Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.”

 Haggai 1:13

Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.”  Haggai 1:13

I continue my study of Haggai - using the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary volume for this book.  For this morning, my focus is commentary-assisted review of Haggai 1:13, which outlines this verse as both the the first and subdivision of 1:13-15 and for this morning I explore the second subdivision from the commentary which is entitled The Lord Promises His Presence to His People to Stir Them to Obedience. Excerpts from the commentary for this second subdivision:

• "What is this promise that God felt so compelled to declare to His people? Simply put, He promises that He is with them. This is no small thing. This promise indicates a change in tone from the Lord. The people were disobedient, so He compelled them to obey. Then they turned from their sin and embraced righteousness, so God immediately began to affirm them and His presence among them. He is with them, and He will be with them. This is a promise of comfort, it is a promise of blessing, and most of all, it is the promise of grace."
• We should be greatly comforted for how God declares that He is with us not just at any moment in time but always as scripture repeatedly shares how God is with this.  The commentary points us to Deuteronomy 31:6, but there are others including Matthew 28:20 where Jesus commands His disciples to go out into the world to deliver the gospel (The Great Commission) sharing "I am with you always, to the end of the age."  See also Romans 8:38-39 where Paul shares that nothing can separate believers from the love of God. 
• The commentary describes moments of weakness we are all apt to have, including where Peter disavows knowing Jesus after Jesus' arrest that night in the garden of Gethsemane. In these moments we should lean on and take strength being confident in how God is with us always.  "God is with us, and He will conquer evil in the end. This confidence allows Christians to be like no other group throughout history and to thrive even when we are seemingly being defeated."
• Christ's resurrection gives us confidence that ultimately we will defeat both sin and death and be with Jesus eternally. 
• The commentary describes how this verse also emphasizes God's grace and how we should always know how faithful God is and how His grace never ends - despite our sin. See also 1 Timothy 1:15 and Romans 5:8. 

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are SO good and the promise of Your love and grace and how we can never be separated from Your love and grace is incredible - thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of my salvation nor any of the blessings You pour out for me daily.  My sin continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:9-20

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17

I continue my study of Zephaniah using the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary volume for this book.  For today, my focus is a unassisted review of Zephaniah 3:9-20, which is the text for next chapter of my commentary.  Zephaniah's message from the Lord up until this moment (chapter 1 and 2 and chapter 3 so far) has been harsh (but warranted) as God renders judgement not just on Judah but also her neighbors.  Judah has been full of pride and spurning God (see Zephaniah 3:1-2).  Now, remarkably, in 3:9-20 we see God's amazing grace - this is a great example of how God loved us (believers) while we were still slave to our sin, softened our heart towards Him and saved us (see also Romans 5:8) - not because of anything we did (see also Ephesians 2:8).  Of the many blessings from Zephaniah 3:9-20:

• No condemnation, forgiveness - v11
• Freedom from pride, lies and deceit as sin - v11
• Peace of mind - v13
• Joy - v14
• Protection - v15
• Fellowship with God - v17
• Will make God's people a renowned name (for His glory) - v20
• Restored fortunes - v20
  

Of course, those who remain proud and haughty will not experience restoration as God will remove from Judah's midst those who remain "proudly exultant" (v11).  This is similar to Adam and Eve's separation from God after their sin and the Fall (Genesis 3). What a terrible thing to be separated from God's love at any point - believers can take great comfort in knowing that nothing can separate us from His love (see also Romans 8:38-39).  His mercies are new every morning and never cease (Lamentations 3:22-23).

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for rejoicing over me with gladness and exult over me with singing, and for quieting me with Your love...and of course saving me!  I am not deserving....no.  My sin continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7

I maintain pause my study of 1 Corinthians and focus on a study of 2 Thessalonians and Titus as part of a men's discipleship group (d-group) at my church.  This morning I read Titus 3, specifically vv4-7, assisted by a sermon message on this text from John MacArthur's Grace to You website. Here, John MacArthur digs deeply into vv4-7 where Paul writes about how God "saved us" and what that means for believers.  First, MacArthur looks at v3 where Paul emphasizes to Titus and the church at Crete that all believers were - before they were saved "foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another."  MacArthur refers us to text elsewhere that highlight this pre-salvation state - slave to sin and condemned to eternal damnation - see also Romans 1:21-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11a, and Ephesians 2:1-3 just for a few examples. Of course, such a state leads to death as a deserving punishment - Romans 6:23.  MacArthur then highlights a "seven-fold" salvation in the text:

1. We are saved by His kindness; " It means that He has a concern in His heart toward people in misery. God is basically good. He is inherently good. He is inherently kind."
2. We are saved by His love; based on the Greek word philanthropia - "It literally means pity, compassion, eagerness to deliver from pain or distress because of strong affection. It has the idea of a strong affection. It doesn't have some kind of self-serving component in it. It's not pity for the wrong reason. It's pity out of strong affection. God is kind. He is kind toward the ungrateful and evil men, as Jesus said, and His kindness causes Him to have a strong affection out of which He wants to act in pity and compassion."
3. We are saved by His mercy; "It's different than grace. Grace relates to guilt. Mercy relates to misery. Grace relates to the state of the sinner before God the judge. Mercy relates to the condition of the sinner in his sin. Grace is a judicial concept that forgives the crime. Mercy is a compassionate concept that helps the criminal recover. Mercy looks at misery, grace looks at guilt."
4. We are saved by His regeneration; "Obviously we can't cleanse ourselves, we can't give life to ourselves. That's all the work of God."
5. We are saved by His Spirit; "There's nothing you can do to get the Holy Spirit. There's nothing you can do to gain or earn the renewal work of the Holy Spirit. That's something God pours out and it tells us in verse 6 He poured out the Spirit upon us richly."
6. We are saved by His Son.
7. We are saved by His grace; "He paid the price and therefore our sins are removed, justice is fully satisfied, kindness, love, mercy and grace can act freely. Justified by His grace. Grace is giving us what we don't deserve. We don't deserve to be forgiven. We don't deserve to have our sin removed. We don't deserve to be imputed the righteousness of God. We don't deserve that. We don't deserve to be just before God. We don't deserve to come into His presence. We don't deserve heaven. But grace gives it to us because God's justice is satisfied in Christ and He declares us justified...justified."        

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are so good in how You saved me and You intercede for me eternally, praying for me and never leaving or forsaking me.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such blessings.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death[.]

Colossians 1

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death[.] Colossians 1:21-22a

I continue to lean on DesiringGod.com's Solid Joys daily devotion, which today looks at how believers, apart from God's grace, are hostile to God - in their minds. In this devotion, John Piper starts with the good news - which is for believers.  Believers know that PRIOR to our salvation, we WERE hostile to God - this is stated not just in Colossians 1 but elsewhere in scripture, including Romans 5:8, 10. Through Christ's death and resurrection on the cross, those who confess Him as Lord and Savior have salvation, hope, power, etc. Yet for those who do not confess sin, repent and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, eternal damnation awaits.  Piper looks at the pre-election condition of being "alienated and hostile [to God] in mind" and shares that for those who are not elected by Christ, "hostility is really there toward the true God, but people do not allow themselves to think about the true God. They imagine God to be the way they would like him to be, which seldom includes any possibility that they might be in really serious trouble with him. But concerning the God who really exists — a God who is sovereign over all things, including sickness and calamity — we were all hostile to him, Paul says. Deep down, we hated his absolute power and authority.  That any of us is saved is owing to the wonderful truth that the death of Christ obtained the grace by which God conquered our hearts and caused us to love the One we once hated."  Believers should understand this truth and be overwhelmed in awe and love for God who turned towards us, and loved us first (1 John 4:19).  At the same time, we should continue to show mercy to those who have not turned towards God and seek to snatch them from the fire (Jude 1:22-23).  

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for giving me a heart of flesh so that I could love You.  You are worthy of my love and my life as a living sacrifice - You are so good!  I am not deserving of my salvation nor how You bless me.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo. Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 42-44

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

I continue with my deep dive of Isaiah, based on the Precept Upon Precept study series. Today, I continue with Lesson 16, moving to Day 4(a), where the focus includes Isaiah 42:18-25 and 43:1:21. Building on my post yesterday, Isaiah 43:19 gives us a glimpse of a salvation that my commentary indicates is far better than what Israel experienced with their escape from Egypt and entry into the promised land. This of course is Jesus Christ.  Before believers rejoice in our Savior, we must acknowledge that we are no less sinful than Israel - see Isaiah 42:18-25 for the depth of Israel's sin.  God made us one of His elect while we were still enemies of Him (Romans 5:10) and hostile to Him (Colossians 1:21-22).  This should make all of us as believers all the grateful of our salvation.

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for my salvation - I know I am not deserving but You provided it anyway - the greatest gift of all time.  My sin is great and it continues...Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.