Exhortation, Encouragement, and Comfort in Christ.
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O how crucial, how beautiful, how life-giving, how satisfying is the right kind of knowledge. How dangerous, how hardening, how brother-ruining, how pride-puffing is the wrong kind of knowledge.
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How incredibly blessed these unnamed shepherds were to hear the multitude of heavenly host declare the glory of God and the gospel of Christ! This majestic revelation was an unexpected explosion of grace. God interrupted their night with a glorious proclamation about a Savior. How is it that such a display should be presented to but a few unnamed shepherds? Isn’t such a wonderful announcement, made through such an unearthly testimony, worthy of a wider audience? O, but it does have a wider audience, an audience that even includes me; I observe it in the Gospel of Luke. While the testimony of a multitude of heavenly hosts is spectacular, the testimony of God’s Word is far greater. In His Word God reveals the same message to me, 2000 years later, as He did for the shepherds that Holy night.
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Jude 24 is such a hopeful verse, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” I am often dismayed at how rarely and how briefly I glimpse His glory so that I can rejoice in it. The eyes in this earthly body of mine just don’t have the capacity for beholding glory. Even when, in His mercy, God gives me a spiritual glimpse, its brightness fades quickly. Such glances are short refractions of glory, dimmed, and clouded. It is necessary for God to limit my view, because while I live in the body, if I were to get a direct view, I could not stand. I am simply unequipped to look at God. I could more easily stare directly into the sun and suffer fewer ill effects than if I looked directly into the glorified face of Christ. But I have the promise in Jude, that one day, Jesus will change my body, and I will have new eyes that have improved capacities – I will be able to stand in the very presence of His glory and look! I will not be destroyed. I will not shield my eyes. I will look and be filled with great joy!
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Consider: (Biyn 995); to discern, act wisely, cared, explained, gain understanding, understand, gaze, give understanding, give heed, interpret, investigate, learn, observe, pay close attention, perceived, ponder, regard, show.
Listen soul, be diligent to study and absorb all that you can from the Word of God. Obey Proverbs 22: 17-22…
“Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
And apply your mind to my knowledge;
For it will be pleasant if you keep them within you,
That they may be ready on your lips.
So that your trust may be in the LORD,
I have taught you today, even you. Have I not written to you excellent things
Of counsels and knowledge,
To make you know the certainty of the words of truth
That you may correctly answer him who sent you?”
Spend time in the Word. Read, ponder, absorb, look into, analyze, interpret, marvel and be captivated by the scriptures.
But listen, soul, don’t be like the Pharisees who searched the scriptures because they thought that by them they had the eternal life. No don’t be like that. Rather, study diligently in such a way that the object of the scriptures, He to whom they bear witness, is the one who is being studied, considered, perceived, pondered and discovered. Remember Paul’s exhortation that these words are not taught by human wisdom but they are those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. Remember the Apostle Peter’s encouragement that we have this prophetic word made more sure, to which we do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. Jesus is the word made flesh, he is the morning star. Diligently consider the word in such a way that Jesus is seen and exalted in your heart.
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I am so thankful this morning for the constant effectiveness of God’s word. God faithfully ministers, through His word, to bring His comforting love, and His life giving compassion to my soul. God has made so many promises to me; promises to be for me all that I need. He has connected these promises to a sure and steadfast delivery method; the method of contemplating His word. To be sure God uses many other delivery methods for imparting grace. In fact, He uses every good thing as a channel of His grace and mercy so that my soul’s satisfaction and joy may always be full in Christ. Yet the sure effectiveness and power of His word constantly and continually produces the fruit of faith. No wonder Psalm 119 expresses so much love and delight in God’s word. The word of God is a well spring of revelation, it is a touch stone for faith, it is a channel through which the Spirit continually flows with soul satisfying power.
O Lord, let your word always deliver your comforts to me by showing me much of your astounding lovingkindness. Cause my heart to overflow with delight as your compassion rests on me through your word. Your word is such a delight because it brings you closer to me. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for giving me such a means for drawing near to you. Amen.
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Look at the connection between understanding the scriptures and understanding the power of God. The Sadducees were mistaken on both points, but these are probably not two points, but one. In order to understand the scriptures we must have in view the awesome power of God. Having such a view of God’s magnificence will open our eyes and our understanding of the scriptures, which will themselves then reinforce and strengthen our view of God as the almighty Lord of all.
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How can we seek the Lord? By turning from our iniquity, and giving attention to the truth. We must fight a two-pronged attack in our spiritual battle for holiness. We must fight to kill sin in ourselves, and we must turn our eyes, our minds, our thoughts, and our attention to the truth. Jesus said in John 17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.” He also said, in Chapter 14 “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Jesus is also called the Word of God.
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What a wonderful promise, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” It is like another of my favorite verses, Isaiah 55:1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come by wine and milk without money and without cost.” God so often appeals to our hunger drive to call us to itself. This is why he designed hunger, to be able to teach us how we ought to seek after him. Yet the phrase “open our mouths,” in this verse, is a metaphor. We do not literally walk around with open mouths, waiting for food to drop-in. Nevertheless, this metaphor is used to indicate how urgently we ought to seek after God. With the same intensity that our hunger drive seeks after food to satisfy itself, our souls need to seek after God for their satisfaction.
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I want to have great faith in Jesus. There are, at least, five aspects of the centurion’s faith that can be observed in this passage, and that, by the grace of God, can be emulated.
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Considering Christ