Lincoln Forlong

I’ve just been reading and thinking upon the many lessons found in Daniel 4, about King Nebuchadnezzar. While we may not like to admit it, there seems to be a bit of the fleshly Nebuchadnezzar heart attitude in us all to some degree. A few quick observations from Daniel 4 which I hope encourage you:

• Life’s circumstances and direction can change very quickly, yet the Lord is overseeing and governing it all, even though we may not recognise or feel His presence
• The Lord is gracious with us, even when we are not responding to Him as He wants. He preserves our lives so that we can change for His glory
• The Lord has a time-table for us, which He keeps perfectly synchronised with His will and plans for us (Eph 1). His plans never fail.
• Every period of difficulty, even suffering, has an end.
• No circumstance in life, good or painful, is without a God directed purpose which is to redirect us and grow us into being more God focused and God honouring. So our character and words will better express His character.
• When the times of refreshment come, and they will come, and they do come, enjoy the wonder and joy of speaking well of the Lord (Praise) and being able to express His glory in ways you could not do had you not gone through the painful periods
• Finally, realise you are not alone! As well as having the presence of the Lord, we have one another.

Daniel 4:37         Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

Be encouraged to persevere and grow in your faith beloved. Recognise God in everything and appreciate the fellowship of each other. Pray for and actively encourage one another in some way today.

I wish to encourage you today in living the freedom we have in Christ. Freedom to choose Christ as Lord in place of sin, freedom to choose the truth of God’s Words in place of personal opinion or worldly thinking, freedom to persevere in your growing relationship with Christ in place of living for self.

John 8:31-32, 34-37         So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” …Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

Notice that the Jews who had so-called belief in Jesus spoken of in verse 31, are the same people who were ready to kill Jesus in verse 37. This exposes a possible “false belief” that our lying human hearts can deceive us with.

• True belief surrenders all to the control of Jesus as Lord, and does not change it’s mind when life gets difficult, or when Jesus doesn’t do what you want Him to.
• True belief surrenders it’s way of thinking and values to the controlling truth of God’s Word with no intention of taking back control of our values.
• True belief surrenders in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ
• True belief surrenders to persevering in faith in Christ, and does not give up

I pray that God will be honoured in each of our lives today as we live out the freedom we have in Christ through our surrendered belief in Christ as Lord.

I wish to encourage you this morning with the privilege we have of not only being recipients of God’s grace, but of sharing that very same grace with others.

In our Lord’s kindness and wisdom, He has enabled every believer in Jesus Christ with a persoanlly tailored giftedness unique to each of us. His ingenious creativity is so woeful, that we are usually unaware of the intrinsic nature of His grace giftedness implanted within our characters. We simply think that we are doing what we want, yet, the Lord observes that we are doing and expressing His character through His implanted grace grift, crafted and customised precisely to deliver His grace via our words and behaviour.

Now, the wonder of it all, is that while we think we are going about our daily activities, the Lord is accomplishing His foreknown will through our behaviour as Spirit filled believers. We become, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the administers of Christ’s grace into the lives of those we rub shoulders with. Therefore, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace… (1 Peter 4:10).

Today, realise that …God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Let us live Christ, and enjoy the opportunities that today brings of being a child of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, for His glory and our joy.

I wish to encourage you all to place the loving mercy of our Lord in the forefront of your thinking as you enter this new day. As the writer of Lamentations rightly explains, in the midst of all that life throws at us, we choose to ”call to mind” the character of God. Regardless of what lays ahead of you today, your soul is safe! Your hope is grounded in the very eternal nature of our sovereign God who loves you with an everlasting, inseparable love, which intertwines His mercy with the activities and events of the day that lays before you.

Lam. 3:21-25 (ESV)  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: (22) The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; (23) they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  (24)  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”  (25)  The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Enter today beloved assured of our Saviours merciful truth in you. Lean upon His provision, in spite of what you may be feeling, for He will sustain your soul. Carry each other to our King in prayer, knowing that He can accomplish what we can only dream of. We walk by faith for His glory and each other’s blessing through faith in Christ.

I wish to encourage you all with what the apostle Paul recognised as a vital element of walking in the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is for us to …make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (Romans 14:19). Three useful observations which I pray will assist you this week:

1. Walking with Christ and serving others with a genuine view to growing in unity will take your every effort. There are no shortcuts and no room for selfishness or laziness.
2. Growing Godliness is progressive. As we choose to do what leads to the benefit of others, one Christ pleasing act will lead to another, and to another, and so on.
3. One of Christ’s is  peace and mutual edification. A personal spiritual thermometer is; does the way I speak and act toward others actually build peace into their lives and constructively develop mutual edification in your relationship with that person? This should be especially true in our marriages then with others.

May the Lord enable us by His Spirit, feed us by His Word, and fulfil His will in our lives as surely as He fulfils His will in Heaven.