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Category Archives: Devotional Life
Gaining Perspective
Plagued with grief over sins, I determine to push on; for I am assured of cleansing—of continual cleansing from the ever-flowing blood of my Savior and God. He will sustain me through the evil world—a world crippled by sin and sorrows, and yet strengthened in evil by demonic vitamins. Yes, Satan has his own supply of poison nourishment, which both strengthens his evil, but in the end will bring a cruel death.
This world and many nations are on the verge of war and destruction. It will be war between good and evil. Evil will be the dominant force, but ultimately every evil army and every evil being will work against itself to its own destruction. In the end, the returning Conqueror will bring a mighty destruction against all evil, to the praise of His glory.
So, with renewed perspective, I press on. A walk in the park, a smile and a “hello,” a few pages of good reading, and a sip of Chai tea—all blessings from God, will keep me going for another day. God is good.
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Thinking of Heaven
Reading a book on heaven by John MacArthur has really got me thinking about God’s omnipresence, and how He will always be with us, always be with all of us individually at the same time. I haven’t been able to find any verses about this—only that He will be with me always. Here are a few quotes from MacArthur’s book:
- [We will have] unbroken fellowship with God.
- [We will have unity with God] much like the unity that exists between Father and Son.
- Perfect fellowship with God is the very essence of heaven.
- In heaven we will continually be seeing God.
- From 1 Cor. 13:12: “Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face…”
- David said in Ps. 17:15, “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness…” (in his resurrection).
It’s hard for me to grasp the idea that I will be in God’s presence always, and that will also be true of everybody else in heaven. I know that He will not be split apart. Each of us will get Him in full. And since God the Father is pure spirit, we will really be looking at the person of Jesus the Son—He is the manifestation of God.
And then how will it be when I am with a small group of friend’s? Will Jesus be there with us? I suppose. And will He also be in every other small group of people—at the same time?
Will His physical presence always be with me, with us? Or sometimes will He be present only in His spirit? Whatever it is, I’m sure we will all be satisfied with it.
And since I will have a glorified body, I will be able to go and be with Him whenever I want—to travel miles and miles in a second. We will have a body like the resurrection body of Jesus was on earth. He was appearing and disappearing and going through walls.
The city of New Jerusalem, our heavenly home, will be huge. And if I had my apartment on the top floor, I think I will be able to somehow fly up there in a second. And what a view I will have! Looking over the whole new earth!
Asking and Receiving in His Name–Illustrated
Life is Good
In my last post I gave you all my complaints. This morning I have been thinking and feeling how good my life is—pretty good. I really have very little to complain about. I am well fed, feeling good, healthy. I have no debts, just day to day expenses. God is good!
The sun is shining, and I know that God has been merciful to me.
I am feeling more and more like writing my next book on heaven, and I have an idea for the outline. I think at this time in my life the best thing I can do is to think every day on heaven. Maybe that is why I feel so good today—because I have been reading about it—what it will be like.
Some people say that if you are too heavenly bound you are no earthly good. But I think that if you are too earthly bound you are no earthly good; for thinking on heaven is the best way for a Christian to feel good about life. Knowing where we are headed and knowing that it will be wonderful, tends to brighten ones day on earth and give him a motivation for living a holy life.
Cloud Formations
When the sky is bright and partly cloudy with gusts of wind, cloud formations can be very beautiful. Lately, I have been thinking of writing on the subject of heaven. And when I look heavenward through the clouds it gives me a greater incentive to write on that subject. For when He comes in His glory and when we go to meet Him it will be “in the clouds.” (1 Thess. 4:17; Acts 1:9; Rev. 11:12)
Continually Cleansed from Sin – 1 John 1:7
This morning I ran across something very enlightening to me from 1 John 1:7.
Reading from 1 John, beginning in verse five, This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Now verse seven is the verse that became enlightening to me: 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
I know I have read that verse over 100 times before, but it did not hit me as it did this morning. And I immediately had to go back and read it again to see if I read and understood it correctly. And yes, I did! The verse says to us that if we walk in the light as He is in the light (that is, if we are Christians), then we have His promise of two things: 1) We have fellowship one with another, and 2) the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
It is this second promise that really hit me—because it has no condition attached to it other than becoming a Christian. What I am saying is that, when I sin I don’t have to do anything to get His forgiveness and His cleansing. It is automatic and certain! Yes, because I am His child and walk in the light I automatically receive His blood cleansing. I don’t even have to worry about whether I remembered to confess my sins or not or whether I repented of my sin or not. No. Just because I am one of His and walk in His light I am cleansed by His blood.
Repeatedly I have been told that if I sin I need to confess it, then to ask God to forgive me in order to be cleansed of my sin. And isn’t that what verse 9 tells us? Well, yes and no. Verse nine, the confession of sins, is something a Christian automatically does. It is in his new nature to repent and feel bad about sin and confess it. In fact, the words “if we confess” should read “if we keep confessing.” MacArthur comments that this “continual confession of sin is an indication of genuine salvation.” It is part of the miracle of the new life God gives us at salvation. It is what every Christian naturally does when he sins.
I really like what John MacArthur says about verse seven.
A genuine Christian walks habitually in the light (truth and holiness), not in the darkness (falsehood and sin). Their walk also results in cleansing from sin as the Lord continually forgives His own. Since those walking in the light share in the character of God, they will be habitually characterized by His holiness, indicating their true fellowship with Him. A genuine Christian does not walk in darkness but only in the light, and cleansing from sin continually occurs.
And this continual cleansing, we could add from verse nine, occurs automatically when we naturally and continually confess out sins whenever we sin. He does the cleansing by His blood.
Hence, we are always walking in the light with Him. We walk together with Him in the light, being cleansed continually by His blood.
The Gospel According To Jesus
The following is a very short summary, and my comments, of the book The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur, written in 1988.
I remember that the book made quite a stir. But MacArthur was absolutely correct in what he said. And it got a lot of people thinking—about how the gospel should be presented and about salvation.
For a long time, preachers and evangelists have had a wrong view of the gospel and how to present it. Some very well-known theologians (like Lewis Sperry Chafer and Charles C. Ryrie) were saying that we should not expect new converts to begin a life of obedience to Christ right away; that they at first should receive Him as Savior and then later, when they are more mature, receive Him as Lord. They were saying that to expect converts to be disciples of Christ right away was asking too much.
And there was also a theology (according to 1 Cor. 2:15-3:3, by Chafer) that there is two classes of Christians: carnal and Spiritual. But MacArthur strongly disagrees with that. He says that carnal always refers to a non-believer. I believe this is right (but I didn’t always believe this). I know that there are levels of maturity for a believer, but he can never be carnal—living in sin; that is what carnal means. A Christian is to be Spirit-filled and be obedient to Christ; and when he is not he can and will eventually (with the help of the Holy Spirit) repent and start over.
Now let me get right to it. When a person comes to Christ a miracle takes place. He is born again. He becomes a new person. At the moment of conversion, he receives Christ for all that He is: God, Sovereign, Savior, and Lord.
Let me back up. At first, when a person is saved he sees that he is a sinner; and so, he comes under conviction of sin; and then he repents of that sin. And then at the same time He experiences Christ calling him to a life of faith and obedience. So, he receives Christ as his Savior from sin and as his Lord (because He is Lord). Hence, when someone is saved, he is giving up his old life of sin and is born again into a new life of obedience to Christ. This is the gospel according to Jesus.
Pondering Heaven: Dreams Fulfilled
After seeing the movie Field of Dreams last night (for the one-hundredth time), I gave great thought to the question that was asked by Shoeless Joe Jackson and by Costner’s father, “Is this heaven?” Then I also watched the short slip at the end, the making of the movie, and I was surprised to hear the producer say that the lines regarding heaven could really be the theme of the movie—that the ball players who had gotten kicked out of baseball were given a second chance to come back to earth and play baseball—and that was their heaven.
I immediately pulled from my book shelf the book Heaven, by Randy Alcorn, to ponder the subject. I found that one of his chapters was entitled, “Will Our Dreams Be Fulfilled and Missed Opportunities Regained?” It seems that Alcorn thinks that heaven will be a chance for every Christian to extend or perfect what we do now; that in the New Earth we will have the chance to finish what we started now and to perfect—and even sort of grow in it. That thought excites me. Everything I always wanted to do but didn’t get a chance to do, I will get a chance to do in heaven, or on the New Earth. For instance, I think I am gifted as a teach, but haven’t had a chance to do it. In heaven I will have that chance. And I will be good at it. And the books I have written (not very well), in the New Earth those books will be wonderfully revised and many people will read them. And I will teach from those books.
Now I’m motivated to study this subject of heaven—to keep those kinds of books on my reading list, and to study it in the Bible.
Stephen Nielsen 