The Last of Complaining....

When my daughter, Rebecca, was little she never liked going shopping because of the feeling it gave her afterwards.  The first time it happened I did not understand it.  I remember what she said, however, when we got home.  "Mom, I need to go to my room...my thoughts are all out of order."  THAT IS WHAT IMMERSION IN THE WORLD DOES TO US. It causes us to forget what is important.  The stores made Rebecca feel discontented and dissatisfied.  She  was bombarded with stuff she had no idea she even wanted until she saw them.  This is why, like Rebecca, we need to order our thoughts after spending time in it.  If we don't, seeds of discontentment begin to take root and grow in our hearts.  They begin to cause us to want what we don't have and not be thankful for those things we do have.  Our heart becomes filled with the wrong things...it becomes filled with our own desires and not God's.  We begin to complain against Him, and contend with Him. 

When we spend time with God and His word and cry out to Him for grace, He is faithful to put our thoughts and desires in their proper order and place.  His word reminds us to be content with such things as we have...His word reminds us to seek Him first and that when we do that all other things will be added.  We once again are content because He is our Shepherd and we have everything we need.  We want His will and not our own and once again desire Him above all else.

I am so glad that Rebecca was able to explain to me what was going on in her mind.  It was such a perfect picture of how the world draws us.  After she did I was able to talk to each of my daughters when they had these kind of feelings and point them in the right direction.  They became wise to the feeling and understood it for what it was and who and where it was from.  Be aware of how the world influences your thinking.  It is subtle.  Examine what you are watching, reading or who you are spending time with and how they might be influencing you and causing you to experience discontentment.

Our complaining and discontented spirits only hurt us.  Watch children at play...the lesson is seen in its simplicity so clearly.  A child plays contentedly alongside another until a new toy is introduced.  The child who is not on the receiving end is immediately unhappy.  He forgets all about what was making him happy just seconds ago and now only wants what is for the moment, out of reach.   His discontented spirit only hurts him...it makes him unhappy in the moment.  It mars ALL!   Look at your own heart..examine your own desires and see where your own thoughts and affections need reordering.  Go to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think and ask Him to align your will with His.  Ask Him to give you His desires. He who is faithful will do it.  Your countenance will change...your mind will be stayed in the right place....on Him and what He wants.  I will end with some of my favorite verses from Psalm 37.

Trust in the LORD, and do good;  Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.  Delight yourself also in the LORD,  And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Complaining - Part 2

You don't know what you got til it's gone!  This is how some people live their lives.  Never appreciating what they have...never counting their blessings.  The consequence for this type of sin is built in.  It prevents us from enjoying what we already have.  It led the Israelites to despise "manna from heaven".  The bible tells us that as a man thinks in His heart so is he.  How do you think in your heart?  Do you focus on what you do not have instead of the many blessings God has given you?   Some of us always think we would be happier if we just had what has been denied us.  When we do this we are really saying that our God is not good and that in your case He is not doing things well at all.  Thinking in this way toward God is the opposite of submitting to His will...thinking this way is rebellion against God and opens the door to many other sins. 

I think the best example in Scripture of this type of sin and its end result is seen in Haman in the Book of Esther. Read a portion of Chapter 5.

Haman went out that day joyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai.  Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh.  Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king.
 
Moreover Haman said, “Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her, along with the king.  Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” 

Did you get that last part.  Haman was not able to enjoy any of his abundant blessings because one person did not bow down and worship him.  His focus was on what was wrong...not what was right.  It colored everything. Pride makes us so stupid.   Haman's sin led to bitterness, hatred and finally a plot to murder Mordecai.


Hebrews 12:15 says this: 

"looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; "




Bitterness and hatred grow unless they are dealt with ruthlessly.  They will overshadow everything in your life if you allow them access to your heart.  Haman's discontented spirit, pride, bitterness and hatred eventually led to him being executed on the very same gallows he had constructed for Mordecai.


Like Haman, your bitter and complaining spirit will backfire.  You will be the one hurt by it.   Don't hide it, don't nurse it and don't ignore it.   As a believer whatever light you have for Christ will be overshadowed by your own complaining spirit.  Ask for God's help in dealing with it.   Surrender to the work of His Spirit in your heart...acknowledge it,  confess it as sin and turn from it.  Do not let it gain a foothold.  Listen to not only the words that come out of your mouth but also listen to those things that you might be thinking in your heart that no one else hears.  Your mind should be mainly on Jesus and others...very little time should be spent on you.  This life is not about you...it is about Him.   The best remedy for bitterness of spirit and a discontented complaining heart is confession and making a practice of meditating on the right things.


Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 


BE THANKFUL....SMILE...STAY IN THE MOMENT...ENJOY IT...IT MAY BE YOUR LAST.  The moment, as Amy Carmichael and others have said, is the window to eternity.  It is all we are guaranteed.  Live for the Lord in it.  Love others in it.  Be grateful in it. 

Complaining....Part 1 - Very Short...So You Won't Complain

Numbers 11:1 Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.


To My Daughters...

Complaining is something I do...so I need reminders as to why I should not.  Therefore I am beginning this series of short studies on reasons why we should not complain.

The first reason: complaining displeases our Lord and arouses His anger.  Now, let's think about this. Why does our complaining displease God?  Put yourself, if you can, in the position of God for a moment.  Here are your people that you created and sent your Son to die for COMPLAINING. What are they complaining about - ANYTHING THAT MIGHT BE CAUSING THEM DISCOMFORT.    In the Israelites' case, God had just miraculously delivered them from terrible bondage AND YET THEY CHOSE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE FOOD HE WAS PROVIDING FOR THEM DAILY.  If you are a mom or dad you probably grow weary when your children complain about what you make them for dinner.  Here God is sending them food from heaven...providing for them daily and they tell Him that if they have to eat it any longer they would rather go back into bondage.  Oh boy!  As believers, we are heirs of God...joint heirs with Christ and will be glorified with Him.  The sufferings here, the Bible tells us, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that which shall be revealed in us. 


Here is what we forget when we, who believe, complain.  We forget that we deserve nothing but death at the hands of God.  He would be perfectly justified to destroy us all.  And yet, instead, He has shown mercy.  The Bible tells us this in Psalm 103:10:

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 

Lamentations 3:39 says:

Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins? 

Read Psalm 103 in its entirety and be reminded of all the reasons we have NOT TO COMPLAIN!

Love
Mom

Psalm 103

A Psalm of David.

 ¹ Bless the LORD, O my soul;
         And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
 ² Bless the LORD, O my soul,
         And forget not all His benefits:
 ³ Who forgives all your iniquities,
         Who heals all your diseases,
 ⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction,
         Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
 ⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
         So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
       
 ⁶ The LORD executes righteousness
         And justice for all who are oppressed.
 ⁷ He made known His ways to Moses,
         His acts to the children of Israel.
 ⁸ The LORD is merciful and gracious,
         Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
 ⁹ He will not always strive with us,
         Nor will He keep His anger forever.
 ¹⁰ He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
         Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
       
 ¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth,
         So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
 ¹² As far as the east is from the west,
         So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
 ¹³ As a father pities his children,
         So the LORD pities those who fear Him.
 ¹⁴ For He knows our frame;
         He remembers that we are dust.
       
 ¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass;
         As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
 ¹⁶ For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
         And its place remembers it no more.^[a]
 17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting
         On those who fear Him,
         And His righteousness to children’s children,
 ¹⁸ To such as keep His covenant,
         And to those who remember His commandments to do them.
       
 ¹⁹ The LORD has established His throne in heaven,
         And His kingdom rules over all.
       
 ²⁰ Bless the LORD, you His angels,
         Who excel in strength, who do His word,
         Heeding the voice of His word.
 ²¹ Bless the LORD, all you His hosts,
         You ministers of His, who do His pleasure.
 ²² Bless the LORD, all His works,
         In all places of His dominion.
       
         Bless the LORD, O my soul!




 

The Wall of God...

To My Precious Daughters,

Today I allowed myself a detour in my normal Bible study...my Bible opened to Job 23 and I just started reading.  Here we find Job, the most tried man in all the earth, wanting to meet God and present to Him, his case.  Job wanted vindication.  He wanted God to tell him why he was chosen to suffer so and to clear his name....Job wanted God to assure him of his righteousness.  He thought that if he could just know the reason for his suffering he would be better able to deal with it. HA!

I have thought these very same things during my own trials which are/were puny compared to Job's.  As I grow in the Lord, however, and begin even to fathom just a little bit of His greatness and majesty,  my desires, like Job's did,  change.  I begin to say with Abraham, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"  I am weak...nothing brings that home to me like sickness and trials.  I call it the wall of God...when you come up against it, you realize finally with heart knowledge that there is NOTHING you can control and NOTHING  you can do. God is God and you are not!

Now you would think that you would hate this wall...I have and sometimes I still do.  I have kicked at this wall many times but made no dent.  By His grace, however, I am finally understanding that the wall of God is HIS MERCY AND HIS GRACE TO ME.  It makes me acknowledge my own weakness and helplessness and cry out to Him, by faith,  for His power and His presence....and truly this is what I REALLY want.  I WANT HIM...ALWAYS.
 
Knowing this, here is what I now desire in my trials...I want to get through them in a way that glorifies my God.  My trials are opportunities...God has allowed me the privilege of being an instrument to accomplish His purposes.  Coming into His presence in my weakness and helplessness, I realize....I realize THAT HE IS GOD!!!  God does what He wants to do in my life and He does it well!  As I understand who He is, I trust Him more and more and am also able to perceive that He only desires good for me.  Truly God knows the way I take and hedges me behind and before.  He wants to bring forth my righteousness as the noon day.    My job is to, BY FAITH, hold fast to His ways and His steps and not turn aside.  I, like Job, am learning to treasure His words more than my necessary food.  I stand in awe of Him...AND WANT TO BE MORE LIKE HIM....which is what my trials do...their purpose is to conform me into His image.  He wants to bring me forth like gold after I have been tested.  The dross burned away.

The more I walk with Him the less I desire to give in to the temptation of attempting to adjust the temperature and duration of my trials.  In fact, the more I walk with Him the more I fear doing that.  Truly I am beginning to understand  that GOD'S WAY IS BEST!  I am wanting what He wants more and more...His word does that in each of our hearts.  It is alive...living and powerful the Bible says and sharper than any two edged sword....it works in my heart and will work in yours to make you desire your  God and what He wants for you more and more.  If you do nothing else, do what is most important.  Spend time with Him and His word and you will be changed and transformed...just sit with Him...He does the rest. 

My prayer for each of us is that we would have all that God has for us.  That nothing would be left on the table.  I pray that He would perform in us and through us all those things that He has appointed and that WE WOULD NOT GET IN THE WAY!  He is God, we are not...He performs all things well.  We do not do anything well...it is only in Him that we can do anything.  Praying that He increases and we decrease. 

Love
Mom



Here is Job 23...

 ¹ Then Job answered and said: ² “Even today my complaint is bitter;
      My hand is listless because of my groaning.
 ³ Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
      That I might come to His seat!
 ⁴ I would present my case before Him,
      And fill my mouth with arguments.
 ⁵ I would know the words which He would answer me,
      And understand what He would say to me.
 ⁶ Would He contend with me in His great power?
      No! But He would take note of me.
 ⁷ There the upright could reason with Him,
      And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
 ⁸ “Look, I go forward, but He is not there,
      And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
 ⁹ When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
      When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
 ¹⁰ But He knows the way that I take;
      When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
 ¹¹ My foot has held fast to His steps;
      I have kept His way and not turned aside.
 ¹² I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
      I have treasured the words of His mouth
      More than my necessary food.
 ¹³ “But He is unique, and who can make Him change?
      And whatever His soul desires, that He does.
 ¹⁴ For He performs what is appointed for me,
      And many such things are with Him.
 ¹⁵ Therefore I am terrified at His presence;
      When I consider this, I am afraid of Him.
 ¹⁶ For God made my heart weak,
      And the Almighty terrifies me;
 ¹⁷ Because I was not cut off from the presence of darkness,
      And He did not hide deep darkness from my face.

The Song of Suffering by Rebecca

“I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up,
         And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O LORD my God, I cried out to You,
         And You healed me.
O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave;
         You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His,
         And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment,
         His favor is for life;
         Weeping may endure for a night,
         But joy comes in the morning.
Now in my prosperity I said,
         ‘I shall never be moved.’
LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
         You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
I cried out to You, O LORD;
         And to the LORD I made supplication:
‘What profit is there in my blood,
         When I go down to the pit?
         Will the dust praise You?
         Will it declare Your truth?
Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me;
         LORD, be my helper!’
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
         You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
         O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.” – Psalm 30:1-12
Psalm 30 was sung at the dedication of King David’s house in Jerusalem.  Whether it was written specially for the occasion or whether it was composed at an earlier date, this psalm beautifully commemorates a tremendous milestone in David’s life.  His days of running from King Saul were over.  He was king over both Judah and all the tribes of Israel.  Jerusalem had been won from its Jebusite inhabitants and established as Israel’s capital city.  The dedication of his house was an opportunity for David to look back upon his life thus far and perceive the workings of that complex, majestic hand of God that had so graciously brought him to this point.  “I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up,” he writes (vs. 1-3), “and have not let my foes rejoice over me.  O LORD my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me.  O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.”

It had been a long, hard road for David.  He had endured many trials since that day Samuel the prophet had anointed him, a lowly shepherd boy, as the next king of Israel.  But as he could now see, the Lord had used those very trials to prepare him for the fulfillment of His promise.

“Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.  For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Before King Saul began to be jealous of David, David’s life was prosperous.  He was exalted from that lowly shepherd boy to the beloved armorbearer of the King of Israel.  He killed the Philistines famous champion, Goliath; was victorious in his battles; loved by his people; and he gladly served King Saul, first as musician, then as armorbearer, and finally as captain.  His wife was Saul’s daughter Michal, and Jonathan, Michal’s brother, was David’s closest friend.  But the Lord does not settle for less when it comes to His children.  There was still work to be done in David’s heart, and more that the Lord had planned for his life.  A loving father will teach and chasten his child when he needs it; likewise the Lord trains up and chastens His children in order to give them the best.  After Saul became envious and sought to kill the young man he had once taken such joy in, David’s stretch of “prosperity” – which he had thought was a thing to be confident of (vs. 6) – came to an abrupt end.  The Lord loved David too much to allow him to become complacent.  The trials that lay ahead were going to be painful.  They were going to cause suffering, weeping, and pain.  But they were also going to yield eternal fruit so precious that the pains taken would become utterly insignificant and forgotten!

“LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.”  (Vs. 7)  What can you rely upon in this world?  What won’t change, fail, or end?  The short answer is nothing: nothing and no one, and David knew that.  The entire universe is subjected to death and futility.  Our world had a beginning; it will have an end.  Earth can shake, suns can die, life can decay, mountains can crumble, and people can betray.  Apart from God, there is nothing you can invest yourself in that will not let you down.  God knows that.  Mankind as a whole does not – or at least, it acts as if it does not.  We want a mountain that stands strong, but we look for it in all the wrong places.  We build our homes in dry riverbeds, which are disasters waiting to happen, and imagine we are secure.

So what does the Lord do?

In David’s case, David already “knew” that God was the only sure foundation.  He knew that God alone is worthy of our complete trust.  He served well and wisely as a captain of Israel, but God, in His love, didn’t just want a captain.  He wanted a king.  And David wasn’t ready to be a king just yet.

The Lord “hid His face” from David.  To bring him to that morning of joy, He gave him troubles and trials and tribulations.  He yanked the rug out from beneath David’s feet and turned his world upside down.  David went from a captain to an outlaw; from a hero to a fugitive.  He spent years hunted and on the run, dealing with peril, betrayal, conflict, and hardship, as the Lord put him through fire in order to forge His king from His captain.  It was not easy.  It was not prosperous.  It was not pleasurable.  But all that “trouble” was a blessing – no, heaps of blessings – beyond all that David could have asked or thought.

How?

The how is spelled out and exampled over and over again in God’s word.  Human nature is innately proud, shallow, self-centered, deceitful, malignant, and in a word, sinful.  That is who we are; that is how we are born.  It takes being “born again” of the Spirit of God to remove that sinful nature, and it took the very heart’s blood of that same God to make rebirth possible.  Jesus had not yet come when David was alive, but the Spirit of God was with David all the same.  The Lord was working in David’s heart, and one of His greatest tools – for all of us – is suffering.

Simply put, to suffer means to encounter troubles, tests, and problems.  We are clearly not adequate to overcome or endure any of those things.  However, due to our stubborn pride, we refuse to recognize this inadequacy and therefore fall flat on our faces – over and over again, as many times as it takes, until pain finally produces humility, or until the heart is hardened beyond remedy.  Because of who we are God has to knock us down before He can lift us up.

But however painful the “knocking down,” might be, the results are worth every nanosecond.  Infinity is literally opened to that humbled soul.  It is only the one who knows he’s sick who will seek healing; it is only the soul who knows he is a sinner who will seek salvation.  And when that point is reached, suffering takes on a new, very precious role: sanctification.  David, through suffering, was being sanctified during his years on the run.  He’d already been humbled enough to seek the Lord.  Now the Lord was going to use that humility to forge maturity.  He guided the shepherd boy into an armorbearer; the armorbearer into a captain; and now He was going to guide the captain into a king.  Those years David spent on the run were fraught with more troubles and problems he wasn’t adequate for.  His sufferings exposed his weaknesses, and drove him to seek their remedy.  They revealed how heavy his sins were, and how much he needed to shed that weight so he could function.  They laid bare the limitations of his resources and showed him that the goal he sought could only be reached with resources much greater than his.  The only one David could turn, the only One who had the answers he needed, was God.  God, the I AM WHO I AM, the Becoming One, the one who becomes that which satisfies our every need.  The more David realized he needed the Lord, the closer he drew to him.  And the closer David drew to him, the more like Him he became.  The more like Him he became, the more he could reflect God’s glory; the more he was able to serve Him, and the more reward he would receive in heaven.  God sent David suffering because He loved David.  He sends His children suffering because He loves them.  Suffering is the necessary product of His favor that is for life, and the night of weeping that brings a morning of eternal joy.  “For our light affliction,” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

But that “light affliction” – not even worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us, Scripture declares elsewhere (Romans 8:18) – cannot work its intended benefits unless we allow it to.

“I cried out to You, O LORD; and to the LORD I made supplication: ‘What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?  Will the dust praise You?  Will it declare Your truth?  Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper!’”  (Vs. 8-10)

David’s trials made him cry out to the Lord more and more, recognizing his own weakness and his need for the Lord’s mercy and help.  His choice opened the door for the amazing grace of our God to be poured out.  David became a mountain that stood strong because he was founded on the true Rock, the Living God, rather than the dry riverbed of human pride.  His mourning was turned into dancing.

But David could have made a different choice.  He could have chosen to resist God’s hand and refuse to surrender.  Rather than turn and be healed, he could have hardened his heart and continued to hurt himself on the same brick wall.  That kind of pain is the suffering of the world, which is pointless, tragic, and ends in a twofold death.  A believer dies once – physical “death” – and lives for eternity.  An unbeliever will die that physical death and then endure the second death, that is, eternal condemnation.  God is longsuffering.  He does not desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  (2 Peter 3:9)  But if you don’t want Him or His salvation, He will not force Himself on you.  He’ll give you opportunity after opportunity to change your mind – trying to awaken your soul with His graciously provided pain – but in the end, your choice is your own, and He will abide by it.  The day you draw your last breath in this world is the day your fate will be sealed.  And there will be no second chances.

How different is the choice of David!  “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory [soul] may sing praise to You and not be silent.  O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”  (Vs. 11-12)

David allowed his suffering to work the good God intended.  He still had many trials ahead of him, but he knew their purpose.  He was being conformed into the image of the glorious, righteous Creator, being transformed from glory to glory, and enabled to revel in the awesome, infinite majesty of the Living God.  He was going to see the face of God in righteousness, and he would be satisfied when he awoke in His likeness.  David had life – and life abundantly.  His suffering had become a song to the praise of God who loved him and performed all things for him.

May every believer alive today sing that song to the God who does and has done for us exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think!

Political Correctness Hits the Church of Corinth....

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father's wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. --1 Corinthians 5:1-8

To My Daughters,

As carnal as the city of Corinth was this particular sin of one who named the name of Christ caused quite a stir.  The world loves to catch a Christian in sin and the more seemingly immoral the deed, the better!  This particular sexual immorality Paul tells us was not even named among the Gentiles...A man having his father's wife...his stepmother.

The Christians in the church of Corinth were not ashamed about the evil that was occurring among them...no...they were puffed up by their tolerance.  Sin among us who name the of Christ should break our hearts!  It should make us weep.  Instead those in the Corinth church not only tolerated the sin but were proud of their tolerance!  Uh oh political correctness in Corinth.  Me thinks they are missing the point of the cross.

Paul tells them to deliver such a one to Satan...not for his destruction but for his restoration. In excluding him  from fellowship and leaving him alone in his sin, Paul was hoping to bring this man to the end of himself and to repentance. He was doing this man a great service...he showed him love by putting him out of the church.  Paul's perspective was eternal...so with much prayer and in the name and power of Christ, Paul delivered him to Satan so that his flesh might be destroyed but his spirit saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  In effect, Paul was giving him what he wanted and allowing him to eat the fruit of his own way  in the hopes that his sin would eventually make him sick and long for the joy of the Lord's presence and the Lord's people in his life once again. Sin leavens and spreads if allowed to go unchecked. Christ suffered and died for each and every one of our sins... to treat them as if they did not matter or were of no consequence is to trample on the blood of Jesus.  Thankfully, the church at Corinth did, indeed, take Paul's advice, and it worked.    Paul was then able to instruct them to welcome their brother back into their company.

Paul was not expecting them to be sinless..we all struggle with sin daily.  The difference here was that this was willful and continual sin without shame, without godly sorrow, and without repentance. Sin effects everyone...not only the person committing the sin but also those with whom this person has contact.  Sin is selfishness which by definition is the opposite of love. 

The witness of a group of people living for Christ can be huge in this dark world, but it can be diminished and even extinguished when even one person is not worshiping in sincerity and truth.  Our word and our deeds need to match to be an effective witness. When we name the name of Christ our nature should be pure, holy and righteous like our God's.  We should reflect the nature of our Father.  One weak link in the body affects everyone in the body. 

Before the Passover a Jew was required to remove all leaven from their house until not even a trace remained.    After searching and scrubbing diligently the head of the household would say, “Oh God, I have cast out all the leaven from my house, and if there is any leaven that I do not know of, with all my heart I cast it out too.”  What a picture for each of us!  What a reminder to separate ourselves from sin and evil lest where we think we stand we fall!  We are to offer and consecrate our very lives to Him who died so that we could live.  Our lives are to be lived out not in hypocrisy, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth...in a word...Jesus!

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, 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. --Philippians 2:13-16

Love
Mom

Behold, the Maidservant of the Lord!

Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. --Luke 1:38


To My Sweet Daughters:

I began reading in Luke the other day and have not gotten far.  This morning I stopped at this verse.  What an amazing testimony Mary had!  What a beautiful picture of submission she gives us!  Truly she walked by faith and not by sight.  She did not ask what was in it for her, or how it would all end but simply yielded herself to Him whom she knew had her best interests at heart.  Mary believed God, embraced the word from the Lord and willingly allowed it to take root in her life.  As I write this I realize that she "literally" embraced the Word.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

The same God who spoke the worlds into existence came down from heaven to tabernacle among us and made Himself at home with us...His creatures!

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. --1 Timothy 3:16

What humility Mary showed--"behold the handmaiden of the Lord."   I so need to have this view of myself.  What peace, freedom from sin  and opportunity in Him could be mine, if I would willingly consecrate myself fully to His use.  Christ would be born in me...I would decrease and He would increase.  Praying to have this attitude daily! 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.--Romans 12:1-2

Love
Mom

Searching the Scriptures....

Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us,  it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus,  that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. --Luke 1:1-4

 
I began reading the Gospel of Luke today in my study of the word and only got to the end of verse 4.  Here is what struck me...Luke wrote this Gospel and its sequel, the Book of Acts, to one person, Theophilus. He wrote as an historian who had carefully compiled the accounts of others and interviewed people who had spent time with Jesus.  He was not an eyewitness to the events of what he wrote nor had he ever met Jesus.  His intent in writing is clear from verse 4:

"it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus,  that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed."

Luke wrote this gospel as an apologetic to a *friend* that he might know that the things which he had heard and been instructed about were true.  Our God is a God of individuals.  God took Luke's obvious and heartfelt concern for this one lone, early Greek Christian, Theophilus, and used it to reach the rest of the world.  We never know how God will use anything we do...leave the numbers and the results to Him.  Know that your work is not in vain in the Lord...that He works all together for good in your life and does all things well.  Do not grow weary in doing good nor lose heart.  Your God is the God who sees..in due season you will reap.

I also think it is significant that Luke relied heavily in his writings on eyewitness accounts and the writings of others to compile an accurate picture of Jesus' life and ministry.  Christianity is not a close your eyes, check your brain at the door belief.  Scripture tells us to investigate its claims and see for ourselves.  Rightly so!  Our decision in regard to Christ is the most important decision we will ever make here on earth...it has eternal consequences.

And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." --John 1:46

This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true. --John 21:24

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. --Acts 17:11-12

Check out its claims for yourself.  Do not rely on others to do your work.  Search the Scriptures carefully...in them you will find eternal life.

Dwelling, Enduring, Staying, Abiding....Remaining

I went from Job, to John and then to 1 Thessalonians 5 today in my study of His word.  In Job 22:2, Eliphaz asks if a man can be profitable to God.  Can he add anything to God?   As I read these verses, I thanked God that His purposes do not rest with me.  God accomplishes His purposes in spite of me.  He is complete without me.  He has, however, called me as His bondslave and desires me to be a vessel set aside for His purposes....to bear fruit for Him.  My God gives me the opportunity to be a vessel through which He works.  What a privilege!  He doesn't need any of us, but in His gracious love, He has chosen to accomplish His purposes through us...and then rewards us accordingly!!!  My  job is to rest in Him and be obedient...the results are up to Him.

John 15 speaks of abiding.  To abide means this:

A primary verb; to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): - abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for), X thine own.

This is our job as Christians....abiding in Him...Abiding brings a life of:   fruitfulness (15:5),  answered prayer (15:7), living in His love (15:10),  and  fullness of joy (15:11).  My job is to abide in Him...to stay present with Him.   In order to stay present with Him I cannot walk in my own ways, but must stay on His path.  Scripture tells us that all the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, to those who abide and obey. John 15 also tells us  that without Him we can do nothing.  Without Him, we wither and die and are without hope.  In Him we are a tree planted by the rivers of water whose leaves never wither, and that whatever we do will prosper!  Truly our hope now and forever is in Him.

We, as believers, are set aside for His purposes, and in order to accomplish these purposes we must abide, that is, "stay close to" Him....How do we stay close?  We stay in His will...we obey His word.  We sit at His feet and learn from Him.  1Thessalonians 5:16 and 17 gives us three short exhortations declaring the will of God to us.  "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  (Me!)

Rejoice because God has forgiven your sins and you now have the sure and certain hope of eternal life with Him.

Pray without ceasing that His work would be done in you and through you.  Pray that you would stay in His presence always and live in communion with Him.  Pray that truly in Him you would live, move and have your being.

In everything give thanks because...IT IS NOT UP TO YOU!  It is not your battle nor is it your burden.  Your job is just to obey and abide...which really are one and the same!  We can give thanks also because we know that our work is not in vain in the Lord...that whatever comes to us is from Him.  That nothing can happen to us except that God allows it and if He allows it, He has a purpose for it.  We can rejoice because surely goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives and that He works all together for good in our lives. 

Now it is easy not to rejoice and not to be thankful...it takes a concerted effort and a work of the Spirit of God in your heart to walk in the commands of 1 Thessalonians 5:16 and 17.  Pray with me that by His grace and mercy that this will be your desire and as you pray He surely will give you this desire and as He does...grab the opportunity He is giving you and make a practice of doing it.  Watch the blessings that come!!  This is the secret to abundant life in Him...acceptance with joy of all that He has knowing that it is from Him and it is good!

"The Majesty and Condenscension of God"

Who is like the LORD our God, Who dwells on high, Who humbles Himself to behold The things that are in the heavens and in the earth?--Psalm 113:5-6

Psalm 113 is a psalm of praise.  Who is like our God!  He who dwells on high and of incomprehensible glory,  humbles Himself to care about the things that are in the heavens and in the earth.  God is mindful of us! This is inconceivable!  Take a few minutes to really contemplate it.  Go to these verses in Psalm 113 and find some parallel ones yourself that speak of our God's humility.  The Bible is replete with passages that confirm God's earnest love and care for us.  His Son came into the world for the very purpose of taking our sin upon Him and dying in our place.  Jesus came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.  He taught that the way to greatness was the path of humility. 

Our flesh is so strong...even saved we forget what our God has done for us and react in pride. Many of us  turn our backs to Him and stamp our feet like little children refusing to give way.  Think about the arrogance of our behavior...God has stooped down from His place in heaven to offer us...His rebellious, insolent creatures reconciliation!  He has ripped open the fabric of the universe to peer down and speak directly to us and many of us refuse to hear!  Again, read the Bible...it is replete with His entreaties, His persuasions and His beseechings...He does not want any of us to perish but all to come to Him and receive new life!  He is your Father beseeching you with much earnest to come and to live!  He has shown you the way.  He who dwells on high has reached down to you...raise your hand up out of the dunghill to Him and see for yourself as you walk with Him that there truly is NONE LIKE HIM!

Taking Pleasure in Infirmities???

And He said to me, "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. Therefore 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. --2nd Corinthians 12:9-10

Meditate on these verses....It is the very wise person that understands that the sufferings experienced here on earth are to be rejoiced in because it is these very sufferings that cause us to talk to our Father in Heaven...to draw close to Him.  It is these very trials and afflictions that bring us to a place of dependence on Him.  We begin to see our own limitations and learn to draw on His strength and rely on Him.  Our humility increases  and consequently our worship of Him deepens. Thorns in the flesh are gifts from our Father in heaven that we are to take pleasure in and see as opportunities to surrender and watch Him work.

Instead of seeking deliverance from your troubles...seek what you really want in them.  HIM!  We pray for to our God to fix our problems but He does something better as we cry out.  He gives us Himself and truly delivers us from ourselves.  I have found as I go through trials and afflictions that even though I have much sorrow, I have in Him even greater joy because His presence is with me...He increases and I decrease.

Sometimes in our grief and sorrow we do not see the light at the end of the tunnel...all feels dark and unnavigable.  God gives light in the darkness....the dark, unnavigable tunnel with the Lord may just be the brightest and best place you can be.  Ask Him to teach you to glory in your tribulations  Acceptance of sorrow with joy is a beautiful place to be.

He Can't Save Himself....

And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!" Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him. --Mark 15:29-32


Oh the irony!  Here are the people as well as the chief priests and the Scribes mocking the One who did only good...  Here are the chief priests finally speaking truth  in regard to Jesus.  He did save others...He had healed many, but instead of honoring Him for it, they despised Him for His good and returned evil upon Him.

Unbelievably, but in fulfillment of Scripture...see Isaiah 53, Psalm 2, and Psalm 22....they were mocking, reviling and crucifying  Jesus, the Son of God...the Messiah, who had committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.  Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.  They crucified the very Man who, had He saved Himself that day, could not have saved us.  Instead, He obeyed His Father and loved us to the very end...

Jesus is our example.  I look at verses like these and am overwhelmed.  Jesus was cruelly and horribly treated by men, and yet, He submitted to His Father to the point of the death of the cross.  He did not answer His attackers back. In fact, He offered them forgiveness...He died to save them.   I am to do as Jesus did...to walk as He walked. Do you see why these kind of verses could overwhelm? This CANNOT be done in my own strength.  Without Him I can do nothing BUT I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  I can do all things when I surrender to the Spirit of God dwelling inside me.  Jesus is not only our example...He is our strength and our power.  He enables us and empowers us to follow Him.  In Him we are strong and mighty...even when and especially when, we are weak.  In fact, take pleasure, the Scripture says,  in infirmities, in  reproaches,  in needs, in persecutions and in distresses for Christ sake.  This is when the power of God will rest upon you as you cry out to Him.  Pray and watch His grace abound!

The next time you are offended, think of Jesus surrounded by evil and overcome the offense with love.  Overcome evil with good.

Quit You Like Men!

This phrase is from the King James and means to be brave...to be strong...to act manly.  Now if you are anything like me you probably hate when someone tells you to be strong and act like a man.  There are many variations of this one saying, but they all mean the same thing...get a grip.  Find your courage.  You know what, sometimes, in fact many times, my courage just isn't there.  As I get older, I find it weakening and faltering more and more.   Losses are multiplying, sin abounds in the world around me and illness takes its toll.  The things I used to be able to do to feel strong...are no longer possible.  I realize more and more that I AM NOT IN CONTROL OF ANYTHING AND I HATE IT!

What is a body to do?   I mean this is Scripture...and it is telling me...no, it commands me...to quit ye like a man and you know...I REALLY CAN'T.  So what does God mean in saying this.  I searched the Scriptures further...I had to.  I came up with much that encouraged and strengthened my heart. 

Beloved believer here is the bottom line...Our God does not ask us to be strong in ourselves and in our own power...He asks us to be strong in Him!  He is the one who does it all.  Read the following verses from Joshua, Chapter 1, verses 6,7,8,and 9. 

Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

The key is in the last few words...for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.  The presence of the Lord eradicates fear and faint-heartedness.  It is His courage and strength that we walk in.  He is there.  He is with us.  He upholds us and bears us up.   What is our job?  We are to immerse ourselves in His Word, meditating on it day and night.  We are also to be doers of it...the blessing is always in the doing.  We are to stay in His will not looking to the left hand or to the right   It is then that our way will be prosperous...it is then that we will have good success. Our God prepares us for whatever we will face as we diligently study His word daily.  He arms us with His strength, His knowledge and His presence.  It is only in Christ and His strength  that we can quit like a man!

We walk by faith and not by sight.  It is so easy to think we know better than God....especially when our circumstances look impossible and we have not been washing ourselves daily with His truth.  Faith does not look at what is seen.  Faith obeys no matter how things look from a human perspective.  Faith puts its trust in God.  It surrenders all!  Psalm 27:14 tells us to wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He shall strengthen our heart.  What a place of rest we come to when we can truly place all the issues of life in His hands.  No fretting...no matter what happens we are trusting God.  We are standing fast in Him!  Immersed in His word and aware of His presence we cannot be thrown off balance by anything the enemy might throw at us!  We fight from victory and it is not our battle...it is the Lord's. 

Read with me some verses from the book of Daniel, Chapter 10...

Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”

When he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless. And suddenly, one having the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying to him who stood before me, “My lord, because of the vision my sorrows have overwhelmed me, and I have retained no strength.  For how can this servant of my lord talk with you, my lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me.”

Then again, the one having the likeness of a man touched me and strengthened me.  And he said, “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!”

So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” 


How beautiful is that?  The awareness of God...His voice, His touch, His presence with us and His love for us strengthens us and brings us peace.

Be of good courage, immerse yourself in His word... be strong and stand fast for the people God has placed in our lives.  We are in a battle...eternity is at stake.  Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.  And may the Lord do what is good in His sight!

Worship

To My  Daughters...

I was in Genesis 22 this morning as well as Mark 14 and 1 Corinthians 2 and, of course,  by sheer coincidence they all tied together. : D

According to Chuck Smith, the first mention of love in the bible is found in Genesis 22.  The law of first mention is a method of biblical interpretation that takes the first use of a word in Scripture and uses it to set the pattern for its use throughout the Bible.  The love spoken of in Genesis 22 is the love of a father for his son.

Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”--Genesis 2:2

 The first mention of love in all four gospels speak also to the love of a father for His Son.  Specifically, God for Jesus.  Methinks someone is trying to tell us something.

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” --Matthew 3:16-17

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” --Mark 1:10-11

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.  And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well 
pleased.” --Luke 3:21-22

Finally, in the Gospel of John the first mention of love bears an uncanny resemblance to Genesis 22 where Abraham was told by God to take his only son  whom he loved and offer him as a burnt offering to the Lord.

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.--John 3:16

God asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, but intervened at the last moment.

And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” --Genesis 22:12

God provided the sacrifice that day for Abraham and 2000 years later in the very same spot on that very same mountain, provided again...this time by giving His only Beloved Son, as a sacrifice for our sins.

Love is obedience...It says this also in Genesis 22...

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.  Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” --Genesis 22:3-5


Abraham went in obedience to His God TO WORSHIP on the top of Mount Moriah.  Girls, this is the very picture of what worship is!  To worship means to literally bow down.  To bow and lay down our wills for the will of our God.  This is what Abraham did.  Love is obedience.  Worship is submitting our wills to our Father in heaven and allowing Him to do as "seems good to Him."  Give him your heart, soul, body, mind and strength when you worship Him.  Lay it all down before Him.

It is important to note that Abraham said "we" will come back to you again.  Abraham did not know how God was going to work that out, but he believed God's promise...that in Isaac his seed would be called.  He believed that somehow, if necessary, God would bring His son back from the dead to keep His promise to Abraham.  He believed and stood fast, because God had promised.


This is where I stopped in my reading of the Gospel of Mark today.


“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

Jesus worshiped in the Garden of Gethsemane...He laid down His will...He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  Prayer and worship are the means God has provided for us to lay down our wills and come to that beautiful place of submission.  It is then that He can do exceedingly abundantly in our lives as He did in Abraham's life as well as in His Son's.  Worship requires us to put our eyes off of ourselves and our circumstances and place them on Him who is able!

Now, of course, you can bow down before God, but still have a heart lifted in pride...think of the worship of the publican vs the Pharisee.  The publican whose heart was truly bowed down before His Lord went away justified.  The Pharisee went away unjustified, condemned and rejected by God.  Pride shuts the door on effective worship. 

The blessing comes to those whose heart is right before Him!  Worship and prayer sanctify our troubles to our highest good.   Prayerful worship unburdens our hearts and enables us to align our will with His, effectively delivering us from ourselves!  True worship drives away unbelief and while not removing the trouble, enables us to better bear it.

These were the verses I read in 1 Corinthians 2....

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,  which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:

      “ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
      Nor have entered into the heart of man
      The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Paul is speaking of heaven here, but beloved believer...we have this now!  Biblical hope is sure and certain.  It is as certain as if it already happened.  Do not be blind to the glorious, glorious fact that Christ died for you when you were against Him...when you were a sinner.  Do not esteem His grace and forgiveness here in your place of sourjourn, lightly!  Appreciate what you have right here...right now!  Death has no sting for us...no fear.  We are His. Your circumstances might not be perfect but as a believer you live, move and have your being in Him.  What could be sweeter.  Stand fast!  Worship Him in Spirit and in truth!

Love
Mom

The God Who Redeems by Rebecca

“To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in You;
         Let me not be ashamed;
         Let not my enemies triumph over me.
Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
         Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.
Show me Your ways, O LORD;
         Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
         For You are the God of my salvation;
         On You I wait all the day.
Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses,
         For they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
         According to Your mercy remember me,
         For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
Good and upright is the LORD;
         Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
The humble He guides in justice,
         And the humble He teaches His way.
All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth,
         To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
For Your name’s sake, O LORD,
         Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
Who is the man that fears the LORD?
         Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
         And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him,
         And He will show them His covenant.
My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
         For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,
         For I am desolate and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart have enlarged;
         Bring me out of my distresses!
Look on my affliction and my pain,
         And forgive all my sins.
Consider my enemies, for they are many;
         And they hate me with cruel hatred.
Keep my soul, and deliver me;
         Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
         For I wait for You.
Redeem Israel, O God,
         Out of all their troubles!” – Psalm 25:1-22
There is a cause for the evil we see in this world today.  It’s called sin.  Sin is the root of all woe, and it exists as a cancerous tumor, or a festering sore.  It takes what is good and twists and mutilates it into that which is not good.  Its fruit is death, and its destiny is everlasting destruction.

Sin does not come from God, and neither was it part of God’s work of creation.  Way back in Genesis 1:31, the Lord “saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”  The universe was unstained and perfect.  Mankind was perfect.  Sin came about in our world when mankind took one of the Lord’s good gifts – our free will – and with it chose to misuse all His other good gifts.  From that one act of rebellious disobedience was born the world and the people we see today.  It has been a vicious descent.  And it’s going to get worse.

Sin is why King David cried out to the Lord in this psalm.  He was troubled from both within and without: within, because of his own sin; without, because of the sin of others.  He was distressed and in need, and he knew where to go for help: the God who redeems.

Justly speaking, the Lord should have blotted His creation out of existence at the moment Adam sinned.  It had been broken; ruined; infected.  Even if the Lord did not destroy us Himself, He could have simply withdrawn and allowed sin to take its inevitable course: self-destruction.  But He didn’t withdraw.  He didn’t judge.  He knew the choice Adam and Eve would make even before He created them, and He had already prepared His response: redemption.  The promise of Messiah is found even as early as Genesis 3:15.  Before the curse of mankind or creation was even uttered, the Lord said to the serpent (Satan), “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Adam and Eve corrupted themselves.  Their descendants would be, and were, born corrupted.  Creation was subjected to futility.

But God!  “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  (Ephesians 2:4-7)

The Lord did not forsake us, not even when we turned against Him!  Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.  The plan for our redemption was set in motion from the very moment the Lord spoke the universe into existence.  The Lord knew what it was going to require; He knew it would cost the life of His spotless, beloved, uniquely begotten Son; He knew it would lead to that cross on Calvary.  And He saved us anyway!

Is it any wonder that it was this same Lord to whom David cried out when he was distressed?  David was struggling with his own sin, with the sin of others, and with the fallen creation around him.  So he went to the God who was able to save him.  The God whose tender mercies and lovingkindnesses were from of old.  The God who was coming to redeem him out of his transgressions!  It didn’t matter what David had done or how powerful the forces against him were.  Our God is able to save to the uttermost.  The only question is, will you let Him?

David let Him.  The Lord does not desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; however, He will not violate that free will He gave us.  He won’t force Himself on us if we don’t want Him.  It’s faith, and faith alone, that He requires of us to be saved, because it is by faith that we accept His grace and allow Him to become our Lord and Savior.  We’ve all been given the capacity to choose and believe.  We’re all given the opportunity – and opportunity after opportunity – to choose and believe.  We’re all given the information we need to choose and believe.  What our choice boils down to in the end is, which do you love more?  The Light that has come into the world, or the works of darkness?  Jesus says in John 3:16-21, “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.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Strictly speaking, the only sin that condemns a soul to hell is unbelief.  The Spirit of God is in the world right now, convicting it of sin, and restraining sin’s devastating effects.  His voice is to be in our conscience, in God’s word, in history, and in the testimony of His children.  Rejecting that voice and hardening your heart against it is blaspheming the Spirit of God.  Pharaoh hardened his heart, hardened his heart, hardened his heart; finally it was God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  Pharaoh made his choice.  God confirmed it.

“Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He teaches sinners in the way.  The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way.”  (Psalm 25:8-9)  It takes humility to make the choice of David.  It takes humility to bite the bullet, recognize your sinfulness, and cry out to the Lord to save you from it.  Thanks to sin, personal humility is something we find repulsive.  Like Pharaoh, and like the Pharisees, many of us prefer to die in our sins rather than sacrifice our hideous and unmerited pride.  We refuse to believe God knows best and thus stubbornly plow straight into a pit.  We spurn His precious, glorious, beautiful salvation for an eternity of self-inflicted torment.

But the “man of who fears the LORD”?  David writes, “Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.  He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth.  The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.  My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”  (Vs. 12-15)

The difference between belief and unbelief is literally as stark as eternity.  Heaven versus hell.  Life versus death.  Salvation versus destruction.  A deep, abiding, eternal relationship with the Sovereign Creator – from whom is all that is good – versus an equally deep, abiding, and eternal separation from Him.  Could the right choice be any clearer?  No one truly desires evil for themselves!  Even if it is a dear love for the pleasures of sin that holds you back from God, you are selling yourself short.  Pleasure is of God.  It may give us passing “pleasure” to indulge in sinful behavior, such as fornication, but the actual pleasure is from the Lord.  He created it.  He gave us the guidelines to enjoy it in the fullest way possible.  If you are not following those guidelines, you will find that simply by doing so you are driving the pleasure you pursued farther and farther out of your reach.  The physical fruit of the tree in the midst of Eden was not evil; what made eating it evil was that God had said not to.  Trying to have anything “good” without God is like trying to enjoy cake without the cake.  It doesn’t work.  Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?  (Psalm 34:11-12)  The Redeeming God is his only answer.  The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him; that is, the closeness with Him that each and every soul yearns for – the realization of life and love and goodness and purpose – is only to be had when we acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior.  We need Him.  We need Him desperately.  And oh, how He answered that need!  He died to show us His covenant and make our redemption possible.  He wants to give us life and save us from the fruit of our sin.  He wants to adopt us as His beloved children.  He wants to give us the unimaginable glorious and infinite reward of His own Self.  How can you possibly say no?

Believer or unbeliever, cry out with King David!  “To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.  O my God, I trust in You; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me.  Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.  Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths.  Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.”  (Vs. 1-5)

Jesus shed His very heart’s blood to redeem us.  No one who trusts in the Lord will be ashamed.  What is holding you back?  What keeps you from the God who loves you?  Cut it off!  Get rid of it!  It is worth nothing.  What the apostle Paul once counted as gain he later counted as loss for Christ.  Be it pride, deceptive pleasures, fear, control, or bitterness, lay it at the foot of the Cross.  Even if it is your very life that may be required of you, lay it down.  Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Christ’s sake will save it.  Surrender to the Lord!  Be one of the humble whom He can guide in His way.  Be one of those who fears the Lord and can share His secrets.  Be one of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Be a child of God.  Be one of those who have been released from the bondage of sin.  Be one of the redeemed!

The God of Jacob by Rebecca....

“The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness,
         The world and those who dwell therein.
For He has founded it upon the seas,
         And established it upon the waters.
Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
         Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
         Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
         Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the LORD,
         And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,
         Who seek Your face.  Selah 
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
         And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
         And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
         The LORD strong and mighty,
         The LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
         Lift up, you everlasting doors!
         And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
         The LORD of hosts,
         He is the King of glory.” – Psalm 24:1-10
Messiah had not yet come when David penned these Spirit-inspired words.  The hill of the LORD and His holy place – at least on earth – was Mount Moriah, home of Jerusalem and the tabernacle, and later, the temple.  It was in Jerusalem that the Lord set His name, and in Jerusalem alone His people were to worship their God.  But access to God was not free or easy.  It was based on heritage, performance, person, and condition, according to the 613 precepts of the Law of Moses, and apart from this there was no other way a relationship with the Lord could be achieved.  If you did not measure up, you were, quite rightly, not among those who could ascend the hill or the Lord or stand in His holy place.

But the problem is that no one truly measures up.  None of us can stand before the Living God.  In our fallen state, seeing Him in the fullness of His glory results in certain death.  Even the faintest echoes of His Presence caused such great men as Joshua, David, Moses, Isaiah, and Daniel to fall flat on their faces.  God’s standard is perfection.  And we fall so far short of it.

Under the Law of Moses, ritual animal sacrifice was the prescribed way to “cover,” one’s sin.  There was an entire system in place designed to make it possible for the holy God to dwell among sinful man.  But as good as this system (Judaism) was, it could not change the fact that human beings are, by nature, evil.  The blood of bulls and goats could not take away our sin.  It could only cover it – until we sinned again.  The Law could not save those who tried to keep its precepts.  The Law condemned them, and it condemns us today.

Of course, humanly speaking, we might cry that God is unjust for demanding perfection.  How can He be so unfair?  Why doesn’t He make it easier for us to measure up?  Why doesn’t He “lower the bar”?  It’s cruel to force such rigid conformity.  Doesn’t He know how easy it is to mess up?

But that’s humanly speaking, and objectively speaking, it’s all insane – to say the least.  “The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness; the world and those who dwell in therein…”  God, as Creator, has the right and the authority to make the rules, and the power to enforce them.  And besides this, would any of us truly want a standard that is less than perfection?  Do we really want less than the best?  Of course not!  The only reason we gripe about God’s perfectionism is because we fail to meet it.  And that’s our fault, not His.  Once, mankind was perfect.  We were the crowning glory of God’s creation.  Adam and Eve walked with their Lord in the Garden of Eden, living a life our death-ridden experience doesn’t even permit us to imagine.  Adam and Eve were without sin and creation was without stain.  What changed?

We were what changed.  Adam and Eve chose to use their good, God-given free will to reject God and go their own way.  Mankind fell, and he dragged the physical creation with Him.  The gates were opened for death, sorrow, pain, evil, sickness, deformity, corruption, decay, rebellion, arrogance, murder, loss, cruelty, deceit, immorality – and more – to take over.

Now, if God was only just, He would have blasted such cancerous depravity out of existence the moment Adam sinned.  But He didn’t.  From Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to David, from David to Jesus, and on into today, His loving, merciful, gracious hand can be seen throughout in human history.  The Lord destroyed the ancient world with a flood, lest our own iniquity cause us to implode (as Rome did); He confused our languages at Babel so that we would have to work much harder and much longer before we could be capable of working implosive evil again; He set up the nation of Israel at the crossroads of the world to declare His name to all mankind; and through it all He prepared for the unveiling of His ultimate plan for salvation: the death of His beloved Son.  It would require no less than this to make sinful man stand before the holy God.

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?  Or who may stand in His holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.”

Can any of us attain even those four prerequisites?  No.  None of us, on our own merit, are worthy to ascend into the hill of the Lord or stand in His holy place.  Even under the Mosaic Law, which provided for limited access to God, one is forced to conclude that much more than animal blood is needed.  Untold millions of animal sacrifices were barely sufficient for one nation, just one, to have minimal access to a shadow of God’s Presence.  Works could not save us.  It had to be Jesus.

As David wrote this psalm, describing the glory of God and the glory of a relationship with Him, he was speaking of the Old Covenant.  That covenant was, indeed, glorious; God owed man nothing, and yet He stooped to call Israel His special people, and to set them up as His witness to the world He loved.  But the Old Covenant – the Law – was only a promise and a foreshadowing of that covenant which was to come.  If the promise was glorious, what about the fulfillment?

Jesus was that fulfillment!  He, the uniquely begotten Son of God, willingly laid aside His deity, became a man, came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died a death He did not deserve to He could impute His righteousness to our bankrupt accounts.  He bore the just wrath of God against sin, the wrath that should have been ours, and He rose again to prove the sufficiency of His sacrifice.  All that is required is that you “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead” (Romans 10:8-9), and you will be saved.  You will be counted worthy to ascend into the hill of the Lord and to stand in His holy place.  It won’t be on your own merit; it will be on His.  Of that person, the one who has been saved, David writes, “He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.  This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face.”

Jacob was a sinner, a conniver, a liar, and a man who was out for himself.  Yet he was also the man whom God named “Israel.”  Throughout Jacob’s life we can see the conflict waged between those two names.  Which name – which nature – was Jacob living in at any given time?  His own sinful one?  Or the new one God gave him?  That is the question for every person who seeks the Lord and desires to see His face.  In Christ, we’ve been reborn.  We’ve been given His nature.  But that nature is, on this earth, bound to bodies of death.  My body was born in sin and it will continue in sin until the day it breaks down and dies.  That will be a day to rejoice, because that will be the day my desire is fulfilled.  That will be the day that I see the face of my God, in His righteousness, and I will be like Him at last.  But in the meantime, while the Lord has a purpose for me on earth, how should I be living?  Like Jacob?  Or like Israel?  “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!  Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  (1 John 3:1-3, emphasis mine)

Believers are Jacob.  Once we belonged to the world and shared its nature of death.  No longer!  And yet, because our bodies still belong to death, our each day is a spiritual battle.  Paul writes in Romans 7:14-25, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.  For what I am doing, I do not understand.  For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.  If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.  But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.  For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Jesus has indeed delivered us!  Because of Him, there is “therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  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, 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.”  (Romans 8:1-5)  Christ fulfilled the Law for me.  He won my salvation.  Oh, yes, I will battle now, but ultimate victory is assured.  The grace of God is there for His children in every confrontation, and He will complete what He has begun in us.  “Not that I have already attained,” Paul writes, “or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:12-14)  The Lord has a purpose for each of His redeemed in this life, and until He fulfills it, we as believers are to press on.  We are to seek His face.  We are to die to ourselves daily so that we might live in Him.  We are to walk in the Spirit so that we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh!  We are not, of course, going to win every battle.  But that’s no excuse not to try!  Our job is simply to be obedient; the Lord will handle the results.


“Lift up your heads, O you gates!
         And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
         And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
         The LORD strong and mighty,
         The LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
         Lift up, you everlasting doors!
         And the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this King of glory?
         The LORD of hosts,
         He is the King of glory.”

We know that Adam’s and Eve’s rejection of God, their choice to deny Him, led to the horrendous world we now inhabit.  Their sin opened the gates to death.  But, as the word of God has declared, the Lord made a way for us to be redeemed from those gates.  He is called the “God of Jacob”; the God who, instead of giving us what we do deserve (judgment), He gives what we could never deserve: Himself.  He takes worthless, depraved, dying sinners and gives them new life.  He takes those who cannot stand on their own and makes them stand on Him.  He gives us blessing and righteousness and salvation.  He shed His very heart’s blood to become our Redeemer and to adopt us as beloved sons and daughters.  He takes a Jacob to sculpt an Israel.  He is the King of Glory, mighty in battle, who fought and died to save us, and He is standing outside the gates of our hearts.  He is standing there, stretching out His hands, pleading, longing to come in, so that He can bless us exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think.

The choice to seek after God is before each of us, believer or unbeliever.  For a believer, of course, the critical choice has already been made.  We’ve been snatched from those gates of death, and it’s how we’ll walk the path of life that we wrestle with now.  But for those who have not yet accepted Jesus’ sacrifice, today is the day of salvation!  Don’t wait!  Time is growing short.  Open the gates of your heart.  Open them and let Him ride in.  Please, please, do not turn Him away.  Because, if you do, there will come a day when your choice will force Him to turn you away.

A more devastating moment cannot be fathomed.

Matthew 25:31-46, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’  Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?  When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?  Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’  And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’  Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’  Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’  Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”