2 Timothy 2:13

P3445 Hold fast, dear saint of God.

/ DVH

“I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him to the place of highest honour and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!” Ephesians 1:19-20 Amen.

Paul was given the ability by God, to understand what we have been given when Jesus died for all of us. In this verse he talks about this power being available to each one of us, as well as being released through us. But we have been given even greater opportunities than Paul had. Christians are so blessed, we have the revelations Father God gave to Luke, Matthew, Mark, John, James, Peter and Jude. Thank you Lord!

Paul was given incredible revelations about what Christ’s life, death and resurrection did. He teaches us that one act brought about the possibility of transformation for every human being. He shows us what living this life “In Christ Jesus” means. No exceptions. The problem is we can see these things as theology, (information), but they are not, they are a powerful way to live. We’ve grown used to thinking of God’s power as the power to do miracles, but the greatest use of God’s power is allowing it to transform each one of us, day by day. We are no longer held captive by a yoke of slavery — we’ve been set free to live the way our Saviour lived. Please notice the present tense!

Like Paul says, we can choose to live for Jesus and as we do so, we glorify HIM. That does not mean we are part of some clever marketing campaign, as we try hard to appeal to other people. Instead it means we are to be a showcase of Who He is, and what He has done … for everyone else to see. BTW, the gifts of the Spirit are a separate thing to being transformed. Now it is our choice to reflect Him into this world around us. We don’t set the standard, Jesus Himself does that! Human standards without the Holy Spirit’s input, create chaos.

The Lord Jesus’ action on mankind’s behalf, took every single human being out of the realm of sin and death, and broke it’s power over us. Then He firmly established mankind as the Father’s favoured children. Yes … even the people we don’t like!  Now sin is not compulsory – it is an optional extra – we are not powerless against it anymore! The Lord Jesus and what He did, transformed everything, and we have the Holy Spirit as  our Helper. It doesn’t matter what you think, or what I think – it only matters what He thinks and it is in the book!

We’ve been translated “out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvellous light.” And the view is mind-boggling … which is why our minds and hearts need to catch up with what Jesus Christ has already done for us. That’s why we read the bible, we are playing catch-up! What you and I knew before we met Him has been wiped away with His own blood, so now it is natural for us to have His point of view. His point of view is LOVE.

Our relationship has been destined by God Himself to be totally intimate and functional, so we can go back to the place before mankind sinned. Where Father God and human beings were friends who deeply loved each other. He is willing to share His thoughts with us, just like He did when He walked and talked with Adam and Eve. 

I choose to read the bible to find out exactly how His point of view works itself out in my life… by taking what the Lord has said and then I ask Him to show me how, when and where I need to apply it. Then I act on it. I am not a powerless person, a victim of my former circumstances any longer. What Jesus did for me restored me, and my whole life. With my permission, He takes every one of those hard, difficult, and sometimes terrible things in my life — the good, the bad … plus those ones I sadly think of as — “boy I wish I hadn’t done that!” …and He redeems it in ways I cannot possibly imagine. Those ways are so perfect, as I recognise them, they take my breath away. 

Giving my life to Him is not a sacrifice, it is a joy. I can have God’s opinion for free, at any time. If it happens that the Lord is silent, then I don’t have to panic because His Word clearly tells me He will NOT leave me, nor forsake me. The Lord cannot be unfaithful to His Word and that is what I now stand upon. That and the blood that Jesus willingly shed on my behalf that washed me clean. Everything my Heavenly Father does is good. If it looks bad then that means I can’t see the end yet – it isn’t over, I am just observing His processes.

I refuse to reduce my Saviour to mere actions, or answers to prayer. Instead I rely upon what God Himself says in His book, and what Jesus has taught me. God does not have to prove Himself to me, He already did. Once and for all. This life has seasons, seasons of the soul. Some of our seasons are rich and bright like summer, or spring, and others seem destined for death like winter and autumn. But the life of God for us and in us, remains steadfast. Jesus taught us that.

Let’s hold fast to Him. In season and out. “Even when we are too weak to have any faith left, He remains faithful to us and will help us, for He cannot disown us who are part of Himself, and He will always carry out His promises to us.” 2 Timothy 2:13. Bye. 👋

P 2767 God’s incredible faithfulness.

/ DVH

Nehemiah 9 some excerpts from Verses 18-23, 26-31— this was read aloud by a group of Levites after the wall around Jerusalem was rebuilt and the conviction of the Holy Spirit fell upon them.

“… And You, a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, Incredibly patient, with tons of love—You didn’t dump them. Yes, even when they cast a sculpted calf and said, “This is your god who brought you out of Egypt,” and continued from bad to worse, You in your amazing compassion didn’t walk off and leave them in the desert. The Pillar of Cloud didn’t leave them;  daily it continued to show them their route; The Pillar of Fire did the same by night, showed them the right way to go.You gave them Your good Spirit to teach them to live wisely…”

“…They cried out to You again; in Your great compassion You heard and helped them again. This went on over and over and over…” “…Still, because of Your great compassion, You didn’t make a total end to them. You didn’t walk out and leave them for good;  yes, You are a God of grace and compassion…” “…You are not to blame for all that has come down on us; You did everything right we did everything wrong.”

Romans 8:32 “He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.”

You and I are a part of God’s story on this earth. We have been chosen to show others His heart toward mankind.Because our lives are limited, time-wise, it is extremely tempting to think more about our own story, than His story. But God’s story is the one we will sing about one day in heaven. When we understand that our lives are part of that story – we will begin to live in God’s bigger picture. Christ died to give us the power to live free of the junk that this world chucks at us.

Those people who have already gone on before us are cheering us on. You and I are now the ones writing His story today –  right here, right now – everywhere we go. Almighty God is so faithful to mankind, His book glows with His faithfulness and compassion toward all of us. We have been so blessed, everything we have is a gift from Him – all of it is so undeserved. Our only response is to give Him our lives, and live this life as living worship for His glory.

Do you think you are faithful to Him? I know He sees the way we treat others … but before either one of us hangs our head in shame about our failures … here’s an incredible scripture to also think about.  Many people have failed Him throughout time, however — “If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], HE REMAINS TRUE (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for HE cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. We are standing, now, today, on what Jesus did. That cannot change. What He did will never change. It is more stable than the ground under our feet. This world may shake and tremble but the Lord said this: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.”

Because we count on Jesus, and Him alone to save us, we can have enormous security. Alive or dead – His words are so firm, so strong, so true, we can stand without fear upon them, because we know He is faithful. That’s why we need to choose to live by faith in this life. When we live by faith we are simply responding to His faithfulness. We are responding to a debt that we owe, that we can never repay but we can enjoy it, day after day after day!

God is so incredibly faithful He will not give up on even one of His kids. I’ve been praying for three prodigals in our family to come home to Jesus. But it won’t be my prayers that change their minds! My intercession is valuable, it helps me stay in love and not judgment – but Christ’s death and intercession changed eternity … for everyone, now and forever!! I exhort you to stand on that and pray from that place! I hold His faithfulness up to Him like a banner and remind Him about the things I have learnt about Him. Christ died for what He believed. Now I live for Him in response to what He already did.

I put the above excerpt from Nehemiah in the blog today because it shows the incredible, over-the-top kind of commitment Father God has toward His kids. It blew my mind! The Israelites were so terribly unfaithful, but our God stands by His word. And He doesn’t just sort-of-kind-of put-up with all us now either  — He totally removed the sin barrier between us and Himself, at incredible personal cost. Now we can get to know Him, personally, intimately even though we will never deserve it. He wants to be near us.

That’s why we no longer live this life as the unwise do. Instead we’ve learnt to cherish what we have been given. Christians seek to treat other people like they are Jesus, whether they are nice or not …it’s part of the life of God we inherited. And when we don’t or feel we can’t live that way – we repent!  We treat reconciliation the same way Christ treated it – He did not come to earth and pretend to take our sins away – He simply prayed like mad and went and did it.

Because He chose to do that, God’s power to overcome evil in this life has been released into the earth to save all mankind. We cannot afford to keep other people captive by pretending to be nice, or smiling with plastic smiles and fake attitudes, or insisting that we are OK, when we know, deep inside, we are not! That’s not faithfulness toward Him, that’s called self-preservation.

You and I have the power to live sacrificially, as a son or daughter of the Most High God. He is worthy of any sacrifices we might make along the way. His compassion, and reliability, His goodness, His trustworthy heart are so patient and kind. We are the ones who know, firsthand, that we don’t deserve any of it. Jesus continually stands faithfully beside His Father praying for each one of us, because He knows what it is like to be human.

We live this life choosing to tell other people about God’s faithfulness in a world that is overflowing with disobedient, imperfect, unkind, unloving people – even greedy, grabby, deceitful, murderous ones. His faithfulness is our great blessing.  Bye 👋