"I will never forget Your precepts, for by them, You have given me life" (Psalm 119:93).
I have often heard the phrase, ‘I am only human.’ Or ‘Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.’ But these sayings seem to forget the power of the Gospel or the power packed in God’s Word. This is no ordinary book! It has the potential to turn us around so completely that we can love exactly like Jesus! People will see Him in what we say and do. He will even be seen by the look on our faces!
The transforming power of God’s Word is the single most exciting thing of being a Christian. We can be free of everything that entangles us or separates us from an intimate walk with Christ. And that power is within Christ’s Word! "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12). By the word, Jesus spoke this world into existence, and that same creative power is in the Bible!
But we must do more than put in the time to read. We must seek to find Jesus there with a hungry heart. And we must put His Word into action! For “the mere knowledge of truth is not enough” (Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 97).
But IF we study and obey, we will be restored into God’s image! The character of Christ will be perfectly reproduced in each one of us, and people will take notice of us, as they once did of the early disciples, that we have been with Jesus (see Acts 4:13).
This morning as I was reading the parable of the leaven from a devotional book, I was inspired by the incredible good news of the gospel. I saw how high and how deep our calling is in Christ--how we must "walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:6), abide in His Word, and "become blameless and harmless, children of God, without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life" (Philippians 2:15,16).
The heart of him who receives the grace of God overflows with love for God and for those for whom Christ died. Self is not struggling for recognition. He does not love others because they love and please him, because they appreciate his merits, but because they are Christ’s purchased possession. If his motives, words, or actions are misunderstood or misrepresented, he takes no offense, but pursues the even tenor of his way. He is kind and thoughtful, humble in his opinion of himself, yet full of hope, always trusting in the mercy and love of God (Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 101).
How far I feel from this ideal--how can I love like Jesus? How can I be as faithful as He was? Certainly not on my own. But whenever I read the awesome possibilities before me, the HIGH calling of a disciple of Christ, I see it surrounded with the power of the gospel. I see it as incredible good news. I am not able, but Jesus is! I may be flawed, but Jesus is perfect. And when I seek Him with a hungry heart, He will do for me what I am so incapable of doing for myself. As Paul says so succinctly, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God!" (2 Corinthians 3:5)
So this morning, I am so pumped, because I believe that "as the wll of man co-operates with the will of God, it becomes omnipotent. Whatever is to be done at His command may be accomplished in HIS strength. All His biddings are enablings" (Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 333).
By faith in Jesus, I can be a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) I can live by every word that proceeds from the word of God (Matthew 4:4) I will delight in all my Father's commandments and obey them from my heart (Psalm 40:8). I will be holy as my Lord and Savior is holy (1 Peter 1:15,16). I will be pure, just as He is pure (1 John 3:3).
I can't do any of these things by myself. But when I soak in God's Word and give the Holy Spirit access to my heart every day, God will do it in me. Even today--He will do it! It is so exciting, all I can say is, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57)!
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