Thursday, July 20, 2017, 6:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Zeal for Your House.” Speak, Lord, your
words to my heart. I read various scriptures (ESV) on the subject of our
spiritual walk with Christ.
Walk in Daylight (Ro. 13:11-14)
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come
for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we
first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast
off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly
as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and
sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Those who are outside of
faith in Jesus Christ are spiritually asleep, i.e. they have not yet been awakened
to the gospel of our salvation and to eternal life with Christ Jesus, our Lord.
This results in death spiritually. And, this also describes many people who
profess faith in Jesus Christ, but who do not truly know him. Yet, true
believers in Jesus Christ have been awakened spiritually, and have received
salvation from sin and new life in the Spirit, in which they now walk, or in
which they should now be walking. Nonetheless, it is possible for those who
have once been awakened to begin to drift off into a spiritual slumber and to
fall back into some of their old ways of living (See: Rev. 2-3), and they need
to be reawakened (revived), for the time of the Lord’s return is nearer, when
our salvation will be completed.
So, the counsel here is that,
as believers in Jesus Christ, we need to cast off any works of darkness in our
lives, and we need to put on the light of truth, righteousness, and holiness.
We are to live our lives in a manner which is consistent with our confession of
faith in Jesus Christ, in all decency, honesty, integrity, uprightness, and morality.
And, we are to rid our lives of all lies, deceit, impurity, immorality,
indecency, rage, spite and malice.
Our walk is how we live day
in and day out. It is how we conduct our lives. It is our lifestyle. This is
not to say we will never sin (See 1 Jn. 2:1-2), but it is saying that we should
not conduct our lives after the flesh, but that our lifestyles should reflect
Jesus Christ and his purity and righteousness. In fact, we should make no allowance
at all for immorality, deceit or malice in our lives whatsoever. This means we
should not even allow ourselves to be entertained (via TV, movies, games, etc.)
by anything containing sensuality, immorality, and indecency, or promoting
lies, cheating, mockery, or malice.
Walk Worthy (Ephesians
4:1-3; Col. 1:9-14)
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk
in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all
humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager
to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to
pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the
Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in
the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his
glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the
Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in
light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to
the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of
sins.
As followers of Jesus Christ,
we are to walk (conduct our lives) in a manner (way, behavior) worthy (commendable)
of the Lord and of his calling on our lives. We are his representatives, his
body, and as such, our lives should reflect him and his righteousness and
holiness, and not our sinful flesh. For, when God calls us to be his servants,
and his heirs of the promise of eternal life with God, it is not merely so we
should escape hell and go to heaven when we die. We are called to be holy, and
to be holy means to be separate (unlike, different) from the world, because we
are being conformed into Christ’s likeness. In fact, we are predestined to be
conformed into the image of Christ, and even before the creation of the world
we were called to be holy. Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness, not that we should have a free license to continue in sin without
guilt.
So, daily we should be
becoming more like Jesus in all that we do, think, are and say, and we should
be daily putting to death the deeds of the flesh, by the Spirit, in order that
we might live with Christ for eternity (See: Lu. 9:23-25; Ro. 8:1-14; Gal.
5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-6). And, we should live lives pleasing to God, and not to
please ourselves (2 Co. 5:15). We should be growing in our walks of faith every
day, maturing in Christ, being transformed in mind and heart, and being
strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit of God. We should live our
lives, in other words, as though God has truly delivered us out of the domain (ownership)
of darkness (sin, Satan), and as though we are now living in the light of his
truth and his righteousness (what is deemed right in the eyes of the Lord).
Walk in Him
(Col. 2:6-8; 1 Thess. 4:1-8)
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so
walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as
you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you
captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according
to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the
Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please
God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what
instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God,
your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of
you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion
of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong
his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things,
as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for
impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not
man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
If we are walking (conducting
our lives) in Christ Jesus, we are not living to gratify the desires of our
sinful flesh. We don’t love the world of sin, i.e. we don’t long for what is
unholy, unrighteous, wicked, and evil, etc. Our passion (zeal) is for Christ
and his truth, not for what tickles itching ears, or for what appeases our
sinful flesh. We don’t follow after human beings and their philosophies and
worldly ways, but we follow the path of righteousness and holy living. We are also
not tossed back and forth by the winds of false doctrines, “by human cunning,
by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (See: Eph. 4:11-16). We are not looking for
feel-good messages which make us comfortable in our flesh, but we long for the
deep truths of scripture which teach us the way of holiness, that we may walk
in it.
So many people today are
teaching that God requires nothing of us at all other than some non-descript
faith in Jesus Christ, which does nothing more than acknowledge who Jesus is
and/or what he did for us in dying for our sins, and which merely accepts his
forgiveness of our sins, but which never dies with him to sin and which does
not live with him to righteousness. They also teach that God is always pleased
with us and that he delights in us even when we are engrossed in sinful
rebellion against him. But, scripture does not teach that. Scripture teaches
that we must repent (turn from) our sins, and we must walk in obedience to our
Lord and live lives pleasing to him if we want to have the hope of eternal life
with God.
Zeal for Your House
An Original Work / August 1,
2016
Based off Jn. 2:17; Ps. 69:9
Zeal for Your house, it
consumes me.
Lord, I love my times with
You.
I love to worship You and
sing Your praises.
Time in Your Word brings me
closer to You,
List’ning to You speaking to
me,
Gently guiding me in truth.
Lord, You are my life’s
example,
Showing me how I should live.
I love to walk with You
where’er You lead me.
No greater joy have I when
serving You.
Loving, giving, resting in
Your strength,
I’m yielding to Your will.
Zeal for Your house, it
consumes me.
See the church turned upside
down:
Marketing ventures taking
place of worship,
Men of the gospel turning
into clowns.
Gospel message made
appealing,
So the world will feel at
home.
Lord, we need a great
revival.
Turn their hearts, Lord, back
to You.
Open the blind eyes, turn
them all from darkness,
Lord, to the light. May they
return to You,
Turn from their sin, forsake
idols,
Be restored to God again.
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