Category: devotional

  • Hope for the walking wounded

    Hope for the wounded spirit

    I stood talking with a Christian acquaintance who said, “God gave me a wonderful opportunity to do something special, and I didn’t take it. Now I’m afraid He won’t ever use me anymore.” 

    I’ve sometimes heard variations on that theme, “I fell back into terrible sin, and I’m afraid God won’t ever forgive me again.” “I wandered away from my faith for a while, and now I’m sure He won’t take me back.”

    Sometimes they are nonbelievers who have never been inside a church. They believe the lie “I’m too wicked for even God to save me.”

    These are ordinary people in great pain. If you saw them, you probably wouldn’t know they feel like they’re dying on the inside

    They might be sitting next to you on a Sunday morning; they might be ministering in your church, or they might even be part of your family. They might be workmates or neighbors. Often, they slowly and quietly slip away from the church, or never come near it because of self-imposed shame.

    When we’re physically injured, we usually get some form of medical help to heal our bodies. When we’ve been injured spiritually, we often run from the source of healing. Satan lies to us and tells us we can’t ever be forgiven. We’ve been hurt in the past by sharing with someone in the church when we shared our pain. Maybe our church doesn’t condone sharing.

    Like a bad physical wound that doesn’t receive attention, a wound to the spirit that doesn’t receive tending just keeps on bleeding. Infection sets in and makes the wound even messier. The pain festers, our spirit weakens, and we fall further and further away from the one who can heal us.

    Our healing comes from the Lord.

    But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 ESV

    I’m going to go out on a limb here and probably offend some people because there are different interpretations for this verse. If you disagree with me, I’m sorry, but that’s life sometimes. This verse isn’t a promise that God will heal all our physical ailments in this lifetime. Yes, He can do that and often does, but it isn’t a guarantee.

    It means that for our sin He brings healing. He heals our wounded and battered spirit. That’s the mot important healing there is, to be made right again with God. That’s an eternal healing not simply a transitory physical healing.

    God heals, and God forgives.

    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 ESV

    He makes us new again.

    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

    If you’re one of those people who is wounded in the spirit and wondering if you can ever go back, YES, YES, GOD LOVES YOU. HE’S WAITING WITH OPEN ARMS. RUN INTO THEM.

    Until next time, if you’re wounded in the spirit, run to our great healing God.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    I’ve met people who believe they’ve messed up too badly for God to ever use or forgive them again. Scripture shows that no matter how deep that wound runs, God heals it, forgives us, and makes us new.

    TAKEAWAY

    If you’re carrying an old wound over something you didn’t do or a way you failed God, hiding it only lets that wound fester, the same way an untreated physical injury gets worse.

    Isaiah 53:5 promises that Christ’s wounds bring you spiritual healing first, restoring your standing with God, even though total physical healing isn’t guaranteed in this life.

    1 John 1:9 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 promise that when you confess, God forgives you completely and makes you a new creation, so there’s no version of your past that keeps His arms closed to you.

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  • A Snowy Day

    White Garments and the Righteousness of Christ

    The air was fresh and crisp, and the late morning temperature was barely below freezing. The bright morning sun set the snow aflame with sparkling diamonds of light. The effect was brilliant but blinding, and I needed sunglasses. Seeing the brilliant white snow made it easy to see why snow blindness might be an issue.

    The Bible often uses the color white as a metaphor for purity.

    We see an example of that on the Mount of Transfiguration.

    And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Mark 9:2-4 ESV

    In writing to the church in Sardis, John spoke of the Lord’s promise of white garments.

    Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Revelation 3:4-5 ESV

    The idea of new garments for old, putting on a new nature, shows up in a beautiful Old Testament prophetic passage. Admittedly it doesn’t mention “white,” but we see a delightful picture of the transformation.

    Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.  And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”  And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. Zechariah 3:1-5 ESV

    My dear friends, that is what happens to you and me as believers. When we turn to Christ, we exchange our filthy rags of sin for the covering of His righteousness. In glory, when we are free of any taint or possibility of sin and fully righteous, we will have our own white garments. We will be entirely righteous and whole and able to serve, worship and fellowship fully with the Lord of our salvation.

    How glorious will that be? I look forward to seeing all of you clothed in robes of white, so brilliant it makes the eyes hurt.

    None of us deserve to be covered in the imputed righteousness of Christ, yet in His perfect love and mercy, He makes it possible. It is a gift we cannot earn, but we must humbly accept it in repentant faith.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    The blinding brightness of sunlit snow reminded me how Scripture pictures purity in dazzling white garments. Through Christ, we are offered that same white covering as a gift, not something we can earn.

    TAKEAWAY

    You don’t have to clean yourself up before coming to Christ. Like Joshua the high priest, He removes what’s filthy and clothes you in what’s pure.

    The white garments Revelation promises the redeemed picture complete, unstained righteousness, not a reward for good behavior.

    This righteousness isn’t something you earn. It’s a gift you receive by turning to Christ in repentant faith.

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