What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:
“ Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I absolutely love verse 30....irony of ironies...That is just so God. The ones who did not pursue righteousness attained the righteousness of faith and the ones who pursued the law of righteousness did not get there. Why? They did not seek it by faith but by works...they tried to do it themselves. They stumbled at that stumbling stone (Jesus) and were offended instead of being thankful for the free gift of salvation we have in God's Son.
The Gentile understood that the way into God's kingdom was to realize their own inability to keep the law and their need for a Savior and enter His kingdom by faith. The Jews rejected grace righteousness and tried to please God through law righteousness spurning the gift of His Son. God's plan is not for us to try to obtain His favor by being good and doing good things. It is to obtain His favor by realizing that we can never be good enough and must depend on His Son for entrance into heaven. The Jews thought the Gentiles needed to climb to their level to be saved but in reality they needed to get down in the mud with the Gentiles to find salvation. “For there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” The gospel was taken to the Jew first and upon their rejection to the Gentiles. The nation of Israel rejected the Messiah but there were many Jews that accepted Him, In fact, the early church was made up of mostly Jewish believers. Are you seeing God's mercy here and feeling His love...the nation may have rejected Him but acceptance or rejection of Christ, is a personal decision that each one of us must make.
Okay...here comes more of God's grace and His unsearchable ways. The Jewish rejection of their Messiah meant the Gentiles salvation. Romans 11:11 says this: "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles." So today the saved Gentiles provoke Israel “to jealousy” because of the spiritual riches they have in Christ. Read Romans 10: 19-21 and see God's grace to the entire world.
19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says:
“ I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation,
I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.”
20 But Isaiah is very bold and says:
“ I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”
21 But to Israel he says:
“ All day long I have stretched out My hands
To a disobedient and contrary people.”
I do not understand predestination and free will. It is a mystery. I do know, however, that the Bible teaches both. I also see God's love evidenced in these passages and if studied closely in every chapter in the Bible. I see His free offer of salvation to all of us. All He does, He does for our good and His glory. His ways are unfathomable. 2nd Peter 3:9 says "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." God says salvation is by grace through faith and not of works. God says whosoever will come. It has been said that divine sovereignty and human responsibility do not compete they cooperate. We are not asked to choose between them. We are asked to choose between life eternally with Christ by believing by faith in His Son or life eternally in a place of torment separated forever from God.
After going through this chapter verse by verse, I am now more convinced than ever that our God can be trusted...He is faithful to keep His word and to accomplish its purpose both in Israel and the whole world. In fact, in Israel's rejection, He kept His word to the Gentiles and will use the Gentiles to keep His word to Israel. Truly we serve an amazing God!!
Love
Mom who is really looking forward to studying Chapter 10 of Romans...
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Backsliding....Jeremiah 8
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Jeremiah 8 is the backsliding chapter...Israel was going backwards rather than forwards in their relationship with the Lord. Why were they backsliding? The short list is that they were content believing lies. They did not want to admit the truth nor heed the truth. Repentance was not on their radar....everyone turned to his own way. They were happy with the shallow ministry of the false prophets. They could be religious and still live the way they wanted to. They had rejected the word of the Lord and went backward...
Verse 14 asks "Why do they sit still?" They sit still because they do not really believe the enemy is coming. They are believing the false prophets lies in regard to peace.
We do that...we put off repentance because we are enjoying our life and our sin. We forget that the moment is all we have. We figure there is time. The truth is, however, that sin and a lack of repentance hardens our hearts to our own sin and the sin of the world around us. We do not see it through the same lenses any more. As time goes by our sin not only continues but we start to do things that we never thought we would. As opportunities pass and we continue in our sin, it becomes harder and harder to turn.
Here is an example...You have done something wrong...you know you should apologize...there is a battle waging inside. "Put aside your pride," the first voice says, "humble yourself and apologize." The other voice that fills your head and makes it swell and it is definitely the loudest tells you that you did not get what you deserved. You were not treated as you should have been treated so you should not reach out first...the longer you put off repenting, the harder it becomes and the more you begin to believe the second voice that tells you that you are deserving of better. This is the way of selfishness...it has been the way of death for many many relationships. Pride kills. Marriages are destroyed, families are destroyed....why? Because someone felt they deserved more and stood there doing nothing while their world was destroyed around them. Pharaoh allowed all of Egypt to be destroyed and his first born killed, rather than give way to God. On the other hand humility breeds unity and peace. Take a deep breath and do the right thing, when the opportunity presents itself. It just gets harder if you don't and as you wait your sin hurts you as well as those around you. Look what happened to Egypt...look where Pharaoh wound up.
19 Listen! The voice,
The cry of the daughter of my people
From a far country:
“ Is not the LORD in Zion?
Is not her King in her?”
“ Why have they provoked Me to anger
With their carved images—
With foreign idols?”
Why have they provoked the Lord to anger...
The people of Judah thought they could get away with serving God and idols. They really didn't abandon the Lord they just equated Him with their false gods. They served both Him and sin except they served Him only with their lips because with their hearts they served sin. Their deeds reflected what their hearts truly believed. Think of it as an unfaithful spouse who has chosen another over his beloved. We grieve God when we choose anything else over Him.
I see this so often. People begin to think about the things of God and rather than really look they deceive their own hearts and do the outward. They make things in their life look a little better from the outside. They go to church or do some charity work or even just voice belief. They compare themselves with those around them and they think they come out pretty okay. They hedge their bets so to speak. They are not really comfortable in their sin so they deceive themselves into thinking their hearts are for God. Their lives, however, reflect what their hearts DO NOT BELIEVE. If your word and your deed are not matching there is a problem in your heart. You cannot serve two masters. God demands total commitment.
There was no recovery...verses 20-22. God does suffer long with us and gives us every opportunity to repent. There comes a time, however, when His long suffering ends...The limit is reached. Judah did not heed God's warning while there was still time. It says this in Jeremiah Chapter 4:
1 “If you will return, O Israel,” says the LORD,
“Return to Me;
And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight,
Then you shall not be moved.
2 And you shall swear, ‘The LORD lives,’
In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness;
The nations shall bless themselves in Him,
And in Him they shall glory.”
3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
“ Break up your fallow ground,
And do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
And take away the foreskins of your hearts,
You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Lest My fury come forth like fire,
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.”
It was now too late...there was no remedy. The prophet was broken-hearted. Jeremiah had such compassion for his countrymen. It is difficult to watch someone you love go down a path of destruction thinking they can navigate it differently than others have in the past and escape consequences and judgment. Our sin truly does make us stupid and the longer we wait to get back on the right road the less we see our need. When we go over the cliff, it is too late...the opportunity is past and judgment comes. Turn now...in time it may be too late and your life will be in shambles around you.
Love
Mom
Jeremiah 8 is the backsliding chapter...Israel was going backwards rather than forwards in their relationship with the Lord. Why were they backsliding? The short list is that they were content believing lies. They did not want to admit the truth nor heed the truth. Repentance was not on their radar....everyone turned to his own way. They were happy with the shallow ministry of the false prophets. They could be religious and still live the way they wanted to. They had rejected the word of the Lord and went backward...
Verse 14 asks "Why do they sit still?" They sit still because they do not really believe the enemy is coming. They are believing the false prophets lies in regard to peace.
We do that...we put off repentance because we are enjoying our life and our sin. We forget that the moment is all we have. We figure there is time. The truth is, however, that sin and a lack of repentance hardens our hearts to our own sin and the sin of the world around us. We do not see it through the same lenses any more. As time goes by our sin not only continues but we start to do things that we never thought we would. As opportunities pass and we continue in our sin, it becomes harder and harder to turn.
Here is an example...You have done something wrong...you know you should apologize...there is a battle waging inside. "Put aside your pride," the first voice says, "humble yourself and apologize." The other voice that fills your head and makes it swell and it is definitely the loudest tells you that you did not get what you deserved. You were not treated as you should have been treated so you should not reach out first...the longer you put off repenting, the harder it becomes and the more you begin to believe the second voice that tells you that you are deserving of better. This is the way of selfishness...it has been the way of death for many many relationships. Pride kills. Marriages are destroyed, families are destroyed....why? Because someone felt they deserved more and stood there doing nothing while their world was destroyed around them. Pharaoh allowed all of Egypt to be destroyed and his first born killed, rather than give way to God. On the other hand humility breeds unity and peace. Take a deep breath and do the right thing, when the opportunity presents itself. It just gets harder if you don't and as you wait your sin hurts you as well as those around you. Look what happened to Egypt...look where Pharaoh wound up.
19 Listen! The voice,
The cry of the daughter of my people
From a far country:
“ Is not the LORD in Zion?
Is not her King in her?”
“ Why have they provoked Me to anger
With their carved images—
With foreign idols?”
Why have they provoked the Lord to anger...
The people of Judah thought they could get away with serving God and idols. They really didn't abandon the Lord they just equated Him with their false gods. They served both Him and sin except they served Him only with their lips because with their hearts they served sin. Their deeds reflected what their hearts truly believed. Think of it as an unfaithful spouse who has chosen another over his beloved. We grieve God when we choose anything else over Him.
I see this so often. People begin to think about the things of God and rather than really look they deceive their own hearts and do the outward. They make things in their life look a little better from the outside. They go to church or do some charity work or even just voice belief. They compare themselves with those around them and they think they come out pretty okay. They hedge their bets so to speak. They are not really comfortable in their sin so they deceive themselves into thinking their hearts are for God. Their lives, however, reflect what their hearts DO NOT BELIEVE. If your word and your deed are not matching there is a problem in your heart. You cannot serve two masters. God demands total commitment.
There was no recovery...verses 20-22. God does suffer long with us and gives us every opportunity to repent. There comes a time, however, when His long suffering ends...The limit is reached. Judah did not heed God's warning while there was still time. It says this in Jeremiah Chapter 4:
1 “If you will return, O Israel,” says the LORD,
“Return to Me;
And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight,
Then you shall not be moved.
2 And you shall swear, ‘The LORD lives,’
In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness;
The nations shall bless themselves in Him,
And in Him they shall glory.”
3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
“ Break up your fallow ground,
And do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
And take away the foreskins of your hearts,
You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Lest My fury come forth like fire,
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.”
It was now too late...there was no remedy. The prophet was broken-hearted. Jeremiah had such compassion for his countrymen. It is difficult to watch someone you love go down a path of destruction thinking they can navigate it differently than others have in the past and escape consequences and judgment. Our sin truly does make us stupid and the longer we wait to get back on the right road the less we see our need. When we go over the cliff, it is too late...the opportunity is past and judgment comes. Turn now...in time it may be too late and your life will be in shambles around you.
Love
Mom
Friday, October 29, 2010
If God is Sovereign, Can We Resist Him? Romans 9:19-29
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor--Romans 9:19-21
The question here is if God is sovereign than how can we resist His will. If we do resist, what right does He have to judge. Who are we to question God. Does not God have power over us to form one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? God is holy, just and righteous. He cannot perform an unjust act or have an unjust purpose. Again though, looking through the human perspective it seems to us sometimes that He does. He had mercy on Moses but condemned Pharaoh. He elected Israel and rejected other nations. Is this just?
First, who are we to question God. Like clay in the hands of the potter we are the work of His hands. We are different from clay, however in that we have emotions, intelligence and free will. We can resist Him if we choose. God, however, chooses our parents, where and in what time frame we are born, our genetics...etc. The fact that He is sovereign does not excuse us from responsibility. As was said in the previous post, Pharaoh had the same opportunities as Moses but chose to harden his heart against the things of God.
Divine sovereignty does not rule out personal responsibility. I really cannot grasp the concept, but I see it all around me. People choosing to look to the things of God and people choosing to turn away from them. I also see it through the eyes of what I know about God's love for us. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. I read about the opportunities that Judas was given as well as the thief on the cross. I read about Peter's struggle and restoration. Through it all I see God reaching down in love...always always for our good and with our best in mind. I see Jesus' mercy, love and compassion in each and every interaction He had with the people around Him. Read the gospel accounts...see what He wept over. He wept over the city of Jerusalem. Why because they did not recognize their Messiah. He told the women on Calvary Road not to weep for Him but to weep for themselves because they did not understand what lay ahead for the city. Jesus wept for us...for our unbelief. Jesus is for us not against us...the One who created me...loves me and has my best interests at heart. I can trust Him to be my Potter and mold me however He desires. He loved me enough to die for me....I can trust Him with my life.
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?--Romans 9:22-24
Love (God) suffers long and is kind. 2nd Peter 3:9 says that God is not slack concerning His promises. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." Pharaoh had opportunities to be saved as did Judas as do all of us. Warren Wiersbe says the word prepared or fitted for destruction in verse 22 does not suggest that God made Pharaoh a vessel of destruction. "The verb is in what the Greek grammarians call the middle voice, making it a reflexive action verb. So, it should read: “fitted himself for destruction.” God prepares men for glory (Rom_9:23), but sinners prepare themselves for judgment. In Moses and Israel God revealed the riches of His mercy; in Pharaoh and Egypt He revealed His power and wrath. Since neither deserved any mercy, God cannot be charged with injustice." Let's look last at Romans 9:25-29.
As He says also in Hosea:
“ I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
26 “ And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘ You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
“ Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.”
29 And as Isaiah said before:
“ Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”[
I love Warren Wiersbe's commentary on these verses and I will end with it. As I contemplate this I am amazed at the awesomeness of our God...indescribable...
"First Paul quoted Hos 2:23, a statement declaring that God would turn from the Jews and call the Gentiles. Then he cited Hos 1:10 to prove that this new people being called would be God’s people and “children of the living God.” He then quoted Isa 10:22-23 to show that only a remnant of Israel would be saved, while the greater part of the nation would suffer judgment. Rom 9:28 probably refers to God’s work of judgment during the Tribulation, when the nation of Israel will be persecuted and judged, and only a small remnant left to enter into the kingdom when Jesus Christ returns to earth. But the application for today is clear: only a remnant of Jews is believing; and they, together with the Gentiles, are the “called of God” (Rom_9:24). The final quotation from Isa 1:9 emphasized the grace of God in sparing the believing remnant.
Now, what does all of this prove? That God was not unjust in saving some and judging others, because He was only fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies given centuries ago. He would be unjust if He did not keep His own Word. But even more than that, these prophecies show that God’s election has made possible the salvation of the Gentiles. This is the grace of God. At the Exodus, God rejected the Gentiles and chose the Jews, so that, through the Jews, He might save the Gentiles. The nation of Israel rejected His will, but this did not defeat His purposes. A remnant of Jews does believe and God’s Word has been fulfilled."
SEE HOW OUR GOD WORKS...EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL THAT WE COULD ASK OR THINK!
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
Isaiah 55:9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Israel’s rejection had not canceled God’s election; it had only proved that He was true to His character and His purposes.
Love
Mom
The question here is if God is sovereign than how can we resist His will. If we do resist, what right does He have to judge. Who are we to question God. Does not God have power over us to form one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? God is holy, just and righteous. He cannot perform an unjust act or have an unjust purpose. Again though, looking through the human perspective it seems to us sometimes that He does. He had mercy on Moses but condemned Pharaoh. He elected Israel and rejected other nations. Is this just?
First, who are we to question God. Like clay in the hands of the potter we are the work of His hands. We are different from clay, however in that we have emotions, intelligence and free will. We can resist Him if we choose. God, however, chooses our parents, where and in what time frame we are born, our genetics...etc. The fact that He is sovereign does not excuse us from responsibility. As was said in the previous post, Pharaoh had the same opportunities as Moses but chose to harden his heart against the things of God.
Divine sovereignty does not rule out personal responsibility. I really cannot grasp the concept, but I see it all around me. People choosing to look to the things of God and people choosing to turn away from them. I also see it through the eyes of what I know about God's love for us. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. I read about the opportunities that Judas was given as well as the thief on the cross. I read about Peter's struggle and restoration. Through it all I see God reaching down in love...always always for our good and with our best in mind. I see Jesus' mercy, love and compassion in each and every interaction He had with the people around Him. Read the gospel accounts...see what He wept over. He wept over the city of Jerusalem. Why because they did not recognize their Messiah. He told the women on Calvary Road not to weep for Him but to weep for themselves because they did not understand what lay ahead for the city. Jesus wept for us...for our unbelief. Jesus is for us not against us...the One who created me...loves me and has my best interests at heart. I can trust Him to be my Potter and mold me however He desires. He loved me enough to die for me....I can trust Him with my life.
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?--Romans 9:22-24
Love (God) suffers long and is kind. 2nd Peter 3:9 says that God is not slack concerning His promises. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." Pharaoh had opportunities to be saved as did Judas as do all of us. Warren Wiersbe says the word prepared or fitted for destruction in verse 22 does not suggest that God made Pharaoh a vessel of destruction. "The verb is in what the Greek grammarians call the middle voice, making it a reflexive action verb. So, it should read: “fitted himself for destruction.” God prepares men for glory (Rom_9:23), but sinners prepare themselves for judgment. In Moses and Israel God revealed the riches of His mercy; in Pharaoh and Egypt He revealed His power and wrath. Since neither deserved any mercy, God cannot be charged with injustice." Let's look last at Romans 9:25-29.
As He says also in Hosea:
“ I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
26 “ And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘ You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
“ Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.”
29 And as Isaiah said before:
“ Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”[
I love Warren Wiersbe's commentary on these verses and I will end with it. As I contemplate this I am amazed at the awesomeness of our God...indescribable...
"First Paul quoted Hos 2:23, a statement declaring that God would turn from the Jews and call the Gentiles. Then he cited Hos 1:10 to prove that this new people being called would be God’s people and “children of the living God.” He then quoted Isa 10:22-23 to show that only a remnant of Israel would be saved, while the greater part of the nation would suffer judgment. Rom 9:28 probably refers to God’s work of judgment during the Tribulation, when the nation of Israel will be persecuted and judged, and only a small remnant left to enter into the kingdom when Jesus Christ returns to earth. But the application for today is clear: only a remnant of Jews is believing; and they, together with the Gentiles, are the “called of God” (Rom_9:24). The final quotation from Isa 1:9 emphasized the grace of God in sparing the believing remnant.
Now, what does all of this prove? That God was not unjust in saving some and judging others, because He was only fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies given centuries ago. He would be unjust if He did not keep His own Word. But even more than that, these prophecies show that God’s election has made possible the salvation of the Gentiles. This is the grace of God. At the Exodus, God rejected the Gentiles and chose the Jews, so that, through the Jews, He might save the Gentiles. The nation of Israel rejected His will, but this did not defeat His purposes. A remnant of Jews does believe and God’s Word has been fulfilled."
SEE HOW OUR GOD WORKS...EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL THAT WE COULD ASK OR THINK!
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
Isaiah 55:9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Israel’s rejection had not canceled God’s election; it had only proved that He was true to His character and His purposes.
Love
Mom
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Is Their Unrighteousness with God? - Romans 9:14-18
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”[18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens--Romans 9:14-18
So in the previous study entitled "Is God Reliable" we discussed God's sovereignty and His faithfulness to the Jewish nation. In this study we are going to discuss God's sovereignty in relation to His righteousness. God chose Israel and not Edom. God chose Jacob and not Esau. God chose Isaac and not Ishmael. God chose Israel and not another nation. Choosing one over another seems unfair to us. Lots of us accuse God of unfairness...if He chose Israel then He condemned Edom. If He chose Jacob then He condemned Esau. Paul starts off verse 14 with "Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!" God because He is holy cannot commit an unrighteous act.
Romans 1:16-17 says this: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."
God's righteousness is revealed in the gospel. The death of Christ, revealed God's righteousness by punishing sin. The resurrection of Jesus revealed His righteousness by making salvation available to the believing sinner. God can forgive sins and still be holy because He became the just and the justifier through the death of Jesus, His Son, on the cross. The righteousness from the gospel is one from faith.
In the Old Testament righteousness was by works of the law but it was soon apparent that no one could keep the law or meet the demands of a holy God. Salvation cannot come by obedience to the law. The law brings a curse...it demands obedience to all. If you break one, you're done. The law shows us our need for a Savior and our guilt before God. The gospels says "THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." This verse is mentioned in Habukuk and in three New Testament books. Romans explains “the just” and tells how the sinner can be justified before God. Galatians explains how the just “shall live”; and Hebrews discusses “by faith” (see Heb10:38).Warren Wiersbe says this: The Law says, "Do and live!" but grace says, "Believe and live!"
Really, God would be justified in wiping us all out. We all deserve condemnation. When you really begin to draw close to God, you begin to wonder how God can love any of us! I have heard it said that if God acted only on His righteousness nobody would ever be saved. Truly, it is only by God's mercy that we are all not consumed.
Look at verse 15and 16:
For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Who are we to say that He cannot show mercy or compassion to whomever He pleases. No one can condemn God for the way He extends His mercy...why...because He is righteous. We are all sinners...if left to ourselves, we would perish. The reference to Exodus 33 in verse 15 deals with Israel's idolatry (the golden calf incident) while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the law. All deserved condemnation and death but God killed only 3000. Justice is getting what we deserved...mercy is not getting what we deserve and grace is unmerited favor...getting what we absolutely do not deserve. Our destiny rests upon the mercies of God. We can't reach up to Him...He needs to reach down to us.
For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”[ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens--Romans 9:14-18
Now Paul quotes Exodus 9:16 using Pharaoh as an illustration. God shows compassion and mercy to Moses and Israel and condemnation to Pharaoh and Egypt. Moses was a Jew and Pharaoh was an Egyptian. Both men were sinners...murderers even! Both experienced or saw the same plagues and felt the power of God. Yet Moses was saved and Pharaoh was lost. Why? Because God is sovereign and acts according to His own will and purposes. He raised up Moses to show mercy on His people and deliver Israel, and He raised up Pharaoh to show His glory and power.
Think about it though...God gave Pharaoh all kinds of opportunities to repent...Moses heart was soft toward the things of God...Pharaoh resisted and hardened his heart until the Lord cemented him in his decision. The fault did not lay with God but with Pharaoh. People all face trials. Sometimes those trials will lead them straight into the arms of Christ and in His grace He saves them. Others react to adversity by cataloging and holding onto offenses and griefs and allowing their hearts to be filled with bitterness. They harden their own hearts toward the things of God by the decisions they make on a moment by moment basis. The bottom line is if we are saved it is because of His grace...if we die in our sins we have no one to blame but ourselves.
OUCH!
Love
Mom
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”[18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens--Romans 9:14-18
So in the previous study entitled "Is God Reliable" we discussed God's sovereignty and His faithfulness to the Jewish nation. In this study we are going to discuss God's sovereignty in relation to His righteousness. God chose Israel and not Edom. God chose Jacob and not Esau. God chose Isaac and not Ishmael. God chose Israel and not another nation. Choosing one over another seems unfair to us. Lots of us accuse God of unfairness...if He chose Israel then He condemned Edom. If He chose Jacob then He condemned Esau. Paul starts off verse 14 with "Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!" God because He is holy cannot commit an unrighteous act.
Romans 1:16-17 says this: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."
God's righteousness is revealed in the gospel. The death of Christ, revealed God's righteousness by punishing sin. The resurrection of Jesus revealed His righteousness by making salvation available to the believing sinner. God can forgive sins and still be holy because He became the just and the justifier through the death of Jesus, His Son, on the cross. The righteousness from the gospel is one from faith.
In the Old Testament righteousness was by works of the law but it was soon apparent that no one could keep the law or meet the demands of a holy God. Salvation cannot come by obedience to the law. The law brings a curse...it demands obedience to all. If you break one, you're done. The law shows us our need for a Savior and our guilt before God. The gospels says "THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." This verse is mentioned in Habukuk and in three New Testament books. Romans explains “the just” and tells how the sinner can be justified before God. Galatians explains how the just “shall live”; and Hebrews discusses “by faith” (see Heb10:38).Warren Wiersbe says this: The Law says, "Do and live!" but grace says, "Believe and live!"
Really, God would be justified in wiping us all out. We all deserve condemnation. When you really begin to draw close to God, you begin to wonder how God can love any of us! I have heard it said that if God acted only on His righteousness nobody would ever be saved. Truly, it is only by God's mercy that we are all not consumed.
Look at verse 15and 16:
For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Who are we to say that He cannot show mercy or compassion to whomever He pleases. No one can condemn God for the way He extends His mercy...why...because He is righteous. We are all sinners...if left to ourselves, we would perish. The reference to Exodus 33 in verse 15 deals with Israel's idolatry (the golden calf incident) while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the law. All deserved condemnation and death but God killed only 3000. Justice is getting what we deserved...mercy is not getting what we deserve and grace is unmerited favor...getting what we absolutely do not deserve. Our destiny rests upon the mercies of God. We can't reach up to Him...He needs to reach down to us.
For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”[ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens--Romans 9:14-18
Now Paul quotes Exodus 9:16 using Pharaoh as an illustration. God shows compassion and mercy to Moses and Israel and condemnation to Pharaoh and Egypt. Moses was a Jew and Pharaoh was an Egyptian. Both men were sinners...murderers even! Both experienced or saw the same plagues and felt the power of God. Yet Moses was saved and Pharaoh was lost. Why? Because God is sovereign and acts according to His own will and purposes. He raised up Moses to show mercy on His people and deliver Israel, and He raised up Pharaoh to show His glory and power.
Think about it though...God gave Pharaoh all kinds of opportunities to repent...Moses heart was soft toward the things of God...Pharaoh resisted and hardened his heart until the Lord cemented him in his decision. The fault did not lay with God but with Pharaoh. People all face trials. Sometimes those trials will lead them straight into the arms of Christ and in His grace He saves them. Others react to adversity by cataloging and holding onto offenses and griefs and allowing their hearts to be filled with bitterness. They harden their own hearts toward the things of God by the decisions they make on a moment by moment basis. The bottom line is if we are saved it is because of His grace...if we die in our sins we have no one to blame but ourselves.
OUCH!
Love
Mom
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Is God Reliable?
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Paul had just covered the fundamentals of salvation in chapters 1-8 and goes from talking about our absolutely secure position in Christ in chapter 8 to discussing the nation of Israel in Chapter 9 and weeping for his countrymen. This appears to be a detour...it would seem that the practical aspects of our salvation should come next. (Romans 12-15) Paul, however, is defending God's character here. He is answering the question that comes from Romans 8...What about the Jew? Has God put aside Israel...is He not being true to His word? Will He now build the church and forget about His promises to Israel? If Israel is God's chosen people, are they now separated from the love of God now because of their rejection of the Messiah? If that is the case, how can we (the church)...the ones that are grafted in....trust God? These are the questions Paul is answering. He covers the nation of Israel's past in Romans 9, their present in Romans 10 and their future in Romans 11.
Romans 9 is all about God's sovereignty. We need to look at God's sovereignty with a biblical balance. If we look at it from the perspective of God is in control and man cannot resist His will, we err...if we look at it as mostly human responsibility and God just responds to our choices, we err. It is both. We really can't wrap our minds around it, but that is what the Bible teaches. God's invitation of salvation was for the whole world. We are commanded to preach the gospel to the whole world. People reject the gospel because of the hardness of their hearts...not because God's invitation was not sincere. I have heard it said that the only way to know you are one of God's elect is to repent and accept Him as our Lord and Savior. With all that said, let's look at Romans 9:1-13.
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, --Romans 9:1-3
What a heart Paul had! Since I am reading through Jeremiah, it reminds me of Jeremiah but most commentators will say that his heart expressed sentiments similar to Moses. When Moses prayed in chapter 32 of Exodus, he asked to be blotted out from the Book of Life if God did not forgive His people. Paul loved his countrymen and would rather be accursed from Christ...spend eternity in hell then see them be separated from God. Paul's heart was filled with continual grief for the Jewish people in thinking about their rejection by God because they rejected God's Messiah. The application for us here is obvious...how much are we willing to give up for the salvation of those around us. Paul was willing to spend an eternity separated from God...sometimes I am not even willing to give up my comfort!
who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen--Romans 9:4-5
Next Paul talks about God's election of Israel and all the Israelites had been given by God. How faithful He was to them. They were adopted by God as His chosen people. (Exodus 4:22, Hos 11:1) He was their Father, they were His firstborn. His glory was in the cloud in Exodus and in the temple in 1st Kings. The covenants were given to Israel...to Abraham then additional ones to Moses and David. His law was given to protect them and enable them to govern properly. He guaranteed blessing if they obeyed. Israel ministered to Him in the tabernacle and temple as priests. To them He gave the promises. To the fathers...to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, He gave the Messiah! The Messiah, the blessed God who came down, was Jewish....Despite all these blessings, Israel failed. They rejected and crucified their Messiah. Paul understood this with "heart" knowledge having persecuted Christians until his conversion on the Damascus Road. Does Israel's failure mean God's failure too? Nope...God is faithful no matter what we might do. Whew...read verses 6-10 below.
But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”] 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac --Romans 9:6-10
Paul is saying here that there is a difference between the physical seed of Abraham and the spiritual seed. Just because they were physically of Abraham did not necessarily mean they were spiritually of Abraham. God did not base His election on the physical. Not all who are from Abraham are of Abraham...look at Ishmael...he rejected God's word...did it make God's word of no effect? The same is true for Esau. Just because Abraham's physical descendants had rejected God word that did not nullify His word. Within the nation of Israel God always has a true believing remnant. Jon Courson explains it this way...not all Christians...those of us who name the name of Christ are all believers. Some are not born again or governed by God...just as many in Israel were not governed by God.
(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”--Romans 9:11-13
It is also does not say anything about us. It is not of works but of Him who calls so the purposes of God according to election might stand. God freely chooses to save whom He wills...It is His goodness and mercy in saving us...it is not based on our physical lineage or our personal merit. Romans 9:13 refers to the election of nations... not individuals, specifically Israel and Edom. God’s election of Israel does not depend on human merit. Their disobedience then, cannot nullify the elective purposes of God. God is faithful even though His people are unfaithful.
So much to think about here...was God right in choosing Jacob instead of Esau? In His sovereignty God chose Jacob. He chose Jacob because He loved Him. Did this choice exclude Esau from choosing to know and love God. No, it did not. Do I really understand...nope. When I don't understand, I remember what kind of God I serve. He is faithful, sovereign, good, and is working all things together for good for those who love Him. We may not understand His choices, but we can understand that all He does for us comes from His heart of love for us. Jeremiah 29:11 says this: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope"
Love
Mom
Mood Swings...
I love the Bible...I especially love the people in the Bible. They are so real. I can relate to them. I have identified with Jeremiah throughout the last 20 chapters but very much so in these last two. He has such high points and low points and sometimes these come within seconds of one another. The best part of identifying with him is knowing that despite his shortcomings the Lord loved him. He loved him! He loved him even when he told the Lord he was finished with this prophet business...He loved him in chapter 15 when he told God that He was like a deceitful stream...He loved Him when he said that he wished his mother's womb had been his tomb. He not only loved him, He continued to use him and enlarge his ministry. The Lord loves you and I like that. How comforting that is. With that said, let's look at Jeremiah, Chapter 20.
After Jeremiah prophesies in the Valley of Hinnom and at the temple gate, Pashur, assistant to the high priest and chief security officer in the temple, took offense at what Jeremiah had said and had him arrested, beaten and put into stocks overnight. While in the stocks, Jeremiah received a prophetic message from the Lord for Pashur whose name meant literally, security on every side. The Lord had renamed Pashur to Magor Missibib which means fear on every side. Our Lord truly does have a sense of humor. Fear on every side describes accurately what happened to Jerusalem when the Babylonian army moved in. This was the first time that Jeremiah actually identified who the invader would be by name. All of Jeremiah's words came to pass.
His mood from verse 7 to verse 18 runs the gamut and it is his last recorded lament. He regrets his ministry telling the Lord He deceived him into it and that everyone mocks him. He wants to quit speaking for the Lord but His word burns like fire in his chest and he can't. All his acquaintances are watching and waiting for him to stumble...but he commits his way to the Lord. Right after that he talks of wanting to see vengeance on his enemies. At times he is confident, at other times not so much, even to the extent of wishing that he had never been born ending the chapter on a low note.
Let's look at verses 7-18 a little more closely because it is where I find the application for us.
I love verses 7 to 9. Jeremiah tells God that He deceived him...and that all mock him and hold him in derision...in verse 9 he tells God he wants to quit. That's it, Lord...I am not speaking for you anymore. I was beaten and spent the night in the stocks. I am done. Now the Lord did not promise Jeremiah that the way would not be difficult but He did promise him that He would be with him through it all. Jeremiah, however, is probably in a lot of pain and feeling pretty discouraged and he really lays it all out for God. It is a good example for us...God is not surprised by what we are thinking and feeling...he already knows...go to Him...lay it all out as Jeremiah did.
Now what we probably think would have happened next, didn't. Sometimes when we pour out our heart to God even going so far as to tell Him we quit our heart changes...and we are once again ready for battle. This is God's grace poured out upon us as we go to Him for help in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) This did not happen yet for Jeremiah. He continues his lament by telling God that his enemies were watching and waiting for him to slip up so they could entrap him. By verse 11, however, his mood changes and he says the the Lord is with him as a mighty and awesome One and his enemies will not prevail. Praise, however, once again quickly turns to bemoaning right up until the end of chapter 20...mostly in ruing the day of his birth. Here is how Chapter 20 ends: " Because he did not kill me from the womb, That my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always enlarged with me."Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, That my days should be consumed with shame?
What is most encouraging about Jeremiah is that despite his highs and lows, despite his moods, he was faithful to obey God no matter how he felt about it, and therein, lies the lesson for us. We all feel like quitting sometimes and get discouraged. What do we do when it happens...we keep looking up and pouring our heart out before Him remembering that His ways are higher than our ways. We surrender once again to His will and be obedient by the will of His Spirit inside of us despite our feelings. As it says in Hebrews 12:1 and 2..."let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus is always our example and our answer. He went before and showed us the way. He is the Becoming One...Jehovah...He becomes to us whatever we need.
Love
Mom
After Jeremiah prophesies in the Valley of Hinnom and at the temple gate, Pashur, assistant to the high priest and chief security officer in the temple, took offense at what Jeremiah had said and had him arrested, beaten and put into stocks overnight. While in the stocks, Jeremiah received a prophetic message from the Lord for Pashur whose name meant literally, security on every side. The Lord had renamed Pashur to Magor Missibib which means fear on every side. Our Lord truly does have a sense of humor. Fear on every side describes accurately what happened to Jerusalem when the Babylonian army moved in. This was the first time that Jeremiah actually identified who the invader would be by name. All of Jeremiah's words came to pass.
His mood from verse 7 to verse 18 runs the gamut and it is his last recorded lament. He regrets his ministry telling the Lord He deceived him into it and that everyone mocks him. He wants to quit speaking for the Lord but His word burns like fire in his chest and he can't. All his acquaintances are watching and waiting for him to stumble...but he commits his way to the Lord. Right after that he talks of wanting to see vengeance on his enemies. At times he is confident, at other times not so much, even to the extent of wishing that he had never been born ending the chapter on a low note.
Let's look at verses 7-18 a little more closely because it is where I find the application for us.
I love verses 7 to 9. Jeremiah tells God that He deceived him...and that all mock him and hold him in derision...in verse 9 he tells God he wants to quit. That's it, Lord...I am not speaking for you anymore. I was beaten and spent the night in the stocks. I am done. Now the Lord did not promise Jeremiah that the way would not be difficult but He did promise him that He would be with him through it all. Jeremiah, however, is probably in a lot of pain and feeling pretty discouraged and he really lays it all out for God. It is a good example for us...God is not surprised by what we are thinking and feeling...he already knows...go to Him...lay it all out as Jeremiah did.
Now what we probably think would have happened next, didn't. Sometimes when we pour out our heart to God even going so far as to tell Him we quit our heart changes...and we are once again ready for battle. This is God's grace poured out upon us as we go to Him for help in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) This did not happen yet for Jeremiah. He continues his lament by telling God that his enemies were watching and waiting for him to slip up so they could entrap him. By verse 11, however, his mood changes and he says the the Lord is with him as a mighty and awesome One and his enemies will not prevail. Praise, however, once again quickly turns to bemoaning right up until the end of chapter 20...mostly in ruing the day of his birth. Here is how Chapter 20 ends: " Because he did not kill me from the womb, That my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always enlarged with me."Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, That my days should be consumed with shame?
What is most encouraging about Jeremiah is that despite his highs and lows, despite his moods, he was faithful to obey God no matter how he felt about it, and therein, lies the lesson for us. We all feel like quitting sometimes and get discouraged. What do we do when it happens...we keep looking up and pouring our heart out before Him remembering that His ways are higher than our ways. We surrender once again to His will and be obedient by the will of His Spirit inside of us despite our feelings. As it says in Hebrews 12:1 and 2..."let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus is always our example and our answer. He went before and showed us the way. He is the Becoming One...Jehovah...He becomes to us whatever we need.
Love
Mom
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Hardened Clay Cannot Be Reworked...
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
God asks Jeremiah in Chapter 19 to get a potter's earthen flask and take some of the elders of the people and the elders of the priests and go to the Valley of Hinnom by the Potsherd Gate. This is where the potters did their work. Here Jeremiah proclaims to the King of Judah and the people of Jerusalem that the Lord is about to smash them like a potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again, because they had made the land an alien place, burned incense to other gods and shed the blood of innocents. (baby sacrifice) The Valley of Hinnom would be renamed the Valley of Slaughter and the famine would be so great during the siege that cannibalism would be the result. Then he goes to the temple court and and preaches the same message message of doom and destruction if they do not repent. Needless to say, they did not repent. The last words of Chapter 19 are "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.' "
The application that comes to mind here is hardened clay cannot be reworked. The Valley of Hinnom is where the field purchased with the 30 pieces of silver that Judas threw on the ground in the temple is located. It became known as Aceldama or literally field of blood. This is where Judas fell when he hung himself. It was where the bodies were disposed during the destruction of Jerusalem. It was the garbage dump.
God's people were willful in their unbelief. They rejected the word of the Lord as did Judas...I think it is significant that Jeremiah smashed an earthen vessel...we are described as earthen vessels...when our clay is soft we can be molded and shaped...if the soft clay becomes marred it can be remade into another vessel. However, if the clay becomes hard or set and is marred there is nothing that can be done with it. The field is where the potter threw his useless, hardened pieces of clay. It reminds me of James 1:21 which says "Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."
Sin hardens us. The people did what had not even come into the mind of the Lord and yet they considered what they were doing was "religious". They were walking in overwhelming wickedness, believing the false prophets and thinking they were okay. Continued sin with no turning cements our destiny. The Bible says that today is the day of salvation. Read the book of Exodus where it says over and over that Pharaoh hardened his heart...then in Exodus 10:20 it says this: "But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go" This is a warning to all of us. If our hearts do not receive the word of God they cannot be transformed by His grace. (Ezekiel 36:26-27 and Hebrews 8: 7-13) The same is true for those of us who know the Lord...we can become hearers and not doers...we can allow His word to bounce off our hearts as they harden. The longer you resist God's truth the harder and harder your heart becomes. Look to Him now...open your heart now...the Bible says "today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Pharaoh did not repent and relent despite all the affliction that God laid on his kingdom. Judas despite all the opportunity he had, did not believe. There is a sin leading to death...unbelief. Hebrews 10:31 says "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Love
Mom
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them"--Ezekiel 36:26-27
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds[b] I will remember no more.”[c]
13 In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.--Hebrews 8:7-13
God asks Jeremiah in Chapter 19 to get a potter's earthen flask and take some of the elders of the people and the elders of the priests and go to the Valley of Hinnom by the Potsherd Gate. This is where the potters did their work. Here Jeremiah proclaims to the King of Judah and the people of Jerusalem that the Lord is about to smash them like a potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again, because they had made the land an alien place, burned incense to other gods and shed the blood of innocents. (baby sacrifice) The Valley of Hinnom would be renamed the Valley of Slaughter and the famine would be so great during the siege that cannibalism would be the result. Then he goes to the temple court and and preaches the same message message of doom and destruction if they do not repent. Needless to say, they did not repent. The last words of Chapter 19 are "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.' "
The application that comes to mind here is hardened clay cannot be reworked. The Valley of Hinnom is where the field purchased with the 30 pieces of silver that Judas threw on the ground in the temple is located. It became known as Aceldama or literally field of blood. This is where Judas fell when he hung himself. It was where the bodies were disposed during the destruction of Jerusalem. It was the garbage dump.
God's people were willful in their unbelief. They rejected the word of the Lord as did Judas...I think it is significant that Jeremiah smashed an earthen vessel...we are described as earthen vessels...when our clay is soft we can be molded and shaped...if the soft clay becomes marred it can be remade into another vessel. However, if the clay becomes hard or set and is marred there is nothing that can be done with it. The field is where the potter threw his useless, hardened pieces of clay. It reminds me of James 1:21 which says "Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."
Sin hardens us. The people did what had not even come into the mind of the Lord and yet they considered what they were doing was "religious". They were walking in overwhelming wickedness, believing the false prophets and thinking they were okay. Continued sin with no turning cements our destiny. The Bible says that today is the day of salvation. Read the book of Exodus where it says over and over that Pharaoh hardened his heart...then in Exodus 10:20 it says this: "But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go" This is a warning to all of us. If our hearts do not receive the word of God they cannot be transformed by His grace. (Ezekiel 36:26-27 and Hebrews 8: 7-13) The same is true for those of us who know the Lord...we can become hearers and not doers...we can allow His word to bounce off our hearts as they harden. The longer you resist God's truth the harder and harder your heart becomes. Look to Him now...open your heart now...the Bible says "today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Pharaoh did not repent and relent despite all the affliction that God laid on his kingdom. Judas despite all the opportunity he had, did not believe. There is a sin leading to death...unbelief. Hebrews 10:31 says "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Love
Mom
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them"--Ezekiel 36:26-27
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds[b] I will remember no more.”[c]
13 In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.--Hebrews 8:7-13
Monday, October 25, 2010
No Separation - Part 2
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”[c]
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
We will look at verses 35 through 39 this time. Paul really goes out on a limb here in thinking on those things that could separate us from Christ's love. What I found most comforting about the list is that Paul probably faced most of them personally. He was speaking from experience. What is even more beautiful and comforting about these verses is that if we allow the Spirit to do His work in our hearts as we face these forces, we are actually drawn closer to Christ and His love in the process. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Christ can bring beauty from all of it. Through His power working in us and through us, we can not only bring Him glory but we can make our valley of tears a spring by bringing blessing to others and to ourselves.
Girls, this is how we conquer. We do not become slaves to our circumstances...we allow Christ to use them to bring Him glory and us good. We conquer by fixing our eyes on the One who made the very very worst of circumstances into the greatest glory that mankind has ever known...the cross which was the darkest moment in history became the brightest beacon for all of mankind.
When I look back at the various trials I have faced, I am overwhelmed by one thing. His love. Through my trials I have been able to identify and know Christ more. As I identify with Him, His desires more and more become my desires. I am overwhelmed with how good comes from such adversity...Truly, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, but as we die to ourselves daily and live for Him; He brings sweetness for the bitterness life brings. He brings good for evil. He brings joy for sadness. He brings strength out of weakness. He brings triumph out of tragedy. He brings life out of death. He does it all by reaching out in love.
His death is proof of his immeasurable love. We can rest and know that no matter what occurs to us here on Earth or what we may face, one thing is assured. We are His. His love is constant. His love is eternal. We did nothing to earn it and can do nothing to "unearn" it. That is good news!
Love
Mom who is thinking that this passage just might become one of her favorites in the entire Bible.
“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”[c]
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
We will look at verses 35 through 39 this time. Paul really goes out on a limb here in thinking on those things that could separate us from Christ's love. What I found most comforting about the list is that Paul probably faced most of them personally. He was speaking from experience. What is even more beautiful and comforting about these verses is that if we allow the Spirit to do His work in our hearts as we face these forces, we are actually drawn closer to Christ and His love in the process. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Christ can bring beauty from all of it. Through His power working in us and through us, we can not only bring Him glory but we can make our valley of tears a spring by bringing blessing to others and to ourselves.
Girls, this is how we conquer. We do not become slaves to our circumstances...we allow Christ to use them to bring Him glory and us good. We conquer by fixing our eyes on the One who made the very very worst of circumstances into the greatest glory that mankind has ever known...the cross which was the darkest moment in history became the brightest beacon for all of mankind.
When I look back at the various trials I have faced, I am overwhelmed by one thing. His love. Through my trials I have been able to identify and know Christ more. As I identify with Him, His desires more and more become my desires. I am overwhelmed with how good comes from such adversity...Truly, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, but as we die to ourselves daily and live for Him; He brings sweetness for the bitterness life brings. He brings good for evil. He brings joy for sadness. He brings strength out of weakness. He brings triumph out of tragedy. He brings life out of death. He does it all by reaching out in love.
His death is proof of his immeasurable love. We can rest and know that no matter what occurs to us here on Earth or what we may face, one thing is assured. We are His. His love is constant. His love is eternal. We did nothing to earn it and can do nothing to "unearn" it. That is good news!
Love
Mom who is thinking that this passage just might become one of her favorites in the entire Bible.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
No Separation....Part 1
"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla....
We will look at verses 8:31-34 in this study. Let's begin with verses 31 and 32. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
God is for us! That one makes me think of the Veggie Tale song...God is bigger than the bogeyman...He is bigger than Godzilla and the monsters on TV...God, the creator of the universe, who conquered Satan, the ruler of this world, at the cross is FOR US! He who is in me, is greater than he who is in the world. Girls, there are many times during the day when my eyes just fill with tears and I am overwhelmed by His goodness and kindness toward me. If God did not spare His own Son when I was still His enemy, I can be sure that He will not withhold His gift of salvation from me...I can be sure that He will not condemn me...I can be sure that He will give me everything I need to live for Him..after all He gave His life for me when I hated Him. How much more will He freely give to me those things that are for my best as His daughter.
"Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?"
GOD HAS JUSTIFIED US! THERE IS NO ONE WHO CAN CONDEMN US! (Sometimes it helps me to really hear it when I shout it by putting it in caps) We are declared righteous in Christ. It is just as if we never sinned....We are accepted in the Beloved. He died for us...He will not accuse us. I love what Warren Wiersbe says about this: "For Him to accuse us would mean that His salvation was a failure and we are still in our sins." Satan is the accuser. He is the one who condemns us. (Zec 3:1, Rev 12:10) We, however, stand righteous in Christ. The best thing about this, girls is that we are now secure in Him. Our position as justified in Christ never changes...there is nothing we can do or others can accuse us of that can change it. No one, not even us, can snatch us out of His hands. What peace this brings to my heart.
"It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
It tells me in Romans 8:26-27 that the Spirit intercedes for us. "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Now we learn in verse 34 that Christ does also. Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us this "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Christ is our Advocate....He is on our side...He is for us...He represents us before the Father...we do not. I hope you are hearing the good news in this.
Are you beginning to see what we have in Christ...what treasure we have in these earthen vessels of ours. We can boldly go into our Father's throne room...you know the One who created all that you see...the One who knows all about us because He has the blueprints...to find help, mercy and grace whenever we need it. Since Christ is for us who can dare to be against us. The Father is for us, girls...He proved it by giving us His Son.
Love
Mom who is looking forward to part 2 and the next 4 verses...
“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla....
We will look at verses 8:31-34 in this study. Let's begin with verses 31 and 32. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
God is for us! That one makes me think of the Veggie Tale song...God is bigger than the bogeyman...He is bigger than Godzilla and the monsters on TV...God, the creator of the universe, who conquered Satan, the ruler of this world, at the cross is FOR US! He who is in me, is greater than he who is in the world. Girls, there are many times during the day when my eyes just fill with tears and I am overwhelmed by His goodness and kindness toward me. If God did not spare His own Son when I was still His enemy, I can be sure that He will not withhold His gift of salvation from me...I can be sure that He will not condemn me...I can be sure that He will give me everything I need to live for Him..after all He gave His life for me when I hated Him. How much more will He freely give to me those things that are for my best as His daughter.
"Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?"
GOD HAS JUSTIFIED US! THERE IS NO ONE WHO CAN CONDEMN US! (Sometimes it helps me to really hear it when I shout it by putting it in caps) We are declared righteous in Christ. It is just as if we never sinned....We are accepted in the Beloved. He died for us...He will not accuse us. I love what Warren Wiersbe says about this: "For Him to accuse us would mean that His salvation was a failure and we are still in our sins." Satan is the accuser. He is the one who condemns us. (Zec 3:1, Rev 12:10) We, however, stand righteous in Christ. The best thing about this, girls is that we are now secure in Him. Our position as justified in Christ never changes...there is nothing we can do or others can accuse us of that can change it. No one, not even us, can snatch us out of His hands. What peace this brings to my heart.
"It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
It tells me in Romans 8:26-27 that the Spirit intercedes for us. "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Now we learn in verse 34 that Christ does also. Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us this "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Christ is our Advocate....He is on our side...He is for us...He represents us before the Father...we do not. I hope you are hearing the good news in this.
Are you beginning to see what we have in Christ...what treasure we have in these earthen vessels of ours. We can boldly go into our Father's throne room...you know the One who created all that you see...the One who knows all about us because He has the blueprints...to find help, mercy and grace whenever we need it. Since Christ is for us who can dare to be against us. The Father is for us, girls...He proved it by giving us His Son.
Love
Mom who is looking forward to part 2 and the next 4 verses...
Saturday, October 23, 2010
John 18: On the Graciousness of Christ
John 18:4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am He.”
Dear Girls...
As I think about what I want to write, I realize that I am never going to be able to do it justice. There really are no words for the depths of the love and graciousness of Christ. With that said ...here I go...
"Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him"....Wow...knowing all that would come upon Him...He went forward and handed Himself over to sinners...the very same ones He knew had rejected Him and would crucify Him. What grace! What love! Meditating on this kind of love for any length of time is so convicting...truly we need the Spirit of God to pour out His love in our hearts for one another and for those the Lord places in our path.
Jesus focused on the goal...our salvation...not on Himself or on His circumstances. He surrendered completely to His Father's will and laid down His life so that we who believe could live forever with Him. He showed all around Him in His every word and action the essence of His Father. In doing this He showed us the way to glorify our Father in heaven because He did all He did by depending totally on His Father. Make no mistake...Christ was both God and man and yet whatever He did here on earth He did by faith just as we must do. He did not use His divine powers. He did all He did as a MAN. We cannot take refuge in Him being God as the reason why He was able to do it. This fact is amazing to me...each time Jesus healed or spoke it was not Him it was the Spirit of God working through Him. He faced the cross and surrendered His life for us as a Man...depending entirely on His Father in heaven. WOW!
Chapter 18 of the Gospel of John gives us such a picture of the graciousness and love of Christ in the face of overwhelming evil.
Picturing Jesus crossing over the Brook Kidron which was running with blood from the slaying of the Passover lambs...knowing that He would be the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world by dying on a wooden cross outside of Jerusalem the next day...overwhelms me with the love that He has for us. He deliberately entered the Garden of Gethsemane where He knew Judas would betray Him. Willingly, obediently, He goes to face His fate: A painful and torturous physical death, the unimaginable pain of taking on the sin, sorrow, and suffering of the entire world and the subsequent agony of separation from His Father. Truly, as it says in Romans, "where sin abounded grace abounded much more."
Think about all that went on that night...there is such a contrast between Christ and the people around Him.
--The kiss and the utter treachery of Judas contrasted with Christ's grace in washing his feet prior to the betrayal.
--The picture of Jesus praying for His disciples in the garden...the very disciples who fell asleep while He was in agony of spirit. The disciples who would abandon Him upon His arrest. And yet we see Jesus praying fervently for not only them but us...you and me while we were still His enemies!
--Christ's protection of His disciples by stepping forward willingly when the Roman Cohort came to arrest Him.
--Peter resisting God's will in the garden and using his sword to lop off the high priest's servant's ear and Jesus' kindness and grace in healing the wound that would have caused Peter to be arrested and charged and perhaps crucified alongside of Him.
--Jesus giving Himself willingly into the hands of sinners...the very same ones He knew would crucify Him. His purpose: to give them and us the opportunity to be delivered from the kingdom of darkness into His Kingdom of Light.
--The unfair, brutal trial before Annas where Jesus clearly knew His right not to be questioned before witnesses were called, but did not insist on them and accepted His brutal treatment as a Lamb led to the slaughter...opening not His mouth.
Girls...whenever we look at Christ's life...really look at it...conviction will follow. What an example He gave us for handling offenses, rejection and grief. He kept His eyes on the goal and focused on the joy (us) that was set before Him and despite the provocation he reacted graciously to all that were around Him. Our goal here on earth is to glorify Him, to bring Christ close to those who do not know Him and to encourage those who do...to magnify Him. How do we do this...by living our lives for Him. By remembering in offenses and sorrow that they are never about us...they are to be used to make us more like He is in order that others would see Jesus. Girls, don't get in the way by reacting to others in offense and unforgiveness or by retaliating in like manner. Remember grace...remember what we truly deserve and pray for those who may not have treated you like you think you deserved. Christ reached out in love at the hour He faced the greatest of offenses and rejection - for you - and in so doing, He reflected the glory of God. Can we do any less for others?
I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.--Psalm 40:1-3
Philippians 2:5-11 says: 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Love
Mom
Dear Girls...
As I think about what I want to write, I realize that I am never going to be able to do it justice. There really are no words for the depths of the love and graciousness of Christ. With that said ...here I go...
"Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him"....Wow...knowing all that would come upon Him...He went forward and handed Himself over to sinners...the very same ones He knew had rejected Him and would crucify Him. What grace! What love! Meditating on this kind of love for any length of time is so convicting...truly we need the Spirit of God to pour out His love in our hearts for one another and for those the Lord places in our path.
Jesus focused on the goal...our salvation...not on Himself or on His circumstances. He surrendered completely to His Father's will and laid down His life so that we who believe could live forever with Him. He showed all around Him in His every word and action the essence of His Father. In doing this He showed us the way to glorify our Father in heaven because He did all He did by depending totally on His Father. Make no mistake...Christ was both God and man and yet whatever He did here on earth He did by faith just as we must do. He did not use His divine powers. He did all He did as a MAN. We cannot take refuge in Him being God as the reason why He was able to do it. This fact is amazing to me...each time Jesus healed or spoke it was not Him it was the Spirit of God working through Him. He faced the cross and surrendered His life for us as a Man...depending entirely on His Father in heaven. WOW!
Chapter 18 of the Gospel of John gives us such a picture of the graciousness and love of Christ in the face of overwhelming evil.
Picturing Jesus crossing over the Brook Kidron which was running with blood from the slaying of the Passover lambs...knowing that He would be the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world by dying on a wooden cross outside of Jerusalem the next day...overwhelms me with the love that He has for us. He deliberately entered the Garden of Gethsemane where He knew Judas would betray Him. Willingly, obediently, He goes to face His fate: A painful and torturous physical death, the unimaginable pain of taking on the sin, sorrow, and suffering of the entire world and the subsequent agony of separation from His Father. Truly, as it says in Romans, "where sin abounded grace abounded much more."
Think about all that went on that night...there is such a contrast between Christ and the people around Him.
--The kiss and the utter treachery of Judas contrasted with Christ's grace in washing his feet prior to the betrayal.
--The picture of Jesus praying for His disciples in the garden...the very disciples who fell asleep while He was in agony of spirit. The disciples who would abandon Him upon His arrest. And yet we see Jesus praying fervently for not only them but us...you and me while we were still His enemies!
--Christ's protection of His disciples by stepping forward willingly when the Roman Cohort came to arrest Him.
--Peter resisting God's will in the garden and using his sword to lop off the high priest's servant's ear and Jesus' kindness and grace in healing the wound that would have caused Peter to be arrested and charged and perhaps crucified alongside of Him.
--Jesus giving Himself willingly into the hands of sinners...the very same ones He knew would crucify Him. His purpose: to give them and us the opportunity to be delivered from the kingdom of darkness into His Kingdom of Light.
--The unfair, brutal trial before Annas where Jesus clearly knew His right not to be questioned before witnesses were called, but did not insist on them and accepted His brutal treatment as a Lamb led to the slaughter...opening not His mouth.
Girls...whenever we look at Christ's life...really look at it...conviction will follow. What an example He gave us for handling offenses, rejection and grief. He kept His eyes on the goal and focused on the joy (us) that was set before Him and despite the provocation he reacted graciously to all that were around Him. Our goal here on earth is to glorify Him, to bring Christ close to those who do not know Him and to encourage those who do...to magnify Him. How do we do this...by living our lives for Him. By remembering in offenses and sorrow that they are never about us...they are to be used to make us more like He is in order that others would see Jesus. Girls, don't get in the way by reacting to others in offense and unforgiveness or by retaliating in like manner. Remember grace...remember what we truly deserve and pray for those who may not have treated you like you think you deserved. Christ reached out in love at the hour He faced the greatest of offenses and rejection - for you - and in so doing, He reflected the glory of God. Can we do any less for others?
I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.--Psalm 40:1-3
Philippians 2:5-11 says: 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Love
Mom
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Falling in love with Jesus...Romans 8
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
Thanking God today for the wonderful people who had me memorize Romans 8 many years ago. Reading the first few verses brought tears to my eyes and made me fall in love with Jesus all over again. The burdens of life were lifted off of my shoulders...I am in Christ. He is my ark. I get to spend time with Him and go boldly to His throne of grace for help in time of need whenever I want! He makes intercession for me before the throne of God! I have this treasure (Christ) in my earthen vessel that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of me!
Thanking God today for the wonderful people who had me memorize Romans 8 many years ago. Reading the first few verses brought tears to my eyes and made me fall in love with Jesus all over again. The burdens of life were lifted off of my shoulders...I am in Christ. He is my ark. I get to spend time with Him and go boldly to His throne of grace for help in time of need whenever I want! He makes intercession for me before the throne of God! I have this treasure (Christ) in my earthen vessel that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of me!
The first verses tell me that because I am in Him there is no condemnation...so if I am concerned about my past today...He has got it covered...if I am worried about the future....verses 38,39 tell me there is no separation from God's love....if I am concerned about something in the present...or even the effect of something in the past...I know that Romans 8:28 says that if I am a believer He works ALL THINGS together for good for me (you)!
Girls...if you haven't, memorize Romans 8...memorize and be blessed over and over as The Lord brings it to the forefront of your mind when your faith falters. Our ark is Christ...He does it all...He has got it all covered...we can rest...He will lead us today....we are sealed, safe and secure robed in His righteousness.
Love,
Mom...who is in awe of Christ's love for us...and if you are not then you are either not paying attention or not reading your bible...
Girls...if you haven't, memorize Romans 8...memorize and be blessed over and over as The Lord brings it to the forefront of your mind when your faith falters. Our ark is Christ...He does it all...He has got it all covered...we can rest...He will lead us today....we are sealed, safe and secure robed in His righteousness.
Love,
Mom...who is in awe of Christ's love for us...and if you are not then you are either not paying attention or not reading your bible...
Here is Romans 8 in its entirety:
Romans 8
Free from Indwelling Sin
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Sonship Through the Spirit
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
From Suffering to Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us[b] with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
God’s Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”[c]
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The Sword vs The Cup
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
John 18:11 So Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?"
John 18:11 So Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?"
I was reading John 18 and the Lord brought me up short at this verse. How willingly do I drink the cup the Lord gives me? Do I fight against with a sword of rebellion? The cup* in the bible is often used to illustrate suffering and sorrow. The sword...rebellion. Girls, what do we do with the cups the Lord gives us? Do we become offended and use the sword to make someone else feel the same pain and discomfort that we are feeling...spread the joy so to speak. Or do we, by the power of His Spirit, accept the cup and drink it down and by doing so allow Him to do His transforming work in our hearts?
You either have a sword in your hand and are resisting His will or have a cup in your hand and are accepting His will. It is as natural as breathing to respond to an offense in grief, anger and/or unforgiveness. It takes the Spirit living inside you to respond by returning good for evil. It takes the Spirit living inside you to make your valley of tears a spring. We really need to have that attitude that Christ Jesus had that Paul wrote about in Philippians 2.
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."
Jesus came to do the Father's will. He accepted the cup. In accepting the cup and going through the tribulation, sorrow, and death that ensued, He brought the peace of God to me and you. God, the Father, transformed His Son's suffering into the greatest joy and highest good the world has ever known. Jesus could have called in legions to fight for Him with swords but He did not. When Peter attempted to take matters into his own hands and single-handedly thwart God's plan of redemption, Christ performed His last physical healing on earth...he healed the high priest's servant, Malchus', ear. What grace He showed not only Malchus, but also Peter. Christ put aside His offenses and for the joy (us) that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the Father. Christ came to heal the broken-hearted and set the captives free. Do we use our words and our actions to heal or to hurt, to bind or to set free?
Psalm 40:8 says, "I delight to do Your will, O my God/And Your law is within my heart.”
We really can delight to do His will knowing that whatever He has prepared for us to drink is good and is exactly what we need. God Himself has mixed the cup and is administering it. He loves us with a perfect love and His will for us is from His heart of love. There is no need to fear. There is so much striving and unrest in pride and in taking offense. Trying to stay on top, look the best, and be the most important takes monumental effort and causes others to strive with you. Resting and allowing the Lord to lift you up and bring you forward is the way of peace and rest. Look at the next few verses in Philippians 2.
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.--Philippians 2:9-11
After the cross came the exaltation...before honor is humility. Cling to Him. Respond to offenses by remembering to let our gentleness be known. It is not about us...It is about glorifying Christ and magnifying Him so others will see His light in us and turn and glorify God. Think about what Peter was able to accomplish without the sword but by using the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God....thousands came to Jesus...the church grew daily, the Book of Acts tells us. Sometimes we forget the big picture in offenses. And the big picture is always the big picture, no matter the size of the offense. Put them all off...remember who you are and what you truly deserve...and be thankful. Abide in Him and remember that your life is not your own...that it was bought with a price...that your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Your job is to shine for Christ and show the people here on earth the truth...Christ in you...the hope of glory. It is that simple and that profound. The next verses in Philippians 2 express this very thought.
"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me."--Philippians 2:12-18
Put away your sword...allow God's will to unfold. Commit yourself to Him who judges righteously. Remember that the battle is the Lord's. Be still (literally, hands off) and know that He is God. Most often when we take matters into our own hands we wind up sinning and moving towards fear rather than faith.
Love
Mom
Love
Mom
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sometimes in Winning We Lose...The Potter and the Clay -Jeremiah 18
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.
“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”’”
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
In the beginning of Chapter 18 we find Jeremiah heading toward the potter's house to hear from God. Jeremiah found the potter at the wheel making something. I am pretty sure we all get the symbolism, but let's review it anyway. The potter here is God and the thing He is forming is one of us. Now the potter, girls, lest we forget, is a skilled artist, and artists make beautiful things. Sometimes you can't tell what he is making just from looking but the artist/potter always has a plan and a picture in his mind of the end result. He can see the end when all that there is is a lump of clay...and we know who that lump of clay is. Yes, that clay is us. We are the dirt. The wheel represents the circumstances of life.
Let's go back to the clay for a minute...For me there is nothing that says God is sovereign more than remembering that I am a lump of clay. How much can a lump of clay do? It has to be placed on the wheel. If it falls off the wheel, it has to be picked up. If it gets out of shape, it has to be pressed back into shape. It has no say. It is totally at the mercy of the potter who can make it into whatever he wants to make it into. God is the One doing the work, girls...He is the One who is creating a work of art...we are His masterpieces. I know if I get involved I will only cause Him more work and perhaps mar the end result...but I sometimes do it anyway...
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Okay...so as Jeremiah watched, the clay resisted the potter and the work was marred in the potter's hand. The potter starts over and makes it into another vessel of His choosing. Now of course this was meant to tell Judah that it is God who controls the nations. (vs 5-10) Really...God can do what He wants. He doesn't need our advice Romans 11:34 says “ For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?” We can be very happy that what He does He does perfectly and in accordance with who He is. The Lord presents two scenarios in these verses. The first one...if a nation is doing evil and then turns and repents...He would relent and not send judgment. I am thinking of Jonah and Nineveh here. The next is if He promised to bless a nation and they go and do evil...He will send judgment instead and hold back blessing. Israel now comes to mind. I got a little bogged down thinking about how much of this was God's sovereignty and how much was our choice. I mean as a believer or an unbeliever we are formed by God and used for His purpose. Our ends, depending on our choice; however, are very different. I went to Romans 9 and read the following:
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
God's purposes for us is mercy. He is sovereign. He works all things together for our good for those who believe. We can trust Him. When we understand these qualities of God, we know that his choices are good even if we don't understand all his reasons. Our job is just to be obedient...the results are up to Him. The beautiful thing about the Lord is that when we are saved, He allows us, by His grace, to cooperate with Him in His work. So as we surrender our hearts to Him, He makes us into beautiful vessels of mercy. AND... WAIT FOR IT...2 Cor 4: 7 says: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." We bring Him our tired, weary, flawed and cracked pots and He does all the work and makes them into things of beauty. Pretty good deal from where I sit.
Isaiah 64:8 says But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. There is rest in that verse. If we truly believe that we are the clay and He is the potter and that we are the work of His hand than we should be able to relax...right? It is not up to us. Intellectually, we know that the Creator has control over what He creates. As the created thing we can't demand anything of our creator...we exist at and for his pleasure. Can the thing that is formed boast or take credit for anything He accomplishes...no...because he was MADE..the glory always goes to the creator not the thing created. For it is God who works in us both to do and to will for His good pleasure. How very, very silly it is for us to boast and yet we do. We willfully forget who He is and who we are...we think we are something in ourselves. More on this below...
How does all this work practically into shaping us into a useful vessel of mercy? I mentioned earlier that the wheel represents the circumstances of life...it is controlled by the potter's foot and the clay is shaped and formed by the potter's hands. The wheel spins representing the circumstances and trials of life. The Potter's hand is on us at all times..sometimes the pressure is hard, sometimes it is softer, but always it is there. Now, unlike the clay, we do have the ability to resist God's will. Again, think of how silly this is. We are resisting God!! Who do you think is going to win...and if you win you are really losing. This is what God's people chose. Look at what the very next verse says right after He asked them to repent and return in verse 11.
Jeremiah 18:12 And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”
Do you see how deceitful the heart is...they are fighting against God because they are so enslaved and blinded by their sin that they have become irrational. God is laying out for them the way of obedience which would bring blessing and the way of disobedience which would bring judgment...and they choose...drum roll...judgment!
In the next several verses God tells them just how irrational they are being:
Therefore thus says the LORD:“ Ask now among the Gentiles, Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, Which comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters? “ Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not on a highway, To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face In the day of their calamity.”--Jeremiah 18:13-17
THE PEOPLE ACTED CONTRARY TO EVERYTHING THAT WAS REASONABLE. Really how smart is it for dirt to resist an intelligent designer...a master craftsman? It is not rational. Don't laugh...you and I do this all the time. We cannot succeed without Him, yet we act as if we can. We are filled with our own ways. We jump off the wheel and abandon those ancient paths for ones of our own making and God rightly leaves us to our own devices. I think here of what Dr. Phil says..."How's that working for you?" It isn't working and it never will. So eventually we get tired of trying to do it ourselves and we get back on the potter's wheel. God graciously and willingly molds us again...even though we have caused damage by our own pride and resistance. His mercies are new every morning and in Him there is no condemnation. God is so patient with us.
Warren Wiersbe quotes from Alexander Whyte in regard to these verses in Scripture. Here is what Mr. Whyte has to say, who saw the "victorious" Christian life as a "series of new beginnings": "No failure in our lives need be fatal or final, although we certainly suffer for our sins. God gave new beginnings to Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, and Peter when they failed, and He can do the same for us today."
The next verse remind us that sinners often do not want to hear from God's messenger. They run from the Light not only because their deeds are evil but because they do not want to come to the Light...they want to continue in their sin. Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.” Let's discredit or kill the messenger because we do not like his message. God told Jeremiah that he would be persecuted as His prophet. The Bible tells us that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will face persecution and be reproached for the name of Christ. It says in John that in this world you will have tribulation, but to be of good cheer, He has overcome the world.
Jeremiah ends Chapter 18 with a prayer to His God. I was a little taken aback with its harshness and thought that God was going to ask him to repent again as in Chapter 15, but that was not the case. Jeremiah was God's prophet. As God's prophet when they rejected him, they were rejecting the Lord and His word. His anger was righteous. He felt anguish in his heart for their utter rejection of God against everything that was reasonable and rational. He knew what was to come. He foresaw the destruction of the people and the city. He saw the innocence of the children that would not be spared because of the sins of the leaders and the people of God that followed those leaders. He expressed His heart to God and left the matter in God's hands.
Girls, trust the Master Potter with your lives. He loves us and died for us when we were still sinners. Read what Romans 5:6-10 says:
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
I love it when it says how much more we shall be saved by His life. If He cared about us that much that He died for us when we were His enemy...how much more will He care for us and shape us for our good when we are reconciled to Him.
And there is more...read the verses from Matthew 27:3-9. Jesus' blood bought the potter's field...where the potter throws all his pieces of useless, broken and cracked pottery. Jesus purchased our redemption with His blood so that He could remake us into His image...so that we could be made into useful, beautiful vessels of mercy.
Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”
Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.
But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10 and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me.”
Love
Mom
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.
“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”’”
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
In the beginning of Chapter 18 we find Jeremiah heading toward the potter's house to hear from God. Jeremiah found the potter at the wheel making something. I am pretty sure we all get the symbolism, but let's review it anyway. The potter here is God and the thing He is forming is one of us. Now the potter, girls, lest we forget, is a skilled artist, and artists make beautiful things. Sometimes you can't tell what he is making just from looking but the artist/potter always has a plan and a picture in his mind of the end result. He can see the end when all that there is is a lump of clay...and we know who that lump of clay is. Yes, that clay is us. We are the dirt. The wheel represents the circumstances of life.
Let's go back to the clay for a minute...For me there is nothing that says God is sovereign more than remembering that I am a lump of clay. How much can a lump of clay do? It has to be placed on the wheel. If it falls off the wheel, it has to be picked up. If it gets out of shape, it has to be pressed back into shape. It has no say. It is totally at the mercy of the potter who can make it into whatever he wants to make it into. God is the One doing the work, girls...He is the One who is creating a work of art...we are His masterpieces. I know if I get involved I will only cause Him more work and perhaps mar the end result...but I sometimes do it anyway...
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Okay...so as Jeremiah watched, the clay resisted the potter and the work was marred in the potter's hand. The potter starts over and makes it into another vessel of His choosing. Now of course this was meant to tell Judah that it is God who controls the nations. (vs 5-10) Really...God can do what He wants. He doesn't need our advice Romans 11:34 says “ For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?” We can be very happy that what He does He does perfectly and in accordance with who He is. The Lord presents two scenarios in these verses. The first one...if a nation is doing evil and then turns and repents...He would relent and not send judgment. I am thinking of Jonah and Nineveh here. The next is if He promised to bless a nation and they go and do evil...He will send judgment instead and hold back blessing. Israel now comes to mind. I got a little bogged down thinking about how much of this was God's sovereignty and how much was our choice. I mean as a believer or an unbeliever we are formed by God and used for His purpose. Our ends, depending on our choice; however, are very different. I went to Romans 9 and read the following:
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
God's purposes for us is mercy. He is sovereign. He works all things together for our good for those who believe. We can trust Him. When we understand these qualities of God, we know that his choices are good even if we don't understand all his reasons. Our job is just to be obedient...the results are up to Him. The beautiful thing about the Lord is that when we are saved, He allows us, by His grace, to cooperate with Him in His work. So as we surrender our hearts to Him, He makes us into beautiful vessels of mercy. AND... WAIT FOR IT...2 Cor 4: 7 says: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." We bring Him our tired, weary, flawed and cracked pots and He does all the work and makes them into things of beauty. Pretty good deal from where I sit.
Isaiah 64:8 says But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. There is rest in that verse. If we truly believe that we are the clay and He is the potter and that we are the work of His hand than we should be able to relax...right? It is not up to us. Intellectually, we know that the Creator has control over what He creates. As the created thing we can't demand anything of our creator...we exist at and for his pleasure. Can the thing that is formed boast or take credit for anything He accomplishes...no...because he was MADE..the glory always goes to the creator not the thing created. For it is God who works in us both to do and to will for His good pleasure. How very, very silly it is for us to boast and yet we do. We willfully forget who He is and who we are...we think we are something in ourselves. More on this below...
How does all this work practically into shaping us into a useful vessel of mercy? I mentioned earlier that the wheel represents the circumstances of life...it is controlled by the potter's foot and the clay is shaped and formed by the potter's hands. The wheel spins representing the circumstances and trials of life. The Potter's hand is on us at all times..sometimes the pressure is hard, sometimes it is softer, but always it is there. Now, unlike the clay, we do have the ability to resist God's will. Again, think of how silly this is. We are resisting God!! Who do you think is going to win...and if you win you are really losing. This is what God's people chose. Look at what the very next verse says right after He asked them to repent and return in verse 11.
Jeremiah 18:12 And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”
Do you see how deceitful the heart is...they are fighting against God because they are so enslaved and blinded by their sin that they have become irrational. God is laying out for them the way of obedience which would bring blessing and the way of disobedience which would bring judgment...and they choose...drum roll...judgment!
In the next several verses God tells them just how irrational they are being:
Therefore thus says the LORD:“ Ask now among the Gentiles, Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, Which comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters? “ Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not on a highway, To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face In the day of their calamity.”--Jeremiah 18:13-17
THE PEOPLE ACTED CONTRARY TO EVERYTHING THAT WAS REASONABLE. Really how smart is it for dirt to resist an intelligent designer...a master craftsman? It is not rational. Don't laugh...you and I do this all the time. We cannot succeed without Him, yet we act as if we can. We are filled with our own ways. We jump off the wheel and abandon those ancient paths for ones of our own making and God rightly leaves us to our own devices. I think here of what Dr. Phil says..."How's that working for you?" It isn't working and it never will. So eventually we get tired of trying to do it ourselves and we get back on the potter's wheel. God graciously and willingly molds us again...even though we have caused damage by our own pride and resistance. His mercies are new every morning and in Him there is no condemnation. God is so patient with us.
Warren Wiersbe quotes from Alexander Whyte in regard to these verses in Scripture. Here is what Mr. Whyte has to say, who saw the "victorious" Christian life as a "series of new beginnings": "No failure in our lives need be fatal or final, although we certainly suffer for our sins. God gave new beginnings to Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, and Peter when they failed, and He can do the same for us today."
The next verse remind us that sinners often do not want to hear from God's messenger. They run from the Light not only because their deeds are evil but because they do not want to come to the Light...they want to continue in their sin. Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.” Let's discredit or kill the messenger because we do not like his message. God told Jeremiah that he would be persecuted as His prophet. The Bible tells us that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will face persecution and be reproached for the name of Christ. It says in John that in this world you will have tribulation, but to be of good cheer, He has overcome the world.
Jeremiah ends Chapter 18 with a prayer to His God. I was a little taken aback with its harshness and thought that God was going to ask him to repent again as in Chapter 15, but that was not the case. Jeremiah was God's prophet. As God's prophet when they rejected him, they were rejecting the Lord and His word. His anger was righteous. He felt anguish in his heart for their utter rejection of God against everything that was reasonable and rational. He knew what was to come. He foresaw the destruction of the people and the city. He saw the innocence of the children that would not be spared because of the sins of the leaders and the people of God that followed those leaders. He expressed His heart to God and left the matter in God's hands.
Girls, trust the Master Potter with your lives. He loves us and died for us when we were still sinners. Read what Romans 5:6-10 says:
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
I love it when it says how much more we shall be saved by His life. If He cared about us that much that He died for us when we were His enemy...how much more will He care for us and shape us for our good when we are reconciled to Him.
And there is more...read the verses from Matthew 27:3-9. Jesus' blood bought the potter's field...where the potter throws all his pieces of useless, broken and cracked pottery. Jesus purchased our redemption with His blood so that He could remake us into His image...so that we could be made into useful, beautiful vessels of mercy.
Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”
Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.
But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10 and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me.”
Love
Mom
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