“Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!  For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.  (28) Even some also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” 

Matthew 23:27-28 KJV

Jesus lived by the truth revealed in the Word of God, regularly attended Synagogue, on the Sabbath, observed  the Jewish Feasts and taught and worshipped at the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus did these things not because He was religious, but because He loved the Father and He loved the Word of God.  His words and deeds were born out of His relationship with the Father and His understanding of the  Power contained in the Word of God!

Because He loved the Father, He also loved the Word  of God. Everything He did was based upon His relationship with the Father.   He spoke with power and authority. His words were kind, loving, compassionate,  strong  and full of hope. His words  brought  comfort, revelation,  understanding and joy to those who really wanted to know the truth about God!  And all of that was accompanied by mighty works of God expressed in undeniable miracles that revealed God’s glory!  Although Jesus said and did all these marvelous things, He was not religious!  In fact, He reserved His harshest words for those who substituted religious form and ritual for a genuine, living  fellowship with God the Father.  (Matthew 23).

Jesus did not mince words when it came to addressing religion.  His most scathing words of rebuke were leveled at those who were rigidly religious  in their actions, but were empty of life!  Jesus declared that although they looked good on the outside, in reality they were dead on the inside.   In other words, they had no life!   Jesus addressed them openly and publicly, pointing out to them the difference between religion and a genuine relationship with God.     It can be summed up in one word.  Life. Religion brings death.  Jesus brings life!   It does not get any simpler than that. 

Rev. James W. Black   

“I have come as a Light into the world, so that whoever believes in Me [whoever cleaves to and trusts and relies on Me] many not continue to live in darkness.” 

John 12:46 AMPC

When Jesus entered our world, He brought Light into the midst of the darkness! (John 8:12). Our world was so accustomed to the darkness that no one knew there was any other way to live.   But when His Light came, we could see what we had never been able to see before.  For the very first time, we could begin to see life from God’s perspective.   We could see how God intended life to be lived and enjoyed!   Because of the darkness, we were blinded to it before!   

The Lord’s purpose in coming was not just to expose the darkness but to show us a better way to live.  However, He did more than merely show us the way.  His Light and His Life, which is released through the Holy Spirit,  actually empowers us to live the life He intended for us to live!   

Living in darkness is always a downward spiral of existence!   Living in the darkness always results in disappointment, disillusionment, discouragement, depression, despair, and finally death. (John 10:10).  Jesus came to reveal to us,  by His Light,  that there is a purpose and meaning in life.   He reveals to us that through Him, there is forgiveness, mercy, love, peace, joy, grace, satisfaction, and contentment in life through Him!  (Phil. 4:11).

His Light reveals to us that there is hope beyond the grave!   It is a sure and certain hope that is revealed by His Light and guaranteed by His resurrected Life! We know that for all those who are in  Christ,  death has been defeated!  The redeemed do not die!  We merely step into the Presence of His glorious Light where we shall remain forever!   (John 11:25). 

Rev. James W. Black

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” 

Psalm 90:2 KJV

The Word of God speaks much about eternity.  The word “eternal” means “having infinite duration”.   (Webster’s Dict.). Eternity is a powerful word that is used in reference to God.  It is used to describe God. It is used to describe His person, His Kingdom, and His relationship with mankind.  In fact, there is nothing about God that is not eternal.  He has no beginning and  He has no end!  (Rev. 1:8).  He is infinite in His Person, character, and nature.   The Scripture describes Him as “The Ancient of Days.”  (Dan.7:9) which is a metaphor for the eternity of God in His Person.

Because God is eternal, His character is eternal, His love is eternal,  His ways are eternal,  His purposes are eternal and His judgments are eternal!  Everything God does always has the eternal perspective in mind.  He never changes.  (Malachi 3:6).  His love never changes.  His grace never changes.  His mercy never changes.  His joy and His peace never changes. His power never changes.   And His eternal purpose never changes. 

That means His purpose toward us never changes.   His purpose toward us is always for our good.  (Rom. 8:28).  In a world that is constantly changing, He is the constant that never changes. He is the anchor of our soul and the constant light and beacon of hope in the midst of a dark world. 

Because God is our creator and we are made in His image or likeness (Gen. 1:26), He has also “put eternity in our hearts.”  (Ecc. 3:11 ESV).  There is this innate longing in our hearts for life!  We all long to live forever!   It is God who gave us that longing!   And the Good News of the Gospel is that  Christ has made that longing a present reality!  The Redeemed of God do not die! (John 11: 25-26).   We simply move from this finite life into eternal life!  What a blessed hope we have!   What a joy we have!  What an awesome God we have! 

Rev. James W. Black 

“When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.”   

2 Timothy 1:5 NKJV

There is not a more powerful ministry anywhere than the ministry of a godly mother. The ministry of bearing children and raising them is difficult and challenging.   It is hard.  It is often thankless.  It is not in the limelight.  It often goes unrecognized.  But a godly mother has the opportunity of impacting the next generation for the glory of God!  When a godly mother teaches her children the Word of God, how to know  God, the ways of God, and the truth of God and seeks to model that before them,  she will equip her children with a foundation that will carry them and sustain them throughout the rest of their lives. 

Timothy’s life had been profoundly impacted for the Lord by his mother and grandmother. It demonstrates the powerful influence a mother has on her children. 
Timothy’s mother, Eunice, had no doubt been impacted by her mother Lois.  Lois taught her grandson Timothy the importance of knowing the Lord and following the Lord.  Three generations had been impacted by a godly mother!   Timothy, no doubt, was used of the Lord to impact the lives of others for the Christ as he ministered alongside the Apostle Paul. Paul entrusted his ministry to Timothy when he knew that he would soon lose his life for Christ.  Only eternity will reveal the full impact of Lois on her family.  And her ultimate impact upon the world!   The world never noticed it, but the Lord did!   

And that is the most important thing to remember.   The Lord sees what you do as a mother.   He knows the sacrifices that you make.  He is aware of the work that you do.   He sees your frustrations, your disappointments, your challenges, and your tears.  He knows your burdens and your concerns.    But He also sees how you love and care for your children through all of it.  It is important to remember that He entrusted you with the care of specific children!   He designed you and gifted you for that purpose. And as hard as it can be at times, He knew that you could do it with His help! 

James W. Black 

“And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed his last.  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” 

Mark 15: 37-38 NKJV

The veil in the Temple was a massive curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.  It was the most sacred place in the Temple.  God’s Presence filled that place!  Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies.  He could only enter once a year on the Day of Atonement, when the sacrificial lamb was slain for the sins of the nation.  The High Priest would then take the blood of that lamb that had been slain and place it upon the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. Scholars tell us that the thickness of that curtain was as much as 6 inches.   The veil separated the people from the Presence of God.

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the Temple in Jerusalem was torn in two from top to bottom!   It was torn from top to bottom because God was the One who tore it open.  Not man! Jesus had become the sacrificial Lamb of God on the cross!   The torn veil signified that access into God’s Presence was now open for everyone!   

Now that the veil is torn, anyone who has surrendered to Christ has the Blood of the Lamb applied to their heart!   That Blood now makes one Holy in the sight of God!  Because the redeemed have been made holy through the Blood of Christ,  we now have access into the very Presence of the Living God.   We can come without fear, guilt, shame, or condemnation!   What a great blessing it is to have access into the very Presence of God!   May we take the opportunity of entering into His Presence daily. 

“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Gal. 2:20 KJV

In this passage, Paul uses the present tense to describe the genuine reality of the Christian life. He declares, “I am crucified with Christ…”.  Crucifixion meant death!   The crucifixion of his own life was not something that was going to happen.  It had already happened!   It was a past, present, and ongoing reality in his life.   Paul had experienced the power of the crucified life!  

All of his life, Paul had sought to please God by being religious, knowing and keeping the Law of God. But he was also painfully aware of his inability to fully keep the Law. He sought to find acceptance before God by striving to keep the Law better than anyone else. But despite all his efforts, he still was not certain he had done enough to be pleasing and acceptable to God.

But when the risen Christ confronted him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9,) everything changed. For the first time in his life, he understood the full weight of his sinfulness. And at the same time, he understood the powerful grace of God that forgave him and cleansed him of his sin!   On that road to Damascus, Paul had died.  He had been crucified with Christ.  And a new man was now alive in him, the risen Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).   As a result, Paul was radically transformed by the power of Christ. 

To be crucified with Christ means that we have died (in Christ) to the old life of the old man and are now surrendered to the new life of Christ who now lives within us!  This life is an ever-present, daily, ongoing reality in our lives. (1 Cor. 15:31).  It is the only place of liberty and the only place of life (Rom.14:8).  To be crucified with Christ means we have died to ourselves and are now alive in Christ and have the privilege of knowing Him, following Him, and experiencing Him in our daily life!   

James W.Black

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” 

Philippians 1:21 KJV

As followers of Christ, we often speak about the freedom we have in Christ.  We know that we are free from the penalty of our sin as well as the guilt, shame, and condemnation our sin produced in our lives. (Rom.8:1).  However,  sometimes God’s people struggle to walk in that freedom.  The struggle is not with the fact of our freedom but with the implementation of that freedom in everyday life.

The Word of God, however, explains to us the place we must come to if we are to actually experience that freedom. The place we must come to is the place where all that matters to us is Christ.  Paul had come to that place. He had come to the place in his life-changing encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).  From that moment on Christ was more than a creed or a religion.    Christ was the resurrected, living, and glorified Lord!    Paul would never be the same again!   

Paul had come to the place where his past did not matter; his accomplishments did not matter; his position in society did not matter and his current circumstances did not matter (Phil. 3: 4-9).  All that mattered to him was Christ.  Christ was not just a part of his life.  Christ had actually become his life.  Because Paul fully understood that his life was in now Christ and that he now belonged to Christ, then nothing else really mattered.  (Phil. 4:12).

If Christ wanted him to live, then he would live for Christ.   And if Christ wanted him to die, then he would die for Christ.  So, whether he lived or whether he died it did not matter.  Either way, he belonged to Christ and would submit to whatever Christ wanted for his life. 

When we come to that place (the place where all that matters is Christ), then there is absolutely nothing in this life that can touch us. We are His and He is ours and there is absolutely nothing in this world or the next that can separate us from Him!  (Rom. 8: 36-39). That is the ultimate place of freedom!

“…baring confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” 

Philippians 1:6 NKJV

Have you ever started a project and never finished it?  Many years ago, when I was in my mid-twenties,  a close friend and I asked  a retired farmer if we could tear down a dilapidated old barn  that was on the back of his  property.  The barn was literally falling down.   Our goal was for each of us to  obtain enough usable lumber to build a small storage shed on the back of our property.  The farmer readily agreed.  It was a win win situation. The retired farmer  would get rid of an eyesore for free and we would get the lumber we needed to build our storage sheds.  However, as we began the project, doing it after work and on Saturdays,  we soon discovered,  after a few weeks, that the project was much bigger than we thought.  The work was taking much longer than we had anticipated.  And then  life happened!   Our jobs began requiring more of our time and our  ability to work on the project began to quickly diminish. Finally we had to abandon the project altogether because of limited time. That was a disappointing experience for us as well as the farmer.   I have always regretting not completing that project and fulfilling  our agreement.   I had to apologize to the farmer and ask his forgiveness.   The farmer gave the remainder of the usable lumber to someone else and burned the rest.

The wonderful thing about Jesus is that whenever He begins a project,  He always finishes it!   He is never caught by surprise or overwhelmed by  the size of a  project.  [After all He created the entire universe.  John 1:3].  He knows from the beginning exactly how long a project it will take and what is required to complete it.  Nothing  catches Him by surprise!  He is not limited by time and space.  He exists in eternity and always has the eternal perspective and the finished work in mind.   

Jesus has promised  that the work which  He began in us on the day of our redemption, will be fully and perfectly completed on the day when He returns and establishes His eternal Kingdom!   That is indeed good news!   

We may think that we are too old, too broken down, too unsightly, too messed up, too useless and too hopeless  for God to do anything with us.   We may wonder how God could possibly do anything with us in out condition!    But Jesus has promised to “make all things new”; including us!  (2 Cor.5:17; Rev.21:5). And because nothing is impossible with God, (Mark 10:27),  we can therefore trust Him to complete what He has begun in us!  We are not yet what  we want to be.  And we are not yet what we  are going to be.  But thank God, we are not what we were!  We are a work in progress!  And we can  rest assured that the work that He has begun in us will be completed  and it will be perfect! 

James W. Black   

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust…”

Psalm 18:2 KJV

David’s description here of God is from a warrior’s perspective. In this Psalm, David expressed his absolute confidence in the Living God. David had fought many battles. He had been attacked at various times by many different enemies who were intent on his destruction. But in every battle, in spite of the size and strength of his adversaries, he was victorious over them. If you study David’s life you will learn that he never entered into battle without first seeking the Lord (1 Sam. 23:4).

When David declared that the Lord was his rock, he was picturing a warrior standing upon a massive boulder. Standing on top of that rock, he could see his enemies
preparing to come against him. From the vantage point of the rock, possessing the high ground, David knew he could face and overcome a much larger force than his own. In standing upon the rock, David knew he could defeat them. Being firmly established on the rock enabled David to stand with confidence against his enemies.

David knew that the Lord, the God of Israel, was his fortress. The Lord Himself was David’s refuge. David knew that his strength was in the Lord, not himself. David knew from experience that the Lord was unshakable, unmovable, and unchanging. He knew that the Lord was completely reliable and dependable in every circumstance. That is why David could declare with confidence that God was the “rock of his salvation” (2 Sam. 22:47).

The good news is that this same Lord is also our rock! As He was with David, so He is with us! David demonstrated for us how to depend upon the Lord. If we take our refuge in Him (Psalm 91: 1-2), we too, will be able to stand against the assaults of the enemy. As David stood with confidence, so can we. For victory is assured. When we align ourselves with the Lord, the victory is already won! We simply have to stand and see the salvation of the Lord. (Exodus 14: 13-14; Eph. 6:13).

Rev. James Black