November 18 Esight, 2007

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. —Matthew 5:48.

Thank you so much for your patience this past week. We have received so many emails wondering where their daily and weekly emails were, it was a tremendous blessing to see how many are actually out there reading and being blessed. Sincerely, my wife and I were catching up on some last minute preparations for our soon to be born son. Please forgive the lapse in emails. By Monday we should have a new baby boy!

This week, rather than writing a devotional, I would simply like to share with you one of my favorite selections from a favorite author of mine. May you be blessed by her as I have been. I will be writing again by next week, but until then, please keep my wife and I in your prayers. We will be headed to the hospital Sunday evening. We’ll keep you all posted!

The word “therefore” implies a conclusion, an inference from what has gone before. Jesus has been describing to His hearers the unfailing mercy and love of God, and He bids them therefore to be perfect. Because your heavenly Father “is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:35), because He has stooped to lift you up, therefore, said Jesus, you may become like Him in character, and stand without fault in the presence of men and angels.

The conditions of eternal life, under grace, are just what they were in Eden–perfect righteousness, harmony with God, perfect conformity to the principles of His law. The standard of character presented in the Old Testament is the same that is presented in the New Testament. This standard is not one to which we cannot attain. In every command or injunction that God gives there is a promise, the most positive, underlying the command. God has made provision that we may become like unto Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a perverse will and thus frustrate His grace.

With untold love our God has loved us, and our love awakens toward Him as we comprehend something of the length and breadth and depth and height of this love that passeth knowledge. By the revelation of the attractive loveliness of Christ, by the knowledge of His love expressed to us while we were yet sinners, the stubborn heart is melted and subdued,and the sinner is transformed and becomes a child of heaven. God does not employ compulsory measures; love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart. By it He changes pride into humility, and enmity and unbelief into love and faith.

The Jews had been wearily toiling to reach perfection by their own efforts, and they had failed. Christ had already told them that their righteousness could never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now He points out to them the character of the righteousness that all who enter heaven will possess. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount He describes its fruits, and now in one sentence He points out its source and its nature: Be perfect as God is perfect. The law is but a transcript of the character of God. Behold in your heavenly Father a perfect manifestation of the principles which are the foundation of His government.

God is love. Like rays of light from the sun, love and light and joy flow out from Him to all His creatures. It is His nature to give. His very life is the outflow of unselfish love.

“His glory is His children’s good;

His joy, His tender Fatherhood.”

He tells us to be perfect as He is, in the same manner. We are to be centers of light and blessing to our little circle, even as He is to the universe. We have nothing of ourselves, but the light of His love shines upon us, and we are to reflect its brightness. “In His borrowed goodness good,” we may be perfect in our sphere, even as God is perfect in His.

Jesus said, Be perfect as your Father is perfect. If you are the children of God you are partakers of His nature, and you cannot but be like Him. Every child lives by the life of his father. If you are God’s children, begotten by His Spirit, you live by the life of God. In Christ dwells “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9); and the life of Jesus is made manifest “in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). That life in you will produce the same character and manifest the same works as it did in Him. Thus you will be in harmony with every precept of His law; for “the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.” Psalm 19:7, margin. Through love “the righteousness of the law” will be “fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:4.

(Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, p. 76-77)

November 4 Esight, 2007

May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, ‘THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.’—Romans 3:4

As I travel this globe, I am deeply convinced that no one has been lied about, misunderstood, accused, blamed, misperceived, and in need of vindication more than God. Looking at the books of Daniel and Revelation, I sense a pervasive theme surfacing. First, each chapter in Daniel points forward to the final vindication of God’s character:

Chapter 1 – God’s Earthly Kingdom Attacked / God’s Kingdom Vindicated

Chapters 10-12 – God’s Heavenly Kingdom Attacked / God’s Kingdom Restored

Second, the theme of Revelation is very easy to decipher as well, if you will go through and simply read the worship statements therein. Many times, we gloss over these as just flowery statements about God by beings in heavenly places, but go back and reread them. Use them as signposts. Then go back and let the rest fill in the spaces between. What you will begin to sense is that the whole book is about the decimation and then restoration of God’s character not simply on earth, but before the entire unfallen universe as well.

Chapter 8 shares that when the seventh seal is opened, there will be a space of silence in Heaven (Revelation 8:1). I personally believe that this will be when all eyes finally see, in the moments of God’s full, undiluted disclosure, the magnitude of His character of love, when every knee should bow and every tongue will confess that God is what He has always said He was (Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11, and Philippians 2:10). Just before the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, Revelation states that the “mystery of God” will be finished (Revelation 10:7)! This is the same time when the angel of chapter 18 will lighten the earth once again with a revelation of God’s character unequalled since the days of Calvary (Revelation 18:1).

In light of all this, I am reminded, in the context of the times in which we live, of those in the scriptures who made a decision to live on intimate terms with the God of this universe. God speaks of these individuals as “My friends” (Isaiah 41:8). Today, I believe we are to “understand the times,” perceiving what we are to do (1 Chronicles 12:32). It is time for the friends of God to cry out, to proclaim from the rooftops, “Behold your God” (Isaiah 40:9).

I have met many people in my life, but none has ever loved me the way I feel loved in the moments when I catch a glimpse, when I receive a glimmer of a right perception of what God was doing for me on the cross. The revelation of God’s love for me at Calvary astounds me. For this and this alone, God is my best friend. Even if there were nothing in it for me, His love has so deeply affected my life that it has won me at such a heart level that I feel resonance when I meditate on this week’s theme. I want to do something for Him! I want to give my life, my all, to Him for His cause! I want to be used by Him to rescue His person from all the lies perpetrated in His name. Especially in these closing hours of earth’s history, I hear God’s whisper in my heart,

“My son, be wise, and make My heart glad, that I may answer him who reproaches Me” (Proverbs 27:11).

God, I hear You, this week. You have my vote. Take my life and use it to “lighten this earth” with Your glory once again.

“Some have been asking how long, and I am telling you, it will not be long.

Truth pressed down to the ground will rise again. No lie can live forever.”—MLK Jr.

October 28 Esight, 2007

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.—Galatians 5:6Oftentimes, in religious circles, there are two ideas hotly debated by separate groups. Are we saved by faith or by works as well? Some focus on works, while others say no, we need to focus on faith. But here in Paul, we find that there are actually three key ingredients to the Christian path: 1) Faith, 2) Works, and 3) Love. Love brings them all together. When we see God’s love, faith responds. We are saved by God’s love, through our faith, which goes to work recreating this love in our life. Thus, we must fix our eyes on God’s love for us, for love produces faith and faith produces works. If our gaze is fixed on God’s love, we will experience both faith and the good works produced by that faith.

This makes perfect sense when you understand that faith is our deep heart’s response to God’s love. God’s love passes through our intellect, but it does not stop there! It travels further and touches our heart, awakening profound appreciation. This deep heartfelt gratitude, arousing within us the desire to love Him back, is what the Bible calls—FAITH! And this can only come as a response to seeing how much He truly loves us!

This is precisely why Paul’s greatest concern for those to whom he ministered was that they would encounter God’s extravagant love for them.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

This week, take advantage of our online resources concerning God’s great love for you. Let the vastness of God’s love awaken the sleeping giant of your faith and set burning within you a heart fully alive!

October 21 Esight, 2007

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.”—Genesis 1:26What is God like and what does it mean to have been made originally in His image? Godliness is God-like-ness but what is God like? In short, “God is Love” (John 3:16). We were once made in the image of this love, but something happened. “Selfishness took the place of Love,” Deception, the place of Faith, and Lies, the place of Truth (E.G. White, Steps to Christ p. 17). Today, we stand in need of having our pictures of God and what He is like corrected. We have believed so many lies, and these lies themselves prevent us from being able to reach outside of ourselves and live for anything other than self-centered pursuits. But must we settle for the unsatisfying experience of a life centered only on ourselves? Isn’t there something greater to live for than just “what’s in it for us?” Can we truly ever be restored to the image of God’s other-centered love in which we were once made? The answer is an unequivocal yes. But we will never “be able to love others by trying to love others”(E.G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons p. 384). Our bent toward ourselves is based upon lies we have believed concerning God. Therefore the only hope of experiencing conversion from self-centeredness to other-centeredness is through having the Father “explained” to us once again (John 1:18). Only the truth can “set us free” (John 8:32). Only love can awaken love in us once again (E.G. White, Desire of Ages p.22 ) We desperately need a revelation outside of ourselves of God’s extravagant love to turn our hearts outward once more. Thus, we will love again “because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). It was to manifest this love that the God of this universe died for you, dear reader, that having died for you, you might “no longer live for yourself,” but be restored to the other-centeredness we once enjoyed (2 Corinthians 5:14,15). Do you want to be different? Do you long for change in your life dear reader? This week, take some time to try to learn something new, something deeper concerning God’s great love for you. Open God’s word and allow Him to unfold for you fresh revelations of how much He cares. Love is from Him, and only by His love can love be awakened in you and the image of God’s love in which we were once created be “perfectly reproduced” in us again (1 John 4:7, E.G White, Christ’s Object Lessons p. 69). The theme of God’s love for us will be our science and song throughout eternity (E.G. White, Steps to Christ p. 88). It will be our constant study, our engulfing theme, the purpose of our being. Why not let that eternity begin for you today?

October 14 Esight, 2007

“So through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all.” (Romans 5:18, New American Bible)This week is Part 2 of our two-part devotional. I’d like you to first get a grasp on some very specific words Paul uses in the first five chapters of the Book of Romans. In order to do this, I have shown below the linguistic origin of the words themselves.

The foundation is the word: Right (Dike, Greek).

On this word, there are three words built: Righteous (the adjective Dikaios), Righteously (the adverb Dikaios), and Righteousness (the noun Dikaiosune).

Then from the adjective Righteous (Dikaios) is built the verb Rightify (or more properly, justify, Dikaioo).

And then upon this verb Rightify (Dikaioo) are built two more Greek nouns: a Decision (Dikaioma) and Acquittal (Diakosis).

Why take the time to trace all these words out? Watch what all this reveals: When Paul uses the verb above Rightify (or more properly, justify), he is referring to a psychological and emotional “making righteous” of the one who has believed. It is a very real experience of one going from a sense of guilt and shame to peace (Romans 5:1), from an overwhelming feeling of condemnation to justification. This is where a person allows God to remove the life-crushing load of guilt from their past mistakes that they’ve been under in their conscience. Before one will ever be set free behaviorally, they must first be set free psychologically and emotionally. But what’s interesting is that this very real experience occurs via faith. But what is this faith built upon? Or rather, what is the person believing that causes them to experience this cleansing of their conscience from sin’s guilt and shame (Hebrews 9:14, 1 Peter 3:21)?

This is where the amazing news comes in. The answer is found in Romans 5:16-19.

Just as Adam’s sin brought mortality or death upon all of us (see last week’s devotional), from Jesus’ death on Calvary, “The free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.” (Verse 16), This word “justification” is Dikaioma. It’s a decision that God has made concerning every person. And this decision is a gift given to all. What is this decision? Paul goes on to say that this decision is a “gift of righteousness” (Verse 17). But what is the decision? The answer is to be found in Verse 18: “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” The word here for justification is Diakosis or Acquittal. God has made a decision regarding every man, woman, and child—and that decision is acquittal, charges have been dropped! He has “canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). There two definitions for Acquittal: One is that a person who is not truly guilt is found innocent and is therefore acquitted. This definition does not apply to us. The other definition is where the prosecuting part simply drops the charges thus the defendant goes free. What Romans 5 is saying is that God has dropped all charges against us. He has relinquished all rights to repayment and has simply forgiven. He has ripped the charges up and nailed them to the cross!

Yet, this decision is a gift. And like any gift, although it has been given to every person, it can be accepted or rejected. His hope is that you receive it (Verse 16) and let this gift of forgiveness remove our guilt and shame and make us psychologically and emotionally righteous (Verse 19).

But before you rush off to go about your week, I’d like you to consider the fact that we are not innocent. We are guilty; the charges have simply been dropped. And as in all cases where the person who has been wronged lets the offending party off the hook, it costs them something to do so. They must choose to rise above the violation and willingly bear whatever loss the offending party inflicted. The forgiver always pays a price to drop the so-called charges. What I would like you to ponder this week is the question of the ages. It is the question that reveals forever what type of a God we worship. The answer to this question wins us at a heart level and truly changes our lives. The question is, “What did it cost God, the one we have wronged, to let us off the hook, to drop the charges, to forgive, to acquit every person who had ever sinned against Him?” The answer can only be found in closing moments of Calvary. Take time to ponder those closing scenes this week, dear reader, and allow them to reveal to your heart what is truly in God’s heart toward you. Having loved you, He loved you till the end.

October 7 Esight, 2007

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men—Romans 5:12.Or as Paul states a few verses later, “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men . . .” (Romans 5:18). Throughout Christian history, many crazy ideas have existed about God, based on a misunderstanding of what these verses seem to be saying concerning our relationship to Adam and his original sin. This week I’d like you to ponder what I believe these verses are truly saying to us. This is Part 1 of a two-part devotional, so please don’t miss next week’s.

You see, Adam was created with conditional immortality—immortality that he lost through the fall. “Immortality, promised to man on condition of obedience, had been forfeited by transgression” (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 533). Moses shares with us the same picture: “Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.’” Man became mortal. Over and over again in the scriptures, the contrast is made between “mortal man” (Psalm 146:3) and God, who “alone possesses immortality” (1 Timothy 6:16). But what does this mean for us?

“Adam could not transmit to his posterity that which he did not possess” (White, p. 533).

This means that Adam could not pass on what he himself did not have. Thus we are born mortal, destined to die. So why spend time pointing out the obvious? Because we have failed to realize what this means to us. Even if we could live a perfect life, never sinning by even so much as a thought, we would still die. We still would not live forever. We are born having a date with death, and no amount of obedience can make us what we are not. This mortality we got from our predecessors Adam and Eve.

I remember sharing this one day in a class I was teaching, and one of the students could not take it any longer. He finally stood up and blurted out to the rest of the class, “If that’s true . . . then . . . then . . . then, there’s nothing I can do to save myself.” I looked back at him, grinned, and said, “flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you.” Follow carefully.

“Adam could not transmit to his posterity that which he did not possess; and there could have been no hope for the fallen race, had not God, by the sacrifice of his Son, brought immortality within their reach . . . only through Christ can immortality be obtained” (White, p. 533).

There is only one way we can have immortality, and that is to come into possession of the One who alone is Immortal! And praise God, that “One” has been given to the world!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave [to each person in the world] His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

This week, why don’t you take some time to thank Him for that marvelous gift?

September 30 Esight, 2007

In the next few weeks I will be conducting once again our Life Unlimited series which is a gospel centered evangelistic series offered by RHM. I would like to share with you this week some thoughts that are currently on my heart. I am convinced that our evangelism needs to—first and foremost—introduce people to God and His love for them. Through answering their questions and meeting their needs, we need to not only show them His love, but also lead them into deeper and more personal experiences with that love. This is what changes lives. Our Adventist message was never intended to simply spread intellectual, doctrinal facts. This may produce members that are convinced, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they are converted. Conversion happens as we encounter God’s love for us, as we “perceive with [our] hearts.”(John 12:40) Then the miracle of the new birth takes place, through which we “no longer live for ourselves, but for Him”(2 Corinthians 5:15) who loved us and gave His life for us. Our message is to be centered in helping others “see” what God is truly like; and nothing in my life has contributed more to my understanding of God’s love than the truths of the Adventist message. It’s powerful! It’s heart-awakening! It’s life-changing!

Our understanding of the Sabbath teaches us how to “rest” in God’s love. (Hebrews 4:9)

Our understanding of the nature of man teaches not only what happens when we die, but more importantly what happened when Christ “tasted death for us all.” (Hebrews 2:9)

Our understanding of mortality and immortality, points back to the Gospel, through which life and immortality have been brought to light. (2 Timothy 1:10, NLT) For as “in Adam all die, in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Our understanding of the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2), reveals that God did not send Jesus to save us from Himself, but rather to “save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

Our understanding of the fate of the lost reconciles the Bible’s teachings on hell with God’s claims to be a God of love.

Our understanding of free will, the Great Controversy, and the cross continues to balance how God could love us so passionately, and yet still cannot guarantee that we will never suffer pain.

All of these truths piece together like a giant puzzle where a picture of a God whose chief attribute is love mysteriously emerges, overwhelming our hearts, answering the questions that prevented our hearts from trusting in His love, and setting us free run in the expanse of His goodness and mercy, to love Him the way He is in love with us. (This may not be the context that introduced you to the Adventist message, but this is the intended purpose of our teachings.)

A wise author wrote, “The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary. I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption,—the Son of God uplifted on the cross. This is to be the foundation of every discourse given by our ministers.” (Gospel Workers, pg. 315) “Of all professing Christians, Seventh-day Adventists should be foremost in uplifting Christ before the world. The proclamation of the third angel’s message calls for the presentation of the Sabbath truth. This truth, with others included in the message, is to be proclaimed; but the great center of attraction, Christ Jesus, must not be left out . . . The sinner must be led to look to Calvary . . . believing in His mercy.” (Gospel Workers, pg. 156)

Thirty years ago a woman had a child out of wedlock. She was told by her pastor that both she and her bastard son were destined to burn in hell with no hope of eternal salvation. This woman came to me after the seventh meeting of my series in Clarksburg. That night’s topic had been God’s prevenient forgiveness for us. She told me, with tears streaming down her face, how she (for the first time in those thirty long years) truly felt God’s forgiveness and she now believed that both she and her son could go to heaven. We prayed right there and changed that “could” into a “would.”

Dear fellow Adventist, this is what we are to be about! Not just changing people’s minds, but changing their hearts! “Those who wait for the Bridegroom’s coming are to say to the people, ‘Behold your God.’ The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love.” (Christ Object Lessons, pg. 415)

September 16 Esight, 2007

Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation through faith in His blood.—Romans 3:24-25The term “propitiation” has caused much consternation throughout the years of Christian history. A misapplication of this term has conjured up pictures of a bloodthirsty God needing to be appeased. This picture of God has rightly been resisted and even rejected by some, and yet, the Bible does use the terms “propitiation” and “appeasement.” If these terms are not to be applied to the idea of appeasing the anger of a vengeful God, how are we to understand them? Let us begin by first looking at what these terms actually mean.

Propitiation – a gift given with the intent to appease wrath, conciliate, or win the favor of somebody or something; to appease one offended and render him/her favorable.

Appease – to pacify somebody, especially by acceding to demands, to satisfy or relieve something, especially a physical appetite, to make quiet, to calm, to reduce to a state of peace, to still, or to pacify, as to appease the tumult of the ocean or of the passions or to appease hunger or thirst.

We have wrongly assumed that what was needed to be appeased was an angry God, and thus, Christ’s sacrifice was a propitiation to God calming His anger. But I would like you to consider the above verse with which we began. Propitiation only occurs through faith. This would mean that 1. God is angry and 2. He is not appeased until we believe in Christ’s sacrifice. Then and only then would His anger toward us end. However, this would mean that even Christ’s sacrifice does not quench His anger toward us, not until we believe in that sacrifice. Is God really harboring ill feelings toward us until we believe? On the contrary, the Bible states that God so loved this world that He gave Christ as a propitiation. God could not possibly be the One being appeased because He is the One giving the propitiation, not receiving it.

“God is not a man; He does not cherish enmity, nor harbor a feeling of revenge. It is not because God has an angry feeling in His heart against a sinner that he asks forgiveness, but because the sinner has something in his heart. God is all right, the man is all wrong; therefore God forgives the man, that he also may be all right” (Waggoner, 1894).

Then, what is it that is being appeased? Remember our definition. A propitiation does not have to be offered to “someone,” but it can also be given to conciliate “something.”

You see, when we sin, this sin begins to cause our conscience psychological and emotional torment in our conscience. If we are not released from this torment, one day, we will enter into the presence of God, and this torment will not lessen, but intensify. Looking into the eyes of God we would see all that He is while simultaneously understanding how out of harmony we are with what we see in Him. This disharmony would produce such a state of guilt and shame that if we were left alone to bear this, it would crush out our life. This is why the presence of God is lethal to sinners. It drives home the full realization of our own sin along with the guilt and shame of our sin, and it is this guilt and shame that we are unable to bear. It is this same guilt and shame from our sin that crushed out the life of Christ.

“Calvary alone can reveal the terrible enormity of sin. If we had to bear our own guilt, it would crush us (Ellen White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings p. 116)

“The heaviest burden that we bear is the burden of sin. If we were left to bear this burden, it would crush us. But the Sinless One has taken our place. ‘The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’ Isa. 53:6. He has borne the burden of our guilt.” (Ellen White, The Desire of Ages p. 328)

You see just as the condemnation we feel in our conscience is the condemnation caused by our sin, justification is what we experience in our conscience as a result of our acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice in our place. God is not an angry God needing to be appeased; rather, we have a tormented conscience demanding restitution, which needs to be appeased. The condemnation we feel as a result of our sin is not that which is transpiring in God’s heart toward us, but that which is transpiring in our conscience toward ourselves. If we were to bear the full weight of this guilt and shame, it would destroy us! Thus, justification is not where God’s attitude is changed toward us, but instead, it is where our conscience is cleansed of the condemnation we brought on ourselves through our sin. It is where we, in our conscience, are brought from a state of guilt and shame, to peace and forgiveness as a result of receiving the sacrifice of Christ in our place. We pass from a state of feeling condemned to feeling at peace or rather justified. Therefore, the ideas of propitiation and appeasement need not fill our hearts with fear of an angry God. Instead, these terms should inspire within our hearts deep resounding gratitude toward the One who would not leave us to suffer the fate of being crushed by the guilt of what we have done, but instead gave Himself in the person of His Son as a propitiation to appease our guilty conscience demanding restitution. (Have you ever been plagued by a guilty conscience before?) Praise God for His self-sacrificing love! In the following passages, please picture God, not as angry and needing to be appeased, but as giving Himself in our place as the only way to save us from the life-crushing guilt and shame we set in motion in our conscience through our sin.

“Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17-18).

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have a Comforter with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

God is not the enemy, sin is!

God is not the one we should be afraid of, sin is!

God is not the one Jesus came to save us from, sin is! (See Matthew 1:21).

“We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result . . . and the sure result is ruin and death” (Ellen White, Selected Messages Vol.1 p. 235)

“He has borne the burden of our guilt. He will take the load from our weary shoulders. He will give us rest” (Ellen White, The Desire of Ages p. 328)

The only question for you this week, dear reader, is will you let Him? Why don’t you let Him cleanse you of the shame and guilt of your past mistakes right now.

(For more on this topic, please listen to The Eyes of A King from our Extravagant Love series located on our “sermons/downloads” page under the resource section at http://www.renewedheartministries.com).

September 2 Esight, 2007

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. — Ephesians 4:32Recently, I met a dear soul struggling to forgive someone who had wronged them. They were quite bothered, feeling quite mistakenly that if they could not forgive, God would not forgive them. I believe this is a gross misinterpretation of Jesus’ comments on this subject. In all actuality, we cannot possibly forgive until we first encounter how much we have been forgiven. Then, and only then, can we forgive the way we’ve been forgiven, as the above verse indicates.

You see, as we look at the basic definition of forgiveness, it is when the one who received loss inflicted upon them against their will now rises above that violation and willingly bears that sin, so the one who wronged them may go free. This, my friend, is exactly what we see transpiring at the cross. Consider the following:

“Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:14, emphasis added)

“Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19, emphasis added)

“The sin is against God, and if he is willing to forgive it, he has the right to do so. No unbeliever would deny the right of a man to overlook a trespass against him. But God does not simply overlook the trespass; He gives His life as a forfeit.” (E.J. Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pg.7)

Could it be that the reason so many struggle to find forgiveness toward others in their heart is that we have failed to realize how freely we ourselves have been forgiven? This week, rather than striving to forgive those that have wronged you, try striving to believe how freely God has forgiven you. Let God show you what Calvary was all about and allow that forgiveness from Him to awaken in you forgiveness toward others.

“Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” (Colossians 3:13)

(For more on this subject, please download the sermon The Awakening)

August 26 Esight, 2007

You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD Your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments—Exodus 20:5-6I have come across countless souls who have shared this verse with me as one that causes them much frustration in trying to view God as a God of love. I would remind you that every action, whether good or bad, has an intrinsic result, for good or for ill. What God seems to be saying here is that if the Israelites chase after other gods, that decision would not only hurt them, but also adversely affect their children. The question lies in whether these adverse results are inherent to the worship of idols or whether they are artificially imposed by God. To be honest, the scope of this devotional does not permit us to answer this question adequately. However, I would like to share a thought that may shed light on this issue. Whether or not there are inherently negative consequences to chasing after other gods is obvious to me. There are. What God seems to be saying indirectly is that although these adverse results will be passed down, He will only permit them to be passed down as far as third and in some instances fourth generations. He, in His mercy, limits the damage our ancestors have done to us as well as the damage we can do to our descendants.

What is truly amazing is what He states next: “But [I will] show[-] loving kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” What makes this statement jump out is captured in the following passage:

“There is in the Hebrew text of this passage no word indicating ‘generation,’ which is supplied by the translators. It is most evident, however, that it is the word required by the sense, and attention is called to it only to point out the fact that the construction is the same as in the next clause, where the word ‘generation’ is not expressed, but where it belongs as surely as in the first. Some have hastily supposed that the ‘thousands’ refers only to individuals, and so have erroneously concluded that God’s chastisements outlast His mercy. Not so. He visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, but shows mercy unto unnumbered thousands of generations of them that love Him and keep His commandments. His wrath is soon appeased, while His mercy flows on to eternity. Other versions than the English state it very plainly.” (E.J.Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant p.310)

Therefore, the decisions we make today will impact those who come after us just as surely as we are bearing the results of the decisions made by those who have come before us. This is unfair I will agree, but the Bible never states that what free moral agents do to one other is always fair. It only states that what God does will always be fair. Nonetheless, praise God, for He will not let those unfair negative results run on endlessly. He will only permit them to run to the third or fourth generation. Notice the alternative. If we, today, allow His love for us to awaken, in our hearts, love for Him and if we follow the principles of His love in all our dealings, the inherent positive results of that kind of life will not only affect the third and fourth generations, but also set in motion blessings upon blessings to the thousand thousandth generation that come afterward. Of course, time will not last that long, but the point seems to be that the positive inherent chain of events we set in motion by submitting to God’s principles of love will continue throughout eternity, positively affecting those who enter the scene after us.

“We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner . . . and the sure result is ruin and death” (Ellen White, Selected Messages Vol. 1 p. 235).

“For whoever desires to love life and see good days. . .let him turn away from evil and do good” (1 Peter 3:10-11).

This week, thank God that His mercy covers our mistakes. Beyond that, why not set in motion a chain of blessings to the countless generations that come after you by living a life of other-centered love?