Tag: Faith Trumps Fear - Daniel 1-6

Daniel 3:16-18

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Tag:  Faith Trumps Fear

The above story is about the three Hebrew boys who refused to bow down to the kings statue when the music is played.   They knew God had said not to bow down and worship any other god Nebuchadnezzar had built this statue to show his own glory.   But, these three men said, “No!” This is hat happens when you are looking at a situation through the eyes of faith.  The penalty for not bowing down was to be tossed into a great fiery furnace.  They heated the furnace so hot that the men tossed these three Hebrews into the flames, were killed by the heat.  We know the story.  The three men were tossed into the fire and came out without even the slightest smell of smoke, much less being killed by the fire.   When we look at the world through the eyes of faith we not only survive the fire of suffering, we live victorious.   When we see things as though God is watching over us and loves us and will protect us (because that is what he says he will do for us), we can look the fire in the eye.   God is in love with us, even when we don’t love Him!!   He will not let anything harm us.  Nothing!!!   Rejoice!!!

Tag: Wisdom in the Heart Produces Persusaion on the Lips

Proverbs 16:21-24

The wise of heart is called discerning,

and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.

Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it,

but the instruction of fools is folly.

The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious

and adds persuasiveness to his lips.

Gracious words are like a honeycomb,

sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

Tag:  The Wise of Heart Produces Life Through the Lips

The key thought in these proverbs is that those who take wisdom into their hearts and minds will produce a speech that is life giving and sweet to the hearers.   The words on the lips of someone who fears the Lord should produce a sweet taste to those who hear it.   If we look at Christ’s life we can see that.  People were attracted to His Teaching.  Something was different about it.  Note:

Matthew 7:28-29

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

There were still those who rejected His teaching (the Scribes, etc.), but His message was rejected, not how He said it.   The Apostles are the same way.  The crowds came to hear them.  They often rejected the message out of the hardness of their heart, but the words were still sweet to the hearers, meaning, they were receiving great truths that would heal their souls.   When we take in Christ and speak of Christ we are giving those to hears us, life giving words.  That is something to rejoice over.   

Wisdom in our hearts gives us the ability to be persuasive.  Paul’s life surely exemplified that.   When people hear wisdom from us it is enticing to them and we can use that wisdom to win souls:

Ta

Proverbs 11:30

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,

and whoever captures souls is wise.

1 Corinthians 9:19-22

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

The evidence of God’s Wisdom in our hearts and minds is the words that flow off our lips.   

Tag: We Can Trust God’s Word Because ... - Psalm 93-95

Psalms 93:5

Your decrees are very trustworthy;

holiness befits your house,

O Lord, forevermore.

Tag:  We Can Trust God’s Word Because ...

There really does not need to be a “because” in the tag line.   We can simply trust God’s Word.   Notice a complimentary Psalm:

Psalms 89:28

My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,

and my covenant will stand firm for him.

When God makes a covenant it ill “stand firm for Him.”

That same Psalm goes on to say:

Psalms 89:37

Like the moon it shall be established forever,

a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

God is a God of His Word.   Note what Paul says:

2 Timothy 2:11-13

The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he also will deny us;

if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself.

God remains faithful to His Word, even if we can’t or even if our faith is small. 

The text we started with, at the top, goes on to say, “holiness befits your house.”    This is probably the “because of the verse/Psalm.”   God is holy.  Holiness stipulates that there can be NO corruption.  Mankind cannot keep his word because in his nature he is a liar.  He deceives and is deceived.   God by nature is holy so He can’t do wrong.  If he says something it is true.  This is why He should get our complete love and loyalty.  Because He is trustworthy and holy.  

The third thing the passage says is that God is eternal. He is “forevermore.”  That means God has always been trustworthy and holy.  He is “forevermore.”  This is no flash in the pan God we are trusting in for our salvation and day-to-day wisdom and sustenance.  God is an eternal God.  Before the heavens and forevermore.   What is left to fear when we have a God who is trustworthy, holy and eternal.  

Tag: No Part of Sin Should Remain - 1 Chronicles 1-4

1 Chronicles 4:41-43

These, registered by name, came in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and destroyed their tents and the Meunites who were found there, and marked them for destruction to this day, and settled in their place, because there was pasture there for their flocks. And some of them, five hundred men of the Simeonites, went to Mount Seir, having as their leaders Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi. And they defeated the remnant of the Amalekites who had escaped, and they have lived there to this day.

Tag:  No Part of Sin Should Remain

The story of Israel conquering the land is used by several writers in the New Testament as a metaphor for the struggle of the Christian to enjoy a life of rest and victory.   Just as Israel had to conquer the land to enter in rest, so too does the believer have to fight (by faith) to conquer all the sin in his/her life.   The writer of Hebrews calls this “entering in His rest.”  The concept of “rest” in the Christian life is quite relative.  Each believer has a different walk before God.  We tend to think that we are supposed to have a life like others.   We see others at “rest” and we wonder why we don’t have it.   In the above passage we see a random story in this book of Chronicles about the descendants of Simeon (a son of Israel) and their conquering the remnant of the Amalekites.   There is nothing historically significant about this story. It simply is a fact the composer of Chronicles gives us.   What we do see is that this remnant saw the the enemy of Israel (Amalekites) were still living up in the mountains and they pursued them and conquered them.  The enemies of Israel are, metaphorically, a picture of sin in our lives.  God told them to drive out these people from the land of God. Israel did not drive them and they enticed Israel to sin.   The point of the entire picture is that when we don’t drive out anything that draws us away from God we will have to deal with the oppression of that enemy all our lives and not have the rest God promises. Israel refused to drive out all the enemies of the land and, instead, made peace with them.   These enemies, eventually, enticed Israel to follow their ways and caused Israel to fail to follow God’s ways.  The above story is refreshing as it shows that there was still a group of people in the land of Israel who thought it wise to “drive out” the remnant of the enemy.   When we allow any type of influence of the enemy (sin) in our lives, we are subject to compromise and lost of “rest.”   This is a great story about making sure we have NOTHING in our lives that opens the door for us to walk away from God.   It is a constant fight of faith.  But, it is a war we must wage ... each day!!

Tag: God Provides Assurances When We Express Fear - Leviticus 25-27

Leviticus 25:3-7

For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.

Tag:  God Provides Assurances When We Express Fear

Imagine any corporation in America stating the following to their workers:

“We are going to work for six years straight to make our products.  But, on the seventh year we are not going to work.  The company will be completely shut down, every seventh year.  We will open up again the eighth year, but no income will be available as we have to get production going, sales up, etc.”

Can you imagine such a suggestion from Corporate America.  In the above text the people of God are being told by God to give the land they produce all their food from a rest every seven years.   That would mean, in the eighth year they have to plant again and would have no crops to eat since the seventh year was a no planting and harvesting year.  The people of God were fearful they would have nothing to eat, if they were not allowed to plant.   They needed some assurances.  God does that for us.  When we fear, He assures us.   God tells them that, as they obey in faith to do His will, He will provide.  He will give them enough in the sixth year that the food will still be available as they plant in the eighth year.   This instruction calls for much faith.  It calls for a trust on the part of the people of God that God would, as He assures them, provide.   We can rightly sing with the song writer:

“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.  Oh what a foretaste of Glory Divine.”  

When we are fearful, God assures us with a promise we must believe in faith.  We can trust God because He cannot lie.   Our faith is founded in the character of God.  He does not fail us.   

Tag: God is Concerend about Sexuality - 1 Thessalonians 4-5

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Tag:  God is Concerned about Sexual Sin

There is no doubt that our country has a twisted understanding, approach, philosophy and/or practice of sex.    It is also highly hypocritical.  On the one hand they promote sexual mischief and the objective treatment of the sexes by their movies, wardrobe, clubbing and exploitation of women.   On the other hand they opening condemn those who speak of chastity, morals and Godly principles.   In the above text, Paul is writing to the Thessalonians and expressing to them God’s will for them: Sanctification in regard to sexuality.   You can’t convey the message more clearly.   God expects believers to have different approach to sex.    He wants us to be different than the world.   We are not to act in the manner as the world.   That makes us different and that difference will be criticized.    God wants holiness from us.  We are to “control” our own bodies.   Now that the “new man” has been given to us through the grace of redemption, the desires of the “old man” are to be put to death.   And what if we don’t?  God is the judge of those things.  God WILL hold others accountable for what they have done in their bodies.  There is not closing of the eyes for God.  He knows when we feed the old nature and He tells us that He will be the avenger.   We are to use our sexual pleasures for His pleasure.  That is how this entire passage started:

1 Thessalonians 4:1

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

We think of sex as enjoyable to us.  But, God gives us the warning of sexual mischief and starts that passage by telling us that we are to consider pleasing Him, first.    The really great part about this entire thing is that God wants us to be sanctified, it is His will, and He is the One who does the sanctification:

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Tag: There is a Battle Going On!!! - John 1-2

John 1:5

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Tag: There is a Battle Going On!!

When Christ came on the scene He came to give life to mankind.  Mankind is dead. We are dead spiritually and we can do nothing to bring life to our souls. Only Christ can do that.   John uses life and death to express what Christ does for us.  He also uses light and darkness.   In the above passage he does just that.  When Christ came into the world He brought Light.  Any amount of light destroys the dark.  Even a small candle will dispel the darkness.  But, the darkness is still trying to quench the light.  That is what is happening in this world today.  There is a battle going on between light and dark.  The word above, “overcome,” is sometimes translated “comprehend” in some translations.  But, the better translation is “overcome.”   It is the Greek word katalambanō.  Darkness can fight, but the Light of the World as the victory.   Note:

John 8:12

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Psalms 36:9

For with you is the fountain of life;

in your light do we see light

2 Corinthians 4:3-5

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

1 John 2:8

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Christ is shining Himself into our dark lives.  This gives us light and allows us to overcome the dark. Darkness is the thing that tries to consume us.  The battle is raining.   But, Christ has secured the victory and is empowering us to see the light of the glory of Christ.   We can rejoice in the fact that in the darkness, Christ is the victor.  We can rejoice that in our lives, Christ gives us the victory.