Body

Devotions

A PROVEN FAITH

David Wilkerson

When we first read of Abraham, God is asking him to pack up his family and travel to an unnamed destination (see Genesis 12:1). This must have been an incredible test for Abraham, as well as for his loved ones. Yet, by faith, Abraham obeyed. He lived among strangers in strange lands—unharmed and blessed—and he was delivered from every crisis, through supernatural dreams and visions given by the Lord.

LOOK AT THE STARS

At one point, God told Abraham to behold the starry sky, saying: “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them . . . So shall thy seed be” (Genesis 15:5). In other words: “Abraham, that’s how many children, grandchildren and descendants you are going to have. They will number as many as the stars.”

What a staggering promise! This word to Abraham was beyond the comprehension of any human being to grasp. And what was Abraham’s response to this promise? “He believed in the Lord” (15:6).

THE REWARD OF UNWAVERING TRUST

What was the result of Abraham’s faith? And what did his deep, abiding trust mean in God’s eyes? We find the answer in a single verse:

“He believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6, my italics).

Time after time Abraham put his faith in God, and he was considered righteous in the Lord’s eyes.

By the time Abraham turned 100 years old, he had endured a lifetime of tests and through everything, Scripture says, he had trusted God. And now the Lord said of this faithful, obedient man:

“I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment” (18:19).

Do you see what God Himself said of this man? He declared, “I trust Abraham. He has a proven faith.”

WHAT HE DID FOR US

Gary Wilkerson

Jesus spent thirty-three years on Earth. Was that just so He could get old enough to die on a cross? Was it so He could have a few experiences to write about? No, of course not.

For thirty-three years Jesus did something that no one has ever been able to do. He took every rule, law and principle in the Bible, every thought that God had about what a righteous life would be like—holy and pure and totally obedient to God— and He fulfilled every single one of them.

That is why He was able to say, “I did not come to do away with the law, I came to fulfill the law” (see Matthew 5:17). What He is saying here is that He, and He alone, kept the law perfectly.

GOD’S PLEASURE

God said, “I take pleasure in Him because He perfectly kept every principle I’ve ever had for mankind. He fulfilled it all.”

Justification is not just that He cleansed you of your sin, He forgave your past, present, and future sin—but He imputed righteousness to you. In other words, He gave and He put upon you the righteousness that is His. At the cross He took your sin and pain and suffering—and did away with it.

And then He did something else that many Christians don’t realize. He took what He did on the cross and made it a final victory. When He said, “It is finished,” not only had He died for our sins but He had died for our righteousness. Now, even though we have no righteousness in ourselves, He gives us His righteousness.  

SERVING THE NEEDY

Claude Houde

Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” (see Mark 8:27). This question is fresh and immensely important today. What does our secular world think? What is its perception of the church in our modern world?

Please allow me to say this as clearly as I can, with kindness and straightforwardness, speaking the truth in love. My travels around the world have allowed me to meet thousands of leaders and I am in direct contact with their churches. I am often afraid that the modern church is softly and inexorably slipping into a sweet insanity. Dear reader, there are many definitions of insanity, one of the most pertinent being: “to continue to do the same thing in the same way over and over and expect a different result.” That’s insane!

Over 90 percent of North American churches have known no significant growth in 20 years, but we see no need to change anything!

Dear reader, Abraham, the father of faith, freed captives, fought for the poor, built wells, and fed the hungry. Hundreds of scintillating promises, stern warnings and clear commandments from Genesis to Revelation motivate, call and challenge us to serve the needy. Prophets and patriarchs in the Scriptures taught and modeled generosity. The history of the church shines the brightest when she dedicates herself to the defense of the oppressed and walks in her true calling and purpose. The Son of God incarnated all of the eternal, immutable, divine Trinity’s desire and intentions when He came among the poorest, fed the hungry multitudes, and healed every type of sickness and suffering.

 

Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.

ARE WE REALLY ONE?

David Wilkerson

The truth is, we sometimes mistreat others. We separate ourselves from a brother or sister; we wound and hurt someone; we can easily misrepresent others. And we think it is “just between God and me.” So we confess it to the Lord and repent, then go our way, thinking all is well. Yet, we never give thought to how in the process, we’ve not only wounded a brother, we have wounded the Lord. Indeed, we did it to the whole Body of Christ, because if one hurts, all hurt.

Here is the revelation we are given: “I belong to the Body of Christ! And so does my brother, my sister. We are all one because we are all connected to the head.”

I present to you the same message Paul delivered to his fellow workers.

“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2:3–4).

“I beseech [you] . . . be of the same mind in the Lord” (Philippians 4:2).

Here is how Paul sums it all up. Indeed, here is mercy lived out in full:

“Because ye [are] dear unto us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

I ask you: Are all your brothers and sisters in Christ dear to you? As the life of our head flows to us, the members of His Body, we begin to love not only each other but even our enemies.

“Lord, let us be merciful, as You have been merciful to us!”

THE EXAMPLE OF THE CHURCH

David Wilkerson

Right now, the world needs a living example of the mercy of Christ. Tensions have never been greater. In Europe and the United States, racial tension is sweeping through society, even creeping into churches.

Do not be deluded into thinking that a government can take care of these problems. The costly mercy that’s needed throughout the world can come only from those who have tasted and received such mercy for themselves. And that is the calling of the Church of Jesus Christ. We are to offer a mercy that lays down self for the sake of a brother or sister — and, as Jesus demonstrated, even for an enemy.

STOP AND CONFRONT

I exhort you to stop here and confront this truth. Go no further in your life or ministry — stop all your plans and good works — until you confront the implications of being a member of Christ’s Body. The Lord declares of His Church, “This is My pearl of great price, the Bride for My Son.” Think of what a miracle this is! Think, too, of the great calling of this Body to show mercy to an unmerciful world.

Simply put, mercy looks beyond faults and failures, beyond self-justification. If we truly believed  we wound Christ personally whenever we wound a brother or sister — that what we say and do against a single member of His Body is, as Jesus said, “against me” (see Luke 11:23) — we would work night and day to make everything right. And we would not stop until we were clear of it all.