“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35, ESV).
We live in a success-oriented society. So all you high achievers may want to know how you achieve success in the Kingdom of God!
Achieving success in God’s Kingdom actually occurs much differently from achieving success in this world. Kingdom success doesn’t come by promoting yourself or by exerting power and influence over others. It doesn’t even come by working harder and longer than everybody else.
“It is good for me that I was afflicted. that I may learn your statutes.” (Psalm 119:71, NASB).
You probably have never experienced problems or sickness and said to yourself, “That was good!” Sure, we’re taught that the problems of life can work for our good (see Romans 8:28), but we still don’t like to have problems. We don’t like to be hurt or sick. We don’t rejoice about affliction!
“I will keep on obeying your instructions forever and ever. I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments” (Psalm 119:44-45, NLT).
Don’t laws control you? Then, how do laws set you free?
Psalm 119 is a Hebrew acrostic poem. There are twenty-two stanzas, one for each successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the eight verses within each stanza begins with the Hebrew letter named in its heading. The unifying theme of the Psalm is love for and obedience to God’s Law or Word.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones” (Psalm 116:15, NASB).
With Easter approaching it seems appropriate to be thinking about death. And the good thing about death!
While Easter is the time we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection, we should also remember that the only way human beings enter into eternal life is through the death of the physical body.
“But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31, NASB).
The Apostle Paul begins a response to the Corinthians’ question about Spiritual gifts in corporate worship in I Corinthians 12. Paul identifies varieties of Spiritual gifts and varieties of Spiritual service. (Notice that I render the word “Spiritual” with a capital “S” to indicate that the source of the gifting is God the Holy Spirit and not the individual who may be perceived to be “spiritual” because he or she is exercising a gift.)
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7, NASB).
From these verses we can make the assumption that every Christian has at least one spiritual gift. Yes, each and every Christian has a spiritual gift: “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit…”
“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—he said to the paralytic—I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” (Mark 2:9-11, ESV).
Jesus was at His home in Capernaum (the base for His ministry) where many people were gathered listening to Him teach and preach. Four men carrying a paralytic man tried to bring him to Jesus for healing, but they were unable to get the disabled man near Jesus because there was no more room in the house. Then, they went up on the roof and removed some of the clay roof tiles (see Luke 5:19) and hoisted the paralytic man down near Jesus.
“Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me” (Psalm 103: 1-2, NLT).
This psalm of David celebrates God’s perfection, compassion, forgiveness, and goodness. The structure of the psalm is an acrostic poem with one verse for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
“Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle…The cloud of the Lord hovered over the Tabernacle during the day, and at night fire glowed inside the cloud so the whole family of Israel could see it. This continued throughout all their journeys.” (Exodus 40:34, 38, NLT).
The climax of the Exodus occurred when the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. God’s intention from the start was not merely to deliver his people from their bondage, but to bring them into a relationship with Himself. The real need for the Israelites was to know God personally in their lives.
“For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:16, NASB).
These are the words Moses spoke to God when he interceded for the Israelites after they had crafted a golden calf to worship while Moses was on Mt. Sinai for forty days receiving the Ten Commandments and other instructions from God. So, God threatened to send the Israelites into the promised land with only an angel to lead them and without His presence among them.
Steve's Bible Meditations 