4SpiritualSecrets

“ … who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)

When the Apostle Paul wrote these words he had just been through a terrible time of suffering.  When he regained consciousness he was surrounded by a circle of disciples who were praying for him.  He then revived and went back into the city (Acts 14: 19, 20).  Some scholars believe this was when he was caught up into the third heaven which he described in 2 Corinthians Chapter 12.

He is writing to the Corinthians about that awful suffering in the verse quoted above.  He is declaring that at least one purpose of that suffering was that he might be equipped to comfort others with the comfort he found when that experience of suffering drove him to the place where he discovered the comfort in God Himself.

An evangelist is one beggar telling another beggar where the bread is, and a minister of comfort is one hurting heart telling another hurting heart where the comfort is. When you need help with a problem your best counselor will be a believer who has experienced that same problem and victoriously worked their way through that problem.

A man fell into a mud hole.  He was not able to pull himself out of the hole.  A friend saw his plight and jumped into the hole with him because he had been there himself and knew the way out.  Are you willing to accept this explanation as at least one reason God has permitted your suffering — that you might be equipped to be a minister of comfort?

“And they sang a new song…”(Revelation 5:9)

 Have you ever wondered why God gave us the miracle of music?  We find a clue in the Old Testament book of Chronicles where David divided the Levite priests into courses of four thousand: “four thousand praised the Lord with musical instruments, ‘which I made,’ said David, ‘for giving praise’.” (1 Chronicles 23:5)

There are times when we have a need to express the inexpressible.  When we are infatuated with love we often give each other nicknames.  I had a old girlfriend in California I did not tell my wife about when I met her in Virginia.  I called that girl “Punky” and she called me “Hunky.” We had written letters to each other using those nicknames.  About the third month of our marriage when I came in from work my wife called me “Hunky darling!” How I wished I had burned those letters. We invent nicknames because we are trying to express the inexpressible.*

The greatest need we ever have to express the inexpressible is when we enter into the divine presence of Almighty God.  In the last book of the Bible, we read that when a door opens into heaven we find every creature in heaven worshiping a Lamb on the throne of heaven.  For that occasion they are given a new song because the need to express the inexpressible will be so very great. I can’t wait to hear what that new song will sound like!

For believers the purpose of music has been, will be, and is now to express inexpressible praise to God.  Whether it is in a congregation with a choir, or a worship group leading a large congregation, or in your private prayer closet let music express the inexpressible for you.

*Editors Note:  After 56 yrs of marriage (& counting), Dick still calls Ginny his “Angel Face” and she calls him her “Angel Pie.”

“As they approached, Jesus said, ‘Now here is a genuine son of Israel – a man of complete integrity.’ ‘How do you know about me?’ Nathanael asked.  Jesus replied, ‘I could see you under the fig tree…’” (John 1: 47, 48)

In the first chapter of his Gospel, the Apostle John records Jesus choosing men who will become His apostles.  When He meets Nathanael Jesus exclaims, “Now here is a genuine Jew – a man of complete integrity!” Nathanael is shocked and responds, “How do you know me?”

Nathanael apparently had his devotions under a fig tree.  We might even assume that he enjoyed supernatural relationship with God under that fig tree, but nobody knew about this except Nathanael.  In so many words, Jesus was saying that He was the One Nathanael was communicating with under that fig tree.  This accounts for the enthusiastic response of Nathanael to these words of Jesus.  If you read his response in the verses that follow you will see that these words of Jesus completely convinced Nathanael that Jesus was the Son of God!

A personal, devotional, and practical application I want to make to this interview is what I like to call “The Fellowship of the Fig Tree.” Be challenged by these questions: Do you have a place where you regularly meet with God?  Have you ever experienced the divine presence of Almighty God?  I challenge you to have a time and place where you regularly meet with God.

Establish this discipline in two ways: meet with Him in prayer and in His holy Word.  When you pray you talk to God; when you open God’s Word you should expect God to speak to you.  Are you willing to do that?

“You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24)

This verse is not a contradiction of the teaching of the Apostle Paul.  James actually wrote before Paul. We might put it this way: “Faith alone can save, but the faith that saves is never alone.”  We are justified by faith alone, but our works show that our faith is authentic, because good works always validate true faith.  What we really believe we do.  All the rest is just religious talk.  And nobody needs religious talk without works.  This is the essence of what James is writing.

The story is told of the headmaster of a Christian school in the Philippines who was holding chapel with his student body when the Japanese soldiers entered the school.  In front of all the students he was ordered by the Japanese to tear down and spit on the American and Christian flags. He refused and was shot in the stomach.

He survived and after the war a news correspondent visited him, and asked him what was going through his mind when he made that decision to be shot rather than do what he had been ordered.  His response was, “It occurred to me that a time comes in every man’s life when he must show by his actions what he believes. That was my time.”

James is writing that it is not at one time but at all times we show by our actions what we believe.  He is not writing that we are justified by our good works but that authentic faith is always validated by good works.

Are you validating your faith by actions that show what you believe?