Tag: Jesus

God is not a God of confusion

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” (1 Cor 14:33a)

Indeed our God is not a God of confusion. He desires His people have order and understanding. God’s desire is one reason we have His Word. It provides us understanding as well as it helps us know how we are to operate so that there is order.

As Paul begins to bring his letter to the Corinthians to a close, he deals with order in the church. He specifically highlights prophecy over tongues because prophecy provides understanding whereas tongues has a high potential to confuse.

When the church gathers together, understanding and order should be at the top of the list. We are not gathering together to make much of ourselves, rather we gather to make much of Jesus. Nor do we gather to confuse one another and hinder outsiders from understanding the gospel. Instead, we are to teach, encourage, reprove, and rebuke with God’s Word. In other words, we are to build one another up in the Lord. Disorder and confusion do not lead to building up of the body of Christ nor does it lead others to an understanding of the gospel and salvation. In most instances, disorder and confusion leads to stagnation and even decline.

May we be a church that seeks to build one another up in the Lord by intelligently speaking the Word of the Lord to one another in an orderly fashion when we gather.

The Lord’s mindfulness should drive us to worship

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?” (Ps 144:3)

Tucked in the middle of Psalm 144, as Psalmist both blesses the Lord for His work and asks Him to do more, He is struck with wonder and amazement. We all should be struck with wonder and amazement as well. We should be flabbergasted that the Lord is mindful of us, sinful humans who live in rebellion to Him. It is amazing God cares so much. It is mind boggling that He provides a salvation for a people who hate Him. It is simply amazing!

When we think of the Lord’s concern, care, and provision, like the Psalmist, should be driven to ask the same question — Why does God think of us? Why does He provide for us? Why does He care for us as He does?

The answer reveals our God is a God of love. He loves and cares for His creation. He has compassion on us, providing for us physically and spiritually.

When we consider all the Lord does, we should be driven to praise and bless the Lord.

Do you recognize you were bought with a price?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor 6:20)

We are to seek to glorify God daily by living according to His will. We should seek to glorify God, not to earn favor from Him, pay for our salvation, or pay Him back.

Instead, we are to align ourselves with His will out of gratitude for what He has done for us. Jesus, the Son of God, has come. He lived a perfect life, perfectly keeping the Law. He did not deserve death. He didn’t deserve the Father’s wrath. But He died and absorbed the Father’s wrath on our behalf in order to redeem us. He paid the ultimate price on our behalf, ransoming us from the wrath of God. As those who have been bought by Him, we should seek His glory.

As well as we are to align ourselves with God’s will seeking to glorify Him with our bodies because we have been freed from the grip of sin. We no longer have to live according to the flesh. We are no longer dominated by Satan. He is not our master. We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. We should use our bodies to glorify the one who has redeemed us.

Do you recognize you were bought with a price? Are you living for Christ? Do you follow Him?

You are God’s Fellow Worker

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Cor 3:9)

What a privilege it is to be called God’s fellow workers. As believers, we have not only experienced salvation but we are also used as God’s instruments to bring others to faith in Christ as well as to help others grow as disciples of Christ. We are His fellow workers.

If God thinks of us as His fellow workers, we must think of ourselves in the same way. We must not shrink back from Jesus’ command to make disciple-making disciples. We must get to work.

While we must get to work, seeking to accomplish the mission Jesus has set before us, as God’s fellow workers, we don’t work alone. The God of the universe, the All-Sovereign, Creator, and Sustainer of all things works alongside us as we seek to work for Him. We work with the power provided us by God Himself.

Do you recognize you are counted as God’s fellow worker? Do you trust God to empower you for the task of making disciple-making disciples?

In Christ Jesus we are not condemned!

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1)

What a great promise! Those who are in Christ are not condemned to death, bondage, and slavery to sin. We are free from punishment.

We are not free from punishment due our own merit. Paul makes it clear that the Law — the written code God gave the Israelites to direct their lives, has not saved them but condemned them. It has proven them to be rebels and law breakers who deserve God’s punishment. Under the law, we are condemned. The verdict handed down is guilty. We deserve punishment. The wages of our sin is death.

But thanks be to God that in Christ we are not condemned. We are free from condemnation because Jesus took the punishment of the guilty verdict on our behalf.

If you want to experience freedom to live as you have been designed and a relationship with the Creator of the universe, you must come through Christ. We can’t come through the law or our own good works. Christ is the only way.

In Christ Jesus we are not condemned!

Your works don’t make you righteous

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe…” (Ro 3:21-22)

Paul’s letter to the Roman’s is a theological masterpiece. It highlights who we really are and what God has done so that we might have a relationship with Him. We are sinners through and through. Our sin has so corrupted us that we cannot nor do we desire to live for God. Using Paul’s term — we are not righteous. We do not live morally upright lives, nor are we in right relationship with God.

We cannot earn a right relationship with God through the Law, whether that be God’s law or our own moral code. There is absolutely nothing we can do but there is something God does. He sends His Son — Jesus — who is the Christ. Jesus is the God appointed Savior of the world. Through His life and death on our behalf, we can experience a right relationship with the Father. Not by emulating Jesus or sacrificing to Him, but through faith. Simply trusting that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection provides you a right relationship with the Father, provides you a right relationship with the Father.

All those who believe in Jesus’ cross-work experience salvation. Through Jesus, the Father establishes the righteousness of man.

Trust in Jesus and not in your own work. Your works don’t make you righteous.