine prerogative is where the emphasis should always be kept. It was God who chose whom He would save, but what He chose was a class of people defined by a criterion: the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5). This group is open to all who will obey. No one is barred by an eternal, unchangeable edict of God.UNCONDITIONAL. In the New Testament, people decided whether they would obey the gospel or not (Acts 2:40,41). Yet without any conditions that can be accepted or rejected, the gospel “call” is not really an invitation. Indeed, the whole enterprise of evangelism is meaningless if God has ordained who will be saved and salvation is not contingent on anyone’s decision as to the gospel’s requirements.If the Bible teaches anything about God, it teaches that He acts with justice — He “shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). But if Calvinism is true, T. W. Brents was correct when he said that God cannot possibly be considered a fair and righteous judge."But if the doctrine . . . is true — that before the foundation of the world was laid, according to an immutable and eternal purpose of His own, without any foresight of faith, good works, or any thing else in man, God unconditionally elected some men and angels to eternal life, and at the same time foreordained the residue to dishonor and eternal wrath — then we know not how to avoid the conclusion that He is a respecter of persons" (T. W. Brents).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE FALLACY OF ORIGINAL SIN (JUNE 21)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/fallacy-original-sin-june-21/"The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezekiel 18:20).IN THIS OFTEN-QUOTED TEXT, A PRINCIPLE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE IS ENUNCIATED: THE PRINCIPLE OF INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY. Our eternal destiny will be determined not by the deeds of others but by our own. As for righteousness, we won’t go to heaven just because we’re in a group of good people, and as for sin, we won’t be sentenced to death because of someone else’s ungodliness.Physically, we die as a consequence of Adam’s removal from access to the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). The false doctrine of Calvinistic “original sin,” however, goes much further than this. It teaches that we are all born guilty of the sin that Adam committed. Standing under the condemnation of God for what Adam did, we are in a lost spiritual condition because of our eldest forefather.If original sin were true, there is no reasonable way the principle found in Ezekiel 18:20 could be said to be valid. In the world we presently live in, it’s an obvious fact that we can be impacted by other people’s sins. Every day, people are hurt by the deeds of others, either directly or indirectly. But to say that even as infants we are guilty of Adam’s sin and are in a lost spiritual condition because of what Adam did is to make a cruel joke out of Ezekiel’s statement, “The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” The wickedness of Adam would not only be “upon” us; it would be upon us in a much more devastating way than is ever the case when we suffer in this life as a consequence of someone else’s sin.To make matters worse, the doctrine of original sin is part of a package of other beliefs, as we will see in the next two readings. These doctrines, if true, would mean we are cosmic game pieces, moved around by a God who decides who will be saved and who will not. But thankfully, the gospel of Christ tells a different story."Behind these errors is the long history of a misconception of the grace of God that denies man has free will, and accepts the doctrine of total hereditary depravity. The idea is that man is so depraved and wholly separated from God that without miraculous aid he can do nothing to bring about his redemption. The idea finally ends in the doctrine of preservation: once God has saved a person, He could never allow him to be lost" (Robert F. Turner).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

LESSONS FROM NAAMAN (JUNE 20)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/lessons-from-naaman-june-20/"So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, 'Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean' . . . So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean" (2 Kings 5:9,10,14).NAAMAN WANTED TO BE CLEANSED FROM HIS LEPROSY, BUT HE DIDN’T LIKE WHAT HE WAS TOLD TO DO. When Elisha told him to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times, not only would such a menial act have been a blow to his pride, but he would not have seen any logical connection between the command and the benefit he hoped to receive. So he balked. But when his servants persuaded him to humble himself and obey Elisha, “his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”If we’re honest, we probably see something of ourselves in Naaman. If God were to require of us something grand and glorious, our obedience would be prompt. And if we think we see why God would require something (the instruction “makes sense” to us), we are willing to go along with Him. But when God commands things that seem lowly, arbitrary, or irrational, we dismiss those items as “works” only a legalist would view as “required.”The fact is, it takes humility as well as trust to do things God’s way. If we only obey when it suits us and when the act commends itself to our sense of logic, we are not really obeying God — we are doing as we please. And such self-will is what got us into trouble in the first place. If God is ever going to be allowed back on the throne of our hearts, obedience is the thing we must learn.Naaman’s obedience certainly did not earn him the cleansing of his leprosy. It had no “merit” that would cure him. But there is no denying this: if he had not been humble enough to accept the conditions that were stipulated, his leprosy would have remained.An old adage says, “Understanding can wait; obedience cannot.” Abraham wouldn’t have understood why he should offer up Isaac, Noah wouldn’t have understood what a flood was, and Israel wouldn’t have understood going in circles around Jericho. But it was in their obedience that God would have started making sense to them."Obedience is the key that unlocks the door to every profound spiritual experience" (Dorothy Kerin).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THAT WHERE I AM YOU MAY BE ALSO (JUNE 19)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/where-i-am-you-may-be-also-june-19/"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also" (John 14:1-3).IT IS EXTREMELY ENCOURAGING FOR US TO READ OF THE DEPTH OF JESUS’ CONCERN FOR HIS DISCIPLES. As He came down to the bitter end of His life, even on the night before He knew He would be crucified the next day, His concern was for them — to comfort them, reassure them, and establish hope in their hearts. In the Gospel of John, we hear Him saying, “You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). And, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (16:33).So in our text in John 14:1, we find the familiar words, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” But what idea did He want them to be encouraged by? He wanted them to keep in mind that, although He would be leaving, He would come back and take them to His eternal abode. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (v.3).This is the hope that lies at the heart of the gospel of Christ. Having responded obediently to the gospel and been reconciled to God, we can anticipate the time when our Lord will return for us. And when He does, He will take us to be with Him forevermore.Whatever imagery may be used to portray eternity with God, this should be the aspect of it that moves us most deeply: we will be with God. Having lived all our lives in this broken world, frustrated by our inability to have direct, face-to-face access to our Father, imagine what it will be like to actually be with Him!To be with God where He is, of course, will require the removal of the imperfections that remain within us at present: the sinful attitudes, ungodly habits, and broken relationships. We will need to be, as one of my favorite songs says, “mended and whole.” But therein will lie the joy of heaven. Our relationship with God, our Heavenly Father, will have been perfected — and sin will no longer interfere with the exchange of love between us and Him!"Where imperfection ceaseth, heaven begins" (Philip James Bailey).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

A POWERFUL CLUE TO GOD'S NATURE (JUNE 18)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/powerful-clue-gods-nature-june-18/". . . as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man" (Acts 17:28,29).THE WORLD WE LIVE IN IS FULL OF WONDERS. It is, as Tolkien said, “full of strange creatures beyond count.” But surely, the strangest of these by far is the human race. Human beings are so different from any of the other creatures, the more we learn about our human qualities, the more we see just how wide the gap is. (If you want to read a book that will make you think, get a copy of Mortimer J. Adler’s The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes.)In Acts 17:28,29, Paul pointed out that the personal nature we know we possess is a clue to the nature of God. The Greek poets had acknowledged that we are the “offspring” of God. If that’s true, Paul argued, how can we think God is any less personal than we are? He was right. If we have personal minds, those minds can’t be explained by impersonal forces. Even if our physical brains could have evolved, what scientists call the “mind” is a phenomenon the brain simply cannot produce by itself.Today, neuroscience believes it is making progress in explaining human consciousness in completely naturalistic, biological terms. We are told that it’s only a matter of time before science discovers how the physical brain produces the “mind.” But honestly, the campaign promises of that bold project will be hard to fulfill.Human “personhood” is very familiar to us (it may be hard to define, but we know it when we see it), and it can’t be explained from below itself — its origin can only be from above itself. The non-personal could never have produced the personal, no matter how many trillions of years it had to work with. And our physical brains can never be, all by themselves, the generative source of our rational thought and free will. In our heart of hearts, we know this. We know that what we are can only be explained by the creative act of a Personal Being who had the power to make us in His image."I can't understand man, Agnos, without invoking the transcendent, the supernatural, the immaterial . . . Augustine once confessed, 'The manner in which the spirit is united to the body cannot be understood by man, but it is the essence of man.' Even with theism man remains a puzzle, but to me the puzzle is augmented geometrically if theism is false" (Arlie J. Hoover).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

LETTING THE SCRIPTURES DECIDE (JUNE 17)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/letting-scriptures-decide-june-17/"And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2).IN THE TEXT ABOVE, NOTICE THE STANDARD OF AUTHORITY TO WHICH PAUL APPEALED. With the task of convincing a Jewish audience that Jesus’ claims were true, he “reasoned with them from the Scriptures.” If Jesus was the promised Messiah, everything about Him would match up with the portrait of the Messiah in the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures. And if the case for Jesus could not be made from the Scriptures, it would be reasonable for Paul’s Jewish hearers, and everyone else, to reject the gospel.The Scriptures are our only worthy standard. Having originated in the mind of God (John 5:39; 2 Timothy 3:16,17; 2 Peter 1:20,21), the Scriptures are able to make us “wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). To say that they are dependable is a considerable understatement. Jesus went so far as to say, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). So these writings are no ordinary documents. To disregard the authority with which God speaks to us in the Scriptures is to do a very foolish thing. In all the great issues of life, it is the standard of the Scriptures that must govern us.When we are considering controversial matters, it is hard to keep our feelings from influencing our decisions. When I served on the jury for a very sensitive child molestation trial many years ago, I well remember the judge’s instructions to the jury: “Your decision should be based solely on the evidence, not on your feelings, preferences, or personal opinions.” She was right. And when it comes to questions about our relationship to God, it is even more important to have an objective standard by which to measure.At this point in history, however, few people believe there is any objective standard by which we can navigate. Most people assume that personal feelings and experience are the “voice of God” within them. But God has not left us to the chaos of such subjective uncertainty, and His servant David was on the right track long ago. “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7)."We must guard against grounding our spiritual commitment on the quicksands of fluctuating experiences. Experience . . . must be constantly tested and verified by the objective truths of the Word of God" (Erwin W. Lutzer).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

DIFFERENT SOILS, DIFFERENT HEARERS (JUNE 16)View on Website -- https://wordpoints./different-soils-different-hearers-june-16/"Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them" (Matthew 13:5-7).IN THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER, JESUS MADE THE POINT THAT THOSE WHO HEAR THE GOSPEL DON’T ALL HAVE THE SAME KIND OF HEART. He used the analogy of four different kinds of soil — just as the seed sown by a farmer doesn’t always fall on productive soil, the gospel doesn’t always fall into receptive hearts.(1) ALONG THE PATH (VV.4,19). Some seed is picked up by the birds and never germinates at all. This is the person whose lack of interest in understanding the truth gives it no chance to affect him.(2) ROCKY GROUND (VV.5,6,20,21). Some seed falls into soil that is shallow, resulting in short-rooted plants that die when the sun gets hot. This is the person who is not a commitment keeper, so when it comes to the gospel, he can’t be counted on to remain steadfast. Hardship causes him to change his mind about the Lord.(3) AMONG THE THORNS (VV.7,22). Some seed sprouts but the plants are choked by thorns. “The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (v.22).(4) GOOD SOIL (VV.8,23). Other seed, however, falls into fertile ground. It germinates, grows, and produces a crop. In Luke’s account, Jesus said this soil is like those who “hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). This kind of hearer is obviously the one Jesus sought, and He often found such hearers in unlikely places.But how often do we, when we think of the Parable of the Sower, raise the question of our own receptivity to God’s word? It may be that for all our talk about the need for honesty and courage, we ourselves do not bow before the truth as receptively as we should. To be frank, it is a rare human being who is willing to follow the truth wherever it goes (and sadly, we preachers are often the least willing). Today, as we contemplate obeying the gospel, let’s challenge ourselves. God does not decide what kind of heart we have; we decide. So let’s make the decision a good one."A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity" (Sir Walter Scott).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

AN INSURMOUNTABLE OBJECTION (JUNE 15)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/insurmountable-objection-june-15/"Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, 'We will hear you again about this'" (Acts 17:32).THERE IS NO PROPOSITION SO COMPELLING THAT EVERYONE ACCEPTS IT. No matter what is affirmed, some objection or other is always possible. So with any idea, the question is not whether anyone can come up with objections but whether those objections are valid. Taking an opinion poll won’t help us much either. Regardless of which way the opinions of the majority may be running, the only question worth asking is always: is this idea true?In Acts 17, when Paul was asked to speak to a group of philosophers in Athens about Jesus Christ, he first talked about the nature of God. But as his argument progressed, he came to Jesus’ resurrection. At this point, “some mocked,” while others said, “We will hear you again about this.” They all heard the same words — but the response of the audience was a split decision. In the end, the gospel was not received as obediently in Athens as it was elsewhere, and perhaps that is not surprising. But Paul’s preaching was acted on affirmatively by some who heard it: “some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them” (v.34).Today, we could make a long list of objections that people offer to the resurrection of Christ. Some of these are based on misunderstandings which can be cleared up, while others come from a lack of acquaintance with the evidence. But there is one objection that can’t be overcome by supplying additional evidence: the belief that the resurrection cannot have taken place. If a person approaches the question maintaining that such a thing is inherently impossible, he will not believe it no matter how much evidence there is.So when it comes to miracles, and especially the resurrection, our presuppositions are crucial. In an age of astonishing discoveries, haven’t we learned to use the word “impossible” very sparingly? It is a strange world, is it not? Let us, then, be open-minded enough to admit the possibility that the resurrection could have happened — and then have the courage to assess the historical evidence fairly."If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion. If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say" (C. S. Lewis).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

ASSURANCE THAT JESUS WILL BE OUR JUDGE (JUNE 14)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/assurance-jesus-our-judge-june-14/". . . because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).CONCERNING GOD, THE IDEAS OF “ACCOUNTABILITY” AND “JUDGMENT” ARE NOT CONGENIAL TO THE MODERN MIND. Those who believe there is a God do not usually think in terms of being judged by Him, such that their eternal destiny will be dependent on that judgment. Yet God’s judgment is one of the things affirmed about Him in the Scriptures. Consider the text in Acts 17:16-34.In this passage, there is the account of Paul’s presentation of the gospel of Christ in Athens. Invited to speak to a group of philosophical inquirers, Paul talked first about the nature of God as a personal Creator, and then he spoke of God’s judgment.A time has been appointed, Paul said in v.31, when the world will be judged by God. And this will be done “in righteousness,” which is to say, God’s verdict will be exactly the right verdict in every case, rendered in perfect justice. What is more, Paul said that God has entrusted this judgment into the hands of “a man whom he has appointed.” This is Jesus Christ, and “of this [God] has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”The resurrection established the truth of many things, not the least of which is Jesus’ deity: His identity as the Son of God. But Paul shows that Christ’s resurrection also verified His role as the One before whom we must stand in judgment. If someone wanted proof that judgment is coming — and that Jesus will be the Judge — no greater proof would be possible than His resurrection.This, then, is one of the Messiah’s roles. In addition to being our High Priest and King, He is our Judge. “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:26,27). For those who have accepted the gospel faithfully, the coming judgment holds no fear, only love. But one way or the other, judgment is coming. Of that we may be sure."Paul does not refer directly to the human figure -- the 'one like a son of man' -- of Daniel 7:13; but this is "the man" whom he has in mind, the one in whom God’s eternal purpose finds its fulfillment, the one to whom the Father has given 'authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man' (John 5:27)" (F. F. Bruce).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

DOES JESUS' RESURRECTION REALLY MATTER? (JUNE 13)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/does-jesus-resurrection-really-matter-june-13/"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised" (1 Corinthians 15:14,15).THERE IS A VERSION OF “CHRISTIANITY” IN WHICH ALL OF THE MIRACLES ARE ELIMINATED FROM THE SCRIPTURES. Many people today take it for granted, based on their philosophy and worldview, that such a thing as a miracle is simply impossible, so the scriptural accounts of Jesus’ miracles are assumed to be fictitious.In particular, the resurrection of Jesus is held to be a legend — an idea created by later Christians and injected into the accounts of Jesus’ life and death. Many ministers who occupy pulpits on Sunday morning may preach on the resurrection, but if you ask them privately, they will tell you they don’t believe it literally took place.But what do we have left if we leave the resurrection out of the gospel of Christ? Not much. We may have a positive-mental-attitude system of emotional uplift and benevolent motivation, but we do not have the Christian message of salvation, for originally that gospel promised the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Paul spoke with remarkable candor when he wrote to the church in Corinth that if Christ was not raised from the dead, “our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We [the apostles] are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ.” Some seem to think that it is only in modern times that people began doubting the resurrection, but as Paul indicates, many people doubted it from the start. And he is very clear as to the choice we must make: either we accept that the resurrection occurred and obey the gospel that is based upon it — or we deny the resurrection and dispense with the gospel as nothing more than a myth whose believers are “most to be pitied” (v.19).Like it or not, sin is real and we are lost. But no alternative to Christ is available for our forgiveness. “If Christ has not been raised . . . you are still in your sins” (v.17). To be sure, wishful thinking must not make our decision. If the gospel is false, we must face the facts. But let’s not water down what’s at stake here: hope vs. no hope."The resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of apostolic preaching and upon it rests the truth of the gospel" (Paul Earnhart).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE APOSTLES: DOUBTERS WHO BECAME EVANGELISTS (JUNE 12)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/apostles-doubters-became-evangelists-june-12/". . . who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1:3,4).PHYSICALLY, JESUS WAS A DESCENDANT OF DAVID. But that does not tell the whole story about Him. He was also, as Paul said, “declared to be the Son of God . . . by his resurrection from the dead.” Even if a person had not been convinced by the other miracles Jesus performed (John 20:30,31), His resurrection could not be explained in any other way. If that took place, He was indeed the Son of God — and His gospel is to be believed and acted upon.Jesus’ own disciples, especially the twelve apostles, are an interesting case. They had seen all of the miracles, and they had heard all of Jesus’ preaching. On some level, they had become believers (Matthew 16:13-16). But when Jesus was crucified, their hopes were dashed: He was dead, so how could He be the Messiah? But when they saw Him with their own eyes after His resurrection, they understood what the resurrection meant.Thomas (who has often been called “Doubting Thomas”) was perhaps the hardest to convince. Not present when the Lord first appeared to the apostles after His resurrection, Thomas declared that he would need to see Jesus for himself. But later, when Jesus appeared and Thomas was present, Thomas drew exactly the right conclusion: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).If the resurrection took place, there is simply no other conclusion we can reach. And we can’t argue that the stories of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances were made up and later added to the records of His life. There simply wasn’t enough time for this myth-making process to occur. The New Testament documents began to be written within 20-30 years after the resurrection. Those who wrote them knew beyond a doubt whether the resurrection had taken place — and rather than deny an event which they knew had actually come to pass, they were willing to die for their testimony. Having been doubters, they became evangelists. And it was the resurrection that turned them around."The fact that Jesus did arise from the dead was the only thing that brought absolute conviction to the hearts of even his disciples that he was the Son of God. His resurrection from the dead left in their minds no trace of doubt" (Robertson L. Whiteside).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

NORMATIVE NATURE OF THE APOSTLES' TEACHING (JUNE 11)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/normative-nature-apostles-teaching-june-11/"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you -- unless you believed in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:1,2).WHEN WE ARE ADRIFT, WE NEED AN ANCHOR. But when it comes to the gospel of Christ, it is extremely important what anchor we choose to employ. Changing the metaphor, we might say that our standard of measurement is important. If we need to know whether a particular belief or practice is valid, we won’t get a helpful answer if we measure by the wrong yardstick.For Christians, the Scriptures are the definitive standard by which beliefs and practices are to be judged. Starting with Genesis and culminating in the writings of the apostles of Christ, these documents are normative. That is, they define what is and what is not  an authentic part of the “Way” (Matthew 7:13,14; John 14:6; Acts 24:14). The Bible is, in effect, the “constitution” of Christianity.In the late first century, several decades after the beginning of the gospel, many began to abandon the teaching of the apostles and promote progressive views of discipleship. Against this departure, the apostle John wrote a heartfelt plea to his brethren urging them to ground themselves in what they had been taught by the apostles (1 John 1:1-4; 2:24; 4:1,6). If they left this teaching, they would have departed from Christ (1 John 2:18,19; 2 John 9-11).The crisis in John’s day was the beginning of a trend that continues today. At present, it is fashionable to say that there is no norm — Christianity is whatever we wish it to be. If there is any standard, it is our own subjective feelings. As for the Bible, it is viewed as a “living” book whose meaning changes over time.Yet this goes against the way the apostles themselves viewed the gospel. There was, for example, no hope that the problems in Corinth would be solved if the Corinthians didn’t remember what Paul had taught them as an apostle. “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached.” And what if they did not hold fast? Paul left no doubt that they would have “believed in vain.”"A Christian cannot live by philosophy. Only the light of Christian revelation gives the end as well as the means of life" (John Jay Chapman).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE APOSTLES (JUNE 10)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/importance-apostles-june-10/"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).IN GOD’S PLAN TO SAVE US FROM OUR SINS, THE APOSTLES HAD AN IMPORTANCE THAT NEEDS TO BE UNDERSTOOD. The entire message of the gospel depended on the resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:13-17), and the apostles served, first and foremost, as eyewitnesses of that event. Each of them had seen Jesus after He had been raised (Acts 1:21,22). And while the apostles were not the only eyewitnesses (1 Corinthians 15:3-8), their testimony was invested with nothing less than the authority of Christ Himself (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). In addition, the apostles could perform miracles that guaranteed the truthfulness of their account (Hebrews 2:3,4). So the apostles were not just disciples or followers of Christ; they were the definitive, authoritative emissaries of Christ. They could regulate the practice of the church in its foundational period. And what we have today in the New Testament is the written record of their definitive teachings. These documents provide the permanent, unchangeable “constitution” of the Lord’s church.In the first century, of course, many people claimed to be apostles who were not. So to separate the false apostles from those actually appointed by Christ, the true apostles were able to miraculously confirm their authority. Paul wrote to the Corinthians (some of whom were questioning his apostleship), “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works” (2 Corinthians 12:12).Jesus said that after His resurrection the Holy Spirit would finish revealing to the apostles the things He had only just begun to teach them (John 14:25,26; 16:12-15). So to get all of Jesus’ teaching, we have to study not only what He personally taught, but also what was revealed to His apostles. Taken together, this body of teaching is definitive. It is authoritative and foundational. So we must not say, as many do, that we should ignore the apostles and only study the teachings of Jesus. The truth is, we can’t have Jesus without the apostles. They were His designated, not-to-be-ignored spokesmen."Jesus chose the twelve apostles for a unique, unrepeatable role in the history of redemption" (John Piper).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

SAVED FROM, SAVED FOR (JUNE 9)View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/saved-from-saved-for-june-9/". . . by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:4).THE QUESTION 'NOW WHAT?' IS ONE OF LIFE’S MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. Unfortunately, many of us who have sought salvation from our sins do not understand what salvation is for. Like ancient Israel, we’ve been rescued from “Egypt,” but we don’t have a good grasp of the goal God had in mind when He set us free.THE PAST. It is not a good situation if the Christian has “forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:9). Now that we follow Christ, the dominant note in our lives should be gratitude: “thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17). But we dare not define ourselves solely in terms of the things we don’t do anymore.THE FUTURE. Nature abhors a vacuum, as they say, and the gospel was meant to do more than subtract the evil from our lives (Luke 11:24-26). The question is, why did God want certain things removed from our lives and what does He now want to put in their place? We are not what we used to be, but what comes next?Having forgiven us, God wants us to “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). His plan is to repair the damage of sin (Peter described it as “corruption”) and transform us into people who think and act as creatures made in His image. In fact, He plans to makes us into people who have the same character as His Son, Jesus Christ. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29).So a glorious destiny awaits us in Jesus Christ, and even now, we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). And it’s not just our character but also our conduct that is being renovated. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). So let’s be frank: are we participating in God’s plan . . . or not?"We have been holding the letter of truth while at the same time we have been moving away from it in spirit because we have been preoccupied with what we are saved from rather than what we have been saved to" (A. W. Tozer).Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.comFor more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com