Meditations – Page 179 – Cross Culture Church

Meditation: September 30

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2

The strong language used by Paul was to express how he directed his will to block out all information that would in anywise compete with the knowledge of Christ that he had attained. This knowledge would serve as the filter because it was the highest level of knowledge ever made available to mankind. He was not limiting what was being made known to his intellect. He was in addition speaking of his experiences. His entire life was to be governed by the dimensions of Christ yet to be known and the deep meaning contained within His death on the cross. There are so many distractions in this life competing with our knowing the things that are most essential to life. Many will major in minors and minor in majors. But none of their information can produce anything that produce a permanent resolve to their challenges and survive beyond this life. To know Jesus is to have eternal life. To know Him as crucified is to identify with His death, thus possessing resurrection life. As with Paul, we must determine to close the door on all that would appear to be objective knowledge and bring it into subjection to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

29 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 29

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“For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.” Psalm 36:9 (KJV)

Darkness conceals while light reveals. Things are further darkened by darkness while they are illuminated by the light. The Lord speaks His Word in order to guide us through life. His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We are guided through those dangerous places where the enemy of our souls is lurking with the intent of killing, stealing, and destroying us. We are not walking alone because when we walk in the light we walk with Him. We see together and move in sync with one another. What we see enables us to see more. What we experience together is preparation for what lies ahead. The light that is before us now will lead us to greater dimensions of light. His light is the light of life. A fountain of living water continues to flow in our direction keeping and preserving us. What awaits us is far greater than what we had to abandon. All that preceded was mere preparation for what the Lord has yet to show us. We can trust His guidance and rest in His peace. We must not allow anything to get us off track but know that He knows the way that we must go. And when we safely arrive, we will appreciate every winding curve along the way.

28 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 28

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.” Psalm 3:5

Sleep is like a form of death. When we sleep, we are no longer in control of our thoughts or body. All is as if it is in the grave without a conscious thought but trusting that at the proper time we will awake. Our dreams take to places we had not traveled before. It is always our desire to have a peaceful rest, thus a peaceful travel to the place that our dreams would take us. Our prayer is that God would protect us when we have no defense. There are the terrors of the night; invaders who may come and interrupt us and invade our homes; calamities over which we have no control; all the things that could happen in the night. The morning of our awakening is like our resurrection. The Lord has sustained us through the night!

As we trust God to keep us through one night in order to see a new day, we must also trust Him for the midnight’s of life’s experiences. Whatever we are going through in life, we go through it because we are in the darkest of night. But there will be the dawning of a new day when we will awaken fully to the light of His glory and never again lose sight of day. We will step into our dream of Him and see Him as He really is. The Lord will sustain us unto a new day!

27 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 27

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14

The Apostle Paul uses the language of an athlete competing for the ultimate prize. The intermediate victories are not be become the level in which he was to settle, but his eyes were upon something much greater. They may be used as a means to lead him there, but ultimate prize was the fulfillment of the upward call. This has more to do with becoming someone than getting something. He qualified to enter in to the competition of becoming all that God had called him to become. And out of his becoming, he was enabled by the Holy Spirit to do all that God had called him to do. We too have been called by Almighty God to a standard of spiritual excellence. It is a standard of living out and giving a full and clear expression of the life of Jesus Christ upon the earth. The world is in desperate need of knowing Christ and He can only be known through His Church. He was aware of his imperfections and areas where improvements were needed. But also open for God to reveal to him any blind spots that he at that point was not able to see. His was a matter of progressing in Christ towards the ultimate goal that was before him. To be found in Him, not having his own righteousness or self-justification of deeds, but totally yielded to Christ. We must set this as our goal as well. He has called us to reach up in order that we may reach out and touch the world with His love and power. This can only happen when it is all of Him and none of us.

26 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 26

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” 1 Peter 2:7

What man often finds as most useful, God rejects. And what man rejects God accepts. The material used by God to build lives, community, and His Church is not what we in the natural would always consider. He builds with character. He makes sure that what is being erected can support the winds of change and the waves of adversity. The example is a house built upon the sand. Even though the structure is elaborate and is a thing of beauty. It has no foundation and eventually the inevitable would come to test its strength. The strength of a structure is its foundation. And no other foundation can be laid other than Jesus Christ. The accuracy of the establishment of Christ in the life of the believer will keep him stable in the most difficult of times. Christ is often rejected or redefined because the majority of people do not see any use for Him as He is. They attempt to either fit Him in as they please or eliminate Him altogether. Yet He is the only One we can turn to when we are forced to acknowledge how little we really know. He is able to heal and to guide, but He must be in place before our minds are able to acknowledge how much He is really needed. When we understand that we need Him, then we discover what held us together even when we thought it was ourselves. He has become the chief cornerstone among those who worship Him because they realize that in Him we live, move and have our being.

25 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 25

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

If the Lord can see everything in the world of the dead, He can see in our hearts.” Proverbs 15:11 (CEV)

God examines the inner-workings of the hearts of men. He is able to observe every secret thought and the development of the mindset of men. It is not just the immediate thought or idea that He directs His attention to. He looks at all that contributed to the formation of the thought long before it is given expression. This text expresses His gaze into the dark mysteries of the world of the dead. He has full knowledge of every detail existing there. Even the underworld of demons and devils all of the mysteries of hell, God knows. If death itself cannot shroud the degree of knowledge fully known by Him, then it should be clear to all that He knows the hearts or the inner life or the secret life of men or human beings. “How then can we hide our thoughts from God?” (TEV)

The Psalmist requested divine introspection from God; “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart.” Psalm 26:2 He did not trust his own judgments, but requested that God would show him what He sees in regards to the inner-workings of his heart. We need God to show us what we are incapable of seeing within ourselves. Only then will the Holy Spirit be allowed to free us from the vice grip of sins that in the past appeared justifiable. Then we can be cleansed of secret sins.

24 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 24

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. (3) For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” (4) For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:2-4

A selfless heart cannot be prefabricated. The fallen nature of man hinders him from becoming altruistic. Yet God is able through one who has yielded himself to Him, do what is pleasing and for the good of his neighbor. Christ died for us. It was not a pleasant experience leading up to His death. But He had us in mind throughout all He had to suffer. The Scripture does not tell us to do whatever is pleasing to our neighbor. That would reduce us to becoming men-pleasers. We must consider what is good for him and do what is best even if it cost us in our efforts in assisting him. The love of God given expression through us will lift him to a level where Christ becomes visible to him. As we seek God for the good of others, expecting nothing in return from them, God’s grace flows freely through us.

23 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 23

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

God’s eyes are upon the truth in every situation. His judgments are based on the truth that He knows without having to measure circumstantial evidence. This may serve as vindication for the innocent, but will also be an indictment to the guilty. Man can only see that is made known to him. Actions are borne out of motives. We both speak and do what has been brewing in our hearts even before the time comes that we give full expression to it. The matter is already judged in heaven’s court. It is the execution of His judgment carried out when penalties are met. Our judgments or our opinions at that moment do not really matter. When God takes charge of what He sees, it is to our best interest to allow God to be God and for us to take inventory of our own lives. We may have done things differently if we were God. We may even think that what is happening is unfair. But He is God and not us. Our justice system may or may not be accurate. It is not a matter of being innocent until proven guilty from His perspective. It is either guilt or innocence manifested in due time. “He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” (Malachi 3:3) Regardless of the process, the outcome will be His expected end. He will have the last word. He will get the glory that He alone deserves.

22 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 22

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.” Jeremiah 24:7

God does not respond merely to needs. He looks for passion. Even when we think we have the passion to press in, we are often disappointed because the passion has not reached its peak. God may measure what we thought to be an earnest prayer as being only a passing fancy. Good thoughts and warm feelings about God are not enough. There has to be the passion exuding from the heart whereas knowing God is desired more than any other thing. Whatever else may be there is in competition with the knowledge of God. It rises up as an idol to compete with what He wills to show us of Himself. These things must be rooted out of our lives and only God can do that. Israel was allowed to be placed in the land and under the government of the Chaldeans. It was their place of learning. But God was not through with them even though they were being chastened there. It was the place of purging, a place where they had to reassess their priorities in order to enter into true worship. Are there idols among us today that are yet to be removed? Maybe that is why deliverance is delayed. God wants us to return to Him with our whole hearts. God measures half-heartedness as using Him as an addendum to our lives and practice. Something else is keeping us preoccupied. He then allows whatever that something else is to be our deliverer. It is incapable of doing what He alone is able to do. He will be our God and we will be His people when we have given all to Him. It’s not too late to do it now!

21 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 21

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8

Not the faith released to enable us to initially respond to Him. That is our starting point. There is also a faith that sustains us along the way. When it is difficult and sometimes impossible to see what lies ahead, active faith would find the faithful waiting and anticipating whatever God is about to do. They will accept His will even when they do not fully understand it. It is a state of the soul and mind of saying yes to God even before the question is asked. Many have leaned to their own understanding and are moving in a direction that pleases themselves. But the Son of Man is coming back. He does not give warning, but immediately appears on the scene. Then the Truth will be made known. All pretense is exposed as error, and hypocrisy is uncovered as evil. When He comes, He will reward the faithful. Those who continued to withstand the pressures of compromise brought to bear against them will be rewarded. He will find them wherever they may have been driven for true faith is like a magnet to Him. It has attracted us to Him and He will prove the fact that He is attracted to us. Even though faith will be a rare commodity, nevertheless it will survive among the faithful. Some will remain as witnesses of His grace and carriers of His testimony. He will find faith hidden in their hearts.