Month: May 2014

MORNING DEW

 

Key Passage: John 7: 40-52

 

Key Word: John 7:46 – “No one ever spoke like this man.”

I was really captured by the statement by these officers that were sent to arrest Jesus by the Pharisees. It has a certain depth about it, that I chose to explore it in my blog today. I hope you enjoy it. 

 

History is replete of great orators. Some great thinkers. Some who left  great imprints on the sands of time. Some readily come to mind; Pericles, Demosthenes, Alexander the great, William Wilberforce, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Mohandas Gandhi, John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King jnr etc.  All these great humans who have used their words and deeds to shape history all pale into insignificance when compared to the way Jesus spoke and acted. His words and deeds are unmatched in the entire history of mankind. but today I want to focus on how He spoke. 

No one ever spoke like this man.

First, let us examine content. All these men and women spoke with some level of conviction and authority about subjects they were somewhat sure about. They tried to examine the human heart and use their gift of oration to shape the human heart and stir the emotions, so leaving their hearers with a profound sense of awe. But Jesus spoke with absolute authority on subjects He had absolute knowledge of, into hearts that were moulded and created by His Omnipotent hands, leaving His hearers with no doubt that God had just spoken. Just examine the great sermon on the mount of Matthew 5,6&7.  “And he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the sabbath day: and they were astonished at his teaching; for his word was with authority”.

No man ever spoke like this man.

Second Let’s consider delivery; Great orators had something in common. They had so mastered their craft that they could hold their audiences attention, leading them with every word they spoke and skilfully landing them at their desired destination. Though all of them without exception could never guarantee the outcome of their speeches. Jesus never spoke to convince or persuade anyone. He was not using a craft, even though the best orators can lean from his delivery. His tone was pitch perfect, His poise was exact and His length was precise. In delivering His discourses, He wrote those words on hearts of clay. His words gave life. His words empowered. His words brought the dead back to life. His words healed, delivered and saved. He never said more than He should have said and He never said less than He should had said. His speech is perfect. “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

No man ever spoke like this man.

Lastly let us examine profundity, durability and truth. The great orators, sages and thinkers of history all postulated, hypothesised and theorised, but some even in their lifetime had their principles debunked and crushed. Some after they passed on, time rendered their carefully crafted positions obsolete. Some of the positions of these great humans were found to be inadequate to deal with successive generational requirements and as such, became confined in libraries as relics of a glorious past. But not Jesus. His words were the deepest any man ever spoke. He went straight to the heart of the issue and left no one in doubt that there were to be no more equivocations. His words have transcended eons, generations, and kingdoms. They have reverberated through history and continue unbroken, uncontested and unalloyed. His words stand and will stand forever. Whilst some have been found to be liars and manipulators, Jesus spoke the truth. Not some truth, but absolute truth. His words are the measure and plumb of truth. There is no truth outside what He said and all truth must converge in Him. He spoke the TRUTH. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

No one ever spoke like this man.

After all the voices through the ages have been stilled and all that is left is silence. One voice will still be heard. One Person will still be Speaking. No one will ever speak like Him. He is the FINAL WORD!

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

No one ever spoke like this man.

 

Let Us Pray: Father please grant us the heart to understand that your word is final and that no thought of man, no matter how lofty can ever compare to the excellence of your word. Lord we bow and receive your word and celebrate your Son Jesus Christ, the very Word of God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. 

Morning Dew

 

Key Passage: John 14:23

Key Word: John 14:23 – “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Do you know anyone who is a straight talker? Someone who is politically incorrect; with no ambiguity or ambivalence. You know where they stand in any given situation. Honestly, I wish the world were full of such people.

This is one thing I really appreciate about the Lord. He never equivocates. He never dances around the point. He says it as it is. If you have one of those bibles with the words of Jesus Christ in red, try just once to read the entire New Testament, but just concentrate on only the red words. You might be surprised what you would discover. I am not in anyway saying the other words are irrelevant or less powerful, they all are scripture and they are all equally powerful and all eternal. But reading the red letters can help you pick up on how the Lord speaks and how so lucid He is when He comments on any subject.

Today’s scripture cuts right through the line. “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” We may all claim to love the Lord, but He has given us a clarity about those who love Him.

He says firstly to love Him you must have His word. That means you are not just a student of His word, but that you take his word to heart. Like the Psalmist said in Psalm 119:11 – I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Secondly, the lover of Christ keeps His word. This simply means you obey His word. You base your life on His word and you do everything to obey what He commands, whether it is convenient or not.

People often ask, how can we love the Lord more. The answer is simple; treasure His word in your heart and obey his word, no matter what the consequences. That’s how to love God. That’s how to love Jesus.

Finally, Jesus said if one is a lover. Loving His word and obeying His word, then He would love us and His Father will love us. I believe God loves all believers, all humanity, but there are friends of God. Those God loves to be with and will spend time with. Jesus said because He loves such people, he would come and manifest himself to them. WOW! Imagine Jesus paying you a visit and showing Himself to you. I know that this may not mean physical appearance, but however he chooses to manifest Himself to us; it would be glorious and unforgettable.

I pray that you would be a lover of God and that Jesus will come and manifest Himself to you. Amen. 

Morning Dew

 

Key Passage: Hebrews 5: 11- 6:2

Key Word: Hebrew 6:1 – “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity”

 

It would be a complete freak of nature if a baby is born and they are still in the exact same state, twenty years after. I mean not due to any disability issues, just refused to grow. They are still breastfeeding, still needing to wear nappies, still crying at the slightest inconvenience, having to be rocked to sleep and winded after every meal etc etc.  This would be absurd and absolutely bizarre.

But this is exactly the state of some Christians. They believed in the Lord Jesus Christ many years ago, but they just refuse to grow up. They are still babies, drinking milk and waiting to be pampered over every little thing. They are Christian in belief, but heathen by actions. They have not repented and they have not changed. There is no fruit of God in their lives. Honestly, it is not my desire to be harsh today, but I am constrained to ask the question and raise the issue. When would you grow up? There is a life of great adventure waiting for you, if you just decide to grow up.

There is a difference between a believer in Christ and a follower of Christ. There is a difference between a baby and an adult. Babies have no responsibilities, adults have. A believer in Christ is simply just that. Nothing-extraordinary. James tells us that the devil and his demons also believe in God and they tremble. So you have the Christian label, but does your life reflect Christ? Do you still have uncontrolled temper? Do you still live a hedonistic life? Are you still a lover of the world and full of worldly ambitions. Do you just attend church every Sunday and never engage in the work of God? Are you subject to the word of God or you still feel God’s word is just one of the opinions out there to consider? Is you life about you or is about Christ? Let me simply say, that a believer in Jesus is not necessarily a follower of Jesus Christ. A believer in Jesus does not mean they are disciples of Jesus.

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits”

Today’s passage is an indictment on the overgrown babies of the church. They ought to be discipling others, teaching and caring for other young believers, but they still want to be fed with the milk of the word and are dull of hearing.

There is one fact we all need to know today. To grow in Christ, you have to start doing. Our faith is an experiential faith. We prove God by what we do. We show the world that we are who we say we are by what we do. The more you practice your faith the more you have experiences that make you grow. If you sit down in church every Sunday and all you do is hear sermons and you don’t do anything for the Lord and His Kingdom, you will not grow. No matter how many doctrines you know and how many scriptures you have learnt, it will be of no profit to you, if you do not get up and start to practice what you have heard. Our faith is a doing faith.

Let me encourage you to grow up. Start today putting your faith into action. Start serving others, start sharing the message; start being kind; start sacrificing your comfort for the Kingdom. Start doing. Start being a real Christian and stop being a baby.

The bible says, faith without works is dead. And Jesus said if you love me you would obey my commandments. He said we should let our lights so shine before men, so they can see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

I am not sure how many of you this word applies to, but I am sure like I have discovered in my life, we can all still grow in the Lord. 

 

Let us pray: Father thank you for your call to grow up and live the truth. I pray that you will allow me to be challenged by your Holy Spirit in every area of my life where I have remained a baby. Father I want to grow and grow up, give the grace to start practising my faith in Jesus name. Amen.

 

 

Morning Dew

 

Key Passage: Matthew 4: 1-11

 

Key Word: Matthew 4:4 – “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”

 

Honestly after all these years on earth, I am convinced that there are many dimensions to life. What we see is not what it is. There are other dimensions undergirding what we see, feel, taste, touch and smell. Most people only exist in the realities of their one dimension and feel that that’s all there is to it. How I wish this were true. Life would be very simple.  Let’s plumb this a bit deeper. A woman is diagnosed as having breast cancer. On probing, the doctor discovers her mother has the same cancer. The Doctor blames it on genes and begins a course of radical treatment to cure the woman of the cancer. Hopefully he succeeds and medical treatment seems to have prevailed. But does this stop the same genes from recurring in other generations? The simple answer is no, because all the radiotherapy, chemotherapy and radical mastectomy are but palliative, not an eradication. The treatment had been on one dimension. So total eradication is still elusive. The real root has not been dealt with. It is like cutting off the branches of a tree, and expecting it to die. It may look dead for a while, but it will surely come alive again. The only way to successfully stop a tree from growing is to deal with its roots.

In our text today Jesus said “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Jesus was responding to one of the temptations of Satan to turn stones into bread, because Jesus was hungry after a forty day fast. Jesus’ answer was not that bread was not important, but there is a deeper need to be met and it is not the food prepared on this dimension. He knew that He needed more than natural food to give Him the strength He needed to fulfil His purpose, so he refused the offer of the food. He needed spiritual food and spiritual strength to run His race.

We all need to understand that what we sometimes run to natural sources to resolve are only at best temporarily met, not permanently. The real answers to man’s needs, whatever they are, are somewhere in the word of God. They are there for us to apply to our so-called natural situations and resolve them permanently.

Let me also quickly add that Jesus did not say bread was not good or useless, but He said it is not enough. Man shall not live by bread alone. He was saying, there is another dimension and this is where the real life flows. Whatever your situation and circumstance, please understand that God has provided permanent answers to those problems through His word and through His incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.

Back to the cancer patient; the simple answer to the cure for cancer not only in one generation, but in all generations, is to understand that the word of God clearly states that Jesus was bruised for our iniquities. That is He has taken upon Himself all generational sins, proclivities and predispositions. And by His stripes we are healed. So if you know this truth and you apply it with the same faith you put into the natural cures we so vigorously pursue, then we would receive healing from His hand and permanently eradicate this disease from our generations.

Lastly, 2 Peter 1:2-3, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. This tells us that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through His word. 

One more angle to this; Isaiah 40: 6-8 says,

A voice says, “Cry!”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

 All flesh is grass,

and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

 The grass withers, the flower fades

when the breath of the Lord blows on it;

surely the people are grass.

 The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever

Today, I encourage you not to use up all your energy chasing solutions only on one dimension, look to the Lord Jesus and search out His word and obtain permanent solution to your situation.

 

Let us pray: Father in Heaven, that you once again for your Word and your Spirit. Thank you for the provision of all natural blessings and especially the gift of medical science. Father today we ask that you would give us the grace to understand the temporariness of nature and the permanence of your word and in this help us to cling to that which will last in Jesus name. Amen.