Jesus, Light of the World (12-19-12)

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Advent Devotional, "Jesus, Light of the World," for preparing to light the fourth Advent Candle, the Wise Men candle.)

Matthew 2: 10-11
"And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.'

Can you visualize that sight?  The moment the wise men were setting out to continue their journey, they saw that the light continued to shine on them.  The knew that the God of the universe was smiling directly at them.  They traveled on with great expectancy and urgency because they knew that they were close to where the Christ Child would be found.  They were filled with so much joy that it could not be contained by any of them.

When I was a child my family occasionally  traveled to central Florida to spend Christmas with my grandparents.  Coming from central Illinois, and trying to make the best use of the time we were given for Christmas vacation, we always drove it in 24 hours.  It was a grueling trip for my dad, who did all the driving.  He often had to maneuver through snow, sleet, or ice, or even all three in order to not lose more than a day to travel travel time.  In Tennessee he had to add driving through Lookout Mountain to the itinerary, and coming from a completely flat state, this was a big deal, especially if the weather was bad!  Breakfast was usually somewhere in Georgia, and the moment we hit the Florida line and the sun began to shine brightly and warmly, the excitement would begin to build.  With three children crammed in the back seat of our Chevy, loaded down with toys, blankets and pillows, and loaded up on sugar from the orange juice at the welcome center, dad had the most difficult part of the drive just ahead of him simply because of the uncontainable excitement of those children in the backseat who couldn't wait to get to Grandma and Granddad's house.  The moment that we hit the two-lane road that led from the interstate to Lakeland, it would be a zoo.  When we reached that spot, we kids knew that we were down to the last sixty minutes of the 24-hour drive. . . sixty minutes before we could jump into the arms of Granddad and be smothered with kisses from Grandma.  As we passed each of the well-known 'guideposts,' the excitement grew to a near-frenzy until, at last, we pulled into their driveway, jumped out of the car, and ran to greet our awaiting grandparents.

The magi's experience was similar.  They were close, so very close, yet not quite there.  Joy burst forth from them with such rejoicing as they continued their trek to Bethlehem, to the place where they would soon gaze upon the Messiah, the Light of the World.

At last, at long last, they came to the place where Jesus was!  They entered the house, and in sheer awe, joy, and ecstasy, they bowed down before the King of the Jews and poured out their heartfelt worship to Him.  And just like when we visit relatives for Christmas, they 'opened up their treasures and presented to the Christ Child gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.'  These were the very best gifts they had to give.

Is your joy level high as you approach the day that we celebrate the birth of your Savior?  Is it pouring out from you and onto others?  What gifts are you bringing Him this season?  Have you considered giving Him the gift of YOURSELF and your worship?  Or have you been wrapped up in the activities that bring the seasonal stress?  Why not take several moments today to bring Him your gift.  I promise, it will restore the excitement in you, like when you were a child waiting for Christmas Day to arrive.  He is worthy of our delight and joy-filled hearts!"

Your Journey To Intimacy With God

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Out of God's great desire for us to walk in a deep and intimate relationship with Him, one in which we begin to turn over our entire lives to His full control, He woos us by His Spirit to walk through the Door of Jesus.  We are saved through our belief in Jesus when we walk through that Jesus Door.  We then claim His sacrifice on the cross at the bronze altar as His act of sacrifice on our personal behalf, and we are baptized in the cleansing water found at the bronze laver, whereby we associate ourselves with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.  This is our Outer Court experience, but it is not the end of our journey.  It is not the goal.  It is not the place of the greatest intimacy.

As we continue to make our way through the Tabernacle, our journey takes us into the Inner Court.  It is that place where we begin to grow up in our faith.  It takes some believers (like me) many years to pass through that particular door because we are content with our Christian life in the Outer Court, just the way it is.  Others begin to grow right away, flourishing in the Holy Spirit, in the Word, and in pure worship to the Lord.  No matter into which category you happen to fall, the Inner Court is a place where you will become even more intimate with the Lord by way of walking in the Spirit, delving more deeply into the Word, and by learning to worship in both Spirit and the truth found in the Word.  Our growth will be evidenced by our greater fruit.  But this fruit is not limited to the ministry that God has given us to do.  We must also focus on the fruit that will grow inside of us, the very fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  The Inner Court will be the place in which we identify, confess, dispossess, and take full vengeance on those actions and attitudes that do not line up with the Word and the Spirit.  It is also the place where we will learn to follow the commands that are found in the Word.  The door into the Inner Court is a "cross-roads" in our journey to the Holy of Holies, one which will determine if we will take the easy road (and stay in the Outer Court) or adjust our course, choosing to take the narrower path.  If we choose that narrow path into the Inner Court, it is there that we will be aligned and adjusted in our hearts to the good and perfect will of God, and begin to obey His commands with our whole hearts.

A marvelous thing happens when we are consistently seeking to turn our whole lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ through our confession of sin and the surrender of our will to His.  Through deeper study, a closer walk with the Spirit, and worship from a much more pure heart, we discover moments of great intimacy with the Lord such as we have never before experienced.  These are indescribable times of joy that only flow from a heart that is chasing after the God who can restore it.  This is the experience of those who have chosen to pass through the veil, crucifying their own flesh and will, and step into the Holy of Holies.  This is spiritual healing and intimacy with Christ!   And ultimately, our earthly level of intimacy will grow exponentially when we see Him face to face in Heaven!

The Tabernacle is where we meet Jesus.  It is where we identify our lives with His.  It is the place where we give Him the rule of our broken lives, tarnished with sin.  It is whee our intimacy with Him grows.  The Tabernacle is a picture of the journey of a true believer, and it reveals the relationship that we are currently having with Jesus!"

God's Call To Surrender--Part 2

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(Excerpted from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 9)

"If you have ever wondered what it is that you have to do when you surrender , verse 14 [of the well-known verse of 2 Chronicles 7: 13-14] will clear up any any confusion you may have experienced.

If . . . My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

God is not asking you to just simply say a prayer in which you tell Him that you are surrendering a sin or idol to Him.  He expects you to live out 2 Chronicles 7:14 by humbling yourself before the Creator of the universe.  You are to talk to Him about your sins and idols.  You are to seek His face by surrendering your will to His.  As you seek Him, you will discover afresh and anew the call to obey Him.  If you constantly gaze into the eyes of the Savior who offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice and model of surrender, how could your response be anything other than repentance?  Turning away from what is sinful in your life is entirely different than merely telling God how sorry you are that you have sinned and asking His forgiveness.  To repentantly turn away from your sin is to do a 180-degree turn, away from the direction you had been heading.  This is surrender!  This is true worship!

God has called us to a repentant, heart-surrendering concert of prayer, to be on our faces before Him, the One whose very face we seek.  Until we find ourselves prostrate before Him, we will likely continue to wander in our self-made wildernesses, stagnant and unfulfilled, never reaching the 'land' that He has promised us.  Surrender is the key to passing through the 'veil' and into the daily presence and will of God, dwelling in the Holy of Holies!"

Second Chronicles 7:13-14 is written as a conditional statement--'If My people will....then I will....' The way God states this clearly shows us that if we desire for Him to respond to our prayers for forgiveness of our sinful ways, and to bring spiritual healing of our hearts where our sin and idols dwell, then we must respond to God's call to repentance by actively humbling ourselves before Him, praying diligently for the removal of sin, seeking His face by searching out what the Scriptures tell us to do, and then turning away from the sin by obeying what we have been told.  "If My people will . . . then I will!"

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 15

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 Day 15:  The Immoral Woman (Luke 7: 36-50)

He was coming to her town—the Man who forgave sins.  Surely there was no one who needed that more than her.  Her immorality was well-known by all.  She felt dirty, unclean, and unworthy of His forgiveness.  Yet, something inside of her was prompting her to go and find Him.

Asking a woman on the street where she might find Him, she returned her look of judgment and condemnation with a downward glance to the ground.  She was thankful that the woman had told her where Jesus could be found, but her shame made her feel like running home instead.

Pushing her feelings aside, she continued on her way, holding very carefully the alabaster vial of perfume in her hands.  Arriving at Simon the Pharisee’s home, she quietly slipped in the side door undetected.  There He was, reclining at the table.  Lowering her eyes, it became quite obvious that the well-known tradition of foot washing had not been offered to Jesus.  His feet were as dirty as her own heart.  Had He been treated with disrespect, she wondered?  She knew exactly what that felt like?

Overcome with her identification with Him, she slowly moved so that she was standing right behind His feet.  Her tears flowed freely and unceasingly, making rivers over the dirt and dung caked on His feet from His travels.  The tears made clean paths on the way to the floor underneath.  Bending down, she took her hair and began to wipe His feet completely clean.  Over and over she wet them and wiped them as years of shame, guilt and regret poured from her heart to His feet.  Then she took the vial of perfume, broke it, and poured it out on them, kissing them as she worshiped the One who might forgive her guilty stain.  Love for Him welled up in a heart once hardened by her own wrong choices.  Moved by this ‘love in action,’ Jesus turned to her and said, “Your sins have been forgiven.  Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace.”  Never had her heart felt so clean.  In peace she left her old life behind.

What are you willing to do to worship Jesus?  What if it humbles you?  Do your feelings ever dictate whether or not you will obey your inner voice? Do you bring to Jesus a clean or dirty heart?  Do you have peace?

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 4

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Day 4 -- Zacharias' Disbelief (Luke 1: 1-23, 59-64)

Zacharias entered the temple once again.  It was time to light the incense on the altar, and the crowd was already gathered outside to lift their prayers to the Lord.  Oh, how he loved fulfilling his priestly duties.  To him lighting the incense was another way to serve the Lord by worshiping and praising the Lord in and through his service.  His greatest desire was to walk blamelessly with his God and to live out the commandments and requirements of his covenant with God.  Today would not be much different than any other.  He knew that he must surely lift his own praises to God, as well as the praise of his entire people.  But his heart was heavy with another matter—his wife’s barren womb.  Despite his deep longing, Zacharias began his time of worship.  Never, in all his days, would he expect to see what  happened next!

There before him, just to the right of the altar, stood an angel of the Lord.  “Your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.”  He couldn’t believe it.  He and Elizabeth, a child?  Their advanced years indicated otherwise.

“What will be the sign that it will happen?” Zacharias ventured.  Little did he know that his unbelief had just been revealed in his request for a sign.   Now Zacharias would live in silence.  How long, he did not know.  Committed to fulfill his priestly duties, he continued to light the incense, but his prayers were confined in a mind that struggled to believe.  When his priestly commitment in the temple was completed, he returned home to wait for the birth of his son.

With the typical rejoicing that surrounds a birth, John entered the world, and as was the custom, he was named and circumcised on the 8^th day.  What Zacharias learned in his months of silence was revealed when he was asked what the child’s name would be.  Writing on a tablet, his obedience and new faith were displayed.  “His name is John.”  Belief in the God of the impossible transformed the heart of Zacharias.   Little did he know his promised son would be a cousin of the Messiah, that John would baptize Him, and also hear God say, “This is My Beloved Son.”

What is your “barren womb?”  He’s still the God of the impossible!  (vs. 37)

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 3

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Day 3 -- Abraham's Test of Obedience

Life is full of tests.  Tests are what lie between the beginning of our faith journey and the day we receive our glorified bodies in heaven.  They are not intended to squash us.  On the contrary, they are to move us toward a greater dependence on God.  Our faith is revealed to God and others by the degree to which we obey, worship and love God.  These three Christian principles of faith are mentioned together for the first time in the Bible in Genesis 22 when Abraham is tested by God.

Abraham already had righteousness credited to his spiritual account (Gen. 15:6).  God told him that One would come from him who would be his heir and would give him many descendants.  Through this Heir, ALL the nations would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3).  Abraham knew of the Messiah to come and believed God.  Through his child of the promise (Isaac), Jesus would come.

But God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to take his beloved Isaac and offer him as a burnt sacrifice.  How could Abraham obey that command?  He could obey because he believed the promises that God made to him!  If God allowed Isaac to die, Messiah could not come through that line.  Abraham trusted God to do what He said He would do.  This is how he was able to tell the men with him, “I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” 

Again Abraham demonstrated and acted on faith when his son asked him a difficult question.  “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”   Abraham replied, “God will provide for Himself the lamb.”  Abraham passed God’s test when he followed through on everything God commanded him, binding up the one he loved most, laying him on the altar, and raising the knife to slay him.  Because of such faith, Abraham is a picture to us of true worship.  His actions reveal to us an obedient heart.  No wonder Abraham was called a friend of God!  (James 2:23)

Though he was a man from the Old Testament days, Abraham’s heart was transformed by his love for a Savior who had not yet come.  We have the promises in the Word; we say we believe them.  But do we live a sacrificial life that is proven by our obedience to God’s commands?

Is It Really All About Me?

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Is it really all about me?

We are very capable of creating our own gods. When we begin to worship them, we are opening a door not only to feed our flesh, but a door that many others might follow us through. Our self-created gods have one purpose. In the end, they make US god. As we worship them, our flesh gets to be in control and do what it wants, making us the god of our own lives. Life then becomes all about me, not the God I claim to worship.

There is a woman in the Old Testament who gave her silver to her son to create an ephod (Israel's priests already had one that they used in worship at the Tabernacle) and other household idols (teriphim that were worshiped to gain prosperity and guidance).  In the end, her son created graven and molten images that were idolatrous duplications of the priestly ephod and ark of the covenant.  He even hired a wicked Levitical priest to be the priest of his family.

You might ask how this story is relevant to us.  The answer is found in the historical account of what Israel was like in the days of the Judges.  This one sentence is repeated throughout the book of Judges:  "Every man did what was right in his own eyes."  Doing this very thing, this Jewish son re-created a religion that would be to his liking and his benefit, a religion in which he was in control.  He already knew what was right in God's eyes, and turned from it to what he deemed right.

This man led his family astray.  And he could not have known that the creation of his own god according to his desires would also lead one of the twelve tribes of Israel into idolatry as well.  The tribe of Dan discovered this ephod, fake image of the god, and the priest who absolved this family of any guilt, and the tribe of Dan stole them!  Now following this "god" instead of Jehovah, Dan is led astray and is not even mentioned in the twelve tribe in Revelation 7: 4-8.  By the same token, Eve would have had no idea that putting herself first would affect every other human being!  One person's sinfulness can have disastrous consequences in the lives of many.

What are the gods of your life?  What is it that you have created to protect you, bring pleasure to you, make you feel good, put you in the driver's seat, let you do what you want?  What is it that seems right in your eyes because it is not hurting anyone else?  Is it tobacco, alcohol, television, exercise, Facebook, pornography, working too much, material goods of any kind that you just can't get enough of, ministry?  Is it self-sufficiency that says you don't need anything or anybody, pride and arrogance, self-absorption, believing that everything is just fine in your life, false humility otherwise know as the "Eeyore syndrome"?  Every day we should be looking deeply within our hearts so that we might see the gods we have created.  Then we should be about the business of destroying them by surrendering to the only God who can.  

What is damaging our walk with God has the potential to damage others as well.  Who is your "collateral damage?"  Is it your spouse, your children, your parents, your co-workers, your friends, your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Putting your flesh first is destructive to the kingdom of God and the work He wants to do before Christ returns.  

Think about it.  Ask God to show what your gods are.  Pray about it.  Surrender to the God Almighty, confessing your idolatry (agreeing with God that it is true).  Then stand up and walk in faith in the only God, as a witness to the whole world!

Gods of the Flesh BecomeThorns in our Sides

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The land belonged now to Israel, but instead of removing everything (and everyone) that was vile to their God, Israel chose to "live among" the pagan worshipers. God had committed to the removal of the Canaanites, but Israel chose to keep them around. So God punished them by allowing the Canaanites to stay. They became thorns to Israel, the source of their destruction. What are your pagan strongholds?  What sins have you left "living among" you?

Israel stumbled yet again.  Israel had been given a promise from God that He would drive out every enemy before them.  They promised to obey His every command so that they might experience His victories.  But Israel didn't keep its end of the bargain.  When they walked away from God, He gave them exactly what they wanted.  He chose not to drive out the Canaanites since Israel would not join Him in the battle to drive them out.  The pagan people, with all of their idol worship, led Israel even farther away from God.  His beloved Israel, called to be set apart and pure, intermarried with the impure and became pagan in their belief, joining Canaanite gods to THE God.  The result of Israel's defiance and idol worship was that they would not become who God designed them to be.  His allowance of Canaanites in the Promised Land would forever be a test to Israel.  Would they follow and obey Him,  or follow their pagan neighbors and the gods of their flesh?

But have you noticed that we are not much different?  We have the same God, and we behave toward Him in exactly the same way.   God's word to us is full of His promises that He is waiting to fulfill in our lives, but we experience few victories over our sins because we are unwilling to "put them out of our midst."  So those sins and idols become thorns to us, taking us away from God.

God is not obliged to wave a wand and remove our sins, those things we worship rather than Him.  But the funny thing is this:  He is willing to destroy every one of them in us!  Most of us ignore His willingness to drive out our sin. Until we are willing to surrender them to Him, putting into His hand those sinful, pagan things that have become apart of our lives, we will not know the victorious life He has planned for us.  

The Israelite men desired and lusted after the Canaanite women.  They wanted what they wanted!  And we behave the same way when it comes to wanting what is in opposition to God and His will for us!  We have a choice set before us several times a day:  Will we remain pure and set apart from the world or will we partake and join with the world in all kinds of sin.  How long will we try to join the two together?  When will we understand that holiness can never be joined to unholiness?

Our defiance and disobedience keeps us from becoming everything that God designed us to be.  Will you settle for less by keeping your sins among you, or will you strive, by the Spirit and surrender and obedience, toward a deeper, more vibrant and victorious life?  You are choosing between the thorns and the beautiful, fragrant rose bud.  We shouldn't have to think very hard!