merittmusings

Learning Hard Lessons

www.bible.com/1713/2th.3.5.csb

This sounds like a great verse to share this daybreak, but when you read a big more about the trials that the Thessalonians were facing, and knowing this is that Paul wasn’t exactly welcome there (Acts 17:1-9), the love of God and the endurance of Christ take on new meaning.

For them to know the love of God is also a to know the consistent and painful rejection of your own children, and the heartbreak that love precedes. To know the endurance of Christ is to know the extent to which Christ demonstrated His own love for us by dying on a cross to suffer for the fullest extent of our sins.

These Thessalonians would suffer persecution at the hands of the neighbors, but Paul had already commended them that their love and faithfulness has been an example throughout the Christian world. They were living out the gospel message in the eyes of all. This is what happens when you have the ”doesn’t-quit” love of God and ”won’t quit ’til it’s done” endurance of Jesus. People notice.

Do you stand out among your peers today? I hope so. I pray that people notice you, not for who you are, but for the love and endurance you have for the gospel and for broken people. May you have a blessed day!

Plain Talk

www.bible.com/1713/3jn.1.11.csb

When I took Greek in college, 1 John was our primer for learning and translating be language. The other letters of John are similar, in that they are not complicated in their language, but in their thought. That is our word for the day.

Don’t do evil. Do good. The godly do good and not evil. Remember that the next time you are wondering if you can give in to temptation. If you are God’s, then you don’t have time for evil. Yet, we are human, and part of us is always tempted by the world and its desires.

If you’ve given in, don’t despair. God is also gracious. If would be His again, repent, confess your sins, ask for His forgiveness. He is faithful and just to forgive. But don’t go back like a dog to vomit. Repentance means you don’t want to go back. Mean it when you say it.

Hope this helps.

Learn Something

www.bible.com/1713/eph.4.1.csb

You ever met someone in worse circumstances than you are, and then they teach you about how good life really is? In my line of work, I meet many who are rejoicing in the Lord despite their illnesses and setback, and often it makes me ashamed. I have so many blessings, so many good things to be thankful for. I have no reason to be down.

So it is with this morning’s text. Paul writes, as a prisoner under guard, to tell the Ephesians to live their lives worthy of their calling. They remain free while he is in chains. Did they think they have bad days? Sure. But the note of encouragement comes from someone who is in a worse position than they are.

When your day seems down, consider those whom you’ve met with far worse problems, and yet encouraged you. Rejoice in the Lord for what you have and who you. Live your life worthy of the calling laid upon it. You’ve been given the highest calling by the highest authority to the greatest work. You are important. Don’t let discouragement tell you differently.

So,

www.bible.com/1713/pro.10.19.csb

Sin and words. Hmmm. Seems antithetical to what we are doing here today. Maybe I ought to keep this short. I believe the caution here is about talking so much you trip yourself up in your words, or that too free an tongue will spill out the contents of a wicked heart. Man’s heart is desperately wicked (Jer 17) and we ought to keep a tight rein on it. Someone who is given to words can slip and let evil words, biting words, too many words cause pain in others.

And there are occasions when talking is the wrong thing to do, like in the midst of profound loss and grief. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. I think preachers, perhaps more than anyone else, know what it means to put our foot in our mouths. We make gaffes with the best of them, because we don’t know what to say. But let wisdom speak here. If you don’t know what to say, don’t speak at all. Sometimes your presence is all that’s needed.

I encourage you to be prudent in your speech today. As one wise Man once said, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Mean what you say, but don’t be mean in what you say.

Free From Sin

www.bible.com/1713/jhn.8.32.csb

Again, in the case of this verse, context matters. Jesus and the Jewish leaders are talking about slavery to sin in this passage. Jesus announces that those who follow Him will be set free. The Jews announced that they are not slaves. Jesus affirms that this freedom is from slavery to sin. Jesus doesn’t offer freedom from slavery per se, but freedom from sin. Sin is a powerful taskmaster, forcing us to cover up things and live a lie, pretending to be something we aren’t. Jesus offers freedom from guilt, sinful oppression, and living in shadow.

Important to remember that Jesus doesn’t offer freedom from consequences, or freedom to commit more sin. He offers freedom from sin itself. And we are all privileged to enjoy it.

I want to encourage you today to live in the freedom Jesus offers. Make today your liberation from bondage. Jesus loves you and hates to see you living under a burden He died to take from your shoulders. Will you let Him? Will you repent and confess those sins to Him so that He can take them? Pray today for that relief.

So, Everywhere?

www.bible.com/1713/2co.3.17.csb

If you believe in the Christian God at some point you’ve been taught the ”omni’s”, the omniscience of God, the omnipresence of God, the omnipotence of God. That is to say, God is all-knowing, everywhere, and all-powerful.

Our verse this morning teaches us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So, that must mean that God’s Spirit, Who is omnipresent, must have freedom in all places, everywhere it is possible to be.

I remember this verse especially as it graced the front page of my hometown newspaper every morning. It seemed to say that God and liberty go hand in hand. But sadly, very few read this verse in context.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul is writing about the veil that Moses wore to protect the Israelites from the glory that reflected on his face from God’s presence. They couldn’t endure exposure to that glory. They asked him to wear a veil so they could talk to him. Paul writes that those in Christ (believers) see His glory as in a glass (a mirror, a reflection ) but one day we will see Him face to face. Unlike the Israelites, we welcome the glory of God’s presence. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (from the veil). We are free from veiling God’s glory because we have been saved from sin. We no longer stand in judgment but have been justified and can stand before Him and welcome His presence. I don’t think that’s what my hometown newspaper had in mind when they printed this everyday.

We often import the concepts of freedom and liberty into this verse, but it has more the sense of privilege. We have this privilege to come before Him with unveiled faces. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, we have this privilege, because we carry His Spirit as His gift to us. Wherever we go, there He is too.

May God bless you today, wherever you go, going in the will and pleasure of the Lord.

Nothing Fancy

www.bible.com/1713/rom.10.10.csb

Aren’t you glad that God didn’t say, “You have to cross the deepest ocean, climb the highest mountain, and cross the widest desert before you can be saved”? Aren’t you glad that God did not set the price of salvation at $100 Billion? Or that God didn’t say “like and share with a million friends” before you could be saved? Aren’t you glad He said none of these things, but to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and confess Him before men?

Coming to Christ initially is nothing fancy. It is simple faith and the confession of your lips. But that faith may make you some amazing things, like cross an ocean, a desert, or scale a mountain for Him. You may give billions for the sake of the name, even to like and share with millions more. But none of these great works come from a need for Jesus. They come a love for Him.

I never thought u would still be blogging like this every day, but now I am drawn to it because of the time I had here thinking about the Word and am always amazed at how well the Bible does together as a whole. I love sharing with you everyday. And I hope you get something out of it too.

God bless you, and thank God He asked for nothing fancy when it came to your salvation.

Good News and Bad News

www.bible.com/1713/jhn.3.36.csb

My daughter asked me last night if I wanted the good news first or the bad news first. I wasn’t sure so I said, ”chronological order.” She looked at me uncertainly, and then told me news about the bread she had baked. Huh? Well, sometimes it’s not terrible.

Sometimes the difference is life and death, even eternal life and death. So it is with our text today. It is said that Jesus Christ will stand over all in judgment on the last day at the great white throne. But it should be obvious that the judgment has already been made by the time we get there. And Jesus isn’t the One who judges. What? Jesus is the cause for judgment, but each and every person makes his own judgment whether he believes Jesus is the Son of God, the Creator of the Universe, and the essential Savior we need for our sins. So much rests upon individual faith that our eternal destiny depends on it. Each of us knows by the time we get to this glorious throne what the judgment will be.

I know there are those that will reject this truth outright, refusing to believe there is any kind of God, or that He would have a Son in a human being. It all seems crazy. Our five senses just aren’t ready for supernatural stuff. But we have other senses. Pardon me for getting a little weird, but, we also have a sense of right and wrong. We have a sense of beauty and perfection. We have love and joy and peace. We know when things are peaceful and when they are tense. We are aware of more than our five senses tell us. There is more than our five senses can sense. We know this inherently. That’s why we also have a sense of awe and wonder, of things too wonderful for us to understand. We have a sense for God.

So when we read stuff like this verse, we are compelled to respond. We can not remain neutral, because there is not middle ground here. Either we joyfully accept it, or we reject it. We know it means something, because our spirit responds to it. Scripture is like that. Few find a neutral position with Scripture. If God chose to speak to us, He must have something important to say.

How will you respond today?

Good Morning!

www.bible.com/1713/psa.59.16.csb

What better way to wake up than with His praises on your lips? For a God who has sheltered and protected overnight, given us the wherewithal to rise in the morning, what a glorious God we serve. Let us praise Him this morning, this wonderful Friday morning when we rise and draw breath, remembering that one day we will rise and draw breath anew in His Presence.

What joy Christian! What faithfulness on display, for our God has not forgotten us, not put us aside. He has remembered the condition of His people and has already acted on our behalf today, preparing the path before us where we will find His success planned and prepared. Christian will you serve Him today, to make Hia both Savior and Lord?

Today look for those opportunities He has prepared for you to share your joy and hope. He will put people in your path that need to hear. Praise the Name of the Lord!

Abound in Hope

www.bible.com/1713/rom.15.13.csb

”Someday, things are going to get easier. Someday they’re going to get brighter.” And so it goes. So where does this optimism come from? From where does this hope spring? Some folks rely on blind sense of hope, thinking things surely can’t get any worse. Some skip optimism altogether, and assume the worst of everyday.

And then there are believers whose hope is not blind, not inevitable. It is hope for a bright future because of the One who promises. God promises good things to those He loves. God is all-powerful, and He does not lie. Our hope is certain and secure in God.

Is your hope in God today?