Praying Pint

 

Psalm 73:16-17    When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me—until I went into the sanctuary of God.

The writer of Psalm 73 knew in his head that God was good (verse 1). But this writer, Asaph, was troubled in his heart by what he saw around him. The wicked were thriving (verses 3-9). They scoffed at the notion of God (verses 10-11), yet they were growing richer (verse 12). Asaph, who tried to live a godly life, wondered why he had more problems than the arrogant (verses 13-14).

What did Asaph do? He expressed his questions to God. He went into the Lord’s presence like entering a sanctuary, and he gained new insights about the brevity of life for the wicked compared to the eternal glory afforded him by his faith (verses 15-24).

There’s a temptation when faced with spiritual questions to withdraw from God in frustration when we should withdraw to God in faith. We may not always understand our situations, but we’ll draw closer to the One who does understand.

Do you have spiritual questions? Go to God with them!

Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them.

 

 

Hebrews 12:7,10    God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? . . . He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

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God brings hardship into our lives to bring us back to Him when we have wandered away. God’s reproofs are impartial. No Christian is exempt from God’s discipline. Second, God’s reproofs are helpful. Proverbs 3:12 says, “Whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” Notice it doesn’t say, “Whom the Lord loves He condemns.” Instead, God reproves; He disciplines.

What’s the difference? When a murderer is condemned to death, the sentence carries no hope of restoration. That’s our situation before we become Christians. Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” Because of adultery, lust, greed, idolatry, or any other sin we commit, we’re all guilty before God, and we all deserve the death penalty. But God, in His mercy, has pardoned us from our sin. If we have trusted in Christ as Savior, we don’t have a death sentence hanging over us. We’re no longer condemned.

But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re going to be recipients of God’s discipline–not for our condemnation but for our restoration. God disciplines us because He loves us. Hebrews 12:7, 10 says, “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? . . . He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” The fact that God doesn’t allow us to get away with sin is proof that He loves us. His reproofs are for our good.

When I was a child, I never believed my parents when they were disciplining me and they said, “This is going to hurt me worse than it hurts you.” When I became a parent myself, I finally understood how difficult it is to discipline your children. It would be much easier to let their transgressions slide than to go through the pain of disciplining them. The reason we discipline our kids is that we love them. We want the best for them. We don’t want them to continue on a path that’s going to lead to destruction.

God feels the same way about His children. Hebrews 12:8 says, “If you are without discipline, . . . then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” God’s reproofs are for our good.

 

Luke 2:18   And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Imagine you are a shepherd in ancient Israel: Your job is mundane, dirty, and maybe even a little frightening. You’re out in the wilderness, away from town, and the only light you see at night comes from the fire around which you are huddled and the moon hanging overhead. With that small field of vision, you’re supposed to not only keep track of your sheep, but also protect them from attack.

Suddenly, a supernatural brightness—“the glory of the Lord”—blinds your eyes, and there’s somebody there, unlike anything you’ve seen before. Perhaps you immediately realize that it’s the angel of the Lord, or maybe you are so consumed with confusion that it takes a minute to sink in that this being is from the heavenly realm. Either way, you’re so awestruck that the angel’s first words are, “Do not be afraid.”

“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

I wonder if the shepherds collapsed to the ground during this overwhelming experience. We know they felt fear, of course, but imagine the flood of emotions as they begin to realize that the angel of the Lord is proclaiming the news of the arrival of the Messiah!

What is the Messiah? The One promised since Genesis 3, who would come and rescue all of mankind. For the Jewish people, this is the One they had been longing for. And the shepherds are some of the first to hear of His arrival.

If the knees of the shepherds hadn’t buckled by that point, you can be sure that they did when suddenly the skies lit up and one angel became “a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’”

It’s no surprise that they immediately ran to find the Child in the manger, and returned passionately glorifying and praising God!

Fear, confusion, awe, joy—the shepherds experienced the gamut of emotions that historic night.

How about you? As you read this passage, are you still filled with awe? Do you empathize with the confusion and fear? Can you feel their joy? If not, reread Luke 2 and try to envision it from the shepherd’s perspective once again, and pray that the Holy Spirit will fill you with His joy this Christmas season. (Graham)

 

Sin is a disease, a natural and hereditary one, an epidemic distemper, that reaches to all men, and to all the powers and faculties of their souls, and members of their bodies; and which is nauseous and loathsome, and in itself mortal and incurable; nor can it be healed by any creature, or anything that a creature can do. Christ is the only physician, and his blood the balm and sovereign medicine; this cleanses from all sin; through it is the remission of sin, which is meant by healing; for healing of diseases, and forgiving iniquities, is one and the same thing

Who his own self bare our sins ,…. As was typified by the high priest bearing the sins of the holy things of the people of Israel, when he went into the most holy place, and by the scape goat bearing the iniquities of all the people unto a land not inhabited, and as was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah. The apostle here explains the nature and end of Christ’s sufferings, which were to make atonement for sins, and which was done by bearing them. What Christ bore were “sins”, even all sorts of sin, original and actual, and every act of sin of his people; and all that is in sin, all that belongs to it, arises from it, and is the demerit of it, as both filth, guilt, and punishment; and a multitude of sins did he bear, even all the iniquities of all the elect; and a prodigious load and weight it was; and than which nothing could be more nauseous and disagreeable to him, who loves righteousness, and hates iniquity: and these sins he bore were not his own, nor the sins of angels, but of men; and not of all men, yet of many, even as many as were ordained to eternal life, for whom Christ gave his life a ransom, whom he justifies and brings to glory; our sins, not the sins of the Jews only, for Peter was a Jew, and so were those to whom he writes, but of the Gentiles also, even the sins of all his people, for them he saves from their sins, being stricken for them. His “bearing” them was in this manner: he becoming the surety and substitute of his people, their sins were laid upon him by his Father, that is, they were imputed to him, they were reckoned as his, and placed to his account; and Christ voluntarily took them upon himself; he took them to himself, as one may take the debt of another, and make himself answerable for it; or as a man takes up a burden, and lays it on his shoulders; so Christ took up our sins, and “carried” them “up”, as the word here used signifies, alluding to the priests carrying up the sacrifice to the altar, and referring to the lifting up of Christ upon the cross; whither he carried the sins of his people, and bore them, and did not sink under the weight of them, being the mighty God, and the man of God’s right hand, made strong for himself; and so made entire satisfaction for them, by enduring the wrath of God, the curse of the law, and all that punishment which was due unto them; and thereby bore them away, both from his people, and out of the sight of God, and his vindictive justice; and removed them as far as the east is from the west, and made a full end of them; and this he himself did, and not another, nor by another, or with the help of another; not by the means of a goat, as the high priest, but by himself; though he was assisted in bearing his cross, yet he had no help in bearing our sins; angels could not help him; his Father stood at a distance from him; there was none to help. (Gill)

 

2 Peter 3:1-18   Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you; in both letters, I want to stir up your sincere understanding by way of reminder, so that you recall the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the command of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles.  Above all, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires,  saying, “Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.”  They deliberately overlook this: By the word of God the heavens came into being long ago and the earth was brought about from water and through water.  Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded.  By the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.  The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.  Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness  as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming. Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat.  But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace.  Also, regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him.  He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures. Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stable position.  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. — 2 Peter 3:1-18

 

 

 

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.
Micah 5:2

There are 60 major prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the first coming of Jesus Christ. In their book Science Speaks, Peter Stoner and Robert Newman calculated the odds of any one man in all of human history fulfilling only 8 of those prophecies to be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. They compared those odds to covering the state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars, then sending a blindfolded man into Texas to pick out one marked silver dollar.

Jesus didn’t fulfill only 8 of the 60 Old Testament prophecies—He fulfilled all 60! The odds of that happening are astronomical unless it was the plan of God. The prophet Micah prophesied that Jesus would be born in a tiny, rural suburb of Jerusalem called Bethlehem—and He was. Fulfilled prophecy assures us that Jesus Christ is the One God sent to save us from our sins.

Faith in Christ is not a leap in the dark. It is faith based on God’s sure word of fulfilled prophecy (2 Peter 1:19).  (Jeremiah)

 

 

1 John 2:2   He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

 1 John 4:10      In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Romans 3:25-26     whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

 1 Peter 2:24   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.

 1 Peter 3:18    For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

 1 John 4:14    And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

 1 John 5:19    We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

 John 1:29   The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!   

 2 Corinthians 5:18-21    All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.he world!

  Revelation 12:9     And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Christ is a propitiation (make peace with God for us) through faith in his blood, the benefit of his propitiatory sacrifice is only received and enjoyed through faith; so that in the event it appears that Christ is a propitiation only for believers, a character which does not agree with all mankind; add to this, that for whom Christ is a propitiation he is also an advocate, 1 John 2:1 ; but he is not an advocate for every individual person in the world; yea, there is a world he will not pray for (John 17:9   I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours), and consequently is not a propitiation for them. (Gill)

The world is blind to sin and the need for Jesus Christ. One may think, because it says “but also for the sins of the whole world” that their sins are taken care of and there they rest. Seeing little if any need for Christ, but in the off chance there is a need, it has been taken care of. There is no conviction of sin, no need for forgiveness, no repentance, no trust, no reliance, no faith, no obedience, no new birth, no need for Jesus, no change in their life.  All there is only a false belief that their sin was taken care of by Jesus because Jesus took away the sins of the whole world. The deceiver of the whole world – Satan, keeps deceiving them into falseness. 

There is nothing more precious to the soul of any person than to come to the knowledge and understanding of their sin and the judgment (eternal torment in hell) and the grace, mercy, and love of God found in belief, trust, reliance, hope, and faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for their sin. 

 

1 Peter 2:24      “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Sin is a disease, a natural and hereditary one, an epidemic distemper, that reaches to all men, and to all the powers and faculties of their souls, and members of their bodies; and which is nauseous and loathsome, and in itself mortal and incurable; nor can it be healed by any creature, or anything that a creature can do. Christ is the only physician, and his blood the balm and sovereign medicine; this cleanses from all sin.

Christ voluntarily took them upon himself; he took them to himself, as one may take the debt of another, and make himself answerable for it; or as a man takes up a burden, and lays it on his shoulders; so Christ took up our sins, and “carried” them “up”, as the word here used signifies, alluding to the priests carrying up the sacrifice to the altar, and referring to the lifting up of Christ upon the cross; whither he carried the sins of his people, and bore them, and did not sink under the weight of them, being the mighty God, and the man of God’s right hand, made strong for himself; and so made entire satisfaction for them, by enduring the wrath of God, the curse of the law, and all that punishment which was due unto them; and thereby bore them away, both from his people, and out of the sight of God, and his vindictive justice; and removed them as far as the east is from the west, and made a full end of them.  For those whose sins Christ has bore are not their own, but being bought with the price of his blood, they are bound to live to him who has a property in them, and a right to claim all obedience from them. (Gill)

 

 

2 Corinthians 7:10     The sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

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Today and tomorrow, I want to give you four characteristics of genuine biblical repentance. First of all, true repentance should not be confused with grief. It’s possible to be sorry for your sin or for the effects of your sin without turning away from your sin. In 2 Corinthians 7:10, Paul explained the difference between grief and genuine repentance. He said, “The sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

Consider King David. After his sin with Bathsheba, he certainly felt sorrow. In Psalm 32:3–4, he wrote, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” Notice that David had not repented; he was still trying to cover up what he had done. His grief was the ungodly sorrow Paul was describing. It doesn’t lead anywhere except to death. True repentance should never be confused with grief.

Second, true repentance never leaves a residue of regret. This may sound ludicrous, but one reason I hate to admit when I’m driving in the wrong direction is that I dread having to retrace the miles I’ve already covered. It’s painful to waste time retracing my steps, all the while thinking, If only I hadn’t driven in this direction in the first place! I don’t want to turn around because I hate the feeling of regret.

It’s the same way in our relationship with God. When we have been in the far country for a long time, one reason we’re hesitant to turn around is that we don’t want to feel regret. We know the moment we start walking toward God, we’re likely to think, God, why did I give in to that temptation? Why did I go so long without praying or reading Your Word? If only I hadn’t allowed myself to go this direction in the first place!

But Paul said that godly sorrow “produces a repentance without regret.” When I finally make a U-turn in my car and start driving in the right direction, instead of regret, I feel a surge of relief. And when you truly repent and head back toward God, there won’t be any regret in your life. (Jeffress)

 

 

Revelation 3:19     Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

 

What does genuine repentance look like? First, true repentance should never be confused with grief. You can be grieved about your sin without turning away from your sin. Second, true repentance never leaves a residue of regret. When you turn around, you’ll feel relief, not regret.

Third, true repentance is a gift from God. In 2 Timothy 2:25, Paul said, “[Correct] those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.” Your ability to come back to God is a gift from Him. Think about the prodigal son. After months or even years in the far country, Luke 15:17 says the son finally came to his senses, which implies that he had been out of his mind. It made no sense for the son of a wealthy landowner to be in the far country feeding pigs. In the same way, it makes no sense for us to be estranged from the One who created us, loves us the most, and wants nothing but good for us. The only way we will ever come to our senses is by an act of grace that allows us to see things as they really are. Repentance is a gift from God.

Finally, true repentance results in definitive action. After the prodigal came to his senses, he made a plan: “I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men’” (vv. 18–19). Think about what his plan entailed: he had to quit his job, make travel arrangements, write a speech, and prepare for his family to be anything but friendly. But he was willing to do those things because he was sick and tired of living in the far country.

Do you have a sense that all is not right between you and God? Can you see how God has sent crises into your life to get your attention? Are you ready to come home? For you, the first step might be breaking off an immoral relationship. It might be quitting a job that has become an idol in your life. It might be saying no to an addiction. It might be spending five minutes reading the Bible even though you have no desire to do so.

If you’re willing to learn from the reproofs God has sent into your life, if you’re willing to make a U-turn and starting heading toward God then, like the prodigal son, you’re going to find a surprise awaiting you at the end of the journey. (Jeffress)