God's Dealings With Hopelessness
The hopelessness of man is the gate of opportunity for the Lord to intervene, save the sinner, and lift up the downtrodden, and discouraged believer. How is it so? It is so by His mercy and grace, when He wills to move in behalf of the individual and answer the cry of his or her heart, responding in a very real way to meet the need, thus revealing His glory.
The Zeal Of The Lord
Christ's zeal in the accomplishing of the Father's will was by the Spirit of God. That same zeal that filled, and motivated Christ, even in the face of unbelief and rebellion by those He came to save, is the same that He gives to the individual believer. It is that intense purpose and energy to do the Father's will, and to finish His work, even when one is apparently alone in the fight.
The Sovereign God Of Detail
God is the God of all creation, the limitless expanse of space and time, and all that is in them. However, that makes Him to be also the God of the infinite detail. As the Master Painter of the mosaic of creation, so He is the great Physician who heals the deep, invisible needs of the heart. He is the God of all circumstances, and as such, can accomplish in them, both great and small, all of His will, bringing the believer into conformity with His perfect purpose and will.
The Living Bread
What is true food? Christ said that His food was to do the will of the One who had sent Him. Is not Christ for the Christian his food, his very life, that by which he lives? It is in the appropriation of Christ by faith that we "partake of the living bread," his blessed Life by the Spirit. To abide in Him is to abide in His life, and Christ to abide in us.
The Life Of Rest, Christ's Peace
Is it possible to engage in spiritual conflict and know the "peace that passeth all understanding?" It is if one knows WHO is our peace, and one's dependence is absolutely in Him for all things, at all times. It is then that the peace of God is one's guide, and confirmation as to God's leading.
The Faithfulness Of God
Faithfulness is that singular characteristic of God by which His declared commitment to act will certainly have its realization, in His time, and according to His wisdom and grace. It is the bedrock for faith, for upon Christ the Faithful One, a place of rest and trust is found which can and will withstand the assaults of time and circumstance. We are faithful in the measure that we "...live by the faith of the Son of God."
Christ In You
Christianity is Christ, in heaven and in the heart. When Christ came down from the Father, He came to reveal to us true humanity, and true godliness, that which is of God. The salvation He came to give was primarily the miracle of Him dwelling in the heart by faith. The new birth is that moment when the Spirit of God comes to dwell in the heart, to communicate the very life of Christ to and through the believer.
The New Chapter
One of the ways that God reveals Himself to man, and specifically to the believer, is to create a new beginning. It is a point where there is a new perspective, new direction perhaps, and certainly a new depth provided in one's fellowship with God. Why does God call us to a "series of multiplied new beginnings?" It is because of the need for HIm to renew, revive, restore, and refresh the soul in a sinful world. It is in the revelation of Himself, and the realization that He has done it, that God encourages, lifts up, and inspires the weary, downtrodden, and perhaps discouraged individual, to look heavenward, and to see things from God's perspective. There is in that perspective, a power to rise up and go onward and upward.
The Eternal Work At Hand
The work of God is always an eternal one. So that, when the word of God speaks of God working in the believer both to will and to do of His good pleasure, certainly it is with eternity in mind. Christ did only, and always, that which was to endure into eternity. As the believer abides in Christ, and Christ in him, an eternal work will occur for the glory of God.
The Essential Of Power
It is not enough to know the truth of God if we would know HIm. We must know His power given to the heart that seeks Him. God does not refrain from giving tha power and enablement, but will only do so when the heart cries out to him to do so. If one would truly seek Him, with all of one's heart, that one will know the power of God. There will be a change, for the power of God will work in the life to bring about the new birth, and that blessed daily change,.