Daily Hope & Love to the Full

The longing that so many in the early church had for Christ’s return seems to have burned itself out in many churches and breasts of believers today. The “yearning” and the “fainting” for the return of Christ that has distinguished the personal hope from the theological one in Christians of that day was real and very personal. They could taste it.

We have spoke of the cross so much that I believe we have forgotten the beauty of the One who died upon that instrument of death. The saved person seems to be more about a contractual system than involved in a personal love. The “work” of Christ has been so stressed that we have eclipsed the person of Christ and His beauty.

To stay awake and long to see someone involves love and anticipation, and that seems to be lacking immensely today. There is power and joy when we long and love to see someone coming down that aisle, or arriving at the house. It changes the whole atmosphere and endeavors to bring all the senses of mind, body, and soul together.  We have become too comfortable in this world today. The Lord Jesus pulls as a magnet that causes us to jump with joy when we think of Him and our seeing Him.

May we get our eyes off of ourselves, our problems, and begin to worship Him who is coming in grace, glory, and grandeur. What it does today for you and me will eliminate so much that really does not matter. When the heart is right then the eyes will be looking upward.

On the cross the Lord Jesus only said out loud seven brief things. The Romans had flayed His back until it was ribboned and torn, and was seen by every eye that passed by. Severely dehydrated, His entire body weight hanging on three nails that held Him to the wood, the Lord of love had to push himself upward to be able to talk, and then only briefly before releasing and settling downward.

Understandably, then, everything Jesus spoke from the cross was important. And as He lifted himself up each time I am convinced that He prayed through the verses of Psalm 22. As He weighed back downward, wrestling on those nails, He continued to pray silently through Psalms 22. Oh! How that pangs my heart. Yet, oh, how, it rejoices my soul! His first prayer from Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The last prayer was from Psalm 31:5, “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

Jesus prayed the Psalms. The final act of His earthly life was to pray the words of a psalm, the Word of the Bible. Friends, if the Lord Jesus prayed the psalms and the Bible, and the early church prayed the psalms should we not do as well? There is power in praying the Bible.

You know that salt seasons and stings. When you go to the movie theatre and order a drink you have to get popcorn and you want it seasoned with salt and butter, lots of it. It just makes all things taste better. Then you chase it down with an extra-large Coke that you pay too much for that cost them pennies on the dollar.

You also are aware that salt stings. If you step into the ocean water after a scratch or cut to your body, you realize quickly that you do not have to go far into the shallow water before you wince with pain. It burns and it truly stings.

You and I are to thirst after God. We are to craft our lives in such a way that our thoughts, our habits, our actions and reactions make people who know us simply crave God. We are salt in a dying society.

Even if others do not want our God, our lives will cause others to feel the sting inwardly of rejecting the One who loves them. If you live for the Lord Jesus you will encounter those who do not appreciate those who live and tell the truth. It is a stinging rebuke to their godless life, and inside, they wince in pain.

We are called to be salt – and not sugar! – in our world. We are called to season and to sting. It is good to be in a big salt shaker known as sanctuaries, huddled in fear of a big, bad world. But salty people do not need seasoning! It’s the ones who are headed to Hell who need to know there is a God who lives in us. It’s the blind who need seeing! We are not to be the bland leading the bland.

You and I know what it means to go from lost to found, from darkness to light, from the kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of God. Any person who has been saved knows the difference. We know what it means to go home and to be right at home.

We have been rescued and redeemed and thank God we have a right-standing before a loving God. But why is it that so many are perplexed regarding how to stand firm in that place? While we stand around, the ground seems to be shifty, uncertain, and unsafe. We don’t seem to know how to be conduits of redemption in a world that desperately needs to be redeemed.

What are we to do? Here is how to live rightly in a wrong world. First of all, we are to think scripturally. Know what you believe. Know why you believe what you believe. And defend that truth every day of your life.

Also, we are to live purely. We have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us, enabling us to practice a lifestyle that is pleasing to God. Don’t inch closer to the cultural fire. Why? You will get burned.

Love generously. We overcome evil with good. We overcome darkness with light. And we overcome apathy in all its awful forms with generous helpings of love. Be known for your great love. As you love others, you show them the love of the Father. As you care deeply, you show them He cares.