No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. Isaiah 54:17
Forbear and Forgive
As long as we are in the flesh, we will have misunderstandings, un-pleasantries, and even injustices (we will feel that our rights have been violated and others have been wrong in what they have said and done). What is to be our attitude?
It is to be two-fold; forbearing and forgiving. To forbear is to control our emotions, surrendering our rights for the time being in patient hope that God will reveal His purpose and will. To forgive is to actually put the misunderstanding out of mind and restore a state of love and fellowship. This is the way our Lord treats us. He is longsuffering and patient with us, forgiving our sins, remembering them no more! “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col. 3:13).
“Above all things,” the most necessary grace is LOVE (Matt. 22:36-40; 1 Cor. 13:1-3, 13). This is the bond which binds everything together in complete harmony for the glory of God and the good of one another. Knowledge, activity, zeal, and morality won’t bind us to Christ or to one another, but LOVE will!
Pastor Henry T. Mahan (Bulletin 1984)
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not” (1 John 3:1).
No creature of the dust can possibly plum the depth of the manner, the sort or the quality, of the love that God has for His people. But according to God’s word His love, which was totally undeserved, is revealed to have been in the heart of God eternally (Jer. 31:3). His love is a distinguishing and particular love (Mal. 1:2-3), graciously and compassionately bestowed upon the recipients of His mercy totally according to the good pleasure of His will (Ex. 33:18). His love, being a love that is never shown at the expense of His justice, flows to His elect according to the efficacy of the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ…He who was made sin for His bride that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And thanks be unto God…if He has ever loved us, He shall forever love us for He doesn’t change. What a manner of love this is (Mal. 3:6).
Pastor Marvin Stalnaker
The Importance Of Knowing Christ
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Phil. 3:10).
I know that there are some things that are important to us; there are some people that are important to us. However, in light of our great need of Christ nothing else is that important. We need Him. As the woman with the issue of blood said, “If I can but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole.” Without Him we are lost, undone, and unaccepted by the Father. There is no material thing or human relationship that can supply my spiritual need; however, in Christ we are complete (Col. 2:9-10). In Christ we have all that we need to stand in God’s presence accepted (Phil. 4:19). I cannot express how important it is to know Christ; all material things will burn up, and all fleshly relationships will be dissolved. However, our relationship with Christ will never be dissolved nor diminished, and it will only grow sweeter. Judge the importance of everything in light of Him. Pastor John Chapman
The Fullness Of The Blessings Of The Gospel
“And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ”(Romans 15:29).
The apostle Paul was an ambitious, zealous missionary and preacher of the gospel of Christ. He had a desire not only to travel and preach the gospel to those in Rome, but also to travel into Spain and preach the gospel there (Rom. 15:24, 28). He assured the believers in Rome that on his way to Spain he would stop in Rome also and minister the gospel to them personally and fully (Rom. 1:10-15; 15:19).
But what Paul says by the power of Holy Spirit inspiration that really caught and fixed my attention in the way and how he says that he will come to Rome, “I shall come in the fulness of the blessings of the gospel of Christ.” That is also true of every believer in how we come before God right now; in the fullness of all spiritual blessings in Christ (Ep. 1:3; 1 Cor. 1:30).
Consider what the scriptures teach about our fullness in Christ. “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16). “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:9-10). “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 1:24).
What good news the gospel proclaims unto us right now, even though by nature we are empty, vain, weak, guilty and sinful. Even so in Christ we stand in Him in the fullness of the blessings of the gospel of Christ. That is the only way that I want to appear before the holy throne of God, in the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:7-9). That is the promise of God in the gospel; “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).