Victory is Certain and Secure - Max Lucado

 From Max Lucado  --

"Some years ago I attended a San Antonio basketball game. It was the final game of the regular season, and it was unique because it did not matter. The Spurs had already won their division. This game had no bearing on their standing.

The game intrigued this preacher. I saw a sermon illustration waiting to happen. Christians occupy the same spot that the Spurs did.

According to the Bible, we've already won. According to prophecy, victory is secure. According to the message of grace and the death of Christ on the cross, no one can snatch us from our Father's hand.

So how do we behave in the meantime? Well, the Spurs were a good example. They were relaxed, confident, and happy. And they won the game. 

In these last days we need to show up, play hard, and be happy. After all, the victory is secure!"

Because He Loves us!

 

                                           Because We Love Him!

Psalm 91:14-15 -- "Because he loves Me, says the LORD, I will protect him, for he acknowledges My Name; he will call on Me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation."

So many practical promises here: He will rescue us; protect us; allow us to pray to Him and promises to answer; He will be with us in trouble...and He will deliver us...and He will honor us -- both now and forever!

All these gifts! (Remember Forrest Gump?  'Life is like a box of chocolates'? Well that's like these verses! So open the box and start indulging yourself today!)

Restore My Joy - Is it too much to ask?

 

                                          Restore My Joy - Is it too much to ask?

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin...Create in me a pure heart, O God....restore to me the joy of your salvation." (Psalm 51:1, 2, 10, 12)

I find it necessary to read this psalm multiple times. It appears in centuries past that congregations recited it together every week at worship services. I can see why.

David  composed it just after he was confronted with his sin with Bathsheba and his attempt to cover it out by having her husband Uriah killed.

When I was younger I was amazed at David's presumptuous attitude! -- What gall, I thought! Such serious sins and to ask God to restore his joy!!?

Asking forgiveness -- that's OK. But asking for his joy in God's presence to be restored? That's just too much!

But now I am older and have seen more clearly - and more frequently - the darkness of my own heart and realize that all sin is treason against our holy God-- all sin is serious - displeasing to Him and deserving of judgment and death.

But His gracious forgiveness of all our sins does restore us - brings us back into our close fellowship with Him and brings back our joy in His presence.

Yes, it is hard to believe, and that's why we call it 'Amazing Grace'!

His total complete forgiveness does this for us.

And so I pray, with David, when I confess my sins and experience the miracle of forgiveness,  please restore the joy of your salvation to me, a sinner saved by your grace!

What is Jesus doing right now?

What Is Jesus Doing Right Now?

One of the things He is doing right now is:

1. He is praying for us

Jesus' prayers for us assures the security of our salvation.


If  He were not effective in His role as our mediator/advocate we could lose our salvation.

Jesus Christ who died -- more than that, who was raised to life -- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  (Romans 8:34)

Therefore He is able to save forever those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.  (Romans 7:25)

-- He is in the Presence of God right now -- at the right hand of God. In Scripture God's  right hand is the symbol of His unique and almighty  power and authority.


-- His intercession is continual and intentional - He lives to intercede for us! - Present tense!


 Jesus' prayers for us restores us to fellowship with God when that fellowship is broken by sin.


Christ is called our "Advocate," like our "defense attorney."
When we sin He is there interceding for us before God - being our Advocate - every day - all the time.


"It's me, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer!"

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense -- Jesus Christ, the righteous One.

(1 John 2:1)

He's not just praying for us.  He is also -

2. Jesus is preparing our heavenly home for us

The picture is of a wealthy father who adds additional rooms to his home to accommodate his married children and their families. Much like the Amish farmer in earlier days. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, but also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms...I am going to prepare a place for you; I will come back and take you to be with Me...

(John 14:1-3)

There's room for all!

And He is also....

3. Jesus is producing fruit in the lives of believers

As the branch  is connected to the vine and draws its life and nourishment to sustain life and produce fruit, so the believer is grafted into spiritual union with Christ to draw spiritual nourishment from Christ.

Spiritual fruit is the result.

I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener....every branch that does bare fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful...Remain in Me and I will remain in you. I am the vine and you are the branches. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me...Without Me you can do nothing...This is to My Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples. 

(John 15:1-7) 

We were grafted into Christ and now we are being nourished and pruned so we can produce abundant fruit for Him!

A friend in California owns many acres of farmland and they produce a great harvest of citrus fruit.

She mentioned once they were expanding their acreage and citrus planting  to produce more.  I asked her if they were  planting lemons or oranges or grapefruit.

She answered, "We just buy citrus, and then we graft the little plants into what we need. In one greenhouse we will make them into lemon trees. In another we make them into oranges. What we graft on them determines what kind of  tree and fruit we will get!"

Since we are grafted  into Jesus, our fruit should be those listed in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Our fruit should reflect our Root - our true Vine   - Jesus!

After all, It Was Our Lord's Supper

                          After All, It was Our Lord's Supper

There are some symbols and celebrations in our church calendar that link us with all of Christendom: Christmas, baptism, Pentecost, the cross, the empty tomb....all our major  doctrines are enveloped in each of these. None more so than the Lord's Supper.

In other places and times it might be called Eucharist, Holy Communion, Sacrament of the Altar, or Blessed Sacrament.

No matter what it is called, for the last 2000 years, it is celebrated in accordance with the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ given at His last meal with His disciples, in that private upper room in a stranger's home. A borrowed room for a homeless God-man who was facing a voluntary, horrifying, cruel death --  the holy, sinless God for His sinful unworthy, ungrateful creatures.


With His suffering death looming closely at hand, what did Jesus consider most important?

Apparently He treasured most the opportunity to explain to His disciples what exactly was going to happen, and what it all meant.

T. S. Eliot reminds us that too often we "have the experience, but miss the meaning."

Of all the terms for the celebration, probably the Lord's Supper paints the simplest picture of what happened that night so many centuries ago.

Lord's Supper is probably the most commonly used term. I like the term Eucharist, though, because it, I believe, paints the most profound truth of the event.

Eucharist: from the Greek word eucharistia, which means "thanksgiving."

     And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them...(Luke 22:19)

He gave thanks! When the rest of the world would have said, "It's time to get out of Dodge " and raced for the nearest and quickest way out of town, He lingered. He waited. Pondered the events to take place and shared the meaning of it all with His friends. He wanted desperately for them to understand.

He didn't want them to miss the meaning.

Eucharistia - thanksgiving. When He had given thanks. Knowing that the iron spikes would pierce His hands and feet the next day, that He would be on public display while He died, for hours, jeered by the crowd. Until He took that last gasping breath --"It is finished!"

He gave thanks.

(Another phrase from T. S. Eliot: And still we call this Friday good...Yes, it has been called "Good Friday" for centuries.)

But there is more in the word than thanksgiving.

The root word of eucharistia is grace (charis).

Grace is a gift. He was giving us the gift. Or was He receiving the gift? For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross....Maybe we are the gift....We are the gift to Him, as He is the gift to us....

But there is another word hidden in there: Joy (chara).

Joy: the holy grail sought by all of mankind for all our history.

From Augustine in his Confessions:  "Without exception...all try their hardest to reach the same goal, that is joy."

C S. Lewis describes that same longing, or yearning, as coming from the deepest emptiness of our heart, because the very genesis of our search for it was placed in our hearts by God Himself.

Just as the little word joy is found hidden deep in the meaning of thanksgiving, so is it found deep in our lives in the act of thanksgiving. After all, have you ever seen someone who is truly thankful, expressing his gratitude to God, who was angry? Bitter? Mean-spirited? Impatient? Depressed? Overwhelmed? Unhopeful? Joy is like a precious oil that cleanses us from thoughts and actions that displease God.

Why live a life of cheerless ingratitude?

Thanksgiving precedes the miracle, and releases our joy. Daniel, praying and thanking God..as was his usual custom...knowing the lions' den was waiting...Jesus and the loaves and fishes...Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus...our Savior Redeemer in the upper room...the disciples on the road to Emmaus...
thanksgiving first and then the miracle of God's action.

Thanksgiving.

Grace.

Joy.

It's all there, in the word eucharistia and in the event of the Eucharist.

When we celebrate Lord's Supper, or Eucharist, are we going to "have the experience, but miss the meaning"?