Author Archives: lrbartel

Oct 05 2016
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Devos

“What a Wonderful Savior!”

paid-in-full-cross

Hey, you’ve got Someone on your side! Someone who went all the way to cross and died there in your place and on your behalf! A true friend, advocate, and Savior! He’s the one who can save us from our sin and its debilitating and disastrous consequences. He’s the one who stands before the Judge of All and offers His own sacrifice as payment in full for the penalty and consequences of our sin! I read about it this morning during “coffee with the Lord” and rejoiced… and offered my sincere gratitude!

“He [Jesus Christ] had no need, like those high priests [merely human high priests in the Old Testament] to offer sacrifices daily, first for His own sins and then for those of the people. He [Jesus Christ – our Great High Priest] did this ONCE FOR ALL when He offered up Himself!” (Hebrews 7:27)

And that brought to mind a couple of other reinforcing verses of Scripture…

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who can bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies! Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, interceding for us?” (Romans 8:31-34)

“While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – But God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 8:6-7)

There’s an old hymn that takes the words right out of my mouth this morning… or maybe it would be better to say, puts the words in my mouth… ‘WHAT A WONDERFUL SAVIOR!” (Want a treat? Google the words to that old hymn!)

Oct 03 2016
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Devos

I gotta tell you… I’m blown away by God”s great redemptive love!

Oh, the mercy and grace of the Lord!  His redemptive love is beyond our imagination!

God’s people, Israel, redeemed by His grace from slavery, had behaved like a common prostitute! More than being tempted and seduced by false Gods, they had run after evil, pagan gods! No longer the seduced, they had become the seducer! They were worthy of rejection and judgment! In Hosea, in your Bible, a prophetic drama is played out… Hosea, the prophet, is commanded to take Gomer, the prostitute, and have children by her… His relationship with her dramatizes God’s great redemptive love!
At the end of Hosea 2, the Lord declares: “In that day declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband!’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals [the pagan gods] from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more… And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord… I will have mercy on ‘No mercy’ and I will say to ‘Not My People,’ [symbolic names given to the children born to Hosea through Gomer] ‘You are my people!’ and you shall say, ‘You are my God!’” (From Hosea 2:16-23)
Perhaps, after experiencing the Lord’s great redemptive love, you slipped away, and returned to sinful living and served false gods! You not only were seduced by sin and temptation… you pursued it, practiced it, and promoted it. The Lord wants you back! He forgives and restores! His love and grace are beyond imagination! God’s message to Israel through Hosea is His message to you! It is his message to all of us “who like sheep have gone astray!” (Isaiah 53:6) Gotta tell you… His redemptive love blows me away!
Oct 01 2016
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Devos

A suggestion: Follow warnings with expressed confidence

I’m sure you’ve experienced it sometime in your life… Someone gives you a warning or a rebuke and follows it up with, “but I am confident you’ll do what is right and won’t let that happen to you!” There it is – A warning or rebuke followed up by expressed confidence and yet a word of caution.
In my Bible reading this morning I came across a passage in Hebrews that does just that… The writer of Hebrews gives a serious, straightforward, even severe warning to those he is writing to (and contrary to some interpreters of Scripture, it is NOT simply rhetorical!)…
He warned them, “It is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” The point? You turn your back on Jesus and there is no hope for you!
But then he expresses confidence in them, but adds just a word of caution…
“Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (From Hebrews 6:9-12)
Two things came to mind as I read that passage this morning…
First, whenever I have to deal with a person or situation in a direct manner as a leader (or parent), I want to follow the example of the writer of Hebrews – follow it up with a sincere expression of confidence (but also with just a word of caution).
But secondly, in my walk with the Lord, I never want to presume on my salvation! The writer of Hebrews warning is to be taken seriously! But also the confidence that he expressed in these believers (with just an added word of caution). Hey, in this Christian journey, I want to be “all in – all the way!”
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