If you will take a look around you it is easy to see that we have entered into one of my favorite seasons. Fall is upon us. Although our calendars may indicate when each season "officially" begins, we rarely time them according to a particular date. It's when we see the changes in His creation that we know that we have entered a new season.
In Acts 1, Jesus was telling the disciples that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. When they gathered together He was asked if the kingdom would now be restored to Jerusalem. "And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.'" (Acts 1:17). There are some things that we have not been permitted to know. God has set times and seasons that He controls. "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses..." (Acts 1:18). Notice the transition. It's not for you to know the times and seasons BUT you are getting ready to enter into a new one!
The coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost marked a new season in the life of the believers. They would not be able to sit around and simply wait for God to turn the kingdom back over to Jerusalem. They would be empowered to establish God's kingdom on earth.
Times and Seasons are out of our control. There are times when it seems that God is continually pouring out blessings. Seasons of refreshment, power, and life. At other times it seems as though we have to walk in faith. Seasons of growth, pressing in, and looking for understanding. We cannot control them but we can control how we live in each one.
Regardless of the time or season that you may find yourself in, there is a constant. God never changes. He says, "I am God and I change not." Never consider God as a variable. We may change, our situations may change, but God does not change. He still loves with an everlasting love. There is still no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. If you ask Him for bread he will never give you a stone. He will still give to those who ask. You can still find God when you search for Him with all of your heart. The problem comes when we begin to view God from the time or season that we are experiencing.
There is an old song that still rings true today: "The God of the mountain top is still God of the valley." The mountain top never requires the same faith as the valley. The finish line does not require the same endurance as the race. However, God is firmly established in each and every season. He never leaves nor forsakes us. We may simply have to walk in faith rather than sight. We may have to be moved by our convictions rather than our emotions. We may have to swim against the current rather than flow in the river.
Some people may say "I just wish that I knew when this season was going to be over." But what if you could know? If you knew how long you had to pray, believe, and strive; would it change how you approach a season. Some of us would be far too willing to curl up in the bed and sleep through a season if we knew that it was only going to last a few weeks. We may get through the season but it will not benefit us. We won't know anything more about the nature of God when we are through unless we are willing to go through them with Him.
The disciples had to know that God was bringing them into a new season. And what a season it was!!! The Gospel would be preached, people would be saved, churches would be established, the lame would walk, sick people would be made well, and God would continually show His power in their situations. If they knew that God was going to establish the kingdom they may have simply set up shop in the upper room. But His calling wasn't for them to fellowship continually in the upper room. His calling was for them to take this message of the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. They had to walk in the new season. It wasn't always an easy journey. Some of them were shipwrecked. Most of the apostles would become martyrs for the faith. They would have to endure some difficult days. However, they had a constant living inside of them - HOLY SPIRIT.
I must say to you that it's not for you to know the times or seasons in your life. But you will receive power...
6 comments:
SANTIFICATION:
Evangelical Protestantism tends to emphasize salvation as an event and many aspects of our salvation are viewed as past events.
In Catholic thought there is a much greater emphasis on salvation as a process, as working out your salvation.
The pursuit of holiness and ultimately salvation is a journey, begun at our baptism and completed in the consummation of all things.
In the mystery of God's sovereign will, he has chosen to extend to us the dignity of choice, and so attaining salvation is portrayed in the Scriptures as is in some sense contingent on our final perseverance:
"And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach_if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard." (Colossians 1:21-23) (1)
All of salvation is gained for us by the infinite merits of Jesus Christ in his atoning death on the cross:
Christ's death is both the Pascal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," and the sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores men to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Catechism of the Catholic Church 613)
Michael,
Thanks for your comments.
I am going to disagree with you just a little bit. While most Protestants believe that salvation is something that has occurred in our lives, I lead our people in seeing its complete work: I have been saved - I am saved - I am being saved.
However, the work of salvation is finished. It was finished with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. I am now in Christ - by faith. I am the righteousness of God in Him. I am holy. These are all descriptions of the believer according to the Word of God.
Romans 10:9-10 tells us that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved. This life of faith now becomes a living out of what God has already accomplished.
God has declared me righteous - by FAITH - alongside Abraham. Knowing who we are in Christ actually empowers me to live a life that is sanctified.
Dear Neal,
Open your Bible to Acts 5:29-32... But Peter and the Apostles answered and said, "We must obey GOD rather than men...(32) and we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom GOD has given to all who obey him."
Those verses are unmistakable that we have to do our part by obeying the commandments of GOD.
Then there is the dreaded (by Protestants) James 2:14-26 which starts with (14) "What will it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but does not have Works?
Can the faith save him?...(17) So faith too, unless it has Works, is dead in itself...(20) Faith without Works is useless...(21)
Was not Abraham our father justified by Works when he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar? (22) Do you not see that Faith worked along with his Works, and by the Works the faith was made perfect?...(24)
You see that by Works a man is justified, and not by faith only....(26) For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so, Faith also without Works is Dead." 'Subjective Salvation' in action, is shown for that whole section written by St. James.
I could go on and on with verses like this, and could ask questions such as, why is there a need for the ten commandments, since we are 'automatically saved'? I think you get the message from what I have shown.
Read Matthew 25:31:46. It is all about doing good works in this life. Then there is Revelation 14:13, "And I heard a voice from Heaven saying, 'Write: blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth. Yes, says the Spirit, let them rest from their labors, for their works follow them.'"
Is that clear enough that works are needed in addition to faith? Still not convinced? Then how about another crystal clear verse? Revelation 22:12, "Behold, I come quickly! And My reward is with Me, to render to each one according to his works."
I must call it to your attention that the Bible mentions Faith Only, once and only once, in one verse, and in that verse it says NOT by Faith Only. (James 2:24)
I don't dread James. Faith without works is dead. However, any works that I do apart from faith is in the flesh. My works do not save me. Period.
Romans 6:14 says, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace." Martin Luther had it right: By grace through faith!!!
"Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20)
"For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." (Romans 4:3)
The Jews stumbled at the same thing you are stumbling over Michael. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Romans 10:3-4)
Here's the solution:
"But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:8-10)
Jesus told Nicodemus that "whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
You are speaking out of both sides of your mouth. You say that "all of salvation is gained for us by the infinite merits of Jesus Christ in His atoning death on the cross", yet you are also trying to gain righteousness by your works. By the works of the law NO flesh shall be justified.
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage...You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." (Galatians 5:1, 4)
I hope that you can see that Jesus is enough! All the works that I do for the glory of God, I do by the grace of God at work in me. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I not live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." (Galatians 2:20-21)
And to correct you on your lack of faith in your Bible. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by GRACE you have been saved, through FAITH, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."
Dear Neal,
Private interpretation of Scriptures can be exceedingly harmful to self and others. This has divided Christianity into hundreds if not tens of thousands of segments.
Too many individuals claim their position is right and are unwilling to freely discuss the position taken or to be submissive to moral authorities.
Holding to a personal position, or one of heretical source, places one's eternal soul in jeopardy. Such people often become instruments that lead others to perdition.
Michael,
It seems as though you and I do agree on some things. I believe we should be willing to discuss, communicate, and even debate if needed so that we may all come to a fullness of understanding. However, you need to understand that I am confident in the grace of God. Salvation is from the Lord, by the Lord, and through the Lord. I truly believe this is what the Apostle Paul clearly demonstrated in his letter to the Church at Rome.
I am trusting in the Holy Spirit as my guide. I allow Him to reveal truth to me through the Word and submit to God as the moral authority.
"This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so FOOLISH? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:2-3) Paul goes on to say that "only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham...those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." (Galatians 3:7, 9)
Galatians 3:11, "But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for 'the just shall live by faith.'"
Is there a proper use of the law in our lives? Absolutely! "...the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Galatians 3:24)
I will close with my own personal reading from God's Word this morning. In Luke 7:36-50, we read the story of Jesus visiting the house of a Pharisee. A woman comes an anoints Jesus with expensive perfume. Jesus tells her that her sins (though they are many) have been forgiven. Then He said to her, "Your FAITH has saved you. Go in peace." (7:50)
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