Category: Blackboards

Hebrews 4:10-11

…he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest…

A baby learns to sit first before he starts to stand and walk. The Christian life also begins with sitting. God “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. (Ephesians 2:6) How well we walk after that depends on how well we sit and rest in the finished work of Christ.

The promised land was a land of rest where God promised His people “large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant”. (Deuteronomy 6:10-11) But for 40 years, God’s people wandered in the wilderness because they refused to believe that God had given them a land where everything had been prepared – the work was finished. They could not believe that God had given them a land full of good things to enjoy, a land which just flowed with His abundant supply.

Today, there are believers who still cannot believe that the work of Jesus is truly complete and finished. They are trying to complete a completed work, finish a finished work and defeat a defeated devil. There are believers today who are always working and trying to produce their healing, success and victory. God wants us to stop trying and start trusting in His love for us. He wants us to stop working and struggling, and start resting and believing in His grace toward us. The only “work” left for us to do today is to enter His rest. We are to labor every day to enter His rest. We are to rest inwardly and believe that the work is done because it is a finished work, and trust in God’s undeserved favor toward us. We are to rest in Jesus our true ark, who will carry us through tempestuous waters.

So today, “if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…be diligent to enter that rest”. (Hebrews 4:7, 11) Let’s enter His rest. Let’s enjoy sitting together with Christ in the heavenly places, then we will run and not be weary! (Isaiah 40:31)

Song Of Solomon 4:7

You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.

Jesus tells us His bride, “You are all fair, My love, and there is no spot in you.” But our reply to Him tends to be, “Me? All fair and no spot? You don’t know me, Lord!” Do you really think that God doesn’t know you?

God sees reality like no one else sees it. He sees the perfection of His Son’s finished work in your life. By one offering of Himself at the cross, Jesus has perfected you forever! (Hebrews 10:14) You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21) And you will never find any spot in this righteousness that Jesus died to give you. So God wants you to see yourself righteous – all fair and spotless in Christ. Every day, be conscious of your righteousness in Christ. Say, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ. There is no spot in me whom He has perfected with His blood.” When you do that, you are honoring Jesus and His finished work.

If you are conscious of your sins, then you are not honoring the work of Christ. You may think that you are being humble or holy by being sin-conscious. But do you know that the Bible calls sin-consciousness an “evil conscience”? Hebrews 10:21-22 tells us that since we have Jesus as our High Priest, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience”. What does the writer of Hebrews mean by “an evil conscience”? If you read the beginning of the same chapter, you will find that he is talking about a “consciousness of sins”. (Hebrews 10:2) Paul calls it a “conscience seared with a hot iron”. (1 Timothy 4:2) The Greek word for “seared” here is kauteriazo, and it means to carry about with you a perpetual consciousness of sin.

So don’t carry with you an evil or seared conscience. Your lifetime of sins has already been punished fully in the body of Jesus at the cross. Be conscious, instead, of your perfection and righteousness in Christ. Because of what Jesus has done for you, you can boldly declare, “I am all fair. There is no spot in me!”

Luke 15:22-23

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry'”.

What would you say if your son, whom you had given a large inheritance to, came crawling home one day after wasting all his money on riotous living? In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24), the father did not say one word about loss or waste, though his son had indeed wasted his inheritance on riotous living. The father only saw his son’s homecoming as an opportunity to show him how much he loved him and to restore to him what he had lost.

Like the father in the parable, it is your heavenly Father’s desire to embrace you and show you how much you are loved. And it is His good pleasure to restore to you what you have lost. Perhaps you have lost something recently, or you are frustrated that something has gone to waste due to a bad decision you made. God does not see the finality of the loss or waste the way you do. When you come to Him with it, He sees it as an opportunity to restore to you what has been lost or wasted. Even if, like the prodigal son, you feel far away from your heavenly Father, or you feel that you have disappointed Him, don’t despair. The truth is that the moment you come to Him, He immediately restores to you the robe of honor to clothe your nakedness, the ring of authority to declare your position of power and dominion, and the sandals on your feet (which servants do not wear) to reinstate you as a son in His house. He reassures you that you had never lost the position of sonship. And He celebrates your return to Him with the killing of a fatted calf because you are His beloved child whom He cherishes.

In your Father’s house, you not only come under His complete protection, but you also enjoy His inexhaustible provision and unconditional love!

Luke 10:42

“…Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

If Jesus came to your home, what would you do? Would you ask Him to sit down and then start serving Him? Or would you sit down and start drawing from Him? Would you let Him serve you and fill you up? Jesus walked into the home of two sisters, Martha and Mary. (Luke 10:38) Martha saw His weariness. She knew that Jesus had been walking for miles, going about doing good, healing the sick and meeting the people’s needs. Obviously, He must be tired, she thought, so she saw Him as someone she had to care for. Mary, however, saw beyond Jesus’ external weariness into His divinity. She saw that He was someone she needed to draw from. And by doing that, she made Him feel like God – the Savior who had come to serve her and not to be served by her. (Matthew 20:28) Jesus even commended her for choosing the better portion! Our human minds just find that hard to believe. When it comes to man, that is true. But when it comes to God, He wants to give. In fact, unless you learn how to receive from God, you will have nothing to give to man.

Which sister gave Jesus the sweeter feast and filled Him up? Martha who was busy preparing food for Him, or Mary who sat still and drew deeply from Him? It was Mary. She made Jesus feel a sense of His divine glory. She allowed Jesus to be the giver, to be God. Like Martha, we always reverse the roles. We somehow think that God needs our service, but He actually wants to fill us first. Mary’s ears and heart were more precious to Jesus than Martha’s hands and feet. We use our ears and hearts to draw from Jesus. We use our hands and feet to serve Him, and there is a place for that. But our sense and appreciation of God’s divine fullness is more precious to Him than all the service we can render Him. And when you draw from Him, you cannot help but become a great giver and server.

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

When we go through a trial, we tend to ask ourselves, “Does God really love me? How come I don’t seem to see it?” When that happens, it is time to bring in the cross, for God’s love for you is displayed forever at the cross. God gave up His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. Jesus was pierced in seven places for you – in His head by the crown of thorns, His two hands and feet by the nails, and His side and heart by the spear of a Roman soldier.

Jesus wore the crown of thorns on His head so that you can have a sound mind free from fears, guilt, depression, anxieties and stress.

When Jesus first showed His nail-pierced hands to His disciples, He said to them, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19-20) He wanted them to know that peace is found in His finished work, typified by His pierced hands. The more you see His finished work which has bought complete forgiveness of all your sins, the more your conscience will be at peace and rest.

Jesus’ feet brought Him to places where there was lack, diseases, rejection, condemnation and even death. And those feet were nail-pierced so that you do not need to be in such places yourself. He has rescued you from having to accept and suffer these things in life.

Blood and water flowed out of Jesus’ side when it was pierced. (John 19:34) Medical science will tell you that that means His heart had ruptured. Jesus died literally of a broken heart so that your heart can be filled with joy. And just as Eve came forth from Adam’s side when he was sleeping, the bride of Christ, the church, came forth from Jesus’ pierced side and death. If He died to have you as His spotless bride, He lives today to care for you.

The only man-made things in heaven today are those scars on His body. They will remain forever as tokens of His everlasting love and passion for you. So if God did not spare His Son, but delivered Him up for you, how will He not with Him also freely give you all things!

Hebrews 6:20

…Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus is our High Priest forever. This “forever” aspect changes the way we are blessed and how we receive our blessings from God. As our High Priest, Jesus represents us before God. Since His priesthood is after the order of Melchizedek, which is one of righteousness, His righteousness becomes our righteousness forever. This means that we are forever righteous in God’s eyes! And because He will never die, but continue as our High Priest forever, we have an everlasting righteousness, not merely a here-today-gone-tomorrow righteousness based on our works. No, we have a perpetual and everlasting righteousness because Jesus is our High Priest forever.

This also means that blessings are perpetually on your head because the Bible says that blessings are on the head of the righteous (Proverbs 10:6), and you are righteous forever! Unlike the priesthood according to the Levitical order, which blesses as well as curses, the priesthood of Jesus according to the Melchizedek order only blesses. There is no cursing, only blessing – always and forever! And because Jesus is our High Priest forever, the blessings do not come to us in intermittent drips, but stream into our lives in a never-ending flow. Because He is our High Priest forever, we can never stop His blessings.

Being our High Priest forever, Jesus also touches the blessings that He gives us with a forever effect. He touches our lives and we have eternal life. He touches our ministry and its impact becomes eternal. And the more we see His priesthood as having a forever effect, the more permanent our blessings will be. There is nothing temporal about what Jesus our High Priest does. It is not a case of blessed today, cursed tomorrow. The blessings we receive are sure and steadfast because Jesus is our High Priest today, tomorrow and forever.

So rejoice because Jesus your High Priest changes how you are blessed forever!

John 10:7

Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep”.

Jesus said that He is the “door of the sheep”. What did He mean? Well, a sheepfold during Jesus’ time had no door which could be opened or closed. The door of the sheepfold was just an opening. In this kind of sheepfold, after the sheep had entered it, the shepherd would sleep across the entrance. The shepherd became, effectively, the “door” of the sheepfold.

When Jesus told His disciples, “I am the good shepherd,” (John 10:11) He also assured them emphatically that He was the “door of the sheep”. He was telling them and us, “Inside My sheepfold, My sheep are always safe, completely protected and kept close under My watchful eyes. And since I am just at the entrance of the sheepfold, nothing, not even the muffled bleat of one of My own, can escape My ears. Also, nothing evil outside the sheepfold can enter and touch My sheep without first coming through Me for I am the door of My sheep.”

So when the fight of life comes knocking on your door and when panic threatens to rise within you, see yourself doubly protected! He is both the good shepherd and the door of His sheep. As your good shepherd, He gave His life for you to redeem you from poverty, sickness and every other curse. As your door, He keeps out everything evil that He has redeemed you from. Because He shed His blood for you, you are covered and protected within the sheepfold by a blood-stained door. Disaster, destruction and death must pass over you and your family because of His blood on your door. Remember that on the night of the first Passover in Egypt, the destroyer could not enter the houses of the Israelites because of the blood of the lamb on their doors. (Exodus 12:13, 23)

Today, you can live life untroubled and unafraid, knowing that Jesus, your good shepherd and door, protects and preserves you and your family. No evil will befall you or your loved ones because He is your dwelling place and refuge!