John 3:1-21 What Nicodemus Couldn't Yet See

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and one of the most learned scholars of his time.  He was drawn to Jesus by His miracles.  He knew there was something more that he was missing.  So he came to find out what he could.  “He was a man of high moral character, deep religious hunger, and yet profound spiritual blindness,” my commentary said.  That’s not what we’d expect of a spiritual leader, but to his credit, he did come looking!

Jesus tried to explain spiritual birth to him, and “Nicodemus must have had a surprised and yet bewildered look on his face … Nicodemus was born a Jew!  He was part of God’s covenant people.  Certainly his birth was better than that of a Gentile or a Samaritan!  And his life was exemplary, for he was a faithful Pharisee!  He could well understand Jesus telling the Romans that they had to be born again, but certainly not the Jews!” my commentary said.  “The teacher of the Jews knew the facts recorded in the Scriptures, but he could not understand the truths.”

Jesus reminded him of Numbers 21:4-9, where God had sent fiery serpents to kill those who had rebelled against God.  Moses was instructed to lift up a brass serpent, and those who looked up to it in faith would be healed.  Jesus was saying, “That was a picture of Me!”  He would be lifted up – crucified, then glorified – and faith in Him would save those who trusted Him.

Finally, Jesus mentioned darkness in peoples’ lives.  They wouldn’t “come into the light of life because they love the darkness!  They want to persist in their evil deeds, and this keeps them from coming to the light, for the closer the sinner gets to the light, the more his sins are exposed.  It is not intellectual problems that keep people from trusting Christ; it is the moral and spiritual blindness that keeps them loving the darkness and hating the light,” my commentary added.

Father, I remember so well being so blinded and not wanting to come into the light of truth You were showing me.  I too did not want my sins exposed to you and held up to Your Son’s perfect life.  Please help those I love who are struggling to stay in the darkness of their evil deeds.  Bring them into the Your healing light.  Open their hearts and minds to Your truth, and expose the lies of Satan that they have fallen for.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 2: 12-25 What HE Saw

“Though He deliberately violated the man-made religious traditions of the Pharisees, our Lord obeyed the statutes of the law and was faithful to uphold the law,” my commentary said.

I wish I could have seen the Temple from Jesus’ perspective.  How special it was supposed to be – the place where God dwelt and people communed with Him and had their sins removed!  But this had stopped being the case years prior.  First, as a convenience for Jews who had traveled a long distance and needed an acceptable sacrifice, the Pharisees had set up a market to provide the means of procuring what they needed.  They also converted foreign coins into local money which was needed to pay the Temple tax.

At first, it had likely worked well, but before long, their greed had set in, and the prices and exchange rates had gone up.  The market had moved into the courtyard of the Gentiles, so non-Hebrew proselytes soon found it very difficult to worship in that outer courtyard with all of the bleating and hawking going on.

They could say what they wanted, but Jesus knew their hearts.  Some only believed because they’d seen His miracles.  “It was one thing to respond to a miracle, but quite something else to commit oneself to Jesus Christ and continue in His Word,” my commentary said.

“He knew what was in a man … He knew that the Jewish leaders did not have God’s love in their hearts, and that one of His disciples was not truly a believer….  At the beginning, it was easy for people to follow the crowd and watch His miracles.  But then, His words began to penetrate hearts, with conviction following, and conviction leads either to conversion or opposition.  It is impossible to be neutral.”

I imagine that the regular people watching Him wondered what they should believe.  After all, He was bucking the religious establishment that they’d always been taught held sway over their lives and their eternal souls.  A wrong decision, and they might find themselves out of the church.  Yet truth rang from His words.  He knew men’s hearts.  Grace and mercy came from Him, while they’d only known judgment from their religious leaders.  This One was different, and they had to make a decision.  Was He the Savior or not?  The religious leaders didn’t think so, and that surely made it tougher for them to decide.

Father, help me never to get in the way of others deciding to commit their lives to You and Your Son.  Let me not be like the Pharisees, for it was all about them and not about You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 2:1-11 A Different Take On That First Miracle

John wrote to reveal Jesus’ glory with the wedding feast story.  My commentary saw Him in three roles:  Guest, Son, and Host.

“Our Lord was not a recluse, as was John the Baptist.  He accepted invitations to social events, even though His enemies used this practice to accuse him.  Our Lord entered into the NORMAL experiences of life and SANCTIFIED them by His presence.”

I recall one of the first Wednesday night teachings Jason Atchley taught as youth minister at our church.  It was a one-man drama that started out with Jesus as a “roommate” to a guy.  The guy had decided to go to a party, so Jesus invited Himself to go along.  This wasn’t at all what the guy had planned, and he began making excuses as to why Jesus wouldn’t want to attend.  Jesus wasn’t to be dissuaded, and eventually the guy resorted to vicious attacks to keep Him from coming along, finally nailing Him to the cross to keep Him away from the guy’s intended sin.

Another role of Jesus, according to my commentary, was that of Son.  “Mary did not tell Jesus what to do.  She simply reported the problem.  His reply merely means, ‘Why are you getting Me involved in this matter?’ He was making it clear to His mother that He was no longer under her supervision, but that from now on, He would be doing what the Father wanted Him to do.”

Only Mary, Jesus, His disciples, and the servants knew what had happened.  This first miracle was chiefly for the six disciples who had trusted Jesus and started a lifelong walk with Him.  They needed to learn more about Him, and each day and each new event brought marvels that were difficult to understand, my commentary added.

This miracle was meant to reveal His glory (v. 11) and to give His disciples a stronger foundation for their faith. 

It’s worth noting that water was poured into the large jars and water was dipped out.  It was only upon serving it that the water became wine – when the servants cooperated with Jesus and obeyed His commands.  “Whether we pass out bread, wash away mud, or roll away the stone, we are assisting Him in performing a miracle,” my commentary said.

John didn’t use the word dunamis, which emphasizes power, but simeion, which means a sign.  Warren Wiersbe thinks the special sign or message intended here was for Israel – the nation pictured as married to God and unfaithful.  “The wine ran out, and all Israel had left were six empty wash pots!  They held water for external washings, but they could provide nothing for internal cleaning and joy.  In this miracle, our Lord brought fullness where there was emptiness, joy where there was disappointment, and something internal for that which was only external (water for ceremonial washings).”

Father, it’s so interesting to put myself in with those first six disciples, so that I may marvel with them in what they were learning about Jesus!  Thanks for putting newness into this story and for helping me to remember that as Your servant I too am to cooperate and obey, and in doing so, You will still perform miracles through me today!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 1:35-51 Personally Drawing Us In

John the Baptist told two of his followers – John and Andrew – that Jesus was the Lamb of God.  This was enough to make them leave John’s ministry to follow Jesus.

The two of them then went to their brothers – Andrew to Peter and John to James – and as a result, those two were added to Jesus’ disciples.

Verse 43, though, says, “Jesus … found Philip…”  Jesus won him personally.  Then Philip went to find Nathanael, who was amazingly honest and somewhat leery about anyone coming out of Nazareth being of any count.  My commentary picked up a thread there, where Jesus saw Nathanael and said, “Here is truly an Israelite.  There is nothing false in him.”  My commentary said, “Jesus was certainly referring to Jacob, the ancestor of the Jews, a man who used guile to trick … Jacob’s name was changed to ‘Israel, a prince of God.’  The reference to ‘Jacob’s ladder’ confirms this.”

I’d always liked the fact that Jesus liked having a man beside him who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.  But I’d never linked him up as an opposite of Jacob.  It’s certainly not hard to see why Jesus would prefer a guileless person to the type of person Jacob started out being.  What an honor for Nathanael. 

Jesus wasn’t just bringing up Jacob in regards to guile, though.  He clearly used Jacob’s ladder to show Himself as the only way to God – heaven open, with the Son of Man providing the pathway itself between heaven and earth.  The combination of this image and the title ‘Son of Man’ clearly spoke volumes of Jesus being the Messiah.

Father, You spoke in ways that meant so much to those men back then, helping them to understand exactly who Your Son is.  Thank You for the way You approach each of us individually to prepare our hearts to accept Christ’s mission and sacrifice.  Thanks for knowing us completely, which enables You to know the very best way of leading us to Him.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 1:1-34 Illuminating MY Darkness

We were so darkened in our souls by sin that we couldn’t fathom that God was loving enough to do something about it.  He illuminated the problem, and His solution, by giving John this incredible new message.

 

Imagine the Jewish leaders going out to see just what he was doing and why – because they couldn’t comprehend God’s plan either.  They asked John, “Who are you?”  He said he wasn’t the Christ.  Then they dared to ask, “Are you Elijah?” “No.”  “Are you the [promised] Prophet?” “No.”

 

He then quoted from Isaiah 40:3, which they knew to be a Messianic verse.  He was a herald.  There was another coming, who would “take away the sin of the world.”  This they couldn’t imagine!  Only God could take away sin!

 

He revealed to them what God had told him:  “You will see the Spirit come down and rest on a man; He is the One … the Son of God.”

 

Don’t you know they ran back and caused an amazing stir among their peers?  “How did we miss the boat on this?  Is this guy nuts?” 

 

John, when he saw Him, said, “Look the Lamb of God …”  John knew Jesus was going to be the sacrifice that would take away the sin of the world.

 

Father, thank You for illuminating my darkness.  Thank You for Your Spirit inside of me, guiding me toward more light from Christ.  Thank You for sending Your Son, as a bay, to live through all that has tempted me, to show me it is possible not to sin, but not in my own power – only in Yours.  Thank You for making Him my sacrificial Lamb.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 5 -- Peter's Final Three Preparation Thoughts

Having warned Christians of the fiery trials to come, Peter wanted the entire church family to be prepared for them, and he gave us three important admonitions to obey so that we would glorify God in those difficulties, my commentary said.  They are:

 

1)      Be humble – “Humility is not demeaning ourselves and thinking poorly of ourselves.  It is simply not thinking about ourselves at all.”  It added:  “One of the evidences of pride is our impatience with God, and one reason for suffering is that we might learn patience.

2)      Be watchful – Regarding Stan we are to respect him because he is dangerous (the way we respect high voltage); recognize him because he is a great pretender; and resist him.  “Before we can stand before Satan, we must bow before God.

3)      Be hopeful – “A Christian always has hope.  We have God’s grace, we know we are going to glory, our present suffering is only for a while, and we know that our trials are building Christian character.”

 

Father, I know that when I’m in the middle of my circumstances, it can get awfully difficult to see You.  But I trust You and know that You are with me.  Show me how to remember all of this in my circumstances so that I will be able to see You and trust You in the middle of them all.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 4:7-19 What We Are To Do While We Wait

Peter left us ten commandments to keep us in balance as we wait for Christ’s return, my commentary said:

 

1)      Keep your mind steady and clear

2)      Be alert and controlled in your praying

3)      Have love for your Christian brothers and sisters – love that you work at like an athlete does

4)      Share your homes with other Christians in hospitality

5)      Minister with your spiritual gifts – you have been given at least one

6)      Don’t think it strange that you are persecuted

7)      Rejoice

8)      Don’t be ashamed of being a Christian or of the way the world treats Christians

9)      Glorify God

10)   Commit yourself to God

 

He also told us to expect suffering.  “The world does not persecute religious people, but it does persecute righteous people,” my commentary said.  “Persecution and trials do not just happen.  They are a part of God’s plans and He is in control.”

 

“It is important to examine our lives to ensure that we aren’t suffering because of our own sin.  The fact that we are Christians is not a guarantee that we escape the normal consequences of our misdeeds.”

 

In our sufferings, we also need to ask, “Am I ashamed or glorifying Christ?” and also, “Am I seeking to win the lost?”, for if we keep our focus on these areas while we are suffering, the lost will be able to see Jesus more clearly through us.

 

Father, it’s so very easy to become self-centered in the midst of suffering, yet Your Word clearly tells us to be God-centered, for You use our suffering to glorify Yourself to a sinful, lost world.  That should help us to stay the course, knowing that You are in control of our tough times, using them not just to glorify Yourself, but also to purify us and to ready us for what You have been preparing for us in Heaven.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 4:1-6 Sin In Our Lives, And Keeping It Out

Peter talks to us about what we’re going to do from this moment forward, and of prime importance is having a militant attitude toward sin.  It’s what Jesus had, and we’re called to be like Him.

 

We have to have that militant attitude toward sin because it’s too easy to get accustomed to sin again, my commentary says.  “Instead of having a militant attitude that hates and opposes it, we gradually get used to sin, sometimes without even realizing it … The one thing that will destroy the rest of our time is sin.  A believer living in sin is a terrible weapon in the hands of Satan.”

 

Peter gave us several reasons to oppose sin.  “Think of what sin did to Jesus.  He had to suffer because of sin.  How can we ENJOY that which made Jesus suffer and die on the cross?”

 

We can be ignorant of sin.  “He taught us the truth about it and lived it.  He dealt with the consequences of sin by healing and forgiving, and, on the cross, He dealt the final deathblow to sin itself.  He was armed with a militant attitude toward sin, even though He had great compassion for lost sinners.”

 

So how do we have victory over sin for the rest of our time?  “Suffering plus Christ in our lives can help … As we yield ourselves to God, and have the same attitude toward sin that Jesus had, we can overcome the old life and manifest the new life.”

 

My commentary also said we need to “enjoy the will of God.  The contrast is between the desires of man and the will of God … The will of God is so much better … it’s not a burden … The will of God comes from the heart of God and therefore is an expression of the love of God.  We may not always understand what He is doing, but we know that He is doing what is BEST for us.”

 

Finally, Peter tells us to remember what we were before we met Christ.  “We sometimes forget the bondage of sin and remember only the passing pleasures of sin … Our sins helped to crucify Christ.  How foolish to go back to that kind of life.”

 

Father, that’s what pains me the most about my sin – being deceived by Satan into forgetting the bondage sin places us in and remembering the passing pleasures of sin as though they were much better than they actually were.  Satan blinds and deceives us so!  And it hurts me so when I realize how I walk right into it every time, and in doing so, nail another nail into Jesus’ body on that cross!  How horrible that makes me feel.  Remind me often of my ignorance.  Keep the truth about sin and its consequences ever before me.  Help me keep a militant attitude toward sin stoked up and ready to defend against it.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 3:18-22 Through The Difficulties To The Meat

My commentary calls this “one of the most difficult portions of the New Testament,” and says, “We may not be able to solve all the problems found in this section, but we do want to get the practical help that Peter gave to encourage Christians in difficult days.”

 

It pointed to Christ and what He did as the most important point to consider – “the perfect example of one who suffered unjustly, and yet OBEYED God.”

 

To make a long story short, the writer of my commentary, Warren Wiersbe, honed in on the practice of the early church regarding baptism.  “When converts were prepared for baptism, they would be asked if they intended to obey God and serve Him, and to break with their sinful past.  If they had reservations in their hearts, or deliberately lied, they would not have a good conscience if, under pressure of persecution, they denied the Lord.  So Peter reminded them of their baptismal testimony to encourage them to be true to Christ.”

 

He listed several lessons Peter was sharing even for us today:

 

1)       Christians must expect opposition.

2)      Christians must serve God by faith and not trust in results.  Noah served God and kept only 7 people from the flood, yet God honored him.

3)      We can be encouraged because we are identified with Christ’s victory.

4)      Our baptism is important.  It identifies us with Christ and gives witness that we have broken with the old life and will, by His help, live a new life.  The act of baptism is a pledge to God that we shall obey Him.

 

Finally, Wiersbe said, “I want to make it clear that Christians must not make baptism a test of fellowship or of spirituality…. The important thing is that each Christian avow devotion to Christ, and make it a definite act of commitment … It does us no good to quibble about differing interpretations of a difficult passage of Scripture, if what we do believe does not motivate us to share the gospel with others.”

 

Father, I know a lot of people are just waiting to hear Your explanation of what Peter wrote someday.  For me, it will be enough to see You and Your Son on that day.  Nothing else will matter.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 3:8-17 Blessings In The Worst Of Times

My commentary found three instructions in this section to follow if we are to experience blessings in the worst times – when we are persecuted.

 

Cultivate Christian Love

“An eye for an eye” was the basis for justice.  “We must operate on the basis of mercy, for that is the way God deals with us.  We must deliberately decide to love life … We can decide to endure life and make it a burden, escape life as though we are funning from a battle, or enjoy life because we know God is in control … A good day for the believer who loves life is not one in which he is pampered and sheltered, but one in which he experiences God’s help and blessing because of life’s problems and trials.”

 

Practice The Lordship Of Christ

“The fear of the Lord conquers every other fear … Only we can harm ourselves if we fail to trust God … to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts means to turn everything over to Him, and to live only to please Him and glorify Him.  It means to fear displeasing Him rather than fear what men might do… It means being satisfied with nothing less than the will of God.”

 

Maintain A Good Conscience

“A good conscience gives us peace in our hearts … and removes from us the fear of what other people may know about us, say against us, or do to us.  When Christ is Lord and we fear only God, we need not fear the threats, opinions, or actions of our enemies … To maintain a good conscience, we must deal with sin in our lives and confess it immediately … We must also spend time in the Word of God and let in the light … The secret is to practice the lordship of Jesus Christ.  If we fear God, we need not fear men.  Shame arises from the fear of men.  Conscience, from the fear of God.”

 

Father, keep my conscience active and alive.  Don’t let sin sear it to the point that it fails to alert me when I’m doing wrong.  Help me to always fear You more than men.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 3:1-7 What's In Here For A Single Person? READYING Information

God gave Peter great insight into marriage and how a husband and wife work together to get the most out of it.  I read some awesome stuff that my commentary drew out of it:

 

“Imitating the world and getting their standards from Hollywood instead of Heaven will guarantee trouble.  Instead they would best imitate Christ in His submission and obedience and His desire to serve others.”

 

“There is nothing degrading about submission to authority … if anything, it is the first step toward fulfillment.”

 

“God not only commands submission, but He uses it as a powerful spiritual influence in a home.”

 

“Christian workers and church officers who get too busy running around solving other people’s problems may end up creating problems of their own at home.  A couple must make time to be home with each other.”

 

“Husbands and wives need to really know each other – moods, feelings, needs, fears, and hopes.  Ignorance in these areas is dangerous.”

 

“Big resentments often grow out of small hurts.  Couples need to be honest with each other, admit hurts, and seek for forgiveness and healing.”

 

“Peter assumed that husbands and wives would pray together.  Family prayer time and family devotions are important!”

 

My commentary included a marriage inventory based on what Peter wrote here, which it said should occasionally be checked:

 

1)       Are we partners or competitors?

2)      Are we helping each other become more spiritual?

3)      Are we depending on the externals or the eternals?

4)      Do we understand each other better?

5)      Are we sensitive to each other, or taking each other for granted?

6)      Are we seeing God answer our prayers?

7)      Are we enriched because of our marriage, or robbing each other of God’s blessing?

 

“Marriage is something that we have to work at; success is not automatic.”

 

Father, I still pray that You are at work right now preparing a wife for me.  At the same time, I must always remember that You would therefore be preparing me for her as well.  Keep chiseling, Father!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 2:13-25 The Government & How We React To It

Just reading the paragraph title before verse 13 caused me to want to rebel:  “Yield to Every Human Authority”.  Although I’d like to think that the reason my defenses went up was based on my enormous disagreement with the policies, actions, and manner of operation of our national government, by the end of the chapter I was forced to admit that the main problem stems from my sin nature.  It began in Eden when Adam and Eve decided that they wanted to be like God and rebelled.

 

My commentary said a Christian’s responsibility is to advertise God’s virtues.  “When we do something in the will of God and as servants of God, then we are doing it for the Lord’s sake.  God has willed that we silence the critics by doing good, not by opposing the authority … Anyone can fight back; it takes a Spirit-filled Christian to submit and let God fight his battles.”  Christ suffered, and His suffering came when He submitted to earthly powers.  “As we live godly lives and submit in times of suffering, we are following Christ’s example and becoming more like Him.”

 

Father, take my rebellion down a notch.  Lower my hackles.  Help me to remember that Christ wasn’t a political activist.  He simply did what You told Him to do and showed You to the world as He did so.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 2:1-12 Our Position In The World, Our Internal Struggles

I read a lot this morning about getting along with other Christians and being an effective witness to the world.  So much of that depends on how we keep corruption out of our own lives.  My commentary said:

 

“When Christians are growing in the Word, they are peacemakers, not troublemakers, and they promote the unity of the church …

 

 It is important that we, as God’s priests, maintain our separated position in this world.  We must not be isolated, because the world needs our influence and witness, but we must not permit the world to infect us or change us.  Separation is not isolation; it is contact without contamination….

 

God commanded them to put a “difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean,’ but they ignored the differences and disobeyed God …

 

Peter emphasized submission in the life of a believer … Submission does not mean slavery or subjugation but simply the recognition of God’s authority in our lives …

 

There is something deeper than obedience because of duty, and that is obedience because of devotion …

 

We are soldiers involved in a spiritual battle.  There are sinful desires that war against us and want to defeat us.  Our real battle is not with people around us, but with passions within us … If we yield to these sinful appetites, then we will start living like the unsaved around us and will become ineffective witnesses.”

 

Father, wise words and reminders today from the One who knows me better than I know myself.  Thanks for the heads-up, enabling me to have my defenses ready why attacks come.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 1:13-21 Where We Aren't vs Where We Should Be

My Bible entitles this section “A Call To Holy Living”.  I sure don’t want to boil it down to a checklist to do each day, because that’s what the Pharisees had done with the law, but rather I think Peter was telling us how to make sure we were ready to be living a holy life.  Here were his points:

 

1)       Prepare your minds for service

2)      Have self-control

3)      Do not live as you did in the past

4)      Be holy (different) in all you do

5)      Live with respect for God

 

I sure liked the following that I read in my commentary about these points:

 

“To a dedicated believer, there is no such thing as secular and sacred.  All of life is holy … If something cannot be done to the glory of God, then we can be sure it must be out of the will of God.”

 

“The Word reveals God’s mind, so we should learn it; God’s heart, so we should love it; God’s will, so we should live it … We do not study the Bible just to get to know the Bible.  We study the Bible that we might get to know God better.”

 

“We need to be serious about sin and about holy living.  Our heavenly Father is a holy and righteous Father.  He will not compromise with sin.  He is merciful and forgiving, but He is also a loving disciplinarian who cannot permit His children to ENJOY sin.  After all, it was sin that sent His Son to the cross.”

 

“God will give us many gifts and privileges as we grow in the Christian life, but He will never give us the privilege to disobey and sin.  He never pampers His children or indulges them.  He is no respecter of persons.  He shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.  Years of obedience cannot purchase an hour of disobedience.  If one of His children disobeys, God must chasten.”

 

“We ought to cultivate an attitude of godly fear … the loving reverence of a child before his father.  It is not fear of judgment, but a fear of disappointing Him or sinning against His love.”

 

Father, it’s so great to have a reminder of where we should be to refer to so we can note where we aren’t and adjust our paths accordingly.  Keep this ever before me.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 1:1-12 His Hand On The Thermostat

Peter was writing to scattered Christians.  Likely, they weren’t where they’d planned to be.  Yet he reminds them that they were right in the middle of God’s will for their lives.  God’s power was protecting them, even in the midst of bad things happening to them.

 

He told them that though these troubles might bring sadness, they were being used by God to prove to them that their faith was real and would bring them and God glory and honor some day.

 

In the midst of this sadness, they could still be filled with joy because they loved Christ and believed in Him and trusted Him despite their circumstances.  He was their living hope and is our living hope as well.

 

God is preparing US for what He has in store for us.  Our trials are some of God’s tools and textbooks, my commentary explained.  “Sometimes trials discipline us when we have disobeyed God’s will.  At other times, trials prepare us for spiritual growth, or even help us to prevent us from sinning.  We do not always know the need being met, but we can trust God to know and do what’s best.”

 

I really liked this:  “Trials are controlled by God … When God permits His children to go through the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat.  If we rebel, He may have to reset the clock, but if we submit, He will not permit us to suffer one minute too long.  The important thing is that we learn the lesson He wants to teach us and that we bring glory to Him alone.”

 

Father, I’ve been feeling the trials, but I trust You.  Produce in my soul what I need, to know You better and to bring You glory.  Continue to give me hope, Father.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 6 -- What Paves The Way

The legalists loved to catch someone in sin and loved to gloat about it, for they believed it made them look holier.  Jesus had told us to practice accountability with love and forgiveness, though.  “Christian love would lead us not to expose a brother’s failures or weaknesses, no matter how much better it would make us look,” my commentary said.

 

It also talked about sharing our blessings, sowing to either the flesh or the Spirit what God has blessed us with, and once something is sown, the harvest can’t be changed.  “All that we do is either an investment in the flesh or the Spirit.”

 

Paul mentioned a promise regarding that harvest, too:  “In due season we shall reap if we faint not.”  We have to be careful not to get weary in the work of the Lord, though.  The motivation we need is faith, hope and love.  And we must remember that the seed that is planted does not bear fruit immediately.  “We have to give the seed time to take root and bear fruit … The Lord of the harvest is in charge, not the laborers.”

 

Paul also said something about works, but not in regard to salvation.  My commentary said, “It is not only by words that we witness to the lost, but also by our works.  In fact, our works pave the way for our verbal witness:  they win us the right to be heard.”

 

Father, there are times when I am so worn out, but Your love prods me to keep going.  You showed me long ago that important jewel that our works pave the way for our verbal witness and win us the right to be heard.  After all, they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 5: 13-26 WOW!

I wish I could reproduce whole sections of my commentary today.  What awesome words!

 

God, through the Holy Spirit, works in us to free us from ourselves and the tyranny of our sinful natures.  “What God the Father planned for you, and God the Son purchased for you on the cross, God the Spirit personalizes for you and applies to your life as you yield to Him … The Spirit frees us from the power of sin in our daily lives.”  God substitutes love in the heart for the laws and threats that were there under the law.  The Holy Spirit within us gives us the love that we need, and obeying out of love is always easier than obeying out of fear.

 

Paul did not mean the body when he spoke of the flesh (the old nature), my commentary said.  “The human body is not sinful; it is neutral.  If the Holy Spirit controls the body, then we walk in the Spirit; but if the flesh controls the body, then we walk in the lusts (desires) of the flesh.  The Spirit and the flesh have different appetites, and this is what creates the conflict … The solution is not to pit our will against the flesh (the old nature), but to surrender our will to the Holy Spirit.”

 

It’s very important to understand that when Paul says the person who practices these sins shall not inherit the kingdom of God, he’s not talking about an act of sin, but a habit of sin, my commentary noted. 

 

“He tells us that the flesh (the old nature) has already been crucified.  It is our responsibility to believe this and act on it … We must accept what God says about the old nature and not try to make it something that it is not.  We must not make provision for the flesh (the old nature) by feeding it the things that it enjoys.”

 

“In short, the secret is the Holy Spirit.  He alone can give us that fifth freedom – freedom from sin and self.  He enables us to fulfill the law of love, to overcome the flesh, and to bear fruit.”

 

Father, I so needed a fresh look at the Holy Spirit and a reminder of how He energizes and empowers my life.  Keep this constantly before me, that I may always remember the difference He makes between my old nature and my new life in You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford