Author: Larry Soape

Re:Verse reading–2 Corinthians 5:11-21 (day four)

Verse 21 is the Heart of the Gospel!  “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

It was certainly not an even exchange…His righteousness for our unrighteousness.  We were the great beneficiaries.  Our lives were purchased by God.  As a result, we have a new responsibility to be an ambassador for Christ.  It is not an option…we don’t get to choose.  We have been bought with a price…His blood and His righteousness!

So what is the result or aftereffect of this exchange for us?  (Besides forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.)  Self-centeredness is gone, unforgiveness is gone, pridefulness is gone…anger, a judgmental spirit, lack of love, and more.  Our lives should begin to look like Christ’s–after all, we are bought.  Our unrighteousness gives way to His righteousness!  Can the world recognize that your life is no longer yours?

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 12:4-13, 27-31 (day four) 

One Spirit, many gifts.  Why has God given us all of these gifts?  Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation…God has placed all of these gifts in the body.  Are they for our own edification?  For our own pleasure?  For our own benefit?  No…they are for the benefit and edification of the whole church.  We are to use our gifts to serve others.  For a healthy church, you will see the members serving one another with tireless and self-less energy, using their God–given gifts to serve the body.

What gifts has God given you?  How has He equipped you to serve others?  Are you using your gifts to glorify God or to gain benefit for yourself?  Ask God to search your heart.  A healthy church is a serving church…serve others with your Spiritual gifts!  (1 Corinthians 13 tells us to use the right motivation for serving, too.)  Let’s grow our church!

Re:Verse Passage – Matthew 25:31-46 (day four)

Scripture told us it would happen.  Jesus will return in all of His glory.  He was despised and rejected by men, but He will return as King and Judge.  Those that receive His favor are those that have served others.  Notice that they did not even know when they had done it.  Serving was a natural outgrowth of their love.  They served, as a matter of course, those who were in need.  The selfish group, the unrighteous, had been so self-consumed, they did not even see the needy.

We often get so busy and so self-absorbed, that we fail to see those around us in need.  Ask God to open the eyes of your heart to see and act in compassion.  When you are in a love relationship with the Lord, you will not only see the needy, you will serve them.  Draw near to Him…the Lord’s pleasure is on those who serve.  (P.S. – Is there anything else in Scripture that you have not paid attention to?)

Re:Verse Passage – John 15:9-17 (day four)

Have you ever said, “I just don’t know what God wants me to do?”  Maybe you have felt that you have not heard from God in a while.  I have good news for you.  We have a direct command from Jesus!  This passage should answer that need.  We are to love…we are to serve…we are to bear fruit.  To love, to serve, to share Christ…they are all the same.  If we love God, we will serve others as a fruit of our relationship with Him.  The first and foremost service to another is to share the love of God with them.  There is a wonderful benefit to being obedient to this command also…”whatever you ask of the Father in Jesus’ name, He will give you.”  Love, joy, answered prayer…what more could a person want?  If we start with the commands that Jesus has already given us in Scripture, He may open more to us.  He looks for our faithfulness to the basics first before giving the big assignments!

Re: Verse reading–John 13:1-17 (day four)

This was a turning point in Jesus’ ministry.  The timetable was drawing closer to the cross.  Jesus began a series of teaching aimed specifically at His disciples.  Being fully God, Jesus knew what lay ahead, both for Him and for His disciples.  He set out to prepare them to live out the Gospel.  These lessons were critical for the disciples to learn if they were to accurately and clearly present Jesus’ message to the world.  For Judas, this was a lesson in thinking of others instead of yourself…one last opportunity to repent of his selfish act of betrayal.  (He did not learn the lesson!)  For the rest, it was an act of love and a lesson on service to others.  To love is to serve.  Self-centeredness has no place in love.  Albert Schweitzer once said, “The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”  Are you seeking and have you found?

Re: Verse reading–Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53 (day four)

Appearances are not always as they seem.  The Messiah appeared despised and forsaken.  He looked to be stricken and smitten of God.  But He was high and lifted up.  He was greatly exalted.  Jesus was the only substitute for us…the only one acceptable to God to take on the sins of the world and atone for them.

“God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  (1 Samuel 16:7)  God sees beyond the circumstances and sees His perfect will.  Often we get bogged down in the circumstances of life.  Jesus was able to remain faithful and obedient to God through all of the persecution, torture and death, because He did not lose sight of His call.  Don’t allow the circumstances of your life to distract you from the work that God has called you to do.  Isaiah identified the Messiah as a suffering servant.  To be a servant, keep your eyes and heart on your call.                                                                                      

Re:Verse reading–Nehemiah 6:1-16 (day four)

It was the social media of the day.  Sanballat and Tobiah were not having any success with deterring Nehemiah from his task.  They sent an open letter to try to get public opinion against him so he would relent in fear.  Nehemiah maintained his focus on God’s directions rather than political correctness.

Have you ever allowed the ‘fear of man’ to keep you from doing what you know God has instructed you to do?  Nehemiah had obviously spent time alone with God.  He recognized His voice and he maintained his obedience.  The world will offer options that appear to be the judicious choice, but fail to be exactly what God has prescribed. Verse 12 says, “Then I perceived that surely God had not sent him…”  The servant leader must allow Scripture to interpret circumstances, not circumstances to determine Scripture! Know the voice of the One who calls you…and follow Him.  After all, whose opinion has eternal significance?

Re:Verse reading–2 Kings 4:8-37 (day four)

Why do bad things happen to good people?  You’ve heard the question before.  First, they want to know why it happened and then they want to know why God did not fix the situation…or heal their loved one…or why someone else received healing and they didn’t.  The focus is on the temporal…not the eternal.

In Hebrews 11, the Bible’s Hall of Faith, the faith of the Shunammite woman is identified. (v. 35) So did she have more faith?  If we read the next verses in Hebrews 11, we see others who had great faith and they were tortured, chained, imprisoned…they were stoned and sawn in two, and put to death with a sword.  We cannot speak for God…our thoughts are not His thoughts, our ways are not His ways…but we can trust our Almighty, all-knowing, all-loving God.  (Isaiah 55:8-9)  The Shunammite woman received back her son, but the greatest gift she received was her justification by faith!

Re:Verse reading–2 Samuel 9 (day four)

It was customary in those days that when a new king came to power, he killed all of the descendants of the old king to be sure that none decided to try to return to power.  Mephibosheth knew that he could not expect anything but death.  He humbled himself before David.  In contrast, Ziba believed that since he had aided the king, he deserved a just reward.  He was jealous of Mephibosheth.  David honored Mephibosheth, even though by all rights, he deserved nothing.  Ziba reminds us of Haman (thank you, Linda) who believed he deserved the king’s favor, but instead had to give honor to Mordecai. (Esther 6)

Jealousy is a deadly sin.  It can destroy relationships…it can distort the truth…it can be a cancer to our soul.  Ziba’s jealousy grew out of his greed and ambition for his own family.  Why should he have to serve a cripple?  Guard your heart against jealousy…none of us deserves anything but death.  Humbly accept God’s grace like Mephibosheth.

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 3 (day four)

V.1 – “And word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.” V. 7 – “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.” Samuel was young and inexperienced. He had had little opportunity to see God at work around him and he had yet to meet God on an individual basis…but his heart was tender toward the Lord.  After God spoke to him the third time…following the prompt by Eli…he responded to God, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”  (V. 10)  This response was not only a willingness to hear, but an inference of intent to obey.  Samuel, like Abram, or later, Saul, did not predicate his obedience to God to first knowing what it was that God wanted.  He was prepared to obey whatever God had for him.

Have you ever reserved your obedience until you knew the whole story of what God wants you to do?  I have.  What God wants from us though is obedience without question…obedience without having to know what the cost will be to us.  May we have faith like a child…may we respond “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”