Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. (Colossians 3:1 NLT)
You never have to say to one whose heart is wholly set upon God: "You must give up this and give up that." Leave such a one with the Lord, and you will find those things go. It is a very blessed thing to see a heart set upon the Lord. You need have no worries in that direction. All the anxiety lies in the realm where the heart is not wholly for the Lord. The apostle’s two letters to the Thessalonians are full of joy. He thanked the Lord on every remembrance of them. He could not speak too highly of them or in terms too glowing, simply because they turned from the world unto God, “to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven,” and he had no anxiety about them. When you turn to the Corinthians... there is a good deal of trouble. It is the wilderness situation again – a divided heart.
A resurrection basis gives God a chance that is right out to the Lord from the world. All that that means we have to learn. We shall come to things we never expected if we are going on with the Lord. Things on which we were so clearly settled as things being of God, and never for one moment expected to have a question about, become challenged. Not that they were not of God, but they were only of God up to a point, and now there is something more beyond them. And unless we go on to the something more, the good becomes the enemy of the best. And so, because of comparative values, we have to leave what is good for the better; and then later the better for the best. It can only come about as we are really going on with the Lord. But that requires, first of all, that we have made a clean cut and have said: "I am out on resurrection ground. I am out with the Lord utterly."
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Savior.” Isaiah 43:11
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
It takes more of God’s power to save a soul through the cross of Jesus than it does to do any other thing. God had no difficulty creating the universe. He simply spoke, and it was so, the Bible tells us. But when God wrote salvation’s story, He went to great difficulty. Let me illustrate.
What if I held a service and had the power to straighten the legs of someone who couldn’t walk? Or I could bring sight to the blind? The next service would be standing room only. Now I certainly want God to heal, but let me suggest a different scene.
What if I held a service and a little girl walked down the aisle and gave her heart to Jesus? That is a greater miracle than opening the eyes of the blind, because the Son of God had to hang on a cross in agony and blood to purchase her salvation! He didn’t speak salvation into existence, He died for it! Jesus did not come as a great healer or teacher, He came as a Savior.
ACTION POINT:
Ask God today to give you the heavenly view—the viewpoint of Heaven—for the angels in heaven rejoice each time one lost person receives eternal life. This is the greatest miracle.
~Adrian Rogers~
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Looking to Jesus.... (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)
There is a real touch of Paul in this Letter to the Hebrews – "Looking off unto Jesus." Whoever actually wrote this Letter, the shadow of Paul is over it. His influence is everywhere. And certainly he was called upon to look off unto Jesus. Now that is a very vital lesson for us to learn. We have to do that again and again in our Christian life. If we get our eyes upon anything but the Lord Jesus we just go to pieces. Have all respect for God's saints. I am not saying that you have to eye every servant of God with suspicion and be saying all the time: "Well, of course, he is not perfect, you know." Give honor to whom honor is due, but never build your faith upon any man, however good he may be.
And as for ourselves – well, I think perhaps we are more tempted to look at ourselves than anything else! This is one of our real Christian exercises. We have continually to remove our eyes from ourselves and everything to do with ourselves. There is nothing more discouraging than this self of ours, and nothing more misleading. Our own judgments are all wrong, and so are our thoughts and ideas. They are not God's thoughts. We must take our eyes off ourselves, but not look out into space and be vacant. "Look off unto Jesus," and you know how that sentence is finished – "Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Did you start this thing? Are you a Christian because you decided to be a Christian? Well, the Lord help you if that is so! No, He started this thing. Are you not glad that you can say: "It was the Lord who found me. It was the Lord who put His hand on me." What He said is very true: "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16). He was the author of our faith, and it says that He is the finisher – He will finish it.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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BIBLE MEDITATION:
“All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” Matthew 11:27
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
When God condescends to make Himself known to us, the Bible calls that “revelation.” The Infinite, God, reveals Himself to the finite, mankind. Now, what is the agent in this revelation? Not a what, but a Who. The Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and searches the deep things of God.
You and I cannot know God apart from the Holy Spirit revealing Him to us. Isaiah 55:9 says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
ACTION POINT:
Even in the human realm, the only way you and I can know anything about each other is when we reveal ourselves to one another. We spend time…we communicate with each other. And the only way man will ever know God is for God to reveal Himself. He does that through His Word and prayer. Praise God He has chosen to do that!
~Adrian Rogers~
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