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Devotions

Stretching to Cover an Offense

Tim Dilena

One of the stories that always makes me laugh is about a man who was rescued from a desert island after 20 years. As he was standing on the deck of the rescue vessel, the captain said to him, "I thought you were stranded alone there for 20 years."

He replied, "I was."

The captain asked, "Then why are there three huts on the beach?"

"Well, that one was where I lived. That other one is where I went to church. That third one is where I used to go to church.”

There are people today who have so much internal turmoil that they're offended at everything, so what do we do? Well, you have two biblical choices when you’ve been hurt. Either you cover the offense, or you confront it.

Now covering an offense is very biblical, but sometimes people have the wrong idea about it. What we tend to think is “I can only forgive you if you know that you've done something wrong. I can only forgive you if you're repentant.” That's a misnomer. Jesus was forgiving the people who crucified him, and they were mocking him. Nobody there was saying, “Forgive me” except the one thief. This is important, folks, so how do we do it?

Peter said this. "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8, NASB). You know what that word "fervency" means? It was a word that was used for a runner stretching. When God said, "I want you to be fervent,” he was saying, “I’m going to stretch you a little bit. I'm going to make this a little bit harder than just saying, ‘I forgive you.’”

There are some offenses I think God wants you to absorb in order to extend mercy. Why? Because Jesus said in Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (ESV). You don't have to address everything, every time. It's a sign of maturity to let things go sometimes.

If God forgives us, we must forgive others. We base our forgiveness on what God has done for us, not what the other person has done to us. The Bible says that because we've been forgiven much, we can love much (see Luke 7:47), and love covers a multitude of sins when we have a fervency towards the brethren. If we don't understand forgiveness, that means we either haven't been forgiven or don’t understand the forgiveness that God has given to us. That’s why this is so important.

After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.

Testing the Limits of Grace

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

“Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents” (1 Corinthians 10:8-9, NKJV).

What does Paul mean here when he speaks of “tempting Christ”? Simply put, tempting the Lord means putting him to the test. We tempt him whenever we ask, “Just how merciful will God be to me if I move forward into this sin? How long can I indulge my sin before his anger is stirred? I know God is merciful, and this is an era of grace with no condemnation toward sinners. How could he possibly judge me, when I’m his child?”

Multitudes of Christians casually ask the same question today as they toy with a wicked temptation. They want to see how close they can get to hellfire without facing the consequences of sin. All the while, such believers are casting off conviction from God’s Word. They’re tempting Christ.

Any time we go against truth that God’s Spirit has made clear to us, we’re casting off Paul’s warning: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

Ask yourself if you are testing the limits of God’s precious gift of grace. Are you asking Christ to indulge your sin in the face of your outright rebellion? You may say to yourself, “I’m a New Testament believer. I’m covered under the blood of Jesus. God won’t judge me.” By continuing in your sin, you are treating Jesus’ great sacrifice for you with utter disregard. Your present willful sin is putting him to open shame, not just in the world’s eyes, but before all of heaven and hell (see Hebrews 6:6).

Paul describes a way of escape from all temptation: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Dear believer, don’t flirt with sin and tempt God. Our escape is a growing knowledge and experience of the holy fear of God.

Can We Thrive without God’s Law?

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

Most of America knows that the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the Ten Commandments are no longer required to be displayed in any government courthouse. This landmark decision has been covered exhaustively by the media, but what does the ruling mean?

A courthouse is where laws are enforced. The Ten Commandments represent God’s moral law, which never shifts or changes. It is as fixed as the law of gravity. If you defy that law, it’s like stepping off a high building. You can deny that the law affects you, but there are consequences to be paid. The Ten Commandments are eternal laws designed by God to keep society from destroying itself.

Despite this, many sand-blasting companies have ground away those Commandments, as well as God’s name, wherever they were engraved in courthouse marble or concrete.

What a telling picture of the state of our society. These unchangeable laws were originally engraved in stone by the finger of God. Now they are being erased from stone by the law of man.

Some Christians are saying, “What’s the big deal? We are not under the law. Why should this be an issue?” No, we are not under the Hebrew law, meaning the 613 additional commandments added by Jewish rabbis. But every Christian is under the authority of God’s moral law, which is summed up in the Ten Commandments.

Other believers claim, “We don’t need these displays of the Commandments. All that’s really necessary is for us to have them written in our hearts.” That’s not what God’s Word says. Consider the very visible presence God intended for the Commandments as they were delivered to his people.

“These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

If you don’t want God in your midst, he doesn’t simply go away. The Bible offers warning after warning on this matter. Why did God judge Noah’s generation by sending a flood? It all happened because of lawlessness.

We must pray for people to turn back to the Lord and honor his law once more.

A Life Fully Relying on God

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

There is no single formula for living wholly dependent upon the Lord. All I can offer you is what God has been teaching me in this area. He has shown me two ways where I must give him full control.

First, I must be convinced that the Lord is anxious and willing to make his will known to me, even in the smaller details of my life. I must believe that the Spirit who abides in me knows God’s will for me, and that he will guide me and speak to me. “When he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth…. He will glorify me: for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14, NKJV).

Maybe right now you are in the midst of some affliction, perhaps one that has been caused by a hasty decision. Even so, the Lord promises you, “Your inner ear will hear my Spirit speaking to you, ‘Go that way. Do this. And don’t do that…’”

Secondly, we have to pray with unwavering faith for power to obey God’s direction. Scripture says, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7). When God tells us to do something, we need power to stay the course and obey him fully.

Many of us pray, “Lord, I know what you told me, but I’m still not sure that was your voice speaking. I’m not sure I’m spiritual enough even to recognize your voice. Please just open or close the door for me on this matter.”

That is not the faith response he’s looking for from his children. You can pray for hours or even days at a time, but if you don’t pray with faith that the Holy Spirit will guide you as Jesus has promised, you will never have the mind of God conveyed to you. He waits until he sees you’re committed to accepting whatever he says, and to obeying it without question.

Trust that God speaks to his children, and then obey his direction as soon as you receive it. This is how we live in full reliance on God.

Our God-given Escape Plan

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

God’s Word tells us in no uncertain terms, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, NKJV).

Here is the truth, plain and simple. Without the holiness that’s imparted by Christ alone—a precious gift we honor by leading a life devoted to obeying his every word—none of us will see the Lord. This refers not just to heaven but to our present life as well. Without holiness, we won’t see God’s presence in our daily walk, our family, our relationships, our witness or our ministry.

It doesn’t matter how many Christian conferences we attend, how many sermons we listen to, how many Bible studies we are involved in. If we harbor a cancerous sin, if the Lord has a controversy with us over our iniquity, then none of our efforts will produce godly fruit. On the contrary, our sin will only grow more contagious and infect everyone around us.

Of course, this issue goes beyond all lusts of the flesh all the way to a corruption of the spirit as well. Paul describes the same destructive sin in this passage when he says, “Nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer” (1 Corinthians 10:10).

Christ has promised to keep you from falling and to give you sin-resisting power if you simply believe what he has said. It is all a matter of faith. Believe him for this godly fear. Pray for it and welcome it. God will keep his word to you. You cannot break free from the death-grip of besetting sin by willpower or by any human effort alone. “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).

Dear saint, will you allow the Holy Spirit to deal with all the lusts you may be harboring? Will you instead seek the escape that God has provided for you?

I urge you to cultivate a holy fear and trust in these last days. It will keep you pure, no matter how loudly wickedness rages around you. It will enable you to walk in God’s holiness, which holds the promise of his enduring presence. Amen!