God Delivers - Acts 11-12

Acts 12:6-11 (ESV)

Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

God can work miracles in the worst of all situations.   We don’t doubt that we can in our heads, we know the Bible teaches us this. But when it comes to practical belief, the type that squeals all of our emotional fears, we often doubt the truth.   In the above passage Peter is awestruck about God’s moving the way He did.   Later, when Peter goes to the place everyone is praying for him (undoubtedly his release) they can’t believe he is in their midst (Acts 12:12-17).   When God moves in our midst in these ways we are awestruck and brought to a place of praise.   But we are still somewhat amazed.   God is working in miraculous ways all the time, that we don’t see and don’t always look like the above.  But the God who moved to get Peter out of prison is our God.  He still moves in the same way.   

God WILL Vindicate His People - Zephaniah

Zephaniah 2:8-10 (ESV)

“I have heard the taunts of Moab

and the revilings of the Ammonites,

how they have taunted my people

and made boasts against their territory.

Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts,

the God of Israel,

“Moab shall become like Sodom,

and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,

a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,

and a waste forever.

The remnant of my people shall plunder them,

and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”

This shall be their lot in return for their pride,

because they taunted and boasted

against the people of the LORD of hosts.

God WILL destroy the enemies of His people.   Yes, there are times they triumph.  Yes, there are times they taunt.    Yes, there are times when we are not sure we will survive them.  But God will turn them into ruin as He did Sodom and Gomorrah.    In their pride they will be brought low.    God will get the victory because He is the LORD of hosts.   

Life Sucks! Ecclesiastes 3-4

Ecclesiastes 4:2-3 (ESV)

And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

Before we can understand the above passage (which sounds awful depressing) we need to remember what the writer has begun to talk about in the previous passages.  He has been writing on a theme about injustice and oppression from the most powerful against the less powerful:

Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 (ESV)

Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.

Ecclesiastes 4:1 (ESV)

Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.

From this point the writer writes the above verses because of this oppression (that can’t seem to be defeated).  He states that the dead are better than the living.  He goes on to conclude that even the unborn are better than the dead or living.  

When oppression rules the earth the oppressed don’t have many places to hide.   The entire cannon of scripture, of course, can answer this quandary, but the writer of Ecclesiastes is making a point in this book.  He is trying to get the reader to realize that life is hard (vain) and that there are NO solutions found in this life to cure the ills of this life.  That is why the book concludes as follows:

 Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (ESV)

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

This is why he writes these verses about an unborn child better than the living or the dead.  He is telling us that without a perspective that our entire duty on earth is to Fear God, nothing else matters.   We get caught up in this life and it is all vain.   A person would be better never born if that person is going to reject the Fear of the Lord.   

We Sow - God Decides What We Reap - Psalms 125-127

Psalms 126:6 (ESV)

He who goes out weeping,

bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

bringing his sheaves with him.

This section of the psalms are songs that were song when the people of Israel would go to the Temple for worship during one of the feast times.   They were songs of rejoicing and praise and worship.   In the above line we find one of the precious of all certainties of God’s word.  It states that those who take God’s word (the seed) and go in the  compassion of the Spirit to sow the seed, will most assuredly come back with blessings.   This called the law of the harvest.   Paul used it to warn the Galatians of the negative side of the law of the harvest by stating it this way:

Galatians 6:7 (ESV)

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

He went on to add the positive side of it:

Galatians 6:8 (ESV)

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

When we sow in the Spirit we will reap from the Spirit eternal life.   That is the above song of the ascents.  God wants us to know as we seek to worship Him in the Spirit we will return from that worship with abundant blessings.  That blessing may not be characterized in the way we always think, however.   God gives us eternal blessings for what we reap in the Spirit.  We don’t see them like we might think, or want, or expect.   But that does not diminish the truth of the above verse.  We are to reap with passion the seed God gives us.  It is His choice how He decides what type “sheaves” look like that we reap from that sowing.   

Skip the Arrogant Part and Stay in Humility - 2 Chronicles 29-32

2 Chronicles 32:24-25 (ESV)

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the LORD, and he answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.

Well, there is a life legacy many people have.  They serve God and then their heart gets full of themselves and don’t serve God.  The God brings discipline in the form of some suffering and they humble themselves and return to God.   God then removes His wrath.   It seems it would be wise to drop the middle part between when we start serving God and finish serving God.   But we all seem to have that middle part where we, in our pride, think more of ourselves than we should.   God wants us to be in a state of humility.    God will exalt us if we do.  

Here is a great prayer list to ask for God’s humility throughout life:

MONDAY 

O Lord, open my lips,

That my mouth may declare Your praise.

For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;

You are not pleased with burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. (Psalm 51:15-17 NASB)

TUESDAY 

For thus says the high and exalted One

Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,

"I dwell on a high and holy place,

And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit

In order to revive the spirit of the lowly

And to revive the heart of the contrite." (Isaiah 57:15 NASB)

WEDNESDAY- LIKE DAVID:

1 Samuel 24:13-14

As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’ But my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea!

THURSDAY 

Luke 14:11 (ESV Strong's)

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

FRIDAY - AS SAID OF JOB

Job 25:6 (ESV)

6 how much less man, who is a maggot,

and the son of man, who is a worm!”

Job 33:6 (ESV) (Elihu)

Behold, I am toward God as you are;

I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.

SATURDAY 

1 Chronicles 17:16-17 (ESV Strong's)

David's Prayer

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “WHO AM I, O LORD GOD, AND WHAT IS MY HOUSE, THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT ME THUS FAR? And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations, O Lord God!

SUNDAY

1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV Strong's)

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Testing Teaches Humility - Deuteronomy 7-9

Deuteronomy 8:1-2 (ESV)

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

God wanted the nation of Israel to possess the Promise Land.   However, their rebellion made it impossible.  God had the first generation, those He redeemed from Egypt, die in the wilderness.   He rose up another generation that Moses is speaking to via the book of Deuteronomy.    It is to this generation the above words were written.  At this point almost all the people from the first generation are gone.   So when Moses writes that:

... your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, ...

He was telling this new generation that God was humbling them.  Since God destroyed everyone 21-years and older, some of this new generation were 60 years old.  Some 40.   Some younger.   They were being tested.   Those test God gave them were for the purpose of humbling them.  God often brings us into strange and difficult moments to test us to bring humility into our lives.   We are not to resist the test God gives.  We are to realize that these test, these trials, are sent for a bigger purpose:

James 1:2-4 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

In the test find humility. 

Our Speech Should Match Our Service - James 1-2

James 1:26-27 (ESV)

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Spirituality is not demonstrated by what we say but rather that we don’t say and by how we serve.  Those who talk much and serve little are not showing faith to God or favor to man.   God wants us to use our tongues in a way that reflects and compliments our actions.    The phrase, “actions speak louder than words,” may have been founded on what James says above.   

James is writing to a group of young believers who have been dispersed throughout the region of Asia.   He wants them to stand tall in the slouching world around them.   The above two verses speak of two parts of their conduct James wants to make sure demonstrate the Savior they represent:

1. Control of the tongue - what you say. 

2. Conduct that is pure - what you do. 

If we want to sojourn in this world in a way that attracts the world to Jesus, we can’t be duplicitous.  We must match our conduct with our words.