Did you ever read a Verse of Scripture and suddenly it radiated fresh “light,” like a newly cut and polished diamond?

That just happened to me. Maybe because I only (initially) saw the first Line of today’s Text. Everyone will be familiar …

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live!” (Galatians 2:20a, meaning only the first part of the Verse.

Logically this complex Sentence is an oxymoron, a contradiction. But spiritually it is true beyond comprehension. And experientially … it is super sweet to me this morning!

If I identify with Jesus (Who is the Christ) in His Death … looks like I can also (consequently) identify with Him in His Life!

If I die to what I used to be … though this may be a process, a long and hard-fought battle … I can live as unto Christ every hour of every day!

I say “process” because Paul allows me to … “I die daily” admitted the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 15:31.

God in His glorious creation gives us a picture of this death/life Principle every year. Seasonally He does … Winter picturing death … which is soon followed by Spring with all its new Life!

And just as there was no Death like Jesus’ Death … ever; so will there be no Life like Jesus’ Life for evermore!

“Life on the highest level, plane!” That’s how one scholarly Greek teacher explained it.

“Life more abundant,” Jesus depicted it!

Just as our Lord right now is enjoying glorified, eternal Life in the Presence of His Father … so can I participate in that Life this very second.

Yes, I am, saying … JESUS LIVES IN US CHRISTIANS! Paul called this Miracle a “Mystery” in Colossians 1:17 … “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory.”

Wow!

His Death (His precious Blood) saved me.

Now His Life sustains me!

As we are more and more “made conformable” unto Jesus Death … I suspect we shall proportionately “know Him” in the Power of His Resurrection! (Philippians 3:10)

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Die to something today … something you choose (just as Jesus chose the Cross) … and see if God does not birth something new (very much alive) in its place!

Like this … “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.”

Oh, the dynamite POWER of the old rugged CROSS of our dear Lord Jesus Christ!

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Paul the Apostle, in 1 Timothy 1:7 says of our great God …

“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Wow!

At first I puzzled over this question … “Does the Apostle have Jesus in mind here, or God the Father?”

Jesus is King!

And also Eternal!

But NOT invisible, for sure! (He took human flesh upon Himself! The whole Idea behind the Virgin Birth!)

Then I supposed this to be God the Father. “The Only Wise God” indeed. Who also is “invisible” according to Paul, so he says again in Colossians 1:15 for that matter.

By the way, I do realize that God is ONE! Yet too He manifests Himself triunely. As Father, Son and Spirit! (See 2 Corinthians 13:14 for an illustration … “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.”)

But the Trinity is indeed “immortal” in every respect! Undying, incapable of death, in fact.

Yet on the Cross, miracle of miracles, God died! Jesus died! 1 Corinthians 15:3 thunders … “Christ died for our sins.”

How can this be?

Only one way! Jesus (God in flesh) died because God the Father “slew” Him. No one else could have!

Isaiah 53:4 says of our Lord … “smitten of God!” A verb translated “slay” 92 times and “kill” 20 more times in the King James Bible.

Isaiah 53:10 adds … “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” Where the verb “bruise” is rendered “smite” 1 time and “destroy” 2 times and “break in pieces” 3 more times!

Immortality slew Immortality!

God “gave” (on Calvary) His Only Begotten Son!

God the Father made His Darling Son a “sin offering” for you and for me! And you do remember that the wages of sin is _______! Yes, death!

I go back to my original descriptor … “MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!”

“WONDER OF WONDERS!”

Yes, even this being so … God the Son did not remain dead!

That would have been an impossibility!

Peter at Pentecost … “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” Acts 2:24

IMMORTALITY CAN’T STAY DEAD!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

All the more so now … “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

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Things had become so bad in Judah that the Prophet Isaiah went so far as to proclaim: “Truth is fallen in the street.” And that’s exactly the case in many a street in this old world!

I am beginning to wonder if people can even discern “truth” anymore! It’s like the whole world has been blinded to believe a pack of lies! (A situation which can be seen as the Judging Hand of God! 2 Thessalonians 2:11)

Isaiah again … “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

Oh, I forgot to say that behind this culture of “untruth” (lying, deceit) is none other than the Devil! (Jesus in John 8:44 … “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”)

The Universities of the world now even question the existence of truth, absolute truth! No longer firm and stable, their version of “truth” (so-called) is liquid, fluid … moldable into each person’s individual definition. (“Truth for HIM may not be TRUTH for you, etc.)

Yes, truth has fallen indeed! Isaiah was a Prophet, obviously.

Folks, today’s world is about ready to accept the “Man of Sin,” the Anti-Christ … soon as he is revealed. (After the Rapture of the Church, I believe.) And this “son of perdition” will be Untruth personified, a living Lie!

But now … one bright note. The verb translated “is fallen” in our Text (“Truth is fallen in the street”) is “kashal” in Hebrew. And it does NOT mean “to die!” (Real Truth can’t be killed!)

“Kashal” means “to stumble, totter,” and even “to fall.” But I suggest Truth will some day get back up!

That’s because Truth in Perfection (“Jesus Christ our Lord”) is coming again! Who Else ever could really proclaim “I am the Truth” and mean it, live it, prove it?

Truth!

Jesus also taught us that God’s Word is Truth (John 17:17b). And it is settled in Heaven, forever … Psalm 119:89.

I’ll close with one of God’s many honorable Titles, this one lifted from Revelation 6:10 … “O Lord, holy and true.”

Did you get that?

True … eternally true!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Solomon (in his days of Wisdom) observed, with the good Holy Spirit’s approval I might add …

“It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.” Ecclesiastes 7:2

Better?

Yes, as far as “learning” life’s major issues is concerned!

The house of “tears, lamentations, sadness,” all are valid synonyms for “mourning.” Times of grief can then (for the Bible Believer) be great educational opportunities! The Psalmist certainly agreed: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” Psalm 119:71

Learning opportunities IF we “lay it to heart.” GIVE it some thought! Ponder death through the eyes of God!

As in Amos 4:12 … “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” As in, using the New Testament now … “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27

And the house of “feasting?” Normally not a sin to go there, to eat! In fact, a necessity. Except this particular word for “feasting” (in Hebrew “mishteh”) means a gluttonous “banquet” 10 times and “drink” (as in getting drunk, intoxicated) 5 more times!

Not good!

“The end of all men?” Yes, in the sense of the cessation of earthly life. NOT in respect to Heaven or Hell, eternal realities!

What’s the Holy Spirit saying here?

Think about death, too!

Your eternal destiny!

A sobering thought this morning!

Unless you are like Paul the Apostle … “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21

And if you can truly say that in your heart … go and eat your breakfast! Or lunch!

The Christian faith, being “in” Jesus Christ the Lord … not only prepares you for death, for Heaven … but also teaches you how to really live on earth! And existence for the real Believer is (still using Solomon’s words) a “continual feast!” Alluding to Proverbs 15:15.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Wow!

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Psalm 97 has spoken to my heart early this Monday morning! The whole Chapter (or Poem or Song) really!

But one Line especially.

“Clouds and darkness are round about Him.” This is verse 2a of the thrilling Passage.

Is this saying that, even when I am in darkness, those times in my life when things are just not that “bright” … God is still around me?

YES!

And those days (excuse me, nights) when lots of things are not all that “clear,” in fact very hazy (cloudy) … God is there as well?

YES!

Maybe this amazing Truth is the basis for the great Christian song “Standing Somewhere in the Shadows You’ll Find Jesus!”

God with me … all around me … in darkness and gloom.

Notice this too … not clouds OR darkness, but clouds AND darkness. Double problems! (“When it rains it pours,” the old timers used to say!) Think of the Patriarch Job here!

Still, it can’t get too dark or too cloudy … but that God is “in” the situation!

This very Thought might be of great comfort to many a heart in coming days (and nights)! As anarchy threatens the world. Anti-Christian rhetoric, spiritual warfare.

BUT … having said that (today’s Lesson) I feel I must “balance” this “clouds and darkness” Reality with a verse like Psalm 36:9. Precisely, “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” Another divinely inspired Utterance about our great God!

God also is in the Light, really … He IS the Light! Truth be told, it is only through Psalm 36:9b (“In Thy Light we see Light” than Psalm 97:2 can be understood!

In God’s LIGHT … we can see/comprehend/understand/believe that God is around us even in the deepest DARKNESS and thickest CLOUDS!

Wow!

Walk in the Light … but when (not if ) darkness comes … look for Him! He is there! He will never leave you nor forsake you!

That’s His Promise!

Two seemingly opposite verses … yet both true to fact.

Look again …

“Clouds and darkness are round about him” Psalm 97:2

“In thy light shall we see light.” Psalm 36:9

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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