Archive | April 2023

Chaplain’s Corner – Jesus’ Promise of Salvation

Apr26

“All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (John 6:37).

We have been learning about the promises in the Bible. These promises are also known as covenants. The covenants we live under as believers are also known as grace, because they are not conditional on anything we do, only on the work of our LORD Jesus Christ. However, God’s covenants with Adam and Moses, as described in this year’s January 18 and February 8 Chaplain’s Corners, were works-based. They required perfect obedience to God and to the Law, which were impossible for man. Failure to be perfectly obedient resulted in the curse of death. While this sounds harsh, this points us to the perfect justice and mercy of God, who through by his grace, made a better way for us to be in relationship with Him.

Praise God for the covenants of grace, which pointed to a Savior who would save us from the curse of death. Jesus himself, as he was on the way to Jerusalem to be crucified, declared, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This was his life mission. We first heard him declare it as a young man when he told his parents “And He said to them, ‘Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’” (Luke 2:49).

As the Savior, Jesus is calling to us. The Apostle Paul heard the call: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).

But salvation is not automatic. Jesus makes it possible; he has done the work. But we must receive this marvelous gift. Jesus can deliver us from the curse of eternal death and welcome us into the joy of eternal life with him, but we must open the door. Just say yes.

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Rev. 3:20).

In Christ,

Judy

Chaplain’s Corner – Jesus’ Promise of Peace

Apr19

“…Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’” (Luke 24:36).

Jesus made this statement to his disciples after his resurrection. Luke reports that after Jesus appeared to two of the disciples who were traveling along the road to Emmaus discussing all the events that had transpired regarding Jesus’ crucifixion and the discovery of his empty tomb, then he showed up in the midst of all the disciples, startling them. He told them, “Peace be with you.”

This is more than a pronouncement of a blessing. This is a state of being. Peace is absence of hostility; it is reconciliation. It is unity with our fellow Christians and with God. It is only possible through the work of Jesus. As the apostle Paul explains, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Most of us want more peace; and if we have it, we want to keep it. When my life seems anything but peaceful, whether it is because of circumstances around me or concerns within, one of my “go to” verses is from Isaiah “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3). What sound advice! When my peace is compromised for any reason, I need to turn to the LORD; I must renew my mind by meditating on His Word and being thankful for His blessings. Here are some verses about peace that will help us to claim this promise of peace.

Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be our Prince of Peace.

When Jesus was born, the angels announced, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Jesus made this promise before his crucifixion: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).  

The Apostle Paul proclaimed that in Him, we have “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding” to “guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). 

So, when we are fretting or lamenting the state of the world today, the state of unrest in which we all live, let us then turn our hearts to praise our Lord and Savior who has reconciled us to him so that we can rest in the only sure thing, His Peace.

 “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14).

In Christ,

Judy

Chaplain’s Corner – Jesus’ Promise of Rest

Apr12

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

This is a hard promise to lean on for me. I bet it is for you. I want to throw myself into everything, hold myself responsible for everything, control everything, and generally wear myself out. I am not as bad as I used to be, but still have some work to do. It is hard for me to relax for very long. I imagine you can identify. You may say it is impossible with your work schedule along with the demands of family, church, and home. But Jesus tells us to come to him and he will give us rest. This is just another one of God’s many promises to us.

This is a message more about worry than work. We are going to have work to do. We must work out our salvation in fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). We must work for the night is coming (John 9:4). We are told to go, tell, baptize, and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Paul said, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35).

But, we are not to be anxious. We work, but God provides (Philippians 4:19). We labor in the Lord’s work, but it is he who gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:7). We work out our salvation in fear and trembling, but our justification before God is already accomplished (Ephesians 1:7). As Jesus tells us from the cross: “It is finished.”

  • There is nothing we can add to our lives that God has not already ordained.
  • There is nothing we can provide for our children that God has not already set aside.
  • There is nothing we can offer to the Lord that has not already been established.
  • There is nothing we can do to accomplish our salvation or standing before the Lord that He has not already committed. He has already promised to finish what he started. In fact, “he has done it” (Psalm 22:31).

So, we can do our work with a glad and thankful heart, with grace, and always with patience and kindness knowing that the love of God abounds in our hearts. Or we can do our work in a tizzy, anxiously, complaining, fearful, always wishing for something better. It is a choice.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding I the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

The fourth commandment is “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.” God knew that we would need a day of rest. It is interesting that this commandment is not continued in the New Testament. Instead, Jesus is becomes our Sabbath rest when we believe Him. “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest….” (Hebrews 4:1-3a).

To finish out Jesus’ promise to us in Matthew 11: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30).

In Christ,

Judy

Chaplain’s Corner – Jesus’ Promise of Eternal Life

Apr5

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die’” (John 11:25-26).

“They” say nothing is certain but death and taxes. But perhaps “they” are not totally correct. No one can argue that between birth and death we experience life. But what does Jesus mean when he says that we will live even though we die, and that we will never die if we believe in Him? What is this life he is promising?

First, let us get the context. The verse begins with “Jesus said to her.” To whom is he speaking? He is speaking to his dear friend Martha who is grieving the death of her brother Lazarus. And what happens next? He raises Lazarus from the dead. This miraculous event happened shortly before the week we call Holy Week (the week we are currently celebrating). This miraculous event happened shortly before Jesus himself would be crucified and then resurrected from the dead–the event we continue to celebrate on Easter and every Sunday.

So, one definition of this “life” would be the resurrected life, that is, life after our physical death. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). But Jesus really means more than that. As of the moment we believe in Jesus as our savior, we become new creations. “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:15-17)

When we choose Jesus, we die to sin. “The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:10-11). When we die to sin, in Christ we become alive to God. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10). That sounds great, but for many of us, nothing seems to change. We accept Jesus as our Savior, and then we go back home.  We go back home to the same house, the same job, the same family and friends, the same debts, the same health issues. But we really are different in so many ways.

How do we claim these benefits of the resurrected life? It is like this. True story: I received a gift card for Christmas. I put it in my wallet and forgot all about it. Honestly, I didn’t even look at it until this past weekend. Now, some three months later, I came across it, and was so pleasantly surprised and immediately used it. The gift card has been in my possession for three months, but only now have I benefitted from it because I claimed its benefits. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is in our possession, but until we make use of it, we are not enjoying the benefits. We must lay hold of the prize. “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:2)

Jesus promises us a life far better than we could ever imagine, a concept reminiscent of 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” The apostle Paul tells us that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, and He does it by His power, a power that is at work within us if we belong to Him (Ephesians 3:20).

What is the abundant life? First, abundance is spiritual abundance, not material. In fact, God is not overly concerned with the physical circumstances of our lives. If that were the case, Jesus would have been the wealthiest of men. But just the opposite is true. He did not even have a place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). He assures us that we need not worry about what we will eat or wear (Matthew 6:25-32; Philippians 4:19). True abundant life consists of an abundance of love, joy, peace, and the rest of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), not an abundance of “stuff.” Physical blessings may or may not be part of a God-centered life; neither our wealth nor our poverty is a sure indication of our standing with God. Solomon had all the material blessings available to a man yet found it all to be meaningless (Ecclesiastes 5:10-15). Paul, on the other hand, was content in whatever physical circumstances he found himself (Philippians 4:11-12).

Second, abundant life is eternal life, a life that begins the moment we come to Christ and receive Him as Savior and goes on throughout all eternity. The biblical definition of life — specifically eternal life — is provided by Jesus Himself: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). This definition makes no mention of length of days, health, prosperity, family, or occupation. As a matter of fact, the only thing it does mention is knowledge of God, which is the key to a truly abundant life. A Christian’s life revolves around “grow[ing] in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). This teaches us that the abundant life is a continual process of learning, practicing, and maturing, as well as failing, recovering, adjusting, enduring, and overcoming. One day we will see God face to face, and we will know Him completely as we will be known completely (1 Corinthians 13:12). We will no longer struggle with sin and doubt. This will be the ultimately fulfilled abundant life.

Eternal life, the life a Christian is truly concerned with, is not determined by duration but by a relationship with God. This is why, once we are converted and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are said to have eternal life already (1 John 5:11-13), though not, of course, in its fullness. Length of life on earth is not synonymous with abundant life. Paul admonishes us, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:2-3).

“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:18-19).

In Christ,

Judy

Reference: https://www.gotquestions.org/abundant-life.html