But For You.

Not about you but for you. Jehovah cares for us as good parents care for their children. Joseph a son of Jehovah

And He Must

True forgiveness breaks a man, and he must forgive. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Believer’s Vital Union with Christ

The relationship between Christ and the believer “is the nearest, dearest, closest, most intense, and most enduring relationship that can be imagined,” said Spurgeon. We live because Christ lives, and our lives are hid with Christ in God. It is closer than a husband and wife, or children and their parents.

One of the greatest mysteries in the Bible is the believer’s vital relationship to his Lord and Savior.

There are three great mystical unions in the Bible. The union of the three persons of the Godhead, being one God, called the doctrine of the Trinity. The Bible also teaches the union of the two natures of Jesus Christ in one person, and the vital union of the believer in Christ.

There is a close intimate union between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian. It is so intimate that it may be spoken of as one. “We are members of His body” (Ephesians 5:30). It is not a physical union, but an attachment of love. We are truly united with Him as truly as the parts of our bodies belong to the head. Charles Hodge said, “This might mean simply that we stand to Him in the same intimate and vital union that a man’s body sustains to the man himself.”

Figuratively, we are members of Christ, and together we form His body. This is the closest imaginable relationship. We are identified with Him. We are made an essential part of Him. He is the head of the body and we are the members of that body. It is the closest imaginable vital union possible. “We are members of His body.”

The apostle Paul has in mind that the believer’s standing is such a relationship with Christ that it is analogous to Eve’s relation to Adam. As Eve derived her life from the body of Adam (Genesis 2:18-25), so we derive our spiritual life from the body of Christ. We are partakers of the life of Christ. Our spiritual life proceeds from and is sustained by Christ. It is the source of our present spiritual life, and of our eternal life in glory with Christ.

“You are therefore, now made by His grace to participate in His moral and spiritual nature, and you will never be satisfied till you awake in His likeness,” wrote C. H. Spurgeon. “But you will awake in His likeness, so that when He sees you and you see Him, then shall be abundantly manifested to you that you are a member of His body.”

Being made a “member of His body” means we have entered into the most intimate relationship possible with Him. We are joined together with Christ in the most intimate communion. Adam could say of Eve, she is of the same bone and flesh, thus she is related to me.

“We are members of His body,” means we are His loving possession. We belong to Christ. “You are not your own, you are bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). He purchased us with His own precious blood. You are now altogether His, and you belong to no other.

“You are one with Him. You were ‘buried in Him in baptism unto death,’ wherein also you have risen with Him. You were crucified with Him upon the cross, you have gone up into heaven with Him, for He has raised us up together, and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And surely you shall be actually in your very person with Him where He is, that you may behold His glory. You are one with Him” (Sermons of C. H. Spurgeon, vol. x, p. 22).

One of the greatest practical applications of this great doctrine of our vital union in Christ is that it secures the eternal safety of every one who is one with Christ. “Because I live you shall live also.” All of you who are in Him have eternal life. The idea of Jesus Christ losing members of His body who are grafted into Him is impossible to conceive. Will He lose His members? “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). There is strong reason to believe in the security of every one who is one with Christ. That is how much God loves you and cares about His relationship with you.

We are now being changed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18) through this vital union with Christ. If we are one in Christ we shall enjoy His divine love. If we are one of His members He may chasten us and correct us when we need it, but He will never sever us from His body. “As My Father has loved Me, even so have I loved you.”

He nourishes us because we are members of His body. We draw our daily sustenance from His presence. He makes us lie down in His green pastures.

Since we are members of His body, He will one day present us to Himself without spot or wrinkle or blemish. We will be perfect even as He is perfect. We will enter into the eternal joy in the Lord. We are joint heirs with Christ; therefore whatever He has we shall share.

Because we are members of His body we shall be with Him where He is, and behold His glory. We shall be with Him always. 

SELAH! Pause – reflect- just think of that!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

The Surest Sign of a Fool.

Understanding and believing are not the same thing. Believing and not putting into practice is the surest sign of a fool. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

He is Crazy About You

“If God had a refrigerator, your picture would b e on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every Spring and a sunrise every morning . Face it, friend. He is crazy about you!” Max Lucado

Be Sure You say it Sincerely.

Amen means let it be so which is making a covenant which is a contract. Be sure you say it sincerely. Joseph- Anthony: Green

God’s Faithfulness Means That

God’s faithfulness means that God will always do what He has said and fulfill what He has promised. Wayne Grudem

Baptized into Christ

The word “baptized” is not the translation of the Greek work in Romans 6:3-4, but a transliteration spelling it out in English letters. The word in the original language means to dip. The figurative use of the word means to take on a new identification. After I dip a white shirt into red dye I no longer refer to it as the “white shirt,” but the red shirt. It has a new identification.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” (v. 3).

The word Baptizo in Romans six means “the introduction or placing of a person or thing into a new environment or into union with something else so as to alter its condition or its relationship to its previous environment or condition.”

Paul is referring to the act of God when He introduces a believing sinner into a vital union with Jesus Christ. In this vital relationship the power of his sinful nature is broken and the divine nature implanted through his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. The believer’s relation to his previous state and environment is changed and he now has a new environment which is defined as being “in Christ.”

God placed us in Christ when He died so that we might share His death and thus come into the benefits of that identification with Him. We were placed in a new environment, Christ. We have a vital union with Christ. Paul declares we are “in Christ.” In our new environment in Christ we have righteousness and life. Our condition is changed from that of a sinner to that of a saint.

The Holy Spirit baptized us into Christ. He placed us in Christ in order that we might share His death and be separated from the evil nature. He also placed us in Christ in order that we might share His resurrection and have His divine life imparted to us. The Spirit of the resurrected Christ imparts to us a new quality of life. It is a new source of life that God imparts to us. It is only through this new source of life that we have the ethical and spiritual energy to live the Christian life.

Why did God do this for us? We share Christ’s resurrection in order that we may order our behavior in the power of this new life. With the power of this new power we can consistently say no to sin and yes to the indwelling Christ. We do not have to sustain the same relationship to sin that we were in the habit of before we became Christians.

“Therefore we have been buried with Him, through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (v. 4).

Water baptism symbolizes the power of the sinful nature being broken, because we are dead in Christ, and the divine power that we have in our identification with His resurrection. We have now been permanently delivered from the power of sin. God has imparted to us a divine nature, new life, spiritual birth and we can now respond to it rather than sin.

The apostle Paul commands us to live “as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom. 6:13). We do not do this in our strength, but in His power of the resurrection.

It is a resurrection that restores the lost image of God, in which we were created by making us to awake in the likeness of Christ. We are new creatures in Christ Jesus.

One day when Christ returns we will stand with Him with resurrected bodies in glory. Our whole nature, body, soul and spirit” will be “made alive in Christ.” And if we are in our Lord, our physical restitution is assumed to us with equal certainty with our spiritual.

We enjoy the righteousness of Christ now and on the great day of the resurrection we will be clad in the incorruptible glory of redeemed bodies (Rom. 6:9; Rev. 20:6).

We share in the resurrection power today (Cot 3:1, 3). The believer cannot deliberately live in sin because we have this new relationship and identification with Christ. We have died to the old life, and have been raised up to enjoy a new life in Christ. Because we are alive in Christ we are admonished to “walk in newness of life by abiding in Christ.”

Dead in Christ—risen from the dead—alive in Christ and free to walk in the newness of His life.

SELAH! Pause – reflect- just think of that!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Do you worship it more than Him?

“You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything Exodus 20:3-4 New International Version

Who or what do you put above God?

Are you more concerned about keeping in physical shape than you are about spending time worshipping God and serving Him? Do you spend as much time with your Bible as you do at the gym?

How about your car? Do you take better care of your car than you do the needs of the needy? Do you spend more time with your career than you do serving God?

Are not these things images that are more important to you than God?

I live a very simple life.

Spending time every morning reading Gods love letter and instruction manual, the Bible, is the most important time of my day.

I know that when I do even the simplest good deed I do so as an act of honour to God. It makes the receivers of the act very happy, makes God happy and therefore makes me happy.

I see people who worship idols of movie stars, sports stars, music stars, keeping up with the Jones as very empty shells of women and men. They have no real meaning or purpose in their lives and feel pity got them. They only experience shallow happiness at best.

If only they would worship the true God they would experience great joy in their lives.

Prayer: Thank you Jehovah Yahweh (God of His people) for the most wonderful blessing. That of worshipping a marvelous God such as You. It brings the greatest fulfillment and joy to my life.I give thanks in the name above all names Jesus Christ. Amen.

May the sweet sunshine of Jesus’ precious love bless you today and every day.

That is Your Heaven

Whatever is your greatest joy and treasure, that is your heaven and your god. 

Charles Spurgeon