AUGUST 7

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

Micah 5:4:

 “He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord”

CHARLES SPURGEON:

“He will stand and shepherd” meaning the great head of the church is actively engaged in providing for His people.  He does not sit down upon the throne in idleness or simply hold His scepter without wielding it in governing His people.  No, He stands and shepherds, and as a shepherd He does everything expected of a shepherd:

He guides, watches, protects, restores, tends, and feeds.

Christ’s reign is CONTINUAL in its duration.  Our verse says, “He will stand and shepherd” – not, “He will stand and shepherd now and then, often leaving his position,” nor, “He will send revival one day, and the next day leave His church in barrenness” 

Christ “will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps 121:4)  His hands never rest, His heart never ceases to beat with love, and His shoulders are never weary of carrying His people’s burdens.,

Christ’s reign is POWERFULLY EFFECTIVE in its action.  “He will…shepherd…in the strength of the Lord.”…the Lord Jehovah.  Wherever Christ is there is God: and whatever Christ does is an action of the Most High God.  Oh what a joyful truth to consider that He who stands today representing the interests of His people is “Very God of Very God” to whom “every knee will bow” (Phil 2;10)

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This month we will continue the book, “Whatever Happens – How to Stand Firm in Your Faith When the World is Falling Apart.”  By a contemporary author of many best-selling Christian books, Robert J. Morgan.  He took care of his wife when she had MS, until she went home to her Savior.  “He knows of which he speaks.”  I pray that this book blesses you.

WHATEVER HAPPENS….BE CAREFUL WHO YOU ADMIRE

Philippians 3:17-21

“17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

FOLLOW THE ONE WHO CAN TRANSFORM YOU

Now Paul arrived at the climax of his argument.  If we’re going to stand firm in our faith, there are a few people whom we should emulate and many people we should avoid, but there is only one Man to whom we should give our lives and who can transform us forever.  Look at verse 20 and 21 above.

This is acknowledged by theologians and Bible students alike to be one of the greatest passages in all the Bible.  Paul didn’t say, “Our citizenship will be in heaven.”  We are NOW currently citizens of heaven, living as expatriates here on earth.  I remember hearing Vance Havner say:

 “We are not citizens of earth going to heaven;  we are citizens of heaven traveling through earth.”

The book of Hebrews says we are “foreigners and strangers on earth” (11:13).

First Peter 1:17 tells us this:

“live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.”

If you want me to prove I’m an American, I’ll pull out my passport.  But if you want me to prove I’m a citizen of heaven, I’ll pull out my Bible and turn to Philippians 3:20.  Our citizenship is recorded in heaven, and we are under the jurisdiction and protection of heaven.  The very King of heaven is our father, “and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the first 4 chapters of Philippians, there are 12 references to the return of Christ and our eternal home:

Chapter 1 –Paul said that for him, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  He desired to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

Chapter 2 – he talked about the day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord.

Chapter 3 –he talked about the upward call of God in Christ.

Chapter 4 – he reminded his readers that the Lord is near.  Many people interpret that to mean that the Lord’s COMING is near.

As you study his 13 epistles, you’ll discover that Paul could hardly write a chapter without talking about the return of Christ and our eternal home.  After all, he’d been caught up to the third heaven and had seen just a little bit of what awaits us there.  He said he’d heard inexpressible things while in paradise that he was not permitted to tell (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).

The last thought in chapter 3 looks again at the coming Savior whom we eagerly await and who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body (vs 21)

If you have been redeemed by the blood of Christ — meaning, if you have repented of your sins, knowing that you cannot earn your way to heaven by any means (including religious ceremonies and sacraments) but only by fully and singularly trusting the sacrificial suffering and death of Jesus Christ in your place. – then one day you will be resurrected, transformed, and glorified according to the observable pattern of the resurrected and glorified body of Jesus Christ.

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