Falling into sin again after 40 years of serving the Lord, God’s people are told by a prophet that it is their fear of the world that has caused them to disobey. That’s not how the people understand it though. When the angel first comes to Gideon, this son hiding his threshing from the Midianites believes that God has forsaken them (Judges 6). Continue reading “Go in This Might of Yours”
The Day Begins
The day begins with risen light,
With peace within to meet the fight
Without. Be glorified, O Lord,
In me, who in the beginning died
To self, whose will must daily die.
Look down with your benevolent eye
To bless with power, for foe and friend,
To reach with shining faith the end.
As Though By Our Own
In recent years, the world has grown aggressively antagonistic to Christianity, and yet the church’s response has been to compromise with the culture and blend in to with every secular help agency to win souls. Rather, let us hold out the treasure of the gospel and point to Jesus no matter what the cost.
I. Acts 3:5-16. Peter healed a man lame from birth and an utterly astounded crowd soon came running. Had it been the expected alms, like the silver or gold that everyone expected, then perhaps no one would have taken note. But a complete healing of the man so that he could leap and praise God stood out dramatically. Instead of blending in, God’s power was at work. The gospel also heals us completely from sin, yet the church would rather be like every other agency to keep from being noticed.
II. Hebrews 7:11-16. Peter was quick to tell the gathering crowd that it was not by their own power or piety that the man was healed. Rather, he pointed to Jesus’ authority, power, and indestructible life. Being sinful, we can do little (Romans 7:18-20), but Jesus was sinless (Hebrews 4:15). Christians have often served without thanks, but when great things happen because God worked through us, we should acknowledge Him who is able to do all things.
III. Acts 12:21-24. Peter then preaches the gospel to them (1 Corinthians 15:3-5), explaining that is faith through Jesus (John 8:24) that distinguishes us. Yet, the Lord’s church attempts to compete with the world by means of the world. We strive to have the same programs and ministries, the same facilities and advertising campaigns that the world has. In doing so, we hope we’ll stand out enough to grow in numbers while not enough to incur the world’s wrath.
Because our Savior was on a mission (Luke 19:10), we who wear His name must be as well. We must have the courage to stand out in a world that stands against us.
And They Prayed
One hymn we sing brings prayer into a never-ceasing part of our daily lives by asking us four questions:
Ere you left your room this morning, Did you think to pray?
When you met with great temptation, Did you think to pray?
When your heart was filled with anger, Did you think to pray?
When sore trials came upon you, Did you think to pray?
I. Acts 1:1-26. Told to wait in their time of transition, God’s people prayed. For about ten days, Jesus’ followers waited for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, and in that time they decided to find a replacement for Judas. Rather than just picking someone whom everyone liked and might give their group a morale boost after Jesus had ascended, they prayed about it first, and prayer characterized Christians’ lives throughout Acts. So, we who are waiting for our coming transition to eternity when Jesus returns (Hebrews 9:27-28) ought to pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
II. John 14:12-14. When God’s people don’t inquire of Him, bad things happen (Joshua 9:14-15). On the other hand, we have record of great encouragement and growth when they do (Acts 4:31). Jesus invites us to submit to Him in prayer, promising that He’ll do what is within God’s will and not our own (James 4:3-4), so that glory will go to the Father. It pleases God when we pray without ceasing for ourselves and others to be filled with the knowledge of His will and are saved (Colossians 1:9-10). But, we have to believe that God will work powerfully through our prayers for His purpose.
III. 1 Timothy 2:1-4. We have to believe that powerful things will happen when His people pray. When the Israelites sinned with the golden calf, Moses prayed, recognizing that their only distinction from other peoples in the world, was God’s presence working powerfully in them and through them (Exodus 33:15-17) and God did all that Moses had asked. We in the New Testament time are told to intercede on behalf of others in all situations and circumstances because God desires all people to be saved. So, are you praying that the saved may be strengthened and the lost led to Christ?
Jesus’ church today is a continuation of what we can read about twenty centuries ago. Since prayer was so much a powerful part of their daily lives, shouldn’t we pray without ceasing as well?
Our God, He Is Alive
Because it acts like He is dead or never existed, the world tells us that everything we see exists by accident or macro-evolution. But, no matter how smart or advanced man thinks he has become, he cannot explain how something came from nothing, complexity evolved from chaos, how life arose from non-life, or how morality developed from instinct. Claiming to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:19-22).
Rather, because “Our God, He Is Alive,” God is able to help us in many ways here and in eternity.
I. John 1:1-3. In the first and second stanzas of the song, God is able to help us as our Creator (Isaiah 40:28-31) and Communicator (2 Timothy 3:16-17):
There is, beyond the azure blue, A God, concealed from human sight, He tinted skies with heav’nly hue And framed the worlds with His great might.
There was, a long, long time ago, A God the prophets heard, He is the God that we should know, Who speaks from His inspired Word.
II. Colossians 1:15-20. The third stanza shows God as Omnipotent (1 Corinthians 1:21-25) and Omniscient (Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 7:7-8):
Secure, is life from mortal mind, God holds the germ within His hand, Tho’ men may search, they cannot find, For God alone does understand.
III. John 8:34-36. The fourth stanza explains that because Jesus was our Sacrifice, He can also be our Savior (Romans 3:21-26):
Our God, whose Son upon a tree, A life was willing there to give, That He from sin might set man free, And evermore with Him could live.
Because we know that we serve a risen Savior, we see how He continues to help us in our daily walk with Him and prepares us for eternity, so we can declare to an unbelieving world that …
There is a God, He is alive, in Him we live, and we survive; From dust our God created man, He is our God, the great I AM.
How Long Will You Go Limping …?
Elijah describes those who should have been God’s people in his day as “limping between two opinions.” That is a good way to describe those in the church that have grown complacent and compromised in their faith and the lost but searching that we’d like to reach with the gospel. In the contest he forces between the impotent false gods the people were worshiping and God Himself, Elijah shows God to be GOD! with tremendous power.
I. 1 Kings 18:11-39. Just how difficult those in power had made it for God’s people who were truly seeking to worship God in spirit and in truth is evident when Elijah tries to send Obadiah, one of the Lord’s prophets, to force the contest with Ahab and Jezebel. Obadiah relates how the faithful are being persecuted and how prevalent enforced idolatry is in the culture. In the contest on Mount Carmel, true power is displayed from God, the people see this, and their decision to choose God cancels out the power those in power believed they had over the people as the false prophets are put to death.
II. Acts 2:22-39. In Jesus’ time on earth, those in power feared the opinion of the people as well (John 11:45-48), and when it began to turn towards hailing Jesus, they sought to put Him to death (Luke 22:1-2). With a “hard saying” Jesus, like Elijah, sought to make the spiritually limping among those who should have been God’s people choose between opinions (John 6:25-69). Most left Him then but not “the twelve” at that time, Peter wisely answering, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the gospel confronts us with the same choice.
III. Romans 10:9-15. The only way that the lost will be reached with that choice (call on His Name) is if those who have already obeyed the gospel (Romans 6:3-5) go (are sent) … so the power of the gospel is presented as a choice (is preached and they hear it) … because they believe it. First, we must truly believe it ourselves (John 8:24). Far too often, Christians fear the opinion of the people controlled by those in power and our love grows cold (Matthew 24:9-13). Instead, we must love through obedience (John 14:15) and sacrificial living (Romans 12:1-2) to love the limping as Jesus did (John 13:34-35).
Are you limping between two opinions? See the power of God in dying on the cross for your sins and being raised from death for your eternal life.
Behold Your Gods, O Israel
Writing just decades before the Northern Kingdom was taken into captivity, Amos attributed its decline to the sins of Jeroboam two centuries before (Amos 7:8-11). This is how any nation ends that doesn’t put God first. From a study Bible section on the historical situation of Amos, I’ve substituted the U.S. for Israel:
“The U.S. was enjoying great prosperity and had reached new political and military heights. It was also a time of idolatry, extravagant indulgence in luxurious living, immorality, and corruption of judicial procedures and oppression of the poor. … The U.S. at the time was politically and spiritually smug. … The nation felt sure, therefore, that she was in God’s good graces. But prosperity increased the U.S.’s religious and moral corruption.”
I. 1 Kings 11:9-40. Because Solomon had not lived up to the “if” God gave him in following His commands (1 Kings 3:14), God raised up enemies for Solomon. Among them was an ambitious man named Jeroboam, who once he heard that God was going to give him ten tribes of Israel to rule, turned against Solomon and escaped to Egypt until the crowning of Solomon’s son as king. Even though God knew the choice that Jeroboam would make, in His greatness, God still gives Jeroboam his own “if” that if followed would result in his own covenant like God had made with David. Jeroboam was faced with a choice after the prophecy came true if he would trust in God’s promise or in his own power to rule his new nation.
II. 1 Kings 12:13-32. Because he rejected God for the might of his own strength, Jeroboam needed to rewrite history, lest the people of the ten tribes of Israel he now ruled remembered that they were God’s people. So, erecting golden calves in the northern and southern reaches of his new nation, he told them that these were the gods who had really rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 32:7-10). He then assigned priests from any tribe he wanted to (based on bribes perhaps?) and even offered sacrifices himself. Jeroboam’s sins became so ingrained in the culture that the works of every evil king was compared to him, e.g. 1 Kings 22:52. There would be no dynasty for Jeroboam as he turned from God’s offer (1 Kings 15:29-30).
III. John 4:19-30. Once the prophesied split was made, Jeroboam divided his country not just from Reheboam but from David [and so ultimately Christ] (2 Samuel 7:16) and from Moses [and so the covenant with God] (Exodus 19:5-6). The Assyrians sent the Northern Kingdom off into captivity after Amos wrote. The area was resettled by a mixture of peoples, but did that mean that God was done with them? The heir of David’s covenant revealed Himself as the Christ to a Samaritan woman at a well and spoke of true worship that was soon open to all. With joy, she went away proclaiming Jesus as the Christ to any who would listen. John 15:1-17 gives us our own “if” to obey His commands and abide in Jesus.
Will we trust in God’s promise or our own power?
I can’t keep doing this
O God, I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep this up.
I’m tired and frustrated and ready to call it quits.
Temptation continually barks at my heels.
Dangers lurk around every corner.
Many don’t care, and others want to stone me.
I’m looking for that rock to hide under.
When will it all end?
My son, I can keep you and hold you and propel you forward.
I am energized for every demand, powerful for the need.
My word puts the devil on the run.
I am your tower and refuge and solid rock.
I care, I love you, and continue to call you to me.
I will stand you up in the midst of the people.
The end will be your success and not your failure.
Show me love and power
Heavenly Father, show me your love and power
Your child am I — created in your image
You know my needs, my every fear and pain
I trust in you — on you I wait in silence
Still my troubled heart and restless mind
Sustain me with your every promise kept
By day I search for you till setting sun
Your name upon my lips in dark of night
Thanks I give for what I have been given,
For what I’ll still receive — Whatever my want
I’ll not complain, but think of Jesus Christ,
Who walked the lonely road to Calvary’s tree.
So Many Truths I Do Not Know
Christ does what I could never do,
He died my death, and brought me life;
He reconciled me back to you,
He gives me strength and keeps me safe.
So many truths I do not know,
And more to me are not revealed,
The heart is hard, the mind is slow —
But this I see: my future’s sealed.
Continue reading “So Many Truths I Do Not Know”