YEAR 2, WEEK 27, Day 2, Tuesday, 4 July 2023

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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Tuesday, 4 July 2023:

Isaiah 61:1 — The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

See Luke 4:18 where Jesus proclaims that He is the fulfillment of the prophetic verses of Isaiah. Jesus later tells His disciples (including today’s disciples) that they have been given the Spirit and have been anointed to continue brining the Good News, to bind the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty through Jesus, and to set the captives free. With all power and authority, Jesus called us to the Great Commission of making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey. You have been anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power.

• 2 Corinthians 1:21 — And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,
• 1 John 2:20 — But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
• 1 John 2:27 — But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
• Revelation 3:18 — I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

From Henry T. Blackaby on “the year of the LORD’s favor”: “God’s timing is perfect! When He speaks, the time to respond in obedience is now. We often act as if we have all the time in the world to obey Him, but history doesn’t wait on our commitments. There is no such thing as postponing a decision with God. Either we obey, or we disobey. It is either faith or unbelief, obedience or disobedience. When God announces that now is the acceptable time, what you do next is critical. How often people have been unprepared when a word came to them from the LORD. God said, “Now is the time for you to respond to Me” and their response was, “But I’m not ready. I have some things I need to do first. I’m too busy!” (Matt. 8:21). God’s timing is always perfect. He knows you, and He is fully aware of your circumstances. He knows all that He has built into your life until now, and He extends His invitation knowing that His resources are more than adequate for any assignment He gives you. That is why Scripture tells us God is concerned with our heart. If we do not keep our heart in love with Jesus, our disobedience when God speaks could affect the lives of others. When God speaks it is always out of the context of eternity. We don’t have to know all the implications of what He is asking. We just have to know that it is a word from almighty God. “Now” is always the acceptable time to respond to the Lord!

Isaiah 61:3 — They may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD.

Mighty oaks are impressive to look at, but they only grow as tall and strong as they do deep and wide, grounded by an unseen root system which is not only the tree’s strength but also its source of life. Likewise, the Christian rooted in Christ has an unseen source of life and power which is revealed in love, joy, peace, purity, and good works which exceed human explanation, steadfast and immovable through the storms of life. The fruit of the Christian’s life reveal the roots of the Christian life. Conversely, those not firmly rooted in Christ may look vibrant for a time but are quickly uprooted when the storms of life come or whither and die during seasons of drought without roots which have access to the unseen Living Water of life. Be a mighty oak of righteousness in the LORD.

• Isaiah 11:1 — There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
• Isaiah 11:10 — In that day the root of Jesse [Jesus], who shall stand as a signal for the [Kingdom] peoples [“The Kingdom of God is at hand] —of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place [in the Presence of the Father] shall be glorious.
• Isaiah 27:6 — In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel [God’s people] shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.
• Isaiah 37:31 — And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah [God’s people] shall again take root downward [rooted in Christ] and bear fruit upward.
• Jeremiah 17:8 — He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.
• Proverbs 12:3 — No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved.
• Proverbs 12:12 — Whoever is wicked covets the spoil of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit.
• Matthew 15:13 — He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.
• Mark 4:6 — And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
• Luke 8:13 — And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
• Romans 11:16 — If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
• Ephesians 3:14-21 — For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
• Revelation 22:16 — “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

Isaiah 61:8 — For I the LORD love justice….

We forget this sometimes. Through grace, we have received freedom as described in Isaiah 61:1,2, but this isn’t a freedom to sin but rather a freedom to live justly, to live obedient, holy, and pure lives that serve others and glorify God. We have been given the freedom and authority to defend justice.

• Romans 8:21 — that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
• 2 Corinthians 3:17 — Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
• Galatians 5:1 — For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
• Galatians 5:13 — For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
• 1 Peter 2:16 — Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
• 2 Peter 2:19 — They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
• Titus 2:15 — Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
• Colossians 2:10, 15 — …and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority…. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Isaiah 61:8 – I hate robbery and wrong.

You cannot love Jesus without hating sin.

Isaiah 61:10 — I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

Jesus covers over your sin, and clothes you with His righteousness so that you can stand before the judgment of the Father, acceptable and approved.

Philippians 3:12-16 – Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Though justified (declared “not guilty”) once and for all in Christ, Paul was still being sanctified (separated from sin and conformed to Christ), which is a life-long process, often a frustrating one –

• Romans 7:21-24 — So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Sanctification starts with the new birth in Christ, salvation by grace through faith in Jesus, when believers repent (turn around) from sin and are no longer under sin’s dominion but are rather ‘slaves to righteousness’ –

• Romans 6:11-18 — So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

In salvation by grace through faith in Jesus, we WERE FREED from the PENALTY of sin once and for all; we ARE BEING freed from the POWER of sin in our lives through sanctification (we are no longer prisoners to sin but are still influenced by it); and we WILL BE FREED one day from the PRESENCE of sin in our lives when Christ returns – “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (see Revelation 21) From the point of spiritual birth in Christ, through the grace and power of God, we spend a lifetime growing up in Christ, being conformed into the image of Christ, as God progressively changes our desires from selfish, worldly things to Him and Him alone. In salvation, we rest assured in the grace of God, in the power of God, and in the promise that He will complete in us the work that He started when Christ returns and we receive our glorified bodies (Philippians 1:6) –

• 2 Corinthians 3:18 — And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
• Colossians 3:10 — …and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
• Philippians 3:20-21 — But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
• 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 — What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect…” (Philippians 3:12) “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) In this life, we will not achieve perfection (1 John 1:8-10), but ‘resting’ and trusting in the grace of God, we still strive to realize what is already ours in Christ – “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:10; also, 1 Thessalonians 4:4; Romans 8:13; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Peter 1:5-11)

Today, Paul gives us some good coaching on how to walk in the sanctification process: Don’t get frustrated. Acknowledge and never forget that you are not perfect but are being perfected through the power of the Holy Spirit. Press on! Don’t wallow in the past; learn from your mistakes, trust in God’s grace, and move on to what is ahead. Fail forward, not backwards. (vs 13-15) Find some good role models in the faith (but don’t idolize them) who can help you grow in your faith. (Philippians 3:17) And trust that God will do the work in you and complete the work in you. (Philippians 3:21)

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 4 July 2023: Today, forget what lies behind, and strain forward to what lies ahead. Rest in God’s grace while striving for perfection –

• 1 John 2:5 — but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.
• 1 John 4:12 — No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.