Unbelief grieves the heart of God. In today’s passage, the grieved heart of God is seen in the incarnate Son of God upon whose face this grief is put on display through His nostrils and in His eyes. May the Lord help us to see the great evil of unbelief and grant to us a heart to embrace all that He’s given to us in the Scriptures and live as people of faith.
John 11:17-26, Believe in Me
In the midst of great mourning and disappointment, the Lord speaks words of great hope. But this hope is available only to those who believe in Him. In this portion of the gospel of John, we catch another facet of true faith in Christ, that Christ is everything to the believer. May the Lord draw us to find our soul’s full satisfaction in Him alone, even to the very end of life when we will desperately need Jesus as the resurrection and the life.
John 11:5-16, Trust the God of Providence (Part 2)
God knows where He’s headed and he knows how to get there. And this God of all wisdom is working all things after the counsel of His will to bring about His perfect effects to ultimately bring glory unto Himself through His Son. We trust God because He has a purpose and He has a plan. Furthermore, He calls us to participate in His will revealed in Scirpture. May the Spirit of our God strengthen us to trust in the God of providence so that we would walk after the example of our Lord, the incarnate Son of God, who was the epitome of perfect human trust in God.
John 11:1-4, Trust the God of Providence
John 11 is a demonstration of God’s providence. What is providence? Providence is God’s wise orchestration of all things (both good and evil) to achieve His good and eternal purpose. We often see the parts, but not the whole. But the whole is precisely what God sees. He is causing all things to work together for the good which aligns with His good and eternal purpose. This is what the Lord sees with the sickness of Lazarus. May the Lord grant us His perspective to trust in the God of providence.
Psalm 16:1-11, The Divine Joys of a Right Personal Relationship with God (Part 2)
There is no joy apart from God. In this second installment on our studies on divine joys, we again see the joys of God expressed in Psalm 16 and the right personal relationship with God that is the foundation of those joys. I experience divine joys when God is my refuge, my Lord, my treasure, my counselor and my Savior. May the Lord evermore mature us to be like Christ who Himself knew these joys to their fullness!
Psalm 16:1-11, The Divine Joys of a Right Personal Relationship with God
A right personal relationship with God emanates divine joys. In Psalm 16, we hear of a man who knew such joys. in this two week series, we will consider the vital truth in this text: I experience divine joys when God is my Refuge, my Lord, my Treasure, my Counsel and my Savior. May our joy meter read “full” as we rightly and personally relate to the Lord as we ought to and as He deserves.
John 10:31-42, Four Witnesses to Divine Equality
Jesus’ full divine equality with the Father is an undeniable doctrine in Scripture. While some cults mangle this passage to make it mean something other than this, John presents to us four witnesses that confirm divine equality of the Son to the Father: 1) the Jews, 2) the Father, 3) Scripture, and 4) John the Baptist. Jesus is God, Yahweh, the second person of the Holy Trinity. This is what we mean when we speak of Jesus as the Son of God, and this is the faith we endeavor to live out by the power of the Holy Spirit who is at work within us.
John 10:28-30, Jesus' Guarantee of Eternal Security
Jesus, the good shepherd, guarantees eternal security to His people, to His sheep. This comes to them as an eternal gift, with the promise of no condemnation and no separation, underwritten by the singular and supreme power of the triune God. If we belong to Christ, we have nothing to fear but to live courageously by faith in the Lord who has secured for us eternal salvation.