If people know us by witnessing our lives and the motives of our hearts as born-again believers, then they will perceive the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. God called us to be his love letters…. Living epistles of Jesus Christ known and read of all men. We are worthy of God’s calling because he loved us before we could love him in return…. Even while we were yet sinners, he gave his son Jesus Christ to shed his innocent blood in exchange for our guilty blood that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
Because we are called to manifest the love of God and the Word of God, John 3:30 says…. Therefore let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Even though we are righteous spiritually, we still must still contend with the nature of the flesh we inherited from Adam. As Paul said, in my flesh dwells no good thing. Jesus said to the rich young ruler, there is none good (in the flesh,) no not one. Psalm 103 says, the Lord knows our frame… he remembers that we are but dust. Even when we fail, we can glorify God by how we respond to adversity… by making restitution to those we’ve wronged and through repentance asking God for forgiveness.
When we stray from the narrow way, We will learn to exalt God by turning from our own way back into the narrow way through the narrow gate… Jesus Christ himself. Then with a heart of humility and meekness, when we fall, we can fall into God’s net of mercy and grace. For if we confess our sins (of breaking fellowship by separating our hearts from God’s heart), he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God’s grace delivers us from a works-based system of self-righteousness and conforms us into the image of his dear son... Christ in us the hope of glory.
The impact of walking in the narrow way will last into eternity. Salvation is a past, present and future truth… For God is faithful to His Word yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore Oswald Chambers said, I have to manifest the power of Christ in me by following him step by step in the little things of life. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? God has cleansed and made us acceptable as his dwelling place. He made us holy according to his in-dwelling spirt…. Therefore Philippians 2:1 says I must work out my own salvation (deliverance and wholeness) with fear and trembling…. With awe, respect, and reverence for my loving Heavenly Father.
Our Father will set us free from the bondage of sin and death when we turn our hearts to the Lord and in obedience serve him from Christ’s spirit within us with a heart of love.
Isaiah 40 says, he tends his flock like a shepherd…. Who has known the mind of the Lord and instructed him in the right way? What image will you compare him to? ……Who is my equal says the holy one? Who created the heavens and brings out the starry host and calls each of them by name?
Philippians 2:9-11 says about Jesus Christ, ……Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In Luke 4, Jesus announced his mission. He stood up in the tabernacle in Nazareth and read from the scroll of Isaiah: I have come to heal the broken hearted, to open the eyes of those born blind.. I have come to preach deliverance, to set free those who have been held captive by sin and the consequences of sin. Now is the acceptable year of the Lord… now is the day of salvation. Then he closed the scroll, gave it to the minister, and said, Today is this prophecy fulfilled in your ears.
Everyone in the synagogue in Jesus’ home town was amazed at Jesus’ words. They were surprised at his gracious words because they had grown up with him and knew his family. They were not ready to receive him as God’s Messiah…. The savior foretold by Isaiah. Jesus said to his disciples, a man is not without honor except in his own country.
Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. Today is still the acceptable year of the Lord. When we accept God’s offer of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then it is God who will work with us and within us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Therefore treasure treasures in heaven where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal. Heavenly treasures will last into eternity. For the things of this life will soon be past…. Only that which is done in Christ will last. Everything done for our own vain glory will amount to nothing… As Ecclesiastes says, vanity of vanities, everything is nothing but dust in the wind if done for the selfishness of our own vain glory. Things done for our own vain motives will come to naught.
What endures? Everything we do to exalt God from a heart of prayer and praise is a picture of the golden bowls in Revelation 4:8. These bowls are filled with the prayers of the saints which are a sweet smelling fragrance, holy acceptable unto God that last into eternity.
According to Romans 12, I beseech ye therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable act of worship. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God that we may exalt Him alone… to the praise of the glory of His grace, mercy, and love.
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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