An Eternal Home

 An Eternal Home

The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

DEUTERONOMY 33.27

You were created to live as an eternal being with your Father in heaven. This world is a temporary place to live. It’s a neighbourhood you won’t be in forever. Your home is in God. He is your lasting dwelling place.

A man once told me about living in a dangerous, run-down neighbourhood on the mission field. It was a harsh environment, even dangerous at times. “My home is like an oasis there,” he said. “When I go inside to my loving wife and family, I feel loved and at rest.”

That’s a picture of what it means to know God as your dwelling place. The world outside may be hostile, even threatening at times. But as you recognise that your life is in Him, you can find peace, love, and security.

You stand in a secure place with your God as your dwelling place. His everlasting arms will hold you, protect you, and hug you in every situation. Face each day with the confidence that your God holds you in His arms. Live boldly with the knowledge that you cannot be conquered by the world around you, because you belong to Him.

Holy Pleasure

 Holy Pleasure

You shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God, at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always…You may spend the money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

DEUTERONOMY 14.23,26

In this passage God instructed His people to enjoy life to the fullest so that they might learn to fear Him. What a wonderful way for Him to teach how much He loved them! It’s difficult to read this passage and not conclude that our God takes delight in our pleasure. He isn’t a cosmic killjoy, He is the source and origin of pleasure itself.

Never allow the idea to take root in your mind that your Father is opposed to playfulness and pleasure. Satan may have corrupted those domains, but those who know the Lord need to reclaim these as rightful privileges of the children of the King.

Honour your God today by celebrating with others. Laugh, love, and learn that deep reverence toward Him comes from realising that He delights to see us at play.

Fear not

 Fear Not

He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid.”

GENESIS 3.10

One of the immediate results of sin’s entering the world was that man became filled with fear. Fear is the painful emotion we experience when we anticipate that something dangerous is about to happen to us. It can debilitate us.

Jesus continuously told his disciples to ‘fear not.’ Throughout history, the plague of fear that began in the Garden of Eden has continually threatened the possibility of a fulfilled life for people. Only eternity will reveal the potential that was squelched by fear in people’s lives.

You don’t have to live with fear. You can rise above it for one reason: the One who has conquered fear is the One who lives in you and equips you for everything you will face in life. Almighty God is the origin of your life. He is the One who sustains, guides, and protects you.

Whatever may be threatening you in your life right now, ‘Fear not.’ He is with you. You will move through this lifetime with God on your side.

Self-Consciousness 2

 Self-Consciousness

He said, “Who told you that you were naked?”

GENESIS 3.11

When Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden, one of the first things that happened was that they became entrapped in a faulty concept of both themselves and their God. Adam and Eve saw their nakedness and hid themselves.

When God came for His daily walk, He called out to Adam and asked, ‘Where are you?’ Adam responded by admitting that he had sinned and was afraid because he was naked. His self-consciousness drove him into hiding. He now felt unacceptable to his Creator.

God’s question to Adam is one that may serve you well to answer. ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ or to put it another way, ‘Who told you that you now aren’t acceptable to me?’ God had seen Adam naked from the moment He had created him. Adam’s sin didn’t change God’s mind toward him at all, but it changed Adam’s mind toward God.

Your sin doesn’t change how your Father feels toward you. When you feel unacceptable, run to Him and not away from Him. He has seen you at your very worst and still loves you. Refuse to be self-conscious and know that He came to deliver you from sin and into authentic friendship with Him. His love is bigger than your shame.

Self-Consciousness 1

 Self-Consciousness

The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

GENESIS 3.7

Before Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were naked and not ashamed. They walked with God every day without inhibition. Their focus was on Him, and they found all meaning in the union they shared with Him.

When they ate from the forbidden tree, everything instantly changed. One of the most telling consequences of their disobedience is found in this verse, ‘They knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.’ Suddenly, people no longer felt comfortable or acceptable before God. Self-consciousness filled Adam and Eve’s minds.

As you walk in grace, set your focus on your Lord and not on yourself. To allow yourself to be self-conscious will affect you just as it did Adam and Eve. It will cause you to feel inadequate and provoke an inner sense that you need to do something to be presentable to Him.

You are presentable and completely accepted by your Father. Don’t let anything cause you to look away from Him so that you become bogged down in self-condemnation. He has seen you since He created you and loves you just as you are.

Personal Ability

 Personal Ability

The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.” Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.

EXODUS 4.2-4

When God sent Moses into the desert, he lost everything he had known. The only way he still provided for himself was as a shepherd. It was his last thin strand of self-sufficiency. His shepherd’s staff represented his ability to survive, even in the hardest of times.

So God did what He always does when He wants to work through a person’s life in a miraculous way. He had Moses throw his staff down. We cannot rely on our own ability if we are to fulfill our divine destiny in life.

When Moses threw the staff down, it became a snake. Dependence on our ability instead of God is always poisonous. However, once Moses saw that fact, God told him to pick the staff back up. It’s not the ability itself that is wrong. Our mistake comes when we don’t depend on God.

God will use your ability for His glory, but never forget that it is He, not the ability you possess, who equips you.

A Futile Attempt

 A Futile Attempt

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

GENESIS 3.6

When Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was she was trying to do something evil? If we think this, we miss a crucial point. Eve wasn’t trying to do something wrong. She was trying to do something good. The serpent had told her that to eat from the tree would cause her to ‘be like God.’

Eve’s deception came in forgetting that she was already like God. She had been created in His image. It was an unnecessary and futile attempt to do anything to improve herself.

Don’t fall for the lie that you need to do something to be more godly. Your union with Jesus Christ has created you in righteousness and holiness. Accept who you are, and don’t sin by trying to do something God has said not to do, even if you think it’s a good thing.

Sin’s Consequence

 Sin’s Consequence

The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

GENESIS 2.16-17

The grace of God can be seen in the Garden of Eden when He warned Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God cautioned Adam that he would die if he ate from that tree. Notice that God did not tell Adam that He would kill him if he ate from the tree. The prohibition was given in love, not as a threat.

Over the millennia many have misunderstood this text. They have seen it as a warning from God about what He would do if man sinned. Nothing could be further from the truth. God warned man about what sin would do to him if he submitted to it.

Your Father isn’t out to get you when you sin. He has given warnings in the Bible about sin and its consequences, but remember this, it is sin that punishes, not God. To the contrary, when Adam sinned and hid from his God, the Father came to him to rescue him. He does the same for you. Never think otherwise.

God’s First Moment with Mankind

 God’s First Moment with Mankind

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

GENESIS 1.28

The heart of your God is seen in the way He related to mankind immediately after He had created them, during the first moments of Adam and Eve’s existence. What was the very first thing He did in His relationship to His highest creation? ‘God blessed them.’

Your concept of your Creator will largely determine the way you relate to Him. If you see Him as a Great Judge who carefully watches your behavior to make sure you’re doing the right things, you have misunderstood your Father. God created you to bless you.

The first word He spoke to mankind was, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ His first word was to speak blessing into their lives. Dead religion presents a false caricature of God, presenting Him as one who is primarily concerned with our behaviour. The Bible shows Him as being very different. His concern is simply with you.

Your God wants to bless you today. He speaks words of loving encouragement to you. Go forth into your day with that assurance.

A New Day

 A New Day

God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

GENESIS 1.5

If you were asked to name the parts of a day, what would you say? Most people would list morning, afternoon, and night. But that’s not the way the Bible identifies a day. When God created all things, the Scripture indicates that the evening came first in a new day.

Most people think new days begin when things start to get light. God doesn’t order a full day that way. The Jewish faith recognises that although the Sabbath is Saturday, it begins at sunset on Friday evening. That is the start of the new day, the Sabbath Day.

If things seem to be getting darker in your life, be encouraged that this may be the beginning of a new day in life. We all like to see the light begin to shine, but remember that your Father starts a new time when it begins to get dark.

Don’t become discouraged if you have prayed for Him to work in your circumstances and it seems things are getting darker. That may point to the answer to your prayer. Just keep trusting Him, and in His time, the light will shine again.

Created for Relationship

 Created for Relationship

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

GENESIS 1.1

The first verse of the Bible implies an important truth that will affect your walk of grace as much as anything possibly could. 

The word God is plural in the original Hebrew text. In the very first verse of the Bible there is an immediate implied reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Why is this triune aspect of God important? Because it sets forth from the beginning that our God is first and foremost relational. The love that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the most important and foundational truth we can speak about God. John said, ‘God is love’ (1 John 4.8). 

It is only when we understand the loving interaction between the Father, Son, and Spirit that we will find our walk of grace headed in the right direction.

You have been created to live in relationship. The most important relationship you will experience is to be a child of God. 

Beyond that, your life is interconnected with others. Value the relationships you have in this world. Nurture them, knowing that they find their roots in God Himself.