by Terry Laughlin | Apr 29, 2016 | Heaven
Read from Scripture what the Ultimate Father did. “For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whoever, believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Those who receive the Father’s gift, receives all the Father has. The Bible gives us this wonderful truth, “What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:1-7)
Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.” This grace from God is offered to all of mankind. When Christ enters a man by the Holy Spirit, he is under a special grace that sustains the soul in time of need. (2 Corinthians 12:9) It provides strength. (1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Timothy 2:1) It produces thanksgiving and glory to God. (2 Corinthians 4:15) It affects our conversations. (Colossians 4:6) And it enables believers to live holy and godly lives. (2 Corinthians 1:12)
Annie Johnson Flint, quoted in John R. Rice’s, Poems That Preach says it beautifully, “He giveth more grace when burdens grow greater, He sendth more strength when the labors increase. To added afflictions, He addeth His mercy, to multiplied trials, His multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed when the day is half done. When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father’s full giving is only begun. His love has no limit, His grace has no measure. His power no boundary known to men. For out of His infinite riches in Jesus. He giveth and giveth and giveth again.”
(The Tales of the Tardy Oxcart, Swindoll)
by Terry Laughlin | Apr 29, 2016 | Heaven
We Have the Benefit of Forgiveness
Read from Scripture what the Ultimate Father did. “For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whoever, believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Those who receive the Father’s gift, receives all the Father has. The Bible gives us this wonderful truth, “What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:1-7)
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When a person acknowledges his sin and in repentance confesses those sins before the Lord, his sins are forgiven. By virtue of the cleansing effect of Jesus’ atoning death the repentant sinner is fit for fellowship with God the Father, Jesus His Son and enabled to walk in step with the Holy Spirit. (The New American Commentary)
John instructs Christians on what to do when sin overcomes them and the benefits of confession to the Lord.
It begins with confession: “confess” (is homologeō – ὁμολογεω) means to agree with another or rather to agree with God as to all the implication of the sin committed by the child of God. This includes the hatred of that sin, the Christians sense of guilt because of it and his heart desire to put that sin out of his life. (Wuest’s Word Study in the Greek New Testament; Word Studies in the New Testament) The Christian who is forgiven of a confess sin has the spirit and heart of King David who wrote, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
Walter B. Knight wrote about “A man who was deeply convicted of sin and about his need for the Savior. Restlessly, he wondered one night along a country road, seeking relief for his misery. When he became tired, he sat down by some hedges. After sitting for a while, on the other side of the hedge he heard two girls in conversation. One girl had heard a sermon about forgiveness, she said it brought her so much comfort. The sermon brought out a statement that has been spoken by most of us, ‘You made your bed, now lie in it.’ (Knight’s Treasury of 2,000 Illustrations)
The Bible records the words of the Greatest Teacher of all time, ‘Your sins are forgiven… I want you to know that Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Mark 2:10) I like the words written by Micah, “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19)
God does not hold our sins against us once we have called upon Christ for forgiveness in repentance.
by Terry Laughlin | Apr 29, 2016 | Heaven
We Have the Benefit of Eternal Life through Jesus Christ
Read from Scripture what the Ultimate Father did. “For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whoever, believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Those who receive the Father’s gift, receives all the Father has. The Bible gives us this wonderful truth, “What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:1-7)
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.” Sin means death. Christ means eternal life. John 10:27-28 says, “My sheep know my voice and I know them and they follow Me and I give unto them eternal life.” Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.”
“In the chapel of St George, in West Minster Abbey, is a memorial of World War II. It consist of four bound volumes that contain the names of the 60,000 civilians who were killed in the city of London by enemy action. One volume lies open at a time on the shrine and a light shines down upon the typescript names that appear on that open page. Each day a page is turned. Thus will the names of those who were rich or poor, titled or of the common people, old or young, healthy or ill, sound body or crippled, famous or infamous, stand together to be revealed in the light for all to see as a page of the book is turned each day. It is known as the book of death. The Bible tells of a book of life. It is in Heaven. In that book, too, will be found the names of men and women from all classes and conditions on earth. All will be in the light, and all will be honored of God. For the Book of life will reveal, in that coming day, the names of those who through faith in God and His Christ have been regenerated from death to life in Jesus Christ” (In the Lamb’s Book of Life; Knight’s Master Book of Illustrations, Knight)
by Terry Laughlin | Apr 29, 2016 | Heaven
A Biblical Revelation – The Loss of a Baby
David, the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) gives a truth worth grasping when we face the tragedy of the death of a baby. David writes, “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together…, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16) The prophet Jeremiah has this Biblical revelation, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” We know from Scripture that the life of a child is unique and sacred. The Word “knew” (Hebrew-יָדַע yāḏa) means God knows us personally, relationally and He has ordained us to do a specific task before we were even born. David says before our days came to be, God has written down His ideal purpose for us in the whole of life. To God, the age and existence of a child is not figured from the day they are physically born, but from His knowledge of their conception through eternity.
Medicine for a broken heart over the death of a baby is Holy Spirit illumination of the current dwelling place of the child missed here and now. King David was able to comfort his wife with the Biblical revelation he had of the death of their child, “…I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:23) Jesus gives us all a truth to grasp: “I am going there to prepare a place for you… I will come back and take you to be with Me that you may also be where I am.” (John 14:2b-3) The Apostle Paul believed the Lord, He wrote, “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)
“Some years ago in Dayton, Ohio, a little girl came to know the love of Jesus Christ, becoming an earnest Christian. She loved her father very much, but her father was not a Christian and he had no concerns for the affairs of the Body of Christ.
Each evening as the father came home from work, this little girl would meet him at the gate. Despite the gate being very high and without gaps to see through, she waited patiently. In order for his daughter to see him come home through the gate, he took a paling off the gate. Each night when the father came home from work, his little Christian daughter was waiting for him, eagerly looking through the palings of the gate.
One day the little girl became very ill, one from which she would never recover. As she became sicker and sicker, the little Christian girl told her father, ‘When I get to heaven, I am going to ask God to pull a paling off Heaven’s gate so I can look through to see if you are coming.’” (Knights Treasury of 4,000 Illustrations, Walter B. Night)
For those who have a baby in heaven, there is truth for your soul. You can overcome bitterness, suppress anger and choose to walk in everlasting joy. The one you lost is waiting in heaven. Souls in heaven are looking, watching to see if you are coming through faith in Jesus Christ. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12)
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