Words of Eternal Life

"Words of eternal life" (John 6:68)

Imagine someone telling you they have words that will get you through a tough situation.  They have words will bring you joy for the moment.  They promise their words will sustain you for a temporary period.  There is nothing wrong with each of scenarios.  But imagine someone telling you that they have words that will never perish.  Words that will last for all eternity.  "Words of eternal life."

It seems that such hope up would make our hearts leap for joy.  This would bring us all the comfort we need to know that we have words of eternal life.  But we don't have to imagine this is true.  It is true.  Plain and simple this is what the Bible is all about.  God's truth spoken to us.  These are the words of eternal life.  When we enter the scene is John 6, Jesus has been speaking about being the bread of life.  When he concludes we read that many of his disciples were having a hard time understanding what Jesus was talking about in the synagogue.    Jesus ask, "Do you take offense at this?  Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe" (61-64).  Some of them were truly not his disciples because they had not been granted by the Father (65).  They rejected Christ and his words.  They did not believe he was the eternal God who descended from heaven in order to ransom sinners from their sin.  Sadly many walked away and no longer walked with him.

But when Jesus turns to his disciples we see that they were trusting in Christ and his words.  They understood, because of God's grace, that Jesus was the God-man.  They knew Jesus to be the Christ.  When Jesus turned to them and asked, "Do you want to turn away as well?"  The spokesman for the group, Peter, says, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"  This was a great follow up question.  He was basically stating, "Lord, there are no other options.  We have nowhere else to turn."  Why?  Were there literally no other options?  Of course not we just read that the majority had walked away from Christ.  But Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."  There really are no other options.  When it comes to following something or someone who offers words of eternal life the options begin and end with Jesus.  The disciples knew it.

My question for all of us is: Do we know and believe that Jesus offers to us the words of eternal life?  The words of eternal life are nothing more than the words of God himself.  What is eternal life?  Knowing Jesus (John 17:3).  Jesus is our hope.  Jesus is our comfort.  Jesus is our refuge.  Jesus is our everything, now and forever.

Grace upon grace,
JRL

O Fount of Love

O fount of love divine that flows from my saviors bleeding side
Where sinners trade their filthy rags for His righteousness applied
Mercy cleansing every stain now rushing o'er us like a flood
There the wretch and vilest ones stand adopted through His blood

O mount of grace to thee we cling from the law hath set us free
Once and for all on calvary's hill love and justice shall agree
Praise the Lord! the price is paid the curse defeated by the Lamb
We who once were slaves by birth, sons and daughters now we stand

O well of joy is mine to drink for my Lord hath conquered death
Victorious forevermore, the ancient foe is laid to rest
Hallelujah, Christ is King! alive and reigning on the throne
Our tongues employed with hymns of praise, Glory be to God alone! (Matt Papa)

Grace upon grace,
JRL

The Rocking Chair Sin

"Do not be anxious about your life."

I'm sure we have all read these words spoken from the mouth of our Savior Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.  These are words I turn to often but struggle obey.  Many times I find God's grace sustaining me to trust him and not be anxious but other times I find myself worrying like it's going out of style.  I come back and read this section praying that God would help me not to be anxious but trust him.  It is still not easy.  I have to confess this is a great sin.  It is revealing my heart that really wants control instead of trusting the sovereign God of the universe.  I've heard it said that "anxiety is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but gets you nowhere."  Jesus says of those who are anxious, "O you of little faith."  May we be people who love the Lord and trust him no matter the circumstances in our life.  Jesus says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."

Grace upon grace,
JRL

Making the Best Use of your Time

"Making the best use of your time" (Ephesians 5:16)

Have you ever stopped to consider how much time is wasted in a day?  Did you know we are all accountable for our time?  The Lord knows our days and the time we have on this earth and he does not want us to waste the moments we have in this life.  He created us with a purpose and for a purpose in the time he has given to us.    He is the One we are accountable to for our time.

In Ephesians 5, Paul is graciously encouraging followers of Christ and also admonishing us to "look carefully how we walk."  Paul promotes discernment and wisdom in our walk in this world.  True wisdom and discernment flow from a fear of the Lord.  We are told to make the best of use of our time for time ahead.  Our focus should be on eternity.  An eternal focus brings this world into perspective.  We are told to walk wise in this world because the days are evil.  As sinners it is easy to get wrapped up in the evil ways of the world rather than set our minds on the things above (Col. 3:1).  Paul tells us in Romans to "not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing our minds, in order to live holy" (12:1).  We can conclude that spending time in the Word and in prayer would be making good use of our time.  The Word is where we find renewing and begging God for mercy is where we are given the strength to walk in holiness.

Sadly it is easy to get sucked into our culture which is so me-centered.  That is not to blame the culture because me-centeredness comes from a heart full of pride.  This means all of us are guilty.  If this wasn't a struggle Paul wouldn't have to tell us to make the best use of our time because we would naturally do it.  Since God has spoken it to remind us that we live in evil days, we should heed the warning.  We should seek his wisdom and grace in order to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.  We should see what his Word says about the best way to use our time.  We should seek to honor him with the time he has graciously given us.  Please don't hear me say we should be sitting in a church 24/7 because that is not making the best use of our time.  It does mean we should ask him for the grace to eat, drink and do whatever to his glory (1 Cor. 10:31).  We make the best use of our time when we can do life to his glory.

Are you "making the best us of your time"?  Are you striving to live for the glory of God in all you do?  This isn't easy but by God's grace it is possible.  Seek his wisdom and look carefully how you walk "making the best use of your time."

Grace upon grace,
JRL

Our Need of God

I am rereading John Piper's book The Pleasures of God which is an anthem on God delighting in being God.  In his chapter The Pleasure of God in doing good to all who hope in Him, Piper wrote this simple phrase:

We have a God whose nature is such that what pleases him is not our work for him but our need of him.


Piper is talking about the pleasure and delight we find in knowing God.  We find our infinite joy and pleasure in knowing him.  In him is where are dependence ought to be found.  I found this sentence helpful in killing legalism.  It is a sinful tendency to think we can work for God as if he needs our help.  As if once we are in the family we can bear the work load to pay back what God has done for us.  But this is not the God of the Bible.  The God of the Bible is not asking us to pay back any debt we owe.  For starters that would be impossible so we ought to be glad he does not require us to pay him back.  What pleases God is holding on to him for grace. He is the Savior but he is also the Sustainer.   In our sinful nature this doesn't make sense.  The God of the universe, the Creator of all wants nothing more than our dependence upon him?  Could this be true?  Yes.

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food." (Isaiah 55:1-2)

Or how about Jesus with the woman at the well?

"Everyone who drinks of this water (the well) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 5:13-14)

Come freely and drink from an eternal spring of life.  He doesn't want our work but he wants us to drink.  It pleases him to know we need him.  May our complete dependence be upon God.

Grace upon grace,
JRL