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I Am Your Portion

Is fairness everyone getting an equal portion or what he or she needs?  Was it fair that Uzzah died trying to steady the ark (1 Chronicles 13-15) or should the priests have stepped up to do what was only their job?

I. Numbers 18:20-23.  God made the Levites priests and said that He would be their portion and inheritance in this life, and so as they served Him–which included carrying the ark of the Lord, He would care for them.  A treasured possession the whole nation were priests (Exodus 19:5-6, Lamentations 3:21-26), and thus in the New Testament so are Christians (1 Peter 2:4-5).  Thus, God is our portion too.

II. Joshua 21:41-42.  God scattered his priests of the Old Testament and New Testament (Acts 8:1-4) so they could capture souls and keep others connected to Him.  So, seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10) is our work (1 Corinthians 15:58).  When we bury the talent with which we were entrusted (Matthew 25:24-29), then the Uzzahs around us touch the ark we should be carrying and die.

III. Jonah 4:9-11.  When we don’t invest what God has entrusted us with to yield interest for Him, He tells us that even what we do have He’ll take away.  Many times we justify not investing because we’ve judged others as unworthy of salvation.  That’s what Jonah did.  Rather, we must help others (Galatians 6:1-2) out of sincere love for them (1 John 4:20).  Then we can run our race with perseverance (Hebrews 12:1).

We’ve been entrusted with the gospel message.  How many Uzzahs are steadying arks on carts around us while we remain silent?  Is the Lord your portion?

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All That Is Written

While singing with kids, I’d sometimes ask why we used an open hands motion for “Bible” rather than a closed hands one?  Their honest answer was that we should be reading and living it.  Far too often there’s dust on our Bibles.  This was certainly true in Josiah’s time.

I. 2 Chronicles 34:1-13.  Was God’s Word missing or hidden?  After all, for the previous six decades, God’s people had endured Manasseh’s 55-year and then Amon’s 2-year idolatrous reigns.  Would the 8-year old Josiah be any different.  Then, we’re told that at 16 he began to seek God.  At 20 he enacted reforms and at 26 repairs to the temple.  That’s when God’s Word was brought out.

II. 2 Chronicles 34:14-21.  The priest Hilkiah “found” it who gave it to the secretary Shaphan to read to the king who seemed to have a different spirit than what the nation had known.  Josiah’s reaction was to tear his clothes and to take action.  From his repentance, he asked that God be sought and laid their struggles upon their not doing “all that is written in this book.”

III. Psalm 1:1-3.  The same restoration spirit is needed today.  Rather than one copy collecting dust, we live in a time where we are surrounded by physical and digital copies of God’s Word, yet ours have just as much dust upon them.  We need to recognize its usefulness in equipping us (2 Timothy 3:16-17), tear our clothes figuratively and take similar literal actions like Josiah did.

The decision starts with yourself to blow the dust off your Bible and devote yourself to its instruction and rebuke.  Then we will see changes happen in our families and in the Lord’s church.

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And the Lord Added

Any bride beginning a new marriage would have trouble if she only spent 1-3 hours with her husband, spoke to him only when she needed something, made excuses to not study him, and never wanted to spend time with his family.  Yet, that’s often how we treat our relationship with our Bridegroom, Christ (Acts 2:42-47).

I. Ephesians 5:21-24.  Our work in our relationship with Christ is to devote ourselves to Him.  One of the words used to describe how we are to work in 1 Corinthians 15:58 is ‘steadfast,’ which is the way that the KJV translates how early Christians approached their new relationship with their Bridegroom.  Other translations use ‘devoted,’ which Paul and James say is to wholeheartedly submit to our Husband (James 4:7-10).

II. Ephesians 5:25-27.  There’s mutual benefit when both work in a relationship.  Jesus sanctifies His bride, the church, so that it can glorify Him.  He died for us to give us life, so we set our hearts and minds on things above (Colossians 3:1-4).  When someone’s hobby, such as fishing or cars, is his life, it’s obvious.  Christ is our life now, and so this ought to be obvious in what is important to us and how we live.  This was obvious with the early Christians.

III. Ephesians 5:28-30.  Faithfulness and steadfast love being the foundation of God’s character (Psalm 89:14), He never changes in our relationship with Him (2 Timothy 2:11-13).  He equips us out of love with what we need, but our job is to grow in Him (Ephesians 4:15-16).  In the ‘Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, we can see the dating phase that with our Bridegroom’s authority, we are to make disciples.  The wedding occurs as they are baptized and the Lord adds them to His bride, the church.

Then, the marriage begins as we work to keep them as disciples with Jesus’ help.  Any relationship takes much work to maintain.  How are you growing in yours?

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Will Be Impossible for Them

Ministry is like herding cats to safety away from the cliff of culture that is crumbling beneath their paws.  In the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11:1-9, God reveals a spiritual insight in verse 6 that can help the church move forward: “And the LORD said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do.  And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.'”

I.  Luke 22:31-32.  Told to fill the earth, mankind stayed all together and wanted to make a name for themselves rather than glorify God’s name.  In this behind-the-scenes heavenly insight similar to Job 2:3-5 or 1 Kings 22:19-23, God tells us that we should not put limitations upon what we can do in His kingdom for His name.  Yet, beaten down by the world, the church keeps the gospel contained within the walls of our buildings.

II.  Ephesians 4:1-16.  It takes unity to do so.  If Christians today were united as one people of God and spoke the one language of His Word, then we could have the unity of the Spirit centered around the seven “ones” of this passage.  If we could “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” to “the fullness of Christ,” then what we’ve already done as the church would be the beginning of what we would do.

III.  John 14:12-14.  We believe that “with man it is impossible” (Mark 10:27) rather than “all things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23) and so shrink back (Hebrews 10:39).  We must believe that Jesus can with us and our churches and ask in His name so He can do it.  And then we must live the impossible with others by doing all, in word or deed, in His name (Colossians 3:17) every moment of every day of our lives.

What can we do together to make a name for God and not ourselves?  … if we were united in Christ with one direction, purpose, and goal?  … if we believed that God could do the impossible through us working together?

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For You Alone

It matters not that men don’t see,
Nor ears be never pleased by praise;
I live, O God, for you alone,
To walk beneath your gracious gaze.

Make it so, O Lord! that I
Be a man against the world’s hard sway,
To passions of the flesh immune,
To do your will without delay —

Without delay to oft return
When feet would stray from the narrow path.
Let the heart be won by Jesus’ love,
The mind be warned by your righteous wrath.

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No finer prayer

Lord who cares,

This prayer, no finer made, is mine:
“I believe; help my unbelief.”
So many times, O God, you proved
Your power and will to change our lives,
Forgive our sins, and reconcile.
Without a shadow of a doubt,
I know you live and move and act.
But still — yes, still! — after all these years,
My faith wavers and worry moves in,
Like storm clouds rolling in from the sea.
Ah!, my God, whose glory shines —
Forgive my foolish human sight.
Remove the ifs from my trembling lips,
That thanks may flow before the fact.
Lord, I believe! In you I trust.
When darkness comes, give me faith at last.

In the Man of the Cross, amen.