Became A Human Being

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: When, as his mother, Mary, was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:12).

 

 Isaiah tells us, “For unto us a child is born” (Isaiah 9:6a), not just a child of human conception, but a child of divine representation. God who created all things created and condescended Himself into the span of a young woman’s womb. God took up residence, Himself, in the womb of a woman.

 

 Who would have thought of such a thing? One question would be, “Why”? Another question to ask is “How low can you go?”

 

 Would you be willing to become a cockroach to save the world of cockroaches from their filthiness? NO! We would not even think of it. But God became a baby, a child, and for this reason to die upon a cross to save us from our sins! To save us from our sins is to save us from physical, spiritual, and eternal death. To save us from our sins is to allow God back into you to be God in you.

 

“Great is the mystery of godliness,” Paul tells Timothy. God became a man so that you can become a son or daughter of God. God was born of a virgin so that you and I can become born again. Are you consciously, conspicuously, continually found with the child of the Holy Spirit within you? If not, why not?

 

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  • Are you Gold?

    “How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out of every street” (Lamentations 4:1).
    Gold is full of luster, very malleable, and has great value. Gold has a center of gravity and it is not easily rusted. God says of His city and her people they were like gold at one time. But now Jeremiah laments the city of Jerusalem, for she has become tarnished and dulled. Her children, the seed of God’s people, no longer shine for Jehovah God.
    There is change all around us. What was once bright now has become dull. Those that once went after the gold of God’s Word now are seeking the fool’s gold of the world. What once was the wisdom of the ages now has become a book that is hardly touched.
    Where are the fathers that have not changed?  Where are the children that shine as gold? Dads, moms, and grandparents, seem to be out of touch with God. Oh there is a touch but that is about it.
    America used to shine but now she is as brass. What once was gold now has been stolen. So to put on a good act America is borrowed brass that is shined up with fancy patriotic songs that seem to shine. But words can never do the work that only God can.
    Jeremiah is not asking a question; he is stating a fact. And because of his verbal analysis of the state of the nation, he is thrown into jail and into a deep pit left to rot. You know a nation is no longer gold when it rejects its prophets and its preachers. When the people want to get rid of that which is pure you can know that judgment is on the way.
    What once was gold is now but earthen vessels of clay. Dull, lifeless, cracked, and without real value. The gold has been stripped away. The power and presence of God has left that which was once alive and vibrant and expectant.
    Check the facts:  Are you tenderhearted toward God and others? Does the Word of God change you as you read it? Are you growing into the likeness of Jesus? Are your children living for God? Are you as regular in church attendance as beforehand? Does prayer rise in your heart as never before? Are you ready before God to easily repent of sin at every turn? How hard is it for others to get you off the gold path? And how easy is it for God to get you back on it?
    Brass will shine, but it is not like gold. We will either turn back to the gold standard or nothing. We have been robbed of the gold. A cheaper brand of Christianity is with us today. Rather than pay the price we have settled down to being just clay pitchers pottered by our own hands.

  • To Boast of Your Gifts Is A Sin

    “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:10).

    Satan can use spiritual things to make you proud: It could be your ability to teach or preach the Word; your prayer life; your success in witnessing; soul-winning; your talents and good works.

    A famous Christian businessman was visiting a church and was asked to give a word of greeting. He got carried away telling all that God had done for him. “I have a successful business, a large house, a lovely family, a famous name, enough money to do the things I want to do and able to give to Christian works. I have health and opportunities unnumbered. There are many people who would gladly exchange places with me. What more could God give me?” From the back of the auditorium a voice called, “A good dose of humility!”

    To boast is a sin, because God gave the gift and we cannot take credit for what God has given. Satan attacks with pride and we need to surrender immediately to the Holy Spirit and let Him in to work that He may produce humility and submission before God.

    A sign that one is not submissive to God or to one another is to willingly judge or quickly respond in a manner unbecoming of Christ. When one is continually confrontational with those of like mindedness then we can be sure we have locked God out. Sins of the flesh are bad but sins of the spirit are worse and cause more damage.

  • Heaven Is For Real

    “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1).

    Too many of us do not realize that Heaven is God’s idea and not ours. We base so much from our humanness instead of God’s reasonableness. Satan has come to blaspheme God’s name and His dwelling place and those who live there (Rev. 13:6). He wants to skew God’s reality of a place called Heaven.

    Do not allow Satan to cause you to think less than God desires for you. Heaven is God’s idea for you and for me. It is the place we should long for and desire more than anything. Really, we do desire this place called Heaven. Every desire to be fulfilled and satisfied is based on the desire to go to this place and dwell there.

    Cyprian, the third century church father, said, “Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us from this place and sets us free from the snares of the world, and restores us to paradise and the kingdom. Anyone who has been in foreign lands longs to return to his own native land…We regard paradise as our native land.”

    God’s people are going to a tangible place, a real place, that is designed on God’s geographical map. It is not a place of disembodied spirits, for human beings are not suited for such a realm. What we are suited for–what we’ve been specifically designed for–it is a place like the one God made for us: Earth. God has never given up on his original plan for human beings to dwell on Earth. The climax of history will be the creation of new heavens and a New Earth, a resurrected universe inhabited by resurrected people living with the resurrected Jesus (Revelation 21:1-4).

  • The Christian Faith Entrusted to Us

    “As for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1).

    Biblical knowledge is meant to be both intellectual and experiential. There are two sides to the same coin and it is meant to be enjoyed together. Knowledge without response is like an incomplete sentence or a song without a chorus. We have to go beyond merely quoting the truth….to obeying it.

    Why are we to contend for the faith? Because there are false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, counterfeits, apostates in our pulpits across the church scene.  Theology was important to Jude and Paul. God takes the truth seriously. We must know what and why we believe. That is God’s call on every believer.

    Our faith is not primarily a feeling. It is belief based on fact. It is more about a grounded assurance than personal philosophy. We can not simply make up facts or imagine things about God and then base our lives on those thoughts.

    Faith fads, theological trends, popular contemporary thinking, is carrying an unthinking church away from strong historical beliefs and Scripture. Just believing something doesn’t make it true. It’s either true or not, independent of our belief in it. Everything that is not Scriptural and experientially defended in our daily lives sets up misrepresentation of the God of doctrine and truth. Just ask the woman at the well in John’s gospel chapter four.

    It may feel as if the Word of God is rocking back and forth, swaying to the fads of Christianity, but it is not…for the Word of God is stable, it is not changing, progressing, or emerging. We are called to stand for and proclaim what is true, and even when necessary to expose false teaching and heresy. Always ask, “What does the Bible say? And not “Does it make me feel good, happy, or accepted by others?”

     

     

     

     

  • Daily Hope & Love to the Full

    The two disciples, one whose name was Cleopas, both were headed to Emmaus, a small village. They each had a shattered hope and a stifled love. Why? The One they longed for who would free them from Roman bondage and spiritual darkness was dead. And even worse the body was found missing and could not be found. They were crushed and very saddened by the death of the Christ, God’s anointed.

    What did the Lord Jesus do for them as they walked and talked toward Emmaus? He came alongside them and spoke with them of God’s plan from Scripture. He raised their very thoughts to God and explained and expounded the written Word. The Word of God tells us after the meeting with the resurrected Lord the disciples’ hearts burned within them.

    God’s great desire is that we allow the Spirit of God to encourage us. Today take the Word of God and allow His Word to speak to you afresh and anew. For God’s Word is an encourager of good and true things. His faithful Word never fails as we walk in this world that wills to darken your faith. God’s Word delivers love and hope. He will be known to you as you break bread together by opening the Word of God and meditating upon Him.

    Father please bring us to the Word of God over and over again. When we are downcast draw us to yourself. When we are discouraged pick us up with your staff and set us on our feet once more. We love you for You know we need You. In your Son’s name. Amen.

    “But we hoped that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel; and, besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done” (Luke 24:21).

  • Tempered Steel

    “Then he {God} chose David, his servant, handpicked him from his work in the sheep pens. One day he was caring for the ewes and their lambs, the next God had him shepherding Jacob, his people, Israel, his prize possession” (Psalm 78:70-71).

    Financial reversals, betrayal, depression, family difficulties, and the consequences of poor personal decisions can wreck a person’s life.  David left tracks for us to follow. Just read the book of Psalms and you will see that David encountered being knocked out of the saddle many times. But David found God to be faithful. The dismal swamps were also seen and David was weighed down, but he also felt the fresh, exhilarating winds on the mountaintops of accomplishment.

    God works strangely. He often enriches by impoverishing. King David was a man taken from the pasture tending sheep to the palace leading a nation. How did God get David in the place of shepherding a nation? He used trapdoors and pit stops. He used transition. God used anointing by the hand of Samuel in secret, of course, but God used anguish by the hand of Saul in public to train and teach David the leadership God had for him.

    You don’t ascend to the status of an All-Star overnight without difficulties and obstacles. Many of us have forgotten that many people go through trials and difficulties, fall through trap doors, and face many pit stops in their lives. We forget that God is working for them and in them.

    Look around and see if you are caring and carrying these “misfortunates” in your prayers and actions. See if the Lord is first place in your hearts for them? Ask yourself do you really care? Sometimes we spend so much more time in other pursuits that we forget how good God has been to us. There is a trail. There is a path God has designed for them and for us. And it would be great if we recognized them as the hand of a merciful and good God.