In CHRIST, the Victory is ours!
Devotion 26: Need Prayer? Click the forum by the home tab & let us know so we can pray for you! 🤍
Brethren,
Do you have a favorite name brand of shoes?
My favorite name brand has always been, Nike.
Consider this,
In Greek mythology, Nike was the goddess of victory. She fought on the side of the Olympian gods, and was Victorious over the mighty Titans. As a result, Nike became a symbol of winning.
Right! Nike became a symbol of Victory! But Nike’s power was not just limited to warfare. Nike also became a favorite goddess of athletes who wanted to triumph in sports competitions. Nike was idolized, so she became an idol. So without hesitation, the Romans adopted her into their religious worship, and gave her the Latin name Victoria.
Yes, the Romans, as in Roman Catholicism.
Consider this,
in the Greco-Roman world where Paul taught, victory was greatly valued. So when he expressed the TRUTH about CHRIST, he used words his audience could clearly understand.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17 expresses Paul's WORDS of Triumph, like this: “Now thanks be to GOD, Who always leads us in Triumph in CHRIST, and through us diffuses the fragrance of HIS knowledge in every place. For we are to GOD the fragrance of CHRIST among those who are being SAVED and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of LIFE leading to LIFE. And who is sufficient for these things. For we are not, as so many, peddling the WORD of GOD; but as of sincerity, but as from GOD, we speak in the sight of GOD in CHRIST."
Brethren,
In his letters, Paul describes our LORD, JESUS CHRIST, as the One Who leads us in Triumph and compares our Christian walk to running a race.
A race?
Yes, a race that we are each training for, as if we were preparing for the Olympic games. For at the end of our race, we each want to hear, Well Done, good and FAITHFUL servant.
Instead of hearing WORDS, that will make one feel ashamed.
So 1 Corrinthians 9:24-27 reveals the competition, like this: “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one recieves the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: Not with uncertainty, Thus I fight: Not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
Brethren,
Paul also used the word for VICTORY in reference to our struggles with those who intentionally try and hurt us. Romans 12:21 says, “overcome triumph over evil with good.“ This might mean being kind to those who spitefully use us, or are simply setting limits on evil conduct or behavior. Either way, an attitude of LOVE cannot be something we obtain in our own strength. But by the provision that is ours in CHRIST, we can do all things!
Yes, in CHRIST, we can do, what we cannot do, apart from HIM. For in John 15:5 The LORD assures us, saying: “For without ME, you can do nothing.”
That passage of SCRIPTURE, begins by revealing JESUS CHRIST as the VINE. And it continues by revealing, that we are the branches that are to stay connected to the VINE. For apart from the VINE, we can do nothing!
Right!
We can do nothing for the GLORY of GOD.
Consider how GOD'S WORD reveals it, saying: "I AM The VINE, you are the branches. He who abides in ME, and I in him, bears much fruit” [Did you catch that? Bears much fruit! But without daily feeding on the the WORD of the LIVING GOD, the LORD assures us, saying🤔] “for without ME, you can do nothing.”
Thus, through John 15:6-8 our LORD assures us, saying: “If anyone does not abide in ME, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in ME, and MY WORDS abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it will be done for you. By this MY FATHER is GLORIFIED, that you bear much frut; so you will be MY disciples.”
Brethren,
Because our LORD is pleased when we preach HIS GOSPEL, and GLORIFY HIS NAME. HE demands that we take our calling to heart!
Yes, and that we do so, seeking to bring GLORY to HIS NAME.
For Acts 4:11-12 assures us that many who claim to be building their home on The ROCK of GOD’S TRUTH, have instead, rejected HIM, Who is the Chief cornerstone that GOD wants HIS BODY to be established on.
Consider how it reads: “This is the Stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the Chief cornerstone. Nor is there SALVATION in any other, for there is no other name under HEAVEN given among men by which we must be SAVED.”
Yet, how many have already rejected HIM, by refusing to Believe the report that GOD has given of HIS Son?
Consider how Isaiah 53 gives us report, saying: “Who has Believed our report? And to who has The Arm of the LORD been revealed? For he shall grow up before HIM as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see him, There is no beauty that we should desire HIM. HE is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from HIM; HE was despised, and we did not esteem HIM.
Surely, HE has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed HIM stricken,
Smitten by GOD, and afflicted. But HE was wounded for our transgressions,
HE was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our PEACE was upon HIM, And by HIS stripes we are healed.”
Brethren,
Many are they who claim to Believe GOD, but fail to take heed to what the LORD, our GOD, has called us to do.
For a great many fail to conceive the idea, that after being approved by GOD, through FAITH, we are each now Priests of GOD, called to give GLORY to HIS NAME, by preaching the GOSPEL, without being ashamed! For our LORD, fairly warns those who are ashamed, saying in Mark 8:38,
“For whoever is ashamed of ME and MY WORDS in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in the GLORY of HIS FATHER with the HOLY angel's.”
I praise GOD that we are not ashamed of our LORD, nor sharing with others, HIS finished work of the Cross, for the remission of sins? And because we're not,
Malachi 2:2 isn't speaking to us!
It reads little this: "And now, O priest's, this commandment is for you.
If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart. To give GLORY to MY NAME, says the LORD of hosts,"I will send a curse upon you, And I will curse your Blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, Because you do not take it to heart.”
Brethren,
Because every Soul is precious to GOD. HE commands us to LOVE our enemies, and share with them the knowledge of Everlasting LIFE. And this is Eternal LIFE, [John 17:3 tells us] that they may know you, the only True GOD, and JESUS CHRIST Whom you have sent.
Whom YOU have sent?
Yes, Whom GOD sent into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. [HIS WORD, become flesh.] And not for ours only, but also for everyone who Believes in HIS finished work of the Cross, for the remission of sins.
Brethren,
I don't know about you, but I look forward to the day, that each of us can say the WORDS that Paul proclaimed in 2 Timothy 4:7,
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept The FAITH."
Paul’s FAITH, Beloved was kept in the WORD of the LIVING GOD, JESUS CHRIST.
So speaking from the winners circle, and place of victory, he spoke these WORDS from 2nd Timothy 4:8, “Finally there is laid up for me the crown of RIGHTEOUSNESS, which the LORD, The RIGHTEOUS JUDGE, will give to me on that day, and not to me only but to all who have LOVED HIS appearing.”
And I do pray, Beloved, that this declaration speaks of each of us, who will LOVE our LORD'S appearing! We who know, that we are more than conquerors through CHRIST Who LOVED us, and laid down HIS LIFE for us.
In CHRIST, the Victory is ours!
JESUS ✞
OK
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