Stayed In HIS Perfect Peace

Isaiah 26:3-4

3 You keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you.

4 Trust in the LORD forever,

for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

Wow, found this song last night by chance and have we not all be here when we were just babes. Well, I was decades and decades ago. 

I’m in a most perfect place. Arrived in this plateau and it’s great. The walk is flat. 

We are in a dance.

Perfect peace.

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Sports Psychology At Its Best

About a month or so ago I was frightened and so I ran into the room and felt safe there. Here, there, dunno. There. And all was peace and calm and quiet. The most funny thing was there is a building construction down the street and we hear it. It’s not loud but it exists. We are aware of it. A week or so later or ten days I asked my husband why all the noise had stopped and was gone. Had they finished with it and the building was being built. Apparently it must be rock as the foundation. To my surprise he informed me that nothing has changed and that it’s still as it is. They have not stopped. I laughed and told him I’ve not heard a thing for a week or so. Even worse, you can hear the complete and utter pounding when you leave home but I had not heard a thing. 

🙂

An even better thing is that you can invite people into your room and I am so blessed to have my husband and me in my room. God blessed me with a wonderful husband and we or I can live quietly and peacefully in my room. 

🙂

I’m most comfortable in this place as it was revealed to me that I enjoy being alone in my own little world with Christ and my husband and doing the little things in life like bible study happily and the best is quietly. Where most like the hustle and bustle of life with many I enjoy just the one and it’s my husband. It’s quiet and peaceful here in the midst of a bustling city. I have found that life is good. My friend who died this year mentioned about thirty years or so ago that I am like an only child doing my own thing happily without bothering others nor others bothering me and get lost in it all all by myself. The fact that I’ve always been like this and enjoy being the me God made me to be is a wonderful place to be and to live. I probably have slight autism whereas I get lost in it all, whatever I’m doing. 

When I bowled all I could think of was the game and now all I really like thinking of and sinking myself in is the LORD. 

On Sunday I was about to walk past my fellow church members in Sogo. I never saw them at all though there were five of them right in my midst. My husband called out to me and informed me that they were right here beside me. Not a sign of anyone. 

I laugh and jest as God, HE has a very good sense of humor. We spend so much time together in prayer and supplication and thought and conversation and bible study. 

What can I say, what can I do but offer my heart O LORD completely to YOU.

It’s a really good place to live in. My husband and me. A place of the absolute bliss of peace and love and divine presence of a holy God and all I can say is best get on with this life of mine with Christ Jesus our LORD and my delightfully loving husband. 

Indeed this is sports psychology at its best.

Follow the instructions. Do I get the a smile. Think I do not know who is best at this game of life. Hey, it’s peaceful here. Like in a huge room of bowlers in the hundreds and hundreds screaming and all the pounding balls and machines and screaming supporters, there was absolute peace in the midst of it all and today, it’s no different. 

Peace.

Do you think God instigated it all. 
Indeed HE did and has and is.

God has a great sense of humor. 

The thing is it’s is so noisy outside now. I must be feeling safe. 

🙂

hahahahahahahahahahaha

LOL

So when I miss whomever and walk pass it’s not that I did or do know you were around. I was probably in my own little world doing my own thing within the boundaries I live in. With my husband of course. He can see everyone. But me, I do not see the world. I just see Jesus. The best place to plant myself in. 

I’m So Tired

Friendship

My friend came to visit and after over forty years we can still spend a full day together and talk and talk and talk and do stuff. In our late teens this was all we did. Now that we are old, this is still all we do. Nothing has changed. Only, we have aged. And matured. Still we can talk and laugh and enjoy each other’s company. 

Make The Difference In The Lives Of The People We Meet

Teaching.

A young girl once cried under the table and I could not get her to stop nor could I get her to come up from under her table. She sobbed bitterly. Her teacher told her she would amount to nothing. Nothing would come of her as she was born stupid. What, was my scream from my seat. No one should say this to you, was my reply, but still she was sobbing bitterly. She was seven years of age. Her teacher had been telling her that she would never amount to anything as she was born stupid since aged five. Two long years and finally she could not stand it anymore. I comforted her that at seven no one was to know that and that woman was a most horrible person. She sobbed bitterly  under that dining table for half an hour. That teacher was fired. A new one was found in her place. She grew up to be such a beautiful teenager. I loved her most as from her perspective at the bottom of that table that summer’s day, she had lost all hope. Aged seven. She is all grown up now into a beautiful woman. 

Sometimes people have a bitter and hard heart and they hurt others by their cutting remarks because of their past. Of course they are only imitating what was done to them. I’ve been in this same place in the past and probably in the future, hurt people will unfortunately for me, without me knowing, pass by me. What a shame for me.

She got over it over the years.

The evil powers of control.

Do you think that she was born stupid. Do you think nothing would amount of her. Do you think her family would do anything so that their daughter would have the best education in the world so that she would amount to anything she wanted to be. Her sister is a doctor. She wanted to be a doctor from a very young age like her dad. This young lady became whom she wanted to be. Her parents can afford it.

Once I encountered a young boy who could only ever attain a seventy percent average no matter how hard he tried. Yet, his lazy brother got nineties without even ever trying. Their mother was horrified when I suggested that well, seventy was enough. She has long passed away and her son whom she thought was not good enough has a very good job. Yet, his brother of ninety percent has amounted to nothing much. But he scored ninety percent.

Is life fair. Are people fair. Or are people just  plain horrible. This young child looked out of the window one day for a very long time for many many days and weeks and said not a word without any smile in his face. Because he was only a seventy percent son.

Sometimes people just need experience and learn from many many others whose paths have passed our lives. A good mouth does wonders to a watered heart of love from Christ Jesus. What do you think Jesus would say to these two when they arrive in heaven or the two persons who cut their hearts. Or me. The on-looker.  

When the paths of those we meet, are their lives devastated by us or are they uplifted and whom ever they dream to be, they become. Smiling happily. 

I brought up my two boys believing how fantastic they are. That they are the best of the best of the best. And they are. 

Are people’s lives uplifted or downtrodden. It all comes down to love love love. Knowing how to love. Do we send people to devastation or bliss. Examine our hearts. 

A Clear Conscience

Hebrews 10:21-23 (ESV)

 

21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:21

A great priest (ἱερεα μεγαν [hierea megan]). As has been shown in 4:14–7:28. Over the house of God (ἐπι τον οἰκον του θεου [epi ton oikon tou theou]). As God’s Son (3:5f.).

Hebrews 10:22

Let us draw near (προσερχωμεθα [proserchōmetha]). Present middle volitive subjunctive as in 4:16 with which exhortation the discussion began. There are three exhortations in verses 22 to 25 (Let us draw near, προσερχωμεθα [proserchōmetha], let us hold fast, κατεχωμεν [katechōmen], let us consider one another, κατανοωμεν ἀλληλους [katanoōmen allēlous]). Four items are added to this first exhortation. With a true heart (μετα ἀληθινης καρδιας [meta alēthinēs kardias]). With loyalty and fealty. In fulness of faith (ἐν πληροφοριᾳ πιστεως [en plērophoriāi pisteōs]). See 6:11 for this very phrase. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience (ρεραντισμενοι τας καρδιας ἀπο συνειδησεως πονηρας [rerantismenoi tas kardias apo suneidēseōs ponēras]). Perfect passive participle of ραντιζω [rantizō] with the accusative retained in the passive, an evident allusion to the sprinkling of blood in the old tabernacle (9:18–22) and the shedding of Christ’s blood for the cleansing of our consciences (10:1–4). Cf. 1 Peter 1:2 for “the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Our body washed with pure water (λελουσμενοι το σωμα ὑδατι καθαρῳ [lelousmenoi to sōma hudati katharōi]). Perfect passive (or middle) of λουω [louō], old verb to bathe, to wash. Accusative also retained if passive. ὑδατι [Hudati] can be either locative (in) or instrumental (with). See Eph. 5:26 and Titus 3:5 for the use of λουτρον [loutron]. If the reference here is to baptism (quite doubtful), the meaning is a symbol (Dods) of the previous cleansing by the blood of Christ.

Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Heb 10:21–22). Nashville, TN: Broadman Press.

I awoke to this song with the heavens singing to me and then the verse. How content one can live happily in this place where a conscience is clear. I’ve been in this place since childhood. Ever since I can remember knowing God. God my Father. It’s a passive place here. And I love this commentary. Cool. 

I’m aggressively bold in the Spirit. When I was little I was taught to look for God no matter what and pay no attention to anyone else. Think in my old age now, this is so apparent I had done what I was taught as a child, and never stopped. I was told not to worry about what anyone else thought nor what was happening around me but to just totally find God in every nook and corner until I found Him. Big job for a little girl then right. But look where it got me. I’m kissing the lips of Jesus. And you know what, I do not care what anybody thinks as they are not in this place so how could they ever understand from my point of view.  Aaaaaaaaa the freshly squeezed sweet orange juice is delicious. 

Peace

I truly do not understand it at all. Not at all. I’ve done so much since I was little and achieved so much since then. In Christ and in my sport. At least in my sport I’m recognized as giving all to my country. But what I have done in Christ is far greater. Every part I have been a part of I have taken the land for Christ. In every area. Not just where I am standing but out to all the nations of the world. I have climbed so deep and high and wide and in Christ I have just stood as in Ephesians 6 in the full armor of God and HE did it all. Yet, it ain’t enough. Can you imagine this! Not enough. Not good enough. I even have the most difficult one at hand. Self control. And it’s not good enough. The words of our bible teacher, Lee rings through and through and through. Righteousness and justice are the foundations of His throne.

Sometimes, you just got to hold on to a verse and say to yourself. Hey, the verse, the assurance of who God is, is good  enough for me. Just good enough. God is good enough. For after all, I’m doing my essays on relativism and pluralism and the ever changing societies. Now, our God is absolute. Anyone who does bible study knows this about the nature of God. His immutable character. HE says I’m good enough as I’m fearfully and wonderfully made. I am being fashioned by His own very hands. The hands of the living God. The great I Am. So there, sometimes, just sometimes, you just got to hold on to the word and say, I’m good enough. Just good enough for You LORD Jesus as in this world, they will always say, you ain’t good enough. 

Psalm 89:13-18

13You have a mighty arm;
strong is your hand, high your right hand.
14Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
15Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face,
16who exult in your name all the day
and in your righteousness are exalted.
17For you are the glory of their strength;
by your favor our horn is exalted.
18For our shield belongs to the LORD,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.

Life Is Perfect In Christ

John 4:23-24

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

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The state of the art bible. I want Logos 7. hahahahahahahahaha My bible is my life. My life line. Christ Jesus our LORD. 

Heaven here on earth.

🙂

Once a long, long time ago when Ann and I used to train together in the early evenings, we went to Shanghai for a tournament. Just the two of us. I was trained that if you did not bring back a gold, no one would ever remember you. I was devastated that I only finished second in the Masters. Fear gripped me as I would have to admit I had only come second. With a very lovely cloisonne vase, about two feet in height, I was going to give it to my coach. He smiled and took it immediately. For his wife. It was lovely. Think I got it cos I had just come in second. I really wanted to come in first.. I was absolutely and totally devastated. Fear gripped me. Ann and I had got back and in the early evening we had started training with her coach. When we put our balls on the ball return I noticed how scratched and marked and ugly our bowling balls were. You see, the centre was covered in sand. No idea why. We even walked on it. It was surprising I could bowl under such conditions. Anyways, I commented that we had been to battle and won. Well, I had won. The flares were deeply scratched. So we had to resurface our bowling balls and did not train that night. 

Many are deeply scratched in the hearts and are frozen and cannot move forward by the pitfalls in life. Time is frozen and they cannot move forward. Their hearts are numbed by the failures of life itself. 

Think the best times in the game is talking about it. I loved it. We never spoke to each other about the game. Just our coach and our sports psychologist. No one really spoke about it as it was our entire life. They would talk about their lives and everything in their lives. It was interesting to listen to their stories. I loved it. Them. 

Now, all I want to talk about is Scripture. Just Jesus. All Jesus.

http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/robertsons-word-pictures/

Love this commentary. Y’all found it yet. We are equipped to dig dig dig into the Word by ourselves. Self – sufficient in Christ. Don’t be a baby forever. Grow up and do it all by yourself. Don’t get fed a spoon at a time. 

For those who have been at the Maid Of The Midst at Niagara. Scary right. Well the water of the Word is scary. To submit to it takes practice, daily. And then one fine day the Word is like a waterfall and you just drink drink drink and you are satisfied. 

Ezekiel 26:25-29

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.^a28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses.

Are we all driving forward and cutting the ground before us and moving upwards and forwards in this journey called life. hahahahahahaha Towards Christ of course in His Word. Let this be an encouragement to y’all. Study study study and then study. Then study again. Then do not stop studying the Word of God, Christ Jesus our LORD who art Thou a Person. Then study again and again and again and then when you are tired. Sleep and rest and then wake up and start again. Until you see Jesus Face to face. We are this kind of people. 

 

To Learn About Eternity We Need To Know What It Was Like Before Our World Began

Thanking Logos for this devotional.

https://www.logos.com/

Four

 

What Happened “Before the World Was”

 

 

“I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do. And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I ever had with Thee before the world was.”-John 17:4, 5

 

What is the earliest recollection that you can unearth from the deep mine of your memory? I have a faint remembrance of my mother going to the hospital for surgery and an aunt coming to care for us children, but the picture is quite dim.

The oldest written text the historian can lay his hands on is dated about 3500 B.C. It is found on some clay tablets unearthed in Iraq in 1952.

But the Bible takes us back beyond time and into eternity. Why? Because we can never really understand what is going on “in time” unless we know what happened “before the world was.” As Dr. A. T. Pierson used to say, “History is His story.” A modern novelist has affirmed that “everything is accident,” but the Christian knows better. Everything is appointment. If you and I did not believe that God was on His throne, working out His perfect will, we would sink in the storms of life. The hymn writer William Cowper expressed it perfectly:

 

God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs

And works His sovereign will.

Modern self-made man with his egotistical emphasis on “do-it-my-way-living” wants nothing to do with a sovereign God. To be sure, the sovereignty of God in no way eliminates human responsibility or man’s moral freedom; but it does mean that God rules, and when He is not permitted to rule, that He overrules.

All of which takes us back to our Lord’s statement “before the world was.” Let’s try to answer, from the Scriptures, the important question: “What was going on ‘before the world was’?” Several facts emerge to help us discover the answer.

1. Jesus existed as eternal God.

Of course, all three members of the Godhead existed; but our special focus of attention in John 17 is the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, this is the focus of John’s Gospel: “… that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). We noted in Chapter 1 the evidences in John 17 alone that prove that Jesus Christ is eternal God.

The Gospel of John opens with a declaration of the deity of Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1, 2).

It is worth noting that six different persons in John’s Gospel bear witness that Jesus is the Son of God: John the Baptist (1:34), Nathanael (1:49), Peter (6:69), the healed blind man (9:35–38), Martha (11:27), and Thomas (20:28). The Samaritans called Him “the Savior of the world” (4:42), a title that could only belong to deity. Our Lord Himself affirmed His eternality in John 8:58: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” The people attempted to stone Him for this statement because they knew what it meant: “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God” (John 10:33).

The fact that Jesus Christ existed before the creation of the world helps us to understand the necessity for the virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18–25; Luke 1:26–38). Every baby born into this world is a new person who has never existed before. But Jesus Christ existed before the world was, before there were people. Therefore, when He was to take upon Himself a human body, it could not have been through the normal process of human reproduction. After all, Jesus existed before His mother was born! Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus Christ, though he certainly was the legal father according to the Jewish records. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, for this is the way a preexisting Person must come into the world as a human.

In other words, Jesus existed from eternity in heaven having a Father and no mother; but He came into the world having an earthly mother but no earthly father.

“Before the world was” the Trinity existed in timeless, dateless communion. The hymn writer Frederick Faber has expressed it this way:

 

Timeless, spaceless, single, lonely,

Yet sublimely Three,

Thou are grandly, always, only

God in Unity!

Lone in grandeur, lone in glory,

Who shall tell Thy wondrous story

Awful Trinity?

The fact defies explanation and comprehension, yet it is true. If it is not true, then Jesus Christ lied, the Bible is fantasy, and our universe is an accidental conglomerate of electrical particles that came out of nowhere.

2. Jesus shared the Father’s glory.

He stated this in verse 5: “And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I ever had with Thee before the world was.” Hebrews 1:3 states it: “And He is the radiance of His [the Father’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature.” The Apostle John testified: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

As we have seen, the glory of God is the sum total of all that He is, the expression of His character. It is the manifestation of all that He is in Himself, His marvelous attributes. We have a difficult time grasping the concept of God’s glory because there is nothing like it on earth. While it is true that “The heavens are telling of the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1), it is also true that sin has put God’s creation into bondage and robbed God of glory (Romans 8:18–25). Psalm 19 makes special mention of the sun as an illustration of God’s glory, and perhaps that is the closest we can come to finding a picture. Just as the rays of the sun cannot be separated from the sun itself, so Jesus Christ cannot be separated from God, because He is God.

The amazing thing is this: Those who have trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior possess this glory now (John 17:22) and will see God’s glory and share it in heaven one day (John 17:24). God does not need man or anything else in order to be glorious. He is glorious in Himself and eternally self-sufficient. Yet in His grace, He deigned to share His glory with sinful man! And Jesus Christ was willing to lay aside His glory to die so that sinners, all of whom have fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), might receive that glory.

3. Jesus was beloved of the Father.

He stated this in verse 24: “… for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world.” “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Before God poured His love out on mankind, the Persons of the Godhead expressed their perfect love to one another in a glorious communion. The Scriptures especially point out the Father’s love for the Son.

When Jesus was baptized, the Father affirmed His love: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). This was the Father’s “heavenly seal of approval” on the life Jesus had lived as a boy, youth, and young man in Nazareth. From our Lord’s twelfth year until His thirtieth year, we have no record of what He said or did, except that He was in subjection to Mary and Joseph and that He developed as any normal child (Luke 2:51, 52). But the Father made it clear at the baptism that the Son had lived a perfect life, well-pleasing to the Father.

The Father reaffirmed His love when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5). Moses and Elijah were with Jesus on the mount, yet the Father did not give special attention to them. Peter, James, and John were also there, but no voice of approval was addressed to them. It was the Son, Jesus Christ, who was singled out as the recipient of the Father’s special love and approval. This must have been a great encouragement to the Savior as He faced the cross.

The prophets bore witness to the Father’s love for the Son. “Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased” (Matthew 12:18, quoted from Isaiah 42:1).

Jesus alluded to the Father’s love in His parable about the wicked men and the vineyard (Luke 20:9–18). “And the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him’ ” (verse 13).

The Apostle Paul also affirms this eternal love of the Father for the Son: “… giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son”-literally “the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:12, 13).

It is impossible for the human mind to grasp the concept of eternity. We cannot imagine timelessness and spacelessness. “Time” and “place” help to keep order in our lives. Yet the Father and the Son and the Spirit existed eternally, sharing an eternal love. If we, in this brief span of time that we call “life,” can learn to love deeply the people that we do; if we, with our sins, can grow in our love for others; just think of what kind of perfect, timeless, uninterrupted, unchanging love the Father and the Son and the Spirit enjoyed.

And think of what it meant when the Son left the bosom of the Father and came to earth to be hated! John 3:16, familiar as it is, takes on new depth of meaning when you try to comprehend the eternal love of the Father for the Son.

4. The Father established His eternal purpose.

“This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He [the Father] carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11). This purpose is further described in Ephesians 1:10–12: “… with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

That God has an “eternal purpose” for all things is both scriptural and logical. If God is God at all, He is sovereign. He cannot work independently of His own nature, for then He would cease to be God, something that is impossible. He is a wise God; therefore, His eternal purpose is a wise one. He is a powerful God; therefore, He is able to accomplish what He purposes. He is a loving God; therefore, what He purposes will manifest His love. He is an unchanging God; therefore, His purpose is unchanging.

God’s ultimate purpose is to bring glory to His name. “… to the praise of the glory of His grace … to the praise of His glory … to the praise of His glory …” (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14). He will do this by uniting “all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10). Today, sin is dividing and destroying; but when God wraps up history, all things will unite in Christ and bring glory to God.

Words like “predestination” and “election” frighten some people and are greatly misunderstood by others. “If God has an eternal purpose, then why bother to do anything?” some people ask. “Why pray? Why send out missionaries? After all, God will certainly achieve His purpose!”

But not without us! God has ordained (and this is amazing) that His purposes shall be fulfilled in and through His church. Why pray? Because prayer is one of God’s ordained ways to accomplish His will in us and through us. Why send out missionaries? Because He has commanded us to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, and our obedience is a part of His ordained plan. God’s eternal purpose, established “before the world was,” is not an excuse for carelessness and disobedience. It is one of our greatest encouragements to obedience and service.

God’s eternal purpose is not fatalism. Rather, it is the perfect plan of a loving Father, and our Father loves us too much to harm us. He is too wise to make mistakes. “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation” (Psalm 33:11). Note that important phrase: “the plans of His heart.…”

Please keep in mind that a part of God’s eternal plan is the fact that man shall have moral freedom. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility do not conflict or contradict each other; they are friends, not enemies. You and I cannot fathom this because we are creatures of time with minds incapable of understanding God’s vast purpose. But this does not keep us from believing it and acting upon it. The greatest Christian theologian who ever lived wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Romans 11:33). If the Apostle Paul admitted that he was over his head when he thought about God’s eternal plan, where does that leave you and me!

God’s eternal plan is not a discouragement to prayer, but an encouragement. At least, the early church found it so. Read the prayer recorded in Acts 4:24–31, and note their faith in God’s sovereignty: “… to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 4:28). Nor did faith in God’s eternal purpose hinder their preaching of the gospel: “… this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross …” (Acts 2:23). Calvary was not a mistake or an accident; it was part of God’s eternal plan.

“But why did God plan it this way?” some may ask. Because His plan is the best. God cannot ordain less than the very best. There are some things about God’s plan that we may not understand, but we agree with our Lord’s affirmation of faith in Matthew 11:26, “Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in Thy sight.” And if any of us gets the idea that God needed our help as consultants, we had better listen again to Paul: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” (Romans 11:34). God did not need our help in framing His great plan, nor does He need our criticism of it. But He does want to share with us the privilege of working out His plan in this world.

Is God’s plan going to succeed? Of course it is! “Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it” (Isaiah 46:11). It is because of this eternal purpose that “God causes all things to work together for good to them who love God …” (Romans 8:28).

5. The Father elected people to be saved.

This, of course, is a part of God’s eternal plan. “Just as He chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world …” (Ephesians 1:4). “Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Timothy 1:9). “… in the hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie, promised long ages ago [literally, before times eternal]” (Titus 1:2).

God did not choose any to be saved because of their good works or personal merit. Salvation is wholly by grace (Ephesians 2:8, 9). God’s sovereign choice is based upon His own divine purpose. For that matter, God does not have to save any sinner! His electing grace is the expression of His eternal love. To be sure, there are mysteries here that we cannot explain; nor does it promote practical godliness to debate them. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever …” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

It is important to remember that divine sovereignty does not negate human responsibility. What God had ordained in eternity must be worked out in time. We may be “chosen … from the beginning for salvation,” but we are also called through the human instrumentality of the preaching of the gospel (2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14). The same God who ordains the end (the salvation of lost sinners) also ordains the means to the end; and that is where prayer, witnessing, good works, and the exercise of the means of grace all come in.

6. The Son covenanted to die for sinners.

Calvary was not a divine afterthought or a stopgap measure devised by a frustrated God who was caught unawares. Calvary was part of God’s eternal purpose. In his powerful sermon at Pentecost, Peter affirmed that Jesus was “delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Our Lord Himself said to His disciples, “For indeed, The Son of Man is going as it has been determined …” (Luke 22:22). The Lamb was “foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20).

When our Lord uttered the prayer recorded in John 17, He looked upon the Cross as a completed ministry. “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.” What kind of a work was this?

To begin with, it was an assigned work. God the Father gave the Son the assignment. It was a part of the “eternal covenant” (Hebrews 13:20, 21) that the Son should die for the sins of the world. While each Person in the Godhead is equal to each of the other Persons, it is still true that each Person has an assigned ministry in the plan of salvation. According to Ephesians 1:1–14, we are chosen by the Father, purchased by the Son, and sealed by the Spirit. We are “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood …” (1 Peter 1:1, 2).

It is interesting to trace in the Gospels the stages in our Lord’s revelation of this assigned work. When the Savior was born, His testimony was, “Behold, I have come … to do Thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). When He was twelve years old, Jesus said to Mary and Joseph when they found Him in the Temple, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” [literally, “in the affairs of My Father”].

Jesus told His disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). When He voluntarily yielded up His life on the cross, He shouted, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

Nobody but Jesus Christ could have accepted this assignment and completed it successfully. The great work of salvation demanded the perfect sacrifice, the spotless Lamb of God. In His love for us, Jesus Christ accepted the assignment and brought it to a successful conclusion.

In other words, the work that He did is a finished work. Nothing need be added to it, and certainly nothing dare be taken from it. When our Lord died on the cross, the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). This announced the end of the Mosaic Law, “for the law made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:19). It also announced the end of the Jewish priesthood, for the priesthood could make no sinner perfect before God (Hebrews 7:11). It declared the end of the sacrificial system, for the sacrifices could make no man perfect (Hebrews 9:9 and 10:1).

Our Lord finished the work of redemption on the cross, returned to heaven, and sat down. The Old Testament priests did not sit down in the sanctuary, for their work was never finished. “But He [Jesus], having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). That phrase “for all time” is in the original Greek “perpetually, continually, forever.”

Since the work of redemption is finished, all that sinners need to do is believe it and accept it for themselves.

His work was an assigned work and a finished work; but it is also a glorious work. “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.” Of course, everything that Jesus did was glorious. Even the common activities of life, like the breaking of bread or the cuddling of a baby, had the touch of glory about them.

When our Lord was born in Bethlehem, the angels announced the event to the shepherds, “and the glory of the Lord shone around them” (Luke 2:9). “We beheld His glory,” confessed John (John 1:14). Even our Lord’s death on the cross was seen in the light of God’s glory: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23).

Sin has robbed man of God’s glory, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The glory of man-flesh-does not last. “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass” (1 Peter 1:24). Great men and women come and go, and yesterday’s heroes are today’s forgotten people. The glory of man is always in the past tense: the glory that was Rome, the glory that was Greece.

The purpose of redemption is the glory of God. There are many blessed by-products of redemption, like the transforming of lives and the restoring of homes; but all of this has as its ultimate goal the glory of God. Our Lord did many mighty works on this earth, and all of them revealed God’s glory (John 2:11). But the greatest and most glorious work He did was the finished work of salvation on the cross. This glorious work was planned before the foundation of the world.

Yes, there are some profound truths in these verses. When we, with human minds and hearts begin to think and meditate on what happened “before the world was,” we soon find ourselves beyond our limit. These truths were not given so that we might debate, but that we might surrender and worship. It is not a big head, but a burning heart, that proves we have grasped something of the meaning of God’s eternal plan.

 

 

Wiersbe, W. W. (1988). Prayer: Basic Training (pp. 41–54). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

holleygerth.com

Put Your Entire Trust In The LORD Our God

When I was little, really little. Like six or seven, I was taught never to trust in man, only God. So I was most surprised when in Genesis 6:5-8, it says 

5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Obviously what I was being taught even at that young age was biblical. 

And then when Jesus said it about us, man as well. 

John 2:23-25

Jesus Knows What Is in Man

 

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go;
    even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Happy happy happy journey all.

Family

You know me LORD JESUS, what I need is Scripture. 

🙂

Are y’all ever in this place of absolute bliss. Lost in the Word of God. Jesus is the Word. The Word is the person of Christ our LORD. It is the story of who our God is. His character and what He wants in us. HE leads us along righteous paths. Nothing is hidden in His eyes. Though we go a step backwards, He still leads forward along His narrow narrow path. It takes decades and decades and decades. It takes long years of study. Herein lies my patience. Patience in the study of God’s Word which leads us along His path of righteousness. Jesus our righteousness. Do y’all know this place. I do. Since a very young young child. In this place you are not popular with the world but hey, God’s love surrounds you and never lets you go. 

Are y’all pushing through all that is in front of you rising higher and deeper in Christ Jesus. I am. It was really painful getting here over the years. Bending and submitting to the Word of God. The time when they gave a sermon on having to be bent in line with Scripture. I cried. I knew this place. Every single one of us, young and old will feel the bending according to the Word. This is if if if you submit to Christ our LORD. We truly are so lost without the Word. Without Christ. We walk along the winding road that takes us to places that are not worthy of Christ. Y’all been there and done that. Even today, it’s a battle in the mind. Here is where I’m at. The bending is in the mind. In line with the Word. Herein lies my fight. But to keep all of Christ in the mind leads to His holy righteous path of peace and contentment. Where you can sit down and enjoy Christ. Is this a process. It so must be. hahahahahahahaha It’s been a long long journey along life arduous called life. 

Do you think the paths we will walk along in eternity will look like this with the glory of the LORD a constant. Yes, of course the LORD’s glory is a constant but will it look like this forevermore. Those of us that have gone and are going and will be gone. And then when it’s our turn. I’m blessed. Beyond measure. I walk with the greats of the Word. Those teachers. This is what I see. 

It’s all pure bright white light. People want to know what it looks like. What it looks like when we die. I have been asked so many times. 

Jesus is the Light. 

I was taught that colour other than light is a reflection of our dimmed vision. 

I’m sinking deeper and deeper and deeper into the Word of God to seek Him in His high places. Looking up from the depth of the Word. 

Can you see how your teacher gets you to see a clearer vision of who our God is. To know His heart. To know Him. Though the path taken is hard and to submit my life all my life according to His precepts and His ordinances and statutes. They made fun of Isaiah so I suppose they will make fun of me. There is victory in this place. There is absolute bliss and contentment. There is love in Christ Jesus. True love. And then everything and everyone beside you just falls into place.

Those who know me know me in this place but those who do not know me at all, well, they just do not know me at all. Not at all.