Category: Blackboards

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.

Our society confuses love and lust. Unlike lust, God’s kind of love is directed towards others, not inward towards ourselves. It is utterly unselfish. This kind of love goes against our natural inclinations. You can only practice this kind of love if God helps us set aside our own desires and instincts, so that we can give love while expecting nothing in return. The more we become like Christ, the more love we will show to others.

Paul shows us in chapter 13 that love is more important than all spiritual gifts exercised in the church body. Great faith, acts of dedication or sacrifice, and miracle-working power produce very little without love. Love makes our actions and gifts useful. Although people have different gifts, love is available to everyone.

God gives us spiritual gifts for our lives here on earth in order to build up, serve, and strengthen fellow Christians. The spiritual gifts are for the church. The church is not a place or a building, but it is those people who are saved. We are the church!

Numbers 21:9

So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

You know that God is your healer. So you may be asking, “Why is this sickness and pain still in my body?” If you have been looking at your sickness and pain all this while, stop looking at yourself and start looking at Jesus. Did He or did He not take upon Himself your sickness and pain? God’s Word declares, “Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, and our pains – he hath carried them…” (Isaiah 53:4, YLT) Since Jesus has already taken your sickness and pain at the cross, then He cannot “untake” them. Even if you find it hard to believe that Jesus has paid for your healing, especially when the pain is unbearable, the truth is that it is still paid for. It is a finished work! God is not saying that your sickness does not exist, nor is He asking you to pretend that it is not there. He is asking you to look away from the sickness, painful as it may be, and look to the truth that it has already been judged at the cross in the body of His Son.

Once, while still in the wilderness, the children of Israel were bitten by deadly desert serpents. The serpents were real. The bites were painful and deadly. So God told Moses to point the people to the bronze serpent put on a pole – a picture of the cross. (John 3:14) Bronze signifies judgment. In other words, the serpent – their problem – was already judged at the cross. Those who kept their eyes on the bronze serpent lived. Those who focused on their wounds died. So stop looking at your sickness. Instead, look to the cross and see your sickness already judged in the body of Jesus. Surely He has borne your sicknesses and carried your pains! That is the truth of God’s Word. And His Word supersedes all natural facts.

You let natural facts rule or establish God’s truths over your problem by what you choose to focus on. So decide today not to focus on the facts concerning your problem. Instead, establish the truth of God’s Word and Christ’s finished work over your problem – and live!

2 Peter 3:8

…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, three types of burnt offerings were brought to God. I believe that the rich brought offerings of young bulls (Leviticus 1:3), the not-so-rich brought sheep (Leviticus 1:10) and the poor brought turtledoves. (Leviticus 1:14) Though of varying sizes and values, the different burnt offerings were all accepted as sweet aroma to the Lord. (Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17)

These burnt offerings speak of Jesus and His perfect work at the cross. Today, to bring a “rich” offering means that you have a large revelation of Jesus and His finished work. To bring a “not-so-rich” offering means that you have a smaller revelation of Jesus and His finished work. But whatever the size of the revelation you have of Jesus, God accepts you just the same because Jesus is the only measure of your acceptance before God.

God wants you to grow in your revelation of Jesus because your well-being hinges on it. Before that first Passover night, all the children of Israel had received the same Word of God – “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”. (Exodus 12:13) I would think that some households lived through that night trembling in fear as they heard the loud wails outside their homes, while other households rested in God’s Word, ate their Passover lamb and spent the night rejoicing in His protection, deliverance and love for them. You see, as long as the households came under the blood, they were all saved, trembling or not! But when they didn’t have a revelation of the power of the blood to save them from the destroyer, fear came in even though the blood availed for them. In the same way, God does not want you to struggle through trying times with fear, apprehension and stress. He wants you to enjoy and rest in a greater revelation of Jesus as your deliverer and salvation.

In 2 Peter 1:2, it says, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you…” God wants you to experience more of His grace and peace in your life. How? The verse continues, “…in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”. The more knowledge of Jesus you have, the more God’s grace and peace will rest on you!

1 Corinthians 1:24

…to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

People today run after two things: miraculous signs and wonders, and knowledge. It was no different in Bible times. The apostle Paul acknowledged that “Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom”. (1 Corinthians 1:22) So when Paul preached Christ crucified as God’s solution to them, the message was “to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness”. (1 Corinthians 1:23) They didn’t understand how getting a revelation of Jesus and His death could give them the miracles they needed or the wisdom they wanted.

We don’t have to run after miracles or wisdom today. We just need to run after Jesus because He is “the power of God and the wisdom of God”. The more we know Christ and Christ crucified, the more we will have the power and wisdom of God.

Christ is both the power and wisdom of God to us. As the power of God, He removes obstacles in our paths. As the wisdom of God, He continually directs our paths!

Romans 14:17

…the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

If we are supposed to seek first the kingdom of God every day (Matthew 6:33), then we should know what the kingdom of God is in the first place. I used to think that the kingdom of God was heaven. Then, I realized that the kingdom of God was not a place or thing -“the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking”, but something inside you flowing out – “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. So to seek first God’s kingdom means to make it a priority every day to have your inner man flowing with righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness is not your own righteousness based on what you do. It is not good works. It is a gift from Jesus who is your righteousness. (Romans 5:17; 1 Corinthians 1:30) God wants you to be established in the truth that you are the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

“Peace be with you” were the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples when He appeared before them after His resurrection. He also showed them His pierced hands and side. (John 20:19-20) God wants you to know that His Son’s finished work has given you peace. Your conscience can be at rest because your sin debt has been settled. You have peace with God and the peace of God.

Joy will come into your heart when you see Jesus in the scriptures, worship songs or anointed preaching. It is the same joy from the Holy Spirit which filled the disciples’ hearts when they saw Jesus, His hands and His side. (John 20:20)

So every day, make it a priority to see yourself righteous in Christ. Don’t be conscious of your sins. Instead, be conscious of your righteousness. And whether you are reading your Bible or listening to anointed preaching, see Jesus with His pierced hands and side, which speak of His finished work. See all your sins forgiven, and you will flow with peace and joy. When you do this, you are seeking the kingdom of God!

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…

Before becoming a Christian, when something sad or bad happened to you, you cried until you had no more tears left. Your heart simply broke into pieces, and you felt trapped, depressed and totally defeated. But after becoming a Christian, when something bad happens to you, you may still cry, but you feel comforted inside. You are sad outwardly, but your heart isn’t heavy. You don’t understand why, but deep down inside you, there is something lifting you up. That something which is rising from the inside of you, is the life of Christ in you! You cannot be completely distressed because Christ in you is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) who says to you, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Christ in you is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and He says to you, “It will all be all right. I will provide a way out for you.” You know you are not defeated because Christ in you is your victory (1 Corinthians 15:57) and He says to you, “You are not fighting for victory, but fighting from victory because you already have the victory in Me.”

Before you knew Christ, when you were down, you were out. But now, when you are down, you are not out because Christ in you is the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27) “Hope” in the Bible means a definite, positive expectation of good. So Christ in you is the definite, positive expectation of a glorious marriage! Christ in you is the definite, positive expectation of a glorious family! Christ in you is the definite positive expectation of glorious health! Christ in you is the definite positive expectation of a glorious life!

Christ in you is the definite, positive expectation of all the glories of God revealed to you. No bad circumstance that you are in can or will ever cause you to be destroyed or forsaken by God!