Listening to the Word

Job 34; 1 Corinthians 4-6   “…Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 When we are living in sin, we cannot be pleasing the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit of God that is at work in washing, sanctifying, and justifying us before God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are unable to clean ourselves up without the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Addictions pull us back into destructive habits and drive us to do and think things we feel powerless to stop. We require a greater power to break the power of sin in our lives! We have been given authority in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God, to resist sin, tempta...

Job 33; 1 Corinthians 1-3 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength…None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 1:25; 2:8 Satan and his kingdom do not understand the cross and the willing surrender of our lives for love. The rulers of this age similarly exercise their power and authority and try to hide their weaknesses. To daily ‘take up our cross’ and follow Christ, requires that we daily testify to our weakness, vulnerability, and death-to-self, for the sake of following and knowing Christ. This is foolish, not just to the world, but to most Christians! Satan would not have motivated the betrayal and death of Jesus had he known what the death and resurrection of Christ would accomplish. Similarly, we must receive the Holy Spirit to receive the wisdom of daily humbling ourselves before God and others for the sake of God’s grace and g...

Job 30; Psalms 120; Galatians 3-4   “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba Father.’ So, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4:4-7 So many Christians do not know who they are in Christ. When the gospel is presented as the answer to a sin-problem and a ticket to heaven, we shortchange people. The gospel requires us to be set free from the bondage of sin and self-centered living so that we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and a new identity in Christ as sons and daughters of the King, our Father. As sons and daughters we are heirs of salvation and the fullness of God’s kingdom. We have been given authority in Christ to resist the world, our sinful nature, and the devil. We have access to the thr...

Job 31-32; Galatians 5-6 “’I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl…If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit – let God weigh me in honest scales…if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled, then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.’” Job 31:1, 5-8 In Job’s final words, we read of his understanding that sin has consequences. We reap what we sow. Lust, deceit, injustice, greed, idolatry, unforgiveness, and concealing sin all have consequences. Job understood that; do we? We misunderstand grace when we believe there are no consequences for confessed sin. The harvest of sin often has to be faced. It is that pain that produces good fruit in our lives as we humble ourselves before God and others. The eternal consequence of sin is death which has been defeated by the sacrifice of Christ. We can be free from the penalty of sin through repentance and forgiv...

Job 28-29; Galatians 1-2   “’…because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him…I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.’” Job 29:12, 14 “’I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!’” Galatians 2:21 How many poor and fatherless widows and orphans do we need to help in order to become righteous in God’s eyes? In Job’s day, that was the only way of proving right standing with God. Most world religions are still focused on this effort of making merit by paying alms (Zakat in Islam), to somehow earn righteousness. In doing so, they set aside the grace of God. However, in Christ, God abolished the efforts of people to earn his favour. He sent his Son, a sinless sacrifice, to pay our sin-debt to God. We receive this gift of grace by faith in Christ. The evidence that we have received this incredible gift of salvation full of grace and love i...

Job 26-27; Mark 15-16   “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’” Mark 15:37-39 In those last hours on the cross, Jesus was fulfilling the words of Psalm 22:12, 13, “Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.” The herds of hell surrounded the cross as the sin of the world was poured into Jesus. His final cry, “It is finished,” declared victory over the power of sin and its consequences for the world. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world was the final sacrifice for sin, opening access to the presence of God for all who would receive and believe. This was not a religious whimper, it was a loud cry, and with it the curtain was torn open forever. Are we pursuing the presence of our Fath...