Encouragement for Others, Glory for God

Day By Day By Grace
Bob Hoekstra
May 25, 2010

So then death is working in us, but life in you…For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 4:12 and 15)

We who live under the new covenant of grace are earthen vessels. We have no true spiritual life in ourselves. "You have no life in you" (John 6:53). The treasure who lives within us (Jesus) is our daily source of spiritual life: "Christ who is our life" (Colossians 3:4). Consequently, we must always be dying in order to live. We must be embracing the cross of Christ so that our bankrupt self-life will not be our resource for living. We must look to the Lord as our sufficiency.

The Lord helps us in this process by putting us into impossible situations that necessitate our dependence upon Him. He faithfully responds to our trust and manifests Himself through us. "For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11). Others observing this receive encouragement to look to the Lord for the life they need. Thus, Paul could write to the Corinthians (who were aware of this process in his life): "So then death is working in us, but life in you."

Every difficulty that God brings into our lives not only has significance for us, but it can also have an impact on those to whom we are ministering. "For all things are for your sakes." How important it is to have a perspective on life that includes God working in us that He might touch others. Paul certainly viewed life and ministry in this manner. "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you…Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all…Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory" (Colossians 1:24; Philippians 2:17; Ephesians 3:13).

As the Lord works His grace into and through our lives, grace can be spreading to many other lives: "that grace, having spread through the many." When God's grace is at work in people's hearts, thanksgiving is so often the beautiful fruit that results. Such thanksgiving brings much glory and honor to God: "may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God."

My God and Father, teach me to handle trials in a way that will encourage people to trust in You. I want to touch others with life, as I am dying circumstantially. Please make my life a vessel through which You cause Your grace to spread to many lives. May much thanksgiving result, all to Your honor and glory, Amen.

An Action Carried Out Toward Earthen Vessels

Day By Day By Grace
Bob Hoekstra
May 24, 2010

For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:11)

The treasure who lives within us (Jesus) is to get glory and honor as we trust Him to live in, and be manifested through, the vessels of our humanity. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us" (2 Corinthians 4:7). Our previous meditation reminded us that we are to embrace an attitude of "death to self" that facilitates this plan: "Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" (2 Corinthians 4:10). In addition, there is an action carried out toward earthen vessels that also advances this great purpose of God. This matter is also about dying in order to live.

This action is taken toward earthen vessels: "we who live." We who have found new life in Christ are the ones who are "delivered to death." Our God places us into (or allows us to be put in) situations that are far more than we can handle. Even the Apostle Paul had to undergo this action taken toward him. "For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves" (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). This was not an isolated incident. Paul was frequently in such impossibilities. "From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep" (2 Corinthians 11:24-25).

Since we are earthen vessels, this is the way life unfolds. Clay pots are characteristically inadequate and vulnerable. Consequently, the situations that our all-loving and all-wise Father leads us into are consistently like being "delivered to death." However, this action toward us is "for Jesus' sake." In the continual impossibilities confronting us, Jesus has repeated opportunities to manifest Himself. Our heavenly Father places us in circumstances we cannot handle by our own resources. We cry out to the Lord, putting our hope and trust in Him. He faithfully goes to work in us. The result is "that the life of Jesus [is] manifested in our mortal flesh."

Dear heavenly Father, forgive me for the many times I resist Your delivering me over to death. You know that I prefer it when I can handle the events that come my way. Remind me to view my impossibilities as Jesus' opportunities to manifest Himself in and through the vessel of my life. This I humbly ask, in Jesus' name, Amen.

An Attitude Carried About by Earthen Vessels

Day By Day By Grace
Bob Hoekstra
May 23, 2010

Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:10)

As earthen vessels, we are to live by trusting in the treasure (the Lord Jesus) who dwells within us: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Corinthians 4:7). Also, we are to give Him all honor and glory as He sustains us day by day through the trials of life: "that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." In addition, to help us magnify the treasure who lives in us, there is to be an attitude (an outlook) carried about (embraced) by the earthen vessels..

The particular attitude that results in magnifying the treasure is the perspective we hold concerning the death of Christ: "Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." This is about dying in order to live. Jesus taught this. "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it" (Luke 9:24). Those who hold on to the life they received from Adam lose what they are trying to guard and develop. They never find true life. However, all who renounce their sinful natural life and trust in Jesus find a new life from Him. This is the attitude that followers of Christ are to carry with them. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). Day by day, our perspective is to include a rejection of any life that we could produce on our own ("deny himself"). We are to agree with God that the self life always deserves the cross of Christ ("take up his cross daily"). This leaves us with only one option: pursue after Jesus for the life He alone can provide ("and follow Me").

Such confessions are in harmony with what actually happened to us at the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism (that is, through identification) into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). When we placed our trust in the Lord, His death and resurrection became our death and resurrection! This is to be our confidence continually. "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:11).

When we carry about this attitude, we are actually trusting the Lord Jesus (the treasure who dwells within us) to live in and through our "earthen vessels," our humanity: "that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body."

Dear Lord, I want to carry about with me Your dying. I want to embrace all that Your cross proclaims and provides. Thank You for dying in my place. I rejoice that I died there with You. Now, I ask You to live in and through me day by day, Amen.

The Process that Magnifies the Treasure

Day By Day By Grace
Bob Hoekstra
May 22, 2010

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:7-9)

New covenant servants (followers of Jesus Christ) are "earthen vessels" (ordinary clay pots). Yet, in the container of their redeemed humanity dwells "this treasure" (the Son of God Himself). This arrangement calls for the treasure (Jesus), not the vessels (you and me), to be the object of all trust and the recipient of all glory: "that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." Appropriately, the Lord has also arranged a process that magnifies the treasure.

This process involves the every day pressures of life, which come from all sides. "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed.." Clay pots cannot withstand much pressure, but the treasure within us (Christ) is able to keep us from being smashed. "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:1)

The process that draws attention to the treasure also involves many perplexities. "We are perplexed, but not in despair." We face difficult decisions and impossible issues, but our Wonderful Counselor protects us from hopelessness: "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3).

Persecutions are included in the process: "persecuted, but not forsaken.." People accuse us, misunderstand us, or lie about us. Still, we know we are not abandoned by our Lord who lives within us. "For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you'" (Hebrews 13:5).

Even catastrophes are a part of the process that magnifies the treasure who indwells us: "struck down, but not destroyed." Circumstantial upheavals and overwhelming heartaches occur, but the Lord stabilizes our souls. "They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support" (Psalm 18:18).

Thus, life comes at us like an overpowering military tank, ready to flatten us. There is no natural hope, because clay pots can't handle tanks. Yet, as the dust clears, the flower pot of our lives can remain intact (if we are trusting in the able and faithful one who lives in our hearts). There is no attacking tank that can overcome the Lord Jesus Christ. "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

Lord Jesus, You are my indwelling treasure. When pressures, perplexities, persecutions, or catastrophes come my way, teach me to trust in You. When others ask how I am sustained through these difficulties, remind me to give all glory and honor to You. In Your name I pray, Amen.

Great and Mighty Things

From the Pastor: Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.

“Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah … Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name; Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jer. 33:1-3)

The word “maker” means that God is the architect and the creator of His word. The Holy Scriptures are not by the design of men; “…but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (II Peter 1:21) Therefore, we are made to understand that the Word of God that came to the prophet Jeremiah and all the other writers of the Bible were first under the grand architectural purposes of the eternal Creator. Not one word of the Holy Writ was left to chance. Every word was specifically designed to express the mind of the living God unto His created being.

The word “formed” signifies to fashion, and the word “establish” denotes to confirm. Thus, after God meticulously and architecturally designed His Word, He fashioned it in such a way that it would confirm itself in every generation. “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” (Ps. 119:89) It may not be settled or established in the minds of men, but there is absolutely no flaw in the architecture or the soundness of its structure.

Because the Word of God is so supernaturally formed for His created being, every promise in the Holy Writ was so designed and fashioned as to insure its confirmation in the purpose and the will of its majestic architect. There is not one promise of God that is structurally unsound. His Word will endure every test.

Throughout the Word of God there are guidelines and prerequisites to approaching the Holy God of heaven on any matter. If one obeys the rules of His design there is an unlimited access to His throne and an endless affirmation of the promises that He has fashioned for us. When the saints approach Him in truth and in sincerity, God will validate His promise by showing them great and mighty things, things beyond their knowledge. We have a tendency to ask for little, therefore, we receive little; but the Father’s architecture is of a much grander fashion. Perhaps we need to think outside of the broom closet, and step out into His universe!