Stacie Orrico | “Strong Enough”

There are so many things that can drive a wedge between us as God. We have to overcome the first of all enemies, the sin that so easily besets us [Hebrews 12:1]. This devious foe has been conquered through and by the blood of Jesus that was shed upon the cross on Calvary [1 Corinthians 15:50-58]. And yet on this side of God’s grace-filled application of Christ’s righteousness upon our sin-stained souls we can still fall prey to the lies of the Devil. I know that I find myself wondering, “Could it be true that You are strong enough?” My amazement at God’s ability to forgive Sin is paled only in comparison to God’s ability to withhold His righteous and rightful judgment upon me.

Will my weakness for an hour make me suffer for a lifetime?
Is there anyway to be made whole again?
If I’m healed, renewed, and find forgiveness
find the strength I’ve never had
Will my scars forever ruin all God’s plan?

NO! it won’t. God’s eternal purposes will be accomplished [Psalm 138:8, Psalm 57:2; Isaiah 55:11, Isaiah 46:10]. God is not made impotent, by my failures. He shall forever be faithful [1 Corinthians 1:9]. Not for my sake, but for His. I find this song moving every time I hear it. I have included a prayer I wrote after having listened to it.

Oh God, have mercy upon me a sinner. Father, Your love overwhelms me and yet I fight the tender strength of Your grip. Help me to see that Your love is true. That You have not withheld any of Yourself from me. It is I who have failed to rely upon and rest in You.

Father I thank You. I thank You for Your manifold blessings. I thank You for Your entrusting of Your daughter’s into my feeble care. I thank You that You have been long-suffering with me until the force of Your mercies and love have buffeted me, like waves breaking against the stubbornness of my pride. You are my great God and heavenly Father are strong enough. You are stronger than any mythological god or any evil this world can concoct. You are worthy of my praise, yes You are. You are worthy of my loyalty and devotion. You alone stand as the great and might creator and sustainer of existence itself. You are the ground of reality and not merely its dynamic force or animating agent.

Continue to work within me the work of salvation that will not be fulfilled until Your Son returns to this earth in final and ultimate victory. Your ability to withstand the tantrums of a flawed man and not feel any distress upon Your character or authority demonstrates Your amazing attributes. Father, I am in need of You. I hunger and thirst for You and I ask that You supply my needs according to Your riches and wisdom. Do not allow me to think that I know what is best for me. According to Your will, let it be unto me. Now and forever, Amen.

Romans Series (Pt. 13) – Romans 3:30b-31

By and Through Faith (3:10b-31)
In the last two verses Paul makes an interesting statement that is worth taking note of. The circumcised, the Jew will be justified by faith. Paul is saying that Christianity is the natural progression of God’s revelation of Himself and His will. The children of Abraham have finally seen the fulfillment of a promise made thousands of years before to a man in search of a city.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. [Hebrews 11:8-10, ESV]

The second part of the statement is that God will justify “the uncircumcised through faith.” For the gentile, salvation was something that had to come to them, it was a door to be traveled through, whereas the Jew was already “in.” By in I do not mean redeemed, but that they should have been ready to receive the message of Jesus with gladness and rejoicing because God had revealed His plan and purposes to them. It is important to understand that Paul is making the starting point of how someone comes to faith irrelevant. The key to a relationship with God is not where you start, but where you end. Faith must become, and truly is the key to the way that a Christian lives. Faith must become, and is the sign of a changed life, not just talk to impress the crowds.

Paul closes this chapter that focuses on the perversion of sin and the culpability of all before God with a clarification. The Old Testament law stopped being the standard that we were held to because no one would ever be able to live up to it. But the law does not just disappear from the consciousness of Christians. The law, after justification, becomes something what we strive to live out, not fulfill. Jesus came to fulfill the law for us [Matthew 5:17]. This is a significant distinction to remember. We are to see the law as a guide and not a yoke. It is only by the strength that God gives to us that we are able to accomplish the tasks that He has assigned for us to do [Col. 1:29]. We can now obey the law without fear that we will fall prey to her punishments.

Brian Johnson | Britain’s Got Talent

“I think you’re better than you think you are. But hear it from me, You ARE good.” – Simon Cowell

Romans Series (Pt. 12) – Romans 3:27-30a

No reason to Boast (3:27-30a)
Paul closes this chapter by asking some questions, and providing some conclusions about what he said at the beginning of the chapter regarding God’s faithfulness and our failure to remain faithful. There is no room for boasting. There is nothing that we can do to merit God’s grace, love or mercy. God gives it out of His good pleasure and for His glory.

Faith causes all boasting in temporal things to become nothing, leaving us with only one thing—the law of faith. It is this law that supersedes all others because it is the reason that all other laws are upheld. Paul’s concluding remarks put into a simplified form what he has being defining theologically. Paul also gives us a brief statement of God’s unique nature when he says that because God is one, because God is not divided within himself, all that come to Him must come to Him by faith alone just as God has commanded.

God is consistent in his demands of all men. He does not favor any man over another. He seeks faith from all. Jew and Gentile find even ground at the foot of the Cross. God is both the God of the Jew and the Gentile because both are faced with the same dilemma to resolve, that of personal sin.

Romans Series (Pt. 11) – Romans 3:25-26

Christ our Propitiation (3:25)
In verses 24 and 26 Paul puts us to the test by making us think about some very difficult words. It is important to not skip over difficult words, especially in Paul’s writings. These words have specific purposes and meanings and uses in Paul’s thinking and understanding of God, salvation and sin. Let’s look at them here.

REDEMPTION:
The purchase back of something that had been lost,
by the payment of a ransom.

The Greek word so rendered is apolutrosis, a word occurring nine times in Scripture, and always with the idea of a ransom or price paid. The work of Christ is a work of redemption. We are lost in sin and God has sent His son to find us and “buy” us back. The purchase was made when Jesus offered His blood as full payment for our sin.

The second word is:

PROPITIATION:
Covering; atoning sacrifice.

This is not an easy word to grasp, but it is important to try if we are going to understand Paul’s argument and thinking. In propitiation the wrath that God should let loose upon the sins of men is absorbed by the Son. Jesus is our covering because He has bought the right to do so on the cross. In this ministry of covering and absorbing, the judgment that should rightly fall on us is taken on by Jesus. John helps by providing for us some further insight to what Jesus is doing for us in heaven when He executes this propitiatory work. As we grow in our understanding of these concepts we can begin to grasp the depth of God’s grace and work toward us in Christ. The cost of grace illustrates the depth of love.

This aspect of Christ’s sacrifice in propitiation is something that should be properly understood.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2, ESV)

God is both Just and the Justifier (3:26)
Verse 26 contains an interesting phrase: “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

So how does God remain just and still justify a sinner? God remains just because he demands and receives payment for sin, but that payment does not come from me. The payment comes from Christ, the perfect sacrifice, and so God is able to fulfill both roles and still remain holy and just. God’s righteousness nature demand compensation for the offense of sin. But God’s nature is also described by God’s ability to love perfectly and completely.

Only God could manage to do both without violating any principles needed for either side. God’s character demands justice and grace, but in order to provide both God had to stand on both sides, and He does. God executes judgment for sin upon His very own Son. There is no great evidence of the love and grace of God than this.

Matt Maher | “Hold us Together”

I came across this song and wanted to share it with you. Love is what will hold us together. Love is the truest truth of the human experience. It can’t always be explained, but it can hardly be denied when it is experienced. When we fail to love as God loved we miss out on the opportunities that God has provided for us in this life. I pray that we as the church would learn to extend the love of God to the world in better ways.

Matt Maher’s explanation of the song.

The song.

Easter 2010 (Pt. 7) | “Father, into your hands…”

Easter 2010 Meditations

The Seventh Word

⁴⁴It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. ⁴⁷Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” ⁴⁸And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. ⁴⁹And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. (Luke 23:44-49)

Meditation on the Seventh Word

Death, the final enemy, no longer has the power to terrorize or torment us. The only power death has over us is the power we give it. Those who have placed their trust in Christ can follow His lead into the presence of God. These are words of comfort; words of peace; words of instruction. The journey that Jesus has traveled has been long and, at times, difficult. But we see here in the final moments that the reward is worth the cost. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Jesus is dead. The hope of Glory seems to have been lost. We are left now with the heavy charge to contemplate these things.

Easter 2010 (Pt. 6) | “It is finished!”

Easter 2010 Meditations

The Sixth Word

³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished… (John 19:30)

Meditation on the Sixth Word

We are drawing to the end. Jesus has submitted himself to the full brunt and breadth of what God had intended in Jesus’ death. Jesus looks out toward the crowds, both in front of him and those generations yet unborn, and with the little bit of energy he has remaining he completes the work for which He was sent. There is nothing lacking or deficient in Christ sacrifice for our salvation. He has paid the full price and has closed the book on His work. Jesus has not faltered and he has not failed. “It is Finished!”

Easter 2010 (Pt. 5) | “I Thirst”

Easter 2010 Meditations

The Fifth Word

²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” ²⁹A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. (John 19:28)

Meditation on the Fifth Word

The true humanity of Jesus is now on full display. The one that said he was “living water” now finds himself thirsting. The loss of blood, the savage beatings that he has endured, the humiliation that He has suffered has sapped what little energy Jesus has left. In this moment Jesus identifies with us as a people who continually go to dry and broken cistern for refreshment. What we are challenged to see is that the only lasting satisfaction for us is to be found in Jesus. And so Jesus thirsts so that we may never thirst again. He invites us to drink deeply from the wellspring of His life and righteousness. I encourage you to see and understand that Jesus’ identification with us is the clearest sign that faith in Him is the only true and genuine religion.

Easter 2010 (Pt. 4) | “My God, My God…”

Easter 2010 Meditations

The Fourth Word

³³And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:33-34)

Meditation on the Fourth Word

Jesus’ 33 years on earth were the most turbulent years in the existence of God. For the first time in the span of eternity the perfect communion of the God-head was impeded by flesh and blood. In these words we hear the ultimate suffering of God. Anyone who believes that God has not paid a price in our redemption has missed the Cross. For it is here that we see Jesus standing in our distress. For the first time in God’s existence God experienced what it was like to be separated from God in the person of Jesus. When you cry out to God because He feels so distant, and you will, never forget that God Himself knows what you are going through. Therefore, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, ESV).