Guard the Word of Truth

by Susan Sampson

Do I want to guard the treasure I’ve been given in my salvation by upholding God’s word in my home, being the grace of God to my husband and children?  Am I willing to suffer for the gospel that my husband would SEE it? “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct” (1Peter 3:1-2).  

Am I WILLing?  I was so struck in my heart when Laurie read from the Valley of Vision to open the morning when I heard her read the words, “repent of my repentance.”  It is so true.  That is the depth of pride.  It is pride that keeps me from suffering for the gospel so that my husband would see it.  It is pride that keeps me from suffering the loss of all things to gain Christ.  This week a friend asked if she could pray for me.  She told me she would pray that God would bend my will to His will.  What sweet words.  What a necessary prayer.  Yes Lord, I want to be willing to live the gospel, to suffer, and to die because that is what you did for me.  Bend my will to yours oh Lord.

Merriam-Webster’s definition of “repentance” is to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life.  We must turn and change directions.  We must live differently.  We can’t do this apart from the grace of God.  We must humble ourselves and cry out to the Lord.  We must turn from our obstinancy or stiff necked ways and humbly come to Jesus.  “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). 

So we must come to Jesus, turn to Jesus by faith, and confess our unwillingness to change, our unwillingness to repent, our pride and unbelief, our fear, our obstinancy.  We must come by faith to His word which is living and active.  Our Father is speaking to us in His word.  He is telling us what to do.  He is waiting for us with open arms.  He is pursuing us.  He will not give up.  He has given us the greatest treasure known to mankind and is asking us to guard it with our very lives.  This is what we were saved for.  Night and day, not being ashamed, not turning away, not giving into fear, but fanning the flame every moment of every day, being strengthened by His grace as we fix our eyes on Christ, diligently studying His word, obediently following His word, continually confessing our sin, unceasingly praying and boldly proclaiming the gospel no matter what anyone thinks.

How will we choose to live?  Trusting in our own strength and living for our youthful passions or walking in the Spirit by faith, trusting in Almighty God?  What are we going to do differently?  How will we do our study differently these next 5 weeks?  Jesus is calling us to come to Him.  Will we trust Him?  Will we believe the gospel?

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David….Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as high as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:1-3, 6-9).

 

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Do Your Best!

by Susan Sampson

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).  As I asked the Lord for His help in writing this email, knowing that I cannot do it apart from His grace, I asked Him to show me what He would want me to write to you.  This verse exhorts us to do our best in rightly handling the word of truth.  Stephen, in Acts 7, is a perfect example.  He did not shrink back in fear of man.  He boldly proclaimed the truth, the gospel.  He was a disciple of Jesus.  Acts 6:5 describes him, “a man FULL of faith and of the Holy Spirit.”  Acts 6:8 describes him as “FULL of grace and power.”  The word “full” immediately stands out to me.  How did he get full?  How do we get full?  Stephen was a disciple of Jesus.  We too are disciples of Jesus.

In order to be full of faith, the Holy Spirit, grace and power we must first be emptied of self.  Jesus did this very thing.  Philippians 2:7 in the New American Standard translation says, ” but (He) “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”  Paul is calling us to flee our youthful passions.  He calls us to “depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19) and to cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable (2 Tim. 2:21).  He is calling us to repentance.  If I am to flee my sins, I must turn from them.  I must turn to Jesus by faith.  I must go a new direction and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.

This week I had to confess to the Lord my unrepentant heart.  I do not want to turn.  I do not want to flee my youthful passions.  There are several that I still want to cling to in many ways- laziness being just one.  So what hope do I have?  None apart from Christ.  He is our only hope.  Praise God He has given us a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26).  He has given us the most precious gift we will ever receive, our salvation.  Jesus became sin for us so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).

We must go by faith to the only One who can fill us with His Spirit, grace and power.  Practically speaking this means going to the Lord in prayer and spending time with Him in His word.  Laboring in God’s word.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  Romans 12:2 says, “be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”  Our flesh wants to be filled with the things of this world.  Our flesh cannot please God.  “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). 

My prayer is that this week, everyone one of us would get ALL our homework done.  That we would in fact do our best to rightly handle the word of truth.  The Lord has given each of us a precious gift in this study – an opportunity to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, an opportunity to be filled with His Spirit, grace and power.  An opportunity to know Jesus and become more like Him. An opportunity to proclaim the gospel with our lives.   What will we choose?  What will our priorities be this week?  More sleep?  More t.v.?  More computer?  More shopping?  More exercising?  More cleaning our houses? “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).

We are the Lord’s servants.  He is our Master.  Will we spend time with our Master or our flesh?  Will we serve the world or the One who saved our lives?  I imagine for those who love to cook, if they had an opportunity to spend time with and learn from a master chef they would jump at the chance.  You would make it a priority.  Ladies, our Master rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1:13).  He drew us up from the pit of destruction (Psalm 40:2).  He demonstrated and proved His great love for us at the cross.  While we were still His enemies Christ died for us.  There is no greater love.

We ARE in a battle against the world, the enemy and our flesh.  May the Lord give us the grace to be good soldiers and do our best for the One who gave us His all.  This week Laurie reminded us that our greatest opposition is the enemy within.  Let us ask for the grace to FLEE the flesh; FIX our eyes on Christ; FOLLOW God’s word; and go FORWARD in the Spirit.  When we do this we will be like Stephen.  We will be FULLof faith, the Holy Spirit, grace and power.

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'” (John 7:38).

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Love that Transforms

by Angie Thomas
As I prayed and asked the Lord this week what He would have me share with you, He kept impressing on my heart His great love for each of you. His love that is way beyond emotional sentimentalism, but is a pure, rich, deep, abiding, sacrificial love. He desires for you to know this love in the deepest crevices of your heart and mind, that you might find comfort and rest in this love when the world presses in on you from every side, and when you see the gravity of your sin.
I have to confess that I have been struggling this week with the idea of how deeply God loves me.  I see my sin and short-comings so clearly and it grieves my heart. As I listened to a sermon this morning recounting Jesus’s horrific and sacrificial death on the cross, I have to admit it is hard for me to comprehend. Why would a perfect, sinless man suffer and die for an obstinate, sinful, and prideful wretch such as I? Romans 5:6-8 provides our answer, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

This love should COMPLETELY transform every area of our lives. He desires for us to walk out our faith with fear and trembling, relying on His grace and strength to sanctify us. But in order to to do that, we have to be assured of His deep, deep love for us in our frailty and weaknesses.  Comprehending that love is what enables us to take the drastic measures needed to cut of the arm or gouge out the eye of our sin.  As we put to death the flesh of pride, a critical spirit, self-autonomy, worry, anxiety, or fear of man, we will know and experience our risen Lord in so much more deeper and intimate ways.  I love the way Hebrews 12:1b-2b describes this so powerfully,  “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” The only way we can do this is by fixing our eyes on the cross, constantly being reminded of His great love for us!

So, I pray that tonight or sometime this week you will make a date with your Heavenly Husband and pour out your heart to Him about your sin and struggles and then use your bible app and do a keyword search for “love” and record some of the amazing verses that describe God’s love for us.  May the truth of His word wash over you gently, yet powerfully and may it truly break your heart.
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