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"Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

Tag: God (Page 9 of 15)

Always On My Mind. Isaiah 43.

November 2, 2019 /
“But now, this is what the Lord, your Creator says, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you [from captivity];
I have called you by name; you are Mine!”

The Lord remembers the bonds which unite us to himself even when we forget them; he recollects his eternal love, and all the deeds of mercy that have flowed from it. Though our memory is treacherous, and our faith is feeble, “yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself;” blessed be his holy name! –Charles Spurgeon

Man’s profession of love has been the impetus behind countless love songs and verses of poetry. Odes have been written and country rivers cried as a result of its birth, and death. But its genesis, its heart, its very Lifeblood is found in God’s love for man from eternity past. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life –Psalm 42:8. Long before He stood over the dark void God knew us, called us His beloved. His was the first love song ever written. The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing —Zephaniah 3:17. God’s absolute love for us runs so deep, is so profoundly intimate, complete and everlasting, it ensures we, His beloved, will always possess a place in the Father’s heart. He gave His firstborn, our Lord, as a ransom to ensure that fact. Jesus paid the sin debt we owed that our loving Father might have all of His children gathered about  Him—eternally. Mark Lauterbach describes this radiant beauty of God singing over us like this: He sings over those for whom he has removed his judgments (verse 15). He sings over a rebelling people, who have been restored. He sings over a people who have no righteousness in themselves. He sings over those who have every reason to fear the face of God, not desire it. Scripture resounds with God’s singing His songs of love, deliverance, and redemption over us. Wooing us with a pledge of unfaltering, and endless love. The guarantee of that love sealed, for all eternity, in the shed Blood of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus.

 “Think of the great Jehovah singing! Can you imagine it? Is it possible to conceive of the Deity breaking into a song: Father, Son and Holy Ghost together singing over the redeemed? God is so happy in the love which he bears to his people that he breaks the eternal silence, and sun and moon and stars with astonishment hear God chanting a hymn of joy.” (Spurgeon)

Before Father Abraham saw the smoking firepot and the flaming torch pass between the blood path of the slain carcasses, he’d laid side by side in obedience to Lord, God’s love and providential care of His elect had long been established. In the lifeblood of each of these animals, we witness the prophetic; the Blood of Jesus, yet to be shed. The fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to Abraham in the death of His only Son, Jesus, our Messiah. –Genesis 15:7-20.  The only One worthy to be offered once, for all—for the sins of the whole world. In Him is found every tribe and nation

Remember though, that the first glimpse of this Blood—His Blood, is witnessed in the garden. Those animals whose blood was shed that their skins might be used to cover the sin-stained bodies of Adam and Eve. Their blood is our first glimpse of that One whose Blood actually sealed this covenant God made with Abraham. Abraham had done nothing to earn Gods saving grace, His mercy, and promises of protection and provision. God alone chose Abraham, just as He chose each of us. He alone established the covenant promise with Abraham, and, God alone is the only One who can fulfill the terms of His covenant. He alone is God. He alone is able…

Before Jesus stood over the dark void and spoke one Word, His elect had already been sealed in Him – Ephesians 1:4-5. Their love songs of love and deliverance already sung. I don’t know about you, but that is mind-blowing to me! Songs of a love so profound existed in the Father’s heart for you and me long before we were even knit together in our mother’s womb! God knew every sin, every evil thought, every selfish bone in our bodies—our great rebellion and turning away and still, He chooses to sing over us.

We are the heirs of the depth of God’s love for His Son—and of the Son’s complete obedience to His Father. For rarely will anyone to die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us –Romans 5: 7-8.

As Christians, we believe that in Jesus, God has accepted us. Yet all too often as the result of abuse, harsh judgments, hurtful words, and actions we also have the propensity to be far more sin conscience than we ought—allowing the heavy-weight of feelings of unworthiness to rob us of the Truth of the song of love God is singing over us. Left unchecked, it will cause us to become callous to the Truth that God delights in us—views us as cherished. He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me –Psalm 18:19. I am in no way suggesting that we should allow ourselves to become so lofty and mystical that we lose sight of the need to come before the Holy Spirit in prayer, asking Him to search us, revealing anything in us that is not pleasing to Him, and then repent. I am simply here to remind those that are going through a trial—or are about to, perhaps even the one that has just emerged from some faith-fight that God loves you, delights in you, fights for you, will never leave you or forsake you—regardless of how you may think or feel about yourself. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee –Isaiah 43:2

We can’t fathom God’s incredible love for us. In and of ourselves, there would be nothing to attract him, nothing for him to delight in. But he has made us new creations in Christ, created in the likeness of Jesus, in whom is all his delight. Praise God today that he has made you precious and delightful to himself –Mark Altrogge.

Beloved, Praise Him today, that He has written a song of love specifically for you. Be encouraged as you face this new season, this trial, this heartache, this loss—nothing, not one thing you’re facing can nor ever will, separate you from the love that has called you and sustained from eternity past. He gave the Author of the greatest love song ever sung—just for you. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life –Isaiah 43:3-4.

Friend, if you are here today and want to know this Jesus, this One who is Mighty to save you who will sing songs of love and protection and redemption over you, ask Him to come to you and show Himself real in your heart. Call out to Him, from your heart, and He will answer you. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved –Romans 10:9-10.

All along… Psalm 145:9

October 5, 2019 /
” The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.”

Recently, while listening to Dante Bowe sing, The Goodness of God, the Holy Spirit got hold of me; opening the eyes of my understanding, He stretched me. Drawing me in, I was given a peek, just some small glimpse, of what God’s goodness meant—has looked like, in my life. I was wrecked and repenting by the time He was finished showing me, yet I was left hungry for so much more. I had tasted, and it was good! I knew this was no one-time revelation, no amuse-bouche’. Rather, it is a fine dining experience. A multi-course meal whose unique, rich, layered, subtle textures and flavors will have me revisiting this experience of God’s Goodness, over and over and over again…

The Holy Spirit took me back to specific days and seasons in my life; revisiting very specific sins. I was able to see glimpses of myself in the thick of it—covered in my filth, yet seemingly not carrying. Selfish. Oblivious to anything other than what I wanted or needed to make me happy or feel satisfied, at that moment. I saw the bars and the many men and the lies and the sex. The sneaking around. The adultery. The hurt I’d caused my parents and later, my children, friends, and family. I saw my filth stream before my eyes like some twisted, lust-filled, foul-mouthed, underground movie. I saw myself stealing, hustling, getting high, watching porn. I saw when I was molested as a child. I saw my depression, my wanting to die, my neglect. And then I felt the weight of my wretchedness; instantly.

I understood the Holy Spirit wasn’t condemning me, He’s already forgiven me. Rather, He was allowing me to feel the weight of that disgusting filthiness once again that I might be stretched, opened up in some new way, to drink in this heightened, vivid, understanding of just how good and loving and kind and merciful, how patient and long-suffering this God, my Jesus, is. Not that over-used, over-worked, knee-jerk, ‘God is good’ kind of goodness, rather His pure, life-changing, transformative, loving, goodness. The very goodness that caused Him to hold tight His Cross willingly lay down upon it, then allow those He was offering His very life for, to drive their sin through His Perfect flesh. That kind of Goodness…

A Goodness that is far too big, and deep, and wide, for my puny, finite mind, thoughts, and feelings, to fully take in! God had seen each of my sins. And still, after seeing them all, He came to me, personally. He came in a way like no one in my life had ever come; in the gentlest of ways, as softly as the softest of summer breezes. He was just, there. Suddenly. I can close my eyes and go back to that moment, it’s so alive and vivid still; I can feel His nearness as deeply now, more actually, as I did then. And, from that moment until today, I am His and He is mine.

I’ve experienced the goodness of God that Dante was singing about in my own life, without a doubt. I too have sung of the goodness of God. Read about it in the Scriptures, certainly. I’ve witnessed to folks about His goodness. Posted and shared quotes and pics extolling that goodness on social media sites; sharing it personally with new believers. Yet, I had never stopped long enough to truly dig down into the depth of just how far back His goodness had been active in my life; just how far back it truly reached. In that moment, by the revelation of The Holy Spirit, I saw, more, I felt and understood in a new way, just how far back His goodness reached. It went Ephesians 1:4 back, Jeremiah 1:5 and Psalm 139:13-18 back, to mention just a few examples. It went standing over the void back…

I’ve taken many cursory glances at this reality over the years, mind you. But in truth, never really sat alone with the thought of His goodness and what it meant in my life—all of my life, giving it the time it so richly deserves. I never knew it in my bones, felt the reality of it churning around in the very depths of me until that moment when the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to all of what God had watched me do in my life. All those days and nights and instances I thought I was being so slick. When I thought I was being so careful, so clever. When I felt the darkness of some strange room was all the hiding place I’d ever need; my sins were safe there, hidden.

Friends and brothers and sisters, I’m not here today sharing my dirt with you for any reason other than to be transparent and to encourage that one who may be here now; feeling as filthy dirty as I was then, would be still, had it not been for the Goodness and love and mercy of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I am here today to share with you the wonder and the beauty and the Awesomeness of God. Of exactly what He can and will do in the life of the one He grabs hold of. I say He grabs hold of because I had nothing to do with that. I surely didn’t deserve it. I wasn’t praying for it, honestly. God hadn’t even been a thought that had crossed my mind in any real way—until He did. Until that ‘suddenly’ moment when, in hindsight, I now understand was the Holy Spirit giving me the desire to go to a particular church at a specific time. And I went. I followed that ‘feeling’. And right there, in that Catholic Church, in the midst of the priest’s sermon, The Holy Spirit came for me. And, as I said earlier, He came as softly and gently as the softest of summer breezes. There were no beams of light streaming through the stained-glass windows, no choir of angelic voices singing holy songs, just a deep, the very pit of me deep, and oh so subtle, shift inside. And from that moment, sitting in that Church with my then lover at my side, unashamedly languishing in the pit of my adultery, the Goodness of God has kept one such as me. John 10:27-29…

Friends, I am not here today to point you towards something I’ve read or heard tell of. Something that’s been sung about or shared. I’m not here to regurgitate someone else’s story of how they met this God who offers us—all of us, this goodness we must experience for ourselves. I’m here because I know Him, love Him, have been afforded the privilege of serving Him. I’m here to point us each towards the only one that can and has and will always, until the very last, pour this fresh clean water of His goodness and His love, His unfathomable capacity to forgive us—over us. The One who loves us too much to leave us where we are—whether we’ve known Him for years and years or have just met Him today—or will meet Him soon, I pray. I’m here today to share with you that this Good God has so much more for you and me. He is troubling the water, stirring up something inside of you. Step in and be made whole. Be restored, made clean. Be refreshed.

Brother’s and sister’s and friends let us not settle for the common. For swimming in the shallow end because we can manage that nicely on our own. Cry out to God to rid us of our preconceived notions and ideas of who we believe Him to be and ask Him instead to show Himself to us afresh, new. Let us cry out to God right now in repentance, for mercy, and for more of Him. May He draw us each into an ever deeper and wider, a more pure and True understanding of who He is—and of ourselves, in Him, as He intended us to be and live and share and give and love and serve each other —Psalm 145:5-7.

Friend, if your reading this today and can relate. If you’ve not yet asked this Good God that I’ve spoken of today to be your God, come into your life and change it as surely as He has changed mine—and so many countless others like us; ask Him now. Don’t wait another day, please. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:11. 

Higher Than Our Own. Isaiah 55:8-9

September 21, 2019 /
“The Lord says, “My thoughts are not like yours.
    Your ways are not like mine.
Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways,
    and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”

In preparation for this week’s teaching, I went to sit beside the ocean to get alone with the Lord. I parked the car close to a popular local inlet where the small craft anchor. A particular dingy caught my eye…

Staring at it I thought, “that little guy looks as though it could sink at any moment.” Compared that is, to some of the sturdier-looking, larger boats anchored nearby. Looking away, I continued on in prayer. But once again this little boat caught my eye. This time, however, it appeared to be listing. Signaling the beginning of an inescapable watery demise. “I had a feeling that little boat would eventually go down. It didn’t appear at all seaworthy.” As I continued to watch what I saw instead caused me to literally shout, ‘no way!”’ The waves had caused it to shift directions and I saw it was fully righted! Not only had that little boat not gone under, it was effortlessly bobbing along being piloted by the tides that had it safely hemmed in. What I was certain I had seen had been little more than an optical illusion. My eyes playing tricks on me. A complete misread on my part…

And then God spoke. Impressing on my heart that: I wasn’t to always trust what I saw in front of me rather, to steadfastly rely solely upon what I know to be True of Him. Trusting in His Sovereignty, mercy, grace, and, power. He reminded me to always have my faith securely anchored in Him; my mind and thoughts captive to His will alone. There are many illusions in this world…

Satan is a master of illusion and deception. And, He is busier now than ever knowing his time is at hand. God’s elect must be even more vigilant. Leaving no opening in our armor through which he might gain entrance. “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible” –Mark 13:22.

God had convicted me of the cracks in my own armor; as quickly as I had judged this little boat of being unseaworthy, so too had I judged myself unworthy to serve Him by comparing myself to those I felt were far more gifted—more qualified than myself. I’d allowed temporary feelings of unworthiness to serve God and His people to supersede what I know He alone has called and equip me to do. Serve! Whenever and wherever He leads me. I was instantly humbled by the realization that not only had I been allowing myself to entertain lies, questioning my very election, entertaining my fears, doubts, and insecurities as one entertains friends; allowing them access into places mere acquaintances are not permitted, I had, unawares, projected my feelings of inadequacy onto that little boat! Thus, falsely judging us both as unseaworthy…

That’s when God convicted my heart! Who was I to judge the gifts He’s given me? His grace? Who was I to question His reasoning for choosing me for Himself?

And so, if I don’t make it my business to stay close to Christ daily, standing firm and fixed, minute-by-minute on who He says I am, I will, according to my own estimation, find myself sorely wanting. Unworthy to serve such a Holy God—or His people. Knowing my own sin and shortcomings I will judge myself as a vessel of dishonor, rather than one of gold or silver having been made pure, not by my own works or worth, rather by His. In this Truth, I was allowed a far deeper, more personal revelation of meaning behind Paul’s words: “But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man’s day; but neither do I judge my own self”–1 Corinthians 4:3.

Our self-worth, my self-worth friends, should not be grounded in the esteem or opinion nor in the rejection of others—man’s flesh is far too fickle, untrustworthy, and ever-changing to ever take fully to heart. First, it blows this way and then that. One minute calling out Hosanna and with its next breath, crucify Him! Neither should we fully put our trust in self-assessments, least we think either too highly or too lowly of ourselves. Yet if our conscious pricks us, we must be certain to examine it. But it is to God alone that we must look to for every good thing in our lives. Starting with the foundational Truth of who we are and who He is in our lives, ministry, work, and worth. Only His Truth is irrefutable. Our sure standard.

His Word clearly tells us: “All else is sinking sand…” –Matthew 7:24-27.

Now, before I move on, allow me to clarify a point: By no means do I mean to suggest that we should not examine ourselves, our lives, and hearts, our consciences. Quite the contrary, as Christians, we must keep a close eye on the condition of our hearts and thoughts, our words, and actions. Through prayer and the reading of the Scriptures, through our daily communion with the Holy Spirit, we must ask the Lord, day by day, to search out anything in us that is not of Him. And, should our conscience convict us of sin, we must, by His power, rid our lives of its corrupt root; least our hearts become hardened by its unchecked presence. We must repent, quickly.

Our Scripture verse today harkens back to the days of King David who, at the time of this writing has been dead some 250 years. Thus signifying that our Scripture verses are directed not at unbelievers since they are directed at David and Israel, but rather at believers. And, though applicable in Isaiah’s day surely, they are also prophetic; reaching their hand into the pocket of today’s Church, speaking directly to you and me. God’s Truth is eternal and unchanging. Our verses declare, in part, just who God is and who we are in comparison. There is no room in His declaration for neither question nor doubt. God’s Sovereignty is on clear display in these verses. Therefore, as believers living in times fraught with illusions, lies, and false accusation, we must be convinced, resolute in the fact that we are who God says we are and not fall prey to those feelings that swing us this way one moment and that another, tossing us first here, then there…

Beloved, if this has hit your heart if you’ve been judging yourself as I’ve judged myself of late, may I suggest you steal away and spend some quiet time alone with the Lord. Ask Him to reveal afresh the Truth of who you are in Him and to make clear to you once again, your purpose and calling in Him. The field is white my brothers and sisters, we must be steadfastly about our Father’s business throwing off, as our brother Paul instructs us, every weight that hinders us.

And friend, if you find yourself here today saying, I’ve felt like this too! Know this, God has led you here as surely as He led me to that little dingy. If you’ve yet to ask Jesus to come into your life as Lord and Savior, please do it now. He’s led you here and He loves you. But He won’t force Himself on you…

Going His Way… Proverbs 16:9.

August 31, 2019 /
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.”

In considering our plans, dreams, and desires, Solomon informs us that not one of them will flourish or prosper if God is not their Source. If He has not added His amen to their propose…

We see the nascent beginning of this truth revealed in the lives of Adam and Eve. In their desire to do things their way. To deliberately ignore God’s clear counsel and commands. And, we continue this day to see the fruit of their choice evidenced in the heart of every man —Genesis 2:15-17; 3:6; Proverbs 16:25; Romans 5:12.

Man can think up, lay down, prepare for, plot and plan all he likes…

And, doing some of that is both necessary and scriptural. But here’s the bottom line. We were never created to live rogue lives outside of God’s will. Nor are we capable of making any lasting or fruitful plans of our own. –John 15:5. God knows that left to the devices of our fallen nature we simply aren’t capable of seeing beyond the end of our own noses! Beyond our selfish wants and desires. Hence, we’ll constantly run after not only what isn’t best for us, more, we’ll chase after the very things that might kill us! –Genesis 2:17; Jeremiah 17:9.

Our original parents being the perfect example of where following our most base desires will lead us; away from God’s best for us. Having been ruled by their own, they rebelled against God. Against His Sovereign providential care. His plan that is both pure and, at its core, empowering.

All that they might chase after sin, instead. Going their own deadly way…

And, If we aren’t intentional in our desire to do life God’s way—we too, will predictably end up just running about aimlessly chasing after all that we think we want. Blindly making plans for our lives. Plans for where we’ll live and work. How we’ll acquire all that we need. That promotion—that home. What ministry we will serve in—head up. Who we will marry and when? Do I have children? And, if yes, how many? Forgetting entirely that God is in control. And, that He has a plan far greater for our lives than anything we could spend the currency of this lifetime chasing after.

Here then, in part, is God’s answer to our striving; made plain in His Word…

1). Commit everything, every-single-thing, each plan, every desire, that thing or the person you want, that place you’d love to live, the church you’d like to be a part of, to the Lord: Proverbs 16:3; 12:15; Psalm 37:4-5. 2). Then, and only then, craft a way to realize your Godly desires: Matthew 6:33; Proverbs 20:18; 15:22; Jeremiah 29:13. And, then, once you have entrusted your plan to God, take your hands off of it; trusting Him instead, with its every detail: Ecclesiastes 11:3–6; Psalm 37:5; 84:11; John 16:13.

All of this begins, however, with a truly clear understanding that we are no longer in charge of our lives. If that is, we’ve committed them to, surrendered them over to, God…

And, If we have entrusted the Lord with our lives, isn’t it just plain foolish not to entrust our every plan to Him as well? Before that is, we run off half-cocked trying to set them in motion on our own?

Christian, would hold back some piece of yourself from God? Close some chamber of your heart or life off from His loving counsel as Adam and Eve did? Are you attempting to cover the shame of your wanting what you know God has said no to, with some hastily stitched together fig leaves? Don’t you know there are no amount of leaves sufficient enough to hide your rebellious desire? Learn from our first parents and expose them instead! Submit them, willingly, lovingly as children of the Light and of the day, to God. Asking Him which way you should go; what it is that’s best for you. After all, He alone holds that answer.—Proverbs 16:2-3; 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

Follow instead, in the footsteps of Ruth. A gentile widow who, not even knowing God’s law or His plan for her life, determined in her heart to follow after and care for Naomi, her widowed, childless mother-in-law. —Ruth 1:14-16.

She choose what she knew to be right and just over sticking to the safe and familiar. Over making a way for herself. God took Ruth’s simple heartfelt plan and not only did He bless it for her good by leading her into Boaz’s field, but He also multiplied it as our loving and benevolent Father so often does. –Ephesians 3:20-21. From the union of Ruth and Boaz came Obed. Thus Ruth’s desire that Naomi be cared for until the Lord called her home, is fulfilled in Him. Additionally, she’d have this child now, to love and comfort her in her old age. She too then, had been restored through Ruth’s simple, selfless love. And, this same child would grow up to be the father of Jesse, the grandfather of King David; a man after God’s own heart. Obed, an ancestor of Jesus. We find his name in both Luke and Matthew’s account of Jesus’ genealogy…

All this because one woman determined in her heart to seek the best for another. And God, seeing her heartfelt desire to fulfill the law of Love, blessed it. —Ruth 3:10-4:17; Matthew 1:5-6; Luke 3:32.

When choosing God’s plans over our own, look also towards Esther example. Witness her choices to do what was right and good in the eyes of God,—Esther 5:1–7:10. Consider also, our brother Joseph. –Gen 45:4-8; 50:19-21. Study the life and works and sacrifices of the apostles. Look towards Paul and Peter and Philip. –Acts 9; 16:6-34; 10:1-4; Acts 8.

Each of these had plans of their own. A way they thought things should be and go. Yet, because they belonged to God, each determined in their own hearts to love Him, first. To choose His way over their own. Following after all He had for them. Leaving their plans to die an unattended death. And, as a result of their submission and obedience to His plan; His Church was born. Thus we, the gentiles, were brought into the covenant God had made with Abraham. –Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-21. Further, we have the great benefits and honor of knowing the will and Word of our Lord, through His written Word. –John 14:26; 21:25; Revelation 21:5.

My brothers and sisters, I challenge you to ask this question of yourselves:

What is true about me? What is fixed?

Do you wholly believe that God has a plan for your life? Do you wholly believe that there is not one accident or misstep in His plans? Do you believe wholeheartedly that God has established your steps? That He goes before you making even the crooked paths straight? Making ways out of no way? Do you believe, from the very core of your being, that you are loved and cherished by God? And, that there is not one thing outside of His will for you, that could ever remotely satisfy you? If so, your heart is properly postured to seek the Lord will, making your requests known to Him. –Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 1:4; 2:13; 4-24.

If you are wavering at all, decide to be fully in. Then, all else will fall into place. Remember, there is Only One Right Way. One Established Way. Seek this Way with all of your heart—all ways. Hebrews 11: 6.

Then, come what may, your steps will be firmly established. –John 14:1-6.

Beloved, you’re going to be okay. You are not alone. These Truths are your birthright as a son or daughter of the Living God. Let that soak into you for a moment…

And, dear friend, if you don’t yet know the Lord, believe, please, that He has led you here today because He loves you. And, understand this: He is tugging at your heart that you might surrender it to Him and His established good and perfect plan for your life. A life spent with Him requires you to take this step of trusting Him. He will do all the rest. Don’t hesitate, I pray! Take that step of faith today. Choose Jesus! –He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. –Titus 2:14.

Snatched From the Fire. Zechariah 3:2.

August 17, 2019 /
“And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.”

Snatched:  To take or grasp abruptly or hastily; to attempt to seize something suddenly.

You beloved are that burning stick that has been snatched from the fire. A sinner saved by His amazing grace! Like Joshua before you, you have been washed clean—made new by the sacrificial shedding of Blood. The Spotless Blood of Jesus shed on your behalf. If, that is, you have accepted Jesus as your Lord…

To enter into any meaningful and lasting relationship requires intentionality. To deeply consider your commitment. A deliberate, deep and highly personal choice born from the wanting to share and grow, exchange and receive. To sacrifice and serve another or others; come what may. A conscious laying down of one’s life born out of genuine love for the well-being of the other. Entering into a relationship with Jesus is no different. It ought to be born from a deep desire to connect with this One, like no other. Remembering this: once that relationship has been established, you’ve then been set apart to both serve God and His people. And, then, to spend eternity with Him…

Yours will not be an eternity spent in the hell, that place of separation and torment that was neither created nor intended for you or any man. It was created for Satan and all those fallen angels who followed him in his rebellion against God—Matthew 25:41.

You fellow believers, are the ministers of the Most High God. Those chosen from a long line of royal priests. And yet, even though you are the King’s kid still, His ownership of you stands above your service to Him. Your priesthood—your role in ministering before the Lord exists solely because He alone has bestowed its use and service, privilege and anointing, upon you.

Ah! I have my filthy garments on. I cannot pray to Him. I cannot praise Him as I would.” I know what it is to come and preach to you sometimes, and to feel such an overwhelming sense of my own unworthiness, that, were it not, “Woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel,” I would not come on this platform again, for it is hard to feel that your garments are defiled even while endeavoring to be God’s mouth to men—Charles Spurgeon.

Friends, we cannot curry the favor of God. There’s not one thing we can do to earn “our spot.” Earn His Love for us. His forgiveness. Not-one-single-thing. Without God’s mercy and His election of us, take away His unfathomable love for us; our sins demand we spend eternity in the hell created for Satan and his gang of fallen angels, separated from God. As all those who deliberately chose to rebel against Him—deny Him, will. Not popular, I know. But it’s Truth nonetheless. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? —1 Peter 4:17. Now, with that knowledge ever before us, may we be about working out our salvation. Never forgetting the very heart of the words cried out by our brother, Paul.

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death…? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! —Romans 7:24.

May this be our cry too, brothers and sisters. May we, like Joshua and Paul, and a remnant of the nation of Israel before us—like every saint that has been or is yet to come, never lose sight of how—by whose power it is, we either stand or fall; least we begin to think too highly of ourselves and risk being humbled by our Lord and, accused before His Throne by the one whose joy is found in pointing out our sins to Him.

My true position, as a Christian, is to be always ministering to God, always standing before His altar. –Charles Spurgeon.

Satan stood at the right hand of the Angel of the Lord accusing Joshua of every sin he and his people had committed. And Satan stands there still; pointing out our sins as well. Accusing all those who dare to believe in The Name above all names! Jesus!

But, here’s the good news beloved…

Jesus Christ has the final Word! He is always, “a very present help in times of trouble”—Psalm 46. There is nothing that Satan can say or do to tear you down before the Lord. We see this Truth not only within our Scripture verse today, but this same Truth permeates the Word of God. Jesus knows everything Satan will use in His attempt to destroy you—to kill you and, He’s got you covered. He’s covered your every sin with His precious Blood. You are now the righteousness of Christ Jesus.

When God spoke to Zechariah concerning the forgiveness of Joshua’s sin, the stain on the priesthood, and the sins of Israelites—you were right there in the center of God’s heart also; represented in the person of Joshua. You stood there before the Lord in all your sin, with all of your faults and flaws, and, you were covered by God’s intentions towards you. Your filthy clothes were also removed, and, in their place, the new raiment of Christ’s righteousness was placed on you. Covering your guilt and shame, you were cleansed and then redressed from head to toe!

Beloved, now when God looks at you, it is His Son—The Spotless Lamb slain for your sins, that He sees.

The rebuke is forcibly applicable to the case in hand. He says, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire.” Satan says, “The man’s garments are filthy…”
“Well,” says Jesus, “how do you expect them to be otherwise? When you pull a brand out of the fire, do you expect to find it milk-white or polished?” No, it had begun to crack and burn, and though you have plucked it out of the fire, it is in itself still black and charred. So it is with the child of God. What is he at his best? Till he is taken up to heaven, he is nothing, but a brand plucked out of the fire—Charles Spurgeon.

Can you even fathom so great a love, my friends? Whether or not we can wrap our heads around this, the Truth of God’s love stands fixed. Our firm foundation. God loves you and He gave His only begotten Son to die for you that you might be restored into right relationship with Him—John 3:16.

That is the very heart of the Father’s love towards you, beloved.

The Apostle Paul says it this way: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us so that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit —Galatians 3:13-15.

You have been snatched from the fire so that you might have a relationship with the Father…

That you might spend your remaining days running after Him. Seeking Him out. Loving Him and spending time with Him. Desiring Him above all else. Above everyone and everything—placing even yourself at the very top of that list of those, you are willing to sacrifice up to Jesus. Understanding now, you are no longer your own. You have been purchased at an exceedingly high price—1 Corinthians 7:23.

So, then, be re-minded beloved: Just as Joshua was lovingly and thoroughly cleansed and prepared, so too have you been cleansed. You too are being prepared for something unimaginable beloved; to become the bride of this Christ who came and gave His life in exchange for yours. That’s Good News! The very One who reached into that all-consuming fire and said, “Not this one. This one is my own.”

Accordingly, as it was with Joshua and Peter and Noah and Mary, with Paul and John and Father Abraham, brides each, made ready for their wedding day; so too has every detail of your life been, and will forever remain in the All-Knowing and capable hands of the Father. He has spared no expense on preparing you for that day that will rival no other.

The day you meet Him face to face…

That day when your fullness of joy spills out at His feet in loving gratitude. In praise and thanksgiving. In holy adoration.

Beloved, if you have forgotten, as we sometimes do, just how deeply you are loved and cherished by God, then please, ask the Holy Spirit to re-mind you. To fill you once again with the fullness of His Word concerning His great love for you. May you experience renewal, being re-united with the One it is you belong to; have been betrothed to.

The One in whose name you have been called to minister…

I believe each of us needs to stop, from time to time, and reflect on this enormous Truth. To recalibrate, realigning ourselves with our True North.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end—Hebrews 3:12-14.

I like that closing sentence, “And the angel of the LORD stood by.” Oh, yes, we want Him always to stand by. When you have your new garments on, when you wear your mitre, you still want His presence. “Abide with us,” must be our daily prayer. We want still His strength, His comfort, His smile, the help of His arm, the light of His countenance—for if we have Him not, we shall soon slip from our steadfastness, and have reason to stand again, like Joshua, with filthy garments on—Charles Spurgeon.

Friend, if you are here today and have not asked Jesus into your heart know this; God Himself has called you here. These words should be little more than a confirmation. A quickening inside of you that says, “I believe this is God. I believe this is Him answering my question, God, would you truly love someone like me?” He says yes. Yes, I love you. Yes, I led you here. And no, there is nothing that you have ever done that is so filthy that my Sons Spotless Blood will not wash it clean. Just ask me in and let us begin the journey I have planned for you…

The Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Israelites, concerning you and me: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future—Jeremiah 29:11.

It Will Not Return Void. 2 Chronicles 3:1

June 9, 2019 /
 “Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.”

Whether there were 42 generations between the time Abraham took his son, Isaac, to Mount Moriah and the day Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, freely laid down His life for the sins of the whole world there, is a debate I will leave for those theologians far more learned in deciphering biblical genealogy than myself. What I am clear on is this: Before time as we understand it began, God had chosen this plot of the earth as holy ground. He had a plan for Jerusalem and a purpose for this mountain. And, as we know, “God’s will cannot be thwarted”—Job 42:2. Before He stood over the dark void, before Daniel had written a word of what was yet to come—Paul either, God knew—Daniel 9; 2 Thess. 2:1-4.

There is nothing random with God. No—thing. Nothing has, nor ever will, catch Him unawares. No outcome or nanosecond in time happens outside of His purview.

And, just as surely as Jerusalem and this mountain have a place in God’s plan, He too has chosen those He would call to this mountain as part of that plan. This place of reconciliation and restoration, of sacrifice and testing. This exacting rough country where He first led Father Abraham that he might sacrifice his son, Isaac—Genesis 22:1-19. Then after Abraham, Jacob came here and prayed. He sought the Lord for reconciliation with his estranged brother, Esau—Genesis 32:1-21. Then came David. He would be led to this very mountain after receiving a word from Gad, the prophet. An angel had told Gad to instruct David to build an altar on this mountain. To buy a specific plot of ground from the Jebusite Araunah, a gentile, so that he might offer sacrifices and offerings to the Lord there on behalf of himself and his people—2 Samuel 24: 10-25; 1 Chronicles 22:1. And, though it was David who desired to build the Temple for the Lord it would be David’s son, Solomon, whom God would entrust to build His holy Temple on this site—this threshing floor which David had purchased from Araunah, the Jebusite —2 Chronicles 3:1. Solomon’s temple, destroyed by the Roman army led by Titus, was rebuilt by Nehemiah and those Jews who had been delivered from Babylonian captivity—Nehemiah 2:1-20. And, then, God Himself, the Living Temple, would ascend this mountain. His every step a declaration of His love for, and obedience to, the Father. Wrapped in flesh, Jesus, our Messiah, would climb Moriah carrying His Cross towards its peak, Mount Golgatha. Now, in Christ, “it is finished.” The single-greatest demonstration of love and obedience the world will ever know was witnessed on this very mountain. One far surpassing the splendor and majesty of anything built by human hands—Jesus. Far greater than Abraham’s obedience. Jacob’s and David’s too. Gods great love—His Perfect redemptive plan on display for all to see—John 3:16. God’s very character, His attributes, the sheer essence of who God is hung here for all to see. His redemptive sacrifice changing lives for all eternity. Abraham named this place “The LORD Will Provide.” And He did. Even now people say, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided” –Genesis 22:14.

God has chosen Jerusalem as His own. This place, and its people, a template He repeatedly uses to display His great love, His redemptive plan, both for Jerusalem and for the whole world. What God set in motion, “In the beginning” continues to expand and grow and thrive and live and breathe and reproduce, to this very day. His every desire for His creation—His chosen, is being accomplished—still. Soon and very soon, a new Jerusalem will descend from heaven. No longer will there be a need for Solomon to lay one stone nor for any temple made by human hands. Soon and very soon there will be a new heaven and a new earth. “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” –Revelation 21:22.

What was set into motion long before Father Abraham took one step of obedience on Moriah’s rugged terrain, before Solomon’s laborers had laid one stone, lives and thrives and calls to hearts, still. More, those that our Lord has chosen in Himself to live in obedience to His will, are, much like Solomon and Abraham, Jacob, and David before them, seeking after Gods will for their lives too. Lovingly, obediently, they offer their own living sacrifices before Him. Their very lives. Their hopes, and dreams, wants and wills, each laid lovingly, on the altar. Each soul seeking out their Moriah. That place where they too will do the work God has destined for their hands alone to do; for His Kingdom and glory. What was set into motion long ago pulses across time and space still. Words were spoken, His will. They will not return to Him void. And, it will continue this way until that moment when all they were sent out to do has been accomplished in the One who stood over the void and said, “let there be.” Until that glorious final Sabbath day when our mortal tents are taken down and we find our eternal rest in Him; God has placed a pledge in our hungry belly—a promise, a foretaste. His Spirit in us. The sure promise of what is yet to come for those who love the Lord and follow His commands.

The final battle is near—though when no man knows. God has set in stone the smallest of details that must yet come to pass. Each life chosen in Him as well; destined to receive His glorious, free gift of salvation. Every ministry that will flourish and thrive and grow and feed His sheep—His lambs—under His watchful, providential eye. In the meantime brothers and sisters, as surely as God has a purpose for Moriah, for Jerusalem, as certainly as Solomon was chosen to do the work God had equipped him for—created him to do, so too is your Moriah waiting for you…

That place that calls to you like no other, that floods your heart with a God-given longing to go and give and build and serve and love and spend yourself on. That people group or country, those prisoners, or refugees, the elderly or the infirm. Those widows and orphans and homeless men and women—the veteran and those who are mentally or emotionally challenged, the teen or the addict, those single mothers, and the prostitutes. Every child stolen and sold for sex. The everyday man whose heart and soul are hungry for something they can’t yet put a name to. These are the callings sent out by God. Ministry’s each. They’re His will for your life’s work placed deep within your bowels; awaiting that one moment in time when He would call you to serve and build and do with the tools and materials provided you by another. The One who died for you. You are not your own. Neither was Abraham or Solomon or Jacob or David before you. They were, as you are, part of Gods eternal plan. And, as we know, “God’s will cannot be thwarted”—Job 42:2. Build wisely with what has been given to you. One day, soon and very soon, you will have to give an account for it all…

Beloved, God has blessed you with gifts and talents and ministry’s, use them wisely—as good stewards should. Remembering always: You may well reap what another has planted. “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”—John 4:38.

Friend, if you are here today and have not asked Jesus into your life, know that He has led you here that you might ask Him in now, this day. He is waiting for you to open your heart and life to Him—asking Him to be Lord of all. Won’t you please ask Him to show you the work He has destined solely for your hands to accomplish, for His Kingdom and glory?

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” –Romans 10:9.

A Living Hope! 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.

April 21, 2019 /

“Blessed [gratefully praised and adored] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts and encourages us in every trouble so that we will be able to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Despondency and hopelessness have been their constant companions—shame too, since their Master was unjustly dragged away in chains; since they’d abandoned Him in fear of losing their own lives. While Jesus stood before a mock jury of viper’s intent on seeing Him dead, as He was ushered off in the wee hours, brought before Pilot, a ruthless man, whose bloody rule was marked by merciless brutality. Then, flogged to near death and rendered unrecognizable, crowned with thorns, and spat upon. Condemned and left standing before those He had been born to save. All the while “crucify Him, crucify Him” rang out in place of the, “Hosanna in the Highest” that had filled His ears mere days before. His Cross let fall on His bloodied shoulder—as heavy as the weight of the sins of the world. Those He carried now, within. He holds His Cross tightly to Himself, as one holds a precious lover, Gods mercy towards us demonstrated in this embrace. Determined to save us, Jesus starts off for Golgotha, and all that awaits Him there…

How can we give what we do not possess? Demonstrate what we do not know ourselves? Is it any wonder than that Paul wants us to know these life-sustaining attributes of The Father who sent His only Son, this same Jesus, to die in our place? That He wants us to fully take in as our own that, not only does He show us mercy—He is the Father of mercies—that means every mercy. That means every type of mercy you and I have ever, or will ever be shown—forever!

Every time we might have died, and didn’t. Every time we should have felt the sting of our poor choices but instead, mercy showed up. When our child came home safely. When the test results came back clean. When our hearts were breaking, and that one word we so needed to hear was spoken. And, more, in our every moment of pain, of suffering, heart-break, and disappointment. In that life-shattering diagnosis, the death of that child, in the heart-break of witnessing a loved one in the throes of addiction—or rebellion; He is the God of all comfort. The One who comes along side us, just as He walked along-side Jesus on His exacting journey towards Golgotha, comforting and encouraging us, too. Whispering to the very marrow of our bones that there is a purpose in our pain. Some marvelous life that will be birthed from this death that is trying to ravage us. And only then, only armed with His strength, His comfort and mercy, with His assurance, can we walk toward what looks like certain death fixed in our faith. Resolute. Knowing  there is a purpose in it all…

Love does not guarantee we will escape trials and pain and losses, in fact, in love, Jesus told us to expect these things for as long as we live in this fallen world. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” –John 16:33. Our hope, our comfort and strength, our ability to move forward after these things take our very legs out from under us, rob us of our breath, is found in the Truth of Sunday morning. Just as it was for our brothers before us.

Life—new life, will come out of all this pain. We will live. We will love—again!

So, then, imagine their great joy when this same Jesus appears to them alive once more! Imagine for a moment the great comfort, the renewed reassurance they experienced! Peter, and all those that ran when they had pledged to follow Him always; that shame-filled, terror filled day. The death of their every hope and dream restored now! All of the hope that had died in them, in His dying, resurrected now, as He is resurrected! How can this be! Their hope restored once more! Their very lives restored!

This is the heart of our resurrection story: A heart once dead in its sin and shame, pain, brought to life once again by the sacrifice of One who was born to die that they, and you, and I, might live! To forgive our sins. To wash us clean in the very Blood He’d just shed. This blessed hope is what every believer has then been commanded to go, and share with a lost, hurting, and broken world. A world in need of the love, mercy, and compassion of God. In need of being re-minded that hope truly is alive! Now. This day! And, to help with instructing the world around us as to just who this great hope is, Jesus Christ, the One and only God. The Hope of Glory!

This is a message of mercy is the essence of the comfort Paul is speaking to us about. The mercy and comfort that restores life and hope and strength where only moments ago the heavy weight of loss or betrayal or despondency rested, where the weight of our sins had all but done us in. This comfort is the Lightness of His Mercy replacing, with great Love, the heavy garment of our sin and shame. If, we’ll but accept it, wearing it as our own. This is what happens in the human heart—in the very soul of the one who experiences the dawn of Sunday morning—the hope of His Resurrection! Those who experience the mercy and comfort and encouragement that our brother Paul is speaking of. We are comforted by God that we might intimately know His great Love and mercy within; then go and share that same comfort and mercy and encouragement given us, with another. Just as Jesus did, as all those in the faith that have gone before us have. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins” –Isaiah 40:1-2.

There is no grave, no stone weighty enough to hold back the love, the mercy, the unfathomable compassion that has burst forth from them both! “God so loved” us, that He sacrificed, poured every ounce of His Mercy and Compassion out for us, in the Person of His only Son so that He might have us in Himself—restored, cleansed, made new. This same God whom Paul informs is the Father of these same mercies, the God of all comfort, who displayed the depth of His love, His heart towards us, in Christ Jesus. Freely His love was lavished upon us, poured out for us, spent on our behalf, freely then, we must lavish, pour out, spend our lives loving others…

This Resurrection morning exists, this hope we have is surely alive solely because of this God who is the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort. “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. … For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.

Be encouraged this hour, my brother. Be refreshed! Your strength renewed by the same power that raised Jesus from His grave!

And dear friend, the Father has allowed me to share His message of Love once again. You are loved by God—whether you believe that, or not. In fact, His love for you is so great that if you were the only soul to be found on this planet—Jesus would have died solely for you. The Truth is—He did. Won’t you ask Him into your heart and life now, today? There’s no guarantee we’ll meet again next year…

No-thing. Romans 8:38-39.

April 14, 2019 /

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul is assuring us that contrary to how we may be feeling—whatever we may be experiencing at any given moment, God loves us. More, there is absolutely nothing that will ever change that…

No amount of self-doubt, no failure or deep short-coming, not even our sin can separate us, cause His love to fail us; if we are His.  He knows that in a moment of doubt the strongest of us can be reduced to feelings of insecurity, of weakness. On this journey of death to self one may feel as though God has abandoned them, turned His face away from them. The reassuring warmth of His nearness suddenly cooled in that moment He asks us to lay a thing down. To choose His way over our own. To trust Him when we think we know better—can do better than He can. To give up what we want in exchange for what He has for us. Some part of ourselves, some habit or choice, some possession that does not reflect who He is to the world around us. Instead, it reeks of the flesh—of self-indulgence, greed, entitlement, or lust. It reeks of us.  At one moment or another in our lives, on our walk, we will each be guilty of this…

And, yet, even in this—even in our deep flawed-ness, in the midst of our most sinful, shameful, selfishness, even here—He does not withdraw His love from His children. He does not remove His loving-kindness from us. Verse 3 of Romans Chapter 8 helps, in part, to explain why. “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.” In this one great sacrificial choice, God proved His great love for us by sending Jesus to the Cross in our place. If His love for us is so great that He would not withhold His only Son from us, and it is, is it any wonder than that He would not allow any-thing to ever separate us from Himself? Those He’s chosen in Himself before the foundation of the world? “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father”—Romans 8:15.

Not even death with its apparent finite-ness can separate us from God…

We see the Truth of this early one Sunday morning. Friday has passed. Jesus has borne the shame and torture of the Cross. His Body, broken and bloodied now lays in its borrowed tomb. The night will pass. The following day with its night too. God uses the passing of time to teach us so many lessons; one of those being things are not always as they appear. Sunday morning comes, and what the world though had happened, what evil had intended to happen, did not prevail. People though they had put an end to Jesus. Instead, God used their sin-fullness for His glory, and our good. To bless us and save us. To give us the greatest of Gifts. The only One whose Blood alone is worthy to atone for our sins…

So then, if Gods giving us His most precious possession—His only Son to die in our place that we might be restored to right relationship with Him, how can we allow ourselves to buy into the lie that any-thing could ever separate us from the One who has chosen us in Himself?  How can we allow any-thing, ourselves include,  to condemn us? More, believe that God will not provide for us? He has, after all, already given us His absolute best, all we will ever need, in Jesus! “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies” Romans 8:31-33.

Why then do we struggle still? Why are we so reluctant to believe Him? To simply hand Him whatever it is He may be asking us to give or give up?

Sunday morning sealed every Word God has ever spoken. Paul is assuring us that, contrary to how we may be feeling—whatever we may be experiencing at any given moment, God loves us. More, there is absolutely nothing that will ever change that. So beloved, if you are struggling with doubt today, wrestling with His will for your life, troubled about handing over to Him that thing He may be asking you to let go of—fear not! He alone is faithful to exchange your weakness for His strength. And, once armed with that strength He will re-minded you that He’ll not allow anything, no-thing “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Take heart friends, soon and very soon Sunday morning will dawn in your hearts and the stone of doubt, fear, rebellion, hesitation, will be rolled away eternally!  Then, all that we thought we knew of ourselves, our faith, about our God, will be rightly revealed to us by the Truth of His Presence among us. Soon and very soon my friend!

But in the meantime remember this: Just as Jesus struggled with accepting the Fathers will, however briefly, in the garden, you too will struggle. Nonetheless, once you have struggled a little while, you too must come to the place where you say with an obedient heart—seeking His will above your own, His glory above all else; “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” –Luke 22:42.

Take heart my brother, the battle is not yours it’s the Lord. Stand firm, even so, do all that must, are called to do, in Him and then stand back and watch your Daddy do what only He can! Watch, as He brings His will about in your heart and life…

Dear friend, don’t miss yet another opportunity to allow this Jesus to draw in your heart. As we prepare ourselves for Easter morning, for His dawning in our lives afresh, won’t you ask Him to come into yours, too? He’s been waiting for three days for you to ask…

 

 

Examples. Ephesians 2:7.

March 24, 2019 /

“So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.”

The starry heavens are best seen by reflecting telescopes, which, in their field, mirror the brightness above. –MacLaren Commentaries.

Though Paul directs all glory and honor towards Jesus Christ, towards Gods kindness, mercy, and grace being lavished on all those whom He has chosen in Christ as His own; here, in our scripture, in some small way too, he makes known to us how God uses His creations, those He has chosen for Himself, as examples for all who will follow their example of perpetual faithfulness in the face of adversity—and even death. If not for Gods unplumbed love, of His desiring to be in relationship with His creation, His chosen ones, how else might we explain our ability to interact—more, share intimacy with, the Sovereign God of the universe? God’s kindness is all ‘in Christ Jesus’; in Him is the great channel through which His love comes to men, the river of God which is full of water. And that kindness is realised by us when we are ‘in Christ.’ Separated from Him we do not possess it; joined to Him as we may be by true faith in Him, it is ours, and with it all the blessings which it brings into our else empty and thirsting hearts.

Neither Paul, knocked from this world, quite literally into the next, on a dusty Damascus road, nor Peter, called to leave behind nets and boats, family and livelihood, nor Simon, torn between one form of revolution and another, and then Matthew—transformed from a collector of coins and animals and all sorts of goods, to one used instead, to amass souls for the Kingdom. Examples each. Confirmations each of God’s Word. Truly He uses the weak things of this world—the rough, broken, and downtrodden, the outsider and the defeated, the liar and thief, haughty and bigot, the self-righteous and pauper to confound those that see themselves as wise and superior.

Who better to reach the average man than the average man transformed by the power of Jesus Christ?

Yet, not each of His chosen 12 were true prodigals. Even so, all were born sinners. Perhaps you and I cannot relate to a Paul. To an outwardly haughty—self-aggrandizing man full of a pride born from his station and position. Maybe he, his thinking and privilege, is too far removed from us, our way of life, to take in, even scarcely, his thinking or actions.  So full of his own “rightness” he was willing to kill and destroy lives that it may be satisfied. And yet God saw fit to use him mightily. And, his opposite, Peter. A man who reeked of fish and sweat—of resignation perhaps? A simple man—not eloquent, but plain-spoken. Mouthy even. Some might say brash. And Simon the Zealot, though eventually obscure, was a man who had hungered for change. For a better life—a more level playing field for his people. For fairness, safety, and peace; by any means necessary. A man who so wanted fairness and freedom he was willing to die for it. A man who, after encountering his Lord, eventually laid down the plowshares beaten into sword and, instead, used the Sword of the Spirit—the Word of God, with which to fight his battles. And our brother Matthew—a tax collecting thief. Pilfering from his own people. Benefiting from their suffering—and loss. Swindling and conniving that his purse might grow fat while theirs—his fellow Jew, was filled only with dust. Emptied of opportunities—and food, by the Roman demand for unjust taxes, and his greed for more…

Yet Gods unfathomable mercy is demonstrated to us through the example of each of these quite ordinary men…

In this text, when read in context, we witness, in part, Paul shifting gears. We see, through the eyes of his understanding, that the dawn of Christs return may be much further off than what he first believed—what they each first believed. We witness his looking towards the dawning of the future church. Towards us. And, in his viewing of us, recognizing all the more the weight of his own example to the world at large and, specifically for Gods elect. Hence, encouraging us via his informing us of the unending plethora of God’s grace. Paul is detailing his responsibility—our responsibility too, and great privilege as Christians, to demonstrate Gods unplumbed love to the world. This grace of God which fills his epistles—his heart and life, forever changing each. This amazing grace of Gods; so lavished upon him and so obviously over-flowing that the world cannot help but witness how God touches ordinary, sin-filled men, and, as a result, they are forever changed by Him. Not made instantly perfect in the natural mind you, yet, are everlastingly changed, made perfect. in time, by Christ. Used then as examples of His great mercy and love. Of His longing to have restored relationship with His creations. The characters of Christian people are in every age the clearest and most effectual witnesses of the power of the Gospel. Their transformed lives, our lives, a living testament to a loving and merciful God. That we, mere men, be used—chosen to partner with this God whose mercy and grace is as far from our full understanding as the east is from the west…

And, though Paul—and these dear brothers each, are guideposts used still, pointing us towards the God of mercy and grace and patients and unfathomable love, this mantle of demonstrating, of being living examples of the transformative touch of Christ is now ours to wear—if, we know Him as Savior and Lord. If we too have taken off the old man and put on Christ. Our witness is as valid and vital this day as it was the day it issued from Paul’s heart and onto the pages of God’s Word…

In closing, do we daily demonstrate, via our Christian character, that transforming touch of God we’ve been chosen and privileged to have received? That magnificent mercy we hold in our bellies, in these clay vessels, which Paul speaks of. Do we share the privilege of Gods saving grace as we ought—have been commanded to? As a blazing love for him, to serve Him only would drive us to? If not, why not? Should we be stricken suddenly mute—would the world recognize Christ in us at all?

What does your example look like?

Will God use it to touch some future soul looking towards the horizon of faith and wondering…?

Saints, in Christ Jesus Father God has taken us and all future generations into account. He has showered us each in His redemptive love. Washing us clean, He has pardoned, adopted, and fully restored us to Himself. We have been both blessed by Him and chosen in Him to demonstrate a living example of God’s amazing grace, as well the miraculous power of encouragement one receives having witnessed the true conversation of a soul. The restored hope and eternal optimism, the joy God offers a hopeless and exasperated world. “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation” 2 Corinthians 5:16-19.

Dear friend, if you are with us today for the first time, or, if God has wooed you back once more, perhaps it is to confirm His calling you to Himself? Perhaps He wants you to receive His free gift of this great mercy and grace Paul speaks of? Perhaps He wants to use all that you’ve lived through as an example of hope and encouragement for another? Won’t you say yes to Him today? Won’t you ask Him into your life as King of your heart? He loves you my friend. “But for this very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life” –1 Timothy 1:16.

 

Deliverance. Exodus 21-22

January 6, 2019 /

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelite’s went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”

 

This message dropped in my belly on New Year’s Day. I grabbed my Bible, journal, a pen, and headed over to the nearby pond for some alone time with the Lord. It was the first morning of the New Year…

As I sat before the Lord seeking His will for this new season, I realized that it had taken a series of awfully specific yet outwardly random events to lead me to one simple, yet powerful Word: Deliverance. And, just in case I might have missed what the Lord was impressing on my spirit, in His infinite wisdom and grace, He confirmed His Word yet again, today. As I share what’s been deposited in my belly with you, I’m also speaking over myself. This was—is, a very personal, specific, and, for me at least, a very timely Word. And I believe it is for some of you as well. For someone this will be the confirmation you have prayed for, for others not.

Might I suggest you eat the meat and spit out the bones…

Amid all the New Year hype, all the varied conversations with family and friends concerning resolutions, intentions, and hopes, all I wanted—needed actually, was to go and get alone with God. I couldn’t wait to get out of the house. There was a sense of urgency bubbling-up within me. I sensed in my spirit that a “suddenly” moment is upon the Body of Christ. A communal experience for sure, yes—yet also a deeply personal one as well.

There is nothing new under the sun…

Scholars estimate that some 2 million plus Jews—and those Egyptians that chose to go with them in the exodus, left Egypt behind following after Moses and Aaron. To give you a visual of what that may look like today, picture turning on the news and seeing all of Houston Texas, with its population of 2 million plus citizens, walking some 220 plus miles—the approximate distance from Egypt to the Red Sea—across that state. Or, google a picture of the Anti-Nuclear March that took place in New York’s Central Park in 1982; though that visual would pale in comparison to the march of the Israelite’s, as only a mere million people were gathered in Central Park. I stress these numbers that you might try to wrap your mind around such a great multitude. Now, liken that visual to the mammoth amount of individuals God actually delivered across  11 miles of the Red Sea—safely! Through a sea He had to first divide and then continue to send such powerful winds through its midst that its saturated sea-bottom became dry land! Firm enough to bear up under the weight of many souls, of every animal, cart, child, and its mother…

Surely if God fulfilled His promise to deliver those who had become so entrenched in hopelessness that most had all but forgotten He was God; He is equally faithful to deliver you and me, all those equally entrenched in their own slavish hopelessness. As I stated at the beginning of this post—I’m sharing this for all who believe. Also, for each of you who have yet to come to have faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The blanket of God’s promise to deliver His people covers even those whose toes are still sticking out from under its covering…

None of us stand before an actual sea that must be crossed in order that we might live. And yet each of does stand facing our own Red Sea nonetheless. What has God strategically put in front of you? What impossible “thing”, what situation, addiction, relationship, life-style choice are you currently facing? What is your personal impossible? Is it drug addiction? Porn perhaps? Are you drinking too much? Lying, cheating, or stealing maybe? Are you sleeping with someone you have no business being intimate with? Have you aborted your baby? Are you eating yourself to death? Does your mouth profess one thing, yet your secrets tell an entirely different story? Are you full of fear? Suicidal? Do you wrestle with ongoing depression? Are you an adulterer? A child molester? Maybe a murderer? Do you choose to believe there is no God? I’m here today to tell you that if you’ve ticked any or all of these boxes—God still loves you. Let me say that again. If you’ve committed every sin I’ve listed—or some I haven’t, God loves you. Period.

It’s not, “God loves you, but you must.” Or, “God loves if you’ll but do x, y, and z.” It’s not like that. God just loves you ________ (add your name).

Do you see the difference there? Pay close attention. There’s the you that God has created, and then  the sins you’ve committed that keep you separated from Him. You are not your sins! You are God’s creation! And you were created for a purpose! And, He died that you might one day walk across the bridge of His Body—broken just for you. Delivered now, safely back to the Father, washed clean in the Blood He shed to rid you of those sins. As surely and safely as God delivered Israel from the grip of their enemy so too Jesus will deliver you from the grip of your enemy as well. That’s His part—to deliver you. As only He can…

Yet look at our Scripture verse. We too have a part to play in this deliverance account. Small as it might be it’s ours nonetheless—and, there are no stand-ins. As it was with Moses, so it is with us. We need to act. We must offer back to God what He has graciously placed in our hands; our free will. We must stretch it out before God in humility—in recognition, admitting that outside of Him we are powerless to deliver ourselves from all that is “impossible” before us.

He alone is God of the impossible. Only He can deliver His children…

Even the mighty King David, a man after God’s own heart, knew this… “The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me” –Psalm 18:15-19.

Beloved, as you stand facing the very dawn of this New Year take heart, you are not alone! God has led you to this seeming wilderness. Suddenly, while facing what has appeared impossible to conquer, or get, let go of, repent of, believe Him for—maybe half a life-time now for some, God will divide the waters before you that you may cross over safely. Never to see this vicious enemy that has held you captive again! “But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again” Exodus 14:13.

Friend, I do believe God in His infinite mercy, and out of His great love for you, has surely brought you here today. If you are His child, I pray this Word confirms what He has already spoken to you. And, I pray your obedience in seeking what it is He will have you to do, give up, submit yourself to, take your hands off of, repent of; in this season of His mighty deliverance!

And, if you find yourself here and have yet to ask Jesus into your life as your Savior and Lord, then I believe also, that today is the day God has chosen as your new birth day! Jesus, when talking to Nicodemus, a teacher of the Law said this: “He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”—John 3:2-3; emphasis my own.

Whatever it is your facing today beloved know this in your very bones: You can cross over safely if you’ll but take the Hand of the One who makes all things possible. Jesus Christ the Lord…

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