Category: 2019 Blackboards

John 10:10

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

If you are not enjoying an abundant life, you will feel as if life is full of toil, meaningless and empty. You feel like someone “grasping for the wind”. (Ecclesiastes 2:11) It seems as if nothing you do adds up to much.

The Bible calls this life a life “under the sun”. (Ecclesiastes 2:11) Someone who lives life under the sun may or may not know God, but God is either forgotten or not the center of things in his life. Their thoughts are earthly and they do things to gratify their flesh. In the end, they finds life depressing and unfulfilled. Life under the sun is full of despair.

But this is the opposite of someone who lives life above the sun with God. For life with Him is filled with joy and pleasures at His right hand. (Psalm 16:11) Life is abundantly full and good, just as Jesus promised, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”.

When you live life above the sun, your thoughts are heavenward and you become Christ occupied. You live for Him because you know that all things were created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16) When you live for His glory, your life takes on a new meaning and purpose. This does not mean that life will be easy and that you will never face trials. It does mean that through those trials you will know that God is with you to carry you through and protect you.

God’s Word says, “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:17) The Greek word for “consist” means “held together”. In Christ, all things are held together. And that is why when Christ is the central figure in your life, you will have it all together. Your mind will be held together. Your hopes and dreams will be held together. Your family will be held together by the cords of His love.

Your life will not be empty, but full of God’s goodness because “Christ in you, is the hope of glory”. (Colossians 1:27) It is a wonderful life – this life lived above the sun. And you will have an even more wonderful life to come in heaven!

Psalm 46:2-3

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

There has been a lot of talk about global warming and pollution of the planet by the candidates on the left. Some even say that the end is coming in 12 years, so we need to take drastic action to completely eliminate fossil fuel usage immediately. They claim that pulling out of the Paris Agreement was a disaster, however, pulling out of the Paris Agreement does not mean that America is going to pollute more and hurt the planet.

A couple of decades ago the fear was “Global Cooling”. Climatologists, ecologists, geologists, etc., were unanimous in recognizing that the earth has gone through significant temperature and climate changes in the past. Despite the fact that these climate changes were obviously not caused by human activity, many believe today that humans are the cause.

The closest Biblical examples of what could be considered climate change would be the end times prophesied in Revelation 6-18. Yet these prophecies have nothing to do with greenhouse gas emissions; rather they are a result of the wrath of God. God will one day erase this current universe (2 Peter 3:7-12) and replace it with the New Heavens and New Earth (Revelation 21-22).

So how much effort should be made “saving” a planet that God is eventually going to obliterate and replace with a planet so amazing and wonderful that the current earth pales in comparison? You can read the Bible verses noted above and make your own conclusions.

Hebrews 13:9

…it is good that the heart be established by grace…

God does not want your heart full of worries and fears, tossed and turned by every challenge that comes your way. He wants your heart at rest and established by His grace toward you. But when you think that the breakthroughs to your challenges depend on your ability to obey God, then your heart will not be at rest. It will be full of worries and anxieties. Why? Because you can never obey God perfectly.

When you depend on God’s grace, which is, His undeserved, unmerited favor, the opposite happens – your heart becomes established. When you know that the only thing that qualifies you to receive God’s blessings is faith in the finished work of Christ, your heart becomes established. Then, you will walk without the fear and have the full assurance that His blessings will be manifested in your life. Under the old covenant, you receive God’s blessings only if you keep all His laws. (Deuteronomy 28:1–2) If you sin and fail to keep even one law, you would be disqualified from receiving His blessings. But today, under the new covenant, your sins no longer disqualify you because God Himself has said, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)

So let your heart be established by God’s grace. Because of His grace, you have full access to His blessings. You no longer have to worry about whether you are good enough. And because Jesus has paid the price, your part is only to believe and receive!

John 17:22

And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

When God made man, the Bible says that God crowned him with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:5) The word “crowned” here means to encompass or to surround like a glorious circle. The glory of God was therefore man’s clothing. In other words, Adam’s whole being was gloriously radiant. When man sinned against God, he forfeited the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) But when Jesus Christ was born, the glory of God came down. (Luke 2:9) And many years later, Jesus, before He died, said to His Father, “The glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.”

So the glory of God which man forfeited has now been restored to him because Jesus has come. When He died on the cross, He took our shame, gave us His righteousness and restored the glory of God to us. So what exactly is the glory of God? Doxa, the Greek word for “glory” here, means having a good opinion concerning one that results in praise, honor and glory. This means that in restoring to us His glory, God wants us to have the sense that we are praiseworthy, honorable and glorious because of His constant good opinion of us! Because God’s glory is on you, there is a weightiness about you. People don’t know why, but their spirits are lifted when they are in your presence. There is something about you that impacts them even if they have only been with you for a short while. When you talk, they listen because there is substance in what you say. Because God’s glory is on you, you can expect it to touch every aspect of your life – your finances, relationships, work and health. Your body, for example, will glow with divine health.

So because Jesus has come and restored the glory of God to you, be conscious of God’s constant good opinion of you. Know that there is a weightiness about you and arise, shine!