Tuesday, August 16,
2016, 4:48 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Give Ear to Jesus.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read 1 Peter 2 (Select vv. ESV).
Pure Spiritual Milk
(vv. 1-3)
So
put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like
newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up
into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
The purpose of why Jesus died for our sins was to free us
from slavery to sin, and to free us to walk in his righteousness. As followers
of Christ, therefore, we are to no longer conduct our lives according to our
sinful flesh, but according to (in agreement with) the Spirit of God now living
within us. We are to put behind us those sinful things we did before we
believed in Jesus, because we have now been washed in his blood and have been
forgiven our sins. So, such things as cruelty to others, lying to one another, willfully
misleading others, pretending to be something we are not, being jealous of what
others have, and saying what is untrue about others in order to sully their
reputations should be far from us. These types of things should no longer be
part of our lives.
Instead, our desire should be for our Lord, to please him in
all that we are and think and say and do. And, we should long for (thirst for)
his Word (his teachings) that we might know his commands and that we might do
what he says. If our desire is not for our Lord, to follow him in all of his
ways, then maybe we don’t really know Jesus.
A Spiritual House
(vv. 4-8)
As
you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen
and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold,
I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and
whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So
the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The
stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and
“A
stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They
stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
Under the Old Covenant relationship God had with his people,
the temple was a physical building built with real stones. Yet, it was a “copy
and shadow of what is in heaven” (Heb. 8:5). But Jesus, through his death on
the cross, did away with the need for a physical temple, because he is the
temple, and we, as his body, are the temple of God. So, the stones in this
temple are not physical stones, but spiritual ones. Jesus is the cornerstone of
this spiritual building, i.e. he is the foundation, and he is what holds it all
together. And, we are also living stones in this building, which is not
physical but spiritual.
As the body of Christ, his church, we are being built up in
Christ to spiritual maturity. We, too, are kingdom priests in this temple where
we are to offer to God spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. What this means is that we don’t determine for ourselves what we will
do for God or how we will serve him, but we do what he requires of us and what
he has called us to be and to do. In other words, attending meetings of the
church on a weekly basis, or singing in the praise team, or serving in the
nursery do not make us spiritual, in and of themselves, and they may or may not
fall under the category of “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.”
What is acceptable to God is first of all that we believe in
Jesus Christ to be Lord (owner-master) and Savior of our lives. When we truly
believe, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are resurrected
with Christ in newness of life, “created to be like God in true righteousness
and holiness.” We no longer live for sin and self, but we now conduct our lives
according to the Spirit of God. We want to please our Lord. So, we find out what
pleases him by spending time with him each day in his Word, in prayer, and in
obedience. During these times he will reveal himself to us, and we will come to
know him and his will more clearly. He will speak to our hearts, and he will
direct us in the way we should go. And, then we follow him in the way in which
he leads us, and this is acceptable to him.
Proclaim the
Excellencies (vv. 9-10)
But
you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are
God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Jesus did not save us from our sins so that we could
continue to live life as we lived it before. We are now his possession and he
is our Lord (owner-master). So, we are to do what pleases him, i.e. we are to
obey his Word to us and serve him all our days. He called us out of darkness
(wickedness; sin) into his wonderful light (righteousness; truth), and that is
awesome! So, we should want to tell others about him, and about what he did for
us in delivering us out of slavery to sin, and about the new lives he has given
us in Christ. We should be excited and passionate about our relationships with
Jesus, and about what he is doing in our lives, and it should be natural (the
new natural) for us to want to tell others.
Godly Living (vv.
11-12, 16, 24-25)
Beloved,
I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh,
which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles
honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Live
as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but
living as servants of God… He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been
healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd
and Overseer of your souls.
We should live our lives here on this earth as though we are
foreigners, i.e. outsiders. Our home now is in heaven. This world is no longer
our home. It is just a temporary dwelling while we wait Christ’s return. So, we
should live like we believe that. We should not follow after the patterns of
this sinful world, nor should we adopt their attitudes and behaviors. We should
live to honor our Lord in all that we do and say and think and are. We should
not give way to the passions of our sinful flesh, but our passion should be for
God, to do his will.
We should live lives which are above reproach. This means
that we should no longer engage in things such as sexual sin, which includes
having sex outside of marriage, having adulterous relationships, whether
physical and/or emotional, viewing pornography, lusting after those with whom
we are not married, and being entertained by such things on TV or in movies, etc.
It means we no longer, if we did before, allow ourselves to get caught up in
lying, cheating, stealing, dishonesty, gossip, gluttony and the like. Daily we
die to sin and self and we choose to walk in the Spirit in holiness and in
Christ’s righteousness in the power and working of God’s Spirit within us, as
we cooperate fully with that work.
Jesus did not set us free from sin just so we could escape
hell and go to heaven when we die. He died that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness. So, we shouldn’t use our salvation as free license to continue
in sin without guilt and without remorse. We should also not make excuses for
our sin, proclaiming that we are not perfect. While it is true that we won’t
reach sinless perfection until we go to be with our Lord, we should never use “I’m
not perfect” as an excuse for continued and willful sin against God. Remember
what the scriptures teach. If we say we have fellowship with God, but we walk
in darkness, we are liars, and the truth is not in us (See: 1 Jn. 1:6).
So, if you think you believe in Jesus, but you have not been
crucified with Christ in death to sin, nor have you been resurrected with him
in newness of life, through which God created you to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness, then chances are that you don’t really believe, and
you don’t really know Jesus. So, repent of your sins today, and trust Christ
with your life. If you have truly believed in Jesus, and you have been born of
the Spirit from above, and you have been transformed away from sin and to God,
to follow him in his ways, but since then you have wandered away from the
purity of that relationship, then you need to repent of your sins, and you need
to return to following your Lord in obedience.
Give Ear to Jesus
/ An Original Work
Based off Isaiah 55 /
February 16, 2016
Call on your Savior.
Seek the Lord while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way;
Turn to the Lord.
God will have mercy.
He’ll forgive you of your sin.
He will freely pardon you
And give peace within.
Turn from your sin, follow Jesus,
Be cleansed from sin.
Give ear to Jesus.
Come to Him. Your soul will live.
Listen to Him speaking to you:
“Eat what is good.”
If you are thirsty,
Come to Jesus, drink from Him.
Drink His Spirit given to you.
Be born again.
Listen to Him. Do what He says.
Rejoice in Him.
God’s Word, eternal,
Will achieve what He desires.
He is willing none should perish,
Saved by His blood.
Share now the gospel.
Jesus died so we’d go free.
Walk in vict’ry,
Free from your sin, eternally.
Die to sin, and live to Jesus.
In Him believe.
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