Dogged Devotion

May 13, 2013

Monday

Dogged Devotion

Scripture:

John 15:9-11 King James Version (KJV)  

9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Keywords:

Abide = to remain, to stay, to continue

commandments = an order, command, charge, precept, injunction

joy = gladness

(Blue Letter Bible)

Commentary:

The repeated phrase in this scripture is “abide in My love”

To abide in God’s love is to remain connected to Jesus, to obey God’s commandments which is God’s word, and stay tuned in to the Lord’s still small voice.  

The key to fruit bearing is found in abiding in Jesus. In John’s gospel, Jesus is never portrayed as independent from His Father; rather, the Father and Son are always cooperating with one another in every activity.  (Krell)  

If Jesus, being the Son of God, is always connected to the Father, how much more you and I need to be connected to or “abide” in Jesus?  

Can the branch survive if it was separated from the vine?

Can a believer be fruitful apart from Jesus?

When we abide in Christ, our prayers are effective, we glorify God in our fruit bearing, we demonstrate our discipleship, and our joy becomes full through experiencing Christ’s own joy within us.  (Hayford)

1 John 3:6,8   (NKJV)

6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

The phrases “abideth in Him” and “born of God” are equivalent.  Those born of God do not sin.  Only those who continue to abide in God is born of God.  This means that no one who is born of God continues to sin, practice sin, or keeps on sinning.  The emphasis here is that one truly born of God cannot make sin his way of life.  the life of God cannot co-exist with one who continues to practice sin.  

For a person to have God’s life in him or be born of God or born again, to continue to sin is a contradiction.   He who is born of God or abides in Him does not sin anymore because he has a new spirit, the spirit of God that lives in him.  The believer falls off the track time and time, but he is restored immediately by the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  This standard way of life is based upon the greatest commandment.  If a person truly loves the Lord with His whole heart, soul and might, this love will replace the desire to sin.  The seed which is the word of God is planted in his life and it continues to grow. We continue to abide in Him because He is the vine and we are the branches.   And with the indwelling of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit,and  the written Word all bearing witness that the believer can live free and clear of sin, the believer cannot go on sinning against God.  So this contradiction of being born again and continuing in sin is of the devil and not of God.  Therefore, when  a person who habitually practices sin, claims to be a child of God having eternal life is a downright liar.  (Stamps)

All the false teachers, and false prophets work together to deceive even the elect.  We must check with the Holy Spirit, the written Word, the Christ in us and all three must bear witness with one another to confirm and verify the truth of the matter.

Conclusion:  Be sure to stay as you go. In other words, you and I must go and be Jesus’ disciples, but we must also stay in fellowship with Him at all times. (Krell)   To remain fruitful, we must abide in Christ always.   

Poem:

To abide in Christ is an awesome thing

as we pray, bear fruit, worship and sing

for to be apart from Jesus is to lose the joy,

the peace and all the blessings we enjoy

For there is nothing else that compare with Jesus

The peace, the joy, the love that He gives us

So I urge you to spend time with Christ

So you can experience the best in this life

Byword:  Know Christ, Know Joy. No Christ. No joy.

Work cited

Krell, Keith,  Moment by Moment, "http://bible.org/seriespage/moment-moment-john-151-11":

Hayford, Jack W., Spirit filled Life Bible NKJV, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991.

Stamps, Donald C., The Full Life Study Bible King James Version, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.

 

Aldwin Naruse
The Body of Christ Jesus Fellowship
Makaha, HI USA

Sweet Praise

May 14, 2013

Tuesday

Sweet Praise

Colossians 3:16 King James Version (KJV)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord

Keyword definitions:

Dwell = to dwell in one and influence him (for good)

richly = abundantly

wisdom = supreme intelligence, such as belongs to God

admonishing = to warn, to exhort

(blueletterbible)

Commentary:

What this tells me is that we study the word of God continually and apply the wisdom from the word of God.  We sing spiritual songs to edify others and also to bring praises to the Lord Jesus.  We never stop teaching, warning, and instructing each other in the things of God.  

What this  means is that the Word of God must be so deeply rooted in us that It is ready in season and out of season.  Our whole life must be directed by the wisdom of God in everything.  We are to instruct each other with the Word and the examples of our lives.   We are to minister to others in spiritual songs.  (Henry)

So all the spiritual songs are for praising and glorifying God as an expression of love.  It should be spirit led.  It is a weapon of warfare to battle evil and darkness.  It is used to lift off oppressions and invade the strongholds of depression. And in doing so, it clears negative thoughts. We must continue to offer spiritual songs to the Lord for He inhabits in the praises of His people.  Sin offerings and burnt offerings He did not require.  He is pleased with the offering of praise and thanksgiving. Therefore, spirit-filled and spirit-lead praise and worship are mighty weapons of God.  These are spiritual weapons to battle against all strongholds and all the strongman.  (Stamps)

It is the strong man that governs and controls different territories on the earth.  Anyone that enters the territory of a strong man is under and affected by the power, principalities,rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places.  As we enter a hospital intensive care unit, the atmosphere is full of and  thick with the spirit of death.  You can smell the death.  You can sense death.  But if we come in the spirit of Christ and offer up spiritual songs and words of graces, it immediately affects the strongholds. We bring life and the light of Christ.  

Remember the strongman in Mark 5 with unclean spirits who have been dwelling among the tombs and no one could bind him, not even with chains.   He broke the shackles and chains.  No one could tame him.  And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran out and worshipped Him.  

Mark 5:8-10

For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?”  And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.

And so liken unto these passages, these intensive care units are like the tombs with the spirit of death in them.  We can come as appointed by the Lord to bring the spirit of Christ into the room and to cast out the spirit and to bring life and abundant life in His name.

What today’s word is reminding  us is that the Lord wants us to minister to hospitals, especially the intensive care units, where death prevails.  We must invade this darkness and bring light and hope to the hospitals.   God is leading us to Queen’s hospital to minister there..  WE must sing spiritual songs there and invade the spirit of death.   We must speak the word of God over the prayer requests in the hospital chapels.  We must pray in the spirit and bring the spirit of Christ into the hospitals and bring the message of hope and love to them.

In the daily bread illustration, the teacher who was discouraged was ministered to by the three teenage girls who sang spiritual songs down the hall.  The girls’ singing demonstrated the power of praise and worship.  It can impact any strongholds and cause a life change.  The spiritual songs is a mighty weapon of warfare.  

Poem

To let the word of God dwell richly in us

To teach each other to obey and trust

To sing and praise Jesus for He is Lord

is how we glorify Him forevermore

So let us come together and be His light

to stand arm in arm to fight the good fight     

to invade the strongholds in every place

so we can conquer this evil face to face

By word:  In the realm of spiritual warfare, either you stand and fight or you die by the wayside.   There is no neutral ground.  

Work cited

Matthew Henry Commentary,  Colossians 3, http://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/comm_view.cfm?AuthorID=4&contentID=1787&commInfo=5&topic=Colossians

Blueletterbible,  lexicon results, http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G4146&t=KJV

Stamps, Donald C., The Full Life Study Bible King James Version, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.

Aldwin and Wendy Naruse
The Body of Christ Jesus Fellowship
Makaha, HI USA

Seeing God's Hand

May 10, 2013, Sunday

Seeing God’s Hand

Psalm 37:18-19

New King James Version (NKJV)

18 The Lord knows the days of the upright,

And their inheritance shall be forever.

19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time,

And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

What this tells me is that God is always watching over those who are blameless in their ways. God's hand is in everything in our lives.  Nothing happens to us by chance.   Everything that happens to us has gone through God’s hands first like when he spoke to satan regarding Job.  

Job 1:12  (NKJV)

12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”   So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

God said to satan, You can take everything away from him, but you cannot take away his life."

God is allowing Satan to mess with his life, but the one thing that God preserves is his life, his soul.  So therefore, God is sovereign and in control.  Through the entire book of Job, God was with him, taking him to a course of events to reveal his purpose and to be used as an example for others to follow.  Also it is to see God’s hand in it as long as we keep our faith.  Job was cursed by his wife.  She told him to curse God and die.  Therefore, everything that happens to us, as long as we are believers in Christ Jesus, God has a plan and a purpose.  We cannot stay focused on the obvious earthly realm.  We must always transcend and translate what God wants to show us.  If we are not walking with God, we will surcome to circumstances, and give up with God.  There is always hope.  Something good is happening.  God is in control.

In God’s promises found in the book of Psalms 37, this promise can only be applied to those who believe that God is God.  He is sovereign and in control.  To the unbeliever, this is rubbish to them.  We are to daily meditate on the word of God, to hear the voice of the Lord, to constantly commune through our intuition, and to ask the three questions -

What do I see?

What does this mean?

What do I do?   

Is there any promises to claim?  sins to confess?  commandments to obey? Am I in agreement with the Holy Spirit regarding revelation to my situation?

I must not react to my situation but go to God and meditate on what He says, not what man says.  So the word of God comes alive.  It is real.  

So today’s subject “Seeing God’s hand” by RBC ministries is most appropriate to those who believes in God through Christ Jesus.  Otherwise, this devotional becomes just nice reading, but has no impact or application or truth.  Just nice reading.  

In conclusion, I am to be blameless and upright before the Lord.  God is faithful and will watch over me and protect me.  The promises of God are only for the believers.  It is not for the unbelievers.  This is because we have believed in His Son and when we accepted Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God is obligated to keep His word.  Thus, for those of  us who have receive the gift of His only begotten Son, God obligates Himself to keep His promises to His children.

So if you want to receive the promises of God, accept the gift of His only begotten Son and all will come in order.  All these promises will come to pass.  If I refuse His son, all these promises are null and void.  So when a heathen reads these promises, it means nothing to them because they have not believed in God’s only Son.

John 3:16

New King James Version (NKJV)

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 10:9

New King James Version (NKJV)

9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

The promise of God is only for the believers.  So if I have confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead, I shall be saved from sin, satan, self, the world, the strongman, the evil, wicked people, the false prophets, the false teachers, false friends, false believers, strongholds, bondage, oppression, blocking of finances and cash flow, interference with blessings, control and manipulation, accusation, false charges, rumors, bad reports, allegation, accusations, and evil people.

Jesus is my God and Lord.  He promises to take care of me.  I belong to Jesus and not the devil.  So I reaffirm, rededicate that Jesus is my Lord and Lord over all my circumstances.  I thank God for using these setbacks to strengthen my faith, hope and trust in the Lord.  I repent from my trespasses that displeases the Lord.  I ask to be set free and continue to work out my salvation with fear and trembling to maintain the condition of a sanctified vessel ready for His service.  I must continue to do introspection when I am face with negative situations.  The virtue is that the Lord is showing me to check the condition of my heart and to make corrections.  I know from times past, He is in control, he is showing me what is not pleasing to Him.  I ask the Holy Spirit to examine my heart and reveal to me my trespasses so that I may repent and be restored back into fellowship with my Lord.  (Stamps)

Poem:

Help me to heed Your voice and trust in You today

to follow You when the setbacks come my way

I have accepted Your son and have chosen to obey

that I may see Your faithfulness all of my days

I know that I am fully in God's protective hands

Though I may not see everything in advance

My Bible tells me that You are  faithful and true

And will give me wisdom if it's God that I pursue

So the next time someone plots evil against me

instead of reacting hastily, I will go to Your word and see

how I may defeat him who is evil and unfair

to exercise full-on spiritual warfare

For the spirit behind him is the devil himself

who causes havoc and damage at will

Because You, Lord Jesus, is my God and my light

I promised to battle in the spirit with all my might.

Byword:  If I have chosen the begotten Son, then everything is done.  

work cited

Stamps, Donald C., The Full Life Study Bible King James Version, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.



Aldwin and Wendy Naruse
The Body of Christ Jesus Fellowship
Makaha, HI USA