Biblical Promise

PROMISE. There is in the Heb. OT no special term for the concept or act of promising. Where our English translations say that someone promised something, the Hebrew simply states that someone said or spoke (’āmar, dāḇar) some word with future reference. In the NT the technical term, epangelia, appears chiefly in Acts, Galatians, Romans and Hebrews.

A promise is a word that goes forth into unfilled time. It reaches ahead of its speaker and its recipient, to mark an appointment between them in the future. A promise may be an assurance of continuing or future action on behalf of someone: ‘I will be with you’, ‘They that mourn shall be comforted’, ‘If we confess our sins, God will forgive us our sins.’ It may be a solemn agreement of lasting, mutual (if unequal) relationship: as in the covenants. It may be the announcement of a future event: ‘When you have brought the people from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.’ The study of biblical promises must therefore take in far more than the actual occurrences of the word in the evv. (See also *Word, *Prophecy, *Covenant and *Oaths.) An oath often accompanied the word of promise (Ex. 6:8; Dt. 9:5; Heb. 6:13ff.).

That what he has spoken with his mouth he can and will perform with his hand is the biblical sign manual of God, for his word does not return void. Unlike men and heathen gods, he knows and commands the future (1 Ki. 8:15, 24; Is. 41:4, 26; 43:12, 19, etc.; Rom. 4:21; cf. Pascal, Pensées, 693). Through the historical books, a pattern of divine promise and historical fulfilment is traced (G. von Rad, Studies in Deuteronomy, 1953, pp. 74ff.), expressive of this truth.

The point of convergence of the OT promises (to Abraham, Moses, David and the Fathers through the prophets) is Jesus Christ. All the promises of God are confirmed in him, and through him affirmed by the church in the ‘Amen’ of its worship (2 Cor. 1:20). The OT quotations and allusions in the Gospel narratives indicate this fulfilment. The Magnificat and the Benedictus rejoice that God has kept his word. The promised Word has become flesh. The new covenant has been inaugurated—upon the ‘better promises’ prophesied by Jeremiah (Je. 31; Heb. 8:6–13). Jesus is its guarantee (Heb. 7:22, and the Holy Spirit of promise its first instalment (Eph. 1:13–14).

Awaiting the promise of Christ’s coming again and of the new heavens and a new earth (2 Pet. 3:4, 9, 13), the church sets forth on her missionary task with the assurance of his presence (Mt. 28:20) and with the news that ‘the promise of the Father’—the Holy Spirit (after Joel 2:28)—is given to Jew and pagan in Jesus Christ, fulfilling the promise to Abraham of universal blessing through his posterity. The promise is correlated to faith and open to all who, by imitating Abraham’s faith, become ‘children of the promise’ (Gal. 3; Rom. 4; 9). (*Eschatology, *Scripture.)

Deliverance from Inward and Outward Foes

First, “I will deliver.” When God called Moses to go down into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, in all the world there wasn’t a man who, humanly speaking, was less qualified than Moses. He had made the attempt once before to deliver the children of Israel, and he began by delivering one man. He failed in that, and killed an Egyptian, and had to run off into the desert, and stay there forty years. He had tried to deliver the Hebrews in his own way, he was working in his own strength and doing it in the energy of the flesh. He had all the wisdom of the Egyptians, but that didn’t help him. He had to be taken back into Horeb, and kept there forty years in the school of God, before God could trust him to deliver the children of Israel in God’s way. Then God came to him and said, “I have come down to deliver,” and when God worked through Moses three million were delivered as easy as I can turn my hand over. God could do it. It was no trouble when God came on the scene.

Learn the lesson. If we want to be delivered, from every inward and outward foe, we must look to a higher source than ourselves. We cannot do it in our own strength.

We all have some weak point in our character. When we would go forward, it drags us back, and when we would rise up into higher spheres of usefulness and the atmosphere of heaven, something drags us down. Now I have no sympathy with the idea that God puts us behind the blood and saves us, and then leaves us in Egypt to be under the old taskmaster. I believe God brings us out of Egypt into the promised land, and that it is the privilege of every child of God to be delivered from every foe, from every besetting sin.

If there is some sin that is getting the mastery over you, you certainly cannot be useful. You certainly cannot bring forth fruit to the honor and glory of God until you get self-control. “He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city.” If we haven’t got victory over jealousy, over envy, over self-seeking and covetousness and worldly amusements and worldly pleasure, if we are not delivered from all these things, we are not going to have power with God or with men, and we are not going to be as useful as we might be if we got deliverance from every evil. There isn’t an evil within or without but what He will deliver us from if we will let Him. That is what He wants to do. As God said to Moses, “I have come down to deliver.” If He could deliver three million slaves from the hands of the mightiest monarch on earth, don’t you think He can deliver us from every besetting sin, and give us complete victory over ourselves, over our temper, over our dispositions, over our irritableness and peevishness and snappishness? If we want it and desire it above everything else, we can get victory.

People are apt to think that these little things (as we call them) are weaknesses that we are not responsible for; that they are misfortunes, that we inherited them. I have heard people talk about their temper. They say,

“Well, I inherited it from my father and mother; they were quick-tempered, and I got it from them.”

Well, that is a poor place to hide, my friend. Grace ought to deliver us from all those things.

A lady came to me some time ago and said she had great trouble with her temper now, and she was more irritable than she was five years ago, and she wanted to know if I didn’t think it was wrong.

I said, “I should think you are backsliding. If you haven’t better control over yourself now than you had five years ago, there is something radically wrong.”

“Well,” she said, “I should like to know how I am going to mend it. Can you tell me?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

I said, “When you get angry with people and give them a good scolding, go right to them after you have made up your mind that you have done wrong, and tell them you have sinned and ask them to forgive you.”

She said she wouldn’t like to do that.

Of course she wouldn’t; but she will never get victory until she treats it as sin. Don’t look upon it as weakness or misfortune, but sin. No child of God ought to lose control of temper without confessing it.

A lady came to me some time ago and said that she had got so in the habit of exaggerating that people accused her of misrepresentation. She wanted to know if there was any way she could overcome it.

“Certainly,” I said.

“How?”

“Next time you catch yourself at it, go right to the party and tell them you lied.”

“Oh!” she said, “I wouldn’t like to call it lying.”

Of course not, but a lie is a lie all the same, and you will never overcome those sins until you treat them as sins and get them out of your nature. If you want to shine in the light of God and be useful, you must overcome, you must be delivered. And that is what God says He will do; He will deliver.

 

Moody, D. L. (1900). Moody’s Latest Sermons (pp. 10–13). Chicago: Fleming H. Revell.

 

Be a doer of Gods Word.

Matthew 7:24–27 (ESV)

Build Your House on the Rock

²⁴ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

The parable comes to us in warning; and its force lies in its assertion that heaven is not formed in man by knowing and understanding Divine Truth, but by knowing, understanding and doing Divine Truth. For, the difference between the man building on the rock, and the man building on the sand, is that one does the Lord’s sayings, and the other does them not. Both hear His sayings: both know and understand Divine Truths; but one applies them to his life, and is secure against evil, while the other keeps them as intellectual things, but not applied to his daily life; and, as a consequence, the storms of temptation beat upon the latter man, and he falls in spiritual death. The whole reason why men should hear the Lord’s sayings, is that they may do them: the doing is the end, and the hearing is the means to carry out the end.

He who does the sayings, or teachings, of the Lord, is likened to a wise man.

The world often calls a man wise who knows much; but the Lord calls a man wise, when he makes a good use of his knowledge, by living according to it. And folly consists not in a lack of knowledge, but in making no good use of what we know; not applying our knowledge to a good life.

The wise man gave proof of his wisdom, by building his house upon a rock. In the spiritual sense, the parable refers to spiritual things; to the spiritual house which our spirit is building, in our minds.

Man Created to be the Dwelling Place of God

Deep inside every man there is a private sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his being. This far-in reality is that in the man which is what it is of itself, without reference to any other part of the man’s complex nature. It is the man’s “I am,” a gift from the I AM who created him.

The deep-in human entity of which we speak is called in the Scriptures the spirit of man, (1 Cor. 2:11). As God’s self-knowledge lies in the eternal Spirit, so man’s self-knowledge is by his own spirit, and his knowledge of God is by the direct impression of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of man. The importance of all this cannot be overestimated as we think and study and pray.

From man’s standpoint the most tragic loss suffered in the Fall was the vacating of this inner sanctum by the Spirit of God. There God planned to rest and glow with moral and spiritual fire. Man by his sin forfeited this indescribably wonderful privilege and must now dwell there alone.

By the mysterious operation of the Spirit in the new birth, that which is called by Peter “the divine nature” enters the deep-in core of the believer’s heart and establishes residence there. Such a one is a true Christian, and only such.

An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.

One cause of the decline in the quality of religious experience among Christians these days is the neglect of the doctrine of the inward witness.

One distinguishing mark of those first Christians was a supernatural radiance that shined out from within them. The sun had come up in their hearts and its warmth and light made unnecessary any secondary sources of assurance. They had the inner witness. It is obvious that the average evangelical Christian today is without this radiance. Instead of the inner witness we now substitute logical conclusions drawn from texts.

The world’s own prophets, the unbelieving psychologists (those eyeless seekers who seek for a light which is not God’s light) have been forced to recognize at the bottom of religious experience this sense of something there. But better far is the sense of Someone there. It was this that filled with abiding wonder the first members of the Church of Christ. The solemn delight which those early disciples knew sprang straight from the conviction that there was One in the midst of them. How wonderful is this sense of Someone there. It makes religion invulnerable to critical attack. It secures the mind against collapse under the battering of the enemy. They who worship the God who is present may ignore the objections of unbelieving men. What they see and hear overwhelms their doubts and confirms their assurance beyond the power of argument to destroy. Nothing can take the place of the touch of God in the soul and the sense of Someone there. Where true faith is, the knowledge of God will be given as a fact of consciousness altogether apart from the conclusions of logic. The spiritual giants of old experienced God.

We are only now emerging from a long ice age during which an undue emphasis was laid upon objective truth at the expense of subjective experience.

Wise leaders should have known that the human heart cannot exist in a vacuum. If Christians are forbidden to enjoy the wine of the Spirit they will turn to the wine of the flesh for enjoyment. Our teachers took away our right to be happy in God and the human heart wreaked its terrible vengeance by going on a fleshly binge from which the evangelical Church will not soon recover, if indeed it ever does. Christ died for our hearts and the Holy Spirit wants to come and satisfy them.

One quality belonging to the Holy Spirit, of great interest and importance to every seeking heart, is penetrability. He can penetrate matter, such as the human body; He can penetrate mind; He can penetrate another spirit such as the human spirit. He can achieve complete penetration of and actual inter-mingling with the human spirit. He can invade the human heart and make room for Himself without expelling anything essentially human. The integrity of the human personality remains unimpaired. Only moral evil is forced to withdraw.

A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man’s greatest tragedy, God’s heaviest grief.

Sin has many sides and many ramifications. It is like a disease with numberless complications, any one of which can kill the patient. It is lawlessness, it is a missing of the mark, it is rebellion, it is perversion, it is transgression; but it is also waste—a frightful, tragic waste of the most precious of all treasures. The man who dies out of Christ is said to be lost, and hardly a word in the English tongue expresses his condition with greater accuracy. He has squandered a rare fortune and at the last he stands for a fleeting moment and looks around, a moral fool, a wastrel who has lost in one overwhelming and irrecoverable loss, his soul, his life, his peace, his total, mysterious personality, his dear and everlasting all.

When God infuses eternal life into the spirit of a man, the man becomes a member of a new and higher order of being.

We who live in this nervous age would be wise to meditate on our lives and our days long and often before the face of God and on the edge of eternity. For we are made for eternity as certainly as we are made for time. To be made for eternity and forced to dwell in time is for mankind a tragedy of huge proportions. All within us cries for life and permanence, and everything around us reminds us of mortality and change. Yet that God has made us of the stuff of eternity is both a glory and a prophecy.

Just here the sweet relevancy of the Christian message appears. “Jesus Christ … hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” For every man it must be Christ or eternal tragedy. Out of eternity our Lord came into time to rescue his human brethren whose moral folly had made them not only fools of the passing world but slaves of sin and death as well.

What is the supreme benefaction, the gift and treasure above all others which even God can give? He gives Christ to be in our nature forever. This is God’s supreme and final gift. Not the pearly gates, not the golden streets, not heaven, not even the forgiveness of sins, although these are God’s gifts too. Not a dozen, or two dozen, or a thousand, but countless hundreds of thousands of gifts God lays before His happy people, and then bestows this supreme gift. He makes us the repository of the nature and person of the Lord Jesus. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:19–29.)

 

 

Tozer, A. W. Gems from Tozer. Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 1979. Print.

Christs Return

Second Coming of Christ

^{Matthew 24:36} “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. ³⁷ For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. ⁴² Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. ⁴³ But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

⁴⁵ “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. ⁴⁷ Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, ⁵⁰ the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know ⁵¹ and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 

God’s word is very specific in relating to us that Jesus is definitely coming back. When He is coming we will never know. It is because we will never know when that we must be ready for His return at all times. In Matthew 24 and 25 Jesus Himself explains this to us through several parables. When Jesus returns He will look at each of our hearts to know if we are His child or not, it will not matter how we are dressed or how good we are with words. All that will matter is Jesus being Lord of your life. He clearly shows this in Matthew 24:37-51. He shows repeatedly things that will take place and how some will be left behind while others are taken up to Him in the heavens.

In verse 44 He makes a statement that I personally think people need to pay more attention too. He says that He is coming in an hour we do not expect. This meaning, like when we went from 1999 to the year 2000 and every one was afraid of the computer crash and so many were saying it is time for Jesus. The reality is, there was no chance of His returning then because of how obvious it was. He tells us we will not be expecting it, or in other words it will be in a time when we think of it the least not the most. So if you wanted to make a prediction of His return then I would tell you to find a time when nothing is happening.  No major events, no historic wars or world peace assemblies. But, even then your prediction would be wrong because then people would be expecting it because of the prediction just like with the Mayans in 2012  .

This all being true, you should emulate the story of the 10 virgins and be one of the 5 who brought extra oil:

 

25 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. ⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. ¹¹ Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

If we are vigilant in our relationship with Christ then there is never anything to worry about. When He comes we will be there and we will be ready for Him and it will be a glorious site indeed.

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? ³⁸ And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

 

In His word He goes on to tell us how He will return. He will come in all His glory and with all His angels (what a sight this will be). Once this takes place then He will gather every person on the planet before Him. Rich and poor, King and peasant alike and He will begin to separate them into two areas. One will be the faithful who stayed the course and maintained Him as their Lord and Savior. The other will be everyone who claimed Him but never knew Him, those who chose to keep control of their lives and do things their way instead of His. Those who refused to do His will by being a loving and kind person to all who entered their life. So there is no mistake in this comment the love is God’s love and the Kindness is His kindness for man is not capable of giving the kind of loving kindness that He requires without His presence in their lives. TO all of these He will say depart form Me I knew you not and in that moment they will realize the futility of how they lived and what they missed. They will then receive the consequence of their life choice and go to be with their father in His dwelling for eternity. This is a place known as Hell.

            The rest will go with Him into the heavens and live out eternity in His presence doing whatever it is He desires. This may not sound too much like heaven to many, doing what someone else desires I mean, but when His desire is your complete happiness and He knows how to achieve that for you better than you do. Why would you not want to be part of it?

            When he comes, will you be ready for Him? Will you be with those chosen to go to Heaven with Him and to live out eternity in complete happiness with Him or will you go and spend eternity in Hell because you chose to be rebellious and maintain control of your life? Will you do His will no matter what it is, knowing He knows how to make you completely happy, or will you do your will living in misery both here on earth and in eternity? The choice is yours to make. Make the right one!

True Christians

If everyone who called themselves a Christian would live like they are Christians there would be far more peace in this world. Too often people get comfortable where they are in Christ and stop growing. It is time we stop with the comfort and get back to teachable. Teachable means we realize we do not know everything and can be wrong in some of the things we think we know and are open to God or His servants to call us on those things in which we have wrong both in our lives and in our beliefs. Get away from comfort and live in His presence a teachable servant.

Trinity as an Example of Family Life

The Godhead, also called the Trinity, consists of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. They are united in goal, in love and in person. The Dictionary of Bible Themes explains the trinity this way:

"The characteristically Christian doctrine about God. It declares that there is only one true God; that this God is three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is distinct from, yet interrelated with, the others; and that all three persons are fully, equally and eternally divine (Manser)."

In their relationship with one another they give everything they are to each other in order to accomplish what is required. The Heavenly Father pours Himself into the His Son, Jesus, in order to strengthen Him and encourage Him that He was able to fulfill the salvation role which required His suffering. They Both Pour into the Holy Spirit that He may perform the work required in each of us to draw us to salvation and then into the depths of the love of Christ. each one has a role to be performed and each one gladly performs those roles knowing if they do not something would be missing in the over all scheme of things. This is the same picture we should immolate in our families. This is accomplished by us all becoming what Christ prayed in John 17.

 

John 17:11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Jesus prays for us to be one just as they are one. We accomplish this by the love we share for one another and having the same goals as the trinity does. This is only possible through a deep relationship with Christ who gives us the depth of love required to accomplish this. Through this love the husband, who is the head of the family, gives to the wife and children that they may become whatever God has called them to be. This is not done in a dictatorship, but in love just as the Heavenly Father does with each of us. The wife encourages the husband in his role and with the husband empowers the kids to grow and become God fearing men and women that they may know the truth of Gods love in their lives. In so doing the family becomes the same picture as the Holy Trinity. their unified love and goal and the three make up one family.

 There is only one Holy Trinity in Heaven but we can see a picture of them here on earth if we choose to live the life God meant for us to live in the first place.

Manser, Martin H. Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser, 2009. Print.

Creation Myths

Creation myths. Ancient explanations of the universe ranged from the Mesopotamian claim that matter represents the corpse of a slain deity, Tiamat, to the Greek conviction that the physical universe preexisted the gods. Only Genesis exalts God above His Creation. And only Genesis gives human beings a central place in Creation, as persons made in God’s image who are deeply loved by Him. Thus the biblical view of Creation has always been radical—and remains in direct conflict with the modern notion that everything is the product of chance evolution.
The creative “days.” Sincere Christians hold differing views. Some hold each “day” represents a geologic era—a vast period of time. Some hold the days are symbolic, or are seven literal days Moses spent on Mt. Sinai (cf. Ex. 32:16), during which God showed Moses how He created all things. Still others assume seven literal days, separated by long ages, while yet another group argues for seven consecutive days.
There is no certain resolution of the conflict. But it may well miss the point. We must focus on the fact that God created, not on disputes over how long it took Him. Our world is no product of blind chance. A living Person lovingly, carefully designed all that is. We live in a personal rather than impersonal universe, and because of this, we have hope. God is! As we commit ourselves to Him, our emptiness will be filled, and we will find life’s meaning.
“Be fruitful and increase.” Christians have sometimes argued that Adam and Eve’s fall was sexual: that they abandoned celibacy, and this was the “original sin.” But Gen. 1:28 makes it clear that God intended a sinless Adam and Eve to have children and “increase in number.” Human sexuality was invented by God Himself, and is intended as a gift. Within the framework of marriage (Gen. 2) sexual expression is a joyful affirmation of a couple’s intimacy, and every pleasure is blessed by God Himself. Sex »1 Timothy 4.
“Very good.” God evaluated each of the first five days’ creative work and called it “good” (attractive, useful, desirable, morally right). The work of creating man is called “very good.”


Richards, Lawrence O. The Bible Reader’s Companion. electronic ed. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1991. Print.

7 Passages When Facing Crises

The below verses were not put together by me but they are awesome and I wanted to share them with those who read my blog.

 

The Bible doesn’t promise us that life with Jesus is easier. The difference is that when life gets hard, we have somewhere to turn for strength, courage, hope, and peace.

Here are seven passages to keep handy when facing crises:

1. James 1:2–4

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The Bible tells us to remain joyful not because we know what happens next, but because we know the end. We will be stronger when we reach the other side. Each trial is an opportunity to step closer to perfection—complete and utter dependence on and trust in God.

Bonus verse: Romans 8:28.

2. Matthew 11:28–30

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

When asked what the greatest commandment of the law is, Jesus said: one, love God, and two, love others. He continued, “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36–40). When we focus on what really matters to God, it simplifies our lives. Jesus cut through hundreds of Jewish laws to reveal that they could all be reduced to these two simple commands. When life feels complicated and heavy, Jesus says, “Come to me” so he can lighten the load.

3. Philippians 4:6–7

“. . . do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The peace of God doesn’t make sense. The NIV translation says it “transcends all understanding.” It’s beyond, higher than, out of reach of all understanding. We can be calm in the midst of complete chaos when we have that peace—and it protects us. Jesus guards our hearts against anxiety and stress by filling us with a peace that the world can’t understand (because it doesn’t come from this world).

4. 1 Corinthians 10:13

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Sin wants to hide. It wants to bury itself in our hearts and make us feel alone in our temptation. Your life is unique—the temptation you face is not. The world is full of brothers and sisters in Christ who share in your struggles with sin. Fight it together, and most importantly, invite God into the struggle. The way out may not always be easy, but God promises it will always be there.

5. Hebrews 2:18

“For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Jesus never sinned. When we hear that, sometimes it’s easy to feel like we have to hide our sin from him—like he doesn’t know what it’s like to be a sinful, broken human being. Make no mistake—Jesus suffered when he was tempted. He knows how you feel when you’re torn between your desire to do what’s right and the sinful desires in your heart (Romans 7:15). Because he can identify with your pain, he can help you.

6. Psalm 23:1–6

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

“You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the lord
forever.”

Sheep trust their shepherd. Experience and the surrounding flock tell the sheep that wherever the shepherd leads, they will be provided for. Even as the valley gets dark, rocky, and difficult, the sheep trust the shepherd to lead them out of it. For me, this passage is a reminder that even when I have no idea what’s going on or where my life is going, God is in charge, and I can trust him.

7. Matthew 6:25–34

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

July 22, 2014By Ryan Nelson

True Freedom

Ephesians 1:3–6 (ESV)

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

In verse 5 the predestination Paul is speaking of is the predestination of all of Human kind to be saved just as Peter stated in 2 Peter 3: 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Salvation is the beginning of the fulfillment of verse 4 that we may be holy and blameless before God. The only way to obtain this status is through a deep and unwavering relationship with Christ. Blameless is obtained through salvation as God sees His Son’s blood and not your sins but holiness is lived out second by second by all who truly belong to Christ Jesus. Holiness is simply this, God’s will in your life is more important to you than breathing, eating, family, and anything else you can put in there. Let go of the people, places and things of this world that hold you back from living completely for God and experience true freedom…