Tag: What I know, I know by God’s Grace and Mercy - Luke 9-10

Luke 10:21-22

In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Tag:  What I know, I know by God’s Grace and Mercy

Too many believe that they have chosen to believe and/or they have believed hard enough that God has only one choice but to save them.   They study the Scripture to learn and to present their knowledge to mankind.   Yet, the above passage indicates that if I know anything at all about Christ, it is not my knowledge and increased learning that has provided me insights into the scriptures.  It is a Sovereign act of God’s mercy and grace that I know Him and that I know the Scriptures.    The next couple of verses give us even more insights:

Luke 10:23-24

Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

Prophets and Kings have desired to know Christ the way we know Him.   Yet, they did not.   They had faith in what “would” be done.  We have faith in what “was” done.   We have had the “mystery” of the kingdom revealed at the greatest extent of human history.  Not because we deserve it, earn it, or study it; but, because He chose to reveal it.   This is caused to rejoice and celebrate the greatness of God and His mercy on us.  

Tag: No Comfort (God of all Comfort) - Lamentations

Lamentations 1:2

She weeps bitterly in the night,

with tears on her cheeks;

among all her lovers

she has none to comfort her;

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;

they have become her enemies.

Tag:  No Comfort

Jerusalem has fallen due to their sin. Jeremiah the prophet laments the fall of God’s people and God’s favorite city.  The above verse states there is “no comfort” for the city (God’s chosen people in the city).  God has taken the comfort away.   Note the following:

Lamentations 1:9

Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

she took no thought of her future;

therefore her fall is terrible;

she has no comforter.

“O Lord, behold my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed!”

Lamentations 1:16

“For these things I weep;

my eyes flow with tears;

for a comforter is far from me,

one to revive my spirit;

my children are desolate,

for the enemy has prevailed.”

Lamentations 1:17

Zion stretches out her hands,

but there is none to comfort her;

the Lord has commanded against Jacob

that his neighbors should be his foes;

Jerusalem has become

a filthy thing among them.

Lamentations 1:21

“They heard my groaning,

yet there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

they are glad that you have done it.

You have brought the day you announced;

now let them be as I am.

Lamentations 2:13

What can I say for you, to what compare you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,

O virgin daughter of Zion?

For your ruin is vast as the sea;

who can heal you?

God wants to comfort His people.  But, the sin of His people have hindered God from being a comfort to them.  When God is not a comfort to His people He becomes a judge to His people.   Christ came to be a comforter to us.  We can rejoice in that thought:

Matthew 11:28-30

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

2 Corinthians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

Tag: Seek Peace - Proverbs 2-3

Proverbs 3:30 (NASBStr)

Do not contend with a man without cause,

If he has done you no harm.

I often wonder if the New Testament writers where reading portions of the Old Testament when they wrote their words to us.  In Romans 12:18 Paul tells us that as much as possible we are to live at peace with others.   Perhaps he had spent some time prior to writing those words meditating on the above proverb.   Solomon, like Paul, is telling us to make sure that we are not the ones who cause a conflict with others.   In this world, this fallen world, we will have conflict.  That is most definite.  However, that doesn't mean we should be the ones who cause the conflict.  In Romans 5:1 we read the God has restored peace with us through His Son.   When God established peace in our hearts we are given the capacity to practice peace.  In John 14:27 we are told that God is going to give us the Spirit of peace.  That enables us to practice peace with others.  In Galatians 5:20-21 we are told that the fruit of the Spirit includes peace.   God producing peace in our hearts enables us to live in peace with others and avoid conflict with others.  We are not to contend with others.   That is not the way of wisdom.   God has gone to great costs to provide us with peace with Him.  To demonstrate that peace we have with Him we can and should practice peace with others. In Matthew 5 we are told that the peace makers of this word are blessed.   Peace making is what believers should be doing.

Tag: God has Proven Power - Psalm 66-68

Psalms 68:28

Summon your power, O God,

the power, O God, by which you have worked for us.

Tag:  God has Proven Power

In this Psalm the writer is expressing thanks to God for His Sovereign power over the enemies of His people.  God is powerful.  God demonstrates His power toward us.  In the above verse we have three things to rejoice about:

1).  God’s power is assumed.   The writer doesn’t question that power of the God of the universe.  He is powerful. 

2). God’s power has been demonstrated in the past.   He states that the power has “worked for us.”  This means that God has demonstrated his power.  God is not dormant with power.  God utilizes his power and demonstrates His power.   Notice how God demonstrated His power so that the Egyptians and Israelites would know His power.  God raised up Pharaoh to show His power: 

Exodus 9:16

But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

Sometimes God allows bad things to happen, just to demonstrate His power and draw our praise and adoration.   

3).  God’s power is for us.   Notice what the text says, it not only “worked” but that it work “for us.”   God intervenes for us with his power.  God may allow bad things to happen in our lives but He uses that power to strengthen us through those things:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God uses our lives to demonstrate His power.   He uses His power to draw His glory.   When the psalmist prays to God, “summon your power, or God,” he is asking God to intervene in his life on his behalf to demonstrate the power of the God of the Universe.   The good news is God shows us in human history He is willing to respond in extreme power.  

Tag: God is REALLY, REALLY BIG - 1 Kings 6-9

1 Kings 8:27

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

Tag:  God is Really Big - But Still Knows My Name

2 Chronicles 2:6

But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?

Isaiah 66:1

Thus says the Lord:

“Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool;

what is the house that you would build for me,

and what is the place of my rest?

Jeremiah 23:24

Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.

Acts 7:49, 50

“‘Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,

or what is the place of my rest?

Did not my hand make all these things?’

Acts 17:24

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

To say that God is really big is an understatement.   Notice what “one” Google searched turned up:

“Because of the connection between distance and the speed of light, this means scientists can look at a region of space that lies 13.8 billion light-years away. Like a ship in the empty ocean, astronomers on Earth can turn their telescopes to peer 13.8 billion light-years in every direction, which puts Earth inside of an observable sphere with a radius of 13.8 billion light-years. The word "observable" is key; the sphere limits what scientists can see but not what is there.”

I assume when Solomon prayed his above prayer he had no idea how big the sky was.  God is that big.  What more can we fear than God Himself.  Do you think you have any interest of Him.  Note:

Psalms 8:4-8

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under his feet,

all sheep and oxen,

and also the beasts of the field,

the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

Tag: Finish in Faithful Obedience - Exodus 37-40

Exodus 40:33

And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.

Tag:  Finish In Obedience

“So Moses finished the work.”     What will be said of me at the end?   Will it be said, “David finished the work?”

Note the following:

John 19:30

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

2 Timothy 4:7

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus, in obedience, finished the death on the cross and then rose again in three days.   Paul finished, in obedience, the race that was set before Him.   Jesus, in the Hebrew passage, is said to be the “authors and finisher” of our faith.  Based upon the “joy” that He WOULD receive, He endured the worse punishment and suffering known to mankind; the worse shaming of any person, to demonstrate His love for us and obedience to the commands of His Father.   

As I write this I am 20 miles into a 25 mile bike ride and 95 miles into a four-day bike excursion.   I have these last five miles to go to get my daily goal (25) and my four day goal (100).  I am sitting at Starbucks enjoying a morning drink.   My muscles say call an Uber.   My mind says you made a commitment.  This is a picture of the Christian life.   The difference is I have to peddle to get home.  No one will peddle for me.  But, in my Christian walk I don’t peddle; I only ride.   Read that passage from Paul’s words, again.  It is about finishing in “faith.”  It is NOT about trying harder and peddling to the end.  It is not about peddling faster.   It is about believing His promises by faith and holding on to the faith until the end.  Notice the warning of the writer of Hebrews to us all:

Hebrews 3:12-14

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Our “confidence” is NOT in us.  Our “confidence” is our faith in His promises that He will hold us until the end.  But, if we cease to believe His promises and fall away from our faith, we have no confidence, no hope.  It is about finishing in “faith” and not by “trying harder.”   It is about knowing that God will never break a promises.   It is about faith until the end.   

PS:  I made it home (100.5 miles in four days!!). It is finished.  

Tag: God Calls and God Guides - Galatians 1-3

Galatians 1:15-16

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;

Tag:  God Calls and God Equips

In the next chapter of Galatians Paul will take on, what appears to be, false teachers who had come into the Jerusalem church to teach false doctrine.   Paul wants them to see that this false teaching had even impacted the Apostle Peter:

Galatians 2:11

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

In the verses, above, we see that Paul is claiming he was called by God, even from the womb, to proclaim the Gospel.  He goes on to say that after his conversion he didn’t even go to the other apostles to seek counsel.  Paul is the product of the Spirit of God bringing Him into understanding of the doctrines of God.   He did not consult to get a group gospel - a gospel formulated by man for man.   Paul’s gospel is directly from Jesus Christ and the teaching and leading of the Spirit of God.   God calls those He wants to teach the Gospel and gives them insight through the Spirit of God.  This is not to say we should NOT consult with other believers.  Paul will, eventually, do that.   But, he first forms His doctrine via the teaching of the Spirit, first.   God calls and God guides.  Notice what Christ said about this:

John 16:13

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

The Spirt’s role in our lives is to guide us in all truth. This is what Paul maintains.