Endures

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 111:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

This verse is not unlike:

Psalm 19:9

the fear of the Lord is clean,

    enduring forever;

the rules of the Lord are true,

    and righteous altogether.

As we move through life the agencies to whom we give our allegiance change and often fail us.  The team we have rooted that changed its coach, the church that has changed its denomination, the organization that has changed its politics, they all disappoint.  

Or we change.   The ears that once could hear a pin drop, the knee that bent as we proposed, the stomach that once could handle most anything one would swallow, they begin to fail us.

But our choice to fear the Lord will never disappoint.  He will never be discredited.  Nor will we be discredited for having chosen to follow Him.

Reign

This week we begin worship with:

2 Timothy 2:10

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Before the game, at half-time, and during the last-minute time-outs just before the whistle is blown, the coach rallies the team.  This verse comes from one of those last-minute timeouts as Paul challenges Timothy with the images of a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer (2 Timothy 2:1-13), all the time knowing this may be his last season.  He concludes with:

2 Timothy 2:11-13

The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he also will deny us;

if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself.

What Paul endured, what he is asking Timothy to endure, will not lead to a loss!  Go team.

Life

This week we begin worship with:

John 6:67-69
Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

This happened after Jesus said this:

John 6:53
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 

To which many of his disciples responded:

John 6:60
“This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”

Most if not all did not understand or accept that Jesus would become a sacrifice.  Had they, they would understand that they would have to eat his flesh.

Leviticus 7:16
But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow offering or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice, and on the next day what remains of it shall be eaten.

But, not so the blood.  That is forbidden.

Leviticus 17:14

For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.

But this is, as Simon Peter said, are "the words of life".  The blood of Christ is life.  It is our eternal life.  Drink ye all of it.

Honored

As we approach the Lord's table this morning we read:

Philippians 1:18-21

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

When this was written, Paul was not having a good day.  He was in prison because of the Gospel.  But it, like all other days, was sovereignly ordained and through its circumstances the Gospel would advance:

Philippians 1:12-13
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

Paul's confidence was not because of his own skill or oratory, but because the Spirit of Christ dwelt in him, as He does in us.

Why does this make Paul certain that he "will not be at all ashamed"?  Because Jesus Christ is due glory and "now as always Christ will be honored"(megalynō)!