ALL SHALL COME TO AN END

Daniel 2:45

“Whereas you saw the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, it ground to powder the clay, the iron, the copper, the silver, and the gold. Thus the great God has made known to the king what must come to pass after this. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

Encouraging Words

We live in a temporal (temporary) world. As followers of Christ, we believe this and set our hearts and minds on the future, eternal world. We do this, all the while, remembering that we have been placed here in order to represent our Lord and point others to Him. This entails living in such a way that we bless those around us and make this temporal world a better place. We live for our Lord today with our hopes set on tomorrow. When He is ready, He will usher in that new world. Glory be to God!

ACTIVE LOVE

1 John 3:18

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Personal Challenge

When did it become acceptable to be a follower of Christ in word only? We wear our crosses and our Jesus T-shirts and expect people to treat us as special people. We talk about Jesus as we do our favorite movie or car and expect people to flock to Him. We do this, all the while being mean and nasty to our neighbors. Being a follower of Christ means being an active lover of our fellow human being, which means taking care of them, investing in their lives, showing the love of Christ to them. Anything short of that is false Christianity. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

DECISIONS! DECISIONS!

Susanna 13:22-23 (LXX only)

Then Susanna sighed deeply and said, “I am hemmed in on all sides, for if I do this thing, it is death for me; yet if I do not, I will not escape your hands. But it is better for me not to do it and to fall into your hands, than to sin against the Lord.”

Personal Challenge

Sometimes we are placed in what appears to be no win situations. In this passage, Susanna, a beautiful young woman is placed in that kind of dilemma. Two elders that have been lusting after her have told her that she either give herself to them or they will lie to the rest of the community and say that she was caught with a young man. Either way, she was sincerly compromised. She chose the right way, the moral high road, and determined that it would be better to take her chances defending herself against the lies rather than compromise her purity. Read the whole story to see what happens. Today, we are seeing this kind of dilemma playing out all across our country as we deal with corrupt leadership that is forcing people to lie or lose their jobs. We need to be praying for, and supporting, these people. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord have mercy!

Saint of the Week

St. Isaac the Syrian

WHAT IS LOVE?

1 John 3:16

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Personal Challenge

Our society has embraced the concept of the self-sufficient person since the beginning of our country. This mindset made us conquerers of the wilderness but also taught us to walk over others in order to achieve our objectives. It is evident in our government, our businesses, even our churches. This is not what Jesus taught us to do. He taught us to love one another, even to the point of giving our life for another. Our founding fathers attempted to capture this way of thinking in the establishment of our republic. It is up to us, especially those of us who are followers of Christ to embrace this expectation of our Lord and to live it every moment of our lives. This means being willing to lay down our life, our desires, our selves for others regardless of their skin color, nationality, religious belief, sex, or any other aspect. We are to love everyone. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner and teach me to love as you do!

COVENANT OF PEACE

Ezekiel 37:26-28

I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant, and I will establish My sanctuary in their midst forever. My tabernacle shall be among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them, when My sanctuary is among them forever.

Encouraging Words

The God that followers of Christ worship is a covenantal God. He is relational to His created beings and is always entering into a covenant with us. The ultimate, and final, covenant was His Son, Jesus. The actions of Jesus (incarnation, sinlessness, sacrificial death, and resurrection) established God’s everlasting covenant with us. Jesus became our sanctuary. He became our permanent tabernacle. The actions of Jesus created an intimate relationship between God and us, His people. As time progresses, all peoples will know that He is Lord. Glory be to God!

HOW MUCH LOVE?

1 John 3:1

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Personal Challenge

How much love has God bestowed on us? The amount is immeasurable. He loved us enough to let His Son die for us. He loved us enough to call us His children. We have no clue how much this love cost Him. And He did it anyway. We will be unrecognized by the world when we receive this love with open arms. This means we will be rejected by the world because it rejected Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

HE WILL CLEANSE US

Ezekiel 36:25-27

I shall sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be cleansed from all your uncleanness, and I will also cleanse you from all your idols. I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I shall take the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I shall put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My requirements, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Personal Challenge

I find that as I examine my life, who I am, and what I have become, I still see that image of a self-made man, like so many other Americans. This mindset has made it into my Christian journey as I also see that I try to make myself into the image of Christ, when in reality I am making Jesus into my image. Ezekiel prophesied that Jesus would come as the Messiah and only He could be the one that could cleanse me and make me into His image. I must release my control of this transformation and let Him do what only He can do. He will cleanse me of my uncleanness. He will cleanse me of my idols. He will give me a new heart and put a new spirit within me. He will replace my heart of stone with a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within me and cause me to walk in His ways. It is all about Him! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner!

ABIDING FOREVER

1 John 2:17

And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Personal Challenge

As followers of Christ we are supposed to live our lives with the belief that our presence on this earth is just a short, temporary part of our life span. As Paul says, we are ambassadors for God here on earth, representing Him and His kingdom. So many people who proclaim themselves to be Christians have lost sight, if they ever had it, of this truth. This blindness leads to abiding only in the present and attempting to amass rewards in this life that will rot and fade away. We must strive to develop and maintain a forever mindset and live to build that future, not this temporal lifestyle. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

BEING A SHEPHERD

Ezekiel 34:15-16

I shall feed My sheep and refresh them; and they will know that I am the Lord,” thus says the Lord and Master. “I shall seek the lost, bring back the misled, bind up the broken, strengthen the fallen, protect the strong, and feed them with judgment.”

Encouraging Words

Ezekiel articulates some of the things that a shepherd does for his flock. This is good for us to know, both as we sometimes are given the role to shepherd others and that we are always under the guidance of a shepherd. The shepherd is expected to feed his sheep and refresh them, Jesus, our ultimate shepherd, did this as an incarnate human being and still does it today. The shepherd also seeks the lost, brings back the misled, binds up the broken, strengthens the fallen, protects the strong, and feeds them with judgment. So many pastors and priests of today neglect many of these responsibilities. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!