“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 1:20).

All of the Chaplain’s Corners in 2023 have been based on promises in the Bible. These promises and their fulfillment reveal the foundations of our theology and doctrinal knowledge. In other words, these promises tell us about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit: The Trinity; the character of God, the attributes of God, the goodness, justice, mercy, grace, and love of God.

This final promise from this series is in the passage below: Our inheritance. To properly receive an inheritance, the provider of the inheritance has to die. Jesus’ death has secured for us an inheritance, and Jesus’ resurrection has guaranteed that our inheritance is eternal. My prayer for you is that you have secured this promise by receiving the gift of salvation through faith in Christ.

^“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Glory be to God!

Amen and Amen!!

In Christ,

Judy

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

We celebrate the coming of Jesus at Christmas time; that is where we get the term “advent,” which means coming in Latin.  However, as we dig deeply into the Scriptures, we realize that Jesus, son of God, one of the three persons of the Trinity, as been with us all along. In fact, the first verse of the chapter quoted above reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Is this a contradiction? How can we celebrate His coming if He has always been here? The answer seems to be that verse 14 above is referring to is the incarnation of Christ.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines incarnation as “that act of grace whereby Christ took our human nature into union with his Divine Person, became man. Christ is both God and man. The union is hypostatical, i.e., is personal; the two natures are not mixed or confounded, and it is perpetual.”

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Notice the two little, seemingly inconsequential words underlined above: “so that.” These words explain a lot. We know that Jesus’s death on the cross was the atonement for our sins. In other words, he paid all the fines and penalties and punishments forever for all the sins of the world. He paid it all by his death on the cross. But the reason that His death had the power to accomplish this is because of his humanity. He was fully human, yet lived a perfect life, a life that none of us is capable of living in our humanity.

God demands perfection. “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy” Leviticus 11:44).  Only by living a life of perfect obedience in this world can we hope to achieve eternal life. The law was given to show His expectations, which none of us can fulfill. As the scripture reads: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a).

It would seem that we have no hope, but then we get the Good News of God’s gift to us!  “…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23b). “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He was the perfect lamb, the perfect sacrifice. As prophesied by Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

We know that Jesus died for our sins so that we, by receiving, can have eternal life. But his death could not have achieved this purpose without his first coming to us in human form—the incarnation—and living the perfect life, as the perfect role model and the perfect sacrifice, once and for all.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2).

In Christ,

Judy

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

As I was walking around the campus last week, watching and listening, I heard and felt so many emotions from our staff. A couple of you had literally saved lives in the last few hours, and that is just what I myself had witnessed. I know that these desperate interventions are all too common and occur every day all day. The fragility of life and the extreme emotional and physical struggles each of you see on a daily basis can wear you down. Even though you know intellectually that God is good, and His mercies endure forever, it may sometimes seem like a distant, academic reality, rather than up close and personal and timely.

We have heard of the principle of the “Law of the Harvest,” more often expressed as “you reap what you sow.” This usually is offered negatively, as in the consequences of disobedience. But this principle is neutral on its face–neither negative or positive, or perhaps we should say both negative and positive. Since we know all too well the negative implications, let us focus on the positive implications. The Bible includes many passages about the rewards of obedience. I suggest that we all meditate on these verses until they become imprinted on our hearts.

• Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. (Deuteronomy 5:33)
• But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love… (Psalm 33:18)
• Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. (Psalm 34:9-10)
• Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. (Hosea 10:12)
• But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. (Luke 6:35)
•  Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. (James 3:18)
• Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. (1 John 3:21-22)

I hope to encourage you to keep on keeping on. We know from 1 Corinthians that love always perseveres; it never fails. But we can only do this under the power of the Holy Spirit. So how do we receive this power?

1. Prayer: Pray for yourself, pray for each other, pray for those we serve. I commit to pray for each of you.
2. Meditate on God’s Word: I can attest to the power of the Scriptures to be a sufficient authority for all things pertaining to faith and godliness; the final and inspired authority from God.
3. Remember that God sees everything. Even when you think that your efforts are inconsequential or insufficient (my typical reaction), remember that Jesus said that if we do it for the least of these, it is as if we are doing it for Him.
4. In everything you think, do, and say, seek the Lord and His righteousness. Make Him the desire of your heart. And like Paul, you will be able to say “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: ‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.’ Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (1 Corinthians 9:6-11).

In Christ,

Judy