Author: David Short

1 Ezra 4:38-50 (1 Esdras LXX)

But the truth abides and is strong forever. The truth lives and rules unto ages of ages. There is no partiality or prejudice with the truth, but it does righteous things, distinct from all wrongdoings and evil. All are pleased with its deeds, and there is nothing unjust in its judgment. For strength, dominion, authority, and majesty belong to it unto all ages, and blessed is the God of truth.

Personal Challenge…

We live in an age of relative truth. As I flip through the news channels I see opinions present as truth that contradicts each other. As I work through a day in my place of employment I see facts manipulated to tell the story that one wants others to hear. Our entire society has walked away from black and white truths and embrace relative grays and called them truth. This is also rampant in many churches. God is Truth! All truth is God’s truth! If I claim to be His follower, His adopted child, then shouldn’t I be always seeking and proclaiming truth? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

“Thus says Cyrus the king of the Persians: Israel’s Lord, the Lord Most High, revealed and indicated to me, the king of the inhabited world, that I should build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judea.”

Encouraging Words…

Here we have a case where God chooses to use a Gentile, apparently one who does not follow Him, to do His work. God does speak to those saved and those unsaved. But beyond that He uses Cyrus, a gentile king, to typify Christ. God used Him to rebuild the physical temple and set the Jews free, just as He later uses Christ, the King of Jews, to build His church and set the Gentiles free. Glory be to God for He can use me too!

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Encouraging Words…

The poor! The brokenhearted! The captive! The blind! The oppressed! Once again the gospel that we have reveals to me that the God I serve does not do things the way that we, His creation, thinks it should be done. Wouldn’t He have accomplished so much more if He would have been born into a wealthy, affluent family and spent His life hobnobbing with the upper crust, the politicians, thew wealthy? But no, He shose to be lowly, to be humble, and to pen the door for all of us to enter His kingdom. What is even more powerful than this is that through His incarnation He opened the doors to heaven for all of us…not someday in the future, but now, every single day, the Kingdom of heaven is around me. Glory be to God!

2 Corinthians 10:3-6

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Encouraging Words…

Even though I am constrained by my physical body to live in this temporal world, by the power of God I can not only be aware of the spiritual world around me, but I can tap into His power and authority to fight the battles in both worlds and be victorious for my Lord. Through Him, and in Him, I can be used to glorify and magnify Him. It is not me doing this, but Him…all that I am is a clay pot for His use.

Luke 3:21-22

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

Encouraging Words…

Wow! These short two verses are packed with so much of our teachings in the church. Jesus does not need baptism, but in doing so He accomplished many things: 1) He affirmed John’s ministry as the forerunner; 2) God, the Father, proclaimed Him as His beloved Son and the Holy Spirit confirmed that; 3) He gave us, His children, the example of being baptized; 4) He prefigured His own death, giving baptism its true meaning; 5) He sanctified the waters by entering them and preparing them for our baptism; 6) He fulfilled so many of the types in the Old Testament pointing to Him (Moses and the Red Sea, the ark crossing the Jordan, and many others); and 7) He opened heaven to our world, which had been separated from God through sin. This event was also the greatest and clearest public manifestation of God as Trinity in human history. But of great importance to us a followers of Christ, the words spoken by the Father also apply to us who are baptized in Christ and who live our lives faithfully, as our sonship is bestowed through our adoption into His family. “You are my beloved son/daughter, in you I am well pleased.” Glory be to God!

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Personal Challenge…

It is so easy to read this passage and dismiss it because we read it as Jesus dealing with wealth. It goes much farther than this. What am I holding on to as higher value than Jesus? Is it my position at work or in the church? Is it my stuff that I have accumulated? Is it my pains from my past that I let control me? Is it my social, political, or other world view that I value more than God’s view? Is it my knowledge and worldly wisdom that I have accumulated? Is it my pride and arrogance? I am being told here to let go of, give up, cast off, everything that stands between me and the cross. This must be a willing casting off and not one done out of duress. And the closer I get to Christ the more personal these items that I need to cast off become, even to the point of total self-sacrifice. But the command does not stop there…I am to follow Christ, willingly, wherever He leads me. He will take me places where I do not want to go, for in these places I will discover more that I must cast off. However,if I desire to know Christ intimately and become like Him, this is the process that I must follow.