Daily Verses
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Accepting Your Partner
For reading & meditation - John 13:12-20
"... whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me ..." (v. 20)
The third principle for healing the brokenness that arises from troubles in the home only works if the previous two are clearly established: Accept your partner or your children, and don't just endure them. Too difficult? Look again at the verse at the top of this page, where we are instructed to accept each other just as God accepts us. And remember that when we supply the willingness, God supplies the power. There is quite a difference, of course, between accepting your partner and enjoying him or her; the former is a scriptural requirement, the latter is something that is dependent on their response and behavior.
Marriage sometimes involves living with an irritating, infuriating, and obnoxious person: how can we accept such a person, let alone enjoy him or her? Acceptance does not mean that we have to enjoy everything our partner does: it means rather that we see our partner as someone to whom God wants us to minister, and we pursue that ministry whether we feel like it or not. Many Christians stumble over this.
A lady who recently came through to victory on this point said to me, "But how can I accept my husband, who is nothing more than a loathsome, alcoholic pig?" I said, "It's impossible as long as you are depending on your husband to meet your need for security. Depend on God to meet that need, and then see what happens." She did so, and found that when she no longer depended on her husband to meet her security needs. she saw him in a completely new light. Then she had no difficulty in accepting him.
For Further Study
Eph. 5:21-33; 1:6; Rom. 15:7
1. How should the husband show his acceptance of his wife?
2. How should the wife show her acceptance of her husband? -
A Check-Up for Husbands
For reading & meditation - Ephesians 5:22-33
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church ..." (v. 25)
Over the next two days I want to establish two final principles for dealing with troubles in the home: one for the husbands and one for the wives. Today we begin with the men: Be prepared to give yourself a spiritual check-up on how you are doing as a husband.
Cross out whichever answer does not apply. 1. Do you still "court" your wife with an unexpected gift of flowers or chocolates? (Anniversaries and birthdays not to be included) (YES/NO) 2. Are you careful never to criticize her in front of others? (YES/NO) 3. Do you make an effort to understand her varying feminine moods and help her through them? (YES/ NO) 4. Do you depend on your wife to meet your basic personal needs? (YES/ NO) 5. Do you pray together? (YES/NO) 6. Do you share at least half your recreation time with your wife and family? (YES/NO) 7. Are you alert for opportunities to praise and compliment her? (YES/NO) 8. Do you go to church together? (YES/NO) 9. Is she first in your life - after the Lord? (YES/NO) 10.
Have you forgiven her for any hurts or problems she may have caused you? (YES/NO) A score of 7 to 10 yes responses - excellent! Below 7 yes answers - you've got some work ahead of you.
For Further Study
Eccl. 9:1-9; Gen. 2:23-24; Col. 3:1-21; 1 Pet. 3:7
1. What does the word cleave (KJV) mean?
2. Why are our prayers often hindered -
A Check-Up for Wives
For reading & meditation - 1 Peter 3:1-12
"Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands ..." (v. 1)
Yesterday the men were asked to examine themselves using a simple questionnaire as to how they were doing as husbands. Today a similar opportunity is extended to wives.
1. Are you depending on the Lord to meet your basic needs for security, significance, and self-worth? (YES/NO)
2. Can you meet financial disasters bravely without condemning your husband for his mistakes, or comparing him unfavorably with others? (YES/NO)
3. Do you dress with an eye for your husband's likes and dislikes in color and style? (YES/NO)
4. Do you keep up your own personal prayer life so that you may meet everything that arises with poise? (YES/NO)
5. Do you avoid daydreaming or fantasizing about other men you might have married? (YES/ NO)
6. Are you sensitive to your husband?s moods and feelings and know when, and when not, to bring up delicate issues? (YES/NO)
7. Do you respect your husband? (YES/NO)
8. Are you careful never to criticize your husband in front of others? (YES/NO)
9. Do you keep track of the day's news and what is happening in the world so that you can discuss these with your husband? (YES/NO)
10. Are you a "submissive" wife? (YES/NO)
A score of 7 to 10 yes responses - excellent. Below 7 yes answers - it's decision time.
For Further Study
Prov. 31:10-31; 1 Tim. 3:11; Esther 1:20
1. What are the characteristics of a virtuous woman?
2. What do her children call her? -
When Broken by Stress
For reading & meditation - Psalm 71:1-24"You have let me sink down deep in desperate problems. But you will bring me back to life again, up from the depths of the earth!" (v. 20, TLB)
Another major cause for brokenness in human life is stress. Often I get letters from people saying something like this: "I feel I am on the verge of a breakdown. No one thing seems to be responsible for it, but I just can't cope. My doctor says I am suffering from stress. Can the Bible meet this need?" I am bold to say that it can. God can take a person overcome by stress and build into their lives insights which will enable them to live above and beyond its paralyzing grip.
What exactly is "stress"? One doctor defines it as "wear and tear on the personality which, if uncorrected, can result in a physical or mental breakdown." Donald Norfolk, a British osteopath who has made a special study of stress, claims that it comes from two main causes: too little change, or too much change. To function at peak efficiency, we all need a certain amount of change. However, when changes come too fast for us to cope with, the personality is put under tremendous stress.
Dr. Thomas H. Holmes measures stress in terms of "units of change " For example, the death of a loved one measures 100 units, divorce 73 units, pregnancy 40 units, moving or altering a home 25 units, and Christmas 12 units. His conclusion is that no one can handle more than 300 units of stress in a twelve- month period without suffering physically or emotionally during the next two years.
Holmes, of course, was speaking from a strictly human point of view - with God "all things are possible."
For Further Study
Luke 10:38-42; Phil. 4:6; Ps. 127:2; Matt. 6:25
1. What was Jesus' response to Martha?
2. How did it differ from His response to Mary? -
What a Waste!
For reading & meditation - Philippians 4:1-13"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (v. 6)
We continue meditating on the principles we can use when our lives are threatened by stress: Recognize the symptoms of stress. No alarm bells ring in our homes or offices when we are suffering undue stress, but there are adequate warning signs.
People under stress generally become irritable and overreact to relatively trivial frustrations. They show a change in their sleep patterns, and become increasingly tired and restless. They derive less pleasure from life, experience no joy while praying or reading the Bible, laugh less, and become plagued with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
They sometimes develop psychosomatic complaints such as tension headaches, indigestion and other things. Some people have what is known as "target organs" - physical organs that are the first to suffer when they are under stress. Harold Wilson confessed that whenever he had to fire a colleague, he suffered acute stomach pains. Henry Ford suffered cramps in his stomach whenever he had to make an important business decision. Trotsky, when under pressure, used to develop bouts of high temperature, and frequently had to spend time in the Crimea recuperating. One businessman I know always has a glass of milk on his desk from which he takes frequent sips in order to calm his nagging peptic ulcer.
Are you able to recognize your own particular patterns of stress? You owe it to God and yourself to find out. The waste that goes on in Christian circles through believers channeling their energies into coping with stress, rather than into extending the kingdom of God, is appalling.
For Further Study
Luke 12:15-34; 2 Tim. 1:12; 2 Cor. 11:22- 33; 12:7-10
1. What was the key to Paul's trust under stress?
2. List six reasons Jesus gave for not worrying about tomorrow -
Stop and Smell the Roses
For reading & meditation - Matthew 6:25-34"... Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ..." (v. 28, RSV)
Another principle that helps us cope with stress is this: Seek to overcome any rigidity in your personality.
You can best understand rigidity by comparing it with its opposite - flexibility. A more formal definition of rigidity is this: "The inability or refusal to change one's actions or attitudes even though objective conditions indicate that a change is desirable."
The rigid person clings to certain ways of thinking and acting, even when they are injurious to the personality and burn up their emotional energy. Someone described it as similar to driving a car with the brakes on. Take the housewife who worries herself into a migraine attack because she cannot maintain a scrupulously tidy home while her grandchildren are visiting. Or the businessman who triggers off another gastric ulcer because he falls behind with his schedule when his secretary is away sick.
Inflexible goals can be crippling fetters. It's no good saying, "But there are things that have to be done, and if I don't do them, they just won't get done." Perhaps you need to rearrange your priorities, adjust your lifestyle and learn to say no."
As someone put it, "We must not drive so relentlessly forward that we cannot stop and smell the roses by the wayside." You may be caught up in the midst of one of the busiest weeks of your year, but pause for a moment and ask yourself: am I driving, or am I being driven? Am I in control of my personality, or is it in control of me? Today, decide to take a step away from rigidity by pausing to "smell a rose."
For Further Study
Gen. 1; 2:1-3; Heb. 4:1-11; Ps. 37:7; Matt. 11:29
1. What was man's first day?
2. How can we enter into God's rest? -
Don't Push the River!
For reading & meditation - Ecclesiastes 3:1-4"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven ..." (v. 1)
Refuse to be obsessed with time. It is right to be concerned about time, but it is not right to be obsessed with it. Do you live life by the clock? Then you are a candidate for stress.
When filmmakers want to create tension, they show a clock relentlessly ticking away. Such tactics are pointless when applied to the ordinary issues of everyday life. Nervous glances at a watch will generate tension when you are caught in traffic, but they will not make the traffic move any faster. Fretting will do nothing to alter the situation. So learn to relax, and do not become intimidated by time.
Some people live life as if they are on a racing track, and set themselves rigid lap times for the things they want to accomplish during the day. Two motorists were given the task of driving for 1,700 miles. One was asked to drive as fast as he could without breaking any speed limits; the other was told to drive at any comfortable pace. At the end of their journeys, it was found that the faster driver had consumed ten gallons more gas and doubled the wear on his tires; by driving at a speed which, in the end, proved to be only two miles per hour faster than the other driver!
A man said to me in a counseling session when I advised him to slow down: "The trouble is that I'm in a hurry - but God isn't!" Learn the wisdom of letting things develop at their own pace, and follow the maxim that says: "Don't push the river - let it flow."
For Further Study
Eph. 5:1-21; Col. 4:5; James 4:14
1. How can we redeem the time?
2. To what does James relate this? -
Keeping Fit for Jesus!
For reading & meditation - 1 Timothy 4:1-12"... physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things ..." (v.
We spend one last day meditating on the ways by which we can overcome stress in our lives. This final principle is: engage in as much physical exercise as is necessary.
One laboratory experiment took ten underexercised rats, and subjected them repeatedly to a variety of stresses: shock, pain, shrill noises, and flashing lights. After a month, every one of them had died through the incessant strain. Another group of rats was given a good deal of exercise until they were in peak physical condition. They were then subjected to the same battery of stresses and strains. After a month, not one had died.
More and more Christians are waking up to the fact that God has given us bodies that are designed to move, and the more they are exercised, the more effectively they function. Studies on how exercise helps to reduce stress are quite conclusive. Exercise gets rid of harmful chemicals in our bodies, provides a form of abreaction (letting off steam), builds up stamina, counteracts the biochemical effects of stress, and reduces the risk of psychological illness.
The Bible rarely mentions the need for physical exercise, because people living at that time usually walked everywhere and therefore needed little admonition on the subject. In our world of advanced technology, however, common sense tells us that our bodies need to be exercised, and we should not neglect it.
It may not be a spectacular idea, but often God comes to us along some very dusty and lowly roads. We must not despise His coming just because He comes to us along a lowly road.
For Further Study
1 Kings 19; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19
1. What caused stress in Elijah's life?
2. How did God help him? -
Transformed!
For reading & meditation - Psalm 32:1-11"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." (v. 1)
We come now to speak of all those who have been broken, or are on the verge of being broken, by the memory of some deeply grievous sin. I am not thinking so much of those who have committed sin and have not come to Christ for forgiveness, but of those who, though they have been forgiven by God, are unable to forgive themselves.
A man came to me recently at the end of a meeting at which I had spoken, and told me the details of a particularly horrendous sin in which he had been involved. He said, "I know God has forgiven me, but the memory of what I have done is constantly with me. It is quietly driving me insane."
This brought to mind a story I heard many years ago of a father who taught his son to drive a nail into a board every time he did something wrong, and then to pull out the nail after he had confessed the wrong and had been forgiven. Every time this happened, the boy would say triumphantly, "Hurray! The nails are gone!" "Yes," his father would say, "but always remember that the marks made by the nails are still in the wood."
The message I want you to get hold of and build into your life is this: the Carpenter of Nazareth can not only pull out the nails, but can also varnish and beautify the wood so that the marks become, not a contradiction, but a contribution.
For Further Study
1 John 1; Ps. 103:3; Acts 5:31; Eph. 1:7
1. How can we know full forgiveness?
2. Why not ask for it today? -
Grace - Greater Than All Our Sin!
For reading & meditation - Romans 5:12-21
"... where sin abounded, grace did much more abound ..." (v. 20, KJV)
We are meditating on how to recover from the brokenness caused by the memory of some deeply grievous sin. By that we mean a sin which God has forgiven but which, for some reason, still burns in our memories.
The first principle is this: realize that God can do more with sin than just forgive it. I heard an elderly minister make that statement many years ago, when I was a young Christian, and at first I resisted it. I said to myself: "How can God use sin? Surely it is His one intolerance?" Then, after pondering for a while, I saw what he meant. God uses our sin to motivate our will toward greater spiritual achievement, to quicken our compassion toward sinners and to show God's tender heart for the fallen.
We must be careful, of course, that we do not fall into the error which Paul refers to in Romans 6:1-2: "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid" (KJV). If we sin in order that God may use it, then our motives are all wrong and we fall foul of the eternal purposes. If, however, we commit sin, but then take it to God in confession - really take it to Him - then He will not only forgive it, but make something of it.
Is this too difficult for you to conceive? Then I point you to the cross. The cross was one of the foulest deed mankind ever committed, yet God used it to become the fulcrum of His redemption. It was our lowest point - but it was God's zenith. Hallelujah.
For Further Study
Heb. 10:1-22; Isa. 43:25; 44:22; 55:7
1. What will God not remember any more?
2. What is the "full assurance" we can have? -
Why Do I Do These Things?
For reading & meditation - 1 John 1:1-10
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (v. 9)
We continue meditating on the principles that enable us to recover from the brokenness caused by the memory of some grievous sin.
A second principle is this: Understand the major reason why you tend to brood on the past. People who brood on the past, and keep the memory of their sin alive, do so for several reasons.
Let's take them one by one: (1) They are not sure that God has forgiven them. If you have this kind of doubt, it is really a denial. It is taking a verse, like the one before us today, and flinging it back into God's face, saying "I don't believe it." If you don't accept God's forgiveness, you will try to make your own atonement in feelings of guilt. Once you confess your sin, then, as far as God is concerned, that's the end of it. Believe that - and act upon it. It's the gospel truth!
(2) They are in the grip of spiritual pride. You should be asking yourself, at some deep level of your mental and emotional life: How could I have ever done a thing like that? What this really amounts to is that you have too high an opinion of yourself. And that's about as bad as too low an opinion of yourself.
(3) They have not forgiven themselves.
For Further Study
Ps. 51:1-19; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; Mark 12:33
1. Why can we forgive ourselves?
2. Forgive yourself today -
Remembering to Forget
For reading & meditation - Philippians 3:1-14
"... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal ..." (vv. 13-14, RSV)
One more principle in relation to recovering from the brokenness caused by the memory of some dark sin: Forget it by reversing the process of remembering. Puzzled? Let me explain. Memory works like this: one revives an image of some past event, holds it in the mind for a certain length of time, and then this process is repeated until it is locked into the memory for good.
Now begin to reverse that process. The matter has been forgiven by God, so don't let your mind focus on it. When it rises to the surface by itself, as it will, turn the mind away from it immediately. Have in your mind a few interesting themes "on call." Think of another and more profitable theme. I know a Christian man, involved in one of the deepest sins imaginable, who has learned to blot out unwanted memories the moment they rise to the surface by focusing his thoughts on the cross. It does not matter what the substitute image is so long as it is wholesome and can thrust the unwanted memory from your attention. Another thing you can do when the memory of your sin returns - even if it is only for a moment - is to turn your mind to prayer. Don't pray about the sin itself - that will keep it in the memory - but pray that God will build into you love, forgiveness, peace, and poise.
Images that are consciously rejected will rise less and less in your mind. When they do occur, they will occur only as fact; the emotions will no longer register a sense of burning shame.
For Further Study
2 Sam. 12:1-14; Mark 2:5; Col. 2:13; Heb. 8:12
1. What was Nathan's message to David?
2. What does God do besides forgive? -
The End of the Beginning
For reading & meditation - 2 Corinthians 2:12- 3:11
"... thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ ..." (2:14)
Although this is the end of the theme of "Strong at the broken places," I pray that, for many of you, it will be the beginning of a new approach to handling your weaknesses.
How thankful I am that, in the early years of my Christian life, God impressed into my spirit the truth that my weaknesses could be turned into strengths. With just a few years of Christian experience behind me, I stumbled and fell. The temptation was to wallow in self-pity. But by God's grace, I got up, brushed myself off, and said, "Devil, you won that round, but I'll work on that problem until it is no longer a weakness, but a strength." I did work on it, and today I can testify that the weakness which caused me to stumble has indeed become a strength. I say that humbly, recognizing that the strength I have is not my own, but His.
Today is a new day. How will you face it? Are you ready to face your weaknesses in the assurance that, no matter how life breaks you, you can draw out from each experience a lesson that will live on inside you and help you to find victory in a future situation?
Just as a broken bone, when it is healed, becomes stronger at that place than it was before it was broken, so you can become stronger by your very weaknesses. Thus when you stumble, you stumble forward; when you fall, you fall on your knees and get up a stronger person. When we are Christians, everything is "grist to our mill."
For Further Study
Eph. 3; 2 Cor. 12:9; Isa. 40:31; 41:10
1. What was Paul's testimony?
2. What is your testimony? -
The "harvest of the Spirit"
Galatians 5:13-26
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (vv.22-23)
We begin today a detailed study of the fruit of the Spirit -- the nine ingredients which go to make up Christian character. These nine qualities are the natural outcome of the Holy Spirit's indwelling -- not a manufactured one.
When Paul speaks of the manifestations of the flesh, he describes them as "works," but when speaking of the manifestations of the Spirit, he describes them as "fruit." "Works" suggests something that is an effort: "fruit" suggests something that is effortless. Some translations use the term "harvest of the Spirit" rather than "fruit of the Spirit," pointing to the finished product, the outcome.
Most people, myself included, prefer the word "fruit" to "harvest," but there is a special truth locked up in the word "harvest" that we must not miss. You see, it is what we finally reap as the result of an attitude or course of action that is important. What happens along the way, such as good feelings, are part of the Spirit's purpose but not the greatest part. It is the end result that matters.
And what is that end result? It is a quality of being. Jesus once said: "Love your enemies, do good ... and your reward will be great ... you will be sons of the Highest" (Luke 6:35, NKJV). Note the phrase, "you will be." The reward is more than just having -- it is being. Remember, the goodness or badness of an act is determined, not just by what it does to others but by what it does to you. So having the Holy Spirit within us is not just being the recipient of pleasurable emotions -- it is being a better person.
For Further Study
Psa. 1:1-6; 92:12-14; Eph. 5:9
1. What is the key to producing good fruit?
2. What does "prosper" mean in this context? -
The primacy of love
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
"... the greatest of these is love." (v.13)
The fruit of the Spirit is just one aspect of the Spirit-filled life.
It is an over-simplification, but the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian moves in two important directions -- to produce purity and to produce power. The power aspect can be seen in a study of the gifts of the Spirit and the purity aspect in a study of the fruit of the Spirit. Both are of equal importance. So be assured that in emphasising the fruit of the Spirit, I am not intending to divert attention from the gifts of the Spirit and their miraculous nature.
Having the Spirit within results in many things but, as we saw yesterday, one of the most important results is a quality of being -- a quality of being which has nine characteristics. The first of these is "love." This emphasis on the primacy of love fits in with Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 13 -- "the greatest of these is love."
If one examines the chapter in which these words are found, it will be discovered that every fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5 is involved in this supernatural love. Indeed either directly, or by synonyms, each of them is mentioned. All the fruit depends on the first. Note the connection: love suffers long -- long-suffering. Love is kind. Love does not envy -- goodness. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up -- meekness or gentleness. Love seeks not its own, is not easily provoked -- self- control. Love rejoices in the truth -- joy. Love bears all things, hopes all things -- faithfulness. Having love, we have all the fruit of the Spirit. Without it we are nothing.
For Further Study
Col. 3:1-14; John 15:9; Eph. 5:1-2
1. Write out your definition of Christian love.
2. What was Christ's command to His disciples? -
Mature -- only in love
Ephesians 4:7-16
"... speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him ..." (v.15)
We are seeing that love is the first outcome of the Spirit within, and if this is lacking, everything is lacking.
The first indication of the fact that we are growing spiritually is that we are growing in love. If we grow in love, then we grow -- period. Without growing in love, we cannot grow in God, for His essential nature is love.
Our passage today, in the Moffatt translation, tells us that we are to "hold by the truth, and by our love to grow up wholly into Him." There is only one way to grow up wholly into Him, and that is "by our love." We remain immature if we are immature in love. If the love is ingrown and focused on itself then the result is an immature personality. If the love is selectively applied to certain groups, again the result is an immature personality.
We are mature to the extent that we can love. Indeed all other growth, without growth in love, is what someone has described as "sucker love -- growth that bears no fruit." J. B. Phillips' translation of 1 Corinthians 8:1 puts it this way: "While knowledge may make a man look big, it is only love that can make him grow to his full stature." There is a great emphasis on getting knowledge in today's Church. A lecturer in a leading British theological college recently wrote: "Know the facts of the faith and that will redeem you." I know many Christians who are good at giving facts in relation to the faith but not so good at giving love. Knowledge looks big, but it is just big barrenness unless love is behind it.
For Further Study
Eph. 3:1-19; 1 John 4:16; Jude v.21
1. What are we to be rooted in?
2. What was Paul's desire for the Ephesians? -
What compels you?
2 Corinthians 5:11-21
"For Christ's love compels us ..." (v.14)
What exactly does Scripture mean when it uses the word "love"? In English, the word "love" has a variety of meanings. It is used for the mighty passion that moves in the heart of God but it is used also to describe such things as the flutterings of the adolescent heart in spring, an extramarital affair, or a homosexual relationship. The one word "love" has to be spread over a multiplicity of diverse meanings. The Greek language is much richer in this respect. It has four words for love. One is eros, meaning love between the sexes. Another is philia, meaning affectionate human love. Then there is the word storge, meaning family love. The most powerful word for love, however, is agape, which means unconditional love -- the love that surges in the heart of God. When Paul says, "the fruit of the Spirit is love," the word he uses for love is agape. He means that the love we are expected to experience and demonstrate when we are indwelt by the Spirit is not just love in general, but love of a specific kind -- the love which we see exemplified in Jesus.
In the text before us today, Paul says: "For Christ's love compels us." This cuts deep. It is possible to be compelled by the love of achievement, of success, of a cause, of a fight. What compels you -- the love of a cause or the love of Christ? The enemies of the early Christians complained that "these followers of Jesus love each other even before they are acquainted." They did. They couldn't help it, for the very nature of the faith they had embraced was love.
For Further Study
1 Pet. 1:1-9; John 15:13; 1 John 3:16
1. What is the ultimate expression of love?
2. What was Peter's testimony of the scattered strangers? -
Love cannot fail
John 13:1-17
"Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love." (v.1)
The love which flows in our hearts when we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit is not a general love but a specific one -- the love of Christ. This love dulls the edge of disappointment and enables us to be invulnerable to many things, not least a lack of appreciation. The poet was thinking of this high degree of love when he wrote:
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove.
O, no! It is an ever fixed mark,That looks on tempests and is never shaken.
Let's follow this thought through a little more deeply. The nine ingredients of the fruit of the Spirit were all exemplified in Jesus' life on earth, and it is the present purpose of the Holy Spirit to engraft them into us as we abide in Christ and maintain a close, day-by-day relationship with Him. When we do this, the very first evidence will be that of agape love. This is not a give-and-take kind of love, a love that is reciprocal; it is a love that descends from above and is showered on the deserving and the undeserving, the agreeable and the disagreeable. Christians who dwell deeply in God find that they are changed from people who just love occasionally, when it is convenient, to people whose controlling purpose is love. Love becomes the organizing motive and power in their lives. Such love "never fails," for it always finds a way of expressing itself -- and when it expresses itself, it is itself the success.
For Further Study
1 Thess. 3:1-12; John 13:35; 15:12
1. What is the hallmark of the true disciple?
2. What was Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians? -
Love must be realized
Luke 23:32-46
"And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him ..." (v.33, NKJV)
How can we ensure that the love which surges in the heart of God surges also in us? We must not strain to love, but allow the love of God to love within us. Dr. W. E. Sangster, the famous Methodist preacher, said that those who best manifest God's love are those who have had a blinding realization of the love of God and whose own love flames in response.
If that is true, then how do we come to have a blinding realization of the love of God? We must go to Calvary. Here the heart of God is unveiled. We may have become used to the phrase "God is love" and after a while it is no more exciting than saying that the sun gives light -- it is simply part of the order of things. There is no wonder in it and no realization either. Then, one day, we stand at the foot of the Cross and the Spirit illuminates the love of God to our hearts in such a way that the scales fall away and we look into the eyes of the world's most aggressive Lover. The thing we knew all our lives -- namely, that God is love -- now takes hold of us and for the first time we realize it.
Have you ever had a moment in your life when you have been blinded by the love of God? If not, this may be the reason why love does not surge in you and through you. Stand at the foot of the Cross today and ask God to give you a blinding revelation of His love. You have known it for so long -- now realize it.
For Further Study
Isa. 53; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20; Gal. 6:14
1. What have we received through the Cross?
2. Read Isaiah 53 in several different translations -
God -- the aggressive Lover
1 John 4:7-21
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us ..." (v.10)
When we perceive how much God loves us, an amazing effect is produced in our personalities -- we begin to love like Him. We cannot help it. Love -- agape love -- is not the fruit of labor; it is a response. When we stand at the foot of Calvary, the place where the love of God is fully focused and caught up, the scales drop from our eyes and our own love flames in response. We love Him because He first loved us.
Teresa of Avila tells how one day, going into her private room, she noticed a picture of our Lord being scourged before His crucifixion. She must have seen it hundreds of times, but in that moment of revelation she saw it as she had never seen it before. She saw God suffering -- suffering for love and suffering for her. The revelation sent her to her knees sobbing in pain and wonder, and when she arose, she was a changed woman. The revelation of Calvary's love was the great divide in her life. She said that she arose with a sense of "unpayable debt" and went out to share God's realized love with others.
Don't try to manufacture love. Linger in the shadow of the Cross. The love of God finds its most burning expression there. Meditate on it. Contemplate it. Remember that heaven knows no higher strategy for begetting love in mortal hearts than by granting us a vision of how much we are loved, a vision strong enough to evoke a response in our hearts -- and by that answering love begotten in us by the Holy Spirit, we are freed and purged and saved.
For Further Study
Rom. 5:1-8; Jer. 31:3; Eph. 2:4-5; 1 John 3:1
1. How has God demonstrated His love for us?
2. What kind of love is God's love? -
Always a reason to rejoice
Psalm 105:1-15
"Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice." (v.3)
The second fruit of the Spirit is joy. It is no mere accident that "joy" follows the first, love. Joy is a by-product of love. If you concentrate on getting joy, it will elude you. But if you concentrate on getting love, then joy will seek you out -- you will be automatically joyful.
The nine qualities of the fruit of the Spirit are not natural attributes, but supernatural ones. You cannot manufacture them -- they just appear in our lives as we allow the Holy Spirit to have His way within us. I know many Christians who find it difficult to embrace the fact that the fruit of the Spirit is joy. They not only don't expect joy -- they don't want it. One grim Christian said to me once: "At the heart of our faith is a Cross. This means we ought to be spending our time weeping, not laughing."Well, it is true that there is a Cross at the heart of the Christian faith, and that following Christ involves some rigorous self-denials, but it does not alter - - and cannot alter -- the fact that the fruit of the Spirit is joy. We cannot deny that there is a good deal of suffering in Christianity, but beneath the suffering is a joy that will, if we allow it, burst upward through everything. I am bound to say that if there is no joy, there is no Christianity, for Christianity is inherent joy. The empty tomb takes away our empty gloom. We have an Easter morning in our faith, and that means there is always a reason to rejoice.
For Further Study
Luke 10:17-22, 15:4-6; Heb. 12:2
1. How did Christ relate joy to the Cross?
2. What brings joy to His heart? -
Joy -- always there
Psalm 30:1-12
"... Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." (v.5)
Joy is a central characteristic of the Christian -- and yet so many know nothing of it. They are under the lash of duty, and not unabashed delight. They are artificial, not artesian. Someone once described such Christians as "creaking in body and soul as they limp along the highway toward glory." They walk the road to glory but they are certainly not walking the glory road.
The word "joy" (Greek: chara) is a strong and robust word. It is not resignation wearing a wan smile. It means a joy that is exuberant and overflowing. The summons to rejoice is sounded no less than seventy times in the New Testament and the word chara occurs close on sixty times. The New Testament is a book of joy. Dr. William Barclay says that joy is the distinguishing atmosphere of the Christian life. He wrote: "We may put it this way -- whatever the ingredients of Christian experience and in whatever proportions they are mixed together, joy is one of them."Even in the first year after the death of my wife, I was wonderfully conscious of Christ's joy quietly breaking through the layers of my sadness and grief. Joy is always present in the heart of a Christian. It may not always be felt or recognized -- but it is always there. And eventually it will break the surface, no matter what our situation or our circumstances. I have always maintained that joy is an inevitable part of the Christian life. Now I am sure. Oh, so very sure.
Prayer:
Father, thank You for reminding me that when joy has its roots in You, then its fruits will eventually appear -- no matter what happens. Eternal honor and praise be to Your wonderful Name. Amen.
For Further Study
Psa. 126:1-6; 16:11; Neh. 8:10
1. What does joy bring to our beings?
2. How are tears linked with joy? -
Joy -- more than pleasure
John 16:17-33
"... I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." (v.22)
One of the reasons why so many Christians do not experience the delights of spiritual joy is because they do not expect to. A woman who came into the experience of Christian conversion: "Strange, but I never associated joy with God before." How sad that many do not expect their faith to make them basically and fully joyful now. They think that joy is reserved for the hereafter. Our Lord pointed out to the disciples that it was for the present.
We can better understand this supernatural joy if we distinguish it from the pleasures of life with which it is sometimes confused. Spiritual or supernatural joy is quite different from pleasure or happiness. A worldling can experience pleasure and happiness but he cannot experience supernatural joy. Indeed, worldly people often pride themselves in knowing how to experience pleasure. Yet pleasure and Christian joy cannot be equated. Look with me at some of the differences. Pleasure depends on circumstances. It requires a measure of health and wealth. It demands that the life conditions be kindly and thus it can be stolen from us by things like lack of money -- or even a toothache. Christian joy is completely independent of circumstances. It is there in the believer even when "strength and health and friends" are gone; when circumstances are not only unkind but savage. Out of all the miracles I have witnessed in my life, none is more wonderful than the miracle of seeing Christ's exuberant joy burst forth in those who are caught up in pain or persecution. The springs of Christian joy are deep within and can exist, no matter what the circumstances.
For Further Study
Acts 5:12-42, 16:23-25; 2 Cor. 6:10
1. How did the apostles respond to persecution?
2. How did Paul express it? -
Changing pleasures
Hebrews 13:1-16
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (v.8 )
We said yesterday that pleasure and Christian joy cannot be equated because pleasure depends on circumstances -- Christian joy does not. Another difference is this -- pleasures come and go. Look back over your life for a moment and think of the changing things that have given you pleasure over the years. Perhaps, when you were a child, it was a bicycle that brought you pleasure. Or a football. Or a doll. Then when you entered your teens, it was something else. A relationship, perhaps -- or a sport. In later years, the things that gave you pleasure changed again. The theatre, books, an armchair ... the things that give us pleasure change with changing years. But the joy of God is constant.
Yet another difference between pleasure and joy is this -- pleasure satiates. It is easy to have too much. And when the point of satiety is passed, a sense of revulsion sets in. The things for which we crave become repulsive to us. Joy, however, never satiates. A Christian says: "We have enough, yet not too much to long for more." A final difference between pleasure and joy is that pleasure always remains superficial. It is like a Christmas party in a home where there is no true understanding of Christmas -- a party, but a party without purpose; a coronation, but no monarch. Joy, however, is deep. It bubbles beneath the personality, no matter what the circumstances. Joy, supernatural joy, is true bliss.
For Further Study
Hab. 3; Heb. 10:34; 1 Pet. 4:12-13
1. What was Habakkuk's testimony?
2. Why could he say this? -
Enjoy yourself?
Psalm 105:26-45
"He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy." (v.43)
A minister tells of standing outside his church one Sunday evening, shaking hands with the worshippers as they dispersed. It had been a joyous evening when God had come very close to His people and the awesome hush of His presence was upon them as they made their way home. A crowded motor coach, returning with revellers from the seaside and held up by the traffic, stopped outside the church. Some of the occupants, flushed with drink, put their heads out of the windows and shouted to those who were leaving the church: "Why don't you learn to enjoy yourself?" The preacher said: "Two ways of life met there for an instant. The coach moved on with the question hanging in the air: 'Why don't you enjoy yourself?' "Little did the men who shouted that question realize that it is those who think they are artists in enjoying themselves who signally fail.
The Christian has more joy to the square inch than others have to the square mile. And it is pure, unalloyed joy without a kick-back in it. No Christian who has spent time in the presence of God in a church or among his fellow Christians the night before ever gets up in the morning and says: "Oh dear, I wish I hadn't been a Christian last night. My head is aching from the effects of spending time in the presence of God and among my fellow Christians. Why ever did I do it?" Christian joy is the kind that gives enjoyment without a hangover. It is a kick without a kick-back. Bliss, perfect bliss is the prerogative only of the people of God.
For Further Study
Isa. 61:1-10; Psa. 126:2; Ezra 6:22
1. How did Isaiah express his joy?
2. How will unbelievers respond when they see true joy?