Hebrews 6:10

In His grace, God freely gives salvation to those who believe in Jesus. We cannot earn this gift, nor do we deserve it. Our Father does notice our good works, though. And He promises to reward us according to what we have done for Him.

True service occurs when we allow the Lord to work through us for His glory and honor. True ministry occurs when divine resources meet human need through loving channels.

Revelation 22:12 encourages us, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” Whether large or small, all service done in Jesus’ name will be blessed. We must be careful, though, that our actions are for Christ’s glory. If motives are self-serving, the only benefit we receive is the praise (if any) that we hear from people in this life. And we know that men’s approval is not satisfying or lasting.

While some rewards will be given in heaven, other blessings can be experienced now. For example, we know great joy when we allow God to bless others through us. And there is deep satisfaction in realizing that we are pleasing Christ. In addition,there’s a profound sense of fulfillment when we lead a person to Jesus and teach him how to walk by faith.

Serving others is both a great benefit and a responsibility for Christians. We should prayerfully consider our motives to make sure that our goal is to glorify Christ. Only then will we receive God’s full blessings–rewards given not only in eternity but on earth as well.

 What are you looking at? Where are the anchors in your life? I imagine for many of us these questions are more than rhetorical or philosophical; they are truly heartfelt. 

 Recently I was struck by this announcement in John’s Gospel: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'” (John 1:29). John says, “Look, the Lamb of God.” The question is posed, what are you looking at? John emphatically directs our focus: “Look at Jesus.” In fact, he makes this declaration fifteen times in his gospel. This word is translated in the King James Version as Behold. Fifteen times he exhorts his readers to look at Jesus. Will you behold? This is astonishing. This is amazing. Look at Jesus.

 My favorite hymnwriter is Charles Wesley and one of my favorite of his hymns is called, “Jesus! The Name High Over All.” In the final verse of his hymn, he sings,

 Happy, if with my latest breath

I may but gasp His Name,

Preach Him to all and cry in death,

“Behold, behold the Lamb!”

 Now an account of John’s death tells us that that is exactly what happened. As John lay dying, he uttered those words, “Behold the Lamb,” and then took his last breath. John is telling us to look at Jesus—for our hope, for our provision, for our very lives.

 In his gospel he invites us to behold Jesus through the lens of seven signs or miracles. That is, John deliberately chooses seven out of the many miracles that Jesus performed in order to give us a particular perspective of who this Jesus is. And the fourth miracle that he records is Jesus’s feeding of the five thousand. Jesus himself beholds the crowd—he looks attentively at their need—and he responds with compassion and provision. We encounter a dramatic miracle: Jesus multiplies fives loaves and two fish to feed five thousand people. Then John tells us, “When they had all had enough to eat, [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten” (6:12-13). What a picture of amazing abundance: the Son of God demonstrating the abundance of God to a hungry people.

 Perhaps as you look at our world today you wonder if God is still at work in such a way. I want to encourage you that God is, for in my work and ministry I have seen this provision. Having been involved in Bible smuggling in China, I was intrigued to learn of a man named Chris who had gone out from the UK to do the same. Every three seconds someone in China becomes a Christian, but there’s a real lack of the Word of God there. This is what happened to Chris: he and his team stood at the pickup point in China where they were to meet their contact, who would utter a password, and they would deliver their Bibles. They arrived with only minutes to spare, but the contact didn’t show up. Knowing they were being watched, the team started walking towards the edge of town as though leaving. Hot and tired, they stopped at a nearby park for a drink of water, rest, and prayer. It was hard to understand why after all the difficulties God had brought them through that something had gone so wrong. They had looked to God for provision and direction, and yet their mission had seemingly failed.

 Soon the team became aware of three very ragged and dirty men under a tree behind them. Chris felt the Lord leading him to go over with some water. When he offered it, one of the men suddenly spoke the password very clearly in English. The rest of the team hurried over in amazement and pieced together the men’s story from the little Chinese that they knew. Two years earlier, God had given a word to these Chinese men in one of their services that they should plan for this trip. God would lead them to this park, on this date, and have Bibles ready for them, which would be brought by white men from far away. Since they were all poor farmers, it had taken a long time for them to save the money for food and shoes for the trip. The men had walked for two and a half months, mostly at night to keep from being arrested. Coming from the far north of China near Mongolia, they had climbed a range of snowcapped mountains, traveled through the desert, and crossed several rivers without a compass or any knowledge of the country. All they could explain was that God had shown them where to go.

 How did they know the password? How could they speak it in English when they knew no English? How did they survive the heat and the snow without protective clothing? It could only be God.

 When the men saw the Bibles, they cried and praised the Lord for a long time. They had brought cloth bags with them to carry the Bibles home, and inside each one was a small watermelon that they had carried all those miles as a gift of appreciation. Even though they had been without food for several days, they didn’t eat a single watermelon. The team exchanged clothes with them and Chris explained what an honor it was to put on those dirty rags. The shoes were completely worn out, but the team chose to go barefoot and give up their own shoes. Many tears were shed as the team prayed for the Chinese and sent them back home with food and money for their journey.

 Jesus is the God of abundance. He is the one within whom this provision, this abundance, is located. Look to him, behold him, and you will be amazed.

 Amy Orr-Ewing is director of programmes for the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and UK director for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Oxford, England.

 

Morning “He shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory.”

 Zechariah 6:13

 Christ himself is the builder of his spiritual temple, and he has built it on

the mountains of his unchangeable affection, his omnipotent grace, and his

infallible truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon’s temple, so in this; the

materials need making ready. There are the “Cedars of Lebanon,” but they are not

framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into those

planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad the courts of the

Lord’s house in Paradise. There are also the rough stones still in the quarry,

they must be hewn thence, and squared. All this is Christ’s own work. Each

individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his

 place in the temple; but Christ’s own hand performs the preparation-work.

Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they are used by him to this end. Our

prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of

Jesus, who fashioneth our hearts aright.

 As in the building of Solomon’s temple, “there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor

any tool of iron, heard in the house,” because all was brought perfectly ready

for the exact spot it was to occupy–so is it with the temple which Jesus

builds; the making ready is all done on earth. When we reach heaven, there will

be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no planing us with

suffering. No, we must be made meet here–all that Christ will do beforehand;

and when he has done it, we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream

of death, and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in

the temple of our Lord.

  “Beneath his eye and care,

 The edifice shall rise,

 Majestic, strong, and fair,

 And shine above the skies.”

 

Evening “That those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” Hebrews 12:27

 We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken,

and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there is

nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things.

Yet, we have certain “things which cannot be shaken,” and I invite you this

evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be

taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken,

which will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present

salvation. You are standing at the foot of his cross, trusting alone in the

merit of Jesus’ precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can

 interfere with your salvation in him; no breaking of banks, no failures and

bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening. God is

your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by

losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, “He is my Father

still. In my Father’s house are many mansions; therefore will I not be

troubled.” You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus

Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his

affectionate nature–nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and

the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing, “My

Beloved is  mine, and I am his.” Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose.

Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such

little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting

state of time. Our country is Immanuel’s land, our hope is above the sky, and

therefore, calm as the summer’s ocean; we will see the wreck of everything

earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.

 

Why do I go mourning?  Psalm 42:9 

Can you answer this, believer? Can you find any reason why you are so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told you that the night would never end in day? Who told you that the sea of circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing left but long stretches of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told you that the winter of your discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice and hail to deeper snow and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Don’t you know that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter?

Be full of hope! Hope forever! For God does not fail you. Do you not know that God loves you in the midst of all this? Mountains, when in darkness hidden, are as real as in day, and God’s love is as true to you now as it was in your brightest moments.

No father chastens always. The Lord hates the rod as much as you do; He only cares to use it for that reason that would make you willing to receive it—namely, it brings about your lasting good. You will yet climb Jacob’s ladder with the angels and behold Him who sits at the top of it—your covenant God. You will yet, amidst the splendors of eternity, forget the trials of time or only remember them to bless the God who led you through them and works your lasting good by them. Come, sing in the midst of tribulation.

Rejoice even while passing through the furnace. Make the wilderness blossom like the rose! Cause the desert to ring with your exulting joys, for these light afflictions will soon be over, and then, forever with the Lord, your bliss shall never wane.

Faint not nor fear, His arms are near,

He changeth not, and thou art dear;

Only believe and you shalt see,

That Christ is all in all to thee.

Family Reading Plan

Jeremiah 17

Mark 3