Whose Clothes Are You Wearing?

The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes."
   Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you." Zechariah 3:4

This is such a great picture of the grace of God. Because of sin we are filthy. The reality being that we can't clothe or clean ourselves. He takes away our sin and clothes us in his righteousness. In I Corinthians 1:30 Paul reminds us that the work of Christ on the cross makes Christ our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 

Take a moment to remember that your sins are forgiven and you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ Jesus, the Lord. 

Are You Humble?

Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,
   you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
   perhaps you will be sheltered
   on the day of the LORD'S anger.
Zephaniah 2:3

I think a mark of humility is seeking God because you recognize that he is God and you are not. The arrogance of the agnostic is that s/he thinks they can stand in judgement of God and therefore can choose to act in the righteousness they define. 

But, only God is good. All our righteousness comes from God in Christ. Because he first loved us we seek to obey his command to love as he first loved us. That is righteousness. 

The day of judgement will come, whether or not people believe it. Seek righteousness in Christ. Seek to know who you are in Christ - humility is found there. He is our shelter now and he will be our shelter in the day of judgement. 

LOOK HERE!

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2

I am not sure why, but, it seems that we will try to look anywhere but Jesus. I'm not even talking about sinful things, necessarily. We'll look to our own righteousness. We'll try to pray more, read the Bible more, go to church more, serve more, anything but look to Jesus. Jesus told the religious people of his day, 

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:39-40). 

Our salvation is about what Jesus did and what he is doing right now. He died for our sins. He died knowing we would sin, again. That does not condone sin. It only recognizes that reality of sin. But Jesus intercedes on our behalf. He doesn't just start our faith he completes it. He is the perfecter of our faith. Not us, him. 

He is at the right hand of the Father, interceded, perfecting our faith. Remember that your salvation is about his sacrifice, his faithfulness, his righteousness. 

Father, help us to fix our eyes upon Jesus. 

    Fix your eyes upon Jesus, 

    look full in his wonderful face, 

    and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, 

    in the light of his glory and grace... 

Praise be to you in us today!

TEN YEARS,OR ONE YEAR TEN TIMES?

"In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who  lives on milk, being still and infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness." Hebrews 5:12-13  

Here is a tough question: Have you been a Christian ten years (or however long you have been a Christian) or one year ten times? 

The author of Hebrews lays it on the line and says that by that time in their Christian experience they should of been teaching someone else about the righteousness of God in Christ by faith that they were experiencing. Instead they were still struggling with the elementary truths of God's word again! 

Tell me this doesn't sound like most of the church today. I have to ask myself, does it sound like me? Ask yourself, does it sound like you? 

One of my mentors used to say, "I sleep good at night because I take advantage of the cross. Not abuse it, just accepting what Christ has done for me." My pastor yesterday reminded us that he always says at the beginning of the year that he will be surprised but God will not. So very true. 

The good news of the gospel is that Christ died for our sins and that when we accept that, when we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we willed be saved (Romans 10:9-10). God is not surprised by anything that we go through. Think of it this way, he died for our sins - past, present and future. 

Now what does faith have for me today?

Father, thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you Jesus for being our righteousness. Help us to build upon the truth of righteousness by faith! Praise be to you in us today!