Tag Archives: salvation

Overcomers, Practicing His Presence, Salvation

The Royal Wedding – by Adele Simpson

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As I watched England’s Royal Wedding I kept being drawn to dwell on “The Marriage Supper of the Lamb” where the groom is Christ Himself and the bride is the Church.

There was great mystery and anticipation surrounding Catherine’s wedding gown.  In Revelation 19:7 & 8 NKJV we can understand how important the wedding garment is:   “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Prince Williamwas dressed in red which reminded me of the blood of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Catherine kept being referred to as a “commoner” and I thought about “gentiles” being grafted into Christ with Israel.

The music was beautiful ending with the hymn, “Jerusalem”. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  God is our song and has become our salvation.

Westminster Abbey was adorned with trees. JESUS is the Tree of Life.

The couple was exhorted from God’s Word throughout the wedding. Catherine’s brother read from Romans 12. May all the world know that heaven and earth are passing away but God’s Word abides forever.  May Prince William and Princess Catherine and all the world know that man is like the flowering grass.  The grass withers and the flowers fade but the Word of God abides forever.  May they and we build our lives on the eternal. 

England’s Royal Wedding cost millions of dollars and was a labor of love. We are purchased with God’s very own blood—THE ULTIMATE LABOR OF LOVE.

It is estimated that 2 billion people watched “The Royal Wedding” but someday every eye will SEE JESUS.

Only the Holy Spirit can prepare us for “THE DIVINE WEDDING”.  May we be putty in our Father’s hand allowing Him to make us like Christ.  May we be ready for the Wedding of all weddings where there will be unspeakable joy, full of glory for all of eternity.

People at the The Royal Wedding were from all walks of life from all over the world.  The Kingdom of God is made up of every tongue, tribe and nation. The invitation is open to all.  God is not willing that any should perish but all should have everlasting life.  He stands with open arms ready to receive unto Himself all who will repent of sin and receive Him as LORD.  He is LOVE.

Soldiers riding horses were prominent at the celebration of The Royal Wedding.  In Revevelation 19:11-14 NKJV we read: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.  And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns.  He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.  He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and His name is called The Word of God.  And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.”

Yes, the King is coming—BE READY!!!

Take a righteous R & R with Romans and Revelation and BE BLESSED!!

Written by Adele Simpson, Pastor’s wife in Oklahoma. © 4/30/11. Used by permission.

Godly Principles, Salvation

The Sanctifying Work of the Spirit of God

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“Who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure” (1 Peter 1:1b-2).

The Sanctifying Work of the Spirit equips us to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John15:1-5).

Without God’s Spirit at work in us, it is beyond us to fully obey. Many people believe their works will save them, but it is only through saving grace that we have access to the power of God in the Spirit, and only with His sanctifying work can we be seen by the Father as good. Even Jesus said of Himself as a man that “no one—not even me—is good, but God alone” (Mark 10:18). Apart from Him we are nothing and can do nothing of any truly good nature. Our flesh will always destroy the goodness we desire, without God’s grace working to cleanse us.

Thus the Spirit also sanctifies us through the constant sprinkling of the blood of Christ. What is the significance of this sanctifying work of the Spirit? Let’s look at a few Old Testament passages to get a glimpse of this important work of the Spirit.

“So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words’” (Exodus 24:8).

The blood of sacrifice sprinkled on the people is a sign of the covenant promise that will not be broken by God. The Spirit of God is our covenant seal authenticating the work of God in us. “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise; who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

“Then you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments and on his sons and on his sons’ garments with him; so he and his garments shall be consecrated, as well as his sons and his sons’ garments with him” (Exodus 29:21).

To consecrate is to purify and make holy, setting it apart for service. The sprinkling of His blood on us, consecrated us, making us holy acceptable as vessels, useful in His service.

“He shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean…” (Leviticus 14:7).

The sprinkled blood cleanses and is a sign of cleansing. We are cleansed of all unrighteousness, cleansed of the leprosy of sin by the blood of this Lamb of God (John15:3; 1John1:9).

“Thus you shall do to them, for their cleansing: sprinkle purifying water on them, and let them use a razor over their whole body and wash their clothes, and they will be clean” (Numbers 8:7).

Jesus is the Living Water who quenches the unquenchable thirst of mankind, filling that empty spot that will be satisfied by none other, and giving to us true life more abundant and full. Sprinkled in Him we are purified and made clean.

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols” (Ezekiel 36:25).

He not only cleanses us immediately and eternally by the sprinkling of His blood, but His blood, like Living Water, cleanses us from all filthiness and all idolatry day by day, here a little there a little, removing unrighteousness from us as He reveals our need of His constant cleansing and perfecting work (Philippians 1:6).

“Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand” (Isaiah 52:15).

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He died as a sacrifice for sin that we may be spared that death, and He arose to new life as the First Born of God, taking His rightful seat as one worthy to reign on me and on all who will believe.

“He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16).

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

“What does it say? ‘THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART’—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED’” (Romans 10:8-11).

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:5-9).

As Sunday approaches, I am rejoicing over our King this Easter, praying the sprinkling of His blood for all who will receive it.

Overcomers, Salvation

Mirror Image

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“Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:21-15, NASB).

 

Jesus is the Word, John tells us, and when He is vitally abiding within us, we are saved by God’s grace in Christ for all eternity.

In this passage I see that we need saving grace in two ways: first and foremost being the eternal salvation of our souls through belief in and surrender to the saving grace found in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection paying the price due. But then we need step by step salvation from acting out in the flesh to walking steadfastly in the truths of God, otherwise we would just believe in Jesus and continue on our own path without any difference found in our life through Him.

Every word of God is useful to cut away the things of the flesh and grow us in the truths of God and His way, so that we are able to choose life over death in our day to day circumstances, and thus restoring in us the very image of God (Hebrews 4:12).

Jesus, in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, brings His Word to life in us. He uses His Word to equip us to understand, putting all together so as to help us to know and grow in His ways and to know how to apply His truths to our daily circumstances. Thus, through His Word applied to life, He saves us choice by choice as we see and walk in that truth day by day, keeping us through His word from falling away from Him, where our ability to relate with Him is hindered. The word implanted, becoming more and more who we are and dictating more vitally our lives and paths as a result, saves our souls, our fleshly bodies, from walking contrary to our God.

That being true, when we have the word truly implanted in this vital, life directing way, it proves us to be His as we become doers of the Word, living it out as He did, rather than hearers who are deluded. Did you get that? Those who merely hear God’s word and never apply it to their lives are deluded. How are they deluded?

Hearers who do not do are those branches spoken of in John 15: the ones that fall away, dry up and are burned. You see, we are grafted into the vine of God’s people, Israel, through Christ (Romans 11). When a person hears the truth, they may momentarily bump up to the vine as if to graft with it. Desiring eternity without giving self to the relationship, they fail to become vitally united with it, thus drying up for lack of the food of the Word and the Living Water of His Spirit.  Having no vitally growing root in them, they fall away and are burned.

These hear of God’s grace in Christ and accept it as a truth in their mind, seeming to attach to Him, but then they never feast on Him so as to remain in Him. They die on the vine, never fully committing to His Lordship, failing to be changed by His word, and they fall away with no root in them. Then because they know He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life in their head, they, believing they are safe for all eternity, go on living their lives of wanton pleasure, and never realize they are still lost in sin because they failed to have The Word Implanted. They are deluded, having a form of religion, without truly belonging to the Vine, which is Jesus. So they struggle, wavering back and forth like the seas, wondering why they never get anywhere with the power of others they see growing in Him.

Am I saying people can lose their salvation? No. I am saying that people can have a head-knowledge of Jesus that sets them up against the vine as if to graft to it, but that never gets into their being to unite them to the vine for all eternity. They are like the demons who know of Jesus, but refuse His Lordship. (Luke 4:34; James 2:19)

God uses His Word, implanted in us, to transform us from the fleshly person we are who has the image of God in them distorted by sin, to one who is restored to that image through grace and the Word, living and active within. For this to happen, God’s Word of truth and righteousness has to become part of who we are, the very makeup of our being and personality. To habitually read God’s word and be encouraged to do better in an area of life, only to consistently turn away and immediately forget what we read, returning to our own way, is like looking in a mirror to see who we are to be, only to forget what we look like when we turn away, never truly becoming Christlike in nature.

People who quickly forget the good word they hear, waver back and forth from hope with faith to destitute poverty of soul, never being changed by God’s revealed will. But those who receive the word into themselves, making it the vital, life-giving seed that works in them this change into godliness, find liberty and blessing that transforms their lives to the abundance and effective example that God desires us to be in Him. Such bear within themselves the very image of Christ that makes them whole and empowers them to stand, firm in faith and faithful in Him.

Does this mean that a true Christian will never waver? No. We are each on a journey to perfection, being continually transformed day to day into His likeness, but our flesh does not give up easy (Philippians 1:6). For us, we will look in the Mirror of God’s Word, see who we ARE in Christ, only to walk away and forget to live it in that area of struggle; but we do eventually grasp the word and transform to the image. God does not generally lead us into perfection over night. It is a process, growing us to greater depths of righteousness, here a little, there a little, as we are able to bear it. We have times of struggle when He leads us to deal with deeper root issues; and times of great growth, when we bear the fruit of His image in the power of His Spirit, never to fall back into the old-man-ways in that area of maturity again.

I have about 50 rose bushes in our yard. They put on big, beautiful roses for the most part, very hardy, lasting in beauty for the entire summer. But some of my bushes are obviously grafted to other roses to effect a change in them that is meant to make them the hardy bushes they are. From time to time the grafted bush will put on wiry, sprawling branches with less desirable small roses that destroy the beauty of the bush. If I let those branches keep going, they will take over the bush, destroying the larger roses. So I have to cut those sprawling branches away, allowing the transformation of the bush to take root and produce the desired fruit.

It is the same with us. When we are vitally grafted to Christ, we will as a branch in Him, grow to produce fruit in keeping with righteousness and glorifying our God. But then on occasion, our old nature will sprout forth, bearing fruit in keeping with our old habits and ways. That is when we see God’s discipline come in, pruning away the fruit of death so that the fruit of life more abundant and full can take full root and grow strong. As we fully surrender to His pruning shears, we graft more fully to Him producing the desired fruit.

Just as we can know the bad tree—the ungodly person—by their fruits, so the godly person is known and revealed by theirs. As we are daily changed into greater depths of His likeness by His Word implanted, we prove to be His children (Matthew3:8-10; 7:15-22; Hebrews 12:1-13).

So the Word of God is a mirror for us, revealing to us what we look like in Christ. And that Word, implanted into our very being, equips us to walk away from the mirror as living proof of Christ in us. The important thing is that day by day, as we look in that spiritual mirror, we see more of Him, and walk away from the mirror with that image intact, being more like Him throughout our days.

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Romans 12:1-3).

Practicing His Presence

Without Ceasing!

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“Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face CONTINUALLY” (Psalm 105:4).

Seeking God’s face is seeking Him for who He is rather than for what He can do for us. When we seek Him in this way, He desires us to do so continually:

Continually: “Continuing indefinitely in time without interruption. Recurring in steady, rapid succession. Forming a continuous series,” says Webster. We are called to seek God’s face without ceasing. That, I believe, is because He first seeks our face continually. He desires unbroken relationship with us.

John quotes Jesus as saying, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned” (John 15:1-6).

Seeking God’s face continually requires that we “abide” in the true vine of Jesus. When we profess faith in Christ, we are grafted into the vine: Jesus. For that grafting to take, we must adhere to the vine in such a way that our very life force flows from Him, the true Vine, to us, a branch in the Vine. Proof of our abiding is seen in the growth of the branch and the bearing of fruit—and even in the pruning, for God disciplines those He loves, digging out roots of sin so we can be all He desires.

Some would say that fruit is the winning of others who will graft to the Vine. That is a type of fruitfulness, but it is not the fruit that is spoken of here. The fruit spoken of here is twofold. It begins with the branch growing and changing to look like and be an extension of the Vine. There is a saying that fits here. “God loves us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us there.”

Those who have truly grafted to the vine will begin to change and metamorphose to the very image of Christ; growing us in the fruit of the Spirit to produce so as to have within ourselves such characteristics of His very nature as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23, Colossians 3:1-17). Out of that ever growing image of His perfection in nature will come the second part necessary if we are to abide in Christ, the True Vine. Again the words of Christ instruct us:

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. … Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 14:15-21, 15:9-10).

Abiding requires obedience stemming out of a love for God that desires Him and to please Him above all else. In this obedience to the calling and equipping of God we find a unity with Father and Son in the power of the Spirit that solidifies our union, making for us a successful grafting to the Vine that cannot be broken.

Note that God sends the Spirit to help us. In the first verses of John 15 quoted above, we are told that we can do nothing on our own, but only in Him. It is the Spirit-Helper that empowers change and obedience in us. We cannot do this on our own, to any degree of righteousness; only through Christ, in the power of His Spirit-Helper, can we become all He desires.

We can be good people without the Spirit according to this worlds definition of goodness, and we may even grow in goodness, but there will always be something flawed in our effort of self-righteousness. Such effort in one’s own strength contains within a reliance on one’s own efforts rather than reliance upon or faith in God. Our motives when pursuing our own goodness is generally self-centered. On we could go. The Spirit helps us deny self and come to realize our destitute need apart from God and His power equipping us to live and breathe and have our being; enabling us to do so for His glory and not our own self-exaltation. John again quotes Jesus, revealing His own selfless motives:

 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged” (John 16:5-11, *8).

One role of the Helper is conviction of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. The reasoning given by Christ for this conviction shows that we need the Spirit’s work in us to know our need for Christ, and to believe the truth about Him. This begins with the Spirit’s wooing: helping us recognize our complete separation from God, the sacrifice of Christ and our inability to be good enough in our own strength; helping us to realize the righteousness of God that needs to replace our sin nature; and giving to us the good sense to know that, without making the changes needed as provided by the Spirit, we are doomed to an eternity without God in it. Once we make that choice and come into saving grace by this wooing of the Spirit at work in us, there is another role this convicting work does.

How many of you have a decision to make today? If you awoke with breath in your body today, raise your hand; because the very first thing you had to do upon waking was decide whether to lay there all day and while the hours away, or get out of the bed and face whatever challenge the day holds. We all have decisions to make in life.

In His work of conviction, the Spirit helps us to see the sin potential in each decision—the negatives and bad paths of life; He reveals to us the path of righteousness—the positive and good, God-things in life; and grants wisdom to discern the judgment for the path chosen—enabling us to recognize the consequences for our actions, whether we choose the good resulting in blessing, or the bad resulting in curse. The Spirit continually cries out, “Choose life that you may live, you and your children with you” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).

Thus God longs for us to abide in Him through the True Vine, seeking His face continually, just as He does ours.

“‘For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken, grieved in spirit, and heart-sore—even a wife, wooed and won in youth, when she is later refused and scorned,’ says your God” Isaiah 54:6)

Practicing His Presence

Eyes Open; Ears Attentive

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“Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place” (2 Chronicles 6:36-40).

 There are many passages in Scripture that call us to wait upon and watch for God in our life situations. One of my favorite passages that keep me mindful to watch for God in my day to day, moment by moment times, is King David’s words quoted in Acts 2:25-28. It is my constant goal and hope.

“I saw the Lord always in my presence; for He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken.  Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted; moreover my flesh also will live in hope; because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your holy one to undergo decay.  You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.”

In Solomon’s prayer covered yesterday, Solomon prays for God’s eyes to be open and His ears attentive to our prayers. Just as He graciously answered the rest of Solomon’s request as found in 2 Chronicles 7:14, He also responds to this part of the prayer in 7:15, “Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.” When we follow the directions given in verse 14, we have the assurance of verse 15. But what about when we fall short of the goal in verse 14? God’s grace is always available for our return to Him.

I believe that God watches and waits for us, seeking our face with eyes open for our coming and ears listening with hope for the sound of our presence. As I envision that picture, I see the Father in Jesus’ story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).

Too often we let our own sin and failure hold us back from God. Satan knows this, and uses our weaknesses and failures against us, leading us to such a sense of guilt that we enter into the condemnation that God tells us we do not have in Christ (Romans 8:1). Satan knows that if he can get us into a spirit of condemnation, he can hinder our ability to commune with and have relationship with God.

Scripture mentions that there is a sin that leads to death (1 John 5:10-21). Now many, myself included, believe this passage teaches that there is sin of many types that can lead Christians, saved by grace, to an-earlier-than-God-desired physical death; sins where we simply will not repent, keep falling to, in which our witness is hurt and our ability to be His light in the earth is dulled. But I also recognize that there is one sin that God cannot forgive, leading to eternal separation from Him. This is the sin I believe this passage teaches us we cannot pray over for another and it be answered apart from their own prayer for deliverance.

I believe that sin we cannot pray for in the place of another’s own prayer is revealed to us through one specific teaching. The only name given in scripture by which we must be saved is “Jesus”, and that requires the recipient to recognize and receive within self the gift of God found in the sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ, on the cross through which He bore all sin. Paying the full price required that we may be saved, all sin is covered by Christ and that saving grace is ready as a gift to be received. Once truly coming under His cover of grace and His Lordship, the proof or our salvation is “in the pudding,” as they say. Lives change when God through Christ truly has our lives, and we will, day by day, little by little, become more like Christ, who came to save those who believe and show us the way of God (Acts 4:12; Romans 10, focal: vs. 9; 1 John 1:1-2:6, focal: vs. 2:1-2).

Now we can pray for people to be open to receiving this gift of grace for themselves, but we cannot accept the gift on their behalf. It can only be received by those who confess with their own mouths Jesus as Lord, and who believe with their own hearts this teaching about Christ’s death as sacrifice and His resurrection as the first fruits of new life to be received by all who accept the gift.

God the Father, desiring us with all that He is, so longed for a relationship with the people of His own heart that He provided through His Son an atoning sacrifice—the final sacrifice ever needed for sin. For all who enter the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, there is no sin so deep, no failure so disastrous that it can keep us from finding God waiting eagerly to receive us. The Father waits eagerly for our renewed and ever deepening companionship, with a robe of righteousness at the ready for our sin-drooped shoulders, and the feast of the Lamb on the banquet table, set and ready to welcome us home.

Salvation

God Planted Two Trees

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God So Loved The World That He

PLANTED TWO TREES IN THE EARTH

Darlene Davis ©

“Which love is the greater one we can receive: that which is forced upon us or that which we give by free-will choice?”  This is the question I found myself asking people over and over during a mission project.  Without exception the answer was always the same, “That which is freely given by choice.”  So why did I ask that question?  Because I had a message to share.

New Revelation:

Some time ago, while reading Genesis one, I noticed something I never noticed before and it solidified my understanding of Christ and Him crucified.  Reading through Genesis one, I began underlining every instance in which God looked with approval on His work.  At the end of each day’s work, scripture records that God surveyed all He did that day and He “saw that it was good.”  All, that is, except for one day.

As I marked each occurrence, it suddenly dawned on me that God proclaimed the work in each day “good” except for that of day two.  Looking back at day two, I asked, “Lord, why did You proclaim each day’s work good except for that one.”

Reviewing the passage, “Then God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.  God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.  God called the expanse heaven.  And there was evening and there was morning, a second day” (:6-8).

Meditating on that in light of my question, I recognize that water is water.  Whether it is in the form of mist, steam, ice or liquid, it is all H2O.  All water is alike.

My thoughts turned to verse 26 of Genesis 1, where, when God created humans, He said, “Let Us make man (humankind) in Our image, according to Our likeness….male and female, created He them.”  Throughout scripture we find that God desires an intimate relationship with the people of His creation, people He created to be like Himself.

Thinking on these things, I looked back to creation-day one.  There God calls only the light good.  I realized that God did not say that the expanse separating the like waters was good because of sadness.  God knew from day one that the darkness of sin would enter the world to separate Him from the beings He created for the purpose of relationship.

So I asked God, “All of this being true, Lord, why did You put that tree in the midst of the Garden?”

With that question, understanding flooded my soul, and I personally realized for the first time something I’d heard many times but had never seen it in scripture myself until that instant.  Jesus was never plan B, He was always plan A.

Deeper Understanding:

The first tree

We are told in 1 John that God is love.  That is His very nature.  Love is useless without someone on which to pour out that love.  And a love not returned is sad.  The thing I have come to understand is that God placed that tree in the center of the Garden with a command to not eat of it, not to be mean, but to set in place the plans leading to the fulfillment of His ultimate purpose: creating living beings like Himself who love Him by choice as He loves them.

Now, we are also told in the book of James that God does not tempt us to evil.  That being true, why would He place that tree there where Satan could use it to tempt His loved ones away?

I believe His purpose in placing that tree in the midst of His people where it could be used by Satan was to give His loved ones a choice.  Remember, a love by choice is always better than that which is by force. Deuteronomy records that our choice is life or death, good or evil, the blessing or the curse.  As I think on this, I understand that there is one other thing that Deuteronomy passage does not specify, but that is ours to choose nonetheless: to love, believe and trust God—or not.

In 1 Corinthians 13 we are told that love trusts; that love always thinks and hopes the best of the one loved; and that love never fails.  To choose to love God is to choose to trust Him, to believe in and have hope in the fact that His motives and purpose is always right, true and good—for our good, to give us a hope and a future.  This is the choice God provided for Adam and Eve: to choose for themselves whether to love, believe and trust Him wholeheartedly and above all else.

But get this: God is all knowing and He knew that Adam and Eave would fail to choose life, good, blessing, love, yet He still chose to plant that tree.   Why?

I believe it is because not only did God know that they would fail, He knew that they MUST fail.  Why?  Because God was not just building a home where He could live with Adam and Eve.  God is building a Kingdom of many people, descendants of creation with whom He desires to live in love and harmony.  All who enter in must have chosen to be there out of a personal love relationship with the Creator.

So we see that the tree in the Garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, continues in the heart of mankind, giving a choice.  That garden failure is followed by thousands of years: God allowing each human born to choose to love or not, and in the process, letting mankind learn that we cannot be good enough to please Him in our own strength and that it takes a lot of perfect sheep being sacrificed daily to cover our own sin.

The second tree

After allowing plenty of time to pass in setting a precedent revealing our lost-ness and inability to save ourselves, God planted a second tree, the tree of Calvary on which hung the Perfect Lamb of God.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him and chooses Him can have eternity with God.

You see, true death, the death that God speaks of when He tells Adam and Eve, “In the day you eat of it, you will surely die;” that death is the eternal separation from a loving God who longs to have an intimate relationship with us.  That death began for all mankind the day Adam and Eve chose to hate God through disbelief and lack of trust.

But there is another eternity available to us.  That is to see the tree of Calvary, and choose life!  This is to choose to love God by believing all He says to be true about Jesus.  It is to choose to rely on, trust in, and lean on the Christ of the cross of Calvary; trusting and being confident in the fact that through Him we have eternal life with God renewed.  But get this: as God sets this tree before us, He says, “Come and eat of its fruit.” The fruit of the cross of Calvary is life eternal with God in Christ; it is cleansing from all sin; it is power to become one with the tree, bearing the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Through this vital relationship with God found in Jesus Christ, we are reborn spiritually and set in right standing with God again.  The separation is bridged, the gap closed by Christ.  Never again can we be eternally separated from God by sins grip.  Once we sincerely and fully choose Jesus as our hope of salving grace, never again will we die the death brought into existence by Adam and Eve’s failure to choose life – and love.

The Proof?  The Wisdom of God Revealed

How do I know that this was God’s plan all along?  THE PROOF BEGINS by looking at the end of creation week.  At the end of the week we are told that God “saw ALL that He had made, and behold, it was very good”: ALL includes the expanse—the time of separation that gave mankind a choice.

Scripture tells of the wise builder does not begin to build without first making sure he has all he needs to finish the work begun.  It tells of the wise king does not go to war without first figuring if he has sufficient resources to win the war.  God is wisdom.  He counted up all He needed to build for Himself a Kingdom of people with whom He can have an intimate love relationship.  He saw the war that was necessary to secure that Kingdom.  And He paid the price by deliberately and strategically planting two trees so we could have a choice—to love and live with Him—or not.

Both of these trees call us to the same choice that Joshua set before Israel, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.”  Scripture tells us that today is the day of salvation.  Why is it important to choose today?  Because we have no guarantee of a tomorrow.

In Tanzania, not long before writing this, a team of believers shared Christ with a Tanzanian man, who joyously and sincerely prayed to receive the gift of Jesus on Monday.  On Tuesday, they ran up a hill in response to the screams of a woman, and they watched that man’s earthly life fade away.  On Wednesday they rejoiced with Christian brethren there, knowing that they will see this man again in the eternal Kingdom of God, and they shared Christ with over a hundred of his friends and family. We never know when our last breath will come, and the opportunity to choose will be behind us. “Choose today Whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve The Lord” ~ Joshua 24:15.

Gift To Receive

God holds Jesus out as a gift.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

In John 6:51 Jesus said of Himself, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”  Jesus gave His life for the whole world.  All of sin—the sins of an entire world is paid for in Christ.  Now He is a gift, held out by the hand of God for all who will believe to take and have for all eternity.  But a gift remains the property of the giver until the one it is offered to chooses to reach out and take it for his own.

Choose you this day.  Today we have two trees to choose from.  Will we continue in the way of Adam and Eve, choosing the tree of the knowledge (intimacy with) the good and evil of this world, struggling in our flesh to find significance and to reach the god called “desire”?  Or will we choose the tree of Calvary on which a sacrifice of love was made, giving opportunity to enter into an eternal love relationship of intimacy with the only true God and Father who gave His Son so that we might know Him intimately for all eternity?

How?

How does one reach out and receive the gift?  It starts by acknowledging the truth that God spent eons revealing: that all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23); that we are incapable of earning our way to heaven because of our tendency to fall to sin’s ways, thus we need the provision of God to give us that way.

With true and sincere repentance, desiring to turn from sin to walk in righteousness with God, we must believe and acknowledge that Jesus died as a perfect sacrifice for our sin, and that God raised Him to life again, the propitiation—full price required to pay for our sin, and that He has seated Him at His right side on the throne of glory as Lord and King of His eternal Kingdom.  Then we must acknowledge that only Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, just as He proclaimed—that no man can come to the Father but by Him (John 14:6).  Once we acknowledge these facts, then we can reach out by faith and ask God to place the gift of Jesus into our hearts, giving us the eternal life He died to provide, and giving us power over our own sin, equipping us to follow in Jesus’ example, making Him Lord of our lives.

Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

“Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you–not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience–through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him” (1 Peter 3:21-22, NASB).

Go to someone you know is a believer who has chosen Love of God through Christ and tell them of your decision.  They can help you know what to do next.

Assurance

Verse 11 of Romans 10 promises, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”  You can have assurance of eternity with Christ.  It is promised to those who believe.  God is big!  Nothing is to great for Him and all things are within the realm of His possibilities. He is trustworthy.  You can take Him at His word.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (The words of Jesus in John 5:24).

WHAT NOW? 

Spiritual growth is a result of true salvation: seek to grow in the Lord through prayer and Bible study.  God gives His Holy Spirit to teach and instruct our hearts.  He gives us His God inspired word, to instruct us in righteousness.  He gives us each other, the family of God and Church of the Living God, that we may encourage one another in this life, helping one another to spiritual growth and to a stable commitment of faith.   

Seek spiritual growth

Through Prayer

Prayer is simply talking to God as one friend talks with another.  You may feel awkward at the first, but believe that He is listening and that His Spirit will instruct you as promised, and He will do it.

Jesus, in John 10, tells how His sheep—his followers—hear His voice and they follow Him, and a strangers voice they simply will not follow.  That is a promise we can walk in. We can call to Him in faith, trusting Him, in the power of His Spirit, to make us aware of His truths and His directions, and to keep us from following falsehood.  I can tell you from personal experience that God is faithful to His promises, this one included.

Though not many have heard His audible voice, He promises to reveal Himself to the true seeker, those who search for Him wholeheartedly. He will impress His truths upon your heart, confirm them through His word and the encouragement of fellow believers, and with time, you will recognize His presence “speaking” into your life, causing you to know and recognize Him as you commune together through prayer.   

Through Bible study

Grow in the knowledge of His Word: Jesus promises that when we become His, He sends His Holy Spirit to teach and instruct us, to empower us to live righteous lives that honor Him, to grow and mature us and do a work of transformation in us.  This work is greatly aided as we trust God’s Spirit to bring understanding of Scripture and as we read His word daily, allowing Him to instruct and direct us through its teachings.

The best way to grow in knowledge of God’s word is to read through His word.  It is recommended to begin reading in John following this pattern.

  • Read John through Revelation
  • Read Matthew, skip to Acts, and read through Revelation
  • Read Mark, skip to Acts, and read through Revelation
  • Read Luke, skip to Acts, and read through Revelation
  • Read John through Revelation again
  • After reading the New Testament through 5 times in this fashion, then go to Genesis and read from the beginning to the end.  Once you have done that, start the process again.

This allows the reader to know the New Testament more fully before reading the Old Testament, which enables us to see the correlation of the two and how God was working a plan.  Plus it protects from discouragement: for the Old Testament believers were under Law, which was hard.  God’s discipline is more readily seen in the Old Testament than is His grace.

We are under the grace revealed in the New Testament, though we can still fall under the disciplining hand of God, who disciplines us in love as a Father disciplines a son.  God’s discipline in our lives, teaching us right from wrong, according to New Testament teaching, is a sign that we are a child of God.

A thorough study of the New Testament helps us to get a firm grasp on God’s grace in Jesus and the love that is coupled with His discipline before we face His disciplinarian characteristics expressed in the Old Testament.   It is much easier to understand and face the disciplinarian characteristics of a Father once we are assured of His unconditional and incorruptible love and grace. And, as I am finding, we more readily realize the grace and love that was coming to the world in the discipline sent during pre-Christ days when we understand the ways of God found in Christ.

Through fellowship of the believers

Another vital need in growing spiritually is to get involved in a true Bible teaching church.  Find someone you know believes these things about Jesus, and find out where they go to church.  Start there in your search of the place God would have you make your church home and family.  Get involved in Sunday School class and Bible study groups as often as possible.  There you can not only learn scripture, but the things going on in Bible days that help us to understand the scriptures.  And it is in church, among fellow believers, that deep, abiding relationships and ministry begin.

Which brings us to another important reason for getting involved in church, and especially the small group settings provided there: we need fellowship/family.  God created us for Himself, for a people with whom He can have a relationship.  Inherent in that is the fact that God created us to need companionship—thus we need each other.  The company we keep truly does make a difference in the character we exhibit.  We need each other, and if we have been involved with people who live lives in clear opposition to God, it is important to begin today to distance ourselves from those associations and develop relationships with people who have characteristics that will influence us for good: people who understand God and His ways and who work daily to emulate Jesus.

Through focused learning about God

Apostle Paul is recorded in the Amplified version of scripture to have said, “For my determined purpose is that I may know Him…” (Philippians 3:10).  God not only created us to need companionship, but He placed in us a space to be filled with companionship that can only be filled by Him.  Thus we are back again to the need to grow in our prayer life.  Through prayer, intimate communion with God, we grow to know Him, and He is faithful to fill that empty place within us.  The Amplified Bible continues Philippians 3:10, explaining that the knowledge of God we seek is progressive, here a little, there a little, as we grow to perceive, recognize, and understand God more strongly and in ever deepening intimacy.  Only with God possessing His rightful place as our companion can we experience the deep, true peace and rest of wholeness that all the world is looking to find.

Blessing Promised

I pray God’s BLESSings for you as you seek to grow in your relationship with Him.  I pray the Lord BLESS you, and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.  Numbers 6:27 promises that, with this prayer of BLESSing, we invoke God’s name on those we give it to, and He will BLESS them.

Let it be as You have said, O Lord. Amen!