Month: May 2024

Hebrews  4:11-16  JBP – Let us then be eager to know this rest for ourselves, and let us beware that no one misses it through falling into the same kind of unbelief as those we have mentioned.  For the Word that God speaks is alive and active;  it cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword:  it strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet, to the innermost intimacies of a man’s being:  it exposes the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart.  No creature has any cover from the sight of God; everything lies naked and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.  Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has entered the inmost Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to our faith.  For we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible – he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned.  Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need.

Observation

“No creature has any cover from the sight of God; everything lies naked and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”  We forget this!  We think there are shameful and sinful motives and thoughts hidden within us that God cannot see and continue unrepentant in those areas either from arrogance or shame.  Arrogance misses the mercy and grace because it cannot lay down pride, release control, admit insufficiencies and the need for help; shame misses it because of fear that his/her value is so insignificant and that the offense is too great to be covered by the Cross. Both are foolishness and traps set by the Enemy to keep us from approaching the Throne.

God is no respecter of persons.  Salvation (being in Christ) is available to whosoever will come (John 3:16).  Nonetheless, all humans are fully known, all humans are welcome at the throne of grace and all who are in Christ will be represented there by Jesus, our High Priest and Advocate. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit stand ready to pour out on us the “mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need” – fully cognizant of our current condition, our past, our rebellions, our arrogance, our shame, our sin.  When we sincerely repent and approach the throne, they will embrace us in our failures and helplessness and release us restored and redeemed to wholeness – forever changed by the contact and, hopefully,

• hungry for more and deeper relationship,
• seeking opportunities to bring joy to God’s  heart,
• alive with gratitude and love for God’s redemptive sacrifice and
• searching for ways to respond to that love so other’s will have the courage to approach the throne and experience that same embrace.

Impact on Me

Before I gave my life to Jesus, I saw my interior self as a place full of closets with doors that lock.  All of my shameful and sinful thoughts, motives, intentions and acts were safely stored and locked away in a closet, unseen and unknown by those around me.  When I gave my life to Jesus, He asked me for the keys to all those locked closets so He could clean them out.  I was ashamed for Him to see what was inside until this scripture opened my eyes.  There was nothing I had locked away that He did not already know and for which He had provided forgiveness and redemption.  He died to redeem me from everything of which I was ashamed before I was even born. 

I have been to the throne room and found grace, mercy and help in my darkest hours and when I fail.  One sure way I find my way there is by soaking in the Word of God.  His Word will expose my innermost failures, my hidden faults, my unrepented sin and provide grace to cleanse and restore me.  His Word “strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet, to the innermost intimacies of a man’s being:  it exposes the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart.”  I have found that I do not need to be afraid to humble myself before that throne because I stand there in Christ, assured of the reception I will receive.

Prayer

Father God, when we are in Christ we are Your own children, favored in Your sight, able to approach even Your very throne when we fail or are in need, assured that we will receive grace and mercy.  I ask You to use that sword of Your Word on me to expose and cut away fear and all the unlovely, unproductive, clanging cymbal distractions of this life.  I desire to please You – first, foremost and always.  May I be ever more like Christ as He walked this earth – confident and humble, obedient and bold, servant and sacrifice – focused only on fulfilling Your will and purpose no matter what cost to me.  In Jesus’ name, make it so.

2 Cor 10:3-5  JBP  For I am afraid otherwise that I shall have to do some plain speaking to those of you who will persist in reckoning that our activities are on the purely human level.  The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level.  The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds.  Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God.  We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ.

1 Cor 10:3-5 The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

Observation

The church in Corinth was splitting.  There was a faction that were faithful to Paul’s teaching and spiritual authority and an opposing group who denied Paul’s authority.  Chapters 10-14 are Paul’s reply to those who accuse him of operating “on the purely human level.”

We need that reminder, too.  We can’t choose to battle on a purely human level.  Our human tendency is to let what we see – the immediate results or circumstances – be signs of great victory or defeat.  However, this short-sighted view will distract us from the rest of the war, keeping our participation and prayer focused narrowly on our own wants and needs.   We will find ourselves expecting God to bless our approved plan for fixing and the acceptable final results.  This is likely contrary to God’s battle plan.  Warriors don’t always know why they are fighting a particular battle, having nothing personal to gain, but they trust their superiors to determine that it is a worthwhile fight toward winning the war. 

“The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds.”  Because the really important, eternal battles are spiritual, unseen, and outside our human comprehension, we should not be surprised that the unfathomable power of the weapons for battling in the spiritual realm is also incomprehensible to us.    We must remember that all we can humanly do is powerless compared to what Christ can do in and through us – if we will conform ourselves to His plan and direction.   Just obedience, doing what He teaches us to do, rather than following our flesh, what we want to do, has a high impact in the spiritual realm.  If we will really be so gracious and forgiving as to turn the other cheek rather than strike back out of offense, the enemy has lost his power and control over us in that place!

Impact On Me

“Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God.  We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ.”  So, I see from this that much of the battle is in my mind, what I believe, what I hear and accept, how I hold the line against anything that opposes the authority of Christ.  When Jesus walked this earth, He did this by filling His mind with the Word of God and doing only what He saw His Father do.  This was the weapon He used very effectively against the tempter in the wilderness.  I have never gone wrong by following His example. 

I must remember that human weapons are powerless against spiritual enemies, useless in eternal battles.  Jesus tells me that His word and my  trusting obedience, regardless of my circumstances or experience, what I can see or hear, the Goliath size challenge that I face, are far more powerful, even capable of “demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture…for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.”   The challenges I face in this world, this culture, this life, would be overwhelming without the structure of life shaped by Christ in me.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, Father God, Amazing Holy Spirit, teach me to war with Your weapons.  Let my hope be in love, peace, grace, mercy and Your power in and through me to bring down everything in my life that is not rooted in the true knowledge of You.  Cause me to choose You to be my Commander.  I want to be faithful and accountable to you in all things.  Help me be intentional in the  weapons I choose for each battle, led and guided by You in how I fight, when I   fight, and the battles I choose to fight.  In Jesus’ name, make it so.