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Paul Tautges Christian Blog and Commentary

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Paul Tautges

Crosswalk.com blogspot for pastor and counseling Paul Tautges of counselingoneanother.com

Let Immanuel Deliver Comfort to Hurting Hearts This Christmas

  • 2022Dec 14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

 

Every December, while growing up in snowy Wisconsin, Andy Williams helped our family decorate the Christmas tree. We strung the lights and garland with Dad, and helped Mom carefully hang the ornaments, all the while Andy crooned through the stereo, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Indeed, Christmas is wonderful! However, for some in our churches, it can be a very painful time of year—a time when memories bring the losses of the previous year (or years) to the forefront of minds, provoking additional heartache. Therefore, one of the most helpful ways we can minister grace to hurting hearts this month is by reminding them of one of our Savior’s most precious names: Immanuel.  Continue reading...
 

Combating Our Anxiety in a Time of War

  • 2022Mar 07

As we watch Russia’s war on Ukraine, it’s natural and common for our hearts to become anxious. Therefore, we need the Word of God to recenter our thoughts and emotions. Psalm 27, a military psalm, is an ideal place to turn for help in a time of war.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? . . . One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:1, 4

Escalating anxiety sometimes makes it seem impossible for us to respond in a righteous way. Pastor and author Brian Borgman explains, “Worry is a crippling emotion that paralyzes us. It bogs us down emotionally, making us virtually useless for anything else. In addition, it leads to other sins. ‘Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil’ (Ps. 37:8b). . . . Fear leads to lying, forgetting God, not trusting God, and not fearing God.”1 We don’t always recognize this tendency and, if we do, don’t always admit it. But anxiety can lead to other sins, as we saw in part 1 of this devotional.

That’s why there is much to learn from Psalm 27. Conflict induces some of the highest levels of anxiety you will ever experience. As King David’s enemies increased, so did his anxiety. Three times in the opening verses of this psalm he confesses to being afraid (see vv. 1–3). At least six times in the whole of the psalm he identifies the basis of his fear: evildoers, adversaries, armies at war, enemies, and false witnesses (see vv. 2, 3, 6, 12). Yet rather than responding with sin, David responds in a righteous manner, with a heart that is strengthened by God-centered faith. He turns to his only help and cries out to God (see v. 7). He fights fear with confidence in God as his defender.

How did he do this? What can we learn from his example?

Faith cripples the power of fear by reminding us of the right-now presence of the Lord (v. 1). David reminds himself that “the Lord is my light and my salvation” and that “the Lord is the stronghold of my life.” In fear’s grip, biblical faith doesn’t look only to promises of future deliverance but to assurances of present protection. While being persecuted by enemies, David says, “God is here with me. In him I will put my trust. He is my protection.”

Faith cripples the power of our fear when our focus and affection become singular in the Lord (v. 4). David deliberately turns the eyes of his heart away from real-life fears and toward his one, undying passion—to live in the real-time presence of the Lord. David seeks, “all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.” As it was with David, so it can be with us. Gazing on the beauty of the Lord will rightly align our affections, enliven our faith, and alleviate our fears. Do you have that same singular longing—to seek after the Lord? Or does anxiety distract you from the Lord?

Faith is powerful, isn’t it? It helps us to fight our fears as we find our confidence in the Lord.

  • Reflect: Do you, like David, have confidence that God is on your side?
  • Reflect: In what ways do you experience the crippling effects of fear? Do you see any tendencies in yourself to allow anxiety to lead you to sin in other ways? If so, are you ever tempted to excuse this?
  • Act: The second half of Psalm 27 (vv. 8–14) is an anxious prayer that expresses David’s hope to see his longings of verses 1–7 come to final fruition as he sees “the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (v. 13). Can you pray this prayer and make it your own?

*This post is a one-day excerpt from Anxiety: Knowing God’s Peace (31-Day Devotional for Life).

You Are Justified By God and Before God

  • 2022Feb 21

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Cor. 5:21

The greatest exchange the world has ever seen is this: Jesus traded our sin for his righteousness. This—and this alone—is the basis for our right standing before our holy God. God looks at the repentant sinner who trusts in Jesus through the lens of Jesus’s sinless character and sacrificial work, and instantly declares them righteous. This justification forever changes our spiritual status.

Justification is the legal act whereby God declares a sinner righteous based on empty-handed faith in the all-sufficient death and resurrection of his Son (Rom. 4:25; Phil. 3:9). Legal is an important word in this definition because it emphasizes the fact that justification is not experiential. Instead, it is an announcement in the “courtroom of heaven.” Justification is not the act whereby God makes us holy; that is sanctification, which is a lifelong process. In contrast, justification is a one-time event that forever changes the sinner’s standing before God based on imputed righteousness alone. Imputed righteousness is the perfect righteousness of Christ credited to our “spiritual account” as a gift of God’s grace received by faith at conversion.

The verse above is breathtaking in its display of God’s love for us. Indeed, the apostle says that God did this “for our sake.” Paul goes on, “he [God, the Father] “made him to be sin who knew no sin” [Jesus did not become a sinner, but the sinless sin offering] “so that” [God’s purpose] “in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Your union with Christ immediately and forever changes your status before God. No longer does God see you as Unrighteous Sinner, but Righteous Child. This alone was accomplished by the triune God.

God the Father imputed your sin to Christ while he hung on the cross. Then the Father judged Jesus in your place as if he were the guilty one. When you trust Jesus as the sin-bearing Savior, the Spirit applies the atoning work of Christ on your behalf—the perfect righteousness of God’s Son is imputed to you in place of your sin. God then declares you righteous, treating you as if you had perfectly obeyed his law just as Jesus did. This is the wondrous exchange! As a result, “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2). This is all of faith, not by works: “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Rom. 3:20); “we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom. 3:28); “we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16). Nevertheless, your justification is inseparably wed to a living faith that produces works which reflect the glory of God (John 15:8; Eph. 2:10; James 2:17).

Therefore, though justification itself is not experiential, but a judicial declaration of your new position before God, it results in experiencing the heart-transforming work of the Spirit, which is sanctification. Regardless of whether you feel righteous, the Word of God declares you are so in Christ. Bring your thoughts and feelings in line with Scripture.