Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)
These blessings are not found just anywhere. They are found only in Jesus and because of Jesus.
The completeness of perfect blessing is found in Who my Heavenly Father is for me because of the finished work of Jesus!
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Sanctification (“saint-ification”) is an ongoing process that usually involves the help of other saints. We learn this by having a biblical worldview (that’s the “B”), being accountable with saints (“A”), and serving the Body of Christ (“S”). These are the things that bring out increased fruitfulness in our lives, make us more joy-full people, and enhance our testimony to others.
What a blessing it is to be involved in all of these saint-ification things alongside other brothers and sisters. Isn’t nice to know that you’re not all alone on your journey?
Two brothers walked up the hill to the park every afternoon to play baseball. One day a neighbor who lived near the bottom of the hill saw the younger brother pulling his older brother up the hill in a wagon. He observed this for a couple of days before he finally asked what was going on.
The younger brother said, “My big brother broke his leg so I pull him in the wagon so he can watch us play baseball and can be our coach.”
“He must be heavy,” the neighbor replied.
“He’s not heavy,” the little boy said, “he’s my brother!”
In the first brothers that the Bible shows us, we see the origin of the phrase “brother’s keeper.” Cain was jealous of the way God was blessing his younger brother, and so he murdered Able. God came to Cain and asked him, “Where is your brother Able?”
Cain responded with another question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9).
(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
The word brother is someone connected to me by blood or some other common bond. Cain used the same word for brother but then asked if He was supposed to be his brother’s keeper—his guard, helping to keep him in bounds, celebrating his victories.
The clear teaching of Scripture is that the answer to Cain’s question is an emphatic “Yes!”
That definition of brother’s keeper sounds a lot like the definition of an intercessor. In the Hebrew, that word mean to go to God on someone else’s behalf (Genesis 25:21; 2 Samuel 24:25). The Greek of the New Testament sounds more intense (hyperentygchano): to meet a person of the purpose of conversation in behalf of someone else.
Remember that the Hebrew word for brother was pretty narrow? The Christians in the New Testament took the word for relative-by-blood (adelphos) and made it a synonym for fellow saint, regardless of where they are from (Acts 9:17; 2 Corinthians 13:11).
John used Cain’s misunderstanding of brother’s keeper to show us the spiritual responsibility we have to our adelphos (1 John 3:12, 15-16).
When we intercede for our adelphos—our fellow saints—we are participating in the same work as both the Spirit and Jesus (Romans 8:26-27, 34; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 5:16).
A couple of weeks ago we looked at Philemon’s service to the Body of Christ. Look at how Paul’s intercession may have released Philemon to do this (Philemon 7, 16, 20).
As Paul said to Philemon, I say to you—
I appeal to you on the basis of love: Be your brother’s keeper! Guard your adelphos, keep them in bounds, and celebrate both their righteousness and God’s blessing on their lives.
If you’ve missed any of the other messages in this series, you can find them all here.
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The Bible doesn’t tell us to choose either love or spiritual gifts, but to be both loving and spiritually gifted. Let’s always go for the both-and!
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T.M. Moore is sharing a fascinating series of posts on economics through a biblical worldview. “All the ancient laws of Israel contain principles like this, principles which, if rightly understood and faithfully practiced, could tap into the grace of God and bring more honesty, respect, fairness, justice, generosity, forbearance, and love into the economic practice of a powerful nation such as the United States—more of grace and less of greed to our economic life.”
“Christ had even a literary style of His own, not to be found, I think, elsewhere; it consists of an almost furious use of the a fortiori. His ’how much more’ is piled one upon another like castle upon castle in the clouds. The diction used about Christ has been, and perhaps wisely, sweet and submissive. But the diction used by Christ is quite curiously gigantesque; it is full of camels leaping through needles and mountains hurled into the sea.” —G.K. Chesterton
David Mathis writes that the Bible is not just “a Book.” He says, “In my mind, one of the greatest imaginable tragedies is a professing Christian who is bored with the Bible. Could a truly loving husband cherish his wife but not care for her words? Could an adoring wife respect her husband but not what he says? What are words anyway? They are the breathed-out expressions of the person himself. Words are audible revelations of the otherwise unknown heart.”
Another archeological study supports the historicity of the Bible. This one identifies the battle preparations that King Joash made.
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We had our final service of the summer joining with Hillcrest Community Church in Morley Park. Pastor Caleb Claybaugh shared a message that challenged me.
He started out with a simple question: Why do we do ministry? “Because the Bible says so” is a good start but it’s not enough. It’s not just doing but having the right attitude.
God is more interested in the attitude of our hearts than He is the actions of our hands.
First, we have to love others as Jesus loved: So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples (John 13:34-35 NLT).
When people hurt, Jesus hurts. When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within Him, and He was deeply troubled. … Then Jesus wept (John 11:33, 35 NLT). So, too, when we see people hurting, we should hurt with them, and our pain should move us to action—When [Jesus] saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36 NLT).
Christ’s compassion prompted Him to preach the Good News and to heal the sick (v. 35). And then Jesus prayed that more of us would be involved in this type of compassion-driven ministry (vv. 37-38).
Although this was a word Peter spoke to pastors, it’s a good challenge for all of us about checking out attitude: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God (1 Peter 5:2 NLT).
May our prayer be for God to give us both the heart of compassion that Jesus has, and also the hands of compassion that meet the needs of hurting people.
Some related posts:
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Can we take just a couple of minutes to talk about fear? This isn’t on the list of anyone’s favorite topics, but it is something we all have to confront.
The Scriptures I reference in this episode are from John 8:12, 9:5; Revelation 1:8; and Psalm 56:3-4, 10-11.
I also mentioned how many times the Bible shows us God saying, “Do not be afraid.” Here are several of those instances.
I shared a whole series of messages called “Do Not Be Afraid” which you can check out here. Some other related posts are:
But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. I praise God for what He has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? … I praise God for what He has promised; yes, I praise the Lord for what He has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4, 10-11 NLT)
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Last week we were reminded that sanctification (or as I call it “saint-ification”) is an ongoing process that usually involves the help of other saints. There is something else we need to do with other saints: serve them.
We are all a part of the same Body so it is beneficial for the whole Body if we care for every part of the Body (1 Corinthians 12:25 AMPC; Ephesians 5:30).
(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
In order to serve others, we are going to have to check our attitude. We have been called to have the attitude that Jesus had about the Church (Ephesians 5:29; Philippians 2:3-7; John 13:3-5, 14-17).
We must all know:
In the early Church, we see so much togetherness that they rewrote the definition of the Greek word koinonia (see Acts 2:42). Here’s what koinonia looks like in the Church:
(1) Testifying in church (Psalm 40:9-10 NLT)
(2) Being present with saints outside of church. From Acts 20-28, the pronouns “we” and “us” are used over 80 times! Paul was blessed simply by Luke being with him, just as saints are blessed when you are truly with them.
(3) Love notes when a saint is absent. The apostle John was brilliant at this. Look at his three epistles:
(4) Hospital-ity whenever it’s needed. Be a place of healing and refreshment for the saints God has placed in your life, just as Philemon did (Philemon 2-7, 22).
What a testimony it is when we live this way (Romans 12:10, 13)!
Remember the saint-ification process brings fruitfulness, joy-fullness, and an enhanced testimony. I love this quote from Richard Stearns, “The beautiful simplicity of our faith is that it distills down to the exact same bottom line for both the brilliant theologian and the five-year-old child: love God and love each other—period. Everything else derives from that.”
If you’ve missed the “B” or “A” in our series B.A.S.I.C. Christianity, you can check those out here.
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For God is not a mere man, as I am, that I should answer Him, that we should come together in court. There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand upon us both—would that there were! That He might take His rod away from threatening me, and that the fear of Him might not terrify me. Then would I speak and not fear Him, but I am not so in myself to make me afraid, were only a fair trial given me. (Job 9:32-35 AMPC)
The “umpire” or mediator for whom Job was longing is Jesus.
Both Paul (Galatians 3:19-20; 1 Timothy 2:5) and the writer of Hebrews (8:6, 9:15, 12:24) make it clear that what Job said was true: Man cannot come before God on his own, let alone attempt to argue his case.
Jesus became fully Man while remaining fully God to satisfy the righteous requirements of the law and become the one and only perfect Mediator of our justification before God!
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Most of our Royal Psalms have taken us from King David to King Jesus. Psalm 72 is a bit different because King David is speaking some of his last words as a blessing and a reminder to King Solomon. Jesus, Peter, and those in a church prayer meeting all affirmed that David’s words were inspired by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 22:43; Acts 1:16, 4:25), so these words in Psalm 72 are just as inspired.
(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
The introduction to this psalm in the NIV says “Of Solomon.” But because the Hebrew word for “of” can also be “for” and since v. 20 says these are the final words of David, I think we can say that this psalm is of David and for Solomon.
David has received God’s promise of an heir always on the throne of his kingdom. Here is the first transfer of power, and David is foreseeing the blessing that Solomon will be to the Israelite nation because of the endowment of God’s righteousness. Those blessings for his subjects include:
fair judgments (v. 2; 1 Kings 10:1-3) Historically, we know of the fulfillment of these things. We can especially see it in the visit of Queen Sheba in 1 Kings 10.
In this next paragraph, as we have seen with other royal psalms, there is a modulation back-and-forth between King Solomon and King of kings Jesus (vv. 8-11). Verse 8 is the ends of the earth rule of Jesus; vv. 9-10 are the local rule under Solomon; v. 11 then speaks of all kings…all nations bowing to Jesus as the King of kings.
This modulation reminds us that no earthly king can ever stand-in for the Eternal King. After the static of switching back-and-forth, from our perspective at this point in history a flashback event becomes crystal clear.
This is not the case for our King of kings! His kingdom has no end because His rule has no end (Isaiah 9:6-7; Luke 1:32-33).
The devil tried to limit Jesus by offering Him a shortcut, but Jesus stood firm. So the remainder of this Royal Psalm can only be fulfilled by Jesus:
Don’t get caught up in looking at what’s before your eyes right now. Don’t get discouraged by the voice that’s in your ears right now. Don’t get mesmerized by the glittery things of earth. Keep your focus on the Eternal King. David’s conclusion to this Royal Psalm is that we worship our King above all else (Psalm 72:18-19).
If you’ve missed any of the other messages on these Royal Psalms, you can find them all here.
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Throughout history, kings had their own “signature scent”—an incense that was exclusively theirs.
This is true for King Jesus as well!
The Scriptures I reference in this clip are Song of Songs 1:3, 12; 2 Corinthians 2:14-15.
You can check out the full sermon from which this clip came here.
I’ve blogged previously about the powerful things the Bible says about this aroma from Jesus and the aroma from our lives too:
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What does it mean when we really believe the words, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing” (Psalm 23:1)?
When the sheep is utterly dependent on the shepherd, it lacks nothing. A sheep without any lack glorifies the Good Shepherd.
God is glorified when I remain in utter dependence on Him, and I continue to have to lack because of His perfect provision. I am quiet, restored, on the right path, fearless, secure, provisioned, blessed, and forever hopeful.
To try to provide for my own needs dishonors the Good Shepherd, but to come to Him for absolutely everything glorifies Him as eternally satisfying and reliable.
The more my needs are satisfied by God alone, the more He is glorified.
You may also want to check out this related post—The Path Ahead Of Me.
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Craig T. Owens 