Praise the Lord for
this sizzling summer day. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful Sunday in His
house last Sunday. One of the visitors was a young girl who said that she
wanted to meet the new pastor in town. She came with her grandparents. She was
all dressed up for church. She was sweet, and she made my heart glad. Praise
the Lord for the church, where everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord.
Alice I and took
our nieces and nephews to Taughannock State Park and Taughannock Falls
yesterday to spend some time with them before they go to school and college. It
was a gorgeous day, sunny and superb. As we walked we met some people who had
come to the lake area for a wedding. They were walking on one of the shady and
cool trails, enjoying the beauty of the Lord. Our nieces and nephews got in a
swim at the lake. The water temperature, we were told, was 74. We met some
retired couples who were spending time at the lake shore bathing on the breeze
and blessings of the Lord.
It is another sizzling day here in central New
York. I spoke to one of my nephews who lives in the UK this morning. He and
his wife are expecting their first child. We praise the Lord. Our daughter
Sunita, who is Washington, DC, is expecting for the first time and her first
child is due at the end of this month. She sounds always graceful, and confident
in the Lord. Please pray for the safe arrival of the newborn.
We have been reading from the Book of the
Ephesians for our Sunday morning worship. There is so much confusion in the
world. People are confused about marriage, about sex, about the present, about
the future, about life, and about death. Jesus came as the Light. He sheds His
light abroad in our hearts. We can live and walk in the light and in
confidence, no longer in quandary and moral and spiritual confusion. The enemy,
the adversary plants seeds of confusion and deep doubt in our hearts and in our
lives. We follow the enemy blindly and are prone to wander away from the One
who loves us and came down to give us life, and that
life abundantly.
The story is told of Philip Henry,
Matthew Henry’s father. Matthew Henry was the great Puritan commentator.
Philip Henry was a commoner. He was lowborn in a day and age when social
standing mattered a very great deal and he was engaged to be married to a young
Christian woman of a significantly higher social standing than he. Her parents
were concerned and thought this gulf in social status almost to be an
insurmountable barrier and so they asked her, “This man, Philip Henry, where has
he come from?”. She replied, “I do not know where he has come from but I know
where he is going.” And that’s Paul’s point in the Book of Ephesians. When God
by His Spirit is at work by His Word in the lives of His people they begin to
grow in assurance of their destiny and their security. That’s why Paul
described the Holy Spirit as a guarantee and a seal, guaranteeing our possession
of the inheritance that is to come, our future.
When the Spirit comes He helps us know
our value, our identity. Paul prayed that we might have the Spirit “and so know
what is the hope to which He has called us and the riches of His glorious
inheritance in the saints.” This is a fascinating phrase. Paul talked about
our inheritance - heaven. Here he spoke about God’s inheritance - we are His
inheritance. Redeemed sinners from every nation under heaven are His
inheritance. We are His treasure in whom He delights. This is the dignity of a Christian. In a day
when to follow Jesus may mean to become the object of derision, scorn, and
contempt; it a day when to be faithful to the standards of Scripture may become
increasingly costly in terms of society and its shifting values; when others
around you may shun you for your faith in Jesus, here is help to stand firm.
The true value of a believer is that although the world derides you and scorns
you, God the Father Himself considers you His treasure, His portion, His
inheritance, His delight.
Paul prayed that we may know “what is
the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the
working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the
dead.” God is not simply in the business of making empty promises or calling us
to live in a certain way without supplying the power to obey. He is saying that
when the Spirit comes and wields His Word and power in our hearts and growing
assurance of our destiny enables us to press on until we cross the finish line
and take possession of the Promised Land at last. As we understand our value
and our identity as the inheritance and treasured possession of the Father and
are made bold to stand firm no matter what the world says, we should also know
that God will give us power to persevere. We will cross the line not because we
have the power, not because we have the stamina or the wisdom or the strength,
but because the same power that has broken the grip of death and raised Jesus
Christ to life and seated Him at the right-hand of glory in heaven is at work to
keep us, preserve us, and bring us home.
In Christ,
Brown
https://youtu.be/45WKXjRkSkU
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