Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The Daily Nugget is a weekday devotional written by Pastor Jim Sole. We hope you find encouragement, guidance, and conviction unto holiness through the scriptures and commentary.
Today’s scripture provides the necessary elements for a church to be healthy (Acts 2:42). All of these must be active, alive, and safeguarded if we are to model God’s design for the church He reveals in His Word. There are four identified by Luke. First, there must be the commitment to sound Biblical teaching or doctrine. The next element in a healthy church is fellowship among God’s people. A third element in a healthy church is observance of the Lord’s table – “the breaking of bread.” The final element in a healthy church is a vibrant prayer ministry.
I often ask myself self-examination questions like this, “Jim, are you growing in grace? Are you getting closer to Christ? Is the Fruit of the Spirit blossoming more in you now than last week, month, or year? Is spiritual maturity something you recognize happening in you?” These are difficult questions because they require honest, unhurried time with the Lord to mediate and listen to His voice through His Word in order to answer them. They also are difficult because we need another input outside of ourselves because of the treachery and self-deception in our hearts (Jeremiah 17:9). So, what are some signs that we may see in our lives that we are growing in Christ and exhibiting spiritual maturity?
One could and likely should spend significant amount of time pondering the words of Jesus as He hung on the cross. There are seven things He said. The first one revealed His love for sinners. He looked out over the mocking crowd, His weeping mother, saddened disciples, and the curious bystanders and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). In today’s scripture, are the last words He would speak before dying, “It is finished.” Let’s consider two situations we must rely upon the finished work of our Lord Jesus on the cross for our daily walk with Him.
Every Christian goes through those spiritual experiences called “the blues”; those down times of sadness, maybe discouragement or depression, that just don’t have a cause. We are not in sin. Nor are we totally dysfunctional. We simply are stuck in a spiritual fog that has taken the spring out of our step, the joy to be less in our hearts, and the routines of life almost like little balls and chains dragging us down. However, we can get through “the blues” and that quite quickly if we learn to do four things. Let’s consider them today.
I believe all Christians share two commonalities when it comes to time. First, we complain there just isn’t enough of it. In the frantic pace of life, often self-imposed, we seem to have so much to do and so little time to do it. A second common trait in Christians, actually all humans, is we waste time. Now don’t be quick to defend yourself. We do it. A minute here, a minute there, soon turns into hours. We must fight against the foolish and unwise investment of our most precious resource – time – on things that won’t matter when it comes to that day of all days – our Day of Judgment before the Lord Jesus.
One sad reality of the Christian life is our many times of failing the Lord. We hate them. We get discouraged over them. We may even feel like raising the white flag of spiritual surrender and cry out in defeat, This is when the devil intensifies his attack on us. How so? He will attempt to get us to believe his lies about our Lord. So how do we overcome him when his lies about our failing the Lord are actually true? True that we fail, but untrue of the picture he paints of the Lord Jesus? Today’s verse is a powerful piece of armor which always silences the lies of the devil when he makes an all-out attack upon us after we fail the Lord.