Tag: rejoice

Devotional 201: Promises to the Faithful

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Luke 2:25-32

Simeon Sees God’s Salvation

25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, 28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation
31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

Other than this story, which is impactful enough as it stands, we know nothing of Simeon outside of this passage. As with some others, nowhere does it say ‘This was the same man who…’ We are told he was just and devout. We are not told he was without sin, or flaws, or what his walk with G-d was like.

What we can piece together from here is that G-d certainly knew who he was, and that sometime in his life he felt Israel’s persecution so keenly, perhaps even suffered some himself, that he asked to know the promises he heard in his youth of Israel’s Consolation were true.

And the Father not only honored his request, but he was among the first to hold His Son, and to deliver a powerful prophesy over him, no doubt bewildering to Jesus’ earthly parents.

Do you ever wonder, believer, if Mary recalled these words, if all that Simeon said came together for her as she watched her son suffer and die, with spiritual demons mocking and cavorting around Him as His holy blood covered our souls to blot out the evil in them from His Father’s sight.

Have you ever wondered if, with all that Jesus suffered, the Father removing him from His sight as he took the penalty of our sins, was more painful than the nails and thorns?

Have you prayed in your own youth, wondered if G-d heard, and later in life saw that He delivered the desire of your heart into your hands?

From this passage we’re told that Simeon held on to that promise, but that the Holy Spirit was sent to assure him, and after it was fulfilled, Simeon was at peace with leaving this world.

That same Holy Spirit was sent to us after we accepted G-d’s Son as our Friend, Brother, Shepherd Lord, Savior, King, and Judge.

Therefore I pray:

Father in Heaven,

There are none righteous here on the earth that You should deliver us from sin’s hold. We are only worthy of the destruction of the world, as in the times of Noah.

But in Your love, mercy, and grace, remembering we are clay as we live, and the dust of clay when we perish, You would yet see our souls reconciled to You, to see us rejoice in the rewards of our faith in Your promises You have spoken through Your Son, Jesus, as yes and amen.

As we stumble, fall, backslide, run off, disobey, and return to our personal Egypts, remind us through the Holy Spirit that the promise of redemption is sealed to us, for as You sent the Spirit to Simeon, so did Jesus tell His disciples the Spirit would come to them, and give to them more of the revelation and strength of the Christ.

May we blot from our sight the ways of this world, repent, and live such a life of faith before You as we hold on to the promise of eternal life, and bless the Son as we hold on to the reassurances he gave us in Your Word, that You may remember us, as You remembered Simeon in the appointed hour.

Grant to us also that we never waver in our belief we will one day meet Simeon and rejoice with him forever, in the presence of our Consolation along with Your people Israel, grafted into the Branch by Your covenants of mercy and grace.

Today, we humbly, gratefully, reverently, fearfully thank You for sealing Your promises to us through the power, counsel and conviction of the Holy Spirit, and that no matter how much time passes, You will keep them all.

We ask this in Jesus’ Name, believing we’ve already received.

Amen.

He Comes to Us

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Luke 1:39-45

Mary Visits Elizabeth

39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

Through the echoes of time, Jesus has said He is with us, always, and that to apart from Him is to founder, fail, and fall away as a believer.

He was sent by the Father, to reconcile man to his Creator, back to purity.

By the laws of the see, if one is to salvage, as in rescue, a ship, one must ask permission to board even though the ship to be salvaged is in peril. During these times, are we giving permission for Jesus to come to us, to rescue us.

By His very presence He brings the power of the Holy Spirit with Him. John recognized this even in the womb, as he rejoiced as much in the confined space of his mother’s belly, and Elizabeth, who was barren, was now filled with the child that took away her reproach, and the Spirit who had her confirm that which the angel told her, which would be sealed to her heart later by the words of Simeon in the temple.

We’ve come to understand that the presence of Christ will come to us, but will not invade us. He comes to us and walks among us, and those who would partake of Him must move toward Him in faith. Blind Bartimeus, the men who lowered their friend through the roof of someone’s house, the bleeding woman, the Gentile who would have her daughter healed, the 10 lepers, and many others all took a step in faith. They shouted for Him, they pushed through crowds, they acknowledged Him as the Messiah and the Son of David, and when He’d forgiven their sins and healed them, instructed them, and blessed them, they testified to the Father’s glory of the work He did in them.

It is years later that John the Baptist will echo his mother’s words to Mary, but under different circumstances:

Matthew 3:13-17

John Baptizes Jesus

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”

15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He[a] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Are you in the Lord’s presence this Christmas season? Then rejoice, for He has come to You to lead you back to the Father, under the covenant of mercy and grace, and asks you to follow Him, and tell others, and do good to people, and intercede for them, and help them, and pray over them, and bless them whether they deserve it or not.

But remember that You must ask, seek, and knock. You must watch and pray.

You must guard your heart, your eyes, and your tongue.

You must seek. You must answer. You must love. You must testify.

You must acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior.

But most importantly, You must believe in Him, and in His promises, and that He tells us the truth about all things concerning Him doing the Father’s will, and how we are to seek, live, and enter into the kingdom of G-d, where it is as He said, He is always with us.

Brothers and sisters, this Christmas season, He comes to you, and calls for you.

Answer Him while He may yet be found, in this, the year of G-d’s favor, for He desires to be with you.

Revelation 3:20

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

May it be to us as He has said.

Merry Christmas

 

Devotional 74: Rejoice in the Spirit

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Jesus Rejoices in the Spirit (Luke 10:21-22)

21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 22 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

Part of the sovereignty of kingship is that the King gets to pick who belongs in the kingdom, and who doesn’t. I’ll admit that seeing this verse, particularly verse 22, gave me pause because in my youth, though I believed in G-d, I did not serve Him, and I wasn’t interested in following Christ.

After all, like so many others say, “I wasn’t hurting anyone.” But I wasn’t helping anyone, either. I was an unfruitful branch, dormant, empty, like the cursed fig tree when my Lord needed me to fulfill an earthly need. My life was undisciplined, spent doing what I wished, not planning for the future, and pretty much coasting and drifting with a jumbled set of ambitions, up to when I had my first child.

Fast-forward to my first day of Pentecost, when the Spirit opened my eyes to all that G-d was and meant to me on a new level, and all that He wanted to do for me and through me.

That brings me back to verse 22. Christ, in His mercy, sent the Spirit to reveal Himself to me, and through Him, reveal the Father. I was a basket case for a few hours, kept asking why, kept feeling His presence all through me. It was a glorious day I’ll never forget.

Fast forward again: No longer a husband, a father of adult children on their own, and I find myself again being able to do what I want, when I want, if I want.

I still don’t always stick to the path and do what I know,  yet again Christ in His mercy, through the Word, tells us this (Luke 9:23-26)

23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 

Self-denial, aka ‘crucifying the flesh,’ is a requirement, not an option. Professing to be a follower when I’m not damages both our reputations, and I again become unfruitful.

Paul reminds us in Romans:

4 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

And the writer of Hebrews says this: (Hebrews 10:26-29

26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.[ And again, “The Lord will judge His people. 

Will we backslide? Of course. But we must repent as soon as we’re aware of it. It’s not something we should build up before we do. Again in Hebrews we read: (Hebrews 10:14-16)

14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Hold Fast Your Confession

19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.

And lastly, the words of Christ:(Luke 9:26)

26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. 

If I don’t confess Him before men, I can’t evangelize effectively. More importantly, He will not confess me before the Father.

I, for one, don’t want to fall into the hands of the living G-d if I’m covered in sin.

Do you?

Therefore I pray:

Lord Jesus, 

Let today be a day of praise and thanksgiving for Your mercy toward us, for taking our mustard seed of faith and planting it with the promise of eternal life to come, in Your presence, as we worship the Father in Your Kingdom.

We thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who has revealed the Truth of the Father’s word to us, a word that He holds higher than His name, sending You to fulfill it so we are reconciled back to Him, spotless and blameless.

Bring to mind, Lord, that it is only through You we come to the Father, and only because You were willing to put our names into the Book of Life. We would not have them blotted out Lord, by foolishly making Your covenant with us a common thing, lest the Father’s wrath be on us in the day of the His vengeance on His enemies.

You tell us that no one can take us from Your hand, but let us also seek Your face, and know Your voice, holding fast to our confession of You in all that we say and do.

We thank You for redeeming us, for trusting us to do greater works in boldness, proclaiming the drawing near of Your kingdom. Help us to discern the times we live in, and know what to do. Help us not to go down when the enemy would call us from the work. 

And let us, like You, when our days here are done, be able to say: “It is finished,” and enter into Your joy in being with the Father also.

I ask in Your name, believing I’ve received.

Amen