Gifts From God

Your Voice, your influence, your time-- all these are gifts from God and are to be used in winning souls to Christ.

-9T, 38

Amazing Love

"Shall we not regard the mercy of God? What more could He do?

Let us place ourselves in right relation to Him who has loved us with 
amazing love. 

Let us avail ourselves of the means provided for us 
that we may be transformed into His likeness, 

and be restored to fellowship with the ministering angels, 
to harmony and communion with the Father and the Son."

(Steps to Christ, p. 22)

Unfaithful Israel, Faithful God

Sometimes I, like the prophet Hosea*, shake my head over the spiritual prostitutes I'm connected with. 
How can they leave a God who loves them and has never done them wrong? 
How can they treat His grace as if it didn't matter? as if it didn't cost Him His life? 

And then a startling realization punches me in the chest: I am that prostitute. I have a faithful God who loves me, cherishes me, begs me to come. Despite His undeniable love for me-- a love beyond my wildest dreams!-- I often choose other lovers, such as love of pleasure, love of self, love of the things of this world. Yet God does not give up on me. 

He is ready and waiting for me to come back. 

I am just like Israel. Loudly exclaiming, "All that you say we will do!" Then, when a moment of decision comes, I falter. I fail. It is not God who fails. He is Love. 

And Love NEVER fails.

But in my pride to "do it myself," I refuse the privilege of His freely-offered strength. 

Though oftentimes I deny Him of the ability to help me, He still wants to.
That fact alone never ceases to amaze me. 

Praise God, He sees the motives of our hearts. He knows whether we accidentally fell or whether we purposely jumped off a cliff. He knows whether we failed when slipping into the habits of the "old man" of sin, or whether we sinned intentionally, boasting a "bet-you-won't-still-love-me-now" attitude. He recognizes the intentions, the design, of the heart.

God knows we can't do it on our own, but He knows that He can do it-- with our cooperation.


"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it."
II Thessalonians 5:23-24

* For more information, see the book of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet of ancient Israel whom God called to marry a prostitute named Gomer. This experience brought him to a better realization of what God was going through with HIS unfaithful bride, Israel. Though God loved His people, they left His side for others countless times. He still remained faithful. No matter how many times we have left God's side, or how many years we've wasted, He remains faithful.
He desperately wants us back.

Beautiful Death

It never ceases to amaze me how death can bring forth such beauty...

What appears to be death is actually the secret to LIFE!

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
"He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
"If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."
(John 12:24-26)

"By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks." (Hebrews 11:4)

As we allow self to be consumed by Jesus, He will bring forth beauty from ashes.

Death to self-- why do we shun the very thought?! Oh, if only we would see the beauty of the life of Christ, the life He desires to live in us! A life of surrender to and dependence on God, a life of death to self, is a beautiful thing. The prayer of my heart is that I can truthfully say every moment of my life "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

"Amazing Love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?"

Christ Himself has died for me, I will die to self for Him...

Sanctification, Perfection, and... Dirty Dishes

               (The following is a write-up of the short devotional thought I shared at the start of adult Sabbath School one morning last month. In keeping with the way I first shared these thoughts, I have retained the oral style. Feel free to share this with anyone whom you think may benefit!)

              I’m going to speak with you this morning about two things that we often think have nothing to do with us:

Sanctification and Perfection.

The reason we think these terms have nothing to do with us is that the devil has duped us into believing that—because we are but dust—we are trash. The devil has convinced us that we are so degraded by sin that God can do nothing with us. This could not be further from the truth. God constantly digs through the “rubbish” of this world, seeking someone—anyone—who will turn to Him. He sees us as treasures.

Yet somehow, even with a knowledge of God’s great love for us, these terms “Sanctification” and “Perfection” seem to loom over our heads. Why is that??? You know, I believe it’s because we’re afraid. We are afraid because we know how dirty and imperfect we really are. We have strived to “get our act together”—and failed. We’ve failed because we’ve decided to try and work for our own salvation instead of heeding God’s Words to work out our own salvation. And we shouldn’t be surprised that our greatest intentions fail when we try to “do it ourselves,” because God has reminded us many-a-time that apart from Him, we can do NOTHING.

How many of you had to wash dirty dishes this week? I tell ya’, the mountain of dishes that accumulates in our kitchen on Friday afternoon is quite foreboding! Now tell me, how many of those dishes wash themselves? Do the forks and plates ever say “Well, if I could just get up enough gumption I’d be able to scrub myself clean and jump back onto the shelf”? No! Of course not! Because there is nothing—NOTHING—that dirty dishes can do (in and of themselves) to make themselves clean. I think you need me to say that again:

There is nothing—NOTHING—that dirty dishes can do (in and of themselves) to make themselves clean.

Those dirty dishes must just sit and wait until someone bigger, someone stronger, comes along who can clean them up. We are like those dirty dishes; but, unlike those dishes, we have a choice: We can choose to remain dirty dishes and sit there on the counter, or we can allow Someone bigger— Someone stronger— than us to make us clean. And, equally amazing, is that when we allow Jesus to cleanse us, we won’t just sit on the shelf. Instead, we will have the opportunity to serve Him and others.

Have you ever thought “What’s the purpose of washing dishes, they’re just gonna’ get dirty again!” I know I’ve sighed that thought before, and I’ve heard similar sentiments from my younger siblings. Do we ever wonder this in our spiritual lives? “What’s the point of allowing God to cleanse me from this sinful thought, action, or habit? I’m probably gonna’ just do it again!” How quickly we forget that God understands our weaknesses. He knows our limitations. He realizes that on day one hundred two of submitting to Him, we are just as likely to try to do things our own dirty way as we are on day two to choose compost over dishsoap.

The devil lives to convince us that we are beyond hope, that we are filthy beyond cleansing, and that God has had enough of washing away our dirt. But God is in the dishwashing business. He doesn’t say “Hey, you! Didn’t I just wash you last week, yesterday, a few minutes ago? I’m done cleaning you up!” NO! Instead, He says, “Come to me, you who are coated in dried-stuck-on food, or you who just a moment ago chose wrongly and still have wet food residue—and I will clean you up.”

Here is the point I want you to hold onto from today, to remind yourself over and over again of this truth:

Sanctification is not something I am achieving, it is something I am receiving.

The same could be said of perfection.

Perfection is not something I am achieving, it is something I am receiving.

Day by day, as we grow closer to Jesus, submitting to Him the things that make us messy, He is perfecting our characters into His likeness. What a beautiful thing…

I would like to close by asking you to join me in the book of Titus, chapter three, verses three through seven. I just love this passage. It reminds me once again that it’s all about Him and what He has done—and is still doing—in our lives.

“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. “ (dirty dishes) “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
(Titus 3:3-7, underlining and italics mine)

Amen!

(Sabbath School Superintendent Remarks – September 13th, 2014)