INFINITESIMAL SMIDGEN OF TIME

Understand we follow the God who chose the way of the Cross.  If our Father and our Savior did not avoid the “place of the skull”, then we should not be surprised where God might lead us. His will is unpredictable, His ways beyond our comprehension, and He does not esteem this infinitesimal smidgen of time we call life. 

The Apostle Paul met the Flogging Post of most towns he visited, enduring whippings, canings and scourgings, planting churches by the flesh of his back. It is clear this was God’s will for Paul, God having showed him how many things he would “suffer for My name’s sake.” Hear how the great Apostle to the gentiles viewed suffering by his own words: “For I (Paul) consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us … I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ … That no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this ... From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus … For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Notice the plural pronouns -- us, we, our – Paul uses to clarify that “we”, the saints throughout time, “are appointed to this”… appointed to affliction.

Hear the Apostle Peter’s words: “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” Suffering produces a change in our nature – holiness – whereby we “cease from sin.” Suffering and sacrifice arm us with the mind of Christ producing transformational faith as we learn to trust in, cling to, rely upon, and depend upon God. Adversity and affliction are therefore “not worthy to be compared with the glory (the nature of Christ) which shall be revealed in us.” We learn obedience through the things we suffer, just as Christ “learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” Suffering and sacrifice are not the worse things that can happen to us - disobedience to God is! 

(Rom. 8:18; 1Cor. 4:17; Acts 9:16; Gal. 6:17; Col. 1:24; 1 Thess. 3:3; Heb. 5:8; 1 Peter 4:1)

ARM YOURSELVES WITH THE MIND OF CHRIST

SCISSORING THROUGH MUD TO MAKE A POINT

MUD PIES: We repudiate self-flagellation and all other forms of penitence as unscriptural, while imposing an attenuated version on ourselves, equating boring pleasure less lives with godliness. “All I need is stale bread, potable water and God, gosh darn it, and I’m happy.” Mud pies! The basic desires of the human heart are God given for we were made in His likeness. At issue is not that we have desires but how we satisfy them as Kingdom children.

DON’T MISS THE POINT: We don’t have to suffocate our natural desires to please God, and we don’t have to ignore God’s precepts and commands to please ourselves. God made provision for the fulfillment of our natural desires within the boundaries of His sandbox so the pleasure-fruit of our spent desires does not rot with guilt and empty regret. If we let life become a choice between enjoyment and serving God we have really missed the point.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS: We fulfill desires by “spending” them, purchasing the pleasure-fruit they produce. Said another way, we sow desires and reap their pleasure-fruit. Christians are adept at removing scriptural obstacles to spending desire in the world much like a saintly Edward Scissorhands, snipping out any restraining passages: “Oh, I don’t think you have to “Blank” to be a Christian”, missing the truthfulness of their first four words. We can fulfill our desires in the Kingdom’s sandbox or the world’s litter box. The pleasure-fruit of spent desire will produce in kind, righteous fruit or those stinky little…

ENJOYING LIFE IN GOD'S SANDBOX

WHOSE COMMANDMENTS DO WE KEEP

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,  has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” It is contextually correct to interpret Hebrews 1:1-2 as directly referencing the Old Testament and New Testament respectively, since the broad context of the whole book of Hebrews is the comparison of these two covenants and the replacement of the lesser, the Old Testament Mosaic Covenant of the Law, with the greater, the New Testament Covenant of Grace.

The New Testament is God speaking forth the revelation of His Son.  The prophets spoke as mere mouthpieces, but when the Son spoke it was God Himself speaking, and in a sense it is God being revealed By His Son in and through the Son’s life, the Son’s message, the Son’s redemptive work, and the Son’s  return to establish His (i.e., God’s) eternal Kingdom. The New Testament reveals to mankind God’s redemptive plan established before the foundations of the world with the foreordained sacrifice of the Son of His love, that we, the “us” of Hebrews 1:2, might be partakers of salvation and know eternal fellowship with God through His Covenant of Grace –indescribable grace.

“If you love Me, keep My commandments … He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (Jn. 14:15, 21, 15:10)

Notice Jesus specifically said to keep “My” commandments in these three passages; scripture repeats this command thirteen times. “His commandments” are the commandments flowing forth out of the life, words, and redemptive work of Christ recorded in the New Testament. There are 1050 New Testament commandments, which reduces to about 800 when redundancies are removed. These commandments cover every phase of man’s relationship to God and his fellowmen, now and hereafter. If obeyed they will bring rich rewards now and forever. These should not be confused with the Old Testament Ten Commandments which are part of the Law of Moses applicable to the Old Covenant. The New Covenant of Grace abolishes the Law of Moses including the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment is the only commandment of the Ten Commandments that is not specifically reintroduced as a New Testament commandment (some in modified form), so nine of the Ten Commandments are still in force in the New Covenant as New Covenant commandments. Keeping the Sabbath holy, the fourth commandment, is no longer applicable so we are free to set aside Saturday or any other day as a special day devoted to God. To make keeping the Old Testament Sabbath a New Covenant commandment would be paramount to dragging the Law into Grace. We cannot do that…

“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments … And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments … Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.” (Jn. 2:3, 3:22, 24)

Now these are serious thoughts from a serious God. Since God the Holy Spirit wrote the commandments of God the Son down for us we can be sure God the Father is serious about how we conduct ourselves.  “Be holy, for I am holy … Pursue … holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” It is in obedience that we “pursue holiness.” For a list of New Testament commandments with scripture references see Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible, pages 544-548 or visit Christian Assemblies International at https://www.cai.org/bible-studies/1050-new-testament-commands

(1 peter 1:16; Heb. 12:44)

“KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS”