Amazing Love

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (NIV)(1 John 3:1-2)

When I read these verses my mind immediately thinks of the praise song "You Are My King" which some people call "Amazing Love". If you recall the song, it reads:

I'm forgiven because You were forsaken

I'm accepted, You were condemned

I'm alive and well, Your Spirit is within me

because You died and rose again

Amazing Love, how can it be

that You, my King would die for me

Amazing Love, I know it's true

It's my joy to honor You

In all I do I honor You

Here's another devotional from Dr. Robert M. McMillan from the book of 1 John that expounds on this amazing love that brings us into the family of God and makes us God's children.

Amazing Love

John exclaims "See what love the Father has given to us in order that we should be called the born ones of God." Te scriptures find a healthy area of comparison between the procedures leading to natural birth and those leading to spiritual birth. The production of children bears a direct relationship to love. Our new birth in Christ is the product of God's love exclusively. To become the born ones of God implies the impartation of part of God's own self into our being. The apostle Paul declared that the impartation of natural birth is part of Adam himself and that thus, by natural generation, I am bent toward sin. However, the apostle further declares that to be a child of God I must lose this Adamic impartation and receive a direct seed from God Himself. This is accomplished for me by the miracle of Christ's death and resurrection. Thus we read, "If any man be IN CHRIST he is a new creation..."

John goes on to declare that since Jesus, in the flesh, was rejected as the Son of God so we too, who are born of God, will be rejected in the minds of unbelievers. The rejection is not as to our person or our work but to our claim that we are of God. Too often this idea of rejection has been equated with being unpopular in society because we are Christians. Nothing is further from the truth. Jesus was wanted for His work but He was rejected for His claim to be God. It is doubtless true that Jesus, If He had dropped this statement, would have had no earthly difficulty. So it is with believers. We are acceptable for what we are but the world rejects our claim that what we are is because we are the children of God by the miracle of regeneration.

We do not know what we shall be but because of our relationship to God in Christ and by this Divine impartation to our nature we shall be similar to Christ. This is a purifying thought.

Singing His Praises,

Joey Culpepper

He Is Born Child Divine

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. (HCSB)(Romans 8:28)

Last Sunday night we had our Christmas musical and drama, "He is Born, Child Divine", here at Ridge Ave. Baptist Church. We had a good attendance, and I thought the performance went well. I want to say a special word of thanks to the Worship Ensemble for all their hard work including some long rehearsals in preparation for the musical. You did good, and I'm proud of you!

I also want to thank our set design and construction crew who did an awesome job, our audio/visual/light crew who kept us on cue, and our drama team and narrator who put the story together for us. I'm thankful and proud of our youth that stepped up and made this drama happen. We couldn't have done it without them and their dedication. We even had a real baby for Baby Jesus, little Easton. He was well behaved and so cute!

As we saw in the drama, sometimes our dreams and plans don't turn out the way we imagine. But God can take all of our hopes and make them into something far more beautiful and rewarding if we just trust in Him and follow Him with our lives.

Merry Christmas!

Joey Culpepper

The Advocate

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (KJV)(1 John 2:1)

Here's another devotional by Dr. Robert M. McMillan about our friend, defender and advocate, Jesus:

The Advocate

John continues in this chapter to deal with the believer and his sin. This is John's counterpart to Paul's declaration in Romans 6:1 which reads, "What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Again, we state that the provision for the sin of the believer is no excuse for the believer sinning. John continues, "If any one should sin we have a Paraclete with the Father." This word Paraclete is a transliteration of the Greek word for which our Authorized Version translates "Advocate." The word means "One called alongside to help." This office of Paraclete is exclusively in relationship to believers. It carries the suggestion of the family attorney who is permanently retained in order to plead our cause in any circumstance that may arise. This same word is used of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel bearing John's name. (Jn. 14:16)

What a blessed thought that Jesus not only has saved us from the guilt of sin but is perpetually active on our behalf to break the power of sin. How often we believers slip and fall but how blessed the thought that immediately Jesus is alongside to help. Jesus knew full well the content of His own statement, "...no man shall pluck them out of my hand." And this means that we cannot even pluck ourselves out of His hand for we come under the category of the words, "no man."

Singing His Praises,

Joey Culpepper

Light And Darkness

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all...(1 John 1:5)

At this time of year, when we see the pretty Christmas lights, we think of the star that led the wise men to worship the King. Let's also remember that Jesus is the Light of the World as Isaiah prophesied--"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of darkness, a light has dawned." (Isa. 9:2)(HCSB) The following devotional, by Dr. Robert M. McMillan, speaks of how we can also reflect that light to those still in the dark around us.

Light and Darkness

We have noted that the major heresy being refuted by the apostle John is Gnosticism, which was an eclectic religion. By this we mean that it claimed that all religions were good, and took the best of them all and sought to mold them together into one higher religion. As with all, even in this day, who become involved in this philosophy, confusion is the result. Compromise also is necessary with this type of thinking. Perhaps these heretics had acquired the Parsee concept of the god of light and god of darkness. Certainly this concept would give them a compromise on the Deity of Jesus Christ, for the Parsees also recognized that there was a middle being between the god of  light and the god of darkness who was able to work on behalf of men. The Gnostics granted that Jesus was more than human but contended that He was less than divine.

Having identified Jesus with God, John now declares that God is absolute light with not even the remotest possibility of darkness in His person. Light, of course, represents purity, and darkness, evil.

Jesus claims for Himself that He is the light of the world. He also imparts this light to believers so that they, in turn, are the light of the world but only in a reflective sense as the moon is reflective of the glory of the sun. John, in the next two verses, indicates that believers only have this reflective ability as they walk with the Lord.   Moreover, we only have the fellowship with Jesus as we thus walk. It is, however, possible for a believer to take himself out of fellowship by walking in the darkness of carnality.

Jesus is absolutely holy and if we are to walk with Him it must be in the pathway of holiness.

Singing His Praises,

Joey Culpepper

Moses

There has never been another prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. (Deut. 34:10)(HCSB)

The following worship profile is taken from the Praise and Worship Study Bible published by Tyndale House Publishers. It is a fantastic resource for those who want to study more about worship. I highly recommend this study bible! Let's see what we can learn from how Moses worshiped God.

Moses

Imagine for a moment what it must have been like to have been Moses. By any standard, he led a very interesting and unusual life. He was raised in the household of Pharoah and received all the privileges that came with such an upbringing. He was commissioned to lead the Israelites out of Egypt after God miraculously liberated Israel from slavery. Moses had regular face-to-face meetings with the Lord on the top of Mount Sinai. In addition to all this, Moses seems to have held a great deal of influence regarding the Lord's decisions. With influence like that, what would you do? What would you ask for?

Moses the Worshiper

Consider how Moses did respond when given such power and influence. In Exodus 33, Moses had a very candid conversation with the Lord. Here we see the deep longings of Moses' heart, not for ease or comfort or affluence, but for a deeper experience with God. We see a man with a long history of miraculous experiences and encounters with God, and yet he seems spiritually unsatisfied. Relentlessly--perhaps even desperately--Moses approached the Lord with requests, both overt and implied: "Show me your intentions...If you don't go with us personally, don't let us move a step from this place. If you don't go with us, how will anyone ever know that your people and I have found favor with you?...Please let me see your glorious presence" (Ex. 33:13,15-16,18).

Learning From Moses

God is pleased with our desire to know him better and responds favorably to us. God granted Moses' request for a glimpse of his presence, and he revealed his character to him as well. Moses responded to this encounter with his Creator in the only way he could: He worshiped him (Ex. 34:8).

True contentment is found in wholehearted pursuit of God. In our "been-there-done-that" world, it is easy (and all too common) for believers to grow numb to experiences with God. We complacently talk about God, but seldom do we actually pray to him. When we do pray, often we mumble safe petitions that keep God at a comfortable distance. In the end, we settle for an anemic assent to some basic truths about Christianity. Is it any wonder that our worship often seems empty or incomplete? Instead, like Moses, we must wholeheartedly pursue God and his character in order to find true fulfillment.

Following the Example

If we desire to experience meaningful worship, we must first desire to know God. If we hunger and thirst for him, the Bible promises that he will provide for us and satisfy our needs. Would you like your worship to be completely transformed? Confess any sins that might be hindering your fellowship with God. Then ask the Lord to stir your heart, to instill within you an unquenchable hunger to know him. Meditate upon how God has revealed himself to us in the Bible, and ask him to reveal himself again. When you do see God in a new way, worship will be your only fitting response.

Singing His Praises,

Joey Culpepper