Please allow me to share some encouragement with you from the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth in Luke Chapter One. These are just some simple spiritual insights into God’s ways that came to me as I meditated on this portion of His word.

Both Zacharias and Elizabeth were from priestly lines, and Zacharias was actively serving among the temple priesthood.  This surely signifies that they had a heart to serve the Lord.  I believe that according to the light they had they were very sincere in wanting to make their lives count for God and His purposes.

In God’s magnificent sovereignty and wisdom, He prevented them from having a child.   Think about this.   Although Scripture tells us that Elizabeth was grateful to God for taking away the disgrace of being childless, I cannot help but think that she wanted more than just being a mother.  This couple was serious about pleasing God, and God’s interests were surely deeply held within their hearts.  “They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Lk. 1:6). This godly couple surely wanted a child, yet we can certainly imagine that they wanted a special child, one dedicated to carry on their tradition of devoted service to God and His house.

Yet, this deep aspiration of theirs was blocked.   “But they had no child, because Elizabeth as barren, and they were both advanced in years” (Lk. 1:7).   Their yearning to give more to God, to be of more usefulness to Him by bearing a godly son in the priestly line seemed unfulfilled.  Yet, they prayed.  It was after all hope seemed to be gone; it was only after all their natural strength to produce something for God was over, that God came with the answer to their prayer.  When the angel appeared to Zacharias in the Holy Place, he said:  “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John” (Lk. 1:13)

Is this not how God works?  It is after we give up on our strength, like Abraham and Sarah, that God can work and bring forth something.  And, it is surely in answer to prayer.

Dear brothers and sisters, we tend to give up on prayer for usefulness to God when we have tried to serve in our own strength and have only seen failure. Or, we may lose heart because we labor year after year with seemingly meager results.  Also, we are often fearful of our motives for desiring usefulness once we have seen how dark the natural heart is, wanting to be used by God for self-glory.  Yet, there remains something in us of God, and we must not deny this aspiration He has given us!  Something within us urges us gently to dare to pray, to dare to ask God to make us more useful in the building up of His house!  Let us pray with a pure heart, under His blood, and by His grace, seeking for His purposes and His glory alone.

Then, we must learn to wait on His answer, and His timing.  We see from the lives of this godly couple that while they awaited God’s answer, they never ceased carrying out His will day by day:  “They were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Lk. 1:6).  They were scrupulous in keeping God’s righteous ways for their lives. This is surely a reason why God would answer their prayers.  Do not think that God will grant you or me a useful role in building up the body of Christ if we are not seeking His righteousness in all that we do.  This is a vital key to any usefulness for God.  We must seek His righteousness in every daily task, in all of the little things of daily life, not just in “spiritual matters.”

The biography of Hudson Taylor contains a wonderful account of a lady who greatly desired to be used of God on the mission field.  In her twenties, as I recall, she gave herself to go to the mission field in China.  She was ready to go then, but her parents were not well.  They needed her help.  This dear sister realized that she must honor her parents and care for their needs, so she set aside her ambition to be a missionary at that time and wholly gave herself to do what she knew God wanted her to do – serve her parents in their need.  This service continued for three decades!  Many times she thought of her desire to be used of the Lord in China.  But, her way was “blocked” by God’s sovereign hand.  Finally, after about 30 years, much longer than anyone could have anticipated, both parents passed away. Within three weeks after burying her last parent, she wrote to the China Inland Mission and offered herself as a living sacrifice for the great field in China.  She was, of course, accepted and she went.  By then, she was greatly prepared by the Lord as a wonderful vessel for His use.  After all the time of waiting, she had learned the lesson of self-denial and humble service to God in the little things.   She had no self-confidence, I am sure, and was a person fully dependent upon the Lord, knowing how to wait upon Him and how to serve in His strength alone.

It may seem that your aspiration to do something more for God’s building is blocked. Oh, yes, you may be doing a little here and there, but deep within you desire to be so much more effective and useful to God.  Some of God’s real seekers today feel that their opportunities for service are blocked because the great majority of God’s people, the ones to be served, are trapped in religious systems plagued by man-made traditions compromising God’s ways.  These seekers simply cannot serve in a system that abandons God’s ways and utilizes the world’s ways and the energy of the religious “flesh.”  To serve there would compromise the desire of seeker to serve God in purity.  Maybe you are one of these seekers.  Do not be discouraged.  God has a plan for you to serve Him where it will truly count. Wait upon Him and keep following His ways faithfully.  He will make a way.

God’s answer to this couple’s prayer came in a most particular, unexpected and unusual way.  “According to the custom of the priestly office, he [Zacharias] was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense” (Lk. 1:9).  Although there were a great number of temple priests (at least 20,000) there were probably only about 50 priests on duty for the early morning tasks.   The most holy assignment on any ordinary day was that of burning the incense, and the selection of this priest was determined through a series of three casts of the lot.  So, such a distinction was likely to fall to a temple priest only once in a lifetime.  This was an extraordinary event involving Zacharias, obviously orchestrated by the God who is over all!  When Zacharias was performing his appointed task, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John” (Lk. 1:13).

God hears our Spirit-inspired prayers, but we must learn to wait patiently and obediently, and in faith, for His answer in His perfect timing.  Once the answer comes, especially for more usefulness to God, be prepared that it may be somewhat different than you or others imagined.  When John was born, the neighbors and friends of Elizabeth could not understand why he would be called John.  That was certainly not normal.  In fact, “they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father. But his mother answered and said, ‘No, indeed; but he shall be called John.’” (Lk. 1:60-61).  The neighbors and friends protested because this name was not a name from the priestly families of Zacharias and Elizabeth. We, or others, may anticipate a certain role of usefulness to God, but we must learn to bow before God and accept His assignment.  The man named John never served as a typical priest.

This godly couple’s son was described by Jesus as the greatest among those born of women (in the natural kingdom of men).  He fulfilled a huge prophetic role in Jesus’ first coming to earth. (Matt. 11:7-14).  But, for our learning, it is not the “greatness” in terms of significance or size of the work that we should seek. We should not be those desiring to do a “great work” for God in terms of notoriety.   The “greatness” here is seen in the fact that the birth of this son was altogether something of God.  It was His plan, His timing and His unique way of bringing it to pass that made it great.  This answer to their deepest heart prayer to God was altogether great because it had the divine imprint upon it in every way.   It was not of man; it was wholly of a sovereign and Almighty God.   We should not be those who do any work “for God” that is tainted by the hand of man, derived from man’s choice, using man’s natural abilities, man’s wisdom or man’s ways.  “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

The great mission of John the Baptist was defined by the angel who appeared before Zacharias:  “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Lk. 1:17).   To get people ready for the Messiah at His first coming was the supreme task.  For us, to help people be spiritually prepared for His second coming is also of supreme importance.  And this outcome of our labor in the Lord can be and should be our deep aspiration in this late hour of the present age.   Any child of God can help prepare others for the coming of the Lord, regardless of his or her spiritual gift.  Every spiritual gift is used “for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12).

If we have true spiritual sight, then we can see how close we must be to the return of Christ.  Not only are the outward signs flashing this signal, but within the heart of God’s seekers is the sense that His coming is drawing very near.  So, let us be those who desire this above all: to work the works of God while we can, praying that God will use us even more in the days ahead to help men be ready to meet the Lord.  “For He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity” (Ps. 98:9).

“Dear Father, I humble myself before You.   My heart’s desire is to be more useful to You in the days ahead. Grant me grace to be faithful to You each day, living in righteousness and preparing myself as a vessel set apart for Your use.  Grant that this would not be for my glory, but for Your glory, even for the true building up of the body of Christ.  I wait upon You to serve You according to Your plans and Your ways and Your sovereign arrangement.  I want to walk only in those good works which You have prepared for me beforehand.  Lord, I have faith that You will answer my prayer and use Me, according to Your plans.  I am willing to do whatever You ask, be it great or small in size, that You may gain a people prepared for the coming again of Your Son.  I desire so much to hear from Christ in that coming day:  ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’  I pray all of this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus.”

Tom Finley

(All Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible.)

Amos was sent by God to prophesy to the northern kingdom of Israel.  He prophesied around 755-754 B. C.   His message was that unless there was a change, judgment was coming:  “Seek the Lord and live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, with no one to quench it in Bethel – you who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth.” (Amos 5:6)

The upper class Isrealites of the northern kingdom had prospered materially and were living it up.  They cared little for their poor brethren, even violating the God-given rights of the poor, wrongfully seizing their lands and building great houses for themselves.  And, of course, since the days of Jeroboam I (930-910 B.C.) those in the nothern kingdom had set up a false worship system in Bethel, worshipping a golden calf.

For their lack of concern and mistreatment of others while living in self-indulgence, and for the worship of idols while pretending to worship God, Amos was declaring God’s judgment upon God’s people.  But, the people did not believe it.  They thought God would not do such a thing.  Yet, God stated He would judge them:  “All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, those who say, ‘the calamity will not overtake or confront us.’” (Amos 9:10).  Indeed, in 722 B. C. God sent the Assyrian armies to capture and take away the people from the land.  They did not repent of their ways when warned, and God judged them severely.

What about us?   Do we think we can live in self-indulgence, mistreament of others, and an outward show of religion while worshipping the idols of this age without consequence?  God is not mocked.   He will judge His people, and the Bible tells us clearly that when Christ returns He will judge every man according to his works (Matt. 16:27).  Yes, our eternal salvation is secure, but God will deal with His people in chastisement and temporal retribution.  This is “recompense according to our deeds” at the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10).   Let us not think that we can live unrighteously without consequence.

Let us confess all wrong doing and wrong attitudes of our hearts that we may be cleansed now before we arrive at His Judgment Seat.  There is forgiveness and cleansing where there is sincere confession (1 John 1:9).

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’  If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on the earth.”  (1 Peter 1:14-17)

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting HIM who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel.”  (Gal. 1:6)

“But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace” (Gal. 1:15)

The start of our Christian experience is when we are called through God’s grace.   The “call” to us is something we recognize as God speaking to us, beckoning us, to respond to Himself and His good news of salvation.   This comes to us through grace.  Grace here is not just unmerited favor.  It is indeed unmerited, but it is more.  Grace is God Himself coming to us personally, working upon us, wooing us, convicting us and convincing us.  May I say most reverently, the call through grace is the greatest “salesmen” ever bringing the greatest product ever, to a customer who has always been firmly resistant to such a “sale” in the past.  But, once we say yes to Him, things begin to change.   Paul says that after this call God “was pleased to reveal His Son in me.”    Salvation by grace brings the living Christ inside of us.  Now the salesman without becomes the new life within.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”  (Titus 2:11-13).

These marvelous verses tell us that God’s grace has appeared to all men.  This is Christ coming to the world, full of grace and truth.  He has accomplished redemption for all and offers it without cost to “whosoever will.”  Yet, we know that only some respond. 

This grace in Christ becomes grace within — the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”   Once grace is within us, it is operative — working, convicting, moving, drawing, speaking.    This is the Christ within.   This is the One we should seek, the One to whom we should respond, the One to whom we should listen.   And what exactly is this grace doing, what is it trying to work in us, what is it trying to get us to do?   This grace, this Person, is trying to work in us to “deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of . . .  Christ Jesus.”   The emphasis here is on a lifestyle so different from that of “this present evil age” (Gal. 1:4).   This is certainly not the “prosperity gospel,”   or any teaching that turns liberty in Christ into selfish, or even sinful, license.   This grace, this Person, is working in us to live an absolutely upright life, and a holy life, distinct from this pleasure-seeking and self-seeking world.  This grace is instructing us to deny all disguised attempts at self-glory.  It is also working in us to live soberly, not under the influence of a world system that deludes and distracts from God’s purposes and God’s path for His saints.   And, this grace is working in us to aim not at this world, but the world to come, initiated by the “blessed hope,” the return of Christ.    Grace is working in us to long for the return of Christ.

Let us humble ourselves today to listen to HIM, to hear HIM, to cooperate with the inner working of HIS grace.  He is instructing today.  “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”  (Heb. 3:15)    

This is the way of peace and joy!

“By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land”

Imagine being told to enter the Red Sea, where it looks like one would drown.  Then imagine walking along the sea bed with walls of water piled up high on each side of you, swirling above you, threatening to crash down upon you at any moment, ready to bury you.   Meanwhile, the Egyptians are following after you in chariots, seeking to strike you down.  But, this is what the Israelites did — they went forward at the word of the Lord.  

 In faith, they acted on the word God gave to Moses:  “Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. ”  Moses assured them:  “Do not fear!  Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord  which He will accomplish for you today.”

Today there may be awesome, threatening circumstances in your life.  They seem to threaten to consume you and overwhelm you.  But, the Lord never leads us where He is not with us, able to keep us.  Yet, we must hear Him and hear His word for us in every difficult situation.  If we hear His word and act on it in faith, we can walk through as on dry ground, even while the walls of water stand about us and the Egyptians chase us. 

Hear His word for you.  Trust Him. Stand in faith and see the salvation of the Lord in the midst of your sea.  “The Lord will fight for you.”

Tom Finley

2 Peter 1:19 is a most unusual verse.

“So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts” (2 Pet. 1:19)

The context is Christ’s return and His millennial Kingdom, as prefigured by His shining majesty on the Mount of Transfiguration (vs. 16-18).  Verse 19 admonishes us to pay close attention to the prophetic word concerning His coming with His Kingdom.  Such prophecy serves as a lamp giving light in this dark age.  This is a lamp of hope, the blessed hope.  This verse goes on to say that we should pay close attention to prophecy in God’s word concerning this UNTIL two things happen.  Firstly, the day will finally dawn–the day of His coming with His Kingdom, bringing in His reign of righteousness.  Secondly, and most mysteriously, as we pay attention to this word, longing for Him and the word of His coming to come to pass, something is said to happen inwardly.  The morning star will arise in our hearts.  The morning star (Venus) is the second brightest object in the night sky, after the moon.  It comes late in the night, in the darkest part, sometime before the dawn.  We may say that it heralds the soon coming dawn.  

How shall we understand this?  It seems quite plausible to me that the Holy Spirit is saying that late into the dark night of this age an inward light will come to those who are seeking Him and longing for His appearing.  This light will arise in their hearts, to meet the coming dawn.  This light is the bright hope and promise and anticipation of His coming made ever more real and present to the seekers of Christ as the day actually draws near.   Can we say that this could be true?  If you are paying close attention to the word of prophecy concerning His coming, if you are longing for Him to come back and eagerly awaiting that more than anything else, I suspect that you already know the answer.

“To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”  (Heb. 9:28)

Your brother,

Tom Finley

(Phm 1:6)  and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake.

 I believe that this verse expresses Paul’s desire in prayer for Philemon that he take action concerning Paul’s request in his letter.  Paul deeply desires that Onesimus (Philemon’s slave) be forgiven by Philemon for running away and perhaps even stealing something from his master.  Now that Onesimus has been born again and become useful to Paul, Paul desires that Philemon might be willing to let Onesimus return to Paul to minister to him in prison.   So, in his letter Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus even as Paul himself, and to agree to send him back to Paul for service.

 How could Philemon possibly do such difficult things as forgiving this disloyal slave, receiving him with the same warmth as he would Paul, and then freely giving him up to  Paul?  The answer lies in Paul’s prayer for Philemon.  He is praying that Philemon could have such a generous sharing arising out of his faith because he learns – discovers -  the goodness of the living Christ within him!  

 The challenge to do something very hard, that brings death to self, can be the very catalyst for the rich discovery of what goodness is in us who now have Christ’s life within.  We see, as Philemon surely did, that Christ is able to do far above what we ever thought we could do.   Philemon could freely share the forgiveness and the release of his slave back to Paul.   Such a sharing is the fellowship, or the giving arising out of his walk of faith.  He could do this “towards Christ” or “unto Christ” (a better translation than “for Christ’s sake”) as a service and an offering to Him!

 When God challenges us anew to die to self and give unto Him and others, this is our wonderful opportunity to discover the riches of the Christ within us in a fresh way!  May we know Him and discover His riches in such a way!

 Tom Finley

“Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.”  (2 Cor. 9:10-11). 

If we have spiritual insight, we will see that God is giving us material things, as well as spiritual grace..  But, He is doing this in order that we will sow into the lives of others. We may sow material things, or we may sow spiritual things, using our spiritual gifts.  He enriches us “FOR all liberality.”  His intention is that we will not retain what He gives for ourselves, but that we will sow it into the lives of others.  As we do this, we have this wonderful promise that God “will increase the harvest of your righteousness.”   Our “righteousness” here is our sowing into the lives of others.  He promises to increase this harvest, adding His power to produce something wonderful and greater than what we sow.   May God increase our faith — to see His supply, to sow in faith, and to believe God for an increased harvest by the work of His hand.

Tom Finley

“but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. (2 Cor. 6:4-11)

What words describing the ministry of Paul and his fellow workers as they ministered to the saints in Corinth.   The purity, the willingness to suffer, the utter dedication to the truth and to God are made strikingly clear in the many ways in which they commended themselves as God’s true servants.   May we bow before God in deep humility and call upon Him to cleanse us from all self interests, that we may rise to serve Him as true servants of the living God.

Your brother,

Tom Finley

We officially moved to a new and updated  webdesign this morning. The contents are the same, but we have made the navigation more streamlined and hopefully easier for you to find the articles you are interested in. The blog is to provide a way to enable a two-way mutually edifying conversation. Hope you like it. Do take a moment and drop me a line!

Yours in Christ,

Tom Finley