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10-29-14 Justification

10/29/2014

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Romans 5:1

When the Spirit of God woos us to Himself in His ministry of conviction and we respond to His offer of grace in salvation, we have peace with God through Christ. Having been made righteous by the will of God, through the substitutionary atonement of Christ, we no longer stand condemned before God, but rather we stand justified before Him.

While the human system of religion teaches that man can be made right with God through human efforts of self‑goodness and morality, the Word of God assures us that he cannot. God gives us clear instruction that man is not justified or made righteous by any works of the law or demonstrations of the flesh. He reminds us that it is impossible for man, in the flesh, to ever please God. It is only faith in Jesus Christ that enables man to be acceptable in God’s sight.

The gospel message, as found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, is that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. He was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. Is it any wonder that the event of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the victory song of the believer?

Because we have been justified through faith in His blood, we have been rescued from His wrath against sin, unrighteousness and rebellion. We have been translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son and have become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Our eternal future is secure, and our positional peace with God is the cornerstone of biblical hope and practical joy.

Those who have been justified by faith in their position with Christ at salvation are to subsequently live by faith in their daily practice as well. As the Word of God instructs us on how to respond to God through faith in Christ, so it instructs us on how to live for God through faith in Christ. As His Word is our only source of both faith and practice, we will consistently examine every aspect of our lives under the scrutiny of the Scriptures. We will compare our attitudes, behavior and communication with those of the son of God and make the changes necessary to bring our lives into conformity to His thus glorifying God by being like Jesus.

(c) 1993, 2007 N.A.Collins
Limited copy permission for one personal file copy

10-22-14 Confidence

10/22/2014

...in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength... Isaiah 30:15b

In the hustle and bustle of the busy world system, there are many days in which there is often a lack of confidence in anything or anyone. Sometimes people find themselves questioning their own goals and motives and begin to ask whether there is any stable value system worthy of their confidence and trust.

What a wonderful HOPE in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only in confident quietness before Him, because of Who He is, that blood‑bought believers are able to come to the place of both rest and strength.

Think with me about REST and STRENGTH. Do those two words sound like they would mean the same thing? Actually, one provides for the other. Confidence must always be in WHO God is. He gives real rest to our own hearts as I cease the labor of attempting to do what only He can do. The “rest” of confident trust in Him, through the ministry of His indwelling Spirit, provides me with the desire, ability and strength to obediently live in ways that please Him.

It is HIS grace that provides HIS strength for moment by moment obedience to Him in my life. In the heat of an interpersonal problem with sinful anger welling up inside of me, it is HIS Spirit and HIS strength that remind me from 2 Timothy 2:24 that the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be apt to teach in a demonstration of Christlike gentleness and patience. It is HIS strength by HIS Spirit that brings me to answer lovingly and describe appropriate steps of biblical action to resolve human conflict.

   CONFIDENCE IN GOD

Quietly relying upon HIS grace and strength as I obey Him, to accomplish His will in my life, moment by moment, hour by hour, and day by day.

May God help me today to confidently rest in active obedience to His Word.

                                    (c) 1992, 2014 N.A.Collins
                 Limited copy permission for one personal file copy

10-15-14 Doubt

10/15/2014

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?  Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it,  Why hast thou made me thus?
Romans 9:20

How can I, the creation of God, attempt to correct or counsel the sovereign, all-wise God, the Creator of the universe, Whose ways are perfect?

Faith is required to please God, and even my prayer requests need to be scriptural and in line with the thoughts of God. His thoughts are higher than mine, and if I communicate with Him from my earthly vantage point, I often will have wrong human expectations and thus pray with doubting. If I will recognize that God cannot lie and is eternally faithful to His infallible Word, I can pray His Word back to Him, in faith, and without doubting. When that change occurs in our prayer life, I will trust Him implicitly, find my joy in Him alone, take my hands off of my life, submit to God, serve others and leave the results of my obedience in His all-wise hands. Then I will pray in faith without doubting.

A heart of unbelief departs from the living God, and my unbelief is rooted in my failure to employ absolute confidence in the eternal character and nature of God. Fear in my life is merely an indication of having made that sinful transference in my thinking, thus giving the demonstration of little faith.

The Bible teaches us that I am either FOR God or AGAINST Him, and that there is no middle road. If I will have
the most intimate of fellowship with Him on earth, and will ultimately enter Heaven , it must be that my walk is consistent with my talk since Matthew 7 teaches me that it is the DOING of God’s will that pleases Him, not simply SAYING, “Lord, Lord.”

As I identify areas of unbelief in my own heart, my immediate prayer response ought to be that of the father in Mark 9, “…Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” The subsequent action following that prayer response to God must be consistent with trusting His ways to be perfect and praising Him for how He is working all things together for the good purpose of conforming me to the image of His Son.

                                    (C) 1986, 2014 N.A.Collins
                   Copy permission limited to one personal file copy

10-8-14 Secular Humanism

10/8/2014

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,  after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2:8

We live in a world that is largely committed to self-pleasure and autonomous living. Folks are often encouraged to “take care of #1,” “please themselves at the expense of others,” etc. Feelings of self‑worth and emotions of self-love have overtaken commitments to holiness and godliness. Humanistic philosophy and media influence have directed us toward a system of judgment based upon how we feel about things, more than that which God declares on any particular matter. All too often, men judge the Word of God by the faulty standard of their human feelings and emotions. Rather, they should be judging their actions by the inerrant and eternal Word of God.

What can we do to turn this position around? The Bible reminds us that we can earnestly contend for the faith, endure trials with joy, thank God for the opportunity to suffer for righteousness sake and be an accurate ambassador for Christ. Our strength and joy will come from our own personal intimate fellowship with Christ through studying and applying His Word. In Ecclesiastes 5:8, God has promised to right all wrongs and to fulfill His obligatory promise for equity and justice in due time.

In a world that is looking to find some meaning for it all, born again believers ought to be giving a demonstration of biblical hope as well as knowing the Bible reason for that hope when folks ask, as seen in 1 Peter 3:15.

The passage shown above reminds us that we must be very careful not to be swept away by the philosophy of an unregenerate world. Natural men do not understand or desire the guidance of the Spirit by the Word. So why do we who have received Christ and been regenerated by the Spirit reject His message? Why do we kick against the Truth? Why do we struggle in resentment, resistance and rebellion?

May God help us today to be concerned about our personal faithfulness to God in sacrificial obedience to His Holy Word. Then may we execute practical faithfulness in sacrificial service to others for their eternal profit.

                                    (c) 1986 N. A. Collins
                 Limited copy permission for one personal file copy

10-1-14 The Mercies of God

10/1/2014

It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed,  because His compassions fail not.
Lamentations 3:22

The compassionate heart of my faithful God is renewed each day. It is because of His great mercy and compassion that He has loved me and called me to glory and virtue. He has saved me by His grace and brought me into His family. i now wear His name and am to accurately bear His image.

It is from His great heart of love that He invited me to come boldly to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. My prayer request, like the psalmist of old, ought to be that the mercy of God satisfy me early that I may rejoice and be glad all my days. When He satisfies the deepest longings of my heart with Himself, joy overflows my being, and a clear declaration of His mercy is seen by all who watch.

By the substitutionary atonement of His Son on Calvary, He has shown mercy, retained His justice, and yet justified the one who has believed in Jesus. The good and merciful hand of God is leading me through life by the counsel of His Word, and afterward He will receive me into glory, to dwell with God forever.

Our response to His mercy is demonstrated as we:

   1.   Do justly

Live out my life in accordance with the revealed will of God, obedient to the Scriptures and walking in such a way that others see the Savior.

   2.   Love mercy

Deal interpersonally in ways of self-denial and forgiveness to imitate the pattern of the mercies of God to me.

   3.   Walk humbly

Live sacrificially willing to please God and profit others more than myself.

May God help me to demonstrate the mercies of God in my life this very day.

                                            (C) 1992 N.A.Collins
                    Limited copy permission for one personal file copy

10-29-14 Justification

10-22-14 Confidence

10-15-14 Doubt

10-8-14 Secular Humanism

10-1-14 The Mercies of God

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