Plead My Cause, O God....

Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me:  Fight against them that fight against me.--Psalm 35:1

Plead my cause, God...fight against those who fight against me.  Contend with my contenders!  Meet my accusers with Your Son, my Advocate!   Jesus, You are my Intercessor and my Champion...I leave my case in your hands.

Be my strong tower and my rock.  Deliver me from the hypocrites...from the deceitful and the unjust.  For You are the God of my strength.  Lord, You know their hearts...You have seen all their vengeance and imaginations against me.  I have become their taunting song...their music.  Oh Father, my heart's desire is that You would render unto them a recompense according to the work of their hand.  My heart is NOT merciful toward them. You, O Lord, are a God of holiness and a God of justice, but You are also my God of mercy and love.  Forgive my lack of mercy...forgive my lack of love.  Give me Your love and mercy for those that give me daily so much sorrow of heart.  Give me your forgiving heart towards them....Give me a heart that desires Your very best for them.

Align my will with yours, Father.  I have nothing to fear ensconced in Your perfect love.  Vengeance is yours, Lord, not mine.  You have shown me so much mercy...You pulled me up out of the miry clay.  You died for me when I was yet your enemy.  How can I pray for anything but your mercy upon even my enemies.

The battle is Yours, not mine.  I take refuge under the shadow of Your wing and place my trust in You.  Draw my enemies to You with cords of love.  In the meantime, Father, I take shelter in You...and as I do help me to be a strength to the poor and needy in their distress.  Enable me to be a refuge from the storm and a shadow from the heat to those you place in my path.

Thank you Lord that you have a plan for my life.  That Your thoughts toward me are good...they are thoughts of peace and not of evil.  Thank you Father for Your Son's death on the cross for me.  I have been forgiven much...help me to love much and pray that others...even my enemies will know the future and the hope that You have so graciously and mercifully given me.

The Book of Hosea - Introduction

Hosea is a minor prophet who ministered to the northern kingdom of Israel from about 760 to 720 B.C.  during a time of great prosperity outwardly but rottenness and decay inwardly.  Judgment was on its way.  Hosea obeyed God and preached His word but the people refused to hear and repent.  Judgment came to the northern kingdom by way of Assyria.

The name Hosea means salvation.  He described God jealous love for His people.  The story is a tragic one where God asks Hosea to do some pretty difficult things.   Hosea was told by God to marry a woman of harlotry, a prostitute named Gomer.  After they had several children, she left her family and sold herself into prostitution once again.  God then told Hosea that he was to buy her back from harlotry...to forgive her and love her.   This provided the people of Israel with a very real picture of God's love for them.  Israel was involved in false worship...spiritual adultery.  They despised God's goodness, faithfulness and grace and instead turned to the worship of idols....They exchanged light for darkness and sweetness for bitter.  The verse that comes to mind is from Romans, Chapter 2.

"Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds”:

God despite His people's unfaithfulness continued to reach out in love...offering them forgiveness and restoration if they would turn from their sin.  He used Hosea to speak His heart to them.  

How else could Hosea hope to understand and express His God's heart and  convey His sorrow, than to experience betrayal for himself with all its grief, humiliation, dashed hope and disappointments.   Hosea, by his own trial, was able to truly understand and express God's hearth as He watched His children forget Him and go after other gods.  Trials in our own lives have so many purposes...sometimes the biggest blessing in a trial is the understanding and knowledge that come as we walk and experience some of what Jesus himself experienced...as we share in the fellowship of His sufferings. Truly, as we surrender to the trials that our God both brings us and allows, they draw us into His Presence like nothing else can.  

The story is even more tragic because Israel rejected God's hand of mercy toward them and continued to go their own way.  See yourself in this story....God who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved "you" even when "you" were dead in trespasses and sin made "you" alive together with His Son!  Each one of us who are believers have been saved by grace...and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God.  He redeemed us when we were His enemies...when we were slaves of sin.  He purchased us out of slavery by His Son's death on the cross.  Not because we deserved it or because there was anything special about us,  but because He loves us.  The Bible says that our Maker is our Husband.  Unbeliever...God wants you for Himself...despite your sin...despite who you are.  Surrender to Him...accept the gift that He offers.  

Bringing Our Empty Vessels To Battle...

It happened on the same night that the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, 11 and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. 

Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.

And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.”

Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.” 

And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. --Judges 7:9-15

I love that last line...Gideon worshiped!  Judges 6,  7 and 8 tell the story of Gideon and his personal struggle of faith.  Gideon had much trouble believing God.  I, for one, am thankful for Gideon's story.   It encourages me to seek His grace when my own faith fails knowing that my God's compassions fail not.  God's responses to Gideon  show Him as merciful, gracious and forgiving. 

In faith is victory...and here (finally) at the end of chapter 7, we find Gideon. From man's perspective the battle looks impossible to win.  Earlier in the story God had trimmed Gideon's army of 32,000 men down to 300.  Three hundred men going up against 135,000.  Gideon and all of Israel would know as they went into battle and came out victorious that the victory was not theirs but God's. They would not come out with hearts lifted up thinking they had done something.  They would go in and out the same way...knowing they were weak and depending on the strength of their God.  

My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When Gideon returns from his spying adventure into the enemy camp, he tells his men with confidence that the Lord would deliver the enemy into their hands.  Gideon sees the invisible and then by faith does the impossible...wins the battle with God's 300.  Gideon's plan was simple.  Each man was given a trumpet, an empty vessel to break, and a torch.  The men would encircle the enemies camp with their torches hidden inside their vessels.  At Gideon's signal the men would blow the trumpets, break their vessels which would reveal the lights and then shout, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!"  God would do the rest. 

What  spoke to my heart in this story was God's  kindness and grace especially in the face of weakness and lack of faith. It filled my heart with love and gratitude.  So often I can be like Gideon.  How comforting to know that our God knows our frames.  He knows that we are dust. 

Another was what happened to Gideon when he stopped doubting and truly believed in His heart that victory was in His God. He worshiped His God and He became a leader.  He and His men brought their empty vessels to battle where the light of God was seen only after these vessels were broken and rendered useless.  When we are weak...that is what God's uses to show Himself strong.  The following verse from Corinthians says it all...may each of us remember it when our faith is tested.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

God is our light and our salvation...whom shall we fear. He is the light of our life. ...of whom shall we be afraid.  When the enemy comes against us...when they encamp all around us and war rises, may we remember our God and may our entire weight of trust and confidence be in Him.  

Wronging Your Own Soul...

For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.--Proverbs 1:32-33

Turning away from the Lord is deadly.  He that sins wrongs his own soul and in hating Christ you are really loving death.  The bible is clear.....He who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son does not have life.


For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.--Proverb 8:35-36


Who are the simple and the foolish that the bible talks about?  The simple are the ones who are naive or ignorant.  Their minds are described as an open door that allows everything to enter.  The fools are the obstinate unbelievers who refuse to listen to the truth. The third group not mentioned by name here, but  perhaps even more accountable than the simple and the foolish, are the scorners and the mockers.   These commit more serious, determined acts...they know the truth, willfully turn from it and in effect trample the Son of God underfoot.

"The prosperity of fools shall destroy them."  The tables of those who are rich or those who put their own comfort first become a snare for them....that which was meant for their welfare becomes a trap and darkens their eyes so that they do not see their latter end.  (Thinking of Lazarus and the rich man here....Luke 16) When our eyes are on the Lord, however, He shows us the snares and the traps and plucks our feet from the net.  How foolish we are when we lay up treasures for ourselves in this life without thought of the eternal one that is coming.  Used for the wrong purposes the riches of this world are corrupted.  We may live in pleasure here, but judgment is coming and may even be at our door. To whom will all our riches belong, when we perish from this earth?  Be rich toward God...store up your treasure in heaven.

But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. Look to Him and He will teach you the way...your soul shall dwell at ease and your seed, the bible says,  shall inherit the earth.  Incline your ear to Him...hearken unto Him and your soul shall live and He will show you His covenant and the sure mercies of David.  Those who are His hear His voice, walk in victory and are kept by His power.  The Lord is their place of refuge, their confidence and He keeps their foot from slipping. He who loves the Lord can never be separated from His love.  He whose mind is stayed on Him will be kept in perfect peace by His God.

Mere Christianity - The Law of Human Nature by C. S. Lewis

EVERY ONE HAS HEARD people quarreling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kinds of things they say. They say things like this: "How’d you like it if anyone did the same to you?"--‘That’s my seat, I was there first"--"Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you any harm"--"Why should you shove in first?"--"Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine"--"Come on, you promised." People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated, and children as well as grown-ups.

Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man’s behavior does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies: "To hell with your standard." Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, or that if it does there is some special excuse. He pretends there is some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat first should not keep it, or that things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange, or that some thing has turned up which lets him off keeping his promise. It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behavior or morality or whatever you like to call it, about which they really agreed. And they have. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals, but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the word. Quarreling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you and he had some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are; just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer had committed a foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football.

Now this Law or Rule about Right and Wrong used to be called the Law of Nature. Nowadays, when we talk of the "laws of nature" we usually mean things like gravitation, or heredity, or the laws of chemistry. But when the older thinkers called the Law of Right and Wrong "the Law of Nature," they really meant the Law of Human Nature. The idea was that, just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law--with this great difference, that a body could not choose whether it obeyed the law of gravitation or not, but a man could choose either to obey the Law of Human Nature or to disobey it.

We may put this in another way. Each man is at every moment subjected to several sets of law but there is only one of these which he is free to disobey. As a body, he is subjected to gravitation and cannot disobey it; if you leave him unsupported in mid-air, he has no more choice about falling than a stone has. As an organism, he is subjected to various biological laws which he cannot disobey any more than an animal can. That is, he cannot disobey those laws which he shares with other things; but the law which is peculiar to his human nature, the law he does not share with animals or vegetables or inorganic things, is the one he can disobey if he chooses.

This law was called the Law of Nature because people thought that every one knew it by nature and did not need to be taught it. They did not mean, of course, that you might not find an odd individual here and there who did not know it, just as you find a few people who are color-blind or have no ear for a tune. But taking the race as a whole, they thought that the human idea of decent behavior was obvious to every one. And I believe they were right. If they were not, then all the things we said about the war were nonsense. What was the sense in saying the enemy were in the wrong unless Right is a real thing which the Nazis at bottom knew as well as we did and ought to have practiced! If they had no notion of what we mean by right, then, though we might still have had to fight them, we could no more have blamed them for that than for the color of their hair.

I know that some people say the idea of a Law of Nature or decent behavior known to all men is unsound, because different civilizations and different ages have had quite different moralities.

But this is not true. There have been differences between their moralities, but these have never amounted to anything like a total difference. If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Creeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own. Some of the evidence for this I have put together in the appendix of another book called The Abolition of Man; but for our present purpose I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five. Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to--whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or everyone. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put Yourself first. selfishness has never been admired. Men have differed as to whether you should have one wife or four. But they have always agreed that you must not simply have any woman you liked.

But the most remarkable thing is this. Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining "It’s not fair" before you can say Jack Robinson. A nation may say treaties do not matter; but then, next minute, they spoil their case by saying that the particular treaty they want to break was an unfair one. But if treaties do not matter, and if there is no such thing as Right and Wrong--in other words, if there is no Law of Nature--what is the difference between a fair treaty and an unfair one? Have they not let the cat out of the bag and shown that, whatever they say, they really know the Law of Nature just like anyone else?

It seems, then, we are forced to believe in a real Right and Wrong People may be sometimes mistaken about them, just as people sometimes get their sums wrong; but they are not a matter of mere taste and opinion any more than the multiplication table. Now if we are agreed about that, I go on to my next point, which is this. None of us are really keeping the Law of Nature. If there are any exceptions among you, 1 apologize to them. They had much better read some other work, for nothing I am going to say concerns them. And now, turning to the ordinary human beings who are left:

I hope you will not misunderstand what I am going to say. I am not preaching, and Heaven knows I do not pretend to be better than anyone else. I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people. There may be all sorts of excuses for us. That time you were so unfair to the children was when you were very tired. That slightly shady business about the money--the one you have almost forgotten-came when you were very hard up. And what you promised to do for old So-and-so and have never done--well, you never would have promised if you had known how frightfully busy you were going to be. And as for your behavior to your wife (or husband) or sister (or brother) if I knew how irritating they could be, I would not wonder at it--and who the dickens am I, anyway? I am just the same. That is to say, I do not succeed in keeping the Law of Nature very well, and the moment anyone tells me I am not keeping it, there starts up in my mind a string of excuses as long as your arm. The question at the moment is not whether they are good excuses. The point is that they are one more proof of how deeply, whether we like it or not, we believe in the Law of Nature. If we do not believe in decent behavior, why should we be so anxious to make excuses for not having behaved decently? The truth is, we believe in decency so much--we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so--that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.

These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.

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Choose This Day...

But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.--Joshua 22:5

Joshua gives the children of Israel his farewell address in Chapter 23 and tells them to take careful heed to love the Lord their God.  In Chapter 24, Joshua tells the Israelites to choose whom they will serve.  Serving is what this devotional is about but Joshua got it in the right order.  I serve my family because I love them.  Loving them makes me want to care for them and serve them.  Serving God should following loving Him. You see if we truly, truly understand in our hearts what our God has done for us, we will love Him and our desire will be to serve Him.   Our love for Him will compel us!  He who has been forgiven much loves much.  God's love is outlined for us in 1 Corinthians 13.  Read verses 1-3:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."

Love should be the motivating force behind all that we do.  Without love as the Scripture says we are nothing and even if I give my body to be burned, it profits me nothing. We serve our God because we "love" to...not because we "have" to.  

Joshua spends the first part of chapter 24 reminding the people that God had done it all for them.  All that they had and saw were gifts from His hand.  In Joshua 24:14-15 he puts the choice to the people and asks them to choose whom they will serve.

Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

The only way to serve God rightly is in sincerity and in truth.  Serving God in any other way is a lie and will be fraught with wrong motives.  It is anything but peaceable and pure and as James says, "

"For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there."

Make no mistake each one of us will choose the "god" we will serve.  We will either be impassioned and influenced by the God of Israel allowing Him to be our focal point, our Master, our Savior and our Lord or we will be devoted to arranging our lives around some other passion...money, pleasure, knowledge, etc.  I love how Joshua points out how foolish they would be to serve another God.  The Israelites were not making a blind leap of faith in choosing to serve the Lord...they saw His might and His power...they witnessed His miracles.  Let's look at some other verses that talk about serving.

And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.--1 Samuel 7:3

And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart;  And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.--1 Samuel 12:20

Samuel warns them not to turn aside from serving and following the Lord, but reminds them to serve Him with all of their hearts.  This "whole heart" message is repeated often in Scripture.  It is so like us to  go after vain things...things that might provide us with temporary relief or temporary distraction but in the end only increase our misery.  They will not profit nor deliver as Samuel says.  In fact, they will keep us from cleaving unto our God and take us out of the place of blessing.  The more we look up to Jesus the more these things will grow dim in the light of His glory and grace. 

Jesus also warns us not to have a divided heart.

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.--Matthew 4:10

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.--Matthew 6:24

If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor.--John 12:26

If we are cleaving unto our Lord, then wherever He is, we will be also...ready, willing and available to serve...separated unto the gospel of Christ.  His presence will be with us and will go before us in whatever we face and whatever we do.  If we are nigh unto Him (as a good servant always is) we will  consider His desires before our own...we will listen and wait for His commands...and we will know and pray for those things that He desires.  What does God desire...that His people stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.  

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.--Colossians 4:12

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;--Romans 1:9

Hearken to the Lord's voice.  Love Him with all of your heart.  Walk in His ways and keep His commandments.  Cleave unto HIm.   Serve Him with a thankful and grateful heart for all He has done.  Seek to please Him and not man for it is from Him that your reward will come.

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.--Galatians 1:10

The Bible...Cave Crickets and Honey...by Anna

Psalm 48:14 “For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.”


Strangely enough, this verse, however comforting it is, was not wholly the basis for this study—more along the lines of a complement. The real basis is a little caption above Psalm 102, which I came across in the wee hours of the 14th of December. There’s me, taking a little nocturnal sip of honey to ease my throat, sitting at the kitchen table (very careful to keep my feet under me to avoid the similarly-nocturnal cave crickets) and paging through the Psalms. I’d had a rough day, and needed comfort—earlier, I had even resorted to my childhood method of hiding under a table…unfortunately, while children grow, tables stay much the same height. (My poor neck!) And He gave me everything I needed in one little caption—not even a verse! Not even properly in the Bible!—but it held all the comfort I needed. 

“The Lord’s Eternal Love.”

It hit me like a thunderbolt. My spoon literally froze in midair, halfway to my mouth. 

I hadn’t really thought about the Lord’s eternal LOVE before. I’d thought about plenty of eternal things, of course—eternity with Him, His eternal faithfulness, His gift of eternal life, etc., etc. I even knew factually about His eternal love—I guess it just never quite sunk in before, that God could love me—ME—forever. 

Forever’s a pretty long time. (I know, I know. Bit of a cliché. But it’s true.) He’ll never leave me. He’ll never cease to love me. No matter what happens, no matter how bad a day—or week, or month, or even year—I’ve had. No matter what I’ve done, that phrase is still waiting for me through it all, soothing my tattered nerves and calming me when I feel I’ve gone too far to be loved, when I feel like I’ve ‘burnt my bridges’ beyond repair. Just four little words, but they will—HE will—comfort me all my life.

Christ and His Children...by Spurgeon

January 18

Christ and His Children

When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. (Isaiah 53:10)

Our Lord Jesus has not died in vain. His death was sacrificial: He died as our substitute, because death was the penalty of our sins. Because His substitution was accepted of God, He has saved those for whom He made His soul a sacrifice. By death He became like the corn of wheat which bringeth forth much fruit. There must be a succession of children unto Jesus; He is "the Father of the everlasting age." He shall say, "Behold, I and the children whom Thou hast given me."

A man is honored in his sons, and Jesus hath His quiver full of these arrows of the mighty. A man is represented in his children, and so is the Christ in Christians. In his seed a man's life seems to be prolonged and extended; and so is the life of Jesus continued in believers.

Jesus lives, for He sees His seed. He fixes His eye on us, He delights in us, He recognizes us as the fruit of His soul travail. Let us be glad that our Lord does not fail to enjoy the result of His dread sacrifice, and that He will never cease to feast His eyes upon the harvest of His death. Those eyes which once wept for us are now viewing us with pleasure. Yes, He looks upon those who are looking unto Him. Our eyes meet! What a joy is this!

Cleaving...

THE CHARGE:  But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.--Joshua 22:5

Looking today at Joshua's charge to "cleave unto Him".  I looked up the word cleave in the online Blue Letter Bible and came up with the following definition.

Cleave:  To cling, stick, stay close, cleave, keep close, stick to, stick with, follow closely, join to, overtake, catch up, follow hard, keep fast, abide....to adhere especially firmly as if with glue; to be glued...to be attached to someone and lovingly devoted.

It is the Lord, our God, we are to cleave unto.  Look at that definition....it really gives us no wiggle room.  Our God is to be always on our minds....always on our hearts.....always in our sight.  Nothing should interfere with our relationship with Him.

Staying close to our God keeps us safe, protected, blessed and nurtured.   When we stay close to Him, acknowledging His sovereignty and control in our lives, He handles all things that come our way.  We can take shelter in His presence and allow Him to perform all things for us and make perfect that which concerns us.  Staying close to our Lord enables us to hear His voice and keeps us from losing our way.  We can walk in His footsteps and even have His right hand uphold us as we walk.

Clinging to God takes a putting aside of pride and self will.  It was a decision for the children of Israel that really was a no brainer when they looked at the evidence.  Unfortunately pride has a way of getting in the way of rational thought.   It got in the children of Israel's way and it gets in our way, also.   It was the Lord who had driven out the enemy from before them.  It was the Lord who parted the sea.  It was the Lord who fought for them. It was the Lord who enabled them to stand.  Cleaving to the Lord won the battles for the Israelites and it will win our battles as well.  In cleaving is protection.  The Lord will go before you.  He will warn you of snares, point out dangers, and smooth your path.  The Lord will remove those things from your life that interfere with your walk with Him....those things that cause you to lose sight of Him...those things which weigh you down and hinder you from following him closely.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience 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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Read Deuteronomy 4:3:


Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal–peor: for all the men that followed Baal–peor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.  But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day. 

The message there:  Stay close to Jesus and live!

In Acts 11:23 Barnabas exhorts the people of Antioch "that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord."  I like that!  To purpose in your heart about something is to decide ahead of time to do it no matter the cost.  When circumstances come up that require a choice, your decision is easy because it has already been made.  Purpose in your own heart to cleave unto Him alone.  Purpose to allow nothing to interfere with your relationship with Him.    You have decided that the Lord will be your support....that you will not look to the right or left, but will follow Him.

Paul tells us in Romans 12:9 to "cleave unto that which is good."  That which is good is God.  If you cleave unto Him, you will be embracing goodness and His grace and mercy will be with you and He will work all that occurs in your life...even those things your enemies mean for your harm...together for good because you love Him and have been called according to His purposes.

The God who created the heavens and the earth is nigh to us and is in all things that we call upon him for.  His law and His will for us is perfect and His heart one of love.  Do not let pride interfere with your decision to come to the Lord...do not let it interfere with your decision to stay close to the Lord.  Again pride blocks all rational thought.  Put it aside and get beyond it.  By faith surrender to your Lord...He is on your side....there is nothing to fear.  It is the only decision that makes sense.  It is the only decision that saves you and enables you to live forever with Him.

Near and Far by Rebecca

They draw near who follow after wickedness; They are far from Your law.
You are near, O LORD, And all Your commandments are truth.--Psalm 119:150-151

Written By My Daughter, Rebecca...

I love the psalmist's contrast in these two verses. Those who despise the Lord and are far from His law - and who are therefore inevitably followers of wickedness - are near to him. But the Lord is also near! And His commandments (His word, His promises) are true. So what He says about the fate of the wicked and His goodness toward His children is also true. Whatever trials or tribulations we may endure in this life, then, or whatever foes may come against us, we may still rejoice! Those who sow to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but those who sow to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. God is not mocked! He will fully repay the evildoer, and what man intended for evil in the lives of God's children, God will use for our good. “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.” (Romans 8:31-37, NKJV)

Take Heed - Part 2...Love

But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. jos.22.6 So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto their tents.--Joshua 22:5-6

The land had been possessed!  Here Joshua is dismissing the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in order that they could return to their land on the other side of the Jordan River.  This is his charge to them as they left.  This is God's charge to us.  This is my prayer for you and me.

Father,

Behold, what manner of love You have bestowed upon me, that I should be called your child!! You are a God who shows mercy unto thousands that love you and keep your commandments.  Help me, Lord, to love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.  Help me to love others as You love them...to walk in Your ways and to serve you with all that I possess.

Heaven and earth are the work of Your hands.  All that is in them is Yours.    I also am your handiwork.  I belong to You.  You have redeemed me with Your blood.  You have pulled me up out of the miry clay and have set my feet upon a rock.  You have blessed me with eternal life in the heavenly places.  Truly, Lord you deserve all my obedience.  You deserve all my praise. All glory and honor and thanksgiving belong to You.  You, O Lord, loved me and died for me when I was still your enemy.  You loved me when I was unloveable...You loved me first!   You chose me Father and You delight in me!!!!

And if that was not enough, You have not left me alone, but have sent Your Holy Spirit,  the Comforter, to abide with me forever.  You reveal Yourself to me, walk with me here as I journey and show me the path of life.   You make your home with me!  Because I love you and believe, You, Lord,  make all things in my life work together for good according to Your purposes.  When I die, the crown of life is mine...and not just mine only, but it belongs to all who love you!!

...And yet....despite all of this...I am still so stubborn, so prideful, so willful!  Soften my heart to seek You and Your grace more.  Help me, Lord, to put aside ME and MY desires.  Help me to want what You want.  Align my will with Your perfect one.   Obedience to You brings blessing.   Obedience is how Your love is made perfect in me.  Your word tells me that obedience is better than sacrifice and to love You is to keep your commandments.  Above all other things, Father, help me to put on love...love is the bond of perfection.

Take Heed - Joshua 22:5

But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.  So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto their tents.--Joshua 22:5-6

The land had been possessed!  Here Joshua is dismissing the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in order that they could return to their land on the other side of the Jordan River.  This is his charge to them as they left.  This is God's charge to us.  This is my prayer for you and me.

Father,

Help me, Father, to diligently hearken to Your voice and do what is right in Your sight.  Let me not add to or diminish from Your word...I want to keep your judgments and your statutes.  I want to do them!  Oh, that this would be my wisdom...that this would be my understanding!  That others would see that you, my God, are near to me and that You are in every part of my life, as I call upon Your wonderful name.

You are my God!   Help me to love you with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my might.  Let your word be in my heart always...that I would teach it  diligently to my children and my grandchildren...that I would talk of it as I sit in my house, as I walk by the way, when I lay down and when I rise up.

I ask you now to be in every part of my life so that your memory never leaves my heart.  Place reminders for me everywhere!   Oh, Father....that I would not forget you when I am full!  That I would do what is good and right in your sight whether I am abased or whether I abound.  I desire to cleave unto You always.  It is then that I have victory over my enemies.   I am blessed when I keep your testimonies and seek You with my whole heart.  Be the keeper and owner of my heart, Lord.  Search it and know it...root out selfishness and bitterness.  Show me anything that would separate me from You and the unfathomable peace, grace, mercy and love that is only found Jesus, Your Son.   Let me not waste time, money and effort on vain things which do not satisfy.  Lord, let my delight be in You and in You alone. Let me be influenced and impassioned only by You and Your desires for my life.  I want to love what You love.  Be the God of each and every circumstance in my life.   Help me, Lord, as I walk with You today and every day to take heed and hearken unto Your voice.


And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: heb.6.12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.--Hebrews 6:11-12

God Keeps His Promises...

And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.  And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.--Joshua 21:43-45

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES...GOD HAS A PLAN.  Our God is the great I AM.  He is the Alpha and the Omega.  He is the Amen, the faithful and true witness.  God kept His promises to Israel.  He gave them the land,  gave them victory over their enemies and He gave them rest.  God did not and does not fail in any of His promises.  He has magnified His word above all His name.  Heaven and earth will pass away but His words, the bible tells us, will be no means pass away.  Every word of our God is pure and He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.  The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of God stands forever.  The words that go forth from His mouth do not return unto Him void, but accomplish that which pleases Him.  Let's look at these verses one at a time and see how God's words confirm what is said in these verses.


And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. --Joshua 21:43


And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:--Genesis 12:7

For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.--Genesis 13:15


And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;  And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.  And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.  But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:  The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,  And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. --Genesis 15:13-21


Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;  And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;--Genesis 26:3-4

I could go on but let's look at the next verse...

And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.--Joshua 21:44


Until the LORD have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the LORD your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD's servant gave you on this side Jordan toward the sunrising.--Joshua 1:15


So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.--Joshua 11:23


And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan.--Joshua 22:4


The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said. And the LORD shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed.  And the LORD shall give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you.  Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.--Deuteronomy 31:3-6


There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.--Hebrews 4:9-11

Again, there are more....but let's look at the last verse.

There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.--Genesis 21:45



And behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.--Joshua 23:14-15



God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?--Numbers 23:19


Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.--1 Kings 8:56


God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.--1 Corinithians 1:9


Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.--1st Thessalonians 5:24


In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; --Titus 1:2


That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:--Hebrews 6:19


Are you getting the picture...God's speaks and it happens.  His word is our hope and this hope is an anchor for our soul as we sojourn here on earth. The word of God is to be treasured and meditated on both day and night.  His word as Psalm 119:105 says is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It is a comfort to us both in times of affliction and in times of joy.   His word is true...it does not fail.  Read what Jesus says in Matthew, Chapter 5:


Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Christophobia: Enoch

Christophobia: Enoch: By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had t...

Streams of Mercy Never Ceasing...

And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.  And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,  And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.--2nd Chronicles 33:10-13


The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.--Psalm 51:17

To My Daughters in Him:


I have been studying Psalm 51:17 for several days.  I can remember the first time I studied it, perhaps more than 11 or 12 years ago, coming away with a desire to be humble before my God.  Why...Because I wanted to be one the Lord looked on and dwelt with...one whose prayers He heard.  Studying it now, I am coming away with a deeper understanding of the depth of the riches both of His wisdom and His knowledge, but also of His mercy toward us, His creatures.  Truly His judgments are unsearcheable and His ways past finding out.  His mercy towards us never ceases and brings to mind the beautiful hymn, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing....


Streams of mercy, never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise.  Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood; How His kindness yet pursues me, mortal tongue can never tell.

Let's look at Psalm 51:17 now with Manesseh, the most evil king in the history of Judah, in view.   Manesseh's father was a good king and a righteous man.  Manesseh's early training was godly and yet his reign was more evil than those of pagan kings.  Manesseh rebuilt the high places which his father had torn down and erected altars to worship gods other than the God of Israel.  He practiced sorcery and astrology.  He sacrificed his own children to the gods of Molech and Baal....placing them alive in flames of fire.  He did not and would not listen to God's prophets when they warned him to turn from his evil doings.  He led the people of Judah and Jerusalem into error and caused them to do worse than the heathen nations that surrounded them.  

The summarized story of Manesseh can be read in 2nd Chronicles 33.  Repeating the verse from above for emphasis:

And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.  And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,  And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.--2nd Chronicles 33:10-13

The Assyrians came...bound him and took him among thorns, (literally piercing- they put a ring through his nose or his lips)  and led him as a captive to Babylon.  Reading the account of the Chaldeans, we learn that Manesseh was afflicted greatly in Babylon.  It tells of torture of a horrific scale.  This from the Blue letter Bible and Chuck Smith:

"For the Chaldeans made a brazen mule, and pierced it full of small holes, and put him in it. They then kindled fires all around it; and when he was in this affliction, he sought help of all the idols which he had made, but obtained none, for they were of no value. He therefore repented, and prayed before the Lord his God, and was greatly humbled in the sight of the Lord God of his fathers."

Wow!  God did not give up on Manesseh.  Look at what it took though, to bring him to the point where he cried out to the Lord His God.   Look at the level of affliction that was necessary to rid him of his pride and bring Him before His God with a broken and contrite heart.  This wass not God's vengeance upon  Manesseh, this was His mercy and kindness. How much better it was for Manesseh to suffer here on earth for a short while than to suffer eternal torment.  God allowed all of Manesseh's afflictions to bring him to His knees...to bring him to a place of safety and protection from the eternal fires of hell.  

What would you do to this man, Manesseh, if you were God and he cried unto you?  This man who had done so much evil...who had compelled Jerusalem to sacrifice their little ones...your children....to the god of Molech  by placing them alive in flames of fire.....this man who had caused your people, your children, to do worse than the heathen nations around them. 

My response would have been to not listen to Manesseh...to turn away from him in anger and allow him to suffer as he himself had made so many others suffer.  My response would not have been mercy and forgiveness...BUT THAT WAS GOD'S RESPONSE.

God heard both Manesseh's heart and his prayer.  God brought him back to Jerusalem,  returned to him his throne and forgave him of all his transgressions.  WOW! WOW! WOW!  

This brings such hope and comfort to my heart and a deeper understanding of so many of the promises in God's word.  It gives us much insight into God's nature and character and His unfathomable mercy toward us.  If my God can forgive Manesseh, surely He can and will forgive you and me.  

You might be feeling right now in your life similarly to how Manesseh might have felt....in bondage to sin, in pain and in affliction and seemingly up against the proverbial brick wall with no recourse or place to go.  Cry out to Him....seek Him as Manesseh did.  He will answer...He will forgive...He will do in your life exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think. 

Love

Mom

A Broken and Contrite Heart....

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. --Psalm 51:17

Oh, how I love this verse!!!  Our God brings beauty from ashes and gives us the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.  Our God looks upon the humble in heart.  He is merciful to ME and YOU...sinners!!   When we look to Him, we are radiant and our faces are unashamed.

What are the sacrifices that He requires...a broken and contrite heart.  These He will not despise.  Our God wants us to bring Him our hearts that weep and mourn over our sin.  He wants us to come to the end of ourselves and look to Him.  He wants us to reach the point where we cry out, finally willing to put our way aside and walk the road He has lovingly prepared for us.  This is His mercy...this is His grace...this is His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Beloved,  unless we reach this point of brokeness before God, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Blessed are those that weep and mourn over their sin for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.  He who has the Son has life, He who does not have the Son does not have life.

Bring your broken and contrite heart to Him.  Upon these the Lord looks.  Jesus receives sinners!  He is listening for your cry.  His desire is for you...all of you.  Surrender to His Spirit and ask Him to replace  your heart of stone with a heart of flesh.  Ask Him, who will never leave you nor forsake you, to come into your heart and make His home with you.   Confess your sin, acknowledge your need and take the cup of salvation that He offers.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.--Revelation 3:17


And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.--Revelation 22:17

Presenting God with a Fait Accompli....from C.S. Lewis' Weight of Glory

"I mean this sort of thing. I say my prayers, I read a book of devotion, I prepare for, or receive, the Sacrament. But while I do these things, there is, so to speak, a voice inside me that urges caution. It tells me to be careful, to keep my head, not to go too far, not to burn my boats. I come into the presence of God with a great fear lest anything should happen to me within that presence which will prove too intolerably inconvenient when I have come out again into my “ordinary” life. I don’t want to be carried away into any resolution which I shall afterwards regret. For I know I shall be feeling quite different after breakfast; I don’t want anything to happen to me at the altar which will run up too big a bill to pay then. It would be very disagreeable, for instance, to take the duty of charity (while I am at the altar) so seriously that after breakfast I had to tear up the really stunning reply I had written to an impudent correspondent yesterday and meant to post today. It would be very tiresome to commit myself to a programme of temperance which would cut off my after-breakfast cigarette (or, at best, make it cruelly alternative to a cigarette later in the morning). Even repentance of past acts will have to be paid for. By repenting, one acknowledges them as sins—therefore not to be repeated. Better leave that issue undecided.

The root principle of all these precautions is the same: to guard the things temporal. And I find some evidence that this temptation is not peculiar to me. A good author (whose name I have forgotten) asks somewhere, “Have we never risen from our knees in haste for fear God’s will should become too unmistakable if we prayed longer?” The following story was told as true. An Irish woman who had just been at confession met on the steps of the chapel the other woman who was her greatest enemy in the village. The other woman let fly a torrent of abuse. “Isn’t it a shame for ye,” replied Biddy, “to be talking to me like that, ye coward, and me in a state of Grace the way I can’t answer ye? But you wait. I won’t be in a state of Grace long.”

There is an excellent tragicomic example in Trollope’s Last Chronicle. The Archdeacon was angry with his eldest son. He at once made a number of legal arrangements to the son’s disadvantage. They could all easily have been made a few days later, but Trollope explains why the Archdeacon would not wait. To reach the next day, he had to pass through his evening prayers, and he knew that he might not be able to carry his hostile plans safely through the clause, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive.” So he got in first; he decided to present God with a fait accompli.

This is an extreme case of the precautions I am talking about; the man will not venture within reach of the eternal until he has made the things temporal safe in advance. This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: to go down to that Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth and holding on to the lifeline which connects me with my things temporal.

Revelation 16 Notes: The Bowl Judgments

Chapter 16...The Bowl Judgments

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.--Revelation 16:1-2

These are evil sores.  Festering, painful, and incurable. These sores will bring unrelieved physical torment to those who have rejected Jesus Christ. The sores will not affect believers, . They will come only upon those who chose to follow Antichrist, received his mark to show their allegiance (13:16–17), and worshiped his image"

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.--Revelation 16:3

One of the reasons the bowl judgments will be so devastating is that their effects are cumulative. Before the sores of the first bowl could heal, “the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.” Are you getting the similarity to the first plague in Egypt. (Exodus 7:20–24) and also the second trumpet judgment (8:8–9), but this time the effects will be much more intense. We are talking the ocean here...70% of the earth’s surface.  The effects of this judgment will be worldwide. 

We do not know exactly what supernatural means God will use to destroy the oceans, but the effects, according to people who have spent some time studying this say it will resemble those of the phenomenon known as the red tide...concentrated, toxic species of algae kill higher forms of marine life, including shellfish, fish, and marine mammals. The smell of death and decay will be horrific and really unimaginable.  

Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.” (16:4–7)

Freshwater is already  in critically short supply by the time of this bowl judgment. The third trumpet judgment (8:10–11) will result in the poisoning of one third of the world’s freshwater. 

The two witnesses will “have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying [the last three and a half years of the tribulation]; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood” (11:6). 

The temporary restraining of the earth’s winds (7:1) will also cause drought. With no wind to move clouds and weather systems, the hydrological cycle will be disrupted and no rain will fall. The destruction of what is left of the earth’s freshwater will cause unthinkable hardship and suffering. 

The scene is so unimaginably horrible that people will wonder how a God of compassion, mercy, and grace could send such a judgment. 

The angel of the water speaks in God’s defense. God's judgment is unquestionably righteous because He is the Holy One. Fittingly, those who have spilled so much innocent blood will be given blood to drink. In the angel’s chilling words, “They deserve it.” God is just and holy and will execute vengeance for His people.  

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written,“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,”^[a] says the Lord. Goes on to say if your enemy...overcome evil with good.--Romans 12:19

For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,”^[a] says the Lord.^[b] And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”--Hebrews 10:30

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,--Hebrews 10:26

but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.--Hebrews 10:27

The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. (16:8–9)

Searing heat exceeding anything in human experience.  Another serious consequence of the sun’s intense heat will be the melting of the polar ice caps. One would think that the unparalleled disasters of the first four bowl judgments would cause people to repent. Instead “they blasphemed the name of God.” They did not repent nor give him glory.  Neither God's goodness or His wrath were bringing these to repentance.  

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds. (16:10–11)

As He did long ago in Egypt (Exodus 10:21–29), God will turn up the intense suffering of the sinful world by turning out the lights. After the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, darkness engulfs the earth. 

The cumulative effect of the painful sores, fouled oceans, lack of drinking water, intense heat, all engulfed in thick blackness, will bring unbearable misery.

Yet, incredibly, the wicked, unbelieving people of the world will still refuse to repent. (this is the last reference to their refusal to repent...perhaps they are now hardened and implacable in their sin...unredeemable.) John notes that they gnawed their tongues because of the most intense and excruciating pain. Still “they did not repent of their deeds.” 

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”) And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon. (16:12–16)

Unlike the previous five bowls, the sixth has no specific assault on humanity but prepares for what is to come. When his turn came, the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. The Euphrates appeared earlier in Revelation in connection with the sixth trumpet judgment (9:14), when two hundred million demons who were bound near it were released.  As the angel dumped his bowl, the Euphrates’s “water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.”) 

From the mouth of each member of the unholy trinity (Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet) came a foul, unclean spirit resembling a frog. The unholy, deceiving trinity will lead the kings of the east and their armies to their doom...to a place called in Hebrew Har-Magedon. (Mount Megiddo)  The eastern armies will need to cross the Euphrates to reach their ultimate destination of Armageddon in the land of Palestine. God’s drying up of the Euphrates is not an act of kindness toward the kings from the east, but one of judgment. They and their armies will be entering a deadly trap. JUST LIKE PHARAOH'S ARMY ENTERED THE PARTED WATERS OF THE RED SEA AND WERE ANNIHILATED...SO WILL THE ARMIES OF THE EAST BE ALSO. THE DEMONS WILL LEAD THEM STRAIGHT INTO HELL AND EVERLASTING TORMENT.  GOD LEADS HIS PEOPLE TO HEAVEN AND EVERLASTING LIFE IN HIS PRESENCE.   

Amid all the horrors of judgment, deception, and war comes a word of encouragement to believers: “Behold, I am coming like a thief." This gracious word from heaven will come before the pouring out of the seventh bowl and assure believers that the time of the end is coming quickly and they will not be forgotten. 

There were similar respites to encourage God’s people between the sixth and seventh seals (7:1–17) and between the sixth and seventh trumpets (10:1–11:14). 

Then the exalted Lord pronounced the third of seven beatitudes in Revelation (1:3; 14:13; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14): “Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.” This describes those who will be prepared for His arrival. The imagery here is of soldiers alert and on duty.  

Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.” And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe. (16:17–21)

The seventh bowl is the final outpouring of God’s wrath on sinners in this present earth. It will be the worst calamity in the world’s history. Its effects carry all the way to the establishment of the earthly kingdom of Christ. Like the fourth angel, the seventh angel did not dump his bowl on the earth, but poured it out “upon the air.”  As the angel dumped his bowl, a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne. God’s solemn declaration “It is done” announces the climax of the final day of the Lord that will spread doom over the entire globe. 

From John MacArthur:  Taken from "Because the Time is Near"

The perfect tense “it is done” describes a completed action with ongoing results. It is similar to Jesus’ final words from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). God’s judgment of Christ on Calvary provided salvation for repentant sinners; the judgment of the seventh bowl brings doom to unrepentant sinners. 

Atmosphere affected...flashes of lightning, peals of thunder.   But those earlier storms were mere previews of the mighty storm of wrath that now bursts upon the earth. 

Though the seventh bowl was dumped on the earth’s atmosphere, it will also have a devastating effect on the earth itself. God will punctuate this final judgment against sinners with an earthquake, just as He did His judgment of sin at Calvary (Matthew 27:51–54). 

This earthquake will be the most powerful one ever to strike the earth. John described it as “a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth.” The shaking will be so severe that it will renovate and reconfigure the earth in preparation for the millennial kingdom, restoring it to something like its pre-flood condition (verse 20). 

The first effect of this great and mighty earthquake was that “the great city was split into three parts.” A comparison with 11:8 clearly identifies the great city as Jerusalem, “the great city … where also [the] Lord was crucified.” That the great city is distinct from the cities of the nations offers further evidence that Jerusalem is in view. The massive earthquake will split Jerusalem into three parts, beginning a series of geophysical alterations to the city and its surrounding region that will conclude when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. 

Zechariah 14:4–10 describes these changes in detail. The Mount of Olives will split in two, and a new valley running east and west will be created (Zechariah 14:4). A spring of water will flow year-round from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean and Dead Seas (Zechariah 14:8), causing the desert to blossom like a rose (cf. Isaiah 35:1). Jerusalem will be elevated, and the surrounding region flattened into a plain (Zechariah 14:10). 

Thus, the purpose of the earthquake as it relates to Jerusalem is not to judge the city, but to enhance it. Jerusalem was judged earlier in the tribulation by an earthquake, which led to the salvation of those who were not killed (11:13). Thus, there is no need for further judgment on that city. The physical changes will prepare Jerusalem for the central role it will play during the millennial kingdom, when Christ will reign there as King (Psalm 110:2; Isaiah 2:3; 24:23; Micah 4:7). 

Unlike Jerusalem, which was enhanced by the earthquake, the cities of the nations fell, perhaps simultaneously with the defeat of Antichrist by the Lamb (17:12–14). Specifically singled out is Babylon the great, which “was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.” As the capital city of Antichrist’s empire, Babylon especially will be made to drink the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath (chapters 17 and 18). 

The final effect of the earthquake is to prepare the earth for the millennial rule of Christ. To that end, the earth’s topography will be drastically altered; “every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.” Islands, which are undersea mountains, will disappear. The mountains on land will be flattened (Isaiah 40:4), completing the process that began during the sixth seal (6:12–14). 

Those who somehow escape the devastation caused by the earthquake will face another catastrophe, one unprecedented in earth’s history. They will be pelted with “huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each,” that will hurtle down from heaven. Unlike the seventh Egyptian plague (Exodus 9:23–24) and the first trumpet judgment (8:7), the force of these hailstones is unimaginable. The Greek term translated “about one hundred pounds” described the most weight a normal man could carry, anywhere from 90 to 135 pounds. The heaviest hailstones ever recorded weighed about two pounds. These will be fifty times heavier. No doubt many will die due to inadequate shelter or no shelter following the massive earthquake. Still unrepentant, the survivors of the hailstorm will blaspheme God “because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.” 

Incredibly, tortured humanity remains hardened against God—a truth that should give pause to those who think that signs and wonders will convince people to believe the gospel. In light of the inevitable judgment to come, the warning to all unrepentant sinners is 

“Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).