II Corinthians 10: 12, 17-18
For we dare not make ourselves of the number of those who commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise, they are without understanding.
But he who glories [boasts], let him glory in the Lord (quoting Jeremiah 9:24).
For it is not he that commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.
So we are to judge ourselves soberly, not thinking more of ourselves than we ought, nor less of ourselves, either.
It is God who sets our value and worth. He made us of dust, and He knows that our flesh is weak.
But the value He places on us is of such high worth that he sent His own Son to die, to be our Savior who Redeems us from this worthless existence to a position of Royalty, as children of the great King!
So in this World we don't need to be important or admired or elevated. This World is only temporary, and we will only spend a few moments here, in school, to prepare for that Graduation.
That's when we will be pronounced Adult Children of the Great Potentate, the kings and queens who will rule with Him on His Throne.
I agree with Francesca Battistelli when she sings:
I don't need my name in lights
I'm famous in my Father's eyes
Make no mistake
He knows my name
I'm not living for applause
I'm already so [admired]
It's all His stage
He knows my name
from the album
If We're Honest
My sister Francesca has come to the understanding that it is God who will say to her, "Good job, daughter!"
And that's what I am looking forward to hearing, also.
O my Father, I thank You and I praise You for all You have done. I admire Your greatness and wisdom and power and authority. I am astounded that You would call me into relationship with You to sit on Your throne with You and rule under Your Headship.
Teach me, Father; that I will know how to wield the power of Your authority over whatever "cities" You see fit to give me then.
Help me in my weaknesses, be my strength in all that You have placed before me to do. Bless my efforts to follow in Your footsteps, to provide value and benefits to others, to show people everywhere how much You Love them with Your unconditional Love, and to draw them to Your Light and Life.
Send me, Father, into Your fields that are ripe for harvest; Your missionary fields, where Your lost sheep are waiting to be found.
Allow me, my Father, to share Your Love with everyone everywhere. I want them all to know how wonderful You are, Father!
And I anticipate with joyful eagerness that Day when every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess understanding and admiration, and boast of You, Lord God Almighty!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
II Corinthians 12: 2-4
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago--whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows--such a man was caught up to the third Heaven.
And I know how such a man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows--was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak (it is not possible for a man to utter).
Yesterday we saw that Paul was stoned and left for dead in Lystra, before he got up and was fit to travel the next morning (Acts 14:19-20).
Some think that Paul did die by stoning
that day, and God brought him back, resuscitated and healed him, to fulfill his mission of planting
all the churches he did. I can't imagine how he was well enough to travel after being stoned otherwise.
And while he was dead he had this vision that
he wrote about fourteen years later.
The
first Heaven is our atmosphere around the Earth that we breathe. The
second Heaven is the Universe around us. The third Heaven is the place
where God lives, outside our Universe.
It's this third Heaven that Paul
saw that day, and he heard a language of words that are not pronounceable by the
human tongue.
Wow! to have such a glorious experience or vision or whatever it was, no wonder Paul didn't want to focus on all that, so he wouldn't get a swelled head!
That's why he wrote that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, of the flesh, but mightily powerful through God for the destruction of fortresses, casting down imaginations and reasonings, and every high and lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:4-5).
Because of this, right after his account of this glorious memory, Paul says:
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself!
Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. ...
So when I am weak, then I am strong (12:7-10).
This is a good lesson I need to remind myself of from time to time.
I know that God has privileged me to gift me with an understanding of how to "connect some of the dots" to get a much bigger picture of who God is and what He is doing, and how much He really loves us!
And He has led me to share some of this understanding with others by using this blog. And He has given me His faithfulness and constancy to be able to add another entry every day.
I know that this is not in me, in my flesh, to do any of this! So it has to be God doing it.
O my Father, You are so good to me! I don't know why You chose me to make me Your own daughter, knowing me as You do.
But You did, and I thank You so much! It is all You in me that enables me to do anything at all that is positive or righteous or encouraging or wise. Like Paul I recognize that in my flesh I can do nothing at all!
Just like Jesus taught, that I must be connected to the Vine in order to produce any product; like the toaster has to be plugged in to work. And I must be plugged in, so I can work, too.
Otherwise, I'm just the hamster spinning my wheels without going anywhere.
O Father, thank You so much for plugging me in! Thank You for applying Your grace to me to cleanse me, and to give me Life, so I can grow.
Thank You for putting my feet on level ground, on that Rock that is firm, so my steps will be confident and bold and my feet will not slip or trip.
Lead me, Father, to do everything that You planned for me to do. Let me serve You with all my strength and all my wherewithal which You have given me.
Never let me go, as You have promised to be with me; let me not wander from Your path, either with my feet or with my mind. Create in me that new heart that will think Your thoughts, feel Your feelings, see with Your eyes, and have Your perspective and attitude toward everything in my little world.
Father, enlarge my boundaries, that I may be used of You to do great things in Your eyes, to have many precious jewels in the crown that I will cast at my Lord's feet.
And You will receive all the glory, all the honor, all the credit, all the praise; for all the wisdom and knowledge and strength and cunning is Yours.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Acts 13 & 14
In the church at Antioch were several important prophets and teachers, and while they were fasting and working, the Holy Spirit told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul to be the first missionaries. They didn't take this lightly, so they fasted some more and prayed about it, then they laid hands on them in ordination and sent them out.
The first missionary journey: Barnabas and Saul. And they also brought John Mark along with them.
Saul is first called Paul on Cypress (13:9), and ever after remained Paul. (Saul means Great One, Destroyer, and Paul means Small One, Worker.)
Mark left the company of the missionaries to return to Jerusalem from Perga at Pamphilia (13:13). From what I've read, it seems that this road they were taking was extremely rugged, and not even a road in some places. Evidently it was all physically too much for Mark, which prompted him to give up and go home.
13: 46
It was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken to you (Jews) first: [but] since you repudiated it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
This became the pattern they would follow whenever they went to a new city. They would first go to the local synagogue, and when they were thrown out, then they preached to Gentiles, too.
14: 8ff
At Lystra they healed a lame man and were proclaimed to be gods--Zeus and Hermes! (v. 18) And They with difficulty restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
But then they stoned Paul and left him for dead, but he got up and went back into the city, and the next day he was traveling again! (Vs. 19-20).
How fickle are the crowds!
O my Father, You planned out this whole church business even before You made this Earth. You knew that even though You gave Your people all the clues and pictures of what Messiah would do and accomplish, You knew that they would mostly reject You, so that the door would be thrown wide open to all the Nations and people groups and languages over the whole World to hear the Good News of Your Love.
And You knew it would take all these centuries of generations to fill Your House, and occupy every seat at Your great banquet Table! You even gave Daniel the whole list of how the Nations would be constituted from his time all the way down to our time today, and we are running out of all that future history.
So Jesus' coming again must be very soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Acts 12
This chapter begins with Herod putting James to death (A.D. 44) and ends with his death, being eaten of worms.
He put Peter in prison, too, and the church held an all-night prayer vigil for him. So God sent and angel to lead him out of the prison. Peter thought he was deaming, until he "came to himself" and realized it all happened.
Prayer is powerful, especially corporate prayer. When even "two or three come together" and agree in prayer, the God we pray to will move mountains on our behalf.
So he went to Mary's house (the mother of John Mark) where they were praying, and Rhoda was so excited she forgot to open the door for him!
They were still learning that God's answers can be very practical.
In the morning when Peter was gone from the prison, the squad of soldiers responsible for him were executed.
Sometimes when we obey God, others pay consequences, through no fault of ours. This just happens, and we needn't concern ourselves about it, it's God's business.
And when Saul and Barnabas returned to Antioch they brought John Mark with them.
This is the beginning of Mark's long and rocky relationship with Saul/Paul.
God's ways are not our ways. He allowed James to be martyred, but delivered Peter. And He permitted the deaths of the soldiers, when they didn't know what happened to their prisoner.
We must let God be God, even when what He does seems "unfair" to us. He sees the Big Picture, and He sees into each of our hearts, and knows our days.
The saying says, Today is the first day of the rest of your life. So we need to make the most of it.
But it may also be the last day of your life. So make the most of it.
Make every day count, no matter which day it is, and leave no stone unturned, no loose ends.
What you do today determines how tomorrow goes.
Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come; what we have is Today, and it's called the present, it's a gift from God.
O my Father, teach me to number my days, that I may not have any more "lost days." Help me to accomplish each day what is set before me, and strengthen me to be consistent and faithful in the work You have given me to do.
And, Father, thank You so much for Today, and every day You have given me so far. And I pray that You would continue to hold me in Your hand every moment of every day, that I will realize Your Love and care for me, and accomplish the things You planned for me to get done for the promotion and furtherance of Your Kingdom.
And You will receive all the praise and honor. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess; and we will cast our crowns at Your feet, because You deserve all the credit, all the glory, for all You have done.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Acts 10 & 11
10: 1-3 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurian of the band called the Italian Band.
A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.
He saw in a vision ...
This Cornelius is a Gentile, not Jewish at all. And God sent an Angel to give him directions. So he sent three of his most trusted men to Joppa, where Peter was.
10: 9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour (noon).
Here is where God gives Peter the vision of all the unclean animals, saying that they were cleansed--three times.
Just then, these Gentiles knock on Peter's door. God's timing is always perfect.
God even gives specific addresses: 9:11--Judas' house for Saul, given to Ananias; and 10:5-6--Simon the Tanner's for Peter, given to Cornelius.
And God also interrupts speeches: 10:44 and 11:15--God interrupts Peter by sending His Spirit onto these Gentiles, the same as He did for the Jewish believers; and Luke 15:21--the father, representing God, interrupts his younger son's speech (in vs. 18-19) to call for welcoming him home safe.
Peter proclaims his new understanding, that God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean (10:28). And I most certainly understand now that God is not One to show partiality, but in every Nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him (10:34-35).
God had to change their minds to allow every person to hear the Gospel. In the past, He forbade certain Nations to be allowed to enter the Tabernacle or Temple, because of their idolatry.
But now that the veil has been torn, allowing everyone to approach God through Christ, not needing any other priest or intermediary, He showed Peter so he could tell the rest about this "change" in methods.
God always wanted the other Nations to realize that He is God, and come to Him. He gave His Law to Israel to demonstrate to the rest of the World how God is good and generous and powerful, the only real, true God.
And there were a few people from those other Nations who did forsake their idolatry and worshipped God with the Israelites. Two of these were women who are even listed in Jesus' own genealogy (Ruth, from Moab, and Rahab, from Jericho; see Matthew 1:5).
Now, with the institution of the church, and God giving His Holy Spirit to those who come to Him through Christ, He is pushing His apostles out of their narrow thinking to see all Mankind as valuable and savable and worth sharing God's great Good News with!
11: 19-21 Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cypress and Antioch, preaching the Word to only the Jews.
And some of them from Cypress and Cyrene came to Antioch, and also shared with the Greeks there about the Lord Jesus.
Now a lot of these Greeks believed, and word came to the Jerusalem church, so they sent Barnabas to see what was going on.
Barnabas went to Antioch, saw how the church there was both Jews and Gentiles, all getting along well together, and he rejoiced and encouraged them.
Then he took off to Tarsus to get Saul, about 9 years after he'd been sent home from Jerusalem, and brought him to Antioch, where they founded a school and taught for a whole year.
And the believers were called "Christians," "little Christs" first right there in Antioch.
So now God has set the stage for the evangelization of the whole world!
O my Father, You are so much more than I could ever imagine! You had planned this all out, even before You created anything. And You moved these people to get out of their limited thinking to think Your grand thoughts, to understand more of Your grand scheme. Then they went ahead, and laid the first couple of rows of stones on that firm Foundation that is Christ, that Your church has been adding to ever since.
And we, today, are still building up that grand Temple, higher and higher, until the finish row is on it and You roof it with Yourself!
O Father, please continue to send Your workers out into Your fields, Your missionary fields; to preach Your Good News to every creature, and draw in every lost sheep into the safety of the One Fold with One Shepherd. And Your House is full and every seat at Your Table is occupied.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Acts 8 & 9
This is the historical account of some of the first steps of the nascent church.
Stephen is arrested, preaches to the whole council, and they stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord (7:57), they dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death.
And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death (8:1).
Persecution scatters the new Jewish church.
Philip went to Samaria and dealt with Simon the Sorcerer (who may not have had a genuine conversion). When Peter and John came to check out Philip's new "congregation," they laid on hands to confer the Holy Spirit onto them.
Then Philip talks to the Ethiopian and baptizes him, then is found in Azotus, from which he preaches his way to Caesarea.
Meanwhile, Paul goes all the way to Damascus (150 miles) to arrest the Christians there, and encounters Jesus on the way.
Having been blinded by the intense light of the vision, God sends Ananias to him, and "something like scales" fall from his eyes (sounds kind of like opaque contact lenses!).
He immediately begins to preach powerfully, and confounds the Jews in Damascus, who are confused at his turn-around to preach Jesus instead of arrest His followers. So they plan to kill him, and Saul is let down from the city wall in a basket, and returns to Jerusalem.
Back in Jerusalem, Barnabas "introduces" him to the Apostles, but then they have a problem with plots there to kill him, too, and they send him home to Tarsus. He's just too hot to handle.
Saul of Tarsus is probably the most passionate man in the Bible! (Other than Jesus, Himself.) His personality is very powerful, and his character is one of sweeping action. He went from severely persecuting Jesus' followers to effectively convincing of Jesus' Divinity and Messiahship.
So when Saul was gone, the new church finally had rest. And it grew.
Peter went to Lydda, where he heals a paralytic, Aeneas, and is sent for from Joppa; to go there and raise Tabatha (Dorcas) from the dead!
Everything these Apostles and disciples are doing is the work of furthering and promoting the Kingdom of God by increasing the population that are its citizens.
And God is still today increasing His Kingdom population, His family. Jesus has not yet returned because not every person who is recorded in the census rolls has been drawn into it yet.
That's our job, to be His witnesses, sharing with those who are in our circles, our little worlds, what He has done for us and can also do for them. Then when we go out from our Jerusalem to our Judea, then to our Samaria, and out into all the World, we will run, hand-in-hand with our Savior, spreading His Love and Grace to every creature, among every Nation, every tribe, every language; until His house is full and every seat at His Table is filled!
Then He will return to call us out (the Rapture), and follow Him down through the clouds as He fights the Battle of Armegeddon and sets up His Kingdom here on this Earth. Then we will "sit with Him on His Throne" as His kings and queens to govern in righteousness and judgment, and this World wil have its Golden Age!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Acts 2: 37
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?
Acts 7: 54
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.
These two groups of men were both affected the same way by the preaching of the Gospel, that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled all the requirements of the Law for us as our Sacrificial Lamb and Redeemer, Messiah: they were cut to the heart.
But they reacted in opposite ways.
Peter's teaching the people on the day of Pentecost reached hearts that were seeking and prepared to receive this Good News.
Stephen's preaching to the Sanhedrin of the same message went to hearts that were hardened and overcome by fear. So they attacked the messenger, and stoned him to death.
The same message goes out to every person. God offers His remedy for our problem and sickness of sin to every creature. He loves us all, and is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9). But any person's response to understanding the message will depend on their own choices; whether they have wanted to seek God and His Truth, or whether they have decided to be comfortable in their own little deceptions.
The same fragrance of Christ is a sweet savour to those who are being saved, but a rotten stench of death to those who are perishing (II Corinthians 2:15-16).
O my Father, You are so good, and Your heart must break when people You love turn their backs on You and prefer their sin over Your wonderful care and gifts! You are our Source of everything we need to exist and prosper. How You must grieve over all those who decide to cut themselves off from Life and Light and sustenance, so will spend eternity separated from everything that is good and right and True, even after You have done everything possible and impossible for them.
But, Father, I know that You have drawn to Yourself more beings than can be numbered, from this Earth and Heaven and whatever other realms You know. And every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess, and Your own will enjoy Your pleasures and enjoyments and wholeness with You forever!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
