Exalting God, Edifying Believers, Evangelizing the Lost

The Hope of Salvation

Even though we may be true believers, redeemed through Christ’s blood, our salvation is not complete.

In Romans 8:24, Paul says,

“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?”

One thing that salvation brings is hope.  But we can only hope for something that we haven’t received yet.

So does Paul mean that we are not really saved?

No. What he is saying is that the salvation of our souls from the power and penalty of sin is just part of what Christ is going to give us. Our salvation won’t be completed until our bodies are free from the effects and influence of sin, and that will happen when we finally reach heaven.

And it’s not just people that have this hope. In verse 22, Paul says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”

Some day in Christ’s Kingdom, we will have perfected bodies to go with our perfected souls and we will be able to live in a perfected world, just the way God intended at Creation.

Salvation is so much more than just staying out of hell.  But all of this is only available to us because Christ became our “kinsman redeemer,” buying us out of slavery and reclaiming the title deed to the earth through His death and resurrection.

The Mighty Cherubim

Have you ever heard someone refer to a baby as being “a little cherub”?

What comes to mind is probably an image of a chubby little angel flying around in a draped white cloth with dimples and a bow and arrow. Yet, if we actually met a cherub, we would probably shrink in fear, as those did in Scripture who actually came face to face with one of God’s greatest created beings.

Ezekiel was one such man, and he describes the Cherubim in Ezekiel 1:13 —

“As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.”

There is nothing cute in that description. And there shouldn’t be. The Cherubim were created by God to worship Him, just as all creation was. We see that in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4.

But Cherubim are also used by God to carry out His judgment upon the earth.  Cherubim with flaming swords were placed at the garden of Eden to keep Adam and Eve from returning after they sinned.  And it will be Cherubim that announce the four horsemen of the Apocalypse in Revelation 6.

Praise God that if we are on His side, these mighty warriors of the Lord will be with us and not against us.

The Reality of Heaven

There are many people who have claimed to have died and gone to heaven and then returned with descriptions of what they saw and experienced.  Some say they met deceased family members and friends. Others said they saw perfect versions of animals roaming together in peace.  Many say they met Jesus in person, and yet the descriptions they give of Him are not all the same.

What is interesting, though, is that most of their descriptions of heaven do not even come close to what we read in Scripture from people who actually saw it.  The Apostle John describes what he saw in heaven:  angels and elders, worshipping around the throne of God.

In Revelation 4:8, He describes that worship—

and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” In verses 10-11, he continues, “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

When Isaiah described his vision of heaven in Isaiah 6, he had the exact same description, minus the elders.  Ezekiel has a very similar vision in Ezekiel chapter 1.

Heaven is not what we imagine it to be.  It is an eternal existence where the Lord of heaven and earth will be worshipped continually by all those who are in His presence.

And to be with Him in person as we worship will be the best eternity possible.

The Goal of Holiness

The goal of holiness to many Christians ends up being a subjective issue that depends upon each person’s preferences and opinions.

But if we use God’s definition, there really is nothing subjective about it.  2 Peter 1:5-8 defines the process and goal of holiness:

“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In these verses, we see a progression of growth as the characteristics of Jesus Christ are added to our lives.  It starts with simple faith and grows in maturity until we finally reach unselfish sacrificial love. Those are not human attributes; they are the attributes of God.

Peter also says that as God’s characteristics grow in us, then He will be able to use us for His purpose—we will not be “barren or unfruitful.”

Our ultimate goal is to glorify God in everything we do, and the only way that can happen is when people see God in us instead of us.  God wants people to see His character, not our own. That is the goal of holiness.

So really, becoming holy as God has called us to be holy just requires us to let God take out of us everything that is us, and let Him put in us everything that is Him.

The Purpose for Pain

Why pain and suffering exist is a question that has been asked by many throughout history. “If God truly loves us, why would He allow us to suffer?” That is a question even true believers ask, because we struggle and suffer in this world, many times through no fault of our own.

In 1 Peter 4:13, we are told,

“But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”

Suffering either reveals the character of Christ within us, or it reveals our own selfish heart. If we can rejoice in God’s work being accomplished in us through suffering, then we demonstrate our true faith in God. But if we complain and doubt God’s goodness, then it reveals in us a faithless heart.

C.S. Lewis alludes to this truth in his book, The Problem of Pain: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains:  it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world…. No doubt pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion.  But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment.  It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.”

What has your suffering revealed about you? Are you rejoicing in God’s work, or are you complaining in your own selfishness and unbelief?

The Light of the World

In John 9:5, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”  Yet in Matthew 5:14, Jesus says to his followers, “Ye are the light of the world.” Is this a contradiction? Who really is the light of the world—us or Jesus?

The answer is both, and it is explained in Genesis 1.

On the fourth day of Creation week, God made the sun, moon and stars.  Genesis 1:16 tells us that God made two great lights:

the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.”

We know them as the sun and the moon. We also know that the moon doesn’t give off its own light, but only reflects the light from the sun to give us some illumination during the night time.

That is exactly what Jesus meant when He said that we were the light of the world.  We are not giving off our own light, but merely reflecting the light of Christ in our lives so that others may see His truth.

And that is exactly what 1 Corinthians 10:31 means when it says that we are to “do all to the glory of God.” 

The light that we give off as Christians is really the glory of God’s character being reflected in how we live in obedience to His Spirit.  When we love others, we are literally pointing others to the source of that love.  When we have peace in trying circumstances, we reflect the source of that peace to others. When we are longsuffering with those that revile us and persecute us, we reveal the nature of the One who suffered most at the hand of His enemies.

So giving glory to God is nothing more than letting His light be reflected in our lives.  We are merely a moon; He is the sun.

The Worth of Your Life

In Luke 17:33, Jesus said,

“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”

Our lives really are not worth much unless we are living to fulfill God’s purpose for us. But all too often, Christians do everything they can to preserve the life of comfort and prosperity that they have built for themselves.

In Romans 12:1, Paul tells us that we are to “present our bodies a living sacrifice.” That means that we should be willing to give up whatever we want our lives to be so that God can use us in whatever way He wants.

But how many Christians really are willing to live that way?

On January 8, 1956, while attempting to make contact with the people of the Auca/Waodani Indians in Ecuador, Jim Elliott and four other missionaries were speared to death by the very people they came to minister to. Elliot’s most famous words were written in a journal six years earlier: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

His wife embodied the same attitude—several years later, she left her life in the United States and moved to Ecuador to minister with her young daughter to the same people that had killed her husband.

Jim Elliot’s life was not a waste. God used his death to pave the way for his wife to bring the gospel to a lost tribe of Indians. Through her ministry, almost the entire tribe came to Christ.

You will never know what God can accomplish through your life until you are willing to give it up for Him.

Guilty of Idolatry?

Are you guilty of idolatry?

If you are a true follower of Christ, I hope your answer would be “no.” But just because you do not have statues to false gods in your house or pray to false gods doesn’t automatically make you free from idolatry.

An idol does not have to be a statue or image. It can be anything that usurps the priority of God in your life. In other words, anything that would cause you to neglect your regular daily interaction with God through prayer, Bible reading, obeying Him, and gathering with His people could be considered an idol.  That could include hobbies, sports, recreation, work, television, politics, housework, homework, friends, family, food, or even sleep.

Anything that we use as an excuse for not doing what we know we should be doing in building our relationship with the Lord has become an idol, no matter how important we may think it is.

In 1 Corinthians 10:14, the Apostle Paul gives a very simple, but very necessary command:

“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”

He is not saying that we cannot do any of the things that may become idols in our lives. But what he is saying is that we must constantly be on the lookout for things in our lives that cause us to put God in second place.  And what we must run from are the excuses that we make in order to justify our idolatry.

Admit that you have let idols into your life, run back to God in repentance, and make Him your first love again. That is the best way to avoid being guilty of idolatry.

What Does Your Holiness Look Like?

What does your version of Christianity look like?

That might seem like an odd question to be asked, but I think it is an important question that we all need to answer. Why? Because the lives of so many people who call themselves believers look so different from each other, and especially different from Jesus Christ.

Now that wouldn’t be a problem if it was just that we are different people with different gifts and abilities and interests, but because there are so many different versions of “holiness” being displayed, it IS a problem.

Just about every believer knows the command in 1 Peter 1:16–

“Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

The problem is that many do not know what God’s definition of holiness is, and many don’t really want to know, because it would mean they would have to change how they live.

What we have ended up with is a mish-mash of “Christianity on my own terms” being lived out by self-professing believers. We present to the world a completely broken picture of Christ that looks more like the world than like what God calls holiness.

What makes God holy is that He is perfect in every way, which also makes Him completely different from a sinful world.

So, as children of God, which should we look like more: God or the world?

A desire for true holiness is what distinguishes between those who love God and those who love the world.

Faithful or Fearful?

In March of this year, a Finnish lawmaker was charged with a hate crime for publishing a picture of her Bible opened to Romans 1:24-27, which condemns homosexuality as a sin.  It was just a photo, nothing else, yet that was considered a crime in Finland.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States held that same-sex couples could not be excluded from the fundamental right to marry.

Preaching the truth of Scripture is a crime in some countries and may become a crime in our country, as well. In some countries, it is a crime just to BE a Christian and they are being imprisoned and even killed.  It is possible that we will soon see American pastors and Christians going to jail just for believing and sharing what God says is true.

Yet, Revelation 2:10 tells us the same thing it did to believers when it was written:

Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be triedbe thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

Faith can be defined as submitting to God’s truth as the authority of our life. When God’s authority is challenged, the question is whether we will stand firm, trusting God to take care of us, or whether we will withdraw in fear.

Persecution is coming. When it does, will you be faithful or fearful?