God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us†(Rom 5:8).
O’ Lord, most beautiful, caring in all your ways, unrelenting in your love and devotion toward us in Christ Jesus. Your love for us has no beginning and has no end. Your love is not limited by space or time because your love is immense and vast like a beautiful, bottomless ocean. Your love never wavers in its pursuit of us: it is undeserved, unsurpassed, unmerited, and free. Your love conquers our deepest fears, overwhelms our greatest worries, and heals our deepest hurts. Your love is unsurpassed for it was displayed in all its glory on the hardwood of the Cross.
Pray, Lord Jesus, open our minds and free our hearts to grasp the width, length, height, and depth of your love. Help us to comprehend that every act of your will and every work of your wisdom is love; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead (Eph 2:4–5 NLT).
Prayer: O’ Lord, father of all mercies, whose compassions never fail and whose mercies never cease. Your mercy is gracious goodness to those of us who are miserable and distressed because of our sin. Look upon us, your servants, with your never failing love, extend to us your compassion on our many struggles, failings, shortcomings, and sins. We are frail, yet you are strong. We are needy, yet you are compassionate. We are sinful, yet you are forgiving. Lord, your mercy is boundless and free through our Lord Jesus Christ, bestow upon us your compassion now in our present distress; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! (Rom. 11:33 NLT).
O’ God, all-wise, all-knowing, who always knows what is right, chooses what is right, and performs what is right. We are grateful that you never lead us astray: nothing takes you by surprise, nothing happens by chance, nothing is beyond your purpose and workings. We rejoice that we can trust your all-pervasive wisdom, we never need fear being lead into blindspots. We never need fear being overwhelmed by the world with all its problems and disappointments.
We can know with certainty that our wise God will never leave us confused, bewildered, or forsaken. We pray Lord Jesus Christ, who is all wisdom and knowledge, generously gift us with your wisdom for it is peace-loving, always gentle, full of mercy, and the fruit of good deeds; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity (Ps 93:1–2 NIV11).
Today, Tuesday, September 08, begins our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting: As a parish, we are seeking God to know him more intimately, experience his Holy Spirit more powerfully, touch lives in our community more personally, and meet needs in our county more sensitively. This week, our focus in prayer will be adoring the character of God and praising the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Almighty Father, God of majesty, whose greatness exceeds the heavens and whose majesty fills the earth. You are our Creator, you made us in your likeness and gave us this earth for our provision and enjoyment. We thank you that nothing exceeds your ability and nothing takes you by surprise. Remind us, dear Lord, that every moment of our lives is spent before your sight and lived before your all-knowing presence. We pray, transform our lives that they may reflect your glorious greatness, and thereby, make Jesus more attractive to all we know and meet; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
Col. 2:16-17 NLT
The Sabbath Rest of God is experiencing by faith God’s adequacy and faithfulness in every life situation resulting in freedom from worry, anxiety, and care. This rest is not passivity, inactivity, or idleness. Rest is experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit lifting us up to Jesus in the midst of all our earthly fears and worldly burdens. New Testament rest is the peace of Christ, confidence in God’s covenant promise, and assurance in the Holy Spirit’s keeping power.
The two key verses for this New Covenant understanding of rest is Col. 2:16 and Heb. 4:8-10. The ESV Study Bible (Heb. 4:8-10) states, “the Sabbath rest remains possible for God’s people to enter even now, in this life (v. 9). The promise of entering now into this rest means ceasing from the spiritual strivings that reflect uncertainty about one’s final destiny; it means enjoyment of being established in the presence of God, to share in the everlasting joy that God entered when he rested on the seventh day (v. 10).â€
The rest we seek is Christ deep and personal. Christ in the heart soothing the fears that bind us. The Holy Spirit in the soul releasing within the peace that passes all understanding. The Father in the mind leading, directing, and guiding.
In our anxious, stress-filled world, we must find the rest of God. Yet, the rest we seek is not a rejuvenation of our energy; it is an exchange of energy – our life for God’s – through which the vessel of our humanity is filled with the all-sufficiency of the Divine Presence, where we draw from the fullness of God Himself.
For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God.
Titus 2:11-12 NLT
Grace is not an abstraction, a loose religious word that applies to any unexpected blessing. Grace is not a quantity that is handed out by heaven when I need a little help. Grace is not something I pray for after I’ve done all I can do. Grace is not something I obtain when all else seems to fail.
Grace is Jesus. Grace is a Person. Grace lives in us by the personal presence and power of the Holy Spirit (1 John 4:9). Grace is pardon, when I don’t deserve forgiveness, upon repentance, the Lord pours out his love and mercy. Grace is enabling power, grace enables you and I to refuse temptation, rebuke sin, and stand in righteousness (Titus 2:11-12). Grace is Jesus being available power to live the Christian life anywhere, anytime.
There is no such ‘thing’ as grace! Grace is not some appendage to Christ’s being. All there is is the Lord Jesus Himself. And so when Jesus speaks about us abiding in Him and He abiding in us – however mysterious it may be, mystical in that sense – it is a personal union.
Christianity is Christ because there isn’t anything else. There is no atonement that somehow can be detached from who the Lord Jesus is. There is no grace that can be attached to you transferred from Him. All there is is Christ and your soul.
Sinclair Ferguson on “John 15” at the 2007 Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference in Grantham, PA.
The manger and the cross are not far removed. We tend to picture the Nativity as a pastorally-pleasing, sweet scene with admiring parents and grateful shepherds. We tend to view Golgotha as a horrid, ugly hill surrounded by hate-filled rejectors of the glorious majesty of God. Of course, truth exists in both these images, but often we fail to recognize that the Cross was planted in Bethlehem.
A Savior was born that day to die for our sins–the shadow of the Cross falls over the baby Jesus as he rests in the manger. Our kinsman redeemer, our sin-bearer, our ransom, our sacrificial Lamb was born that day in Bethlehem. The Cross and the manger meet in Bethlehem-Jesus is born to die for your sins and mine.
God’s compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us, something he could offer on our behalf.
In this Child, in fact, God-Love is manifested: God comes without weapons, without strength, because he does not aim to conquer, we could say, from without, but rather wants to be welcomed by man in liberty. God becomes a defenseless Child to conquer man’s pride, violence, and desire to possess. In Jesus, God took up this poor and defenseless condition to conquer with love and lead us to our true identity.
The whole life of Christ was a continuall Passion; others die Martyrs, but Christ was born a Martyr . . . His birth and his death were but one continuall act, and his Christmas-day and his Good Friday, are but the evening and morning of one and the same day.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Cor. 5:21
The Great Exchange is that wonderful one-sided trade of our sins, inadequacies, and numerous failings for Christ’s forgiveness, sufficiency, and triumphal victory. The greatest of all exchanges happened on Calvary’s Hill, Jesus Christ who was truly innocent and without sin, took upon himself all our petty selfishness, deep rebellion, and soul-rending brokenness and then substituted his perfect righteousness, unfailing forgiveness, and spirit-renewing healing. The exchanged life is not a one time event, but a life lived on a daily basis by faith. Each day, the Gospel reminds us that we are forgiven in Christ because of his most gracious grace (2 Cor. 5: 21; Gal. 2:20).
Everything that we know and appreciate and praise God for in all Christian experience both in this life and in the life to come springs from this bloody cross.
Do we have the gift of the Spirit? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Do we enjoy the fellowship of saints? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Does he give us comfort in life and death? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Does he watch over us faithfully, providentially, graciously, and covenantally? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Do we have hope of a heaven to come? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Do we anticipate resurrection bodies on the last day? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Is there a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Do we now enjoy new identities, so that we are no longer to see ourselves as nothing but failures, moral pariahs, disappointments to our parents—but deeply loved, blood-bought, human beings, redeemed by Christ, declared just by God himself, owing to the fact that God himself presented his Son Jesus as the propitiation for our sins? All this is secured by Christ on the cross and granted to those who have faith in him.â€
And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Rom. 5:5 NLT
What is the greatest act that I can do to break the heart of God? Burn my Bible? Fraternize with the New Atheists? Betray my church and ridicule them to the community? Take a road trip to every dive and house of ill-repute in the South? No, the greatest heartbreak I can cause my Lord is to refuse to believe that he loves me. After the events of the cross and resurrection if I still deny that Christ’s loves me, what more can God do to prove his love?
The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you.
And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
Romans 8:17
We live in the midst of the fallout of the Fall: sin has affected every area of creation and all aspects of our lives. Disappointment, pain, and trouble are significant ingredients of our daily lives. Ill-timed, unexpected tragedies can shape our Christian lives for the better or make our hearts hard through bitterness. The choice is ours: better or bitter. Do we simply want God to deliver us from trials or do we desire Christ-like character? We should know that it is God’s plan to develop us spiritually before he delivers us physically. God’s goal in our lives: character development before physical deliverance. Do we choice maturity over and against a life of emotional and physical ease?
“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience†(Rom. 5:3). However, suffering for suffering’s sake is not character transforming. It is faith in Christ and his finished work on the Cross which transforms. Our weaknesses, failures, and struggles are channels for his grace-enabling power when we trust Christ in our circumstances.
Do we want deliverance or development? Our choice: a life of relative ease without the presence of Christ or a life of seasonal character-transforming difficulties lived in the experiential love of Christ?
What are you seeking in your trouble today? Is it deliverance or development? You may have the one and not grow, or you may have both and grow. Get the development first and the deliverance will be yours, too. Let this servant minister to you in a way no other servant can. Take the positive attitude and use your trouble as one of the most skillful and wonderful instruments God ever placed into your hands for the working out of the character of Christ to be duplicated in you.
