Category: Devotionals

Continue In The Faith

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

Perseverance is the badge of true saints. The Christian life is more than a beginning in the ways of God. It is also a continuance in the faith as long as life lasts. It is the same with a Christian as it was with the great Napoleon who said, “Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me.” The only true conqueror who will be crowned is the one that continues until war’s trumpet is blown no more.

The Target of Our Spiritual Enemies

Perseverance is, therefore, the target of all our Spiritual enemies.

The world does not object to you being a Christian for a time if she can tempt you to give up your journey and settle down in her Vanity Fair.

The flesh will seek to entangle you and prevent you from pressing on to glory. “It is weary work being a Christian. Come, give it up. Must I always be humbled? Am I never to be indulged? Give me at least a vacation from this constant warfare.”

Satan will make many fierce attacks on your perseverance. It will be the target of all his arrows. He will strive to hinder you in service. He will insinuate that you are doing no good. He will endeavor to make you wary of suffering. He will whisper, “Curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). He will attack your steadfastness: “What is the good of being so zealous? Be quiet like the rest.” He will assail your doctrinal beliefs: “Why do you hold to these denominational creeds? Sensible men are getting more liberal. They are removing the old landmarks. Blend in with the times.”

Conclusion

Wear your shield, Christian, close to your armor. Pray to God that, by His Spirit, you may endure to the end.

Resource

Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: May 26, Evening

Why Preach the Gospel to Ourselves?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals6 Comments

Preach the gospel to yourself. That is a buzz that is flying around in evangelical circles as of late. I would like to quickly answer what it means and then provide a few reasons why we should preach the gospel to ourselves.

What it means?

Preaching the gospel to yourself simple means that you remind yourself of all that takes place in the gospel. Before we can preach the gospel to ourselves we have to understand the gospel message.

The gospel tells us that we are sinners, who are headed for eternal destruction because our relationship with God is severed due to our sinfulness. Instead of allowing our relationship to remain severed, God made a way for mankind to be reconciled with Himself. When we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, we are united with Him. Through our union with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection we are made righteous as our sin is imputed to Him and His righteousness is imputed to us (double imputation), and at this time we are freed from the bondage of sin giving us a choice to not sin. When we take on Christ’s righteousness our relationship with a perfect and holy God is restored because we are made perfect and holy. This all occurs because of the free gift of God (grace) and not because of anything that we have done, which would earn His gift of salvation (not by works).

Preaching the gospel to ourselves simple is a way of reminding ourselves of the truths of the gospel message.

Reasons Preaching the Gospel to Ourselves is Necessary

(1) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us that our relationship with God satisfies us more than any sin. 

Sin will satisfy, it is why we do it. But it will not completely satisfy us, and its after effects often leave us feeling empty, ashamed, and lost. Christ is unlike any sin, He will satisfy us for all of eternity. He will never let us down, nor will He ever leave us feeling empty, ashamed, or lost. He will bring us joy that far exceeds the joy we can gain from any sinful action. When we sin, we are in essence saying that God is not sufficient enough, and what we are going to get from our sin is far better than God. However, when we preach the gospel to ourselves, we remind ourselves that we are ultimately satisfied in God and nothing else.

(2) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us that we are accepted by God’s free grace.

God has accepted us by grace alone, not because of our works. Since God has not accepted us based on our works, then we do not have to perform works in order to keep His grace. This means we obey God’s commands not to earn His grace, but we obey out of His grace. When we are saved, God empowers us to live the Christian life (Philippians 2:13). He changes our desires (will) and enables us to obey His commands by empowering us to serve Him. Thus, we serve Him not to earn His grace, but out of His grace.

By reminding ourselves of our salvation, we remind ourselves that we cannot earn His favor, nor our salvation. Those who believe they have to do something in order to earn acceptance with God, do so because functionally they are trying to be their own Savior. They do not understand Christ has made them holy already. You see, our sanctification is based on our justification. When we try to gain acceptance with God through our actions, we are living like our justification is determined by our sanctification. Preaching the gospel to ourselves serves to remind us that God’s grace is free, not earned.

(3) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us that we are free to live our righteousness out.

When we are saved, we are united with Christ, and we are made righteous through that union with Christ. Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us of our union with Christ and reminds us that we are free to live our righteousness out. In other words, we do not have to first earn our righteousness, we are already righteous, and, as such, we are able to live as Christ now.

Think of it this way: In Christ, we are full, meaning we do not have to fill ourselves up with righteousness like we would a gas tank. We are already full and we will forever remain full. We do not have to pull into the service station to top our righteousness tank off. Our tank never drops below full. Since we are always running on a full tank, we never have to fill up our tank by earning our righteousness. Since we do not have to earn our righteousness we can freely give to others. The reason we freely give is not to earn God’s righteousness, but because God has freely given to us.

However, when we work for our righteousness or feel we have to pay God back for saving us by being obedient, we are not living our righteousness out; rather we are evoking a debtor’s ethic.

The debtor’s ethic says I must give or do because God has given to me.

To help us understand this concept lets look at an area the debtor’s ethic is often evoked. One area the debtor’s ethic is often used is by those who want to manipulate others into evangelizing the lost. They tell us, “Christ died for you on the cross, the least you can do is tell someone about Him.” On the surface this sound good, but the underlying principle is that we are to tell others about Christ because we owe God for saving us and evangelism is a way we can pay Him back.

However, the gospel tells us that we can freely live our righteousness out. When applied to evangelism, it means we tell others about Christ, not because we owe God something, but because we want them to experience the same relationship with Him that we do. We want them to understand that the Savior is the only one who can truly satisfy, making Him better than any sin or idol.

You see the difference. One group evangelizes because they feel they have to, showing they do not understand God’s grace. The other group evangelizes because they want others to experience the grace of God, knowing that He satisfies us more than any sin will ever satisfy us. Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us of God’s grace and frees us to live out our righteousness.

(4) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us that God is most glorified when we are happy in Him and only in Him.

We can strive to live lives that resemble Christ, not to earn God’s salvation or approval, but simple to please Him and glorify Him. You see, God is most glorified and pleased when we are happy in Him believing He is sufficient for us and that we need nothing other than Him (ie sin) to satisfy us. When we preach the gospel to ourselves, we remind ourselves of this truth.

(5) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us of the magnitude of our sins, which brings about true repentance.

When we meditate on the gospel, we are reminded that Jesus died for our sins. In order to die for our sins, He left His throne in heaven, took on the form of a man, was beaten, mocked, and led to the cross where He died in our place.

With this in mind, we see that the gospel reminds us of the heinousness of our sins, it reminds us that our sins are so great that only the perfect sacrifice of God’s Son could atone for them.

When we understand the magnitude of our sins, and their cost, we are reminded that our sin should not be minimized. To minimize our sin proves that we do not understand the costliness of Christ’s sacrifice, nor do we fully understand the holiness of God. Preaching the gospel to ourselves serves as a daily reminder of the magnitude of our sins, which then serves to bring about true repentance.

When we understand the costliness of our sins, we are less likely to confess our sin quickly, in order to deal with our guilt; rather we are more likely to root sin out of our lives.

If we are quick to confess our sin, in order to alleviate our guilt, then we believe grace is cheap.

However, if we are willing to dig deep into our lives to root our sin out at the core, in order to truly cast it from our lives, we show that we understand the cost of our sins. True repentance understands the magnitude of sin and seeks to deal with it at the core.

True repentance also shows that we understand God’s grace and His holiness. We understand His grace releases us from the bondage of sin and His holiness means He is unable to be wed to an unholy people. Those who are truly repentant are motivated to repent not to earn God’s favor, but to glorify God. We glorify God when we delight in Him rather than in our sin and live lives that reflect His holiness. Our motivation for change is subtle but nevertheless it is a different motivation for change than what the religious/legalist puts forth. Preaching the gospel to ourselves serves to remind us of the magnitude of our sins, as well as it is a catalyst for true repentance.

Conclusion

Since we are naturally drawn to doing something in order to earn what we are given, we must constantly remind ourselves that what God has given us is free. We must also remind ourselves that God is far better than sin for if we do not we will easily succumb to its enticing lure. Furthermore, we must remind ourselves on a daily basis that God satisfies us more than sin could ever satisfy us. Moreover, we must constantly remind ourselves of the costliness of our sin, which should serve to spur us onto true repentance. Lastly, we must remind ourselves that God is most glorified when we are happy in Him believing He is sufficient to satisfy us. Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us of all the things mentioned here and is why it is a necessity. This means that preaching the gospel is not solely reserved for non-believers, but for believers as well. May we never forget that the gospel is not only a message that provides us entrance into God’s kingdom, but sustains us and helps us to live within His kingdom.

Gospel Conversations & Biblical Fellowship

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals4 Comments

The typical conversation between guys this time of year centers around sports, especially, football. Now I don’t believe we should never talk about sports, but as Christians our conversations should go deeper than the latest ESPN highlight. We should be talking about the Bible and the things the Lord is showing us in our lives, as well as we should be encouraging each other in the faith. We can’t do this if we do not break through the surface and dig down to find out what is actually going on in someone’s walk with the Lord. In order to help us have more biblical conversations, I want to provide a few practical questions we can ask each other.

Questions

(1) What has Jesus been teaching you this week through your reading of the word, prayer, and life situations?

(2) How has your reading, classes, interactions with others and prayer caused you to worship God this week?

(3) How can I be praying for you?

(4) What sins has God revealed to you this week?

(5) Has God answered any prayers lately?

My hope is that these questions will spur you on to have more gospel conversation and biblical fellowship with others this coming week.

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Who do you trust? Riches or God?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals2 Comments

Do you trust God? I mean do you really trust God, or have you placed your hope in something other than Him? In Luke 12 we encounter a man who put his trust in his possessions rather than in God. The reason was that he thought they would bring him happiness, comfort, relaxation, and protection. Does not this hold true? It is what the world tells us is the key to happiness. We see this message portrayed through countless magazine ads, movies, television shows, and bill boards plastered on our cities walls. However, Jesus has something different in mind. Lets pick up the narrative in verse 13.

The Narrative

A man in the crowd, who has obviously not been listening to Jesus’ teaching, says to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replies by asking him, “who has made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” Then Jesus turns to the crowd and gives them this command: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” With that one sentence Jesus shakes up the world’s idea of possessions. He tells us that our life does not consist in our possessions, or you could say it this way, our possessions are not an essential element for our life. We do not need them to live. This immediately prompts the question, well, what do we need to live? This is exactly what Jesus is going to tell us, but in order to do so, he gives us an illustration in the form of a parable.

The Parable

Jesus tells us that the land of a rich man produced plentifully and as a result he had no where to store the excess. His barns were not big enough to hold the crop, so he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. After building the new barns and storing his excess crop in them, he believes that his life is now complete. His soul can now enjoy rest and relaxation, and he can eat, drink, and be merry. This man believed possessions were essential for his life. Without them, he could not enjoy life, nor could he live. This is because this man trusted in himself, rather than in God.

Notice throughout the parable the heavy use of the first person pronoun “I” and “my”. This shows the man had no regard for anyone other than himself, nor did he recognize that his riches and excess crop came from God. Notice in verse 16, the text tells us that “the land” produced the crop. God, as the sovereign ruler of this world, provided for this man, but he still did not trust in the Lord. Rather he placed his trust in himself.

God comes to him after he has finished storing all his crops and says, “Fool! This very night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared whose will they be?” To put your trust in your riches is foolish. They are temporary, finite things, that have no bearing on your life after you die. But what does have bearing on your life is your relationship with God.

Jesus comments in verse 21 saying that those who lay up treasures for themselves and are not rich toward God will end up in the same predicament as the man here in the parable. They will face eternal damnation, rather than eternal rest, relaxation, joy, and comfort for all of eternity with God. Oh, don’t get me wrong, things may satisfy us momentarily, but that satisfaction will wane quickly. Notice that the man in the parable was a rich man. He already lived a life of luxury, but the satisfaction, comfort, and relaxation his things once brought to his soul, did not last, and his soul was once again troubled until he was able to amass more riches. Surely, the cycle will continue to repeat in this man’s life because he has a giant hole in his heart that only God can fill. No earthly riches will do. That is why only those who are rich towards God will truly be satisfied.

Conclusion

So then, we must understand that it is God who provides for us, it is He who knows what we need. Once we understand that our possessions are not essential for our life, they are not necessary for us to live, but that our relationship with God is necessary, then we can be freed from the sin of covetousness – desiring what we do not have. We are freed from coveting others things: talents, abilities, jobs, homes, cars, clothes, families, etc because we understand that those things are not essential for our lives. They do not bring us everlasting rest, relaxation, comfort, and joy like our relationship with the Lord. Once we understand that, we are able to stop trusting in our possessions and start trusting in the Lord.

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The King and His Kingdom

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

Yesterday, while preaching over 1 Corinthians 4:17-21, our pastor talked about the Kingdom of God. In doing so, he told us Paul delivered a message from the king to the kings citizens (that would be those who live in the King’s Kingdom as redeemed humanity ie Christians). The message Paul delivers to the citizens is the message of the cross, which is both the way into the kingdom and how we can live in the kingdom.

The Message of the Cross is the Way Into the Kingdom

Here is where the worldly idea of a king and his kingdom is turned on its head. In Christianity, the King comes down from His throne, takes the form of the rebels in His kingdom, dies for them, and purchases, by His blood, a way for those who are living as rebels in His kingdom to live at peace with Him in His kingdom.

In biblical language, we would say Jesus is the King, who came down off His throne in heaven, took the form of a man, and went to the cross for the sins of those who oppose Him (rebels). His death on the cross, and man’s subsequent belief in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, restores their relationship with God, so they can once again live in the kingdom as peaceful citizens. After Christ’s sacrifice and subsequent resurrection, God showed He approved of Jesus’ cross-work by giving Jesus the name that is above every name and making Him the King who rules over His kingdom (Philippians 2:5-11).

The Message of the Cross is the Way to Live in the Kingdom

As Christians we live in God’s kingdom, through the sacrifice of His Son, who is now the rightful ruler of the kingdom. Jesus’ sacrifice was a one time event that secures the citizenship of all those who make Him their Lord and Savior. Instead of earning their right to live in the kingdom daily by performing works that please the King, Christians, whose citizenship was bought by Christ’s blood (the King), are made citizens forever in the kingdom by God’s grace. This means, citizenship into, and forever in, Christ’s kingdom cannot be bought by good works, it can only be bought by the blood of the King Himself. What a wonderful thing to know that our citizenship is not contingent on our works; rather, it is the result of Christ’s sacrifice. A perfect, once for all sacrifice that is sufficient to restore our citizenship in the kingdom for all eternity.

With that in mind, we see that Christianity says both our entrance into and our stay in the kingdom of God are secured by the King’s sacrifice. Whereas, all other world religions are about doing something, Christianity is about believing in someone.

Christianity tells us that when we get up in the morning, we do not have to work to get God on our side, nor do we have to earn His gift of citizenship daily, His grace is already their waiting for us.

Implications

So then, when we feel like we need to work to earn God’s favor, or we are not feeling it one day, we need to preach the message of the cross to ourselves, in order to assure ourselves that our citizenship in the kingdom of God is both real and secure.

It also means that we live as citizens of the kingdom now. Paul tells us our citizenship is not of this world (Phil. 3:20). And he also tells Christians that if they want to live as citizens worthy of their citizenship, they are to stand firm against their enemies and be united with one another (Phil. 1:27-2:4). This shows that we live in the already, not yet. We live in the world, but our citizenship is not of this world. Rather it is of the kingdom of God.

However, Christ is reigning on His throne now over His kingdom, which includes both heaven and this world. As Christians, we are rightful citizens of Christ’s kingdom, and we should live as citizens of that kingdom now because He is ruling over His kingdom now. This means those who are not Christians, are living as rebels to our king and are living as such alongside us in Christ’s kingdom. So then, instead of viewing Christ’s kingdom and our citizenship in that kingdom as a distant reality, we need to view it as happening right now. This should have massive implications for the way in which we live, and the way we view those who reject Christianity and the rule of our King.

It also should have massive implications for the way we deal with our own resources. Christ is the King who is ruling over His Kingdom right now. As such, He has control over the resources in His kingdom. This means we should not feel that the resources (money, job, property) we have are ours and that we somehow earned them apart from the King providing them for us. Since these resources are not our own, but the Kings, and the King is the one who gave them to us, we should feel free to share our resources with others in the kingdom, knowing that our good and benevolent King desires to take care of His citizens by providing for them.

Image: Nick Coombs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Keys To Unity

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals10 Comments

In Philippians 2:2, Paul commands the Philippians to complete his joy. He tells them they can complete his joy by being unified. He then tells them how they can be unified. Today I want to give us the Keys to Unity. We will start in verse 2 of Philippians chapter 2.

Exposition

Paul tells the Philippians they can be unified “by being of the same mind.” Essentially, he is telling them they are to seek the same goal with a like mind. The common goal is identified in the next phrases:

  • “having the same love” – We are to have a common commitment to love as Christ loves. His love was self-sacrificing and had nothing to do with selfish ambition.
  • “being in full accord and of one mind” – striving together as one soul, harmonious, and thinking one thing. Here he wants believers to be united by focusing on one common goal.

In verse 2, we learn we are united by:

  • Having the same love (vs 2)
  • Be united in the same common goal (vs 2)

Simple enough, right? But now you ask, what is the common goal? Paul does not leave us to answer this question on our own. He goes on to tell us how we can be unified in the next two verses.

Let’s Look at the Keys to Unity:

(1) verse 3: The Key to Unity is to Humble Regard Others As More Important Than Yourselves

Paul tells us that we are “To count others more significant than ourselves.” When he says this he means we are think that another person matters more than we do. This does not mean we are to think of ourselves as poor and destitute, or that someone else is better at sports than we are, when they cannot hit a baseball to save their lives, and we have played in the majors. It does not mean, we tell someone who is a terrible musician that they are better than we are when we play for the Dallas Symphony. It means we are to honor that person, to think that they matter more than we do.

Also in this verse we find the word “count” or “regard.” The word “count” or “regard” carries the idea to think about something for an extended period of time. When you count something, like how many books are on your shelf at home, how many shoes your wife has in the closet, or how many pages are in a book you have to read for school, it does not take a moment. It takes time, especially, if your wife has a closet full of shoes, or you have a ton of books, or your teacher has assigned a large number of pages to read.

Paul wants us to take that same energy and time reflecting on the fact that others are more significance than ourselves. That they matter more than we do. When we do this our pride is kept in check and our ego is deflated.

Wrangling our pride is important because that is what so often causes disunity. One group or person wants to push their own agenda, have things happen that are only beneficial to them (Selfish Ambition), or that brings them glory (Conceit).

Paul here explicitly tells us to do nothing out of “Selfish Ambition” or “Conceit.” Instead of seeking to please ourselves or bring glory to ourselves, we are to look out for the interests of others. Which is our second key to unity.

(2) verse 4: The Key to Unity is to Look Out For the Interests of Others

The word “Interests” here is a filler word. Meaning it does not exist in the Greek text. Your english translation has supplied it in order to translate the verse better. In Greek it reads, “Let each of you look not only to his own____.” After “own” there is a blank, which means you are to fill it in with whatever you look out for. You can put in words such as food, water, shelter, financial affairs, family, health, clothing, reputation, education, success, happiness, or spiritual well-being. We are not only to look out for ourselves and our own families in these ways, but we are to look out for those around us. This verse embodies Jesus command in Matt 19:19 “You should love your neighbor as yourself.”

When we look out for others interests we will be unified because we are putting others before ourselves. But we will not have a desire to do so unless we are in Christ, which is our third key to unity.

(3) verse 5: The Key to Unity is to Be In Christ

The power and reason we can be unified is because we are “in Christ.” Without Christ working in our lives we would have no chance what-so-ever of regarding others more important than ourselves, nor would we ever desire to focus on the interests of others.

Paul knows we must be in Christ before we can be like Christ.

In other words, we must be born again, we must be a believer. Without Christ changing our heart and affections, we will not seek the interests of others, we will not think others more important than ourselves, we will not humble ourselves, nor will we desire to serve others.

This means, you should not finish reading this post thinking, “I just need to try harder.” No, the only way you can be like Christ, is to be in Christ. Once we believe in Christ as our Savior, then we have the power to change, but not until then.

Implications

Think about the unity that would occur if we honored others because we thought them more significant than ourselves, and if we loved others like we love ourselves by looking out for their own interests and meeting their needs.

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