A CALL TO ACTION (PART 4)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Be tenderhearted.

1 Peter 3:8 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Beginning with verse 8 of 1 Peter, chapter 3, we find the Word of God providing a series of calls to action, calls that all Christian believers are supposed to embrace and carry out. To date, we have seen Christians reminded of their responsibility to be:

1. United and of one mind.

2. Sympathetic toward one another.

3. Loving each other as one would a brother or sister.

Today, we add yet one more prescribed action to the list with a simple two words from the aforementioned verse 8:

Be tenderhearted.

Now, when we look at the base definition of the word “tenderhearted” we find that it contains elements of previous exhortations. For one who is tenderhearted is “easily moved to love, pity, or sorrow” and exhibits compassion towards others. When you look at other translations of this verse, you also find the act of being kind included in the mix (CEV and GNT).

Given this, think about the scriptures and how they tell us about the nature of our God. At a minimum, you would get this:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. Psalm 103:8,11-13

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

The Lord God Almighty is the Maker and Master of all created things, a Divine and Holy King who possesses infinite power and can do whatever He chooses, especially in passing judgment over sinful behavior. But note that this doesn’t mean He is uncaring and callous.

Rather, His Word provides insight into His character which includes the perfect display of compassion, graciousness, love, compassion, and faithfulness. All these and so much more were put into practice by Jesus, the Son who was completely one with His Father (John 10:30). This means that everything found in God is also found in Jesus who is an exact representation of His Heavenly Father.

Thankfully, we as Christians then have a role model to follow as we receive our calls to action from the scriptures, and follow Him we must as it is a fundamental responsibility we all have as believers, to be Christ-like in every way we carry out our lives.

So as we go into this week ahead and beyond, the call is to show love, pity, sorrow, compassion, and kindness to others when needed. To meet the goal, let us allow the Holy Spirit to control our every thought, word, and deed, for if we do, then we will easily comply with the demands of the scriptures and reflect the blessed, caring nature of Jesus as we do.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

A CALL TO ACTION (PART 3)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Love each other as brothers and sisters.

1 Peter 3:8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

If you were to choose one emotion central to the heart of God and the Word He provided to His created people, it would be love. Anything else would be a very distant Heaven.

Just go to the very overarching theme of the Bible’s sixty-six books, God’s plan for salvation through His Son Jesus that spans from Genesis to Revelation, and you will find love. One simple verse, straight from the mouth of Jesus, affirms it:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Think about this. All people ever born after Adam and Eve were afflicted with a spiritual sin sickness that automatically separated them from the God who made them, a sin sickness that would automatically result in a guilty verdict from God at death and a place in Hell forever.

But God, out of His deep compassion and grace and, yes, love didn’t wish for this to be the final outcome for anyone and so He did something about it, something that would require a sacrifice of the greatest magnitude. This sacrifice for atoning the sins of the world could only come from a divine and holy source, someone who was perfectly sinless, and the only One who would qualify would be a very offspring of God Himself.

And so, He sent His only Son into the world, conceived in a virgin named Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit and born into a life that lasted only thirty-three years until He willingly allowed Himself to be crucified, paying the death penalty that every sinner deserved.

Why did He lay down His life for all people, most of which He would never personally meet this side of Heaven?

We go back to His words for the answer:

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command. John 15:13-14

Through His selfless willingness to die to save others, Jesus showed the greatest love known, a love referred to “agape” love which simply means that a person holds such a deep affection for another that they would be willing to die in their place. THIS was the love that Jesus showed and THIS is the love He called His followers to show one others. For going back to John 15, Jesus also said this:

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” v.12

Friends, as Christians, this is the call to action we find Peter using as we see our verse from chapter three of his first letter. He simply writes these words to his audience, “God’s chosen people” who were “living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1) and, of course, in turn, to us today:

Love each other as brothers and sisters. v.8

As believers in Christ, all Jesus followers are as much a part of God’s family as He is, co-heirs to the very Kingdom of Heaven (Romans 8:14-17). This makes all Christian brothers and sisters in and of Christ, and expected to “love each other” as He has loved them. This means willing to die for one another if needed.

Today’s call to action, part three of this series, is a call to love as Jesus loved, and it’s high time we start to really do this as He commanded. The church and our world will be a much better place if we do.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

A CALL TO ACTION (PART 2)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Sympathize with each other.

1 Peter 3:8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Believing in Jesus and willingly choosing to be a Christian isn’t a lifestyle of static passivity, complacency, or sedentary behavior.

Not even close.

Rather, throughout the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, we find the scriptures are a call to action, a call to be the people the Lord wants for us to be, a people who allow His will and way to reign supreme so to produce an abundance of goodness and righteousness in the way we go through life day after day.

In yesterday’s first message in this series, we saw the calling for Christians to be of one mind with that one mind being grounded in the person of Jesus, the Head of the body of His believers. This examination of the first call to action exposed the disturbing truth that the body of Christ (aka the Christian church) couldn’t be further right now from what God is calling it to. There’s an incredible amount of work to be done for the church to get where it’s supposed to be.

As we look at our scripture for today, one composed of a mere four words, we find a new call, one of several we’ll look at over the next few days as the Lord gives us demands on how we are to relate to others as Christian believers. Here’s what we read in 1 Peter, chapter 3, verse 8:

Sympathize with each other.

The demand is so simple and yet so ever increasingly absent today as we see our society spiral ever further into the sinkhole of self centeredness and personal selfishness. Some of this has unfortunately crept into the church as well, I’m afraid, as the once prevalent “we and us” culture has digressed into an “I and me” motif. This has not only impacted the unity of the church but its ability to properly care for others.

So what’s the way back to where we need to be, to the place where people sincerely and genuinely sympathize with one another?

The answers can be found in Christ Jesus and how He lived in regard to the root definitions of the word “sympathize”. Let’s look at these answers now:

1. To sympathize is to exhibit “feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune”, to express one’s “condolences”.

Jesus came down from Heaven, God incarnate, and walked this very earth we walk today. He experienced all the joys and sorrows of life, both His and others, and I can’t remember a single time in the Bible where Jesus didn’t seek to come to the aid of people in their time of need. In those instances, we read how He indeed showed “feelings of pity and sorrow” for another’s misfortune, showing perfect caring and compassion. As His disciples, we need to do likewise.

2. Sympathizing also can reflect an “understanding between people” which can manifest itself “in the form of shared feelings or opinions”. It can be viewed as an “an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other”.

This is a matter of sympathizing with another person’s position in regard to something else. For example, one sinner might sympathize with another who is going a struggle to break the bondage of the transgression. Despite being sinless, Jesus sympathized with the plight of those He came to save, sharing the feeling that sin held the unsaved person captive unless it was broken.

And so He willingly chose to do just that, to offer Himself up on the cross of Calvary so to bear the sins of all mankind and provide a way of deliverance and rescue from eternal damnation in Hell.  

3. Finally, to sympathize is “relating harmoniously to something else”, an “inclination to think or feel alike” out of “emotional or intellectual accord”.

As Christians, we are to find our harmonious relation to Jesus, first and foremost. He is the tie that binds the body of Christ together. Through Him, and through Him alone, believers can truly think and feel alike in a way that honors and glorifies His holy name.

Friends, it’s high time we give heed to these calls of action from the scriptures, exercising unity of mind while being supporting and caring for one another through Jesus, who first showed us what proper, perfect sympathizing looks like.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

A CALL TO ACTION (PART 1)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Finally, all of you should be of one mind.

1 Peter 3:8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today, we will be starting a rather lengthy series of messages, simply titled A Call To Action as we look at things the Word of God call us to do as believers in Christ Jesus.

Did you catch that Christians are to be doing things that God calls them to do?

This is because disciples of Jesus are never in a place in life where they are to be passive about their Christian responsibilities. At a base level, just look at the Great Commission, the foundational marching orders for every single person who places their belief in Christ.  Our Savior said this:

“...go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20

Go.

Make.

Baptize.

Teach.

These are all demands from Jesus, the One who has been given all “in Heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18), and they aren’t optional. He didn’t say, “I recommend that you go and make disciples” or “It would be a good idea if you could baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” or “If you have time, please teach others to obey everything I have commanded”. No, Jesus told us to go and make and baptize and teach, and it on us to make it a priority and obey the mandate from our Lord.

Now, obviously the Word of God places a lot of requirements on believers outside of the Great Commission and we will be looking at a collection of those found in Peter’s first letter found in the New Testament. Let’s get started with today’s call to action from verse 8 of chapter 3. There we read:

Finally, all of you should be of one mind.

Note here the word “one”. This means just what it says, that all Christian believers “should be of one mind” and this means no dissent or dissension in the ranks.

With this, ask yourself how far away the body of Christ is from this right now. If we’re honest, it should be a very troubling matter to think about for the church couldn’t be more divided and fragmented today, some 21 centuries after the Word offered this command to “God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1).

Why has this happened? How could the body of Christian believers be so broken and shattered when it comes to unity?

The answer is actually pretty simple because the fundamental problem at hand is people are either leaning on the ways of the world in running their church or they’re relying on their own understanding as to how the church should be or a combination of both. The primary emphasis seems to be on everything except Jesus Himself, the Head of the church itself (Ephesians 1:22-23) and if we’re truly going to be the united body of Christ then Christ needs to be first in all the church does. Every single Christian believer needs to “be of one mind” in Him and in Him alone.

The call to action in this first message is for the body of Christ to lock stepped and bound together in Him, fully submitting every thought, word, or deed to His leading through the power of the Holy Spirit.

There’s a lot of work to be done, a lot, but let us remember that the Lord has worked much greater miracles than getting the church back to where it needs to be. He can easily mend what’s broken if we all come to Him together as one.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

GOD CENTERED HUSBANDRY

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

1 Peter 3:7

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Over the past two messages, we have seen the Word of God speaking into the matter of marriage, specifically regarding the wife’s responsibilities, to include when her husband may be a non-believer, and where her true source of beauty will be found if she is a Christian.

Today, we conclude this portion of Peter’s first letter to “God’s chosen “who were “living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1) with a look at the husband and how he is to relate to his wife within the marriage. Look again at the words found in verse 7 of chapter 3:

In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

In the previous verses, the scriptures made it clear that wives were to respect and honor their husbands by submitting to their authority within the marital relationship. In verse 7, we see where the matter of honor is reciprocal.

...husbands must give honor to your wives.

This means that abusiveness has no place within a marriage when it is lived in accordance with God’s expectations. Just because the wife is the “weaker” party, this doesn’t give the husband latitude to belittle, intimidate, or mistreat her. Rather, he is to treat her “with understanding” as he shares life with her.

In the letter to the Ephesians, we find the Lord adding this and taking this matter of spousal treatment by a husband to a whole new level. In chapter 5, we find this:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Ephesians 5:25-28

Imagine if every husband carried this out, loving his wife as Christ loved the church?

You would see marriages that bloom and flourish in love and a resultant drastic drop in divorce rates, that’s for sure.

God centered husbandry is just that God-centered. This means the husband honors God and places Him in a place of authority over the marital relationship. God dictates how things go and it’s His will for the marriage that matters most. Everything done by the husband and wife, his equal partner in God’s gift of new life”, should glorify and honor Him while meeting His desires and expectations.

If you’re reading this and married today, does your marriage reflect this?

If so, then you are living in the same blessed unity that my wife and I enjoy, a marriage blossoming under the lead of the Lord.

If you read this and see where you have corrections to make, today is that day to change. Repent over any sin committed within the marriage, whether husband or wife or both, and then ask the Lord to assume His rightful place, submitting fully to His authority as equal partners subordinate to Him.

My prayer is that you will see your marital relationship elevate to levels of joy, peace, and love that you never dreamed possible. For this is what happens when we put God first...He will make our marriage finish in first place.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

A WIFE’S TRUE SOURCE OF BEAUTY

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com. 

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do.

1 Peter 3:3-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I remember the first time I met the woman who would be become my wife. She dressed so professionally and she was so beautiful in appearance. I never thought there could be a chance I was in her league.

I was in the United States Navy and a volunteer at the elementary school where she was the assistant principal. Every week, I would split time between two third grade classrooms, acting as a teacher’s aide. I assisted the students with assignments and was an extra person to manage classroom conduct and behavior, the latter sometimes involving walking the class to the cafeteria for lunch.

One day, as I was about to leave the building, I ran into the assistant principal and for the first time, we talked about things outside of the school. She told me she was going to the movies and after I asked her if she was going alone, she said she had a date but added that the person “didn’t know what direction he was going in” before being called to the office.

Left to think over those parting words, I decided to take a chance and sent her flowers to the school the next week so they would arrive the day before I would be in the school next, a day that would be the last one for a while as my ship was going underway for six weeks in preparation for an upcoming deployment that year (1992). I put a note with the flowers asking the assistant principal to go to dinner with me, carefully wording it so she would know it was from me. I was sensitive to any implications that might happen if it got out that she was going out with a school volunteer.

The next week, I came to the school and went through my normal routine with the two classes, never seeing the assistant principal. As I started to follow my standard route out of the building, I thought to myself that it was worth the shot and reminding myself that these things don’t always work out.

I think that thought had just left my mind when all of the sudden, she came around the corner into the hallway. There wasn’t another soul there and I’ll never forget the moment that she looked me in the eye, told me she loved the flowers, and accepted my invitation to dinner. I still get goosebumps sharing the moment.

The next night, we went to dinner and as I remember, we just sat and talked for three hours before we ordered. It was a magical time together and we agreed to start seeing each other, an agreement that led to me proposing to her and then marrying her in December of that year.

As mentioned, she was the most beautiful bride you ever could imagine and after more than 31 years together, she is exponentially more so and I say this now not just based on outward appearance. For when I read today’s scripture passage from our continued look at the opening verses of 1 Peter, chapter 3, I am reminded of all the ways she is attractive, as much on the inside as the out.

Look again at these words here:

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God and accepted the authority of their husbands. Vv.3-5

Now, while my wife still gives attention to her gorgeous outward appearance - which includes her hairstyle, jewelry, and clothing - she gives even more attention to her inner self, the place where her true source of beauty is found. For it’s there that her devotion and dedication to the Lord produces a “gentle and quiet spirit” which is “precious” to Him and all those who know and love her. She trusts Him in everything, submitting herself to His authority and Word which includes accepting my authority as her husband.

This all brings my mind to the words of the Lord as He spoke with Samuel prior to David being selected as the new King over Israel. Here’s what He said:

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b

I give thanks today and every day for my wife, “Amazing” Grace, knowing that when the Lord looks at her heart, He sees what I and so many others do...pure beauty born from a love for Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

A WIFE’S ROLE IN AN UNQUALLY YOKED MARRIAGE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives.

1 Peter 3:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In a perfect world, every man and wife who would marry one another would be a Christian, equal in their belief system and committed to Jesus as the Head of their relationship.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, do we?

Far from it actually.

And while I believe most Christian believers would seek to marry someone who is like minded in values, there are instances where Christians marry unbelievers. Further, there are couples that get married where neither the husband or wife is a disciple of Jesus but after marriage one of the two partners come to believe in Christ while the other doesn’t. If it’s the wife coming to belief, as is the case in most instances, then they find themselves in a marital situation that is unequally yoked. On one hand, the wife sees the Lord Jesus as the One with ultimate authority over her and her family while the husband typically wants to be viewed as the head of the household with a semblance of authority over their spouse.

In these instances, how are wives to handle the present conflict between her full submission to Christ’s authority while her husband is trying to impress his own?

As in so many other circumstances of life, we turn to the Word of God for guidance and direction. When we do, here’s what we find in the opening two verses of 1 Peter, chapter 3:

In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives. Vv.1-2

Here the wife gains the divine advice she needs. For the Lord allows for her to “accept the authority” of her husband. That is paramount to the problem finding its way to resolution and it doesn’t mean the wife is somehow disrespecting the Lord because He is the One giving the counsel.

In allowing the husband to be in charge of the marital relationship, the wife can impact him simply by being a Christian role model and example, allowing her godly life to speak to him without uttering a single word. Although not acknowledged formally for being in a position of authority, the spouse can powerfully lead and influence her husband who will be “won over by observing” here “pure and relevant” behavior.

In the end translation, the Lord can work through anyone in order to bring people to believe in Him. In this marital scenario, the wife becomes the instrument that He uses to get the husband to receive and accept the Gospel, submitting himself to the authority of Christ before entering into agreement with his Christian spouse regarding submission of their marriage to Him, the One who is to be the Head of that union.

I pray you’ll join me in praying for all marriages today, asking for the husband and wife to submit to Jesus in all that they do so that they, as a couple can be role models for other couples to emulate.

Lord, please make it so.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

AT HOME IN THE FLOCK OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.

1 Peter 2:25

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Here’s an undeniable truth.

No person can walk a perfectly good and right life when left on their own to do so. Everyone is woefully inadequate in their ability to lead and guide themselves to the kind of living God expects and without His direction and protection, they are completely exposed and vulnerable to Satan’s attacks, attacks that activate a person’s innate sinfulness and initiate transgressive behavior.

This truth is why we find the Bible associating people with sheep. Sheep are in deep trouble unless they have a shepherd because without someone to lead them, they will do things like fall into a deep hole, walk over the edge of a cliff, or become easy prey for any number of predators who would love to have them for dinner.

Conversely, when they are in a flock and under the watchful eye of their shepherd, they will only go where he leads and will be cared for and protected at all times.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the shepherd/sheep relationship as a model for the way He associates and interacts with those who choose to believe and follow Him. Here’s what He said in chapter 10:

“I am the Good Shepherd; I know My own sheep, and they know Me, just as My Father knows Me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to My voice, and there will be one flock with one Shepherd. Vv.14-16

When any person places their faith in Jesus as Savior, they become a part of His flock, the flock of the redeemed and saved. They are there because they know their Shepherd and their Shepherd knows and loves them, so much so that He would be willing to sacrifice Himself for His sheep and we know Jesus did just that on Calvary’s cross.

We also see through Jesus’ words that His flock is not yet complete. There is room for expansion as He continues to look for stray sheep to bring into His sheepfold where they will join the one saved flock under the auspice of the one Shepherd of salvation.

As we turn to the final verse of 1 Peter, chapter 2, we find Peter reminding his readers, “God’s chosen people” who were “living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia) (1 Peter 1:1), that they were a part of Jesus’ flock. Look again at His words here:

Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. v.25

This verse reinforces the Shepherd/sheep relationship that Jesus speaks of in the Gospel of John. For before they came to Christ, the chosen of people of God that Peter wrote to “were like sheep who wandered away”. The same applies to every single Christian believer, past and present, and the place they were in before believing in Jesus.

All that changed once the lost sheep found their Good Shepherd Jesus. For after turning to Him, they joined His blessed sheepfold and came under the refuge and shelter of the very Guardian and Saver of their souls.

Friends, today we are at home within the same flock as the Christian believers joined more than 2,000 years ago. It’s an immense herd of Jesus believers but there is still room for so many more and the good news is that the Shepherd is always seeking new sheep to join his sheepfold where they will spend a glorious blessed eternity within His loving care.

Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son!

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

HEALED BY THE GREAT HEALER

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin     and live for what is right. By His wounds, you are healed.

1 Peter 2:24

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we live this life on earth, there could be no harrowing place to be than knowing you have a terminal illness of some form that is going to cause your death and there’s nothing that can be done about it.

How many people are in that place in any one day?

It’s estimated that 20 million people every day are living with end of life conditions, conditions for which there is no cure, just the assurance that their end is ever drawing near. And while we will always tend to look at this solely from a physiological standpoint, we do so at the risk of the immense mental health impact terminal illness brings to the afflicted person. Severe anxiety, depression, or a combination of the two is as certain as the death soon to come.

Now, while this is troubling and a truth that is discouraging, there’s one even more so. For here’s another number for us to consider:

5 billion, 37 million.

What does that represent?

It’s the number of the people who are unsaved in our world.

We come to that figure through statistics that show Christianity represents around 31 percent of the world’s population which stands at approximately 7.3 billion people. With that, it’s a simple math exercise, computing 69 percent (the percentage of non-Christians) of 7.3 billion.

That’s more than 5 billion people with a sure eternal destiny of Hell.

Let that sink in for a moment and then consider today’s scripture verse from 1 Peter, chapter 2, a verse that will exponentially amplify the blessed love that God had for the world more than 2,000 years ago when He gave His one and only Son so that anyone who would believe in Him wouldn’t perish but gain everlasting life (John 3:16).

He (Jesus) personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds, you are healed. v.23

There has never been a person born besides Jesus who didn’t have a terminal spiritual disease. Not one.

All are destined for the penalty of Hell unless they are delivered and saved, and that deliverance and saving only comes through a simple, sincere belief in Jesus as Savior.

That’s it.

Unlike the assured death promise for those who are dealing with terminal illness, a person can be rescued from the death sentence of sin and “healed” by the wounds of Jesus, the wounds He gained while bearing the sins of all on Calvary’s cross. Through His sacrifice, He atones for the sinfulness of anyone who believes in Him and justifies them, making them sin-free and pardoned before the God of all Creation before which all will be judged for the life they lived.

Spiritual terminal illness is only healed by coming to Jesus, the Great Healer. My prayer today is that if you are reading this and have not placed your belief in Jesus, you will correct that problem right this moment, freely and gladly receiving God’s loving gift of salvation while committing yourself to become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) in Christ , living a right and righteous life by mirroring His.

For all Christians, more than 5 billion people on their way to Hell should bother you terribly. It’s time for the 31 percent of us to go after the 69 who haven’t accepted Jesus and help them become disciples, just as we’ve been called to do (Matthew 28:18-20).

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.