Category: WALKING IN THE TRUTH

Those who walk in the truth are yoked to their Master. They hear His voice and will follow no other. As His true disciples they follow Him wherever He leads. They live in accordance with the Scriptures so they may know the full will of God.

DIVINE REVELATION

How I became a Berean

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‘Now these [Bereans] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so’. Acts 17:11.

When exactly I became a ‘Berean’ at heart I don’t recall. I do remember that I, along with many believers in the Lord of my acquaintance often asserted that we believed the Bible to be the truth of God from cover to cover.

However, as time went by and I started to read the whole Bible I found there were passages of Scripture I skipped rather quickly over. They would challenge me and make me feel ill at ease. Sometimes I came across something that appeared to be contrary to one of my cherished beliefs or practices and I found myself avoiding the issue. read more

ENDURANCE

The Day is at Hand

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Luke 17:26-30. “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark , and the flood came and destroyed them all. “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.” It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Noah and Lot were both righteous men living in the midst of very evil communities. One was faithfully occupied on a great work of God while the other was simply existing day by day, presumably doing largely much of what those around him were doing. read more

OVERCOMING

The Eyes of the Lord

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2 Chronicles 16:9. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support

  • Those who are doing their very best to live a Christian life?
  • Those who are always actively involved in their local church?
  • Those who are ordained to be reverends, pastors or priests?
  • Those whose heart is completely His?

‘Those whose heart is completely His’. This is the Lord’s one and only requirement. Jesus made this quite plain to all who have ears to hear. He told the rich young ruler, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Matthew 19:21. NKJV. The young man chose his ‘great possessions’ rather than parting with them in order to follow Jesus.

If our heart is to be completely the Lord’s then it must be completely empty of everything that competes with Him for our attention – fame, fortune, friends and family, to name but a few. read more

ENDURANCE

Fresh Thoughts on the Parable of the Sower

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“Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. “Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. “And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:3-9.

In His explanation of this parable to His disciples Jesus tells them that ‘the seed is the word’. In John 1:1-3 we are informed that Jesus is the word. So we understand from this that it is Jesus who desires to sow Himself into us us as the living word of God. There are four conditions where this precious seed is sown which represent the response of those who hear the word. The serious question is, “Into which category do we as individuals fit right now”?

  1. Beside the road? These ones don’t understand the gospel.
  2. Rocky places? These ones are fair weather believers.
  3. Among the thorns? These ones are caught up in worldly worries and concerns.
  4. The good soil? These ones are grafted into the true vine which is Jesus.

In categories 1, 2, and 3 it is the ‘self-life’ (wanting our own way) that leads to fruitlessness. read more

OBEDIENCE

The Eyes of the Lord

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2 Chronicles 16:9. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support

  • Those who are doing their very best to live a good Christian life?
  • Those who have experienced visions and spiritual manifestations?
  • Those who are ordained to be reverends, pastors or priests?
  • Those whose heart is completely His?

How easy it is to look at the outward appearance or spiritual gifts of those who profess and call themselves Christians. God looks not at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart and He strongly supports ‘Those whose heart is completely His’. This is the Lord’s one and only requirement; a completely surrendered life.

Jesus made this quite plain to all who have ears to hear. He told the rich young ruler, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Matthew 19:21. NKJV. The young man chose his ‘great possessions’ rather than parting with them in order to follow Jesus. read more

FELLOWSHIP

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life

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“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” So said St Augustine  in around the fourth century A.D. We are born into this world with a restlessness that can only be satisfied when we find our ultimate home in God. That is the location in which it was God’s intention that we should live and exist. Until we find the way to this, our home, we are lost and alone.

The Father ordained and set in motion a vast creation, His Son spoke forth every element of what was to come into existence and the Holy Spirit perfectly executed each divine command. At the very centre of that eternal plan was the creation of a man whom God named Adam. From the very beginning of Adam’s location in the Garden of Eden, God and man enjoyed communion and fellowship. Adam had a Father. He had been created in the likeness of His Father’s only begotten Son. In addition to his body and soul Adam’s was created with a spirit that he might receive the Life of God into him, that he might forever become a perfect son of God, Adam must make a choice. Eden was his proving ground. The fruit of every tree in the garden except one was good for food. Only the fruit of one tree was forbidden for him to eat. Had Adam and his wife, Eve, taken of the fruit of the tree of life they would have become spiritually alive and in God they would have found their home, their dwelling place forever.

On that proving ground of Eden man through his disobedience became a slave to sin, so God ‘drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life’. Genesis 3:24. Adam and Eve became orphans without the fatherhood of God and all their descendants became spiritually dead. However, God left a promise of that one of their descendants would bruise the serpent’s head. Many centuries came and went until the promised seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus came and we read that ‘when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons’. Thus, the sons of Adam through faith in the atoning death of Jesus, might again enjoy the fullness of the fatherhood of God. read more

BODY RELATEDNESS

My Mother and My Brothers

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Matthew 12:47-50. Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
John 7:3-5. Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For not even His brothers were believing in Him.
Luke 14:26-27. “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.  “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

‘Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” The pressure of family to be given first consideration by individuals in our western society is particularly evident at Christmas time. It seems to be a cultural imperative. The homes of believers are often invaded at this season of the year by an odd assortment of voices, opinions and beliefs – all waiting to be heard.

The matter of first importance is who is the focal point inside our home? Even if we are the one who invited this company of family members, whose authority and significance will be evident? Human or divine? read more

ENDURANCE

The Bread of Life

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Matthew 4:3-4. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'”
Exodus 16:13-14. So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground.
John 6:31-33. “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.'” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”
Psalms 23:5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.
John 12:24. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

From ancient times bread has been identified as the basic food to preserve life. It is certainly considered as such in the Scriptures. When Jesus told His disciples, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger….”, surely He was stating that He was and He is the complete spiritual source of nourishment. Jesus had informed Satan early in His earthly ministry, “It is written, ‘man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'” Matthew 4:4. It is God’s command that man depend not only on the physical bread but on the heavenly spiritual bread of God’s ‘every word’.

‘The house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey’. Exodus 16:31. The first mention of divinely supplied food in the Scriptures is provided in Exodus. The Israelites had been led by God miraculously out of Egypt where they had been enslaved, into the great wilderness. Each household gathered manna every morning except on the Sabbath. On the morning before the Sabbath they gathered enough for two days. This was God’s provision for His people for forty years until they were able to eat the produce of Canaan. read more

OVERCOMING

The Weapons of Our Warfare

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Genesis 2:8-9. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
James 4:7. Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Ephesians 6:11-12. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

When the Lord God created Adam, He ‘placed the man whom He had formed’ in Eden. The Lord laid upon Adam only one restriction; that he must not eat of the fruit of ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. Adam and his wife Eve had been gifted with freedom of choice. Their encounter with Satan and subsequent willful disobedience to God’s command brought sin and death upon all their descendants. The way to the tree of life was barred from them. Adam, in his creation is referred to as ‘the son of God’, Luke 3:38. But, following their rebellion the disobedient pair became orphans, having forfeited the right to call God, ‘Father’.

‘But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law….’ Galatians 4:4. ‘God sent forth His Son’. All who believe in Jesus may choose to follow their own inclinations or follow the leading of the Holy Spirit who indwells them. In Romans 8:14 we read, ‘For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God’. The ‘right to the tree of life’ and the right to be recognized as a ‘son of God’ have been given back in Christ to all who will continually devote themselves to ‘being led by the Spirit of God’. read more

FELLOWSHIP

Jesus is ‘the Way and the Truth and the Life’

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“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” So said Augustine of Hippo in around the fourth century A.D. We are born into this world with a restlessness that can only be satisfied when we find our ultimate home in God. That is the location in which it was God’s intention that we should reside. Until we find the way to this, our home, we are lost and alone.

The Father established and set in motion an eternal plan, His Son spoke forth every stage of creation as recorded in Genesis chapter one and the Holy Spirit carried out each divine command. At the very centre of that eternal plan was the creation of a man whom God named Adam. From Adam’s introduction into the Garden of Eden, God and man enjoyed communion and fellowship. Adam had a Father. He had been created in the likeness of His Father’s only begotten Son. In addition to his body and soul God had created Adam with a spirit. His spirit had not yet been made alive. In order to become spiritually alive, that he might forever become a perfect son of God, Adam must make a choice. Eden was his proving ground. The fruit of every tree in the garden except one was his to enjoy. Only the fruit of one tree was forbidden for him to eat. Had Adam and his wife, Eve, taken of the fruit of the tree of life they would have become spiritually alive and in God they would have found their home, their dwelling place forever.

On that proving ground of Eden man became a slave to sin, so God ‘drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life’. Genesis 3:24. Man became an orphan without the fatherhood of God and he and all who would issue from him became spiritually dead. However, God had left a promise of the One who would bruise the serpent’s head and ‘when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons’. Thus, the sons of Adam through faith in the atoning death of Jesus are no longer orphans, All who have come to faith in Jesus are now the children of the Living God. read more

TRANSFORMATION

Transformed into the Same Image

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1 Peter 2:9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light….
Colossians 1:13. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son….
Ephesians 1:13-14. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.2 Corinthians 3:18. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

When we first experience salvation ‘by grace through faith’, we enter into a fullness of joy such as we have never known, yet our future is wrapped up in a mystery. We wonder what lies ahead of us along the pathway of life now that we have become a believer in Jesus.

It is easy to imagine that, having been ‘called….out of darkness’ or ‘rescued….from the domain of darkness’ we must simply await our ultimate destiny of going to be with Jesus in heaven at life’s close. Being brought ‘into His marvelous light’ is truly a life changing experience. Some feel drawn to enter some form of ministry. However, for most, the Christian life and walk will consist of joining with other believers in a pattern of church attendance and activities that follows the well-worn path of tradition. Looking back, the writer’s perspective was very much along those lines. read more

OVERCOMING

It is No Longer I Who Live

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Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Romans 8:19-21. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Galatians 2:20 expresses one of the deep heart cries of the apostle Paul, which many who love the Lord Jesus hold as especially dear to them. It describes a state that many desire to be their own experience. However, the importance of pressing on to attain to this degree of surrendered faith can easily be a goal in itself that doesn’t take into account its vital significance toward the achievement of the eternal plan and purpose of God. ‘For we are God’s fellow workers’. 1 Corinthians 3:9.

“I have been crucified with Christ….” At the moment that Jesus cried out “It is finished” and “Father into your hands I commit my spirit” all sins, all sinners and indeed all the works of the devil were forever dealt with. Henceforth, newness was made certain. ‘The old things passed away; behold, new things have come’. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Nevertheless, evidence of the old will linger on in the presence of the new until the dawn of eternity, when the new Jerusalem will be displayed as the centerpiece of new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell forever. read more

OBEDIENCE

What is Your Life

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James 4:13-15. Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” NKJV.
Psalms 90:12. So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
2 Corinthians 5:10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Colossians 3:1-3. Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

At the centre of the short passage from James is a question that every believer in the Lord Jesus needs to answer. For what is your life? As we attempt to provide an answer to this all important question we must not delude ourselves or others. This is a very personal and direct question and it is a question that demands an answer from every human being. If we asked it of five people we might receive five different answers. However, the real answer to this question is provided by what we spend the greatest amount of our time doing and who most benefits from our activities and actions.

 “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. God has given every one of us a will to decide how we shall live our life. How easy it can be to simply weigh our choices, try to make good decisions and hope that they will receive God’s blessing. Yet the message of these verses is very clear. Our response to all our choices and decisions ought to be “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” read more

OBEDIENCE

Narrow is the Way

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Matthew 7:13-14. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

This well-known parable of Jesus is so short in length yet so significant in substance. Perhaps the most striking aspect of it is to be found in the last few words which concern the small constricted gate and the narrow way. Jesus told His hearers, ‘there are few who find it’.

Matthew chapters 5 through 7 contain the longest recorded unbroken discourse of Jesus in the Bible. Those gathered immediately around Him at the time were His dear disciples, yet there were many others also there who also listened to His words with amazement. In these three chapters there are many revelations of heavenly wisdom from which countless numbers have received great benefit since His words were spoken. Almost hidden among these many treasures of wisdom are verses 13 and 14 of chapter 7. This short parable stands unique. There is no other like it. Though brief, it possesses a profound and vital message to all who seek Jesus with all their heart and choose to follow Him fully. read more

OBEDIENCE

Your Will be Done

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Luke 11:1-4. It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” And He said to them, ” When you pray, say: ‘ Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. ‘Give us each day our daily bread. ‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'”
Matthew 6:9-13 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done , On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’”

“Lord, teach us to pray….” One of His disciples requested of Jesus that He provide guidance as to how he and his fellow disciples should pray. The prayer Jesus gave them was not only for them, but for all who will become His disciples, right up to the present.

Respect for ‘our Father who is in heaven’ is to be shown by reverencing His holy name. To use the name of God, or Jesus, emptily or casually is to dishonour He who is the giver of everything and the great creator. The second commandment given to Moses puts it this way. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” read more