TODAY'S READING FROM https://utmost.org/ -- in addition to text from print version of Oswald Chambers Daily Devotional: My Utmost For His Highest -- Date: May 27
The disciples had to tarry until the day of Pentecost not for their own preparation only; they had to wait until the Lord was glorified historically. As soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” The parenthesis in John 7:39 (“For the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”) does not apply to us; the Holy Ghost has been given, the Lord is glorified; the waiting depends not on God’s providence, but on our fitness.
The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Immediately Our Lord was glorified in Ascension, the Holy Spirit came into this world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revelation that He is here. The reception of the Holy Spirit is the maintained attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive quickening life from the ascended Lord.
It is not the baptism of the Holy Ghost which changes men, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into men’s lives by the Holy Ghost that changes them. We too often divorce what the New Testament never divorces. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ: it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Ghost does not make you think of Time or Eternity, it is one amazing glorious NOW. “This is life eternal that they might know Thee.” Begin to know Him now, and finish never.
MARY’S THOUGHTS ON THE LIFE THAT LIVES
Before becoming a Christian, I never thought it was possible to have a relationship with the God of the universe; to understood the full weight of His attributes and loving and just nature. Even now, as a believer in Jesus Christ, who is aware of my fallen and broken state, I’m reticent to declare that I have understood all. In fact, the deeper I progress, the greater I’m convinced that I know nothing apart from Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2). We are called to have intimacy with the Almighty. To know Jesus Christ and His Triune Godhead on a dependency level unmatched by any earthly relationship. This I fully know in my head, and it’s a daily battle to remind my orphaned heart of the same. Perhaps it’s from growing up without parents or any stability, but for me, the truths of God, found in the Holy Bible must be re-mined and rediscovered daily.
The Scriptures call us to know God as our redeemer, our father and even our closest friend through verses like John 15:13-15, Philippians 4:19, James 2:23, Psalm 23, Psalm 42, Exodus 33:11, Hebrews 13:5 and more. Conversely, Scriptures describe the love of the world as enmity with God in verses like James 4:4, 1 John 2:15, John 15:18-19 along with the love of money as the root of all evil in 1 Timothy 6:10.
JUSTIFICATION: BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
To help me know God intimately, and thus understand and accept His Lordship over my life, I like to re-read Biblical meaty books like that of Romans which answers fundamental questions like:
– Who Can Be Saved?
– Is God Trustworthy, will He keep His promises?
– How can God save us through Jesus Christ even though we are sinful?
The Bible says that, if salvation were based on our own efforts, no one could be saved. We all come out dirty as no one has kept the entire law: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and (Psalm 143:2) adds, “No one living is righteous before you.” and (Romans 3:10) affirms, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” God is actively opposed to evil and the punishment is poured out onto Jesus who dies a death as an atoning sacrifice. Propitiation and Justification: God expands His wrath and Jesus dies as a substitutionary sacrifice who takes upon himself the wrath of God on human sin.
Truly, I urge you to read the entire book of Romans – including these favorite verses below.
Peace be with you this day lovey! Blessings, Mary Budesheim
ROMANS 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.
ROMANS 2:9-11
9There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, 10but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 11For there is no partiality with God.
ROMANS 4:13
13For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
ROMANS 7:15-25
15For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
ROMANS 8:1-4
1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
ROMANS 8:28-39
28And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36Just as it is written,
“FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
37But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 10:9-15
9... if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
14How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”
ROMANS 12:1-2
1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
