“God’s Word must be the guide of your desires, and the ground of your expectations in prayer, nor can you expect he should give a gracious ear to what you say to him, if you turn a deaf ear to what he saith to you.”
~ Matthew Henry
Prayer Life Pause: Dear Lord, make Your Word a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path that my prayers would be carried unto Thee on the wings of Thy truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“Who do you say that I am”?
~ Matthew 16:15
From ancient philosophers to modern scholars, people have delved into timeless questions. What are the origins of the universe? Is there really any such thing as good and evil? Where did man come from? What is the meaning of life? Mankind has relentlessly prodded and plied on these ubiquitous questions with little to no avail for centuries on end.
Yet, there is only one question that truly matters. It is the one question every person must eventually face. This crucial question draws a spiritual line in the sand which divides and defines the whole human race. It is a question of reckoning. This essential question confronts the man, challenges the mind and pierces the very heart and soul.
Jesus puts this question to everyone who ever lives, “Who do you say that I am?” And to be sure, there are as many opinions about who Jesus was and is, as there are about the origins of the universe. In Jesus’ own day, He was likened to Elijah and Jeremiah. Some thought He was John the Baptist. Yet, all of these answers fall short of the glorious truth.
Peter, the Apostle, replies to our Lord’s question saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” This, beloved reader, is the only satisfactory answer. None other will do. Jesus is the Christ, or He is nothing. And while foolish men may continue their search for the meaning of life, Jesus is Life. And He is asking you, “Who do you say that I am?” May your answer to this ultimate question echo Peter’s own, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”.
~ apl
Prayer Life Pause: Lord Jesus, make the reality of Your divine person, love and grace ever more present in my life that I might continually exclaim and proclaim You to the ends of the earth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. But David grew stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.”
~ 2 Samuel 3:1
What a fearful and awesome portrayal of the long war between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman! Saul represents man’s tireless effort at self-righteous power, majesty and glory while the royal line of David represents the sovereign holy interests of Christ, our King. And though this spiritual battle which exists between these two ancient rivals presses on even today, Christ’s people can know, as with the narrative history between Saul’s and David’s houses which typifies this conflict, that Satan’s house will continue to grow weaker and weaker, while the Christ’s “house” will grow eternally stronger and stronger until the reign of Jesus is fulfilled for all time and in all things!
~ apl
Prayer Life Pause: Lord Jesus, continue to grant me Your strength that I might live today in the glory of Your wonderful might and power. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers.”
~ Acts 26:6
The Apostle Paul understood what it meant to be judged for his faith. This man who once mocked, ridiculed and persecuted Christians now stood under the same judgment of others he once stood over. Paul had come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and knew it had been promised and prophesied by God to their forefathers in Israel. Yet, the majority of the people were still blinded to this truth and self-righteously judged those who had come to confess and believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God (Mt. 16:16)
If you are judged by others for your faith in the Lord Jesus, stand firm (Phil. 4:1). Stand in humility and grace as a living testimony to the loving salvation purchased for you by your Savior. Cling to the hope that even those, like the Apostle Paul, who once judged others for their new-found faith, can be won over by the Gospel of Christ and the mercies of God seen through your faithfulness even in the most difficult of circumstances caused by the judgments, mocking and ridicule of others. And having done all, stand (Eph. 6:13).
~ apl
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
~ 1 Peter 5:8
“Many have yielded to go a mile with Satan, that never intended to go two; but when once on the way, they have been allured further and farther, till at last they know not how to leave his company.”
~ William Gurnall (1616-1679)
“For we walk by faith, not by sight”
~ 2 Corinthians 5:7
The people of this world are influenced by the things that are seen. They live for wealth, honor, splendor, praise, for the objects which this world can furnish, and as if there were nothing which is unseen, or as if they ought not to be influenced by the things which are unseen. The Christian, on the contrary, has a firm conviction of the reality of the glories of heaven; of the fact that the Redeemer is there; of the fact that there is a crown of glory; and he lives, and acts as if that were all real, and as if he saw it all.
God is unseen – but the Christian lives, and thinks, and acts as if there were a God, and as if he saw him. Christ is unseen now by the bodily eye; but the Christian lives and acts as if he were seen, that is, as if his eye were known to be upon us, and as if he was now exalted to heaven and was the only Saviour. The Holy Spirit is unseen; but he lives, and acts as if there were such a Spirit, and as if his influences were needful to renew, and purify the soul. Heaven is unseen; but the Christian lives, and thinks, and acts as if there were a heaven, and as if he now saw its glories. He has confidence in these, and in kindred truths, and he acts as if they were real. Could man see all these; were they visible to the naked eye as they are to the eye of faith, no one would doubt the propriety of living and acting with reference to them.
~ Albert Barnes, Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible
“To be in Christ is the source of the Christian’s life; to be like Christ is the sum of His excellence; to be with Christ is the fullness of His joy.”
~ Charles Hodge (1797-1878)
“God is love” ~ 1 John 4:8
God will always be most holy, most just, all knowing, all powerful, all sovereign, infinite, immutable, and eternal but if God is not love – how do any of those other glorious attributes relate to us? Without God’s love, how would fallen man come to experience any of His other truly majestic attributes? It is the attribute of love that brings God down to His creature. It is His love that moves Him to deal with us through the work of redemption, not only according to His justice, wrath and judgment, but also with forgiveness, mercy and grace.
In 1 John 4:8 we read God is love. Love is not so much an attribute of God as it is His very essence. It is not so much a moral perfection of His being as it is His being itself. He would not be God were He not love. God has loved His people from everlasting, and therefore nothing about the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity. He loves from Himself: “according to His own purpose” (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9) and it was His purpose to reconcile sinful people to Himself through the atoning death of His Son.
It is one thing to talk about God’s love in an academic or intellectual manner, but I think it is also vitally important to know God’s love experientially. I know we don’t want to base our faith on our feelings, but at the same time, we don’t want to neglect such a great blessing as actually experiencing God’s love in our life. Remember, Jesus wept. It’s ok to be moved mentally emotionally and spiritually by the thought of God’s precious, sovereign gracious and everlasting love.
~ apl
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
~ Matthew 5:17-18
Jesus spoke in many different ways about His divine purpose in coming to this earth. He spoke in terms of offering salvation and eternal life. He talked about gathering His people together, shepherding His sheep, tending to His flocks. But what He says right here in Matthew 5:17-18 is possibly the most important aspect of Christ’s redemptive ministry on earth – that is His perfectly fulfilling God’s Law. Because, without that, without the fulfillment of the Law, there is no redemption and therefore no salvation. So why then was it imperative that Jesus fulfill the Law of God in order to save sinners?
The reason why all are now under the curse of sin as a result of Adam’s Fall is because God did not set aside His law simply because of our failure. God did not destroy His command simply because of Adam’s inability and unwillingness to keep it. God’s holy Law abides and remains as our great moral standard. Why? Because God’s perfect Law is a reflection of His own perfect character. Therefore as through one man’s disobedience to God’s law we were all lost, it is through another man’s perfect obedience we have the way of salvation. Or to put it another way, we are most certainly saved by works, they are just not our own works, we are saved through the work of Jesus Christ in perfectly fulfilling the Law of God on our behalf.
Yet salvation, we must confess the Bible teaches is also by grace through faith too, isn’t it? And how is this? Because when you come to faith in Christ, God who is rich in mercy takes the perfect obedience of His Son to His Law and graciously imputes or accounts it as your righteousness as if as if you yourself had perfectly kept God’s Law your entire life. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t it impossible to fathom? Yet, that’s the grace God in of salvation – that the perfect unblemished work of Christ is applied to you when, by faith, you embrace Jesus Christ and His saving work.
We are saved by good works unto good works. As much as possible we are to imitate Christ. We are saved by Christ’s good work of perfect obedience to God’s Law which He came to fulfill and that He graciously imputes to us that we might in turn and with the help of the Holy Spirit, strive, however imperfectly, to do the good works of obedience ourselves. And we know we will never keep God’s law perfectly as Christ did, but God knows our heart, and He sees our motives and to Him, what the Scriptures seem to teach is that God earnestly desires from His people, not heartless cold outward conformity, but lives that are moved from a deep abiding heartfelt desire to love God and to fulfill all His Word.
~ apl
A Prayer Life 