Bob Cassell, Messenger
Should we continuously examine our lives to verify, where we are, where we need to be, and where we are going in our Christian service? What should we do to have clarity and to evaluate whether what we are doing or will do is within the center of God’s will for our lives?
When we examine ourselves, it is not to determine whether our behavior or the fruit in our lives warrant assurance of salvation, it is to determine that assurance rests on the proper foundation of God’s Grace and mercy in Christ. Our feelings are an unreliable test of our standing before God, as we by his amazing grace are positioned eternally in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. If anyone is to be sure of Salvation the inquiring gaze must always be directed to Jesus Christ, in whose face we see the impeccable, unchanging Love of God that is fully revealed in Hebrews chapter 12. Meditate on these verses ever so slowly…
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1,2).
The next verse in the twelfth Chapter leads you to a view that will transform your life and lead you to a steady and long pathway of Grace, love, production, and true inner happiness. Slowly digest this verse and allow it to be a permanent part of your spiritual frame of reference. Memorize it and direct your mind to it several times a day. You will not regret spending quality time in allowing this verse to captivate your mind and become a part of the light that will illuminate your pathway. Here is the powerful and transforming verse that is called to your attention, and I promise will direct you in the right way for the remainder of your life.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds (Hebrews 12:3).
If you become occupied with Jesus Christ as the unique Son of God who has borne your sorrows and taken your grief (Isaiah 53:4) this close view will captivate your mind and illuminate your soul. Occupation with Jesus Christ means you think about him before you act, behave, or even become involved in service. He should be at all times the focal point of your life. Notice the admonition to focus on his word in the book of Deuteronomy.
These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).
If you believe and act on the truth that is contained in these verses your eyes will be lifted up and focused on the exclusive power and depth of being occupied with his word. You may then be assured; he is the ultimate source of help. Let’s examine this amazing source of righteous and rich blessings in Psalm 121.
I lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even for evermore (Psalm 121).
These verses should be slowly digested and carefully placed in your memory bank for the remainder of your life. Look steadfastly, open your eyes, and see him because Jesus said, I will be in you and you will be in me. At that day ye shall know that I am in my father, and ye in me, and I in you (John 14:20). To be in him is to have eternal life. If you are in him, and he is in you, you possess his perfect righteousness. That perfection in you comes from him and not from you.
Carefully notice this verse of truth …. For he (God) hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
He is perfectly righteous and just. His righteousness and Justice comprise his holiness. Therefore, you are holy brethren and fit for heaven, not because you are perfect in yourself, but because your perfect Savior is in you. The scripture declares, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Please understand you cannot work out what is not in you, and in you is eternal life in the perfect person of Jesus Christ. You don’t work out to obtain eternal life, you work out because you have obtained it in the eternal savior, Jesus Christ. Work out from the source of him who is in you. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12b,13). This is your outworking of God’s in worked salvation.
Thanks be to our merciful God for what he does for us and not what we do for him, or we would have only human effort to gain entrance into heaven. The limiting effort of Human energy is so weak no one would have certainty or hope because of it. But God intervenes by his matchless grace and redeems his child in spite of it.
The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41). This I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh (Galatians 5:16,17).
As a believer in Jesus Christ, you may be assured you will not be left alone. You will be tested, tempted, and tried by Satan. For protection memorize this powerful passage in Corinthians. There hath no temptation (testing) taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer or allow you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Whether you have very good or very bad days you must be vigilant and aware of where you are and where you are going. When down and out you must get up and out. When down 7 times you must rise 7 times… go forward with the shield of faith and the breastplate of righteousness.
Engage in battle beside the old Scottish soldier who was wounded on the battlefield and muttered in great pain. “Lay me down and bleed awhile, I am wounded but not slain, I shall rise to fight again.”
Whatever may be your plight if you are alive, there is hope. It may be dark and bleak, but if you are still breathing God has a plan for you, and that plan is delineated in his word. Go to it, and do not get into the word rather, get the word into you!
The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
God who is omniscient and knows all asked a rhetorical question of Satan. “Have you considered my servant Job?” I as a messenger ask you… Have you considered the only savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you placed all of your trust and dependence in him by a simple act of faith? Why not? He has done all of the work and you may assuredly trust him for he has said… “It is Finished” (John 19:30). To trust him is to reach out by faith and embrace him as the object of your believing faith.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). Why not call? Why not trust in him and not in yourself? He will save you…. you can’t save yourself, so why not cast yourself on him by faith and totally trust him. He will hear you; he will answer you, and he will most assuredly save you. For evil to flourish, good people must only do nothing.
The fool has said in his heart, THERE IS NO GOD (Psalm 14:1). Don’t be a fool! You will regret it eternally. Behold now is the accepted time, today is the day of Salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9).
