A Call to Repentance HEBREWS 4:13-16

How many times have you gotten caught in a “guilt cycle”? This involves confessing the same old sin, telling God you’re sorry, and promising not to do it again–while suspecting that you probably will. Then around you go again. You’ve come clean dozens of times but still have no victory. Yet there is a biblical promise that states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, emphasis added).

Friends, God is holding up His end of that promise. It’s people who fall short–we have turned confession into a rote recitation of our shortcomings. The attitude is, I’m disappointed in myself, but I am weak and God knows that. True confession means agreeing with the Lord about sin, and it is inseparably linked with repentance; they’re two sides of the same coin. To repent is to turn our back upon wrong. By looking at our sin from God’s perspective, we will see a vile, wicked habit with terrible consequences, and we’ll want to run from that as fast as possible!

In practical terms, to confess and repent requires the intentional decision to say, “By the Holy Spirit’s power, I’m turning away.” Satan will still tempt you, and failure remains a possibility. But God can break the chains of your sin, and He wants to set you free.

Victory can be immediate or a process of trading wrong choices for right ones. In some cases, temptation involving habitual sin never goes away. Then it becomes necessary to face each day in God’s strength. When you forsake sin, the power of heaven is there to help you.

Favored with a Famine

For with you is the fountain of life.

Psalms 36:9

There are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy or religious ordinances fail to comfort or help us. Why does our gracious God permit this? Perhaps it is because we have been living too much without Him, and so He takes away everything upon which we have been in the habit of depending, so that He may drive us to Himself. It is a great blessing to live at the fountainhead. While our water bottles are full, we are content, like Hagar and Ishmael, to go into the wilderness; but when those are empty, nothing will serve us but God Himself.

We are like the prodigal; we love the pig-swill and forget our Father’s house. Remember, we can fashion pigsties and husks even out of the forms of religion; they are blessed things, but if we put them in the place of God, then they are of no value. Anything becomes an idol when it keeps us away from God: Even the brazen serpent is to be despised if we worship it instead of God. The prodigal was never safer than when he was driven to his father’s home, because he could be sustained nowhere else. Our Lord favors us with a famine in the land so that it may make us seek after Himself even more.

The best position for a Christian is living wholly and directly on God’s grace—remaining where he stood at first—”having nothing, yet possessing everything.”¹ Let us never for a moment think that our standing is in our sanctification, our mortification, our graces, or our feelings. But be sure of this, that because Christ offered a full atonement, therefore we are saved; for we are complete in Him. Having nothing of our own to trust in, but resting upon the merits of Jesus, His passion and holy life provide us with the only sure ground of confidence. Beloved, when we are brought to a thirsty condition, we are sure to turn eagerly to the fountain of life.

¹2 Corinthians 6:10

Why God Speaks JAMES 1:23-25

God is not one to speak in generalities. When He whispers from the pages of Scripture or confronts through a friend’s words, the Father directly addresses issues in His children’s lives. With that in mind, let’s look at His three goals for communicating with believers–namely, for us to:

1. Comprehend the truth. God wants us to learn His ways and principles, to recognize our own frailty, and to identify the needs of others. He does more than offer this as head knowledge–He makes truth applicable to our lives. For example, the Lord assured Paul that His strength was sufficient to carry the apostle through anything (2 Cor. 12:9). Circumstances taught the apostle that God’s Word was true.

2. Conform to the truth. Our lives are shaped by our belief system. What we hold as true influences our thinking. In turn, how we think affects our character, conduct, and conversation. God is determined to mold His children into Christlikeness so that they reflect His gospel to the world.

3. Communicate the truth. Every child of God is called to make disciples (Matt. 28:19). Believers can know the Lord and walk in His light but still fall short of this expectation. We must share the gospel by sharing God’s truth with others and explaining how His words played out in our lives.

Notice that each goal builds on the one preceding it. Christians are a light reflecting God’s glory to this world. We shine brightly by being attentive to God’s voice and following His will. And when someone takes an interest in the source of our light, we are prepared to share the good news of Christ.

No Exceptions from the Law

The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck.

Exodus 34:20

Every firstborn creature must be the Lord’s; but since the donkey was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God allows for no exceptions. The donkey is His due, but He will not accept it; He will not void the claim, but yet He cannot be pleased with the victim. As a result, no way of escape remained but redemption—the creature must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die.

My soul, here is a lesson for you. That unclean animal is you. You are justly the property of the Lord who made you and preserves you, but you are so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept you; and it has come to this—the Lamb of God must stand in your place or you must die eternally. Let all the world know of your gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for you and so redeemed you from the fatal curse of the law. Sometimes it must have been a question for the Israelite which should die: the donkey or the lamb. Surely a good man would pause to estimate and compare.

Without question there was no comparison between the value of the soul of man and the life of the Lord Jesus, and yet the Lamb dies, and man the donkey is spared. My soul, adore the boundless love of God to you and others of the human race. Worms are purchased with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes are redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! What a doom was mine if plentiful redemption had not been found! The breaking of the neck of the donkey was but a momentary penalty, but who will measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be imagined? Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed us from such a doom.

God-Centered Prayer 2 CHRONICLES 20:1-18

Someone once asked me if I had ever heard myself pray. Having never done this, I decided to record my voice as I prayed about a matter of deep concern. After listening to the recording, I thought, God, I don’t think I would answer that prayer either. It was filled with negative descriptions of how bad the situation was and how “down in the dumps” I felt.

After suddenly encountering a fearful situation, Jehoshaphat chose a different approach: he sought the Lord through God-centered prayer. Instead of coming to the Father with a “woe is me” attitude, he began by focusing on the Lord’s power and sovereignty (v. 6), His past faithfulness to Judah (vv. 7-8), and His promise to hear and deliver them (v. 9). Only after strengthening his faith through these reminders of God’s adequacy did he make his petitions (vv. 10-12).

He ended his prayer with the words “nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You” (v. 12). There is great wisdom in waiting for the Lord’s direction while keeping our focus on Him. Not only does this strengthen our faith, but it also enables us to see His answer. Eyes fixed on the impossibility of the situation rarely discern God’s guidance and intervention on our behalf.

In prayer, we choose to either magnify the Lord or our difficulty. Are you concentrating on the faithfulness of almighty God or your overpowering problem and negative feelings? Let’s keep our eyes on Him and wait with complete confidence until we see the great things He will do for us.

A Salvation to be Dreaded

Do not be conformed to this world.

Romans 12:2

If there is any possibility of a Christian being saved while he conforms to this world, it can only be so as through fire. Such a bare salvation is almost to be dreaded as much as to be desired. Reader, would you like to leave this world in the darkness of a desponding deathbed and enter heaven like a shipwrecked sailor climbs the rocks of his native country? Then allow the world to squeeze you into its mold and refuse identity with Christ or to bear His reproach. Would you like to have a heaven below as well as a heaven above? Do you want to comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths and to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge? Would you like to receive an abundant entry into heaven? Then do not live as a friend of the world.

If you would attain the full assurance of faith, you cannot do so in communion with sinners. If you desire to be on fire for God, realize that your love will be dampened by the cold rain of a godless society. You cannot become a great Christian, you can never be a mature believer in Christ Jesus while you give in to godless maxims and modes of life. It is incongruous for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. It has a bad look when the servant is too intimate with the king’s enemies. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Just as small thorns make great blisters and little moths destroy fine clothes, so little frivolities and little indiscretions will rob your testimony of a thousand joys.

Professing Christian on the fence, you do not know what you are losing by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength and makes you crawl when you ought to run. So for your own comfort’s sake and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you are a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one.

Overcoming Self-Sufficiency 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10

In many modern cultures, self-sufficiency is prized. People cheer over stories of the man who “pulled himself up by his boot straps.” A lot of folks don’t like to admit the need for help from other people or from the Lord, since a can-do attitude seems far more impressive. In a word, the problem is pride.

Adversity punches holes in pride. Paul reported that he had a lot of reasons to be arrogant–a good pedigree, education, religious fervor, etc. (Phil. 3:5-6). Even after his conversion, he had plenty of opportunity get a swelled head. God had specifically called him to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. But the Lord also gave him a “thorn in the flesh”–an obstacle so great that Paul required constant spiritual assistance to work through it. This was the pin that burst the apostle’s pride balloon and then kept it so full of holes that it couldn’t re-inflate.

God uses adversity in much the same way in our lives. We find ourselves in a situation that is beyond our capacity to handle. So we try to pull those bootstraps, but nothing happens. That is when God offers His sufficiency, His might, and His guidance. Those who submit to Him discover renewed strength, as His power dwells within them.

Self-sufficiency is no prize; it is a trap. That’s why God’s message is the opposite of the one that the world trumpets so loudly. Those who desire to conquer adversity must sacrifice self-reliance to depend upon Him. When we are weak, His Spirit makes us strong.

Love’s Strength

Love is strong as death.

Song of Songs 8:6

Whose love can this be that is as mighty as the conqueror of monarchs? Does it belong to the destroyer of the human race? Would it not sound like satire if it were applied to my poor, weak, and scarcely living love to Jesus my Lord? I do love Him, and perhaps by His grace I could even die for Him, but as for my love in itself, it can scarcely endure the scoffer’s jest, much less a cruel death. Surely this is my Beloved’s love that is spoken of here—the love of Jesus, the matchless lover of souls. His love was indeed stronger than the most terrible death, for it endured the trial of the cross triumphantly.

It was a lingering death, but love survived the torment; a shameful death, but love despised the shame; a penal death, but love bore our iniquities; a forsaken, lonely death, from which the eternal Father hid His face, but love endured the curse and triumphed over all. There never was such love, never such a death. It was a desperate duel, but love bore the pain. What then, my heart? Have you no emotions stirred within you at the thought of such heavenly affection? Yes, my Lord, I long, I want to feel Your love flaming like a furnace within me. Come Yourself and excite the love of my spirit.

For every drop of crimson blood
Thus shed to make me live,
O wherefore, wherefore have not I
A thousand lives to give?

Why should I despair of loving Jesus with a love as strong as death? He deserves it: I desire it. The martyrs felt such love, and they were mere men and women, so why not I? They mourned their weakness, and yet out of weakness were made strong. Grace gave them their unflinching constancy—there is the same grace for me. Jesus, lover of my soul, shed abroad this love, even Your love, in my heart tonight