Faith on Earth?

Luke 18:8
I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, will He find faith on earth?

The verse seems disjointed at the first but this is how it works out in my mind…
Chapter eighteen, verses one through the first half of verse eight have the stated purpose "that men ought always to pray and not to faint." With that purpose in mind the Lord said that his elect ought to cry out day and night and He would avenge them speedily.

It is impossible that the phrase about finding faith on earth is not associated. And it is both an encouragement to pray as well as an indictment against our lack of prayer.

Barnes Notes has this commentary,
"The danger is not that “God” will be unfaithful - he will surely be true to his promises; but the danger is that his elect - his afflicted people - will be discouraged; will not persevere in prayer; will not continue to have confidence in him; and will, under heavy trials, sink into despondency. The sole meaning of this phrase, therefore, is, that “there is more danger that his people would grow weary, than that God would be found unfaithful and fail to avenge his elect.” For this cause Christ spoke the parable, and by the “design” of the parable this passage is to be interpreted."

• Likely none of us invest the time and effort into prayer that we should, electing to expend our resources on activity that yields more immediate and visible result and
• Likely our choice to be active in things other than prayer is a major reason that, when Jesus comes again Christianity will be largely apostate.

Of Weddings or Funerals

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

I will begin with a couple of seemingly unconnected thoughts, but they do come together, at least in my mind.

Today is May 31st 2011. Yesterday my family, including my sons: their wives, their and children who, for now, also include Jared and James made what is either our 22nd or 23rd annual trip to visit the family graves on Anita's side. The tradition began when Caleb was a baby and I expressed to Anita that we should begin making memories, traditions that would bind our family together through life. She suggested that her mom and dad visited the family graves each Memorial Day; and the tradition started.

Over the years I have heard a number of pastors say they preferred to officiate over funerals more than weddings, and I have come to think the same way. Ecclesiastes gives a Biblical reason for thinking that way.

Very few at a wedding really lay much to heart. There isn't much thinking in all the celebration.
• Parents are dying to see their child leave the nest so permanently and yet they are also concerned that it might not be permanent
• Friends are just there for the party and
• The young couple has not a clue how serious the commitment they are making truly is
No one is laying this to heart.

A funeral is an entirely different matter. Though culture is becoming more calloused and less caring in the face of death, this one thing is certain at every funeral, no one involved will escape the same fate. It is the end of us all.

The Bible says the living will lay it to his heart. Not all who are breathing are living, at least not in the sense of Biblical life, but there are those who go to the house of mourning and there God gets in their heart. And if that happens, then the house of mourning is a much better place than the other.

The Faith of Our Faith

Luke 16:19 KJV
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

I am thinking today of the place of faith in our faith.

Faith sees the evidence that is unseen to the eye of practicality and perhaps even sees, through the evidence that the eye of practicality presents, the evidence the eye of practicality is unable to see.

For the faithless, the practical, they must act on what they know to be true based upon evidence. But because they don't know if they ever have all of the evidence they never know if they hold the whole truth. Bertrand Russell expresses this in his book on Problems of Philosophy. The problem with philosophy, as I can see it, is that it only has problems. It has not, indeed can never have any real answers.

Faith takes us beyond the problem and points out what is the answer in Jesus Christ. Man is truly a spiritual being, created to know Christ. Without Christ the wisest we can ever be is only to see the question.

Happiness

Luke 15:7 KJV
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Luke 15:10 KJV
Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

Mankind is always looking for that which makes man happy.

The Utilitarian's Creed is "the greatest happiness for the greatest number."
It is significant that he says happiness rather than good.

The philosopher, John Locke, proposed that each man possesses the unalienable right to life, liberty and property.
Significantly, when writing the declaration of independence Jefferson rephrased it; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Here the Bible tells us that heaven is the end of that pursuit. The Bible tells us what it is that brings joy into heaven: just one sinner that repenteth. The question has to be raised, "why not over the ninety and nine?" The biblical answer is because there is no such ninety and nine. There is no such person as a just person that needs no repentance.

If in fact, as Jefferson wrote, we all possess the unalienable right to pursue happiness, I urge then that every man pursue repentance in Jesus Christ.

Watching

Luke 14:1 KJV
And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.

Luke 14:7 KJV
And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,

Verse one says "they watched Him. "
Verse seven says "He marked how they…"

They were watching Him but equally important, and for eternal reasons, vastly more important is that He was
• Watching
• Taking note of, in some regard
• Keeping record of them

They watched Him looking for that thing they might accuse Him of.
He marked them, seeking some means to improve their standing with the Father.

His message, to those bidden has both earthly and eternal application. His message for mankind is the same. Jesus is mocked, scoffed and hated today. But His only real desire is to be a blessing to souls.
His message to the host has its only reward in eternity. That speaks also. Though there may be rewards for well doing on earth, the only ones that have any real significance are heavenly ones.

STAND STILL

Stand still.
A soldier has fallen to the ground today
The battlefield has had its way
He will not fight another day
Stand still. Stand still.

Stand still.
Stand still and pray for those at home
And for soldiers while they roam
On foreign soil’s combat zone
Stand still. Stand still.

Stand still.
That soul has now gone to beyond
To heaven’s glories or to hell’s real horrors
Stand still. Stand still.

Stand still.
Stand still and thank God for His grace
You did not die in his place
That image could have born your face
Stand still. Stand still.

Stand still.
Stand still and look this once more
To a far off hill on a distant shore
One there did His Father’s will
Stand still. Stand still.

Stand still
Stand still and see Him on the cross
Giving all there was to give
That you and I might get to live
Stand still. Stand still.

Stand still
Stand still and view that empty tomb
In it He found there was not room
So up He rose from that space
And left our sins in His place
Stand still. Stand still.

Stand still.
Stand still if you would have Him win
For you a victory from sin
You cannot earn a home on high
By grace through faith is the Father’s cry
Stand still

Stand still
Stand still come this solemn Day
You owe him that much won’t you say?
A soldier’s fallen to the ground today
Stand still. Stand still.

Marvin McKenzie
For Memorial Day Weekend
5-25-2007

A Question Worth Working

Luke 13:23
Then said one unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said unto them.

One asked the question, but the answer was to them all.

This is the question that ought to occupy the hearts and minds of men. The fact is, regardless of what we do in this life it is brief. The best good we can do is not merely to enjoy life and improve it for our children or our world, for regardless of how well we may do that, it is temporary and we cannot know what generations to follow will do with it. Ecclesiastes said the work of our hands may pass on to a fool.

But salvation; that is a different subject entirely. Rather than striving to see what good we may do for temporal society, rather to work at improving another's eternal prospects; now that is a work worth doing.

And this work requires that we recognize
First that there are few who are saved.
It is not universal. It is restrictive and exclusive to those who come through Christ.
Secondly, that the work of salvation includes not only justification but also sanctification.
God means to conform us to the image of Christ. To give ourselves then to the assistance of those in the middle of sanctification is to not only be a blessing to them but is part and parcel with our own sanctification.

Otherworldly

Luke 12:31 KJV
But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

The Lord places this very real contrast that is to exist between those of the world and those who are believers;
• Worldings seek after earthly treasures and
• Believers seek after heavenly ones

This is not to say that this contrast is hugely observable in modern Christianity. In fact the distinction has been completely skewed in American Christianity where we think seeking Christ is the way to gain earthly treasures. Those who truly attempt to seek the kingdom of God and allow God to add to their lives their daily necessities as He sees fit are so out of the normal they are generally looked upon as abnormal.

It must become the Christian to unplug from such worldliness and poor himself into the otherworldly. If we are going to reclaim biblical Christian faith we must seek not just "first" but "only" the kingdom of God.

She Didn't Get It

Luke 11:28 KJV
But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

Jesus was in the midst of a vital and life changing message
He was giving them a lesson on the uselessness and even danger of reformation.
• If all a person does is just cast out a demon in his life
• If all he does is sweep out some old sins
Jesus said that the demon which so easily beset him will return but this time with a vengeance and this time with demon partners. The state of the reformer is worse than it was at first.

The message is a serious one; hearers needed to reflect and let it sink in
But here is one that obviously didn't get it. This certain woman likely thought she was speaking some high praise to God but it was misguided. Rather than focusing on Christ or on his message, she is thinking about Mary. The roots of that Mariolatry run deep in man's soul!

Jesus corrects her by saying the really blessed are those that
• Hear the word of God
She obviously wasn't listening and
• Keep it
It isn't enough to be a hearer only. Blessings come from keeping and doing what is taught in the Bible.

Christ's Caring Correction

Luke 10:41 KJV
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

I am thinking about the caring heart of the Lord.

When Martha comes with her criticism of Mary and plea that Jesus would make Mary help, Jesus response was, "Martha, Martha."
• There was no harshness
• There was no rebuke
• There was a teaching moment

Jesus urged Martha that Mary's priority was the right one. Things will get done.

I take it from this that Martha was serving when it was neither necessary or her place. Some people won't sit down. Their nature is so stressful that they can hardly bring themselves to slow down a moment or two.

Jesus did not rebuke her, but neither did He grant what she asked.

I am looking for the Lord to do as He pleases and just be a part of His work.

But to Save Them

Luke 9:56 KJV
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

This is Jesus' final trip out of Galilee and he passes through Samaria. He sent His apostles ahead to find a place to sleep for the night but because Jesus was resolute about going to Jerusalem no one would give Him a room. The apostles wanted to see God bring down judgment for their lack of reception but Jesus said He had not come to destroy lives but save them. He just looked for lodging in some other village.

This is the spirit in which Christians should dwell. Unlike the Catholics and Reformers of the past whose reaction to those who disagreed with them was to persecute and even kill them, Jesus said He did not want to destroy any life. If they would not receive Him He would let them be and move on to speak with others.

That is how Christians should witness;
• Speak with people
• Be honest about our faith and
• Never compromise our convictions to gain a reception
And if they won't receive our gospel, do not hold angst for them but move on to speak with someone else.

As side note, we know their rejection was turned to faith when Philip preached there and saw a work of God.

Don't destroy them. You never know when they might make things right with God.

Waiting for Him

Luke 8:40 KJV
And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him.

Another prediction of the return of Christ has come and gone. This one seemed to have much more media attention than many of those in the past. Technology and social networking transformed the news into a constant buzz on one sort of media or another. I don't know if that is an indicator of anything or not.

Christians seem to be pretty disturbed by it all because of the perceived negative attention it gives to our faith. I am of the opinion that our faith isn't damaged at all by such events but only serve to refine prove and expose our faith as being in Christ or some religion. The word says there must be heresies among you.

Jesus said when he returns "will He find faith among in the earth?" Faith is becoming increasingly rare, even among the so called people of faith. When Christ returns the next time there will be very few waiting.

I pray you will be one.

See This Woman?

Luke 7:44 KJV
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Jesus was never at a loss for object lessons in His ministry. His Father saw to it that those life events that would most clearly teach what pertains to life and godliness was at His disposal.

The lesson is about salvation through faith and how it manifests itself. When speaking to Simon he pointed to her works to prove her faith because that is all he could have seen. When sending her away in peace He pointed to her faith because that is what saved her.

There is also a picture of worship here
She came without fear into a Pharisees house
Christ was her object, not herself.

She came weeping
I suspect in both conviction of her sins and relief in finding the Saviour.

She came in sacrifice
The ointment was expensive yet spent on Christ.

She came in humility
• Washing His feet
• Kissing His feet and
• Anointing His feet

Christ Has a Name for You

Luke 6:13-14 KJV
And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;
Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,

Matthew sixteen gives us the account of this naming of Peter.

It is not merely that Jesus used what existed and gave an object lesson from it. Jesus created the play on words between the little pebble, Peter, and the Rock, Jesus Christ.

The Bible also tells me that all who are saved have a new name in Christ.
• I want to live in respect to that name
• I want to accept what Christ has called me to be and live to the fullest in His call

Behold a Man

Luke 5:12
And it came to pass, when He was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprousy who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him saying, Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean.

Behold a man
This was a certain city because it would have been true in any city that there would be a man. Christians ought to behold that there are
• Men and
• Women and
• Children
all around them. Behold them and remember that much of what it means to be a Christian is to love them.

Full of leprosy
Leprosy is in the Bible the type of sin.
• Incurable
• Contagious and
• Gruesome

Sin is the burden of every soul.

His was no mild case, he was
Full of leprosy
And so we are no mild cases either. Sin has impacted and injured every realm of our lives.

He met Jesus
And in Christ is the answer to the need of every sinner. If we will only come to him we will find fullness of joy and forgiveness and peace with God and man.

Devising Good

Proverbs 14:22 KJV
Do they not err that devise evil? but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good.

The phrase "devise good" was an attention getter for me today.

The idea of devising a thing sounds like inventing it. It comes from a word that means to scratch, engrave, plough or fabricate.

This good does not exist on its own; it will not exist without
• Thought
• Planning and
• Execution

To devise good would mean to create the circumstances for the good to occur and then to construct the tools to put it together.

To work at good with such effort is an altogether worthy thing.

Pampered Into Poverty

Proverbs 12:9 KJV
He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread.

At first read this verse sounds to be the opposite counsel than we learn anywhere else in the Bible. I have visions of Donald Trump who has all the servants and food he could want but is of poor reputation among the godly. Surface reading might make it appear that is better than the one who is poor.

But the key to understanding the verse is the phrase "honoreth himself." It helped me to think of it as "pampereth himself." (the word for honor means "to make weighty. It is the man who makes himself appear to be more important than he really is. It might mean that he thinks of himself as more important or more deserving than he is.)

The Bible is speaking about being disciplined with our resources so that we may afford both the necessities and those things that help rather than spending our money on pleasures and extravagances to the place where we find ourselves in want of real necessities.

Frugality and living in our means is the chief way to see our means increased.

All The World

Luke 2:1 KJV
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

Scofield's Notes say,
(Greek, "oikoumenē", means "inhabited earth"). This passage is noteworthy as defining the usual New Testament use of oikoumene as the sphere of Roman rule at its greatest extent, that is, of the great Gentile world-monarchies (Dan 2:7). That part of the earth is therefore peculiarly the sphere of prophecy.

I am interested in the phrase "all the world." Obviously the census and tax had no authority in places like Russia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. The term is target specific to that part of the world that was under Roman rule. That God chose to use it does two things;

First, it sets the definition through the rest of the Word and defines prophecy as relating primarily to that portion of the inhabited earth.

Secondly, it gives insight into the heart of God for that part of the world
God loves all mankind and seeks to rescue souls of any language tongue and part of the earth. But God has a peculiar interest in the part of the world that was under that Roman rule.
• It is where mankind began
• It is where He chose to focus the activity of the Word
• It is where He grew the people from which the Saviour came
• It is where He chose to dwell among men
• It is where the salvation of every soul who will accept it comes

The history of the Middle East to this very day impacts the rest of the world. At one time it was primarily through Catholicism and its influences (mostly negative and highly political.) Today it might be mostly through Islam, (still mostly negative and, becoming more political) but that part of the world never gets far away from our thoughts.

Accept or Reject; No Fence Straddling Here

Luke 1:3 KJV
It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,

Luke makes a claim in this verse that is a division maker. The bold assertions compel a person to either accept His account of the Gospel as heavenly truth or to reject it as an outright lie. There is no room for straddling a fence here. We must accept it as from God or we must reject it outright.

Having had perfect understanding
Luke means what he says. We cannot explain away his term. He claims perfection here, something that is impossible unless it is of God.

Of all things
Since he was not present when the Gospel account he is about to give happened, it would be humanly impossible for him to know all things unless they were delivered to him from a perfect source. John said that there was so much concerning Jesus that if it were all written the world could not contain the books. Luke did not receive all things from interview and study.

From the very first
Not meaning the beginning of the Gospel but His source of understanding of all things. It was perfect understanding and it was of all things because
• It came from the first
• It came from heaven
• It came from God himself

I read of a new book, out right now, that intends to expose the Bible as a lie. The author claims to have entered into his study of the Word of God as a believer and, though he also claims to do what no Christians do, and spend his life studying the Word, his studies have led him now to accuse the Bible of not only containing errors and inconsistencies, but intentional lies.

I think he is more honest than the person who says he believes the Bible is a good book, but he doesn't obey it. It must be heavenly and therefore we are obligated to it or it is a lie and we must turn from it. It's an issue of faith in God or not; of heaven or hell.

Problem? No Problem!

Mark 16:1 KJV
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

The customs of the Jews are such that it is difficult for us to get a handle on this passage. Jesus' body was already in the grave, sealed for three days. Why would these women even have the impulse to enter into the tomb to amount His body again? Some say it is because He was buried in such hast that proper anointing could not have been accomplished; they came to finish what they started. In any case they did come to anoint Him.

They came prepared
They had sweet spices for the anointing.

They came with a problem
Who would roll the stone away? I do not take it that this caught them by surprise but that they knew this would be a problem but came prepared anyway, expecting to somehow see it solved.

They came to find Christ risen
The stone was rolled away for them and something much greater than they imagined had happened. They only asked for a stone to be moved. They received a risen Saviour.

We never know what the Lord might accomplish if we come to Him prepared, but come even when we don't know how the problems before us can be solved.

Why?

Mark 15:14 KJV
Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.

The question is why? Why was there such a hatred for Christ that the people were more willing to let a known murderer free than to let Jesus free? What is it that Jesus had done that led the people to desire Barabbas be set free and Jesus crucified? The people did not answer Pilate but it is not because there wasn't an answer.

They desired to be rid of Christ because leadership told them to
People truly are as sheep having no shepherd. So much so that when any one appears to be taking the lead, it is our nature to follow. Having little confidence and a poor sense of direction, we tend to follow the one who sounds most confident, even if he is just as unsure of himself inside.

They desired to be rid of Christ because it was the popular thing to do
Once the herd was moving in one direction those who had no sense of direction fell into the same pattern. They did not have to know if they were doing the right thing, they were doing the popular thing.

They desired to be rid of Christ because He brought too much conviction into their lives
Jesus challenged and in their minds threatened their comforts. If Jesus is the Messiah, His message changed most of what they believed they knew. They only had two choices; accept Him and become new creatures, or reject Him.

That is why our world rejects Jesus Christ. They may blame it on Christians; Gandhi, they say, said he would accept Christianity if it weren't for the Christians. The argument doesn't hold water because it is not Christianity a person must accept; it is Christ. Gandhi did not reject Christians, he rejected Christ. The reason people reject Jesus is because they know He would make them new. Some even accept a form Christianity rather than accept Christ. It is easier. It has leaders who encourage it. And in certain circles it is the popular thing to do. But ultimately it is still rejecting Jesus.

Practical Christianity

Proverbs 4:15 KJV
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

The Old Testament (especially the Proverbs) sounds much more action oriented than the New Testament usually does. There is no physical activity necessary in order to gain eternal life but I am reminded that grace places expectations upon the believer that in some ways are greater than those of the Old Testament.

Proverbs is a practical book.
And in that practicality urges us to aggressively turn from wickedness while we pursue wisdom and holiness. Notice the passionate nature of verse 15. He doesn't just want to us steer clear of the ways of the evil men, he wants us to take excessive measures to avoid falling into sin and to pursue wisdom with the same intensity.

These are not things to be taken for granted. We will not accidentally avoid the consequences of sin and see the fruit of holiness.

They only happen with purpose.

When God Will Not Hear

Proverbs 1:28 KJV
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

I have heard and read preachers who warn that there comes a time in a man's life when he has quenched the Holy Spirit of God to the place where He will not hear our pleas for salvation.

Citing this passage and the account of Felix in Acts 24, who seemed to be under conviction but refused to be saved, and as far as the Biblical record reveals we believe he never got saved; illustrations are then given of
• Men on their death beds who cry out to the preacher, "It is too late, God will not hear me."
• Men trembling at the altar but who claim that same conviction; "God will not hear my cry."

But the only situation that may be attached to this passage with any authority would be when a man finds himself in hell. The rich man in hell pled for mercy but none was extended. Even his prayers for living family to be saved and spared that place of torment were left unanswered.

Nothing could be worse than eternal hell.

If there is a time on this earth when the repentant plea falls on the deafened ears of the Heavenly Father, I do not see it given to us in the Scriptures with any certainty. But I do see a literal hell where men and women cry out to the Lord but their prayers are unheard.

May God convict souls to be saved before it is too late.

Just Repent

Mark 12:12 KJV
And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.

Jesus had just spoken a parable that describes the Jew's reaction to Christ and God's response toward it. They knew that the parable was directed against them. The appropriate action then would have been to repent. But that was not what they did.

First they sought to lay hold on Him
Response one was violent.

Second, they feared the people
Though this is the reason they did not lay hold on Christ it is also a reaction toward the conviction in their soul. Fear can draw people to Christ.

Third, and they left and went their way
What a shame that they left without reconciling to God.

Fourth they tried to catch Him in His words

Pastors may see the same responses from those who come to hear the Word. Rather than seeing the care in the preacher's eye, so many take the message to be an attack against them.
• Some become angry
• Some become fearful but not to repentance
• Some leave and never return and
• Some become critical of the preacher, looking for mistakes rather than listening for God

And all the while God's purpose and the preacher's heart is just to see people turn from their sins and be saved from a lost eternity.

Fear and Hope

Psalms 147:11 KJV
The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

God takes pleasure in the one who does two things,
First who fears Him
This defines the fear for us.
• It is not a fear that dreads to come.
• It is not the fear like that of a murderer or of an evil person.
It is true fear, but the kind that understands the consequences of not having mercy. It recognizes the seriousness and danger of sin and chooses to seek a resolution.

Second, who hopes in His mercy
This is a fear that sees God as
• Good and
• Loving and
• Full of mercy
There is real fear, but it is in the consequences of sin and not in the Person of God.

A Sustaining Conviction

Psalms 145:17 KJV
The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

The whole Psalm is an anthem of praise to God. It is difficult and probably undesirable to isolate one element for praise but it is necessary for the type of devotional meditation I am attempting daily.

With the challenges that make up life today (not as though life has ever been without challenges for the Christian, ours are just different now; one of them being we are softer and less able to bear trials) it becomes critical that we have this conviction.

God is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works.

Rather than questioning why God did one thing or allowed another the conviction that will bring us through safely is that whatever God does it is right and holy and by trusting Him we fair well.

Cause Me

Psalms 143:8 KJV
Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

David understood that it was not of him to decide to hear God's lovingkindness or to know the way wherein he should walk. All of this was a work that God must cause to happen in his soul.

And thus he prayed.

The Bible says
• He remembered the days of old
• He stretched forth his hands towards God and
• He thirsted for God
He prayed for what God would do in his soul.

Too much religion is about what we will do for God and not nearly enough about what He must do in us. We must have God cause us to come to Him cause us to know Him and cause us to walk with Him.

When the Righteous Smite Us

Psalms 141:5-6 KJV
Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.
When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet.

The Psalmist calls the smiting of the righteous a kindness.
He recognized the value of being rebuked and confronted by those who walk with God.

We might be tempted to think of the one who rebukes us, "Who does he think he is? He is no better than me!" And we would be right. But none of us is so right with God that we would not do well to be corrected. It is a kindness when correction comes, even if unpleasant to receive.

The Psalmist then makes this pledge; when the one who has smitten him falls into calamity his prayers will be on that man's behalf and his words concerning him will be sweet.

God grant these instructions to be taken into our hearts.

Flee? From God?

Psalms 139:7 KJV
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

This is an incredible thought. It is impossible to flee from God's presence.

And we do sometimes try to flee
• Because of a sin committed Adam and Eve thought they could hide from God but He found them out.
• Because of rebellion from God's will Jonah fled from God but in the middle of that stormy sea God was there.

Some people want to deny the existence of God but He will not let them.
Their hearts intuitively know God is there.

Some refuse to believe He cares for them.
But it does not alter the truth that when they look, behold He is there.

This is the most encouraging thing I can imagine today. He never leaves me even when I leave Him. He is always at hand. He is ever there when I call out to Him.

His Own

Psalms 138:8 KJV
The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

The Psalmist describes himself, and I can see the wisdom in describing ourselves, as simply "the works of thine own hands."

To view ourselves in such a manner is humbling.
It reminds us that we are but dust. Life doesn't spring from us but from our God. We are responsible to Him for our very lives and we need to look to Him as the sustainer of life.

To view ourselves in such a way is also reassuring.
We are the works of His own hands. We are His concern. We may be assured of His care and of His watching over us.

His Mercy

Psalms 136:1 KJV
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Twenty six times in twenty six verses Psalm 136 affirms "His mercy endureth for ever."

Such mercy!
• It is His mercy that rejoices the heart
• It is His mercy that redeems the sinner
• It is His mercy that searches out the lost
• It is His mercy that brings hope to the desperate

His mercy is what we need. The hope of His coming; the promise of His Word.

Brethren in Unity

Psalms 133:1 KJV
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!


The Bible tells us to endeavor and work at unity. As good and pleasant as it is when it happens, it is a lot of work to maintain.

This is a Psalm, and I am reminded of the nation of Israel. They were anything but a picture of unity.
• Saul spent the better portion of his career trying to kill David.
• David's own rag tag team contended over those who stayed by the stuff.
• He constantly strove for unity in the nation and saw terrible disunity even among his children.
• Eventually the nation divided into two parts after his death.
Unity is no easy task.

But it is wonderful when it happens.

Public and Personal Ministries

Mark 4:33-34 KJV
And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it.
But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.

Jesus spoke many parables in public as the crowds were able to hear them.
He had an awareness of the hearer's ability to listen and to grasp His message. Just because a person is sitting in front of us does not mean they are able to hear and receive the message we bring. The preacher needs to be aware of his congregation and their ability to hear.

Then Jesus expounded upon His messages alone to His disciples.
The preacher's work is not necessarily finished when he has finished preaching. There will surely be some whose desire for truth runs deeper than what was gotten from the sermon. They will not be content with merely hearing the message but will seek more understanding of the message.

The preacher ought to plan means to spend time alone with perhaps a handful of people to discuss in deeper detail what God has been teaching him in the Word. The greatest ministry will likely be accomplished in this smaller setting than in the larger one.

The Crowd Jesus Does Not Seek

Mark 3:9-12 KJV
And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.
For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.
And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.
And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.

The crowd pressed upon Jesus to the point that He requested a boat for a little space and then charged that those pressing Him should not make Him known.

It seems contrary to everything else we know in the Bible that Christ would not want someone to make His name known. But the issue has to do with purpose. This was a crowd who only wanted from Christ.
• They had no discernment of the spiritual.
• All they cared for was the personal benefit of touching Christ.

The Lord has no interest in that sort of crowd and it is that sort that makes up the majority of the congregation in many if not most churches. It is the error of much of Christianity today that the goal is a large number of people. We promote men who have succeeded in it. We attend classes and read books on how to do it. It is the obsession of the average congregation to be bigger.

Jesus wanted the opposite. He was more interested in the faith of those following rather than the number. We should go make Jesus known; but we should not be telling the world all that Jesus will do for them.
• We should be telling them that God is holy and just
• We should be telling them that sin has offended God
• We should be telling them that despite all of that God loves them
• We should be telling them that Jesus Christ is God in flesh.
• We should be telling them that He suffered in the flesh for their sin
• We should be telling them that His promise is for forgiveness of sins and eternal life if they will trust Him

• It is not true that Jesus came to heal every disease; He removed Himself from them to prevent that from happening
• It is not true that He came to provide for them wealth and prosperity; many saints have lived meagerly
• It is not true that He came to make them completely happy n this planet. Countless believers have been captured and killed in the most horrible ways

But it is true that "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Whose Faith?

Mark 2:5 KJV
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

I am reminded that Paul said in Romans that faith is passed "from faith to faith. " This man found both forgiveness of sins and healing (which I believe is representative of the two main aspects of salvation; justification and sanctification) not from his own faith but in that of the four. I note that,

There was more than one of them.
A man seldom comes to know the Lord through just one witness. Though we may not know about the others who have participated in bringing a soul to the Lord it is always the case that several are involved.

The process took time and more than one attempt.
They could not get him through the crowd so they dropped him through the roof. We do not know their names.
But I am confident that Jesus does.

The crippled man had to trust the four.
Mark does not say they were friends but it is very unlikely this was a cold call case of soul winning. More likely that they were well known to each other.

The best witnesses will be those who have gained the trust of the witnessee.

Unmoveable

Psalms 125:1 KJV
They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

A person can make the argument that the movement spoken of in this Psalm is emotional. I see where that fits in with "the peace of God that passeth all understanding."

But the context must speak first to Israel and to their trust in God's care for their nation.
• That future nation of Israel, that one that will trust in the Lord, will have an enduring kingdom.
• One day those who trust in the Lord will remain to enter into the kingdom of God while those that do not will be carried away into the lake of fire.
• The one who trusts in the Lord today is immovable in the sense that he is trustworthy, dependable. He will be where he ought to be. He is not driven with the wind and tossed.
• Those who trust the Lord aren’t the ones who change churches when trouble comes or move to another town when a job offer comes
They recognize the value of stedfastness.

God's Word exhorts the Christian
1 Corinthians 15:58 KJV
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

The Eyes of Servants

Psalms 123:1-2 KJV
A Song of degrees. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

I have two bird dogs.

I am always amazed to watch them because they never stop watching me. It is true in both dogs but especially pronounced in my German Shorthair. She
• Sits up tall
• Ears perked and
• Eyes wide open
• Following my every move
When we are outside I am able to point and she will go where my hand sends her. She watches me
• In expectation of food
• In hopes of affection and
• In search of my directions

The Psalmist said in a manner similar he would keep his eyes on the Lord seeking mercy.

May we commit ourselves to the same.

Why Seek the Good of Jerusalem?

Psalms 122:9 KJV
Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.

Why seek the good of Jerusalem? Because of the house of the Lord.

When the Psalm was written the house of the Lord was situated in Jerusalem. The Temple, though possibly not constructed, had been ordained to be in Jerusalem and King David had the Ark there. Because this was the place where God ordained His house to be it was right and good to seek her good.

The house of the Lord today is the local church. And we who make up those churches ought to seek the good of Jerusalem because we have an understanding of God's future plans for Jerusalem.
• This is the place where our Saviour gave Himself that we might be redeemed.
• This is the place where the local church had its beginning.
• This is the place where Jesus will set foot when He returns.

From this place He will rule in His Kingdom and it is the New Jerusalem that will be the central feature of eternity.
We who are now in the house of God should seek the good of Jerusalem because she once was and will one day again be the place of the house of God.

Our Merit

Psalms 119:176 KJV
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.

The entirety of this Psalm is a description of the wrestling match the believer deals with on earth.
• He has confidence in the Lord, but he faces struggles emotionally as well as externally.
• He has enemies against his faith but worse he struggles with his own failures.
The Psalmist makes it clear that without the Word of God he would certainly fail. But he insists, as much to himself as any, that the Word is sufficient to sustain him.

The Psalm ends in a surprising way: with a confession of straying. He asks for God's grace not because he had successfully honored all of God's Word but precisely because he had not.

Our merit must never be in ourselves but always only in the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

Still More Tests

Matthew 25:1 KJV
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

From Scofield's Notes out of verse one I find this threefold outline;
Three types of tests are administered when Jesus returns,

The test of profession
In the Ten Virgins

The test of service
In the three stewards

The test of the nations
In the final parable

Jesus' coming to establish his kingdom will be after the Rapture so this doesn't speak to present day Christians except in a general sense. Those who have endured through the trials of the Great Tribulation still must stand before the Lord.

Strength, Song and Salvation

Psalms 118:14 KJV
The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.


The Psalm is a Messianic one and everything in it should be attested to the Lord first.
Our Lord found strength in His heavenly Father.
Through prayer and communion with Him Christ rose each day to do His Father's will. From the human side, imagine the pain our Saviour endured in reaching out to sinners and being rejected of His own. Only His fellowship with His Father could have sustained him.
His song
Just before going to the Mountain where He was betrayed Jesus led His disciples to sing a hymn. The motivation for His song was His relationship with God.
Then came His salvation
As God raised Him up from the grave.

So to as we find our strength and our song in the Lord, we then find our salvation. We tend to put salvation first. And the event of salvation does take place first. But the experience of salvation only comes after finding in Him strength to carry forth and song to worship Him before the salvation is become reality.

I Love the Lord Because

Psalms 116:1-2 KJV
I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

The Psalmist's only reason for loving the Lord was because He had heard and inclined His ear toward him.

• There were bonds
• There were afflictions
• There was trouble and sorrow
• There was the pain of death
Still God had heard his supplications and he loved the Lord for it.

Life is going to have sorrow and trouble. It is the consequence of living in this broken world. But there is hope in the future and there is reason to live on today. The Psalmist's response in love was to
• Accept salvation
• Enter into God's service and
• Offer sacrificial thanksgiving

Good counsel for us all.

There is Still a Standard

Matthew 22:11-12 KJV
And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

The parable begins with the rejection of God's invitation to Israel.
It is difficult to understand why Israel would have rejected Christ except that people do it every day even in our time. The blindness and insensitivity to that which matters most is beyond comprehension.

Christ goes on to describe the Father's invitation then to those in the highways and hedges.
These would be the Gentiles and speaks of this very day. Anyone is invited. Praise the Lord all may come and find grace in the Lord.

But then there is this.
One comes poorly dressed. He has not prepared for the event. Let's not get hung up on why a poor man would have to wear what he could not afford. That is not the case pointed out in the parable. The point is that God's kingdom has standards.

In this day when churches seem to be telling the world that God is so desperate for followers that He will take us just as we are, the Bible tells us a completely different story. Sure, God invites us just as we are. But He does not leave us there. The reason we need not fuss about how unfair to require the man to wear the right dress is because God provides the apparel. This man had the right attire. He just refused to put it on.

God has standards.
He expects us to put on the provisions He has made for us. He expects us to put off our old man and put on the new man which is Jesus Christ. Justification is a free gift pronounced upon all who will trust Christ alone. But with salvation comes sanctification. God never gives the one without the other. And sanctification means separation from sin and worldliness and to God. It too is a gift from God but it means we "dress appropriately" for the event.

Hearest Thou What These Say?

Matthew 21:15-16 KJV
And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,
And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

This is ironic to me and demonstrates the blindness of the priests and scribes.

Jesus had just cleansed the temple and overturned the tables of the moneychangers. He had healed the lame and given sight to the blind.

But when the priests and scribes saw it, their only concern was that people were worshipping Him.

They were not displeased, as far as the text tells us, with His works, though they saw them; they were displeased that Jesus received praise.

If only they had considered the works they had seen, they would have worshipped Him too.

God does use the words and actions of others to point us to Christ. But the best way to see Christ for who He is; is to watch and consider Him.

For My Love

Psalms 109:4 KJV
For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

The passage seems like a reference to Christ and the fate of those who do not accept Him as Saviour. I see this as a description of some of the trials of hell.
• It would hardly have been be appropriate praying for the child of the Lord but
• It is completely right for the Lord.

It was for love that they became His adversaries.
John 3:16 KJV
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
• Out of pure love God sent Christ to this earth.
• Out of pure love Christ sought the lost
• Out of Pure love Christ showed them the true God and not the one they had imagined

And out of pure love Christ died for their sins
Romans 5:8 KJV
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Fixed

Psalms 108:11 KJV
Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?

The Psalm begins with a man and a fixed heart.
• He is fixed to give praise
• He is fixed concerning God's glory
• He is fixed concerning God's salvation
• He is fixed by that time God will be help him in trouble

But with the all of that he acknowledged that God had cast them off.
The struggles of life had made that seem obvious. The sin of the people had left them to chastening hand of God.
• Still the Lord was merciful
• Still the Lord was to be exalted
• Still the Lord was their deliverer
We may realize the chastening of the Lord and still know He is good.

A thousand generations

Psalms 105:8 KJV
He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.

A group known as, I believe, Radio Bible Class has been posting billboards all over the world saying that Jesus is coming May 21, 2011. I do not know what their motivation is but God's Word commands us that we must not set times for the Lord's return. Still, the Bible does give us indications that we are nearing the end of this age.

• Assuming that the earth is 6000 years old, approximately, the Bible indicates much about that seventh millennium.
• One day is as 1000 years for the Lord
• The Lord created the earth in six days and rested the seventh.
• When we go to heaven His calls that rest
• The seventh period of human history in the Bible is the 1000 year reign of the Lord.


I don't know when Christ is coming back but I do believe it will be soon.

The Lord Shall Rejoice In His Works

Psalms 104:31 KJV
The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.
Two predominant views are held as to God's relationship with the earth;

• The position that God is sovereign and dictating all that goes on in this world and
• The position that God has created it but turned it over to the free will of man.

Of course there are varying degrees of each of those opinions and varying responses toward God based upon those opinions.

Psalms 104 makes it clear that God is involved in every function of the earth even to the point of sending His own spirit to create each new life in the sea and to feed those creatures as He will.

This presents some problems for those who have difficulty with God's sovereignty.

They then argue that God is evil because He must have created evil and allows evil in this world. They are wrong.

It is a matter rather of trust.

God's Word says He is good. What He does and what He allows is always and only for good. Not everything that happens of course is good. But when it happens,

• It is the result of Satan and of man's fall into sin
• It will be used of the Lord for the best of purposes.

There is no contradiction.
God is sovereign. God rejoices in His work. God's plan is ultimately good.

I can then trust Him and rejoice with Him in all that He does.

Separation

Psalms 101:3 KJV

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

As unpopular as the subject is today, the Bible is clear that Christians are to be a separated people. Separation involves three clear realms

Personal, as I repent and put off former sins, activities and even persons (they think it strange) that are harmful to my relationship with the Lord.

Ecclesiastical, as I seek out a church that is unique from this world. It is obvious historically and Biblically that not all that claims to be a church is of God. A true church will be separate from what is not.

Governmental, while Christians are to be good citizens and participation in things that influence government is certainly within the scope of Christian endeavor (though I would be careful not to call in Christian service or ministry) there is and should always be a distinction between church and state.

Choosing friendships and relationships that can help us in our walk with the Lord and then restricting those relationships that would hinder that walk; that is separation and that is Biblical.

People Skills

Matthew 15:14 KJV
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

I was drawn today to think about the Lord's responses to varying peoples throughout this chapter.

One could make the case that Jesus Himself is not an example of people skill because He is God and as God there are certain things He has privilege to that we would not.
• God, for instance, can be jealous righteously. That is not true of any human.
• God can seek vengeance righteously. Again, no man can do that without trespassing into God's property.

On the other hand Jesus is also man and perfect man at that. And who better than from The Perfect Man to learn how to relate to people of different types and approaches?

He handled the question of the Pharisees and scribes with a question.
The subject of His question appears unrelated with the exception that it addresses the tradition issue. But His illustration of their tradition was far from the subject of washing hands. Still Jesus concluded by coming back to hand washing so he had never left topic, just didn't let them control how he would handle the topic.
When they were offended at His answer, he walked away from it instructing his disciples to "Let them alone." It is not, I am sure, that he did not care, but that He did not linger on it. He did not allow their rejection to dominate Him.

In the case of the woman, Jesus appeared to ignore her at first, even implying she was what the Jews said she was, a dog.
Scofield's Notes suggest that when she attempted to approach Him as Jew, He ignored but when she addressed Him as Lord his response was immediate.
The church believer is not to try to cling to Jewish tradition but to confess Him as Lord of this new thing, the church.

With the multitude, Jesus had compassion and would not send them away fasting.
Thus crowd would have certainly consisted of believers, seekers and unbelievers but He fed them all just the same.
The Christian ought to have compassion for everyone, believer, seeker and even the confrontationalist alike.

Near Greatness

Matthew 14:28-31 KJV
And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

The story of Peter's walk on the water could be the story of every Christian.
We come to know the Lord as our Saviour and spiritually we know that all things are possible to him that believeth. At one point or another we ask the Lord for the faith to do what we cannot do.

• Perhaps it is a ministry
• Perhaps it is an offering
• Perhaps it is to witness to a particular person

Seeing the almighty Christ we step out to serve the Lord in some way that seems great to us.

But invariably, once we begin, we also see the challenges in ways we could not see before we stepped out in faith.
We knew there were difficulties before, but seeing them when we are secure from them in the boat and seeing them when we are next to perishing because of them are two different things. Sooner or later the nature of the man comes out and we feel the violence of the waves. It stops us in our spiritual tracks.

Exactly how great things we accomplish depends on how soon the waves become more visible to us than the Lord. Every Christian I know eventually has either climbed back in the boat, giving up on the venture, or cried out to the Lord that they had gone far enough in faith. Some just choose to go swimming, still out of the boat but doing what they do in the power of the flesh and not of God.

None of us walk on water our whole lives. Some of us at least make a step or two.

Offended In Him

Matthew 13:57 KJV
And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.

Jesus went home and taught in the synagogue. The Bible says they were astonished and they wondered where He could have learned such things. But rather than coming to trust His message the Bible says they were offended.

It had something to do with familiarity but surely it went deeper than that. Jesus, being the Son of God, was obviously different than any other person in their town.
• His mannerisms
• His character
• His testimony
would be so different that only a supernatural blindness could have prevented them from seeing it.

They were offended because they were opposed to His message.
And that is always why a person gets offended at the Word of God. They may claim to be saved, they may find some place to pretend to worship. But the reason they get offended is because they are opposed to the message.

Opposition appears to be increasing today.
Not that classical Baptist doctrine has ever been popular, but the internet, media, and just plain wickedness have caused the offense of the Gospel to become more pronounced in this day.

There is no reason for the one with the Word of God to back down. They were offended in Christ too.

The truth will win out in the end. Be true to the Word.

Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?

Psalms 94:20 KJV
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?
I am remind of 2 Corinthians chapter six and the standard of separation; "be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," More and more often we see a sort of Christianity that has no problem with this sort of worldly fellowship. The Psalmist's question is meant to be derogatory. "No! Of course the throne of iniquity will have no fellowship with you!"

But today the throne of iniquity has frequent fellowship with proclaiming believers. So much so that it seems to me that it is more than fellowship, it is cohabitation.
• Where and how did this concord take place?
• Where in the Bible is such agreement with sin Sanctioned?

The call to come out from among them must once again be shouted out so that the righteous understand; there can be no fellowship with the throne of iniquity.

A Different Kind of Peace

Matthew 10:34 KJV
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Scofield's Notes say,
"Peace is spoken of in Scripture in three ways:

"Peace with God"; (Rom_5:1); this is the work of Christ into which the individual enters by faith; (Eph_2:14-17); (Rom_5:1).

"The peace of God"; (Phi_4:7); inward peace, the state of soul of that believer who, having entered into peace with God through faith in Christ, has also committed to God through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving all his anxieties; (Luk_7:50); (Phi_4:6).

Peace "on earth"; (Luk_2:14); (Psa_72:7); (Psa_85:10); (Isa_9:6-7); (Isa_11:1-12); the universal prevalency of peace in the earth under the kingdom. (Mat_10:34) was Christ's warning that the truth which He was proclaiming would not bring in the kingdom age of peace, but conflict rather. (Joh_14:27). "

The message Christ's disciples were called to preach was not one that would bring in the kingdom of Christ on this earth. Jesus prepared those apostles so they would know the message He called them to deliver would not give Israel their promised kingdom and the peace that will accompany it.

There is a peace that comes from the Gospel but it is a peace having to do with man's relationship with God. It is a peace in the heart, not on the earth.

• When we focus on the world we see conflict.
• When we focus on the heart we see God bringing about peace.

• May God help me to preach for the heart and not for the earth.
• May God bring me to seek Christ's working in the soul of people instead of what Christ might do in this earth.

New Wine New Bottles

Matthew 9:17 KJV
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

It is Jesus Christ speaking to the disciples of John concerning the Jewish traditions highlighted mostly by the Pharisees who are beyond a doubt "old bottles."
The religion of the Jews had so declined that when their own promised Messiah walked among them they could not recognize Him. Something had to change. A new bottle had to be made for the wine that is the Lord and the wine that is the Holy Spirit to inhabit them.

That new bottle was the church.
But even that bottle appears to be growing old in our day. The Word of God makes it clear that even the church will become unfit to hold this wine and will be removed into heaven while God does His final work in our world.

And with persons as individuals we may find an application.
Christ does not live in one who is merely the old man changed. Jesus said, "Ye must be born again." We must become new creatures. In no other one may the Spirit of God abide.

Lordship Salvation

Matthew 8:2 KJV
And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

I will confess to using the title of this visit as more of an eye catcher than something relevant to my thoughts.

We have here the first New Testament time Christ is addressed as Lord. He is addressed this way four times in chapter eight and, I understand 663 times with this title in the New Testament.

• The term is used commonly in the Bible to speak not only of Christ but any master, human or divine.
• It is a fitting title for Christ who is at once both human and divine.

The thought occurred to me that, for many professing Christians Jesus is lord but not LORD. That is why men like our current President can boldly claim to be a Christian but so completely disobey the Bible in principle and philosophy.

Jesus is lord to him, but not LORD to him.
He makes a shallow claim, but he senses no real obligation to honor or obey Him.

And that is the case of the most of people who claim to be believers
They feel comfortable claiming faith in Christ because they see Him on about the same level as a human boss, they do what he says when they have to but have no worries about going against his will when he is not there to force them.

God help us to confess Christ as LORD and not merely Lord.

Must We Teach As Do The Scribes?

Matthew 7:28-29 KJV
And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

The distinctive quality of Jesus' teaching; the thing that made it astonishing, and the thing that made it different than the scribes, is that He taught as one having authority. This distinctive has been an attractive one to Bible preachers wanting to be set apart from the scribes and wanting to follow the example of the Lord.

The problem is, we are not the Lord
Therefore much of what is preaching and teaching authoritatively has little and sometimes nothing to do with the Bible. We authoritatively teach and preach our own opinions and sometimes we do so knowing those opinions are not found in the Scriptures, but we deceive ourselves, believing "we also have the mind of Christ." By applying that passage to our opinions we give them equal authority to the Scriptures and force them upon our congregations as the Word of God.

For shame
We are not the Lord. We do not have His authority. Our opinions, no matter how sincerely held and no matter from whom we first learned them, are not on equal authority with God's Word. We cannot speak "ex cathedra."

Does that then mean we must speak as the scribes?
Is our message then merely opinion and repetition of what some other scribe said some other scribe said?

There is a way to teach with authority and that is to assume no authority at all except to declare what God has already declared. There is power in the Word of God. That which will distinguish the preacher from the world and will give his message authority is when it is consistently and completely the Word of God.

A Higher Calling to Forgiveness

Matthew 6:12 KJV
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Scofield's Notes suggests that this motive to forgive has been supplanted today by a much higher motivation. Here we are motivated with a loss; if we don't forgive God won't forgive us. However, this is a part of Christ's offer of the kingdom to the nation of Israel. It is legal in nature; forgiveness is merited through an act of man's will.

Ephesians 4:32 provides a higher motivation through grace; we have already been forgiven through Jesus Christ. Our being forgiven is not conditioned upon whether we forgive but upon the finished work of Jesus. We are completely forgiven of our sin. Now our motivation for forgiving is based not on a loss but on a gain. It is because we have been so freely so graciously so wonderfully forgiven that we are to forgive.

There are no penalties for being unforgiving. However there are some personal difficulties that develop. When we do not forgive a root of bitterness may grow up in us and trouble and defile us. This is not God's withholding of anything; it is the fruit of our own deed.

The reason to forgive is gracious, not legal.

Perfection

Matthew 5:48 KJV
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

2 Corinthians 13:9 KJV
… and this also we wish, even your perfection.

Christ's comparison of perfection with the Father removes so many of our interpretations and compromising applications of perfection. To compare ourselves to the mark set by God the Father is forever a game changer.

No wonder Paul said he had not attained (perfection) already.

But the fact that he had not attained had not discouraged him from pressing toward that mark.

• The challenge of Christ is to be perfect
• The work of the church is our perfection
• The result of the word is perfection and
• The aim of every believer ought to be perfection

Already Answered

Psalms 79:8 KJV
O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.

This is a prayer we know has been answered. The Psalmist asks that former iniquities not be remembered and God has said your sins and iniquities He will remember no more.

• What a blessing that sins would be forgotten in the everlasting mind of God.
• What joy to know that God, whose mind and will is perfect, has said that He will not remember.

Men may hold on. But not so God. He has, because of Christ, freed us from the hold of sin upon us.

To God be glory. Amen!

My Best In Not What I Desire

Psalms 78:29 KJV
So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

Our own desire is not for our best. When man did not like to retain God in their hearts He gave them up to a reprobate mind. The worst that could happen to mankind was for them to get their own desires.

And so it is with us. We would do best then to seek not our own desire but seek rather the desires God has for us. The best we can ever have is not that which may be consumed upon our own lusts but that which God has planned for His glory.

To glorify God in our bodies. That will be the very best for us.

God's Remedy for My Infirmity

Psalms 77:10-12 KJV
And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.
I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

The Psalmist takes the first half of the Psalm to pour out his complaint. Things are tough and I do not believe our response should be to dismiss this as if he were a cry baby. God has placed this in the word on purpose. This world is a difficult place and it is often that we may wonder if God has cast us off forever. We are given a remedy to our infirmity and we had better take knowledge of it.

I will remember
Three times the Psalmist says remember. It is the beginning point and perhaps the most difficult to do. This is in the throes of the infirmity. This is when are least likely to accept the help we need. And that help is to remember years of God's right hand, the works of the Lord and his wonders of old. I note that he self administers. He says to himself to remember.

I will meditate
He doesn't end with remembering but takes it to the next level and meditate upon all the work of the Lord. Like an anti biotic that only works if we take the full dosage so remembering without meditating is not going to bring about the cure. It may give temporary relief but it will not heal the infirmity. Meditation implies time, study and some effort. Just remembering can be a difficult thing to do when we are informed. But meditating means that we go beyond perhaps what we have in our own resources and look elsewhere. We remember what God has done then we study to find out the why and how and where and who and when. The meditation is more than academic; it is internalized and applied. Through this process the informed overcome. But there is one more step to the recovery.

I will talk
Of God's doings. There are two ways to see this and all have merit. Talking in the sense if speaking to others to learn what they have learned. Secondly, talking in the sense of telling others what we have learned. There is no such thing as a healing that does not involve helping others be healed in this infirmity. Imagine a world where everyone who has found recovery from the depths of world sickness dedicated their lives to telling others what they learned on their journey to recovery. I wonder if we would ever again feel as if God had cast us off if we were all busy talking about what we had learned about the Lord when we did wonder if God had cast us off. So the missionary message of the text is the final stage to real recovery.

He Has His Own Cause

Psalms 74:22 KJV
Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.

The 73rd Psalm ends on the note, "It is good for me to draw near unto God."
But the 74th again has the Psalmist grieving over the condition of his world ("the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.")

It is the struggle that is part and parcel with believing in Christ and belonging to (not as being of it but in it) this world.
• On the one hand we have great joy and peace in knowing we are saved
• But on the other we are oppressed by the wickedness of the lost
• On the one hand we are glad for those circumstances that draw us to the Lord
• But on the other we get so burdened with the weight of those same circumstances
• On the one hand we have faith and Assurance that God will reign in eternity
• But on the other we wrestle with the fact that the devil has such victory today

The Psalmist's answer, and a lesson that would make wise practice in our prayer life today, was to plead that God Himself would plead His own cause. It is reminiscent of the Lord's model prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The most powerful prayers we could bring to God are those that his will be done.

Lord, we are in need of thy hand. Plead your own cause for people today.