Redemption

Bought With a High Price

Posted on by Jesse Walker

Bought With a High Price – Video

How well do you make plans? I’m not very good at it. I like to think I’m spontaneous. Which means, I’m not good at making a schedule and sticking to it. That’s something I need to work on.

But I know someone who is great at making plans. Do you know who that is? If you said God, you’re correct. Did you know the bible says that God planned to save the world through his son Jesus Christ before he whispered a world into creation. In Ephesians 1:4-5 it says, “4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—”

This plan was carried out in Galatians 4:4 where we read that when the time had arrived God sent his Son to be born of a woman and to redeem his fallen creation. Make no mistake about it, it wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t just a good guess.  It was a well thought out, well-executed plan that was in the works before the beginning of time.

Why did God send his Son? In one word “love”. God before the beginning of time, choose to provide all who believe in Him a way back to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. This love was on full display on the cross when the Lamb of God carried away the sins of the world. God redeemed us (bought us back). There was no partial payment made. No loan taken out. He paid the bill in full. And he paid it with the blood of his Son, and 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, “God paid a great price for you and me.”

By sending Jesus, He showed, that there is no Caucasian, no gender, no race, or ethnicity, no rich or poor, no educated or uneducated, no protestant, no country greater than the next. Neither Jew or Gentile, neither slave or free, neither male nor female, we are all one in Christ Jesus. He speaks to the shady lady at the well, he works with the stinky fishermen, with the lowly IRS agents (tax collectors), and he healed the lame and the blind.

Lord you are holy. We will praise your name forever. Help us to remember your steadfast love never ceases, your mercies never end, help us to see how they are renewed every morning.  For you are faithful. And this is Jesse Walker with the Glenwood Church of Christ.

Set Free

Posted on by Jesse Walker

Tommy was a high school jock. He broke all his high school records. He scored more points than anyone else had ever done. Tommy was on top of the world until one night he was arrested for selling drugs. Tommy had become addicted to prescription drugs, due to his sports injuries. He lost his scholarship and found himself all alone. His dreams of playing professional sports faded away. He became suicidal, depression ruled the day. He had been in and out of rehabilitation centers.

One day Tommy reached out for help. In doing so he found God. He was able to confess his sins. And with this confession came release. He was no longer held prisoner by his past. Like Tommy, many of us have done things in our past that hold us captive. We can’t find a way to forgive ourselves. Maybe we walked out on a marriage. Maybe we’ve abandoned our children. Maybe we’ve committed a serious crime.
But does this have to mean that we are without hope for the rest of our lives? In Isiah 59:1 we read, “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.” In other words, God shouts an emphatic “NO”. My grace and mercy can cover your sins. But that’s not all there is. God’s grace not only covers our sins, but it also provides us the strength to continue with life.

It doesn’t matter if your sin is coveting, lying, stealing or murder. God’s promise makes no distinction when He says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18b). The truth is, no matter how horrible your sin is, how low we sink, God’s grace will always be greater. If God has said he has forgotten your sin, then believe Him and move on. Listen to the Apostle Paul when he said, “Forget what is behind you and press on toward what lies ahead.” That’s why the front window shield is larger than the rearview mirror.

Now that you know the liberating freedom that comes from confessing your sins and trusting in God. Can I ask you to help others who are struggling with their past sins. Will you pay it forward? This is Jesse Walker with the Glenwood Church of Christ.

Will God always honor man’s repentance?

Posted on by Bob Mathews

30Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. 31He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him. (1 Kings 16:30-33)

20Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!” “I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. 21‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel-slave or free. 22I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.’ 23“And also concerning Jezebel the LORD says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’ 24“Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.”…27When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. 28Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 29“Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.” (1 Kings 21:20-29)

Is your life so bad that you could compete with someone who “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of [the kings] before him”?

Have you ever felt like such a sinner, like you’ve made so many fall-on-your-face blunders that you’re beyond hope and God will never forgive you?

Ok, let me ask you this — is your life so bad that you could compete with someone who “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of [the kings] before him”? Unless your name is Jeffrey Dahmer, I’d be willing to bet your life can’t even come close to that of Ahab’s on the scale of “badness”. (Oh, and Jeffrey Dahmer? I fully expect to see him in heaven. If you want to learn about his conversion story, write me or add a comment below and I’ll tell you about it.)

Ahab doesn’t even come close to comparing with King David, but the way he reacted after hearing Elijah’s curse was reminiscent of David’s reaction after Nathan’s confrontation (2 Samuel 12:1-9). Make no mistake; this was real repentance. Ahab was not simply putting on a show to get Elijah to change his curse to a blessing.

So does this mean we can expect to see King Ahab in heaven? Sorry, not my call — nor yours.

Nor is it the point of this post.

The point is God noticed and God honored Ahab’s repentance. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He waited patiently for Ahab to repent. He waits patiently for you too, but He will not wait forever. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3), when neither you nor I expect it.

God is waiting; what are you waiting for?

Maranatha.

Grumble, Grumble, Grumble…

Posted on by Bob Mathews

Have you ever felt like your life is missing something or that it should just been better in general? Even when your life is going well, do you feel the desire or need to complain about it not going well enough? Can I ask, what is enough in your mind or when will it be enough?

The Israelites were living in slavery in Egypt. Life was difficult. There were great burdens on them to the point that they cried out to the Lord.

“Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them” (Exodus 3:9).

God heard their cries and knew what was happening to them. He was ready to take action and help them gain freedom once again. So, God preceded to do this with Moses and his brother Aaron acting as a go between Him and Pharaoh and Him and the people. After words were spoken and signs were performed, Pharaoh refused to let the people go and even increased the burdens upon them.

This is where you see the first grumble of the sons of Israel. God is working on helping them out of oppression, but they complain to Pharaoh and then to Moses and Aaron that things are only getting worse for them (Ex. 5:15-23). This grumble has some legitimacy because even Moses then asks God why he was even sent. After God responded, He sent Moses and Aaron to press Pharaoh to let the people go again. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened in all this, and then God brought the plagues on Egypt. After all the plagues were passed, Pharaoh did exactly as God had said. He sent the sons of Israel out of Egypt. God gave His people freedom once more.

Not long after this decision, however, Pharaoh decided to pursue the sons of Israel into the wilderness to enslave them again. The people saw the pursuit and grumbled again to Moses. Why did you deal with us this way? Why did you bring us out here to die? It would have been better for us to stay and serve the Egyptians (Ex. 14:11-12). After everything God had done to give them freedom, they are already grumbling and complaining that oppression would have been better. God performed signs and wonders through Moses and the plagues and already they doubt in the Lord’s ability to save them. Not to mention the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that was leading the people. God is actively with them yet they still grumble. Why? When will God do enough for them?

God precedes to give them salvation once more by parting the sea so they could escape the pursuit of the Egyptians and even destroyed the Egyptians pursuing them with that divided water. Freedom was given and off into the wilderness they went. God took care of them over and over again. However, once in the wilderness they grumbled a third time. “What shall we drink?” Moses cried out to the Lord and He gave the people a source of water (Ex. 15:24-25). Once again God did not hesitate to take care of them.

Two months into their departure from Egypt the people grumbled once again. This time they grumbled out of hunger, which we all can agree is a legitimate need in life. However, they spoke in a way that flew in the face of all God had done for them. They spoke of Egypt and the full bellies they had there (Ex. 16:2-3). God had done so much for them already and yet once again they didn’t trust Him to take care of their needs. Instead, they complain and wish for days of oppression when they could eat their fill.

As you can see, the sons of Israel seem to have a pattern going on in their lives. No matter how much is done for them, it is never enough. We could go on looking at more passages about them grumbling over and over again. They even grumble again for water, something God has already shown He will give them, but it just never is enough. God did more for the sons of Israel than most would probably say they deserved.

The truth is, God has done more for all of us than any of us deserve. God cares for us in the same way that He did the sons of Israel. He takes care of our needs, the most important of which is the safety of our eternal soul. God gave us His Son. His Son who became the sacrifice for our freedom from sin. Our soul can be with God only because of what God did for us through Jesus Christ.

When you add that truth to everything else written in the Bible and all the works of God you can see around you, is it enough? Do you need more? What does God need to do for it to be enough for you? Jesus was the last piece in God’s plan to give us something that could bring about our salvation. If Jesus isn’t enough for you, nothing will be…

Promises of God – A Promise that ALL will be Blessed

Posted on by Bob Mathews

Genesis 12:1-3 says, “1Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you: 2And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

God had a plan for a man named Abram. God knew that Abram would believe Him, and that Abram would live out his faith through his actions. Because of His plan, God promised Abram that the world would be blessed because of him. God blessed the world through Abram in two ways.

First, Abraham (the name God gave Abram) became the prime example for everyone who would ever put their faith in God. His descendants were honored and proud to be called the “children of Abraham” (maybe too much so). However, Paul said that anyone who has Abraham’s kind of faith is a child of Abraham. “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Second, is the greatest blessing God gave through Abraham. Jesus is what God was really getting at with the promise. Jesus was a descendent of Abraham. God redeemed all of the sin in our lives through Jesus, a descendant of the man whose greatest claim to fame was the simple fact that “he believed in the Lord” (Gen. 15:6).

Why is such a blessing needed? Romans 3:23 states the reason very simply and directly. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We all have done things that go against what God teaches. This sin separates us from Him. The blessing through Abraham is one that gives us all a chance to get back into a right relationship with God.

This promise was given to Abraham and through him to us, but as was said earlier, it was all part of God’s plan from the beginning because He knew we were going to need it. Ephesians 1:3-7 says, “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He (God) chose us in Him (Jesus) before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”

Through Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, God has given us the ability to come back to Him, to be His children. He made a promise and kept it so that each of us could be blessed, even at the cost of His own Son. Now it is our turn to choose whether to believe and follow Him like Abraham did or to continue living our lives however we want and remain lost to God. What side of the promise do you want to be on?

Humility is seeing ourselves as God sees us

Posted on by Bob Mathews

I saw that quote on a church sign recently. You know the ones — these are the signs that have quippy sayings that are intended to make you think, and sometimes make you groan, kind of like ours. Like most quotes, some are better than others. This one got my attention though, because I wasn’t sure if I agreed with it or not.

How do you think God sees you?

…all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Let me ask you this — if I had a huge, ugly brown spot on my back, would you ever know about this blemish if every time you saw me I was wearing a shirt? Scripture tells me at the time I was baptized, I was clothed with Christ.

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:26-27

Therefore, since I am clothed with Christ, whenever God looks at me He sees Jesus. He doesn’t see the blemishes that abound — the blemishes Jesus’ blood washed clean (1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7). He sees me as pure and spotless as the day I was born.

And this brings up another question — if God sees us as being clothed with Christ, and doesn’t see our blemishes, shouldn’t we see His children in the same state? How easy it is to focus on each others’ dirty laundry and blemishes, when we should see our fellow life-strugglers as washed clean with the same blood as we have been.

So, back to the original quote and the question it provoked — is humility seeing ourselves as God sees us? I think not. “Humility is seeing ourselves as we would be without Jesus.” How’s that for a re-write?

What was nailed to the cross with Jesus?

Posted on by Bob Mathews

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 — NIV

The verse I want to focus on is verse 14, but I kept all 3 verses for context. Actually, for the full context, read the entire book of Colossians. It’s only 4 chapters, so it shouldn’t take more than 15-30 minutes.

having canceled the written code, with its regulations

I’d like to suggest it wasn’t the Old Law that “stood opposed to us”.

A reasonable person might read this and think, “How many ‘written codes‘ did God give?” Certainly the Old Law comes to mind. Any others? In fact, this is a popular interpretation of this passage — based on the NIV translation — but I’d like to suggest a different interpretation. (Are we under the Old Law then? No, but that doesn’t mean that’s what Paul was writing about in this verse.)

Here are the same 3 verses, from the New American Standard Version:

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Colossians 2:13-15 — NASV

having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees

Suddenly that doesn’t sound so much like the Old Law. In fact, I’d like to suggest it wasn’t the Old Law that “stood opposed to us”. In fact, the Law was perfect (Psalm 19:7). If it was the Law that was imperfect and that “stood opposed to us”, surely Jesus would have come to destroy the Law, but he didn’t (Matthew 5:17).

So what was “nailed to the cross” with Jesus (v. 14)? I believe context leads us to the interpretation that it was the fact that the Old Law could not save — that no one could keep it perfectly except the One Who was perfect already. You know the song — “He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay.” That was “the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us” — not the Law itself, but our slavery to the debt of having to keep the Law perfectly in order to achieve righteousness. This segues perfectly into that last word Jesus spoke from the cross — tetelestai (commonly translated into 3 English words, “it is finished” ). This word literally means “the debt has been paid”.

So what did Jesus nail to the cross?

He nailed to the cross our certificate of debt. It was that certificate that said under the Old Law, we must keep the Law perfectly in order to be justified, but under the law of grace, we can be counted as righteous — we can be justified — by Jesus having paid the debt on our behalf. Hallelujah!

Are you religious or are you converted?

Posted on by Bob Mathews

In spite of its frantic pursuit of religion, America has never been less spiritual. Jesus came into a world that was very religious, if not Jewish, then pagan. Jesus did not come to establish a new religion, but to convert the world, because while they were religious, they were not saved.

Religion is from within, redemption (conversion) is from above. Religion brings one to worship, conversion brings one to God. Religion is a response to the void within man, conversion is a response to the voice of God. Religion can restructure your life, conversion can restart your life. Religion may get you thru life, conversion will get you to heaven. While religion might affect your diet, conversion will affect your destiny.