December 11 – Righteousness and Strength

“I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.” - Isaiah 45:23-24 (NASB)

God, in today’s words is giving to His prophet the very words that He wanted written down and delivered to His people. We call the Bible the Word of God and we know that its teachings come from our creator. In this instance Isaiah received the Word of God directly from God. God predicted here what people would say about Him, God not Isaiah.  Today there are many who do not know the Lord God and reject Him as their Savior and Lord. There are even some who carry an attitude of anger toward God and those who do believe in Him. But there will be a day when every person will bow to God, some in shame. As we walk close to the Lord in our Christian life we can know what God predicted we would say.  Yes, as we walk with the Lord we find that He is the source of our ability to live right. We find His righteousness keeps us in the straight way. It is how we find the strength to do what we need to do by walking close to the source of the promised strength, let's commit to doing that today.

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August 23 – The Way to Test.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” – 1 John 4:1-3 (ESV)

The mention of the Holy Spirit in the previous chapter (1 John 3:24) motivates John to advise his readers that other spirits exist, such as demonic spirits, who produce false prophets and false teachers to spread their false doctrine. We are warned repeatedly through Scripture of the danger of apostasy, especially in later times. (1 Timothy 4:1-2). We are in later times as it is the period from the first coming of Christ until His return for his Church and judgment of the world. Do be on guard against falling prey to false teaching that tickles our ears and stirs our desire for the things of the world. Our promise is this, we can know and do know the Holy Spirit of God if we by faith given to us have believed in Jesus and His sacrifice on our behalf. We are definitely in a time where the opposition is increasing in the free world and it is wise for us to cling to this instruction. We can test the spirits by discerning whether they confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. Those who do not so confess, but pretend to be preachers and teachers, are apostates.

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May 25 – Living In Truth, Not Denial.

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” – 1 John 1:8-10 (NASB)

Now here is a little word that none of us consider a favorite word. In fact we don’t even want to think about the sinful acts that we do. Yet, the truth is this, we cannot escape from sin being a part of our lives. We do sin. Everyone sins. There is no one who does not sin. (Romans 3:10-12) If we refuse to acknowledge the sin that assails us and pretend to claim that we have no sin, as our verse tells us, we are deceiving ourselves. As the verse says, we can’t profess to live in truth if we're not addressing the sinful actions and thoughts we do and have. In fact, if we deny having sinned, we make God a liar. When we sin, we must confess our sins. What is confessing? It is being honest and saying the same thing about our actions that God says. Our promise is: We agree with God that we have sinned and God faithfully and lovingly promises to forgive and clean us up. The bad thoughts and actions are washed away. We’re done with them. It is an ongoing process in our lives until we get to heaven.

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May 20 – The Confession That is Real

“…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” – Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)

God saves us because He chose to do so. Our salvation happens when we believe that truth and confess with repentance to God. Our verse of promise says, “Confession is made unto salvation.” We are not saved by our mouth’s confession, but rather, our mouth testifies readily of the grace of God in Christ which we received by a gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8).  This is not a simple acknowledgment that He is God and the Lord of the universe, since even demons acknowledge that to be true (James 2:19). This is the deep personal conviction, without reservation, that Jesus is our own master or sovereign.  Paul emphasizes the importance that this comes from our heart. The heart is not merely the seat of affection or emotion. As used in the Bible, our heart is the hub of the wheel of human existence and life – intellectual, emotional, and volitional. First of all there must be faith in our heart. Without such faith a confession with the mouth would be mockery. But even if there is faith in our heart, confession with our mouth is altogether natural when our faith is genuine.

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May 29 – Faithful to Forgive

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  - 1 John 1:9 (ESV)

Today we have a promise that is simple in structure and deep in truth.  All who have, by faith, believed in God through Jesus Christ, our Savior are born again (John 3:3).  Just as Jesus taught Nicodemus, that this new birth was a spiritual birth.  And in like manner that each person has no role in their physical birth except being there at the event, we who have been born of the of the Spirit have no part in the working of that to happen (John 3:6). Even our faith is a gift from God. In the New Testament, the basis of all forgiveness of sins is revealed more clearly than it was in the Old Testament, but the basis, namely, God’s commitment to his name, does not change. Jesus died in such a way that our promised forgiveness is “for the sake of God’s name.”  It is the faithfulness and justice of Jesus that brought him to the God-honoring sacrifice on the cross for us. His justice is vindicated in this very act so that He might be both just and the justifier of those who by faith trust in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

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May 14 – Real Forgiveness

“I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. - Selah”  - Psalm 32:5 (ESV)

We learn from our Bible that God forgives our sin.  However, sometimes, some people, aren’t convinced of that promise.  It is difficult for us to acknowledge that we need forgiveness.  It is hard to admit we have transgressed, as it says in our verse today.  However, even though we know our sins are forgiven when we believe God and become part of His family, we find ourselves struggling with doing wrong when we know to do right. We need help feeling worthy of love at times when our failings are staring us in the face.  God has removed our guilt and has taken our sins far away from us but we begin to doubt or ignore this when our actions make us feel separated from God.  It is time to make God’s promise real and experience its fulfillment.  We must acknowledge to God our sin, our failings.  That is, we come to agreement with God that what we’ve done is sinful. We confess to the Lord directly just as the psalmist does in this Psalm. We can embrace the truth about what God has done for us and rejoice with thanksgiving in God our Savior. 

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January 21 – A Continual Process

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  -  1 John 1:9 (ESV)

With yesterday’s promise we focused on the truth that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins because He is one with God the Father. He has authority to do His perfect will.  Today, we are find a promise in the first letter by the Apostle John, who walked and talked and was taught by Jesus Christ, that as believers we still commit sinful acts and when we do, that sin causes a separation in our relationship with God.  If we want to resolve that separation with our Lord we need to confess our sins.  This is a continual process that can be done wherever we are whenever we need to.  And our promise is that if we confess, God will forgive us our sins and completely wash all unrighteousness from us.  Continual confession of sin indicates genuine salvation. Our forgiveness and cleansing is immediate and we do not have to do any acts of penitence. Our confession must be a genuine desire to seek forgiveness and be in a right relationship with our savior Jesus.  Let’s not let what we need to confess fester in our lives until it becomes a larger problem.  God is always there and ready for us to see and agree with him on this.

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August 30 – Know and Believe and Remain

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”   1 John 4:15-16 (NASB)

These words, of course are about people who have believed in Jesus as their Savior.  There is a great change in our lives when we believe in Jesus. God comes into our lives and we become a part of His family.  That is something that should cause great joy to overflow in our hearts and minds.  We read in today's verses that we know and we rely through faith-believing on the love God has for us.  Before we believed we have likely heard about God's love for us, and after we believed we begin to experience God’s love as He comes into our lives.  It is by this love that we are made a part of God's family and can actually abide in God as God abides in us.  The word 'abides' has the meaning “to remain” and “to last” and our abiding in love, and in God, and God in us, is to be a permanent condition.  Let us today be thankful that through the love of God, we are in God and God is in us. We can know and believe God is love. 

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October 7

“For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”  2 Chronicles 20:12 (NIV)

This is a prayer of King Jehoshaphat in Jerusalem. He had received reports of a large army coming to attack his people. He called his people together and in their presence He prayed to God for help. Now we may not face the attack of a large military force, but are there not times when we face problems that we do not know how to handle? We then need to confess to God that in ourselves we do not know what to do. And when we admit that we do not know the solution, we can turn our eyes to our Lord. We can look to Him for help and know that He will respond. We do not know what to do, but “our eyes are on You.”