Faith Joy & Coffee

The Word Says:
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Verse Thoughts:

There is a reason that Paul is calling those that are born of the Spirit to keep their hearts and minds focussed on heavenly things and not on earthy pursuits and interests. It is because we have been raised up into a new life in Christ because we are Christ’s spiritual seed, because we have become a brand new creation, and because we have exchanged our former earthly residency for a glorious new citizenship which is reserved for us in heaven.

Christ was resurrected from the dead 2000 years ago, and because you and I would one day also trust in the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, we ALSO were raised into newness of life at that time, just like all those who down through the centuries would one day trust in Him as their Saviour. We, who are His ‘spiritual seed’ so to speak, were ‘in Christ’ when He was raised from the dead, and so we also were raised with Him on that day.

When Christ rose from the dead, we too were raised up at the same time into a new life, as a new creation in Christ. You see before the creation of the world, the omnipotent God foreknew which men and women, down through the centuries, would choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. And so although there was a point in time when, having heard the gospel of grace, we trusted Jesus as Saviour and were born again into His new life. God foreknew that we would one day make that freewill choice!

Since we have been raised to a new life in Christ and since, by God’s grace, we have been clothed in Christ’s righteousness, given the free gift of eternal life, been showered with every spiritual blessing, received a heavenly inheritance, and been seated with Christ in heavenly places, we are called to set our heart and mind on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. And the astonishing thing is that because we are in Christ by virtue of our faith in Him, we too are seated in heavenly places, for we are in Christ.

It is for this reason that we are called to keep our minds on things that are above, and not to be influenced by the things of the earth. We are to live by trusting in Jesus and not by trusting in our own abilities. We are to find our sufficiency in Christ, knowing that in this world we will have tribulation, but Christ has overcome the world and we have a priceless inheritance, a beautiful inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade away. An inheritance that is kept in heaven, especially for you.

The Word Says:
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Verse Thoughts:
How important that we hold this world’s wealth and wisdom, together with position and power very lightly, for what we treasure in our hearts will become that which we worship.

We brought nothing into this world and will take nothing out of it and yet too often we spend the majority of our time accumulating unimportant things and glorifying in the gaudy trinkets of this temporal world, at the expense of storing up a heavenly wealth of God’s glorious blessings, as part of our eternal heritage.

Oh, our eternal life is a free gift of grace, but we have the opportunity to lay up for ourselves treasure in our heavenly home. We can live a life where our focus is on the good things of this life or we can keep the eyes of our heart focussed on the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness.

When we treasure the things of this world, our heart is far from the Lord, but when He becomes the greatest Treasure of our lives, our heart will worship at His feet in grateful thanksgiving and praise.

The love of earthly treasure is a root of all kinds of evil, which can cause the believer to wander from the good news of the gospel of grace It can cause us to forfeit many of the rich blessings that God desires for each of His children to receive.

Let us treasure the things of the Lord, and unrelentingly pursue after righteousness and godliness, faith and love, perseverance and gentleness, humility of heart and joy in the Lord, for when our treasure is rooted and grounded in Jesus, then our heart will be anchored to the Rock of our eternal salvation.

The Word Says:
“Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.” – Psalms 25:5 –

Verse Thoughts:
Lead me in thy truth – In the way which thou regardest as truth, or which thou seest to be true. Truth is eternal and unchanging. What God sees and regards as truth is true, because he sees things as they are; and when we have the divine estimate of anything, we understand what the thing is. It is not that he makes it to be true, but that he sees it to be true. Such is the perfection of His nature that we have the utmost assurance that what God regards as truth is truth; what He proclaims to be right is right. It is then His truth, as He adopts it for the rule of His own conduct, and makes it known to His creatures to guide them.

And teach me – Since this would be understood by the psalmist, it would be a prayer that God would teach him by His law as then made known; by His Spirit in the heart; by the dispensations of His providence. As applicable to us, it is a prayer that He would instruct us by all the truths then made known, and all that have since been revealed; by His Spirit in its influences on our hearts; by the events which are occurring around us; by the “accumulated” truth of ages; the knowledge which by all the methods He employs He has imparted to people for their guidance and direction.

For thou art the God of my salvation – The word “salvation” is not to be understood here in the sense in which it is now commonly used, as denoting deliverance from sin and future ruin, but in the more general sense of “deliverance” – deliverance from danger and death. The phrase is synonymous with “preservation,” and the idea is that the psalmist regarded God as his preserver; or that he owed his protection and safety in the time of danger to Him alone.

On thee do I wait – That is, I rely on Thee; or, I am dependent on Thee. He had no other source of reliance or dependence.

All the day – Continually, always. He was really dependent upon Him at all times, and he felt that dependence. It is always true that we are dependent upon God for everything; it is not true that we always feel this. It was a characteristic of the piety of the psalmist that he did feel this.

The Word Says:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” – 2 Peter 1:4 –

Verse Thoughts:
What privilege to know that through His divine power, God has given every believer in Christ Jesus our Lord, ALL we need that pertain to life and godliness, and it is appropriated through a knowledge of Him.

God has already equipped us with the power to live a victorious Christian life, to live our lives as He intended us to live, in total dependence on Him. And His divine power is accessed through a knowledge of Him Who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light!

Some of the things that God has given us which enable His divine power to be manifested in our lives are His great and precious promises, the magnificent promises of God that are recorded in the Scriptures, for it is through them that we “become partakers of the divine nature,” because we are one with Christ.

We do NOT ‘become little gods’ as false ‘prosperity gospel’ proponents proclaim and as ‘word of faith’ teachers in Christendom outrageously teach today. We only receive His divine power because we are accepted in the Beloved. His divine power is not of ourselves but comes from our Father in heaven, through believing His Word.

His divine power is only ours on account of our union with Christ, by grace through faith in His finished work at Calvary. His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness and comes through a true knowledge of Him.

It is by trusting His Word, by believing that His great and precious promises are true, and by acting on that knowledge by faith, that we may partake of His divine power.

Praise God that by faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice, we have escaped the corruption that is in the world. Praise Him that He has granted us great and precious promises so that through believing His Word we may become partakers of His divine power, as we abide in Him and He in us.

The Word Says:
“If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us:”

Verse Thoughts:
As believers, we have been given many precious promises – not only those that relate to our justification but also promises in connection with our sanctification. At salvation, we were born again at a particular time and particular place. At salvation, we were justified by faith in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and life everlasting. At salvation, we were transferred from the kingdom of Satan in the kingdom of God, but as born-again children of God, we also have many promises connected with our ongoing, lifelong sanctification.

The process of sanctification starts the moment we are saved by grace through faith in Christ and continues to our life’s end. And here in the book of Timothy, we find that this teaching from Paul is about our ongoing sanctification and spiritual maturity.

As members of Christ’s Body, we are His representatives here on earth and are called to suffer hardship as good soldiers of Christ. We are not to get entangled in the everyday affairs of the world. We are to remain loyal and obedient to our heavenly Commander-in-Chief through the empowerment of His Holy Spirit.

Paul also likens the maturing Christian to a dedicated athlete who trains hard to win the prize… or to a tenacious farmer who having diligently sown some seed, waits patiently for the crop to germinate, grow, bud, blossom, and produce much good fruit. Christians are promised rewards of gold, silver, precious stone, and heavenly crowns, if we live our lives as the Bible instructs.

Paul is teaching the important principle of hard work, willing obedience, and patient endurance in the Christian life – even in the midst of suffering and pain. He reminds us that because of our identification with Christ’s death, burial, and Resurrection, we have won the victory. Because we are identified with his death, we are saved from the penalty of sin – our justification. Because we are identified with his life, we are being saved from the power of sin throughout our Christian life – through the ongoing process of sanctification.

Paul tells of the paradox that death leads to life, weeping comes before joy, the cross is carried before the crown is worn… and suffering for Christ leads us to reign with Him in glory. But every believer has the free-will to choose to either, suffer hardship as a faithful servant of Christ or to try to escape life’s problems by denying the Lord His right to govern their life. The first results in a victorious Christian life while the latter leads to a defeated Christian life – saved but suffering loss of heavenly rewards.

Sadly, believers who are not prepared to suffer for Christ’s sake deny the Lord Who bought them. They spurn God’s promise that His grace is sufficient. They refuse to trust in the Lord with all their heart. This is living in unbelief. It is a blatant denial of the Lord. Every believer is bought with a price – the precious blood of Christ, but if we deny Him His right to our life through unbelief or carnality, we are warned that He will deny us.

OH! We are not denied eternal life which is a free gift of God’s grace to all who believe that Christ died to pay the penalty for their sin. Paul tells us that those He justified He glorified. However, we can be denied our reward. We can be saved by grace through faith, justification, while being denied the wonderful reward that we have been promised when we suffer for His sake, through the sanctification process, that is.

Paul is addressing maturing believers in this verse. He explains that although we are saved by faith and nothing can change our eternal destiny, we are required to live by faith and grow by faith. We are to grow in grace, walk in spirit and truth, mature in the faith, live godly in Christ Jesus, and to live our lives in a way that honours the Lord. And if we do this, we are promised a reward.

We are to follow His command like a good soldier. We are to persevere in the arduous race of life like a committed athlete. We are to work diligently, faithfully, patiently, and enduringly like the stolid farmer who tills and toils and plants and waits for the precious harvest. And if we suffer with Christ, we will reign with Him.

Every Christian is called to be a spiritual believer. Every Christian is expected to walk in spirit and truth, so that our lives are honouring to the Lord. None of these things are easy but God has promised to reward all who suffer for His name’s sake. Let us not be found wanting in our Christian walk, for if we deny Him, He will deny us. We will be saved, but denied our promised reward. Let us take this severe warning to heart, live our lives to His praise and glory, and to be prepared to suffer for love of our Saviour Who bought us with His precious blood.

The Word Says:
“O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

Verse Thoughts:
This lovely psalm explodes into a song of thanksgiving to God, because His mercy and love endures forever. But it is a psalm which, verse by verse, continues to build up to a crescendo of grateful thanks as it lists the many things that God has done for His people, Israel, and the many ways that He has responded to their cry for help. Although this is a psalm that lists the many ways that God responded to their needs and sheltered them from their enemies, it also targets in on the truth of God’s steadfast love.

God redeemed Israel from their enemies. He heard and responded to their cries when they were alone in the wilderness or far away from their home and loved ones. He fed them when hungry, gave them drink when they were thirsty, and refreshed their weary souls when their hearts were fainting. He responded to their cries and poured out gracious goodness to them, even when they rebelled against the Word of the Lord or proudly forged-out their own pathway.

In this beautiful song of praise, Israel recognised that the goodness of God was not dependent on them but on His everlasting faithfulness – His eternal grace – His loving kindness, which is never-ending. They understood that the Lord hears every cry of their heart and that He alone responds to their pleas and brings them through their troubles and trials.

This is not only a psalm of the past that celebrates Israel’s grateful thanks to their faithful God Whose steadfast love endured forever, but it is a hymn of praise for the present, it is a song of thanksgiving that the Church age can chorus with equal gusto and grateful hearts. Not only does this lovely psalm explode into a song of thanksgiving, but concludes with the pronouncement that all who are wise will see that God’s steadfast love toward Israel is the same faithful love, yesterday, today, and forever.

It was Paul who encouraged us to give thanks in everything – so let our hearts and voices explode into a great hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the LORD, for He is good and His steadfast love endures forever, for His faithfulness extends throughout time and into the far reaches of eternity.

The Word Says:
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;”

Verse Thoughts:
Legalism boasts in oneself to keep rules and regulations, but grace boasts only in the Lord. Keeping laws or rituals, whether self-imposed or insisted upon by a denomination or organisation, inflates the ego, for our sufficiency is dependent on my abilities and what I do. However, the gospel of grace nurtures humility, for it admits one’s own inabilities and insufficiencies and depends completely on God and His abilities and sufficiency: “For we are not competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence and sufficiency comes from God.”

When God calls a man or woman into a work that He has prepared for them to do, it is God Who works in them and through them. Our own ability is always insufficient for the task and so we have to rely on God’s abilities, for our sufficiency is from Him alone.

Without the sufficiency of Christ, I can do nothing for it is only as God works in me, to will and to do His good pleasure, that I can do all things through Christ because He gives me His strength by the power of the Holy Spirit within, because my sufficiency is in HIM alone.

Self-importance, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, self-esteem, and a self-inflated ego are what the world sees as important but in truth, our life should be one of God-importance, God-sufficiency, God-reliance, God-esteem, and a gentle spirit of humility and grace – for we can never ever be sufficient in ourselves and claim anything as coming from us, for our sufficiency is from God alone.

When we realise that we can do nothing of ourselves, we can finally take the pressure off ourselves and instead rest fully in the capable arms of the Lord. It is only then that we realise like Paul that: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Let us stop relying on self and start living in total dependence on God, Who is all sufficient, and Who will work through us: “Both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

The Word Says:
“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Verse Thoughts:
The command to overcome evil with good is one of the most fundamental aspects of the Christian faith. While it was considered foolishness to the ancient world, followers of Jesus are called to weaponized love and goodness. It is encouraging first to know that God has given us a cause and a way to resist evil, and not be overcome by it. There is no evil that can overcome us. Jesus said the gates of Hades cannot stand against his church. This means that we are not to passively sit still like a bulwark against the onslaught of evil, but rather we are to take the fight to darkness, bringing the light with us. We are to storm the gates of hell with our weapons of warfare, which is goodness and love.

Practically, if someone is evil towards us, we are to return blessing. Step one is to forgive them. Step two is to bless and even give love to them, speaking and acting with kindness. First of all, this attitude will make us impervious, spiritually and emotionally, to evil. The goal of evil is to bring us down and turn us from God. If we forgive and bless our persecutors, then they fail in their goal. Secondly, this attitude will eventually drive back the evil, the darkness, right through the gates of hell. In all the best movies, the good guys eventually win, because that principle is hardwired into the creation. We know that eventually Jesus is going to return, and evil will finally be overcome once and for all. Evil is on borrowed time. Satan is already defeated, and while he still is dangerous, we in the Church have been charged with plundering his house. We are to do this with goodness and love.

The Word Says:
“And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”

Verse Thoughts:
When we get our eyes off the Lord, our eyes are on the wrong things.

The believers in Corinth had taken their eyes off the Lord and were arguing about the qualities or deficiencies of their favourite teachers and preachers. Some preferred Paul’s style, and others were more partial to Apollos or Peter. How foolish it was of them to take their eyes off the singular subject of Scripture and squabble about the credentials of the messengers.

God is no respecter of persons, for we are all one in Christ and He alone should be the focus of our discourse, discussion, and delight. How these few words place worldly wisdom and human heralds in their proper perspective: “You are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.”

What astonishing abundance to realise that all things in Christ are ours. And what a great responsibility to realise that we are all in Christ, we are all of Christ, and we all belong to Christ. We are all part of His Body, and His Body is not divided up into little scattered and unrelated groups, but one family of God,  in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are His representatives on earth and as part of His Body, we are witnesses to the goodness and grace of God. Let us be united in our mission and ministry so that we are all one in Christ, for we are all Christ’s and Christ is God’s.