Heavenhigh

Sheep and Goats

Aug 10, 2015

2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

Matthew 25:40

⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Matthew 25 is about Jesus teaching in parables. Jesus teaches in parables so that only those having the Spirit of God will be able to understand and access the Kingdom of God (Mt. 13:10-17). The passage we are memorizing is in the context of the parable of the sheep and the goats (Mt. 25: 31-46). Jesus puts himself in the parable and he is teaching about the judgment; it is about the separation of believers and unbelievers at the end of the time.

The parable is unnerving giving the impression that a person is saved or lost by a person’s works. However believers are only saved by Jesus’ love and the work He does for us, and we are not condemned by our works but our work is judged. Unbelievers however are condemned by their work, apart from Jesus no work is acceptable to God no matter how good that work may be for mankind.

Believers do their work in the name of Jesus Christ out of gratitude to Him, that work follows them to heaven, lasts forever, and become building blocks in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

Take note that believers and unbelievers give Jesus the same answer when told by Jesus what they did and what they did not do for Him. Lord, when did we see you hungry, homeless, jailed, and needing clothes? The difference is the power of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life: Believers see Jesus in the needs of people because “they are the body of Christ” and Jesus came to save people physically and spiritually (Lk. 4: 18 and Isa. 61:1). Without the Spirit of God we cannot see! The Spirit of God is his gift to all who respond to His love (Jn. 3:16-21), the promise we must accept and believe.

Set Yourself Free!

#31. Aug 03, 2015

Luke 6:37

³⁷“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

This passage we are memorizing is set in the context of Jesus choosing and teaching his disciples when they went up on a mountain to pray. After that Jesus teaches a large group of diverse people gathered there on a level place (Lk. 6:20-49). We know it as “The Sermon on the Mount” (Mt. 5,6,7). Luke’s rendering is not as comprehensive as in Matthew who fills three chapters but the gospel of Mark does not cover it at all. The corresponding passages to Lk. 6:37 we find in Mt. 7:1-5, Matthew adds the parable of: “the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye”. Luke adds two more parables: “give and it will be given to you” and “Can the blind led the blind”. Luke puts the emphasis on Jesus as the perfect human and the way of salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike. Luke also emphasizes the family and the poor. Matthew puts the emphasis on Jesus as the King of the Kingdom.

Verse 37 is Jesus’ Word and He tells us not to judge, do not pronounce judgment. This is a legal term, meaning censure, giving us the modern term “acting as judge and jury”. We must discern what is right or wrong but judging is not a believer’s right, judging belongs to God. We must not condemn or pronounce guilty or you may be guilty and condemned, only God truly condemns. Instead forgive, especially if forgiveness is not asked for, and be set free. Unforgiveness destroys a person in three ways, it is like a prison that separates you from life in the community, separates you from your spiritual life with Christ, and slowly eats away your quality of life. Life is too short to let yourself be hampered by what other people do! Forgive and be free!

Rejoice Always

#30. July 27, 2015

Philippians 4:4

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Chapter 4 is the final chapter of Philippians. and begins with “Therefore” pointing back to ch. 3. Paul is dealing with disunity among his sisters in Christ. He addresses them by name, and urges them to look to his and other followers of Christ’s example. This passage addresses disunity among us as well. Paul instructs us to “have no confidence in the flesh” nor in our own accomplishment (Php. 3: 1-11) but “take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (of us). Christ by the power of the Spirit takes hold of us in order to bring us back to God, to belong to Jesus and, to be like Him (Php. 3:17-21).

Apart from Christ our “mind is set on earthly things”. Paul tells us: “but our citizenship is in heaven”. To be like Christ and to exemplify Him we are called to be “of the same mind in Christ.” This sends us back to Chapter 2: 1-8. How are followers of Jesus like Christ and what is the example we are called to present? It means to display Jesus’ humility, His acceptance, His grace, His love, His non-condemnation, and His forgiveness into every area of our lives.

Christ’s love for us is the reason Paul urges us to rejoice not only in good times but he emphasizes his command: “I will say it again: Rejoice!” I see that emphasis as: to rejoice always, in every situation and in every season of life. Praise be to God.

Complete Joy

#29. July 20, 2015

John 15:11

^“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Recently we memorized verse 9 of this chapter that summarized the main theme: The first division of chapter 15, “The Vine and the Branches” is the introduction to verse 9 and to the rest of the chapter. This chapter is about being with Jesus, more specifically being in Jesus and “remaining in His love”. The introduction tells us to stay in Christ like a branch to the vine. Apart from the vine the branch is dead and so with us we cannot do anything apart from Jesus Christ. The verse we are memorizing this week is about joy: joy that is full, complete joy.

Joy is a theme that runs throughout Scripture, one example being; “in your presence there is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16: 11). “The joy of the Lord is our strength”. (Ne. 8:10). Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22-23). “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Php. 4:4) and also in John, I John, and 2 John. Joy comes with God’s presence. Is God’s presence with us today? Yes!

Followers of Jesus who seek God experience His presence, “Come near to God and he will come near to you” Jas. 4:8, The Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in us (Jn. 14:15-21). One reason we may not feel God’s presence is that we are able to suppress the Spirit in us or the world may be too much with us. The Spirit does not force himself on us. God wants a close relationship with us in all aspects of our lives. God gives us His Spirit and He gives us faith. The result is God’s constant presence and increasing joy, joy that is full and complete. Praise is to God!

God’s Glory!

#28. July 13, 2015

Matthew 23:11-12

¹¹”The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹²For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Matthew 23 is about the hypocrisy of the teachers of the law during Jesus’ time on earth. Most of the religious leaders of the day had rejected Jesus because he exposed their comfortable situation in society, He threatened their authority, and they were extremely jealous of Jesus’ popularity with the people. Yet because they held the position of Moses Jesus tells the people listen to them, but “do not do what they do for they do not practice what they preach”.

Today the church in America is on the decline for that very reason; young people and others as well see a lot of hypocrisy in some of the leadership and in many of those who claim to be Christian. We do not practice what we preach and we have lost our connection to the Holy Spirit! I know many of us would like to think that the church building and the people who attend are a light in the community and in some cases that is true. But it has been my experience for the 6 years I worked as a church planter in Mich. that the physical shape of the building and the label “Christian” has bad connotations for many people who have experienced the condemnations of the church and the resulting disregard for their spiritual well being. Condemnation is easy to do; we can do it by not saying a word. The fact is that sin is sin: a gossiper or an adulterer is equally sinful in God’s eyes. We must not condone sin but we must walk along side the sinner and guide them to a better place, a place that is pleasing to God. That is an important aspect of the work of the church that has been ignored for too long.

Jesus gives his disciples the solution to the problem of prideful and condemning leaders of his day and what must change for leaders and Christians today. The answer is in the verses we are memorizing v. 11-12. Here we find a solution and a negative promise but also a positive promise to those who really follow Jesus. Jesus the Messiah is our instructor, no one else; He came to serve and to suffer on a cross. “We are not greater than our master” Jesus tells us. Therefore, leaders must be servants to the flock and especially to those outside of the flock because Jesus “came to save the lost”. It takes humility to serve other Christians but great humility to serve those broken by sin, those over-whelmed with life, and those antagonistic to the church and all it stands for. Serving the lost involves disappointment and suffering. Human nature in us wants recognition even glory but that leads to being humbled, Jesus tells us. Humility in serving leads to glorification but not our glorification but the glorification of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let us humble ourselves for God’s glory and for the building up of the church!

Jesus: Remain in Me!

#27. July 06, 2015

John 15:9

⁹“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

The first division of chapter 15, “The Vine and the Branches”, is the introduction to verse 9 and to the rest of the chapter. This chapter is about being with Jesus, more specifically being in Jesus and “remaining in His Love”. The introduction tells us to stay in Christ like a branch to the vine. Apart from the vine the branch is dead and so with us we cannot do anything apart from Jesus Christ. That is a truth we easily forget, we want to serve but sometimes we go in our own strength not getting the results we should, yet, God is faithful and uses us, even in our short comings. Further, we may “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”, if we remain in Him. This is in the context of bearing fruit for God’s glory, and showing us as disciples of Jesus. “Bear much fruit,” indicates the fruit of the Spirit. (Gal. 5:22-23)

Verse 9 “As the Father has loved me” Jesus here is teaching us God’s love, Devine Love that does not fail, never gives up on a person, always forgives, always gives us multiple chances, and lays down His life. As Jesus loves us we are to love each other, the passage here is speaking of a Devine Love taught us by Jesus Christ. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” We are commanded to remain in Jesus’ love. We make that choice for ourselves but we do so in the Spirit of God. Jesus says: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” (Emphasis mine) It is an amazing concept made clear in Eph. 1:3-14. Why us, why me Lord? It is a matter of God’s grace, His election, and His eternal plan, and His blessings with no imput or value on our part. We cannot understand God’s purposes, but we can respond to his choosing with thanksgiving and service; we acknowledge God’s love by bearing fruit. Bearing fruit is the concept behind “Now remain in my love”. God’s love is to be our love insofar as we are able to use the gifts God gives us and He is with us (Mt. 28:20). Praise be to God!

Following Jesus

#26. June 29, 2015

Luke 9:23-24

²³Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

In the NIV Luke nine has nine major divisions and is full of the major themes from Jesus’ ministry on earth. The verses we are memorizing are in the context of discipleship verses 20-26. The end of the chapter (v. 57-62) is more definitive of the cost of discipleship. Jesus gives us several examples of those who want to follow Him but life gets in the way.

Do you wants to follow Jesus? Is the Holy Spirit at work in you to make a full commitment to follow Jesus but things get in the way? I don’t mean going to church as important as that is. I don’t mean studying God’s Word as essential as that is. I don’t mean living as Christians at home and with family as imperative as that is. Following Jesus means that His humility, His spirituality, His compassion, His love, and His forgiveness are applied to all areas of our lives. It means making disciples: praying for and seeking the lost, showing direction to those who have lost their way, loving and helping those stuck in a destructive life with no way out on their own. God wants to reconcile mankind back to Him, and he uses followers of Jesus to do it! (II Cor. 5:11-21) “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:”

The above is the Great Commission that Jesus commands and continues to command to all those who follow Him (Mt. 28:16-20). If Jesus is visible today, His love, His forgiveness, all of His perfect human attributes, they can only be found in Scripture and among true followers of Jesus. This is what Jesus is talking about in Lk. 9:23-24 Where Jesus says: “Take up their cross daily and follow me” Jesus carried his cross willingly, knowing he would be crucified on it. Are we willing to deny ourselves like Jesus did always putting others before ourselves, willing to give our lives to follow Jesus? Saving ones life, as Jesus puts it, means to have only earthly ambitions, living only for ourselves, grabbing all we can out of this physical life with no thought about the after life. Living apart from our Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in this life take away our eternal life with Him. The opposite of that kind of earthly living is losing our life to follow Jesus and having eternal life with God. Does that mean only suffering in this earthly life? No! Not necessarily, but it may, many Jesus followers are persecuted in many places today. Even so, as a general rule those who follow Jesus rejoice, live longer, are happier, have peace, love more than those who do not follow Him, and have eternal life beginning the day we commit to follow Him. That is what Jesus means in Verse 24: “whoever loses their life for me will save it.” Praise God!

God’s Wisdom

#25. June 22, 2015

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.

Proverbs is part of “Wisdom Literature” in Scripture. In chapter one the author gives us the theme and purpose of the book: ²for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; ³for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; ⁴for giving prudence to those who are simple,^[^a^]knowledge and discretion to the young—⁵let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance—⁶for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.^[^b⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools^[^c^] despise wisdom and instruction. The theme is summarized in: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge”.

The context of the verse we are memorizing is what the NIV labels as: “Get Wisdom at Any Cost”. The author speaks in the first person speaking to his son and we would add daughter. God our Father is the source for his wisdom. He tells of his own father who instructed him. Again and again he speaks of the virtues and the benefit of wisdom for a happy and long life. He compares wisdom with lack of wisdom and equates the lack of it with those who cannot help themselves to stop walking in evil ways; they cannot rest until the evil deed is committed. The path of evil is dark and oppressive but the righteous attains health of body and walks in bright sunshine. The Father uses the pedagogy of repetitions, examples, comparisons, and simile but it comes down to the heart.

Moving on to verse 23 the author comes down to the heart. The heart contains and retains the virtues of wisdom. Therefore, he says: “above all else, guard your heart,” the condition of the heart is above all he has mentioned before now. Both good and evil comes from the heart (Lk. 6: 44-45). Therefore, guard your heart, we have a choice, what we talk about, what we ponder on, what we allow ourselves to see, and the places we willingly go. Garbage in garbage out! Verse 24-27 talks about how to guard your heart. So far all this is directed to the son or daughter and to us but wisdom plays a much larger role to play in our lives; it affects every person we interact with and with our permission is able to shine the light of Jesus on all we do and say.

God’s Time

#24. June 15, 2015

Ecclesiastes 3:1

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Ecclesiastes is what is called ”Wisdom Literature”, written by King Solomon in the opinion of most commentators. It is a genre of literature that addresses issues of good and evil in the world, issues of God’s peoples’ faith, and the issue of understanding God and His providence for His people and His world. Ecc. is written by one who has lived a full life but is coming to the end of it. Chapter three is in the context of what the author says that all of life is meaningless (Ecc. 1-2).

The next two paragraphs are a summary of Chs.1 and 2. “Everything is meaningless”. He asks this question: “What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?” This question we will want to ask ourselves. He moves to “wisdom is meaningless”, his conclusion: “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.” He moves on to, “pleasures are meaningless” he “says to himself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” We may well ask that question for ourselves. He moves to, “wisdom and folly are meaningless, like the fool, the wise too must die!” He moves to, “Toil is meaningless”, he surmises: “All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest.”

At the end of all this negativity the writer brings us back to what is important and meaningful for God’s people: “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ²⁵for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? ²⁶To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, (emphasis mine) but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” Also, see his conclusion, Ecc. 12:13-14.

The above is an introduction to the book and the context for Chapter 3. “There is a time for everything”, God is the one who gives us time for everything, He orchestrates our lives but we make our own decisions. God is in control of all things but that is not obvious very often in our daily living, but when it is obvious God builds our faith. A “season for every activity” is as God’s timing. He directs it. As followers of Jesus we are in the Kingdom of God. He puts us in the place, the situation, and with the people He wants to impact in order to build His Kingdom on this earth. We need to broaden our view of the world and of God’s purposes! There are times, seasons, and activities to practice our faith during all of our life, building the Kingdom as followers of Jesus. Thanks be to God!

God’s Breath

#23. June 8, 2015

II Timothy 3:16-17

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the servant of God^[^a^] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The verses we are memorizing are found in the second letter to Timothy, one of the “Pastoral Letters” written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy and Titus. The purpose of these letters is to give pastoral care to Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete. Chapter 3 of second Timothy has two sections: “The Godlessness of the Last Days” and “Paul’s Charge to Timothy”. The first section is a continuation of Paul’s advice on dealing with false teachers at the end of chapter 2 and it is a commentary on the last times. It is a dark description of people’s actions when biblical principals are ignored and the truth not taught to those wanting to move closer to God. Even so, Paul encourages Timothy to continue living out his faith. Jesus’ disciples (Acts 2:17-21)and the writers of the New Testament (Heb. 1:2) considered themselves to be in the “Last Days”, Paul is no exception.

Yet Christians have waited 2000 yrs. Early on there was terrible persecution of Christians under Roman Emperor Nero through the time of Diocletian 303 AD, if there ever was a time for the end it was then. Yet, the attitudes of people that Paul writes about in the first section of chapter 3 has increased from those days to today’s decadent lifestyles and the appalling ignorance of God’s Word. Not to mention the unbelievable treatment by terrorist groups of Christians and everyone else who think differently than they do. Are we near the end of time right now? Jesus says: be careful about predicting the end, (Mt. 24:36-44) only God the Father knows the end of things.

Meanwhile, we live in this less than holy environment and we have these two verses, II Tim. 3:16-17 to apply to our daily living. Paul sets before us the “Holy Scriptures” as the only standard for life and faith because it is God breathed. Not a part of it but all of it! I tell my students as I hold up the Bible that this is a living book written by men but by the Holy Spirit teaching us the thoughts of God. The Bible is alive in two ways: God breathed and secondly comes alive in us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We have to pick it up, open it, read it, know it, and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us. Paul begins with theology; “useful for teaching” we learn the thoughts of God: His commands, His love, His grace, His forgiveness, and His providence.

He moves to rebuking, correcting, and training. Paul instructs Timothy that “Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,” … The goal is “righteousness” we choose to be good people applying the fruit of Spirit to our daily living but we are truly righteous only in Jesus Christ. The affect of these instructions is, “so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Servant may also be translated, “the man of God”. This instruction and equipping therefore applies to all who follow Jesus. Paul uses superlatives and gives us a brief glimpse into the eternal purposes of God for his people and we participate in it as we do good works qualified in Jesus’ name, glorifying God.