Devotionals, December End Of The Year
December 26th, 2020
He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly. Psalms 147: 15
In the remaining days of this year, we will finish the year with meditations I am giving the title “Contending To The End,” in our end-of-the-year devotional. This is to help us to pray through things that may need divine interventions before the end of the year. It is for us to finish the year strong, standing firm in our faith. We do know that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”- Philippians 1:6. This is Paul’s assurance about our salvation, of which we are neither the authors nor sustainers. Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith. As such, things that pertain to spiritual growth for our salvation are not under a quarterly or annual schedule. He keeps working in the sanctification process, growth, and maturity of the saints. Even things that are not salvation related, whether careers, jobs, families, illnesses, social upheavals, lockdowns, security concerns of any kind, church activities, friendships, businesses, and all other things that we seek God about and pray to see His perfect will accomplished, do not necessarily fit into a weekly, monthly, or annual schedule. God can work at any time and perfect those things. If anything is not complete by December 31st, we do not turn our eyes from Jesus, the author of what we have trusted God for and the only one who can really bring them to completion. With that being said, we also tend to need motivation to bestir ourselves to hold onto Him and if the end of the year week brings us to that place when we call upon Him earnestly because of looming deadlines or ebbing hopes of what we longed for, that should be an opportunity for us to use those days to do all we can to contend to the very end. After all, “His word runneth very swiftly.”
The scripture before us assures that God sends forth His command upon the earth, His word runs swiftly. In other words, when God speaks, it does not matter if the time left is short, He can accomplish what He has spoken in a brief moment. The meditations of the Christmas season that we have just left behind have taught us this. When angel Gabriel told Mary she would have a child as a virgin woman, she said “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”- Luke 1:38. I cannot stress enough how I emphasize hearing from God in everything I do. I have had to deal with so many things that were “mountains” in my own eyes and unless I had the Word of God I would never have even made a serious attempt to go from Place A to Place B. But each time I waited upon the Lord and heard from Him, I also received an impartation of faith to see it through (Isaiah 40:31). What Mary was believing for here had never been done before. No woman had ever been pregnant without a man involved. Scientifically and naturally speaking, this is pure craziness. There’s no measurement to even begin to describe the size of how gigantic the miracle of virgin birth is. We are talking about carrying to term a 46-XY chromosome man-child from an egg with 23, X chromosomes. No wonder the things of faith are so difficult for people of science, because to believe such things takes the work of God.
Mary had not read in a Bible what she heard from Gabriel . She might have been familiar with Isaiah 7:14. We can assume that she was not a random choice. God knew that she was a person of eminent holiness, faith, and assiduous pursuit of the heavenly things. But what she heard was from an angel and she believed. God has many ways to speak to us. I love putting Scriptures above all other forms of God’s words but I am well aware that God will use many ways to speak to us. In Numbers 12:6 we read: “Listen to my words: ‘When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.’ “ I have heard many people talk about a few prophecies of Kim Clement this year. He died in 2016 and went to be with the Lord but some of his prophecies are still with us. I know him to have had many prophetic words that were fulfilled. Well-here is the thing- while I can say that each word he has spoken has to be tested like all other prophecies are to be tested (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21)- if people believe that those prophecies that they have been talking about are true, then they have to contend before God to see them fulfilled. We know that if God sends His word, He means good for His children. We can trust Him for that. Praying to contend for prophecies is consistent with believing the Word of the Lord. Paul once urged Timothy not to relax because of prophetic words he had heard, expecting them to be fulfilled no matter what- but rather to be stirred into contending: “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.”- 1 Timothy 1:18.
We know what God is capable of and His words can be trusted. “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth”- Psalms 33:6, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible”- Hebrews 11:3, “Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?”- Lamentations 3:37. In an age when people are skeptical about Christianity and its claims, believing only in cause-effect relationship of things that they can control physically, it is time for the saints in Christ to believe that Jesus can do what we proclaim He can do. What if Jesus could do all the things we read in the New Testament ? What if He was the same yesterday, today, and forever? Well, He is (Hebrews 13:8). When Jesus gave the Word that the servant of the Centurion who had come to him would be healed, “the servant was healed that moment.”- Matthew 8:13. He giveth His commandment and His word runneth swiftly. He has done it before and He can do the same today.
Prayer: Father God, we thank you that you have given us the grace to reach the end of this year. There are many brothers and sisters that you have called to yourself this year. Some preachers have departed from this earth this year. Other people who did not know you at all also died. We have also seen tragedies, treachery, and trials of many kind. But Lord, in all of this, we want to finish this year strong. We pray that the words of God we have heard whether spoken by your prophets in years past or those we heard this year will be fulfilled swiftly. Let your angels be dispatched to execute those prophetic words. The promises and invitations we received from you this year also, let them not go to waste or be aborted this year. We contend that they will be made manifest and be brought into perfect fulfillment. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen!
December 28th, 2020
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.”-Amos 9:13.
As we continue our “Contending To The End,” in our end of the year devotional, one of the Scriptures that had come to my mind was Psalms 138:8 “He will perfect that which concerns me,” but this is usually a Scripture I have used when I am praying for God to bless me a certain way. I did not feel it was going to apply with what I was sensing happening in the weekend. God has blessed me. I have a lot of awesome work to do, and in a pandemic, what greater blessing do I need? If there’s something I am contending for—getting work to do in the remaining 3 days of the year is not one of them. Rather, I want to be more productive and achieve more with the work I am doing that God has already blessed me with. So I decided to pass on that verse to look for this one in Amos that would get me stirred up to see that I accomplish all I desire to achieve in the work I have before me. I also believe there are many people who are in this category—people who feel like—God has blessed them, they are not looking for more blessings—they want to be better stewards of the blessings that God has already given them.
In Amos 9:11, we see this prophet starting to talk about Israel’s restoration. In verse 14, he talks about the return of the people of Israel from exile. Amos was a pre-captivity prophet, so you can apply this prophecy to the time they would come back after Cyrus said they could go back and rebuild the temple. However, in verse 15, we see that He says “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land,” which does not seem to fit into a post-captivity era as they would return to the land of Israel for just 600 years only to have Jerusalem captured by the Romans in 70 AD. So verse 14-15 are far more applicable to the present moment after the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948, with Jews from exile making Aaliyah. This is the context in which we see Amos 9:13 we study for our devotional today.
“The days are coming,” we are in those days, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman.” The first beautiful thing I love about this is because reaping is associated with “harvest.” The Hebrew word used here is “Baqqoser /Qatsar” and can also mean harvest. And what is a better time for harvest than the end of the year? When you file taxes for next year, you will be accounting for your income up to December 31st. So this is the time you get a picture of how much you have earned in the past 12 months. It is also a time many students are on Christmas break. It is a time when stocks in financial markets are going to record how far they have come at the end of this year. Whether we like the idea or not, there are many deadlines that come up at the end of the year and we do not want to miss out on what God can do in the remaining days. Maybe someone could feel that the remaining days are not going to make that big of a difference and this is exactly why we need a word like this. Because the Lord says “the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman.” The reaper has had a time to sow and now is the time for harvest (Ecclesiastes 3:2). The reaper has invested in outcomes for a period of time and the plowman is just getting started. So how is it possible that the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman? Have you noticed that, even though the rebirth of Israel is pretty recent, the new nation has overtaken many others in the region that did not have the same history ?
I have noticed that there’s an unhealthy fear of what is called “competition” among Christians. And to certain extent, it’s possible that some Christians could have a wrong view of competition. However, in trying to resolve such concerns, Jesus told the disciples a secret: greatness in God’s kingdom will be determined by service (Matthew 20:26). If we want to be the greatest, not only Jesus says our holy life has to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:19; Matthew 5: 48), we also have to roll our sleeves and invest time in serving His people and those who are still lost out there (Matthew 24:45-46). If you are not holy, you can’t be great. Not according to heaven’s standards. But that’s not enough, you must serve the saints. Jesus is not worried about the topic of greatness, He is simply concerned that we get the right perspective of what it actually means to be great. It is under this light we should see the plowman who overtakes the reaper. God shortens the duration the plowman needs to wait to see a harvest for his own efforts. It’s like one accomplishes the same or even more by starting later than the one who started earlier and had to sweat longer. It’s the divine grace to overtake. Whenever I have sensed that God wanted me to do something, I have never had to fret how long I may need to wait to do it if He had me do other work. But I always sensed that when I get finally to do that—I would become unstoppable—and even if you were to try to get my attention to take a break, I wouldn’t stop for a second. There’s this interesting story I saw posted on social media by a Haitian friend who used to be a coworker : “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up, it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
God wants to train us as competitive athletic runners. There are plenty of Scriptures that teach us to think that way like:
1) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”—Hebrews 12:1. Every now and then, I get a feeling that the saints who have gone before us are watching us here as “witnesses.” I am like, Reinhard Bonnke is really gone. What is he thinking up there? I’d better be running. Because in this Hebrew 12 verse the race is about perseverance, it is more like a marathon.
2) “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”- 1 Corinthians 9:24. We may even consider sprinters here since we do not have a picture of whether it is 100 meters or 42 kilometers run. Someone like Usain Bolt would know that every second counts in sprinting 100 meters. The man flies. Do we have such a sense of urgency with every minute we have ? There are days in which what is required of you is the endurance of a marathoner, there are days what you need is the speed of a sprinter. Paul talks about how he disciplines himself for such a race.
3) If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?- Jeremiah 12:5. Let’s try to get this out of spirituality a bit. What about secular work? I hear people say, H1B Visa holders immigrants working as software engineers are taking American people’s jobs. But if you are an American engineer and you are getting beaten in such circumstances in a land of opportunity, how will you handle it if things could get worse—like say China overtakes USA technologically and forces US companies to do certain things ? What if more companies move to India and you have even less chances of getting employed? Think of yourself competing with Huawei, Google, and Facebook—and they are working against your interests. And this is not even hypothetical. In many ways, they are. God knows the odds may be against you in many areas. But God says, if you are beaten in a such competition, can you really talk about greater things of advancing the kingdom of God ? If you are outsmarted by human beings, how will you be able to know the schemes of the devil and the traps he lays to steal, kill, and destroy? If you are defeated in the things you can see, how do you succeed when the unseen realm is involved ? If you lose in the days of prosperity, how will you survive in the days of famine ? In a pandemic ? Are you one who cries about being cheated or the vigilant who cannot get cheated ? God wants us to sharpen our senses spiritually, sharpen our minds intellectually, and be physically fit-sleep well, eat well, and take care of ourselves—so that we can be out there doing the most for His glory.
“New wine will flow from the mountains.” That’s perhaps where some vines will be planted. The church age is the age of Pentecost. It is the age when we should expect newer and newer invasions of the Holy Spirit that fill us with divine power to accomplish what we have to do in whatever calling He has called us. New anointings to save the world and subdue the earth. We can’t just look to the outpourings of 1906, 1947, 1970s, 1990s, and say “Oh my, that was good. I wish I had that ” New wine is supposed to be for our time and this season. “Mountains” do not necessarily mean that you will get that “new wine” in a certain church. You could be serving God as a culture commentator on TV and receive that “new wine.” You could be working as a doctor and get that “new wine.” There’s grace for the beginner to overtake the experienced and new wine to flow from the mountains and satisfy us with God’s good pleasure.
Prayer: Father God, I thank you that when I feel like time is short and the tasks are many today, you will give me the grace to outrun horses, gazelles, and lions and achieve more than I anticipated today. Lord, I pray that you open the eyes of your saints, that they will not be outsmarted by the world but even those who may have started late in a certain field, they will be able to overtake the most prominent in their industries. In the majestic name of Jesus, we pray. Amen!
December 29th, 2020
When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 1 Samuel 30: 3-4
David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, and David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.” 1 Samuel 30: 6-8
He led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah. David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled. 1 Samuel 30:16-17
Today, In our “Contending To The End” themed devotional for the end of the year, we will be looking at this passage of 1 Samuel 30 when David who had been a refugee in the land of the philistines experiences devastating loss and then God tells him to overtake and recover what had been taken. Yesterday we had seen the Amos 9:13 verse about the reaper being overtaken by the plowman, the one who is in the harvesting stage being overtaken by the one who is in the stage of sowing seeds, and the experienced being overtaken by the beginner. Somehow last night—about 10:00 pm EST—God gave me an amazing sign that I will not share—that proved me in a shocking way that He had actually inspired that Amos 9:13 passage I picked over Psalms 138:8 for what I had assumed were personal reasons. This gives me even greater boldness as I approach 1 Samuel 30 this morning.
What happened in Ziklag is the story of man on earth since the fall. Amalekites attacked, burned the city, took hostages, and killed. In our Christmas season devotional we had said that the reign of David is a type of the reign of Christ during the church age and though at this point David had been anointed and not-yet-crowned- the story confirms what we know about this age, when Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). We cannot be like those who promise peace to the world in a deceitful way (1 Thessalonians 5:3). We do pray for peace, for men who are in authority to govern righteously in ways that will promote peace in the nations and among different people groups (1 Timothy 2:1-5), but we also know that before the millennial kingdom of Christ, there will continue to be wars and rumors of wars upon the earth. And to a certain degree, it is not always the government leaders who create such chaos. It is simply the nature of the fallen world that some people will be deceived by Satan, and in orchestrated events that leaders may find hard to control, catastrophe happens. Man is not omniscient or omnipotent. Even when technology allows so much to come to light sooner, there’s always a gap in knowledge, deficiency in wisdom, shortage in resources, and inadequacy in power. This unforeseen assault should also be a warning for those who sleep over the wheel or are nonchalant in matters of defense and national security. As we see here, even David was not spared from surprise attacks, like a thief in the night. Even in his place of refuge away from Saul’s henchmen, he was still under threat from Amalekites.
What was worse for David is that even his soldiers were talking about stoning him. He did not coordinate the attack that happened and the loss they suffered, with some of their wives and children taken captive, but they were outraged against him because he was their leader. Leadership is a serious responsibility and some of the demands placed upon the leader can seem to be irrational. Within man dwells sin, and even when endowed with the best leaders in the world, there will be dissatisfaction, contention, slander, and in some cases outright rebellion. “David strengthened himself in the Lord.” He had helped Saul calm his spirits and chase his demons away by playing music for him and this was his time to fight off discouragement by singing praises. In his songs of praises, he might even have interjected supplications like we see in Psalms 18:18 “They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support,” and Psalms 18:28 “ You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.” It is also at this time, he enquires of the Lord and God gave him the green light: “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.” And so, those plunderers who had reaped where they had not sown would be overtaken by the plowman who finds strength in the Lord.
When David found these Amalekites, they were celebrating their loot. Eating, drinking, and making merriment. He had pursued and overtaken them and now was the time to “recover all.” They would quickly find out how the triumph of the wicked is short-lived. “But if he remains silent, who can condemn him? If he hides his face, who can see him? Yet he is over individual and nation alike, to keep the godless from ruling, from laying snares for the people.”—Job 34:29-30. David had sought the Lord and the Lord had not hidden his face. David had strengthened himself in the Lord and not in the power of his military strategies. The wicked can only rule and plunder where man has not humbled himself and sought God with an honest and earnest heart. Why do you seek to be blessed? Why are you mourning your business losses because of a pandemic lockdown? Why are you weeping over your layoff from job and an insufficient government hand-out of a few hundred dollars? Is it because you are simply entitled to happiness, wealth, and freedom? Or is it because you want to advance the kingdom of Christ and glorify God? Well, if it is about you, then God will hide His face and there will be no recovery. But if it is about the glory of the Lord, not only you will be able to overtake and recover what unjust rules might have destroyed in your business, you will also be able to harvest sevenfold from what you had before (Proverbs 6:31). It is good to weep over loss, but it is not good to be in despair. Let us be among those who find strength in the Lord and be powerful in His might in the days of evil (Ephesians 6:10, 13). Evil days here is “ponera” in Greek and means “malicious, wicked, bad, slothful.” That’s what the power of the Lord is for. To overcome those seasons.
Prayer: Father God, I thank you that even in this dark world where we will suffer devastating losses because of a pandemic, bad leadership, and cheating—we can find strength in you Lord and you will be our shield and sword, protecting us and defending us. Open your fire and let the breath from your nostrils, and your terrible swift sword, overtake and punish Leviathan and his collaborators. We pray that your people will rejoice in the victory of the Lord. In the triumphant name of Jesus, we pray. Amen!
December 30th, 2020
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. Jude 1:3
Today, in our “Contending To The End” themed devotional for the end of the year, we will be looking at this verse in Jude. Because Jude really has one chapter, usually 1:3 is not added, but just the verse 3. But for those who are not familiar with this, I prefer to write this way, like longer epistles are quoted.
It is not uncommon to hear despair in the voices of many Christians in USA and Europe, whether they are leaders or lay people. In one of my not-yet-published books, I have a chapter where I documented some of the concerning issues that may be causing such despair. There are news that over 6,000-10,000 churches in America close every year. This was before the pandemic, in the “good times.” Many churches have embraced the sexual revolution and it is not uncommon to hear some “Christians” who are more in tune with the perishing world’s views on sexual matters than what the Bible teaches, a departure from the teachings of the first church council in Jerusalem (Acts 15). Church baptisms, conversions, and attendance numbers do not look good. The numbers of those who say they have no religion in America is increasing. There are plenty of resources from the Barna Group to Christianity Today to many other publications that will give details into this phenomenon.
These heart-breaking things are happening in America, which is much healthier spiritually than Europe. Things are bad in USA but not as bad as they are in Europe. Is there hope for Western Christianity?
When Cyrus gave a green light for the Jews in Babylon to go back to their ancestral land and rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:2), they started to rebuild, with Zerubbabel being the manager of the temple rebuilding project as well as the secular leadership, while Ezra was the priest who taught people the law of Moses that many of them had forgotten. There was resistance initially because there were bad men who had now been entrenched in the land that was formerly Israel, with a lot of power, and sometimes they would even forge letters to say that authorities have demanded the work of rebuilding the temple to stop. Even with the good wishes of Cyrus and his donation of articles to rebuild (Ezra 1:7), they still got harassed by lower-ranking officials who did not want to see the temple rebuilt (Ezra 4:1-5). Bribery of local officials was their weapon of choice since Cyrus was firmly behind the rebuilding project. After Cyrus died, the following king was not in the same helpful mood like Cyrus, so Zerubbabel faced hardships (Ezra 4:6-21). Even before such hardships, not all Jews in Jerusalem temple rebuilding project were excited. We read in Ezra 3:12: “But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.” The former temple they were making comparisons is the one built by Solomon in the book of 1 Kings 6-9. But God was not as discouraged as the older priests. After all, we are assured: “Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”—Psalms 121:4. So after false starts, discouragement, attacks, briberies, and cease-and-desist edicts from authorities, 15-20 years later, they were able to restart the abandoned project and it is during that second phase we see Haggai prophesying: “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”—Haggai 2:9.
Why go through all of this ? It is because this prophecy of Haggai is important for our times. It’s easy to look at the statistics of the collapse of Western Christianity and start to believe that this is the future of the church. I have seen many pastors who believe it is. Should we be weeping and interceding for the church like those older priests wept when they saw the low-grade foundations that were being laid in the second temple ? We should be weeping over the church’s lost glory like Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). But this prophecy of Haggai gives us hope, and like many prophecies of restoration of the post-captivity era, it was also pointing to the church as the “latter house, ” not necessarily just the second temple in Jerusalem. Jesus would even eventually challenge people of his day to destroy it and see Him rebuild it in 3 days (John 2:16-19), meaning His body. It is through the prism of this background information that we are to see Jude 1:3. Should we just accept the collapse of Western Christianity as fate or are there better days ahead ? What does it mean to contend for the faith delivered to the saints? Why do we contend for the faith? How should we contend?
Jude felt that there were plenty to write in his epistle and like Peter, John, and Paul, he could have written a lot of doctrinal material. Rather than do so, he urges us to contend for what was already written. The Greek word used there is “epagonizesthai,” which means “to struggle.” Literary this flies in the face of everything we believe about Christianity. Couldn’t that explain why the last 40 years have been associated with the first generation to see a decline rather an explosion of the Christian church? Struggling is just not our thing. While the recovery of the cherished doctrine of justification by faith and not by works has provided assurance of salvation for many Christians, and soothed the souls of those burdened with guilt as they rejoiced in the blood of the Lamb and joined Fanny Crosby in singing : “redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever, I am.”—they also tended to forget that they would never have known that Good News they sing without the struggle, sweat, and works of their fathers to get that Gospel not just to them but also to the whole world. They also forgot all the Bible encourages us to know about works (James 2:26; Matthew 5:16; Galatians 6:10; Revelation 19:8).
Now that we understand what contending means, why should we contend? Every why in the New Testament duties of the saints can always be answered by love God and love your neighbor. When we love God, we obey His commandments. If God says that He wants us to fight for His truth, then that’s what loving Him means. If our neighbors are headed to eternal burning, how can we say we love them without helping them avoid such damnation? The why can also be summarized by the great commission that Jesus gave His disciples before ascending to the Father (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:18-20). Jesus proclaimed “This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”—Matthew 24:14. We owe the world not just contending to the end for the purity of the doctrines and practices of the Gospel, but also for the continued expansion of the kingdom and growth of the church.
How do we do this? There are definitely “how to do it” and “how not to do it.”
First, let us look at how not to do it.
1) In Galatians 5: 26 we read: ”Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.” It is not uncommon to see Christians who are conceited, congratulating themselves on success when the statistics we have quoted above say a different story about where the church is headed.
2) It is not uncommon to see Christians provoking one another over trivial matters that aren’t in the category of “damnable heresies.” I have been blessed to have the influence of both the Reformed Calvinist/Baptist and Pentecostal/Charismatic movements and I will be eternally grateful for the heartaches this seems to have saved me. It is not uncommon to see fights in those 2 camps. Some for good reasons and some for bad reasons. While I believe in contending for the Gospel, I try to minimize my involvement in the fights of those 2 camps for just one reason: I know where each side is right and where each side is wrong and I would rather contend to encourage both where I find agreement than participate in their rivalries.
How do we contend now that we know how not to do it ?
Paul talked about the importance of intercessions and supplications for everyone and that seems to be a good start (1 Timothy 2:1-5). Then make sure we continue to preach, teach, publish, and broadcast—the Good News in its purity, untainted—loving God and loving our neighbors. Persevere in watching over the holiness of our walk, as well as correctness of our doctrines, to make sure we are sound in our faith and lead our hearers to salvation (1 Timothy 4:16). Make sure the Gospel continues to spread unhindered (2 Thessalonians 3:1) and give it our all—best years of our strength and energy—our hearts and minds and bodies—and our financial resources. If we can do that, I believe the best days of the church are ahead of us not behind us. Our eyes will see the glory of the Lord and the glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of the former.
Prayer: Father God, these are perilous days of trial, famine, sword, and apostasy—and we need your help every hour of every day. We need your help more than ever. Jesus, you promised to build your church and we confess we are at the end of the ropes as we see churches closing instead. We pray that you teach us, guide us, fill us with your Spirit, give us the strength, wisdom, skills, and resources we need to be able to contend for the faith—both in doctrine and practice—and not just do it right but also do it efficiently. Father, we ask for this, in the Holy name of your precious Son Jesus. Amen!
December 31st, 2020
And so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:11-14.
As it is the last day of the year we will conclude our “Contending To The End” themed devotional with this passage in Philippians.
There are many things we have to contend for as Christians but at the end of all things we will die and Christ’s promise is that those who believe in Him will be resurrected (John 11:25). Paul’s hope in contending for the faith was to attain to that promised resurrection.
When Paul wrote this letter, he had experienced a lot as a Christian and had done a lot of work for the kingdom of God. So why does he say “not that I have obtained all of this or have already attained?”- because he had not yet arrived at the ultimate prize—the resurrection. And even though he had the assurance of salvation as he declared “I know whom I have believed that He is able to keep that which I have entrusted to Him.”—2 Timothy 1:12— he still did not consider himself to have arrived at the final destination. So, by writing that he has not already attained all of what his faith promises, he is not talking about being uncertain about his destination. The fact is, until our final breath when we die in the Lord, we will not be able say in a credible way that we have attained. If the thief on the cross could change his eternal destination in his last few hours, it is possible for someone to ruin all of heaven’s promises in his last few weeks. We do know that men tend to die the way they live and those who faithfully live for the Lord need not fear that somehow they will be strangely drawn to the dark side in their final moments. We look to the Lord’s keeping power to sustain us until the end (Jude 1:24). The one who took hold of us does not grow weak in His hands to hold us even tighter. But still, we understand that finishing the race means reaching the very end of one’s life. Until then, we are not done yet. As long as Paul lived on earth, he wanted to continue to pursue Christ and His kingdom, looking forward to attain all of what God promised.
There are other things that Paul mentioned before the resurrection of the dead. Remember he is saying “not that I have attained all of this.” So, it is more than one thing. He had mentioned about knowing Christ, knowing the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship with His sufferings. The Greek words used for attained and made perfect are “elabon/lambano” and “teteleiomai/teleio,” respectively. One means to seize or lay hold of. The other means to be made complete or be accomplished. There might be certain things that we have not seen happen this year—that may be we trusted Jesus for certain miraculous demonstrations of His power and we did not see those things. This does not mean that the power of His resurrection is diminished, it means that we have not yet tasted those things. We have not yet experienced the manifestation of those things. We have not yet attained all we have to discover and enjoy in the power of His resurrection. Paul hadn’t either. Peter hadn’t either. John hadn’t either. So, this is not a reason to be discouraged. We can learn what Paul did in following his example.
“One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead”—this seems to be a good practice when we enter the New Year tomorrow. We do not have to remember or regret the things that happened in the pandemic this year. We do not have to hold onto frustrations, losses, or failures of the previous years. Satan may want us to remember that in order to use it as a hook on our soul and make us lose our joy in Christ, but we do not have to take the bait. Rather than be stuck with “coulda, woulda, shoulda” of things that did not happen as we thought, we are called to press toward the goal. The Greek word used for straining is “Epekteinomenos” and it means “reaching or stretching,” while the word for press toward is “Dioko,” which means “pursue or persecute.” That persecute translation is interesting because it implies “aggressively chasing.” It is also translated as “zealously hunt down.” And I like the word he used for “goal.” It is “Skopon,” which is related to the same word from which we get “Skeptical” The goal is hidden, we cannot see it. We know in part. Yes, we do know whom we have believed, but we know in part about the kingdom to come. Sometimes, it can feel like the prize we are reaching for is vague but we know it is there and we know it is wonderful. That’s really the definition of faith when we walk by believing unseen things of God’s kingdom. Things become clearer and clearer the more we continue on pursuing. “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.”—Proverbs 4:18. Our Christian walk is supposed to be like the sunrising upon us in the morning and increases in intensity—or at least in the rays of the sun we receive—until noontime when it is at its zenith. There’s no reason why the glories of the “Sun of righteousness”—Malachi 4:2 that we know should remain stagnant every year—with our knowledge of Him and experience with Him remaining stuck in the same spot for years. We have to clear out whatever may stand in the way of the sun to give its full light so that we can follow the Lamb wherever He leads (John 8:12; 1 John 1:7). The Lord wants us to grow into Him and reach out for higher things in Christ, with whom we are already seated, positionally, in heavenly places at the right hand of God. When we reach out towards that prize, we are really seeking to stand where we already belong. We will be able to attain that as we chase Him more aggressively. That sounds like a good way to contend to the very end. Raise thou me heavenward, O power of my power!
Prayer: Father God, I thank you that you have allowed us to reach this final day of the year and all the wonderful things that you have taught us about you and your kingdom. We pray, Lord, that you give us the wisdom and the strength to chase you and your kingdom more aggressively today and tomorrow. Give us the grace to let go of the past and anointing we need to fulfill our tasks today. We want to see the Sun of righteousness at His zenith in our lives. A demonstration of your power in an unrestrained, scorching, and unlimited way. In the glorious name of Jesus, we pray. Amen !