But God Gives A Song!

God leads His dear children along.  Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song -- in the night seasons, and all the day long...

"Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You" (Psalm 143:8).

"As for me, I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning, and noon  I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice" (Psalm 55:16). 

"In peace I will lie down and sleep, for You alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety" (Psalm 4:8).

"The  whole earth is filled with awe at Your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, You call forth songs of joy" (Psalm 65:8).

         In the night seasons...and all the day long!     Praise Him forever! 

Life Stinks!? - Max Lucado

"Yes, life stinks. But it won't forever.  As one of my friends likes to say, 'Everything will work out in the end. If it's not working out, it's not the end.'

  In the meantime, don't overreact. Psalm 37:7 says, 'Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act. Don't worry about evil people who prosper, or fret about their wicked schemes.'

  This is a toxic world. But neither do we want to join the Chicken Little chorus of gloom and doom: 'The sky is falling! The sky is falling!'

  Somewhere between Pollyanna and Chicken Little, between denial and blatant panic, stands the levelheaded, clear-thinking, still-believing follower of Christ.

  Psalm 27:3 says, 'My heart shall not fear -- though war arises against me, yet I will be confident!'

  Confident in Him!"

Reshaping the Pot

 "The pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hand; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him"(Jeremiah 18:4).

God sent Jeremiah to watch the potter reshape a marred pot, carefully handling the material and reforming it "as seemed best to him" into a new, better pot!

The prophet reminds us that God is the skillful potter and we are the clay.

He is sovereign and can use what He creates to both destroy and create beauty in us. He, the Master Potter, can, and is wiling to create new and precious pottery from our shattered pieces. He doesn't look at our scarred broken lives and discard them as waste!

He picks up our pieces and lovingly reshapes them as He sees fit.

Even in our scarred brokenness we have value to our Master Potter.

In His hands the broken pieces of our lives can be reshaped into beautiful vessels to be used by Him for Hs glory!

                         Something beautiful, something good

                             All my confusion He understood

                    All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife

                       But He made something beautiful of my life

What is Jesus doing right now?

What Is Jesus Doing Right Now?

One of the things He is doing right now is:

1. He is praying for us

Jesus' prayers for us assures the security of our salvation.


If  He were not effective in His role as our mediator/advocate we could lose our salvation.

Jesus Christ who died -- more than that, who was raised to life -- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  (Romans 8:34)

Therefore He is able to save forever those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.  (Romans 7:25)

-- He is in the Presence of God right now -- at the right hand of God. In Scripture God's  right hand is the symbol of His unique and almighty  power and authority.


-- His intercession is continual and intentional - He lives to intercede for us! - Present tense!


 Jesus' prayers for us restores us to fellowship with God when that fellowship is broken by sin.


Christ is called our "Advocate," like our "defense attorney."
When we sin He is there interceding for us before God - being our Advocate - every day - all the time.


"It's me, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer!"

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense -- Jesus Christ, the righteous One.

(1 John 2:1)

He's not just praying for us.  He is also -

2. Jesus is preparing our heavenly home for us

The picture is of a wealthy father who adds additional rooms to his home to accommodate his married children and their families. Much like the Amish farmer in earlier days. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, but also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms...I am going to prepare a place for you; I will come back and take you to be with Me...

(John 14:1-3)

There's room for all!

And He is also....

3. Jesus is producing fruit in the lives of believers

As the branch  is connected to the vine and draws its life and nourishment to sustain life and produce fruit, so the believer is grafted into spiritual union with Christ to draw spiritual nourishment from Christ.

Spiritual fruit is the result.

I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener....every branch that does bare fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful...Remain in Me and I will remain in you. I am the vine and you are the branches. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me...Without Me you can do nothing...This is to My Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples. 

(John 15:1-7) 

We were grafted into Christ and now we are being nourished and pruned so we can produce abundant fruit for Him!

A friend in California owns many acres of farmland and they produce a great harvest of citrus fruit.

She mentioned once they were expanding their acreage and citrus planting  to produce more.  I asked her if they were  planting lemons or oranges or grapefruit.

She answered, "We just buy citrus, and then we graft the little plants into what we need. In one greenhouse we will make them into lemon trees. In another we make them into oranges. What we graft on them determines what kind of  tree and fruit we will get!"

Since we are grafted  into Jesus, our fruit should be those listed in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Our fruit should reflect our Root - our true Vine   - Jesus!

Great Words from Philip Yancey - The Sermon on the Mount

In The Jesus I Never Knew Philip Yancey exposes his own puzzlement with the Sermon on the Mount -- especially the Beatitudes.

Here are some of his thoughts regarding how the sermon describes Christ's dual message: absolute Ideals and absolute Grace.



  

     For years I had felt so unworthy before the absolute ideals of the Sermon on the Mount that I had missed any notion of grace.

     Once I understood the dual message, however, I went back and found the message of grace gusts through the entire speech.

     It begins with the Beatitudes--Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek; blessed are the desperate--and it moves toward the Lord's Prayer-- Forgive us our debts...deliver us from the evil one.

     Jesus began this great sermon with gentle words for those in need...and continued on with a prayer that has formed a model for all twelve-step groups. "One day at a time," say the alcoholics in AA; "Give us this day our daily bread," say the Christians. Grace is for the desperate, the needy, the broken, those who cannot make it on their own. Grace is for all of us.


     For years I had thought of the Sermon on the Mount as a blueprint for human behavior that no one could possibly follow. Reading it again, I found that Jesus gave those words, not to cumber us, but to tell us what God is like.

     The character of God is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount.

     Why should we love our enemies? Because our merciful Father causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good. Why be perfect? Because God is perfect. Why store up treasures in heaven? Because the Father lives there and will lavishly reward us

     Why live without fear and worry? Because the same God who clothes the lilies and the grass of the field has promised to take care of us.

     How could I have missed it? Jesus did not proclaim the Sermon on the Mount so that we could furrow our brows in despair over our failure to achieve perfection.

     He gave it to impart to us God's Ideal toward which we should never stop striving, but also to show us that none of us will ever reach that Ideal...it forces us to recognize the great distance between God and us, and any attempt to reduce that distance by somehow moderating or watering-down its claims misses the point altogether.

     ...The Sermon on the Mount proves that before God we all stand on level ground: murderers and temper-throwers, adulterers and lusters, thieves and covetous. We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace.

Discarding the Valuable, Keeping the Worthless

                                                          Holding on to the Worthless

The weight of gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents [about 25 tons], not including the revenues from merchants and traders from all the Arabian kings and governors of the land.

King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred bekas [7 1/2 pounds] went into each shield. He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold with three minas [3 3/4 pounds] of gold in each shield.

Then the king made a great throne inlaid with ivory and overlaid with gold...all King Solomon's goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold.

The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along the coasts of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons....

Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift -- articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons, and spices and horses and mules....

King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings.... 
                           1 Kings 10:14-25



Later, after Solomon's death, his son, Rehoboam, ascended to the throne.


Here's what happened:


After Rehoboam's position as king was established and he became strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD.

Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem...and told them, "This is what the LORD says, 'You have abandoned Me; therefore I now abandon you to Shishak.'"


Because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam.


With 1200 chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites that came with him from Egypt, he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem....

When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried all the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace.

He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made.

So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.

Whenever the king went to the LORD's temple, the guards went with him, bearing the shields, and afterwards they returned them to the guard room.

    -- 2 Chronicles 12:1-11


Their king had abandoned the law of the LORD (the text says, the king "and all Israel with him") and so lost his country's priceless heritage...all that Rehoboam's grandfather, King David, had set aside for the temple and royal treasuries, and all that his father, King Solomon, had later acquired...all gone...in the fifth year of his reign...what several generations accomplished was squandered in just a few years...

And those solid gold shields....

It's fascinating to imagine -- the guards probably polished the bronze to shining perfection -- but they were still bronze, not gold!

Who were they trying to fool?

So the guards, who had previously carried solid gold shields to escort their King, now carried cheap imitations!




Do we do this? Let what is priceless slip through our fingers and hold on tenaciously to what is without value? Polish it up and try to make it look good?

Not acknowledging that what we are grasping is only a substitute, a counterfeit, not the real thing!

Letting go of the important and holding on to the trivial.

It's time to reverse that - right now!

Mid-way to Christmas!

Six months from today is Christmas  - the happiest, most glorious time of the year!

I think I "Need a little Christmas now!"

Yes, right now!

I am putting on my Christmas music and singing loudly - and remembering that old wonderful Christmas carol, "What Child is this?"




Remember that 2nd verse:

 Why lies Him here in such mean estate

Where ox and ass are feeding

Good Christians fear:

For sinners, here, the silent Word is pleading.

I had two thoughts:

(1) the glorious fact of our rescue plan...

designed by God before the creation of the world...

described to mankind at the beginning of history...

reminded to mankind continually throughout history....

revealed to mankind in the incarnation of Jesus Christ the Word....

explained to mankind through the

written record of the New Testament...

and finally, totally, accomplished through the coronation of Jesus Christ as Lord of all.

Then "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord." (Philippians 2)

When Mary laid Him there in that manger, when the shepherds came to worship, when Joseph stood by to protect Him, in that tiny Body God's grace was already being worked out.

(2) God loves to surprise us!

Think of it!  The Creator--God--King arriving in Bethlehem of Judea in a stable! Who would ever make up a story like that!

And then in the last days John sees the throne of God and the elders call, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed."

And what does he see: "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as it it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne" (Revelation 5).

Not a fearful mighty Lion, but a wounded Lamb....the Lamb that was slain from the beginning of the world (Revelation 13).

God's amazing rescue plan -- wrapped in a surprise package -- and so we can now begin to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!

May the awe and wonder of Christmas astonish us every day!

Babette Prepares a Feast!

Babette Hersant, in 1871,  flees a terrifying life of violence in a French commune.  She finds herself in a small village in north Denmark.

The villagers, hardened by hypocrisy and self-centeredness,  experience a loveless, cheerless religion.

She takes up residence in the home of two woeful sisters, Martine and Filippa, daughters of the founder of their bleak religious order.

Babette suddenly becomes the winner of a lottery,
(10,000 francs) and keeping her winnings a secret,
decides to offer her community an extravagant French dinner.

The lottery ticket is her only tie to her previous life in Paris -- a gift from a friend who keeps renewing it every year.

She could have used the money to return to her life in Paris, escaping from the joyless existence of her village life. She had been there 14 years and certainly going back to Paris must have had some appeal.

But, instead, she decides to gift the entire community with a fabulous meal, one that they would never have had occasion to experience.

(Babette had been a master chef during her earlier life in Paris).

Using her new wealth, she has all the necessary items shipped in by boat: ice, dishes, fine linen, cheeses and meats, cases of wine, and a very large turtle--destined for the soup pot.

The opulent dinner scene reminds us of the splendor of a wedding banquet, an image also presented for us in the Bible to describe God's fellowship with his people, when we are brought, with great rejoicing, safely into His heavenly kingdom.

The extravagant richness and joy of the meal transforms the guests from gloomy and petty souls into people who have tasted divine mercy.


Their eyes and now open, realize they are the recipients of an experience they could never have imagined.

They are changed, transformed at the magnificent display of Babette's feast.

One guest, General Lowenhielm, says, "The moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude...grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty."

God's grace is seen, by most in the room, for the first time, as God who reveals His love, even partially, in a meal prepared with love and sacrifice.

Babette's Feast was movie produced in 1987, based on a screen play written by Isak Dinesen.

What more joyous words than from the General: Grace is infinite....demands nothing from us but that we await it with confidence and acknowledge it with gratitude....

"So what", we might say, "It was just meal!"

Perhaps.

But it is a reminder of another meal, two thousand years ago, in an  upstairs room, when Jesus had dinner with His disciples....

When it was time, he sat down, all the apostles with him, and said, "You've no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you before I enter my time of suffering. It's the last one I'll eat until we all eat it together in the kingdom of God."

Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory."

He did the same with the cup, after supper, saying, "This is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you."
 (Luke 22)


God's infinite grace...explained at a simple meal, a meal prepared with love and sacrifice.

How Paul Prayed for His Friends

 How Paul prayed for his Friends at Colossae --

    "We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way" Colossians 1:9-10).

  He didn't pray they would be obedient -- we can tell from the context that they were already obedient to His Spirit. He just wants them to know His will, through the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,  and then they would obey and live lives pleasing to God "in every way"!

  We should pray that prayer for each other. God's Spirit supplies the wisdom and understanding, we obey, and then we can live our lives glorifying and pleasing Him!

  Some day we may hear His voice, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the glory of your Lord" (Matthew 25:21).

   Remember the catechism? "What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." That's how we do it!

  

Quoteworthy....The Silver Trumpets

And the LORD spoke to Moses saying: Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movements of the camp... when you go to war in your land against the enemy who opposes you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies. Also in the days of your gladness, in your appointed feasts...you shall blow the trumpets."
    -- Numbers 10: 2, 9, 10


Reminds me of Susan in the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan gave her a special horn to blow in times of distress.

But these silver trumpets were to be used for many things -- to call the people together, to announce travel instructions and to call out to God when facing the enemy.

And we also have two trumpets: God's Word and prayer. We can call on God when we need direction in our journey,  when we need help in opposing the enemy, and when we want to call on our friends and spiritual family members.We can read His Word and determine His path for us and find help to combat the enemy.  We can gather with our spiritual family and read His Guidebook, sharing and gleaning spiritual truth from others.

There are many trumpets in Scripture. From Exodus all the way to Revelation.

In Exodus: 

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled...the smoke billowed up like smoke from a furnace...and the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. (Exodus 19)


In Revelation there are seven trumpets mentioned. The final one:

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said:


  "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." (Revelation 19)


Remember our revival? Our special trumpet call? 

G I N Y  -- God I Need You!


And His answer? G I N Y back -- Grace Is Now Yours!


We must all have our trumpets ready as we go out into the world --


Remember these words?

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more....when the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair...when the saved on earth shall gather over on the other shore...and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there!

We're sure anxious to hear that trumpet!

Trying to avoid God? - C S Lewis

If God exists, mere movement in space will never bring you any nearer to Him or any farther from Him that you are at this very moment.

How, then, it may be asked, can we either reach or avoid Him?

The avoiding, in many times and places, has proved so difficult that a very large part of the human race failed to achieve it.

But in our own time and place it is extremely easy. Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) your own grievances.

Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully. But you'd be safer to stick to the papers. You'll find the advertisements helpful, especially those with a snobbish or a sexy appeal.


About the reaching, I am a far less reliable guide. That is because I never had the experience of looking for God. It was the other way round; He was the hunter (or so it seemed to me) and I was the deer. He stalked me...took unerring aim, and fired.


--From The Seeing Eye, by C. S. Lewis




I think all of us who bear the name of Christ can see how God led us to Himself. How the searching of our hearts for the "something that was missing" was, in fact, the way He drew us to Him.

And now as I am older, I see that the reaching and avoiding of God that Lewis talks about applies to our daily walk with God also, as well as our original coming to Him. 

We can still try to "avoid Him." But it is truly hard.

Remember Paul's sermon in Athens at Mars Hill?

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else....God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.
                   --Acts 17:24-25, 27

It would appear that, because God revealed Himself to us in His creation and sustains us through His providence, that we have an obligation to seek Him.


I have read that the word Paul uses for "reaching out for--or feeling after" is the same Greek word that Homer used in his story about Cyclops, the giant one-eyed monster who captured Odysseus and his men and held them captive in a cave.

Odysseus got the Cyclops drunk and then blinded him with a sharp stake. Then the prisoners tried to make their escape. And Cyclops began groping around and feeling his surroundings, intending to recapture Odysseus. That's the very word Paul uses to describe how God intends for us to "seek out God...and to reach for Him."

In our sin we are as blind as Cyclops. And Paul is saying that because of God's creation we have an obligation to feel after God and seek Him, even though we cannot see Him.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

-- James 4:8

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

I will be found by you," declares the LORD.

-- Jeremiah 29:13-14

Looking for the Right Job? C S Lewis

 

                                               Looking for the Right Job?

Thoughts from C S Lewis:

"We have in our day started by getting the whole picture upside down.

Starting with the doctrine that every individual is of 'infinite value,' we then picture God as a kind of employment agency whose business it is to find suitable careers for souls, square holes for square pegs.

In fact, however, the value of the individual does note lie in him. He is capable of receiving value.

He receives it by union with Christ.

There is no question of finding for him a place in the living temple which will do justice to his inherent value.

The place was there first.

The man was created for it.

He will not be truly himself until he is there."

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).

After all, It Was Our Lord's Supper

                          After All, It was Our Lord's Supper

There are some symbols and celebrations in our church calendar that link us with all of Christendom: Christmas, baptism, Pentecost, the cross, the empty tomb....all our major  doctrines are enveloped in each of these. None more so than the Lord's Supper.

In other places and times it might be called Eucharist, Holy Communion, Sacrament of the Altar, or Blessed Sacrament.

No matter what it is called, for the last 2000 years, it is celebrated in accordance with the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ given at His last meal with His disciples, in that private upper room in a stranger's home. A borrowed room for a homeless God-man who was facing a voluntary, horrifying, cruel death --  the holy, sinless God for His sinful unworthy, ungrateful creatures.


With His suffering death looming closely at hand, what did Jesus consider most important?

Apparently He treasured most the opportunity to explain to His disciples what exactly was going to happen, and what it all meant.

T. S. Eliot reminds us that too often we "have the experience, but miss the meaning."

Of all the terms for the celebration, probably the Lord's Supper paints the simplest picture of what happened that night so many centuries ago.

Lord's Supper is probably the most commonly used term. I like the term Eucharist, though, because it, I believe, paints the most profound truth of the event.

Eucharist: from the Greek word eucharistia, which means "thanksgiving."

     And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them...(Luke 22:19)

He gave thanks! When the rest of the world would have said, "It's time to get out of Dodge " and raced for the nearest and quickest way out of town, He lingered. He waited. Pondered the events to take place and shared the meaning of it all with His friends. He wanted desperately for them to understand.

He didn't want them to miss the meaning.

Eucharistia - thanksgiving. When He had given thanks. Knowing that the iron spikes would pierce His hands and feet the next day, that He would be on public display while He died, for hours, jeered by the crowd. Until He took that last gasping breath --"It is finished!"

He gave thanks.

(Another phrase from T. S. Eliot: And still we call this Friday good...Yes, it has been called "Good Friday" for centuries.)

But there is more in the word than thanksgiving.

The root word of eucharistia is grace (charis).

Grace is a gift. He was giving us the gift. Or was He receiving the gift? For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross....Maybe we are the gift....We are the gift to Him, as He is the gift to us....

But there is another word hidden in there: Joy (chara).

Joy: the holy grail sought by all of mankind for all our history.

From Augustine in his Confessions:  "Without exception...all try their hardest to reach the same goal, that is joy."

C S. Lewis describes that same longing, or yearning, as coming from the deepest emptiness of our heart, because the very genesis of our search for it was placed in our hearts by God Himself.

Just as the little word joy is found hidden deep in the meaning of thanksgiving, so is it found deep in our lives in the act of thanksgiving. After all, have you ever seen someone who is truly thankful, expressing his gratitude to God, who was angry? Bitter? Mean-spirited? Impatient? Depressed? Overwhelmed? Unhopeful? Joy is like a precious oil that cleanses us from thoughts and actions that displease God.

Why live a life of cheerless ingratitude?

Thanksgiving precedes the miracle, and releases our joy. Daniel, praying and thanking God..as was his usual custom...knowing the lions' den was waiting...Jesus and the loaves and fishes...Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus...our Savior Redeemer in the upper room...the disciples on the road to Emmaus...
thanksgiving first and then the miracle of God's action.

Thanksgiving.

Grace.

Joy.

It's all there, in the word eucharistia and in the event of the Eucharist.

When we celebrate Lord's Supper, or Eucharist, are we going to "have the experience, but miss the meaning"?

Interesting application of Scripture in US History

Here's an Interesting Application of Scripture....from US History

I'm reading some British records of the months just preceding the beginning of the American revolution.

Late in 1775 Parliament was arguing various approaches to end the revolutionary fever sweeping their 13 colonies over the Atlantic in America.

King George III was determined to take harsh action. Most of Parliament agreed with him, but a few disagreed.

One of those was David Hartley. When a bill came up for discussion -- a bill that would prohibit all trade and communication among the colonies during the "course of the present rebellion" he realized that the colonies would be even more inflamed and more eager to declare their independence. If the bill passed Britain would lose that valuable part of their Empire. 

And the bill was passed.

His speech to Parliament included these words: "The Opposition was overpowered by numbers," he voiced. "An inflexible majority in Parliament have now declared all America to be an independent hostile State. But Parliament would rue this day," he went on, for the fate of America was clear for all of them to see. "You may bruise its heel, but you cannot crush its head. It will revive again. The New World is before them. Liberty is theirs. They have possession of a free government, their birthright and inheritance.....If you will cast them off, my last wish is to them. 'may they go and prosper!'"

Sally Lloyd-Jones - A happy/sad celebration/revival

One of my favorite books is a children's Bible story book by Sally Lloyd-Jones titled The Jesus Story Book Bible -- Every Story Whispers His Name.

I read it myself often and share it in Bible study classes.

This is how she paraphrases Nehemiah 8-10; Malachi 1, 3 and 4; and Ezra 7:

Have you ever been to a party that lasted a whole week? How about a sermon that went on all day?

Well, that's what happened to God's people after they came home from being slaves. They had forgotten how God wanted them to live, or who they were supposed to be. So Ezra and Nehemiah read them the rules God had given Moses.

But something odd happened: the more the sermon went on, the sadder they got. Why? Was the sermon that boring? No, not really. It was strange, you see. As Ezra read the book of rules, it worked like a mirror. It showed them what they were like, and they didn't like what they saw. They saw that they had not been living the way they should. They saw that they were cruel and selfish.

"We've blown it," they cried. "Now God will punish us!"


They thought they knew what God was going to do. But they didn't. Of course, they might have picked up a clue from Ezra's name, which means, "Help is here!" And an even stronger one from Nehemiah's name because his name means "God wipes away our tears."

And that, as you'll see, is just exactly what God was getting ready to do.

Ezra looked at God's children. Great, hot tears were welling up in their eyes, and streaming down their cheeks. He stopped his sermon--mid-sentence--and shut the book. "We're having a party!" he shouted.


And so that's just what they did! All week long.

"God wants us to be happy!" Ezra said.

All day they listened to stories about the wonderful things God had done for His people. How He made the world. How He gave a special promise to Abraham. How He rescued them from slavery. How He spoke to Moses and showed them how to live. How He brought them to a special land, how He rescued them -- no matter what -- time after time, over and over again -- because of His Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always Forever Love.

They remembered how God had always, all through the years, been loving His children -- keeping His promise to Abraham, taking care of them, forgiving them. Even when they disobeyed. Even when they ran away from Him. Even when they thought they didn't need Him.

Then God told His children something more...

I can't stop loving you.
You are My heart's treasure.
But I lost you. Now I am coming back for you.

I am like the sun that gently shines on you, chasing away darkness and fear and death.
You'll be so happy--
You'll be like little calves running free in an open field.

I am going to send My Messenger -- the Promised One.
The One you have been waiting for.
The Rescuer.

He is coming! So, get ready!

It had taken centuries for God's people to be ready, but now the time had almost come for the best part of God's Plan.

God Himself was going to come. Not to punish His people -- but to rescue them.

God was getting ready to wipe away every tear from every eye. And the true party was just about to begin....

How Christ Restored Peter

 

                                              How Christ Restored Peter

What Christ DIDN'T say to Peter...

After His resurrection, when Christ appeared to Peter, He asked him, "Peter, do you love Me?" And Peter answered, "Yes, You know I love You!"

Notice what Jesus didn't say - He didn't say, "Peter, are you going to fail Me again?" "Peter, will I be able to count on you ever again?"

These words of Jesus  -- what He didn't  say -- gives me great comfort....

How about you?

Read the whole conversation in John, chapter 21. 

What a wonderful, forgiving Savior we have!

As the Bible throughout teaches us  -- God forgives us and never holds our sins against us   -  He doesn't "keep a list",  and we are told to not keep a list either in 1 Corinthians 13.

As Christ has been to us, we should be to each other.

.

"If You, LORD, kept a record of sins, who could stand?" (Psalm 130:3)

It's All Mine Now! - David Platt

It's All Mine Now -- David Platt


...when you come to Jesus--when you unite your life with His--everything that belongs to Him becomes yours.

Yes, as we've already discussed, His righteousness replaces your unrighteousness.

But there's more.

• When you come to Jesus, His Spirit fills your spirit.
• His love becomes your love.
• His joy becomes your joy.
• His mind becomes your mind.
• His desires become your desires.
• His will becomes your will.
• His purpose becomes your purpose.
• His power becomes your power.

The Christian life thus becomes nothing less than the outliving of the indwelling Christ.

This reality marks the critical distinction between superficial religion and supernatural regeneration.

Superficial religion involve a counterfeit "Christian" life that consists of nothing more than truths to believe and things to do, and it misses the essence of what it means to follow Jesus.

Supernatural regeneration, on  the other hand, involves an authentic Christian life that has been awakened by the Spirit, truth and love, passion, power and purpose of Jesus.

  -- From Follow Me, Chapter 3, by David Platt

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

 Galatians 2:20

What is God Like? My Prayer Today

 What is God Like? 

That's easy!

He tells us!

   "For to You, Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good and ready to forgive,

 and abundant in mercy to all who call upon You."

    -- Psalm 86:4-5

God, You are so abounding in mercy, so ready to forgive, the picture of such goodness -- qualities I can't even understand in this life. 

I worship You with my heart and soul. 

As I sit here now in regret over past sin, please remind me of Your forgiveness.

Please let me feel Your mercy. Fill me with it so I can extend it to others You put in my path today. 

May my family know Your grace. Lift their burdens and shine Your face upon them today.

I thank you for Your grace, which I do not deserve, and for your mercies which are new and  abundant each morning. This is my 'strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.'

 Amen.

Quotes to Ponder

Winston Churchill:

A lie makes it halfway around the world while the truth is still putting its shoes on in the morning.


Robert Jastrow, the founder and director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and author of God and the Astronomers, reaches this conclusion when considering modern scientific research:

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers



Samuel Adams, in a letter to his daughter, Hannah, in 1780:

If you carefully fulfill the various duties of life, from a principle of obedience to your heavenly Father, you shall enjoy that peace which the world cannot give nor take away...you cannot satisfy me so much as by seeking most earnestly the favor of Him who made and supports you--who will supply you with whatever His infinite wisdom sees best for you in the world, and above all, who has given us His Son to purchase for us the reward of eternal life.

Philip Yancey/C. S. Lewis

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Some religions had accounts of return from death.

The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's all this rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among the world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."

After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, and Muslim code of law--each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.

From What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey

What was Harder: Creating Us or Redeeming Us? Bernard of Clairvaux

 

                What was harder: Creating Us or Redeeming Us?

Profound words written almost a thousand years ago by Bernard of Clairvaux:

"I owe all that I am to Him who made me, but how can I pay my debt to Him who redeemed me?

Creation was not so vast a work as Redemption, for it is written of man and things that were made, 'He spoke the word and they were made' (Psalm 148:5).

But to redeem that creation that sprang into being at His word, how much He spake, what wonders He wrought, what hardships He endured, what shames He suffered!

In the first Creation He gave me the gift of myself; but in His new creation He gave me Himself, and by that gift restored to me the self I had lost.

Created first and then restored, I owe Him myself twice over in return for myself.

But what have I to offer Him for the gift of Himself? Could I multiply myself a thousand-fold and then give Him my all -- what would that be in comparison with God?

[In creating me He gave me the gift of myself....in Redeeming me He gave me the gift of Himself --- Wow!]

The Really Big Picture - Becoming the Gift

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:23

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves -- it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:9

The lost sinner who hears God's Word that Christ died for his sins and places his trust in Him receives the gift -- the supreme gift of all -- restoration to God and eternity with Him.

And then one day, that redeemed sinner catches a glimpse of the bigger story.

Note these words from Christ's prayer, just before His arrest and crucifixion, to His Father, in John, chapter 17.....

"I have revealed You to those whom You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me....

"I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me...

"Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My Glory..."


So this is the really big picture....

Once we receive the gift, we become the gift!

We come to God through Jesus Christ's atonement for us -- it is His gift to us -- and then God presents us as a gift to His Son!


Once we receive the gift, we become the gift!



            And this is the biggest story of all!

What Makes Angels Celebrate? (Part 2)

 So what do the angels know that we don't know that makes them celebrate with such exuberance when a sinner repents?

Back to Max Lucado --

"They know what heaven holds. They've seen the table, and they have heard the music, and they can't wait to see your face when you arrive.

When you arrive and enter the party something wonderful will happen. A final transformation will occur. You will be just like Jesus. Drink deeply from 1 John 3:2: 'We have not yet been shown what we will be like in the future. But we know when we see Him we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.'

Of all the blessings of heaven, one of the greatest will be you! You will be God's magnum opus, His work of art. The angels will gasp. God's work will be completed. At last you will have a heart like His.

You will love with perfect love.

You will worship with a radiant face.

You will hear each word God speaks.

Your heart will be pure, your words like jewels, your thoughts will be like treasures.

You will be just like Jesus. (And so will all the people around you!)

You will, at long last, have a heart like His.

There is another reason for the celebration. Part of the excitement is from our arrival. The other part is from our deliverance. Jesus rejoices that we are headed to heaven, but He equally rejoices that we are saved from hell.

One phrase summarizes the horror of hell: 'God is not there.'"

---From Just Like Jesus

What Makes Angels Celebrate?

In Luke 15 we read Jesus' parables about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost boy. 

The point is clear -- all of heaven rejoices when the lost is found. 

At the end of each one Jesus describes a party, a celebration. The shepherd throws a party for the lost-now-found sheep. The housewife throws a party for the lost-now-found coin, and the father throws a party in honor of his lost-now-found son.

The shepherd, when he finds his sheep, happily puts it on his shoulder and goes home. The housewife tells her friends, "Be happy with me for I have found the coin I lost." And the father of the prodigal tells his other son, "Be happy. He was lost but now is found."

Jesus speaks about the great rejoicing in heaven when the lost is found!

Max Lucado comments on this -

"We don't always share such enthusiasm, do we? When you hear of a soul saved, do you drop everything and celebrate? Do we call out a band, cut the cake, and throw a party?

When a soul is saved, the heart of Jesus becomes the night sky on the fourth of July, radiant with explosions of cheer. 

Can the same be said about us? Perhaps this is an area where our hearts need some attention.

Why do Jesus and His angels rejoice over one repenting sinner? Can they see something we can't? Do they know something we don't?"

(Will continue in my next writing...in the meantime, think about your own heart...do you respond like Jesus and His angels? Why or why not?)