Archive for Pictures of God

The Holy Spirit: Power to Be

2015-05-28 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Ephesians 3:14-21

What part does God’s Holy Spirit play in our lives? What part can He play as we learn to rely on Him more? Realize this: the Spirit is the constant presence of the Almighty, all-wise, all-loving God in the innermost part of our being.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you? (1 Corinthians 6:19, NIV) 

God’s Holy Spirit brings us the power to be all our holy, loving Father wants us to be. He doesn’t paint a thin layer of holiness over our evil hearts. He transforms us from the inside out, from our very core, freeing us from our slavery to sin.

Now that you have been set free from sin…the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:22, NIV)

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:1-2, NASB)

Through the Spirit, Christ’s own character grows within us daily, naturally.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23, NIV)

The Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us of the truth.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21, NIV)

“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
“He will guide you into all truth.” (John 14:26; 16:13, NIV)

As we trust Him, the Holy Spirit wraps us in God’s perfect peace.

The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6, NIV)

Through His Spirit, God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3, NIV). He has given us the Jesus’ own Spirit, always within us.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy God
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Welcome in His Holy Presence

2015-05-26 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Hebrews 4:14-16; 10:19-25; 12:18-24

Before Jesus Christ, God’s holiness was often met with fear…with shame…with vain attempts to make themselves worthy. For some who unworthily came too near God, His holiness brought death.

In Jesus Christ, we draw near to our holy God

  • at His special invitation
  • with a clean conscience
  • completely blameless
  • with confidence and full assurance
  • in the glad and loving company of other children of God
  • with great joy
  • assured that He is always ready to give us whatever we need

The book of Hebrews paints a beautiful picture of all the wonderful realities that are now ours in Jesus Christ. My favorite is Hebrews 2:11: 

Both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren (NASB).

Jesus Christ is holy, transcendent, and utterly sinless and pure. Without Him, we are the opposite. But as we trust Him, He gladly puts His arms around us and calls us His brothers and sisters. By simple faith, we become children of the same Father and are welcomed as members of the family.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15, NASB)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Our Destiny Is Jesus Christ
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Human and Holy

2015-05-21 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Hebrews 9:6-14; 10:10, 14

Because Jesus is both human and holy, by His Spirit we His people can be both human and holy as well.

Under the Old Testament law, God was holy, and His people were holy because God had called them and separated them to Himself. That is, their holiness was more positional than personal. They were not necessarily holy in a moral sense.

They were called and commanded to be holy, but they lacked the ability. The law taught them what God was like and what He wanted of them. It said that God was holy, and that they should be holy as well. It taught them right and wrong, but it provided no strength to live right over wrong. It gave them rules and rituals, but it couldn’t give them the inner ability to be holy.

Romans 7:15-23 describes their predicament. They knew what was right but had no strength to do it. They knew what was wrong but had no strength to avoid it. They were trapped in their own weakness and sin, with no way out.

Animal sacrifices – the blood of bulls and goats – could not truly, permanently cleanse them of sin.

All this changes for us in Jesus Christ. His Holy Spirit within us frees us from the guilt and power of sin:

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4, NASB)

Jesus Himself is the once-for-all, perfect sacrifice that cleanses us from our sin, completely and forever:

…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14, NASB)

As we trust in Jesus Christ, we are both human and holy.

The Holy One

2015-05-14 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Luke 1:26-38; 3:16, 21-22; 4:31-34

We can believe that an all-powerful Spirit God, with no body, dwelling in heaven, is holy and separate. But in the New Testament something absolutely amazing, almost incredible happens: this holy, separate God becomes a human being. He becomes 100% human. He becomes just like us, but without sin.

How can this be possible? How can God be holy and separate, yet like us and among us? Isn’t that a contradiction?

  • He is still 100% transcendent God, even though He is 100% human. He is above us and our world in character, quality, and authority.
  • He is still perfect and morally pure.

The gospels repeatedly tell us that this Galilean peasant is the Holy One:

  • Both Matthew 1:18-20 and Luke 1:35 say that Jesus was conceived, not by a human father, but by the Holy Spirit of God. Because of that, this human being would literally be the Son of God in a unique way.
  • According to all four gospel writers (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33), John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the One who would baptize the human race in God’s own Holy Spirit.
  • The Holy Spirit visibly came upon Jesus at His baptism, marking the beginning of His ministry (Luke 3:22; 4:1; John 1:29-34).
  • The demons, fully evil and opposed to everything Jesus was, recognized Him as “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34).
  • When Jesus had just sifted His disciples by insisting that they eat His flesh and drink His blood, He asked the twelve if they were leaving too. Peter replied, “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).

Both holy and human – in Jesus Christ we see God’s plans for our entire race.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: We Can Know Our God Transcendent
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Ezekiel: A Vision of New Life

2015-05-07 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Ezekiel 37:1-14, 23-28

The Israelites were sitting in Babylon, far from home, helpless captives of their enemies. They were a people defeated and disgraced. Their religion, their lifestyle, everything they had and had known was gone. Their nation no longer existed. They felt abandoned by their God – though in fact, they had abandoned Him.

In Ezekiel 36:16-38, God had made amazing promises to these people through His prophet, Ezekiel, who was there ministering as an exile among them. But such incredible assurances needed to be more than lofty words, so God confirmed the words with a vision, recorded in Ezekiel 37:1-10.

Ezekiel sees an entire valley full of human bones – very dry and very dead, beyond any hope of life. God challenges Ezekiel with the question, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones – that is, to speak God’s sovereign Word to them. When he does, the bodies first come back together as corpses. Then, at the Word of God through Ezekiel, God’s breath* brings them back to life, and they stand up on their feet – a vast army (v.10). Note that the same elements that brought life to the unformed earth – God’s sovereign Word and His Spirit* – now bring new life to what was dead.

What a stunning picture of the new life that God’s Spirit brings to us now and at the resurrection! The same Breath* of God that renews us now will soon bring us a completely new life, both spiritually and physically. 

Why is God so unbelievably lavish with His undeserving people? Because He passionately wants the entire world, every nation, every society, every family, every person, to know how holy, gracious, and forgiving He is. Ephesians 1:6 & 12 tell us that we were created and redeemed to show the world how good and loving is our wonderful God. Never forget that this is our calling. This is why we are here.

*In the original Hebrew of this passage, the words translated “Spirit”, “breath”, and “wind” are all the same word. God’s Spirit is the wind of His power and the breath of His love. God’s Spirit is His life in motion.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Ezekiel’s Vision
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Ezekiel: Complete Salvation

2015-05-05 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Ezekiel 36:22-38

God’s people had failed, but God’s purpose would not fail. He would bring about a sweeping, dramatic salvation for His people. He would not do it for their sakes, for they had proven themselves unfaithful and unworthy. He would do it to vindicate His reputation among the nations. Note that He was not acting out of selfish interest, but because He was determined to show His love to our entire race.

In Ezekiel 36:24-38, God gives the specifics of what He would do.

  • He would regather His people from the lands where He had scattered them (v.24). Their exile had been a dramatic show of their failure. Their regathering would be a dramatic presentation of God’s power, goodness, and faithfulness to His people.
  • He would cleanse them completely from all their sin – not by their actions or by their worthiness, but by His own doing (v.25).
  • He would put within them a new heart and a new spirit – His own Spirit – to enable them to obey (vv.26-27). He would empower them to be His holy people, from the inside out.
  • He would bless their relationship with Him. They truly would be His people, and He would be their God (v.28).
  • He would give them the gift of a broken heart and true repentance (v.31). They would see their own sin in the light of God’s goodness.
  • He would bless their land, turning the desert into a Garden of Eden, so that all the nations would know that Almighty God, eternally faithful and loving, had done this (vv.30, 33-36).
  • He would increase their men (vv.37-38). Why? To any society decimated by war and captivity, especially a patriarchal society like Israel, the restoration of its male population was key to its recovery.

How good is our God! He doesn’t abandon us to our weakness and failure. By His own power and love, He acts unilaterally to save us from the inside out. He enables us to be far more than we ever dreamed we could be. Praise to Him!

Ezekiel: When We Ruin God’s Reputation

2015-04-30 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Ezekiel 36:16-21

God called Israel to be His own special people. He had set them up as a “light to the nations”, to be a living example of God’s people. He longed for the whole world to see them and understand what a great and loving God He was.

Instead, Israel’s sin had “profaned His holy name” among the nations (Ezekiel 36:20). They had given God a bad reputation. They had shamed Him. Their sinful ways and their public idolatry had given Him a bad name among nations who knew nothing else about Him but what they saw in their neighbor, Israel.

Their sinfulness finally forced God to punish them in a very public way. He handed them over to their enemies and sent them into exile – the northern kingdom of Israel around 722 B.C., and the southern kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C. Of course, by this forced discipline, the Jews had made God’s reputation even worse. Their failure made God appear cruel and impossible.

But God’s deep, burning love never gives up on His gracious purpose. He loved both His covenant people, Israel, and all the other nations who had been given a negative opinion of Him. So what did He do? He announced that He would act dramatically, in a brand new way:

“It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name…Then the nations will know that I am the Lord…when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.” (Ezekiel 36:22-23, NASB)

His people had failed to show the world how holy and loving He is. So would God withdraw His blessings, His presence, and His salvation from His undeserving people? No. God’s overall purpose is always driving toward salvation, never away from it. He would make His salvation even greater and more gracious.

Isaiah 6: The Prophet’s Response

2015-04-23 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Isaiah 6:5-8

At the sight of God’s overwhelming holiness, what is Isaiah’s immediate, instinctive reaction?

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!” (v.5). Isaiah is overcome with shame, dead, and despair. He pronounces doom on himself. Seeing and experiencing God’s holiness and awesome reality, he is gripped by the uncleanness and unworthiness, not just of himself but of his entire people. Having seen God, he has truly seen himself for the first time, and the reality is gut-wrenching.

This one realization will color Isaiah’s entire ministry. The greatness of God and the sinfulness of people are no longer vague, abstract concepts. They flow from a deep, burning, unforgettable memory.

Why does Isaiah focus on his lips as being unclean? Why not his thoughts or his hands? We’re not told, but consider these passages from the New Testament:

  • The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell…No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. (James 3:6-8, NASB)
  • In Matthew 15, Jesus said that what comes out of our mouth comes from our heart. Our lips are a sure sign of what’s in our heart (vv.10-11, 17-20).

God responds to Isaiah through one of His seraphim. He flies to Isaiah with a burning coal from the altar. When it touches Isaiah’s lips, his sin is taken away and forgiven.

God’s cleansing can take an unclean, self-condemned sinner and make him worthy, not only of standing in the holy presence of God, but of serving as His messenger, carrying God’s holy Word in his mouth. When Isaiah hears that God needs someone to go and speak for Him, Isaiah responds enthusiastically, “Here am I. Send me!” Having seen God and experienced His deliverance, He wants to go and share His message.

Our holy God doesn’t push us away in our neediness. He draws us near. He cleanses, calls, and uses us.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: The Fear of God
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Psalm 99: How Does Holy God Respond to Sin?

2015-04-16 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Psalm 99:8; Exodus 33:18-20; 34:5-7

When Psalm 99 says that God was “a forgiving God to them, and yet an avenger of their evil deeds” (v.8, NASB), it is affirming what God repeatedly emphasizes about Himself. He gladly, eagerly, lovingly forgives the sins of those who confess and turn away from their sin. But in His holiness, He will not simply overlook sin. God punishes those who do wrong.

Joshua warned the children of Israel about this when they chose to renew their covenant with God. Read Joshua 24:15-21.

When Moses asked God that he might know Him better, God revealed Himself both visually and verbally. As He passed by Moses, this is how He summarized Himself:

“The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” (Exodus 34:6-7, NASB)

Many in the world today think that because God is loving, He won’t punish us. Sometimes they even suggest that if God is so forgiving, why doesn’t He just forgive what we do, without all the demanding and threatening? They want a God who will let them continue to live as they please.

But remember what sin is:

  1. Sin is a deadly disease. Our loving God cannot simply ignore it. It separates His loved ones from their only source of life and peace. God will completely cure all those who allow Him.
  1. Sin is relational. It is a broken relationship with the Living God, and He longs to restore that relationship. But like any relationship, our relationship with God has two sides. God cannot repair our relationship with Him unless we are willing and participate. Unless the relationship is repaired, forgiving past sins does no good. It’s like taking an antidote for a deadly poison, then continuing to drink a big cup of that poison for every meal. The antidote is useless. The deadly danger is still flowing through our system until we turn away from its cause.

Psalm 99: The Lord Reigns

2015-04-14 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Psalm 99

Remember that our God is holy, separate, and apart from us in two senses:

  • He is transcendent. He is an almighty, all-wise spirit being who is “wholly other” than this physical universe He has created. He is above us and our world in character, quality, and authority.
  • He is pure. He is separate from us morally, totally untainted by our sinfulness. He is perfect, above all weakness and impurity.

These two aspects of God’s holiness are brought together in Psalm 99. It pictures God as King – not just a king, or even a great king, but as the sovereign King over all the earth. He is transcendent: both the earth and all its peoples tremble in His presence (v.1).

His throne is above the cherubim (v.1). The immediate image is perhaps the mercy seat, the lid of the ark of the covenant, which was in the Holy of Holies in the temple. It was in “Zion,” a poetic name for the temple mount, considered God’s dwelling place on earth. But the image is actually more vast than that. Cherubim were winged creatures that suggest the power and mobility of God. Our transcendent God’s throne is not an earthly one, but is the mighty, winged creatures of heaven itself.

He is not a local god or a national god, but the sovereign God, king over all the earth. All peoples of every nation are called to worship Him.

He is exalted above all the peoples (v.2). He is high and lifted up, and our only logical response to His greatness is to exalt Him and worship Him (vv.5, 9). We worship at His footstool (v.5), for how could we but humble ourselves before such a magnificent Being?

Consider this: How do you respond to God day by day? How could you respond to Him in a way more appropriate to who He is? One of the keys to stability through life’s ups and downs is to remember who He is. On days when you are prone to anxiety, how could you remind yourself about the sovereign love, wisdom, and power of the God you trust?

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