Christian growth is a battle — but we are not alone!

For this is the will of God, your sanctification… (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

Your sanctification, my sanctification, is God’s will.

In the past we (believers) were saved from the penalty of sin. In the future we will be saved from the presence of sin. Here and now, we are being saved from the power of sin, becoming more holy (see 2 Corinthians 7:1), and being made in the image of Christ.

The present is a battle.

God is working in us AND we are responsible for our sanctification

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

Our responsibility

Work out your salvation with awe and reverence.

This is not about saving faith, believers are already saved. This is about living our lives reflecting that we are redeemed, that the Father adopted us and we are His children, that we are in Christ. We are consistently to live like that.

Most of us are dissatisfied with our walk with the Lord. In fact, the more we grow, the better we are walking with the Lord, the more distressed we are about coming short. Look at godly Paul’s agony! (Romans 7)

We need to keep working at it. We are commanded to keep working at it. We have to make the utmost effort to live righteously; to obey His commandments; to love God.

God is working for our sanctification

There is hope. We can/must trust God for our sanctification, just as we trust God for our glorification.

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)

I certainly can think of ways I now want to live my life His way, when in early days I didn’t. And I can think of ways I do, in fact, live more righteously. Wow! Me!

God promises glorification

God promises victory for believers, all of us who are in the battle now.

God is working to make you and me into the image of His Son. He is working towards our glorification. (Romans 8:29) He promises.

Press on

So… use your discontent as fuel. Make every effort towards your sanctification. Praise God for the ongoing work in your life. Praise God for His awesome promises.

Remember, God wins.

Jesus and his disciples were traveling and stopped at a Samaritan city. Jesus, wearied by the trip, sat at the well, and His disciples went to the city to buy food. Two days later, many there believed that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

What happened?

There is nothing in the account that indicates the disciples told anyone about Jesus. The disciples, who had seen many signs and miracles and had heard what Jesus said, apparently stayed silent.

But Jesus talked with a woman at the well, and she, a women not respected in that city, told many about Jesus. Her message:

1. A fact: “A man who told me all the things that I have done.”
2. A question: “This is not the Christ is it?”
3. A request: “Come and see.”

Encouragement

That woman’s actions encourage me. She didn’t know very much, but she did know what Jesus had said to her. She was not respected, but had the courage to speak up. She spoke to many. And many believed:

From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” (John 4:29)

Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:41–42)    

Rewards

I wonder how that woman’s life changed. At the very least, many actually spoke to her.

And Jesus made clear that those who sow and those who reap rejoice together (John 4:36).

Don’t sell yourself short! When called, SOW!

A passenger jet flies into a mountain. The pilots may, or may not, have had a glimpse of impending disaster, but the passengers haven’t. All of them wake up in eternity.

Someone is sipping tea and planning the next steps in a conflict, and a missile hits. Perhaps they heard an airplane, or the missile, a few moments before. Perhaps they heard nothing. They wake up in eternity.

Some, of course, know their days are coming to an end with terminal illnesses, for example.

However, ALL of us have been warned. ALL of us have been told that after death comes judgment.

It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment … (Hebrews 9:27)

ALL of us will be raised, some to eternal life, some to eternal condemnation.

These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46)

The time is now

The only time we have to address where we will wake up is now.

What to do:

Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Repent!

I, you, we have all sinned. God hates sin! The result of sin is death.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way … (Isaiah 53:6-7)

For the wages of sin is death … (Romans 6:23)

Confess and Believe!

 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. (Romans 10:9–10)

NOW is the day of salvation! Don’t wait.

God has life in Himself. He is self-existing. (John 5:26)

God is from everlasting to everlasting; from eternity past to eternity future. (Psalm 90:2)

God is the great I AM, the eternal present. He never changes. (Malachi 3:6; Revelation 1:8)

God has perfect and infinite knowledge. (Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 40:28; 1 John 3:20)

God has perfect and infinite presence. There is nowhere we can go to escape Him. (Psalm 139:7-10; Jeremiah 23:24)

God has perfect and infinite power. He does as He pleases. (Psalm 115:3)

All God’s attributes, love, mercy, grace, faithfulness, wrath (and more), are perfect and infinite.

He has no boundaries, no limits. He is endless, eternal, complete. His “bandwidth” is infinite. His “multi-tasking” is without limit.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, is too hard for Him. (Jeremiah 32:17; Matthew 19:26; Ephesians 3:20)

He created time; He is Lord of time, and is outside time in a way I cannot imagine. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows the history of the fibers of what we are wearing right back to creation. He knows all our ancestors. He knows, and controls, the future.

He has chosen to reveal some of Himself to us, but He remains beyond our understanding. (Psalm 145:3; Isaiah 46:9, 55:8-9)

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Marvel! Wonder! Worship! We should fall on our faces like Daniel (Daniel 10:8-9) and John (Revelation 1:17). We should be on our knees in reverential fear and worship.

God, help us grasp even a sliver of who You are. Help us keep Your eternal immensity in mind. Help us …  

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24-25)

Blessed to Give

In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

It is blessed to give, being able to serve others by giving. There are many verses and examples in the Bible, and there is a lot of godly teaching about serving others. And commandments to serve.

Blessed to Receive

BUT that does NOT mean it isn’t blessed to receive. A person cannot give unless another person receives.

There is blessing for those who are served – IF they receive it.

I’ve known people, and you most likely do as well, who will not receive needed help. There are several possible reasons, but one is pride. Pride that they don’t need help. Pride that only they adequately can do whatever task.  

From a human perspective, we should be discerning, not necessarily accepting what someone offers. But also we should discern what is credibly offered in love, and not letting pride or other sinful reactions prevent it. In that case, if you receive, both you and the giver are blessed.

Blessed to Receive Gifts from God

Remember! The greatest, eternal blessing is to receive Christ as Lord and Savior.

To receive Christ as Lord and Savior, we must repent and believe.

From the perspective of Christians and God, we know that whatever God gives is good and that we must receive it by faith. We know God has a loving purpose, even if we cannot see it.

Don’t let pride stand in your way of blessing.

Humbly receive God’s gifts.

Let’s be blessed by receiving.

No Days Off – And Yet

My mom, usually when she was doing the dishes or ironing, might say: “The problem with life is that it is so daily!”

A retired friend said: “The problem with retirement is that you don’t get a day off.”

As Christians, we are responsible daily

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. (Luke 9:23)

I will sing praise to Your name forever, that I may pay my vows day by day. (Psalm 61:8)

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today…” (Hebrews 3:13)

No Days Off — And Yet

Daily And  Yet — Joy in Faithfulness

Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31)

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

Daily And Yet — Times of refreshing

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you… (Acts 3:19–20)

Daily And Yet—Rest to come

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28–30)

There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9)

Press on!

God is intentional, is working His Holy plan, and is sovereign over everybody and everything all the time! (See When Storms Come)

God has a purpose this day for you and me, for others, and for the world.

All Things New

He is using this day, and every day, towards making all things new.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away … And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1, 3–4)

Right Now is Part of His Holy Plan

Whatever “humdrum,” whatever “good,” whatever “bad” comes your way, my way, today, it is part of God’s purpose. No exceptions.

That is why Christians can exult in trials. That is why Paul was content in prison.

In order for us (Christians) to be able to exult in trials, to be content in “bad” times, we need to be solidly confident that God is sovereign, that He loves us, and that He has a good  purpose in what we experience.

This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)

He is totally trustworthy. We MUST trust Him.

You’ve seen or heard about, or suffered from, a person holding a title or position who does not fulfill the responsibilities or characteristics of that title or position.

Jesus Christ is NOT that way.

Jesus Christ IS Lord

Jesus was born, lived, and died in humiliation. Then He was raised in power, proving He is the Son of God. And then He ascended to heaven, and was crowned as Lord. He now lives as sovereign ruler.

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18)

Don’t be confused by His humility

The Son of God willingly gave up His equality with God and humbled Himself. He lived a perfect life fulfilling all righteousness. He suffered to be a compassionate high priest. And He died so that those who believe in Him might live.

Don’t be confused by His death on the cross.

 …through death He … render[ed] powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. (Hebrews 2:14)

He was raised from the dead and was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:4)

God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet … (Ephesians 1:20–22)

Don’t be confused by His compassion.

He is coming again to judge. “and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:16–17)

Don’t be confused by timing.

This is the day of grace when everyone is invited to come to Christ. God is being patient.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)

ALL Will Confess Jesus Christ as Lord (by choice or force)

God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9–11)

The time is now

Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Since God is Creator, He knows what is best for us.*

Because God is love, He wants what is best for us.*

Because He is sovereign, He has the power to make the best happen.

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*Christians

We are in the last days, and the end will come in the fullness of time. God will bring the end when He is ready, when we reach the fullness of time. (See God’s Timetable)

Old Testament

It was 400+ years before God was ready to move the Israelites from Egypt.

God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” (Genesis 15:13–16)

Among other things, God was waiting for the fullness of the Amorite’s iniquity.

Jesus Christ

When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4–7)

It was a long time from Genesis, and the first prophesy of Christ’s coming in Genesis 3:15, until Christ’s birth.

The Last Days

We are in the last days, and God is still working.

We are in God’s administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.  (Ephesians 1:10)

But how long? At least this still needs to be done.

For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” (Romans 11:25–26)

As we wait

We are to be alert and ready. We are to trust and worship. We must wait expectantly.

Come Lord Jesus!