Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Sealed with the Holy Spirit
BIBLE MEDITATION:
“...ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
Ephesians 1:13
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit of God seals you into Himself. What does it mean to be sealed? It means to put the King’s seal on you. The King’s seal can be broken by no man. That means you are His for all time and eternity. Second Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His.” You are sealed into a relationship with God by the Holy Spirit.
ACTION POINT:
Read Daniel 6 and Matthew 27. Note the similarities in the accounts of Daniel and Jesus being sealed away for death and how the Almighty God delivered them unto life!
http://www.lwf.org/
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Names of God
ABBA - FATHER
- Have you ever thought about God as a daddy? Galatians 4:6 says, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Abba is the Aramaic word meaning Daddy, Father. It's a term of warm affection, intimacy, and respect for one's father. Now, to some that may sound like an irreverent way to address God, but Jesus called God, "Our Father," in Matthew 6:9 and He gave us that same right. In America, children call their fathers, Daddy. But in the Middle East, they say Abba. Jesus says that we can call the great God of the Universe, Abba Father. Daddy Father. Related Scripture: Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6
- The gifted violinist Fritz Chrysler had a Stradivarius violin that at one time belonged to an old Englishman. Chrysler offered to buy it, but the old man told him that the violin was not for sale. One day he ventured to the old man's house and asked if he could touch it. The old man invited Chrysler in. He tucked it under his chin and began to draw the bow across the strings. Great tears began to well up in the old Englishman's eyes. Chrysler saw the man's face and said, "I'm sorry, but I would so much like to buy this instrument." The old Englishman said, "It is not for sale, but it is yours. You are the master. You alone are worthy of it." When we call God Adonay, we are saying that He is the Master. He alone is worthy, nothing and no one else. He is worth all that we have and all that we are.
Related Scripture Deuteronomy: 10:17; Psalm 2:4, 8:1, 97:5, 136:3; Isaiah 1:24, 6:1; Romans 10:9
- The noted historian, H. G. Wells, made a list of the ten greatest men of history and number one on that list was Jesus Christ. But, Jesus doesn't belong on that list. He doesn't belong on anybody's list. He is Jesus the First and the Last. Jesus said in Revelation, "I am Alpha and Omega." Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last. If Jesus was speaking to an English audience, He would say, "I am A and Z." Did you know that the Bible is made up of just twenty-six letters? What Jesus is saying about the written word is true about the living Word. John chapter one tells us that "In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Jesus was in the beginning as the Word of God. And He is God's final word for all eternity.
Related Scripture: Revelation 1:8, 1:11, 21:6, 22:13
- What do you think about when you hear this name for God - "Ancient of Days"? Isaiah 46:9-10 says, "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure." Only God can tell in ancient times the things that are not yet done. Thomas Watson, who was the chairman of IBM, said in 1943, that there's a world market for maybe five computers. In 1977 Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment, said, "There's no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." It's comments like these that help us see how foolish we are to think we can know the future. Only God is the Ancient of Days.
Related Scripture Daniel: 7:9, 13, 14
- First John 4:2 says, "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." John uses two names, Jesus, which refers to His human name, and Christ, which refers to His divine title. Jesus Christ is fully man and fully Messiah at the same time. Christ, which means Messiah, the Anointed One is His divine title. Jesus is God in human flesh. This is the fundamental doctrine of our faith - that God stepped out of heaven and took upon human flesh. We call that the incarnation. Carnis means flesh. When Jesus Christ took upon Himself humanity, He did not take it while He was here on earth and then laid it aside when He went back to heaven. He took His humanity back to heaven with Him. For all eternity Jesus Christ will be a man.
Related Scripture: Matthew 1:16, 16:16-20; Mark 8:29; Luke 2:11, 9:20; John 1:41, 4:42, 6:69, 7:41-42, 11:27, 17:3, 20:31; Acts 2:36, 3:18, 5:42, 8:37, Romans 5:8, 5:15, 6:4, 6:23, 8:1, 8:39, 10:17; 1 Corinthians 1:30, 11:3, 12:12; 2 Corinthians 2:14-15, 5:17-20, 8:9, 12:9-10; Galatians 2:20-21, 6:14; Ephesians 1:5, 2:5-7, 4:15; Philippians 1:6, 1:21, 2:5-11, 3:7-9, 3:20, 4:19, Colossians 3:1-4; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; 1 Timothy 1:15-16, 2:5; Hebrews 3:6, 5:5, 9:14, 10:10, 13:8; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 5:6, 20; Revelation 11:15
- Isaiah 43, 1-3b says, "But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. 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. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior." God is saying, "I made you, I saved you, I'm going to take care of you." God has made you for a purpose And He's going to take care of you. Even when sin marred God's original creation, God didn't say, "I'm finished with it." No. God made it and God stays with it. Isn't that a wonderful arrangement?
Related Scripture: Psalm 139:13-18
- You think about His omniscience, He knows everything. God is the God of all knowledge. God inhabits eternity. God sees the beginning. God sees the middle. God sees the end. God sees it all at one time. God is all-knowing - He can't learn anything. God knows everything that's going to happen. Not a blade of grass moves but what He knows it. If you're saved, God knew that you would receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing takes God by surprise. God never says, "Ooops. I never thought of that." God is omniscient. I don't understand how He swung the stars in the night sky. Or scooped the oceans and heaped up the mountains and runs this mighty universe. Romans 11:34 says, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?" We don't have to know all that our Father does for Him to be our Father.
Related Scripture: 1 Samuel 2:3; Romans 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
- El Elyon speaks of the supremacy of God. He is above all. Now, what does El Elyon mean? The word means the strongest of the strong and the highest of the high. Hinduism and Pantheism speak of God as a part of the universe. But God is not a part of the universe. He is the transcendent God. He is above all. He is the Most High God. Jesus is our El Elyon. Colossians 1:16-17 says, "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." God is above all things. Jesus is our El Elyon.
Related Scripture: Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 61:2; 92:1; Daniel 7:25
- God never changes. Psalm 90:1-2 says, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." What a wonderful thing to know that in a changing world God does not change! Time does not alter God. Psalm 90:4 says, "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." Well, what do all these verses mean? There are no surprises to God. As Corrie Ten Boom says, "There's no panic in heaven." God knows the past and the future at the same time. Jesus is our El Olam. He is the King of the Ages. Hebrews 1:8 says, "But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."
Related Scripture: Genesis 3:22; 21:33; Psalm 90:1-2; 93:2; Isaiah 9:6; 26:4; 40:28
- El Roi was first revealed in the Bible by Hagar. She was Sarah's handmaiden, who became pregnant with Abraham's child so, in their minds, they could fulfill the promise of God. Soon after the child was conceived, things became very difficult between Sarah and her. So much so, that Hagar fled out into the wilderness. Friendless, homeless, pregnant, not knowing what would become of her, she laid down by a fountain in the wilderness. There, an angel appeared to her to give her comfort and to speak of God's grace and mercy. Genesis 16:13 says: "And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?" Did you know that God sees you right now? God knows your very thoughts. His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me. Related Scripture Genesis 16:13; Genesis 16:1-16; Psalm 33:18-19
- The name El Shaddai appears seven times in the Word of God. As I read the newspapers, I can go back to the Book of Genesis and see that immutable, unbreakable promise that God made to father Abraham. Genesis 17:1-2 says, "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly." This promise has changed the world. Every Jew upon the face of the earth is a living testimony of the faithfulness of Almighty God. And this God who keeps His promise to Abraham is the same God that keeps His promises to you and I through Jesus Christ.
Related Scripture: Genesis 17:1-19, 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; Exodus 6:2-3; Ruth 1:20; Job 5:17; Ezekiel 10:5; Psalm 91:1
- Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It literally says, "In the beginning Elohim, Elohim created the heaven and the earth." That's the Hebrew word from two root words: El, which means strength and unlimited power. And the last part of is allah, which means to keep a promise. Elohim is also a plural noun. I believe that right here on the threshold of the Bible we see an indication of the nature of God, as shown in the Holy Trinity - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three were present in creation (see John 1:3). Aren't you glad we find the Savior in chapter 1, verse 1? Aren't you glad we find the Holy Spirit in chapter 1, verse 1? Aren't you glad we find the Father in chapter 1, verse 1 of the Word of God?
Related Scripture: Genesis 1:1-3, 27-28; 3:3; Isaiah 40:28, 54:5; Psalm 19:1-6, 95:6; Nehemiah 9:17; Hebrews 1:8, 11:3
- The name Jehovah is used some 6,800 times in the Bible. It is the personal covenant name of Israel's God. In the King James version of the Bible, it's translated Lord God. Not only does it speak of God's strength, but also it speaks of the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God. The root of this name means "self-existing," one who never came into being, and one who always will be. When Moses asked God, "Who shall I tell Pharaoh has sent me?" God said, "I AM THAT I AM." Jehovah or Yahweh is the most intensely sacred name to Jewish scribes and many will not even pronounce the name. When possible, they use another name.
Related Scripture: Isaiah 40:3; 10; 1 Samuel 1:20; Exodus 6:1-4; 3:1-22; John 6:35; 8:12; 10:7, 9, 11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5
- Can you imagine what a modern writer would do if he tried to describe the creation of the heavens and the earth? Even if he believed in God, what an avalanche of adjectives he would pour out! What double-jointed and obtuse terms he would have to use to describe the creation of the earth! Aren't you glad that God said it, surely, sweetly, sublimely, and simply: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." How beautiful that is. It always tickles me when I read about how scientists are trying to discover the mystery of the creation of the universe. They just scratch their heads and say, "We've got to go back to the laboratory now, a lot of things we thought we knew we didn't know." God just spoke and it was so.
Related Scripture: Genesis 1:1; Psalm 33:6; Isaiah 40:28-31; Job 38:1-41, 39:1-30, 40:1
- The Lord is a reigning banner over us all the time. The Hebrew for "banner" comes from the root word "to be high" or "raised." This was the name given to the altar that Moses erected to commemorate the defeat of the Amalekites at Rephidim (Exodus 17:8-15). He goes before us and behind us to give us the victory in all circumstances of life. Even in the midst of the battle, the banner of the Lord is raised over us. Psalm 23:5 says, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over." Who is the God who prepares a table of celebration in the presence of the enemy? When the enemy shall come in like a flood, then shall the Lord hold up a banner before him. The victory in all of life is the Lord's.
Related Scripture: Exodus 17:15
- Psalm 23 and John 10 are the most beautiful descriptions of God as our Shepherd, Jehovah Rajah. When we say "Lord," we think of God's deity. When we say "my Shepherd," we think of God's humanity. God in human form - Jesus Christ - prophesized in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. As the Good Shepherd, He dealt with the penalty of sin. As the Great Shepherd, He deals with the power of sin. As the Chief Shepherd, He's coming to take us from the very presence of sin.
Related Scripture: Psalm 23; 80:1; 95:7; Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 34:12; 23; Matthew 25:32; John 10:11-27; Hebrews 13:20-21; 1 Peter 2:25; 5:4
- Does Jesus heal? Yes! He is the Almighty Lord, our healer. He can heal instantaneously by a miracle. He can heal over time through medicine. But let me add, that not every saint will be healed in this lifetime either by miracle or by medicine, nor instantaneously or in time. Right now, God is more interested in having you holy rather than healthy. Our bodies are not yet redeemed. The redemption of the body is going to come at the rapture of the church and the resurrection of the Christian dead. It is at that time that we will be made like unto Him. There is no sickness in the Lord's body and there will be no sickness in our resurrection body. If you are not healed in this life, child of God, you will be healed in eternity.
Related Scripture: Exodus 15:26; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 6:2; 41:4; 103:3; 147:3; Isaiah 19:22; 30:36; 57:18-19; Jeremiah 3:22; 17:14; 30:17; Matthew 8:7; 10:1; Luke 4:18
- The Lord greeted Gideon in peace, so he built an altar and named it "The LORD is Peace" (see Judges 6:23-24). You have probably heard the blessing "Shalom" from Jewish friends and acquaintances. It means peace. More importantly it means the Lord, our peace. Where does the Shepherd lead His sheep? Beside peaceful, still waters. "He leads me beside the still waters; He makes me lie down in green pastures" (Psalm 23:2). When your heart is content, you are at peace. And where does that contentment come from? The grace of God. There's no man more discontent than one who is not experiencing the amazing grace of God. Only in Jesus, will you find security, sufficiency, and serenity.
Related Scripture: Genesis 49:10; Judges 6:23-24; Psalm 4:8; 29:11; Proverbs 16:7; Isaiah 26:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:16
- Psalm 139:7 asks, "Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" And what is the answer? God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. Somebody said that God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. There is not a murmur, but that He hears it. There's not a movement, but that He sees it. There's not a motive, but that He knows it. Neither Death, darkness, nor distance can hide us. When I am discouraged, His presence sees me through. When I am lonely, His presence cheers me up. When I am worried, His presence calms me down. When I am tempted, His presence helps me out.
Related Scripture: Genesis 28:15; Ezekiel 48:35; Psalm 23:4; 46:1; 139:7-12; Jeremiah 23:23-24; Amos 5:14; Matthew 18:20; 28:20; John 14:16-17; Acts 7:48-49; 17:24-28
- Jehovah-sabaoth literally means the Lord Almighty. It speaks of the sovereignty of God over all the powers of the universe. The second stanza from Martin Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" says, "Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the right man on our side, The man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabbaoth His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle." David understood the greatness of God when he went against Goliath with five smooth stones and a sling. David said to Goliath, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied." Oh, that each of us would have this same conception of God in our battles.
Related Scripture: Isaiah 6:3; 1 Samuel 1:3, 17:45; 2 Samuel 6:2, 7:26-27; 1 Chronicles 11:9; Haggai 1:5; Romans 9:29; James 5:4; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 1:8; 4:8
- We are not righteousness in and of ourselves. Our righteousness comes from God and God alone. Jesus imputes His righteousness into us so that we can see God. For you see, Hebrews 12:14 says that without holiness, no man will see God. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Isn't that terrific? You see, if you are a child of God, you are holy. Are you feeling that you can't live the Christian life? That's right where you need to be. You see, God never asked you to live the Christian life apart from Him. He wants to be your strength, He wants to live the Christian life through you and do for you what you could never do for yourself.
Related Scripture: Genesis 15:6; Jeremiah 23:6; Psalm 4:1; 5:8; 24:5; 31:1; 36:10; 71:15; 89:16; Matthew 6:33; Romans 4:22; 5:18; 8:10; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9
- Yireh is from the same Hebrew word as Moriah, which is the name of the region where God sent Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22). In Genesis 22:11-13 we read, "And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son." God provided the lamb. And Abraham called the place Yahweh-Yireh - God is our substitutionary sacrifice.
Related Scripture: Genesis 22:14, 22:1-18
Pastor Adrian Rogers
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
He Knows My Name
BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” Psalm 139:14
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Ever feel like the little girl who was endeavoring to pray what we call The Lord’s Prayer when she said, “Our Father which art in Heaven, how does He know my name?” I have. But friend, He does know our names. He knows me. He knows you. But you say, “How could God be interested in me? The great God who made the universes how could He be interested in me like a fleck of spray in an ocean of existence?” Well, He is interested in you. You are not an accident. You are intimately known by God.
ACTION POINT:
Read Matthew 10:30. What does this tell you about God? What does this tell you about yourself?
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” Psalm 139:14
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Ever feel like the little girl who was endeavoring to pray what we call The Lord’s Prayer when she said, “Our Father which art in Heaven, how does He know my name?” I have. But friend, He does know our names. He knows me. He knows you. But you say, “How could God be interested in me? The great God who made the universes how could He be interested in me like a fleck of spray in an ocean of existence?” Well, He is interested in you. You are not an accident. You are intimately known by God.
ACTION POINT:
Read Matthew 10:30. What does this tell you about God? What does this tell you about yourself?
Monday, November 17, 2008
When the Bible Blows Your Mind
The Bible teaches us to expect mental jolts when we think about God. It teaches us that our familiar ways of seeing things may be replaced. For example, it says, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Romans 11:33). Or again, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).
One of the reasons (not the only one) that some people reject the biblical teaching of unconditional election is that it seems and feels to them out of sync with other teachings in the Bible - like the compassion of God for people or the moral accountability of people before God. It seems to many that God can't choose unconditionally to save some and not others and then also feel compassion for those he does not choose and hold them accountable for their sin.
The problem here is that our instinct or intuition for what is right or possible for God does not fit Scripture. And the danger is that we shape Scripture to fit our feelings.
The Scriptures teach that God chooses who will be saved before we are born or have done anything good or evil (Romans 9:10-12). "It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). The Scriptures also teach that we are responsible for the obedience of faith and will be judged if we are disobedient. "But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury" (Romans 2:8). We are chosen (or not chosen) unconditionally for salvation. And we are accountable for our faith (or unbelief).
As I said in my sermon on 12-8-02, I do not fully understand how God renders certain the belief of the elect and the unbelief of the non-elect. If you want to go deeper into this, I recommend Jonathan Edwards' book The Freedom of the Will. It is slow reading, but you will grow more from the effort than you can imagine.
To help you accustom yourself to living with such felt tensions (unconditional election and human accountability) consider two similar ones from the example of Christ.
First, we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem because the things of the kingdom were "hidden from [their] eyes." But on the other hand we also hear Jesus say that God has "hidden these things."
Luke 19:41-42. And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."
Luke 10:21. In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will."
Second, we see Jesus feeling compassion for those who were sick - irrespective, it seems of their faith. On the other hand, we know from illustrations and teachings elsewhere in the Bible that God is finally and decisively in control of sickness. So we have Jesus feeling sorry for people who have sicknesses that God's wisdom has ordained (at least for a time).
Matthew 14:14. When [their] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Exodus 4:11. Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?"
1 Samuel 2:6. The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
Implications: 1) Don't cancel one truth in the Bible because it feels out of sync with another. 2) Don't draw emotional or behavioral implications from God's sovereignty that contradict faith, compassion, accountability, prayer, evangelism, or hard work. On the contrary, consider Colossians 3:12 and let your unspeakably happy condition as "chosen, holy and loved" produce "compassion, kindness, humility and meekness."
mail@desiringGod.org
One of the reasons (not the only one) that some people reject the biblical teaching of unconditional election is that it seems and feels to them out of sync with other teachings in the Bible - like the compassion of God for people or the moral accountability of people before God. It seems to many that God can't choose unconditionally to save some and not others and then also feel compassion for those he does not choose and hold them accountable for their sin.
The problem here is that our instinct or intuition for what is right or possible for God does not fit Scripture. And the danger is that we shape Scripture to fit our feelings.
The Scriptures teach that God chooses who will be saved before we are born or have done anything good or evil (Romans 9:10-12). "It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). The Scriptures also teach that we are responsible for the obedience of faith and will be judged if we are disobedient. "But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury" (Romans 2:8). We are chosen (or not chosen) unconditionally for salvation. And we are accountable for our faith (or unbelief).
As I said in my sermon on 12-8-02, I do not fully understand how God renders certain the belief of the elect and the unbelief of the non-elect. If you want to go deeper into this, I recommend Jonathan Edwards' book The Freedom of the Will. It is slow reading, but you will grow more from the effort than you can imagine.
To help you accustom yourself to living with such felt tensions (unconditional election and human accountability) consider two similar ones from the example of Christ.
First, we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem because the things of the kingdom were "hidden from [their] eyes." But on the other hand we also hear Jesus say that God has "hidden these things."
Luke 19:41-42. And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."
Luke 10:21. In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will."
Second, we see Jesus feeling compassion for those who were sick - irrespective, it seems of their faith. On the other hand, we know from illustrations and teachings elsewhere in the Bible that God is finally and decisively in control of sickness. So we have Jesus feeling sorry for people who have sicknesses that God's wisdom has ordained (at least for a time).
Matthew 14:14. When [their] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Exodus 4:11. Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?"
1 Samuel 2:6. The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
Implications: 1) Don't cancel one truth in the Bible because it feels out of sync with another. 2) Don't draw emotional or behavioral implications from God's sovereignty that contradict faith, compassion, accountability, prayer, evangelism, or hard work. On the contrary, consider Colossians 3:12 and let your unspeakably happy condition as "chosen, holy and loved" produce "compassion, kindness, humility and meekness."
mail@desiringGod.org
Sunday, November 9, 2008
More Blessed To Give Than To Receive
BIBLE MEDITATION:
“...remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35
Unhappiness comes from mirrors. Happiness comes from windows. If you want to be miserable, then think about yourself first...what you want, what people are saying about you, what you ought to have done for you, how down you feel, how good you feel. Just focus on yourself. Feeling good yet? If you are, then something is wrong. Selfishness and happiness just don’t go hand in hand. If you are thinking it is better to receive than to give, you’ll never be happy. You’ll never experience the blessing of giving that Jesus taught.
Hold out your hand and make a fist for at least one minute. Now, relax. Which feels better? Now imagine if your spirit is tight and how that will quench His work in your life.
http://www.lwf.org/
“...remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35
Unhappiness comes from mirrors. Happiness comes from windows. If you want to be miserable, then think about yourself first...what you want, what people are saying about you, what you ought to have done for you, how down you feel, how good you feel. Just focus on yourself. Feeling good yet? If you are, then something is wrong. Selfishness and happiness just don’t go hand in hand. If you are thinking it is better to receive than to give, you’ll never be happy. You’ll never experience the blessing of giving that Jesus taught.
Hold out your hand and make a fist for at least one minute. Now, relax. Which feels better? Now imagine if your spirit is tight and how that will quench His work in your life.
http://www.lwf.org/
Monday, November 3, 2008
Duty and Privilege
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord"
Psalm 33:12 (NIV)
Tomorrow, November 4th, millions of Americans will have the opportunity to elect new leaders of government. If you live in the United States , I encourage you to be among them and exercise your right to vote. I encourage you to vote for both your national and your local leaders.
While the Bible does not command us to vote, it does command us to be good citizens wherever we live. One way we can be a good citizen, honor God, and assist in guiding our nation is by voting.
As a woman, I'm honored to take part in determining the direction of our nation. Before the 1900's, women in America were not allowed the privilege to vote, and in some countries they still cannot. I look at voting for our leaders not only as my citizen's duty, but also as a privilege millions of people in the world do not have.
I take my right to vote so seriously that in 1992, while nine months pregnant and restricted to bed rest, I had my mother drive me forty-five minutes to vote in the presidential election. I allowed nothing to stand in my way of exercising my right to vote. Eight days later, I gave birth to a healthy little girl - to whom I hope to pass on my political passion for voting.
There's no doubt about it, voting is both a duty and a privilege. However, I realize that some people won't take the time and trouble to vote because they don't believe their ballot will make much of a difference. That's not true. Statistics show that many elections have come down to only a handful of votes.
What would happen if most people felt that their vote didn't really matter and didn't bother to vote? It would mean that our country's future would be decided by only a few of its citizens-- who perhaps don't hold the same convictions as yours.
Deciding whom to vote for can seem a daunting task. But voting is easier once you and I pray about it, and seek out good information about the candidates and the issues they address. The fact that there is moral haziness in politics these days indicates our need to rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance when examining the issues as well as the candidates.
November 4th is a day of opportunity for America . It's a day to stand up for what we believe in. It's a day to voice those beliefs and be heard. It's a day to take the time to vote as we honor our Christian heritage, and bring glory to God. For "blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord!"
Dear Lord, in this upcoming election, I pray that You will move in the hearts of Your people in this nation to vote. I pray You will work in and through our leaders to guide and bless this nation -- may it be so in all nations, Lord! Guide us by your Spirit, in Jesus' Name, Amen.
Devotion from Micca Monda Campbell
Psalm 33:12 (NIV)
Tomorrow, November 4th, millions of Americans will have the opportunity to elect new leaders of government. If you live in the United States , I encourage you to be among them and exercise your right to vote. I encourage you to vote for both your national and your local leaders.
While the Bible does not command us to vote, it does command us to be good citizens wherever we live. One way we can be a good citizen, honor God, and assist in guiding our nation is by voting.
As a woman, I'm honored to take part in determining the direction of our nation. Before the 1900's, women in America were not allowed the privilege to vote, and in some countries they still cannot. I look at voting for our leaders not only as my citizen's duty, but also as a privilege millions of people in the world do not have.
I take my right to vote so seriously that in 1992, while nine months pregnant and restricted to bed rest, I had my mother drive me forty-five minutes to vote in the presidential election. I allowed nothing to stand in my way of exercising my right to vote. Eight days later, I gave birth to a healthy little girl - to whom I hope to pass on my political passion for voting.
There's no doubt about it, voting is both a duty and a privilege. However, I realize that some people won't take the time and trouble to vote because they don't believe their ballot will make much of a difference. That's not true. Statistics show that many elections have come down to only a handful of votes.
What would happen if most people felt that their vote didn't really matter and didn't bother to vote? It would mean that our country's future would be decided by only a few of its citizens-- who perhaps don't hold the same convictions as yours.
Deciding whom to vote for can seem a daunting task. But voting is easier once you and I pray about it, and seek out good information about the candidates and the issues they address. The fact that there is moral haziness in politics these days indicates our need to rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance when examining the issues as well as the candidates.
November 4th is a day of opportunity for America . It's a day to stand up for what we believe in. It's a day to voice those beliefs and be heard. It's a day to take the time to vote as we honor our Christian heritage, and bring glory to God. For "blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord!"
Dear Lord, in this upcoming election, I pray that You will move in the hearts of Your people in this nation to vote. I pray You will work in and through our leaders to guide and bless this nation -- may it be so in all nations, Lord! Guide us by your Spirit, in Jesus' Name, Amen.
Devotion from Micca Monda Campbell
Friday, October 24, 2008
God hasn't forgotten you!
 | The Holman Illustrated Study Bible, Hardcover |
I thought I should share this. I hope it touches someone. God Works in Mysterious ways, His Wonders to Perform.
The Bible says, “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time…” (Eccles 3:11)
It had been 400 years since the people of Israel had heard from God when the angel Gabriel suddenly appeared to a priest named Zacharias and essentially told him, "God has not forgotten you, Zacharias. He is going to give you a sign." My friend, hear this announcement. God has not forgotten you. He loves you and hears your prayers. It is now your turn to be remembered. Your turn of favour and manifestations has come. As a single person, it is your turn to marry. There is a man or woman waiting for you. You better get ready. As Christians, our turn has finally come, and God had orchestrated events for everything to fall into place. He knows about what is happening in our nations now.
The name Zacharias meant "God remembers." Zacharias married to Elizabeth , whose named meant, "My God is an oath." Clearly the parents of Zacharias and Elizabeth had given prayerful thought to the names they gave to their children, because they would have such a significant fulfillment. My friend, your name is very significant to your destiny. What is the meaning of your name? Do you need to change it? What name do you give to your child?
The Bible tells us that Zacharias was a godly man and that his wife Elizabeth was godly as well. At this time, there were thousands of priests who worked in Israel . A lottery system actually was developed to determine which priest would have the opportunity to go into the temple and offer incense on behalf of the people. It was a once-in-a-lifetime- opportunity. It just so happened that Zacharias' turn had finally come, and God had orchestrated events for everything to fall into place on the day of Zacharias' service. What a mighty, wonderful and glorious God we serve!
This reminds us that sometimes God speaks to us in the mundane, day-to-day activities of life. While we are waiting for big events to come, we fail to understand that sometimes God will work through the ordinary circumstances of life. Sometimes we are waiting for the earth to shake or the fire to come down from heaven, and meanwhile, God is saying, "I am speaking to you right now if you would just tune in and pay attention." My friend, ability to hear His voice and obey is the major key into the realm of His glory and manifestations of His power.
Here, in this set of ordinary events, God intervened as He often did at the situations and affairs of His people. When shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks one night, the angels arrived with the wonderful message of the Messiah's arrival. When a man named Elisha was plowing in his field, the call came for him to become the next prophet for Israel . When a man named Gideon was hiding away in secrecy, an angel came to say, "You're going to be a mighty man of valour." When David was taking care of his father’s sheep in the bush, God remembered him.
My friend, today could be like any other day for you. This month could be like any other month for you. This year, that is about to close, could be like any other year for you. But on the other hand, your life could change today, this month or this year. The supernatural would invade the natural and God would say or do something of great significance in your life. Do you believe? As Zacharias carried out his priestly duties, the wonderful announcement came that he and Elizabeth would have a child-but not just any child. That is shown by the fact that Gabriel himself came to announce his birth. Whenever Gabriel showed up, you knew that something big was going to happen. It was Gabriel who had given Daniel the schedule of the Messiah's arrival, crucifixion and return. It was Gabriel who later appear to Mary and to Joseph. His ministry was directly tied to the announcement to the ministry of Jesus Christ.
Friend, this is the time for God to answer you and announce you. But, you must believe and expect it. Gabriel appeared and said to Zacharias, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John" (Luke 1:13). In the original language, this verse implies that God heard the prayer Zacharias was praying at that very moment. What he was praying for we don't know exactly, but perhaps Zacharias was praying for a son. Gabriel suddenly appeared and said, "God just heard your prayer."
Maybe you, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, have been praying for someone or something for a long time. Perhaps you are even on the verge of giving up. Or maybe you have already given up praying for that husband or wife to come to faith, for that prodigal son or daughter to return, for that healing to take place, or for that door to open. Maybe you are trusting God for that resources, that provision, that resident permit, that character of Jesus, that child, that power of the Holy Spirit, harvest of souls, breakthrough, properity, joy or peace. Looking at the present situation, maybe you think you can’t get that job, that contract or that profit. Or maybe you have concluded that God will never answer your prayer. I have Good News for you. Your turn to be remembered has finally come!
The climatic condition of the day doesn’t warrant Isaac to prosper during the time of national famine and global crisis. But God told him to sow in that season of famine because that time was God’s season and it was His turn to be blessed. Isaac obeyed the word of the Lord, he sowed in that year of famine and the season of God opened unto him for unusual and exceedingly harvests (Gen 26) My friend, listen! When God brings you to His season and says your turn has come, no man or woman, no power or force in hell can stop it. No global crisis can stop or delay it.
Maybe you are thinking it isn't His timing to answer you. Listen, God generally does not alert us to the spiritual activity He does behind-the-scenes. Look at Job! He was not alerted of the discussion between God and satan over him. My friend, if you are praying for something that you believe to be the will of God, then keep on praying in the mean time and don't give up. In the set time, the Lord will intervene as He did with Zacharias and Elizabeth and at that time, you will offer up that same prayer you have offered up so many times and an answer will finally come. Hannah had been going to Shiloh every year offering the same prayer. But the answer came one day at the set time in the season of God when it was her turn. This is the season of God for you to prosper. It is time for you to sow or invest your seeds. The Lord delights to bless His people during famine period. It is your turn to be blessed. Amen.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Does God Really Exist?
I will like to share some words from a book titled "Hearing From God" by
Pastor J.R. Wilhite Sr.
This is really an interesting one. It kind of gives some answers to some questions a lot of christians and non-christians ask. I urge you to get your copy and read more. This book can also serve as a reference. Have you ever asked yourself these questions?
Have you ever wondered about God?
Is there a God?
If there is, how can He let so many bad things happen?
Why does He not just show Himself?
If God did create all of this, why does He not just fix what is broken?
You know those are some good questions, and I have a few more Like:
What does it take to be of God's kingdom?
What do I have to give up?
What do I gain?
Want some more good questions? Well, let's start with the old question of evolution Vs creation.
Which sounds more off the wall, evolution or creation?
EVOLUTION:
All existence was formed out of chaos; it was an accident. Out of this chaos came life in the form of small cells in the oceans and the cells grew and one day left the ocean. Then it raised up on two legs and began to form into apes, and as time went on apes became mankind.
Now, do you really believe all of the above? Just sit back for a while and review the theory of evolution. What is stated above is a short version of the theory of evolution. The long version sounds even more off the wall.
CREATION:
God created the heavens and the earth. And then He created all life on the earth.
I find it much easier to believe in a Supreme Being that created everything than to think it is one great big accident! Want proof from the Bible? Creation was supposed to take place in seven days, but we know based on what Peter said:
2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
So based on Peter's statement we learn that time does not exist for God. What is time? It is a way to measure or count down to the end of something like our life for an example. Since God and His kingdom don't age or end, then there is no need of time. Since God is supreme, it would be nothing for Him to create all of this in seven days, seven minutes, or even seven seconds,
Now let's poke another hole in evolution. Evolution has depended on the idea that it took millions and billions of years for everything to have evolved. The number 1 way of dating objects is called carbon date testing, which by measuring the levels of carbon 12 in fossils would tell its age. The only problem is science has now proven that there was a flood, and this flood (Noah's flood) did cover the whole earth some 4,500 years ago. Big deal, right? Well, science has proven that before this flood the earth was surrounded by water. This water sack around the earth’s atmosphere would not have allowed carbon 14 radiation to reach the earth. You see carbon 12 comes from the sun and that sack of water the earth was in, blocked any of the sun's radiation like carbon 14. So any levels of carbon 14 had to have been absorbed within the last 4,500 years or so.
Just think, the evolutionists say that dinosaur bones were found with carbon 14. So I guess that blows the theory of a meteor or comet coming to earth and causing the death of the dinosaurs MILLIONS of years ago, because by their own statements it would take many thousands of years for the earth to recover from such an event. We have historical records that date back to within 1,500 years of the flood. That proves that there was life and it was mankind. If the dinosaurs were destroyed by the explosive impact of some meteor or comet, and then after things calmed down life started over and man came from the ashes, how could all of this taken place in such a short time period? It could not have. They will tell you themselves that it would have taken many millions of years. If carbon 14 could not penetrate the earth until after the flood and the flood happened 4,500 years ago, and dinosaur bones have been found with carbon 14, then how could this be? It could not... based on evolution.
However based on the Bible it could. The Bible tells us in Genesis chapters 6-8 about the flood known as Noah's flood. This was where mankind had been perverted and God was ready to give up on man, at least until He found Noah. Noah was perfect in his generations. We also know that Noah took anywhere from 2 to 7 of every living creature with Him on the ark. We also know that the size of the dinosaurs (with their relatively small lungs) would require a denser atmosphere and more pure oxygen. After the earth lost its outer water shield, the atmosphere started expanding, causing it to be less concentrated and the oxygen less pure. Along with this, the vegetation would be less abundant. Since it was harder to breathe and with less food the dinosaurs went the same way as other extinct creatures.
Okay, why has God allowed all this to happen?
Well, first let us look at what God had planned. He created this earth for mankind. Then He created Adam and Eve, and He gave them a lease on the earth. It was theirs to do with as they pleased. God wanted mankind to have free will, not to be a bunch of robots. He could have made robots, but He wanted man to procreate, and fill the earth with freethinking, free willed beings that would be a part of His family. He wanted children.
Then Adam did the unthinkable; he gave his lease away to the only one that would dare try to mess things up. This was one of God's highest Angels ever. His name was Lucifer and he was the only anointed archangel ever.
Lucifer, like so many of us, allowed pride to over take and over power him. He got the idea that he could become God, and he caused division in heaven. So God did the only thing He could–he cast Lucifer out, but in the process He created His biggest problem. Why not just erase Lucifer and his followers? Good question. God could not go against His own words (law), and God had given a lease on the earth to man for a period of time. Since Adam had essentially transferred it to Lucifer, God had to honor this, at least until the end of the lease. Are you wondering what I mean by lease? Well, by the time you finish this book you will understand.
So now God’s creation is basically a sub-let to one who is not of Him anymore, one who is perverted. God knew full well that Satan (Lucifer) would pervert all that God had done and said. So God has to find those individuals here who will work with Him. Since God is honorable, the only way into this earth is through woman. A big difference between God and Satan is that God is a gentleman who always gives choices and never forces Himself on anyone. Satan always forces, and never gives choices.
So as time went by God would find a man or a woman through whom He could work. Yes, God even appeared, in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night to the children of Israel, but they asked that He no longer would appear to them. Even while He did, they still sinned so badly that God wanted to destroy them again. So even His actual presence did not prevent sin.
What is sin? Sin is a thing you do that leads to death. Yes, even something as minor as gossip (false witness, lie) is a sin, and it leads to death. The reasoning is basically simple;
Anything that is of God is life.
Anything that is not of God is of Satan.
Anything of Satan is death and destruction.
God is not a man that He could lie. God is truth, so the lie is truth perverted.
Let's get back on track.
God sees that His being in the presence of man, visible to man, does not work. So He decides that the removal of His visible presence may help us be better. How could that help? It would require man to seek God on a higher plane than this physical one. Too many seek God for the wrong reasons and in doing so never find Him. Man often only seeks him out when there is some kind of trouble. Read the Old Testament and see how many times Israel ignored God until they needed Him. Notice how fast they sought Him out, but only when He was needed.
Some of you may say you have sought out God, and you found nothing. First, how long did you seek Him? Second, what did you do to seek Him? Did you, for a day or two (or less) moan and groan, expecting Him to show up and bail you out? It takes some a year, two years, or more.
Others have taken as short as days to find God. First you have to get through a lot of lies to get to the truth. When you get to the truth you will always find God. He is there trying to get to you, but He will not break His words (law). That would pervert the things He has set up. He will not be found in the lie. What is the lie? That God will hear and answer you if you are good or moan loud enough. Moaning does not move God, faith does.
What is faith? At first faith is having confidence in, trusting in, and relying on Christ for salvation. Christ is a Greek word, which means The Anointed One. Anointed means Saturated in the Spirit of God, the Power and wisdom of God. So faith would be having confidence in, trusting in and relying on the power and wisdom of God to save you from whatever you need saving from. It is like being a child. Have you ever noticed how a child trusts, and has confidence in, and reliance on his/her parents for everything? Well, faith that moves God is like that faith that children have in their parents. That is how you contact God.
A big hindrance to this is that we have been filled with lies. From day one we have been inundated with the lies of church leaders, politicians, and even family members. For instance, how many of you bring up your children or were brought up believing in Santa Claus? People tell their children this lie and ask them to believe. Then, the children get old enough to know better.
How hard is it for them to believe in someone that they can not see, when the one they could see (in a red suit) turned out to be a lie? How much does good old Santa seem like God? Songs, that say he knows when you are naughty or nice or he's coming to town so don't cry or he will know.
It's not just Santa Claus. How about the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny? Harmless? NO, not when you are talking about a child during the time of his/her life when they are most impressionable. These are not the only lies. In the past, we have been led to believe in politicians, only to be lied to and then let down. The same goes for church leaders.
Do not believe in man, but in God only, because God can not let you down. Only man can let you down. God never set things up this way, man did.
1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
We really have all the tools that we need to find God and live the life we should. The tools are the Bible, faith, and prayer. You may ask, why does God not show Himself? He does! But we are too blind to see Him. We are blinded by the things around us like TV, movies, music, sports etc.
The really funny thing is that we are too afraid to get to know God. However we allow ourselves to be programmed by people who we do not know and do not know Him. As far as we know these people could be ax murderers, child molesters, rapists, etc. Who am I talking about? The people who write and produce the TV shows and movies we watch, or those who program the games our children play on X-BOX or Nintendo.
Why does God allow so many bad things to happen? He does not, We do! We have an enemy and we ignore him and allow him to do these things. Oh yes, Satan is still here, and he really does not want you to realize that he is still here, or even that he exists.
John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16 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.
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
God is love! The only way He could help us was to give us a way out. The way was through His Son. He does not condemn us if we do not choose Him; we condemn ourselves. If we choose God's way then we choose life. What do we give up? We must really give up so much–Death and destruction. People who drink, smoke, or have sex with their spouse are not condemned. The smoker or drinker may shorten his/her life here, but they are not condemned to hell. Yes, a lot of people quit smoking and drinking when they get to know God. That’s not because they MUST, but because they want to, because they found more in life. They found something with which to replace the artificial, external, physical stimuli.
God made it very simple–believe in His Son. If you do sin, repent and God will forgive you. It can not be any simpler.
If you want more out of life and you want to avoid bad things from happening to you and your family, you will have to read the manual. You will have to spend time with the One who wrote the manual. Then you will avoid most of those terrible and awful things you hear about. The manual is the Bible, and the One who wrote it is God. The bad things are any of those things you don't want in your life. Please read the book of John in the Bible. Read it over and over until you have a full understanding and while you read ask God through His Spirit to help enlighten you to understand what you are reading.
Talk to God, He is real. If you do it enough and give Him a chance to get a word in edgewise you will hear Him. Don't set a time limit. Set yourself time to do it until you know what the following verse means.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
I have endeavored to answer some of the questions that we had at the beginning, but due to the limitations of time and space, I was only able to skim over some and give you a very short version of others. If you research on your own what I have started here I think you will find that a lot of scientists are even finding God.
My prayer for you is that you find God and have a beautiful relationship with Him. (Amen)
Please get your own copy of this book.
Hearing From God
Pastor J.R. Wilhite Sr.
This is really an interesting one. It kind of gives some answers to some questions a lot of christians and non-christians ask. I urge you to get your copy and read more. This book can also serve as a reference. Have you ever asked yourself these questions?
Have you ever wondered about God?
Is there a God?
If there is, how can He let so many bad things happen?
Why does He not just show Himself?
If God did create all of this, why does He not just fix what is broken?
You know those are some good questions, and I have a few more Like:
What does it take to be of God's kingdom?
What do I have to give up?
What do I gain?
Want some more good questions? Well, let's start with the old question of evolution Vs creation.
Which sounds more off the wall, evolution or creation?
EVOLUTION:
All existence was formed out of chaos; it was an accident. Out of this chaos came life in the form of small cells in the oceans and the cells grew and one day left the ocean. Then it raised up on two legs and began to form into apes, and as time went on apes became mankind.
Now, do you really believe all of the above? Just sit back for a while and review the theory of evolution. What is stated above is a short version of the theory of evolution. The long version sounds even more off the wall.
CREATION:
God created the heavens and the earth. And then He created all life on the earth.
I find it much easier to believe in a Supreme Being that created everything than to think it is one great big accident! Want proof from the Bible? Creation was supposed to take place in seven days, but we know based on what Peter said:
2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
So based on Peter's statement we learn that time does not exist for God. What is time? It is a way to measure or count down to the end of something like our life for an example. Since God and His kingdom don't age or end, then there is no need of time. Since God is supreme, it would be nothing for Him to create all of this in seven days, seven minutes, or even seven seconds,
Now let's poke another hole in evolution. Evolution has depended on the idea that it took millions and billions of years for everything to have evolved. The number 1 way of dating objects is called carbon date testing, which by measuring the levels of carbon 12 in fossils would tell its age. The only problem is science has now proven that there was a flood, and this flood (Noah's flood) did cover the whole earth some 4,500 years ago. Big deal, right? Well, science has proven that before this flood the earth was surrounded by water. This water sack around the earth’s atmosphere would not have allowed carbon 14 radiation to reach the earth. You see carbon 12 comes from the sun and that sack of water the earth was in, blocked any of the sun's radiation like carbon 14. So any levels of carbon 14 had to have been absorbed within the last 4,500 years or so.
Just think, the evolutionists say that dinosaur bones were found with carbon 14. So I guess that blows the theory of a meteor or comet coming to earth and causing the death of the dinosaurs MILLIONS of years ago, because by their own statements it would take many thousands of years for the earth to recover from such an event. We have historical records that date back to within 1,500 years of the flood. That proves that there was life and it was mankind. If the dinosaurs were destroyed by the explosive impact of some meteor or comet, and then after things calmed down life started over and man came from the ashes, how could all of this taken place in such a short time period? It could not have. They will tell you themselves that it would have taken many millions of years. If carbon 14 could not penetrate the earth until after the flood and the flood happened 4,500 years ago, and dinosaur bones have been found with carbon 14, then how could this be? It could not... based on evolution.
However based on the Bible it could. The Bible tells us in Genesis chapters 6-8 about the flood known as Noah's flood. This was where mankind had been perverted and God was ready to give up on man, at least until He found Noah. Noah was perfect in his generations. We also know that Noah took anywhere from 2 to 7 of every living creature with Him on the ark. We also know that the size of the dinosaurs (with their relatively small lungs) would require a denser atmosphere and more pure oxygen. After the earth lost its outer water shield, the atmosphere started expanding, causing it to be less concentrated and the oxygen less pure. Along with this, the vegetation would be less abundant. Since it was harder to breathe and with less food the dinosaurs went the same way as other extinct creatures.
Okay, why has God allowed all this to happen?
Well, first let us look at what God had planned. He created this earth for mankind. Then He created Adam and Eve, and He gave them a lease on the earth. It was theirs to do with as they pleased. God wanted mankind to have free will, not to be a bunch of robots. He could have made robots, but He wanted man to procreate, and fill the earth with freethinking, free willed beings that would be a part of His family. He wanted children.
Then Adam did the unthinkable; he gave his lease away to the only one that would dare try to mess things up. This was one of God's highest Angels ever. His name was Lucifer and he was the only anointed archangel ever.
Lucifer, like so many of us, allowed pride to over take and over power him. He got the idea that he could become God, and he caused division in heaven. So God did the only thing He could–he cast Lucifer out, but in the process He created His biggest problem. Why not just erase Lucifer and his followers? Good question. God could not go against His own words (law), and God had given a lease on the earth to man for a period of time. Since Adam had essentially transferred it to Lucifer, God had to honor this, at least until the end of the lease. Are you wondering what I mean by lease? Well, by the time you finish this book you will understand.
So now God’s creation is basically a sub-let to one who is not of Him anymore, one who is perverted. God knew full well that Satan (Lucifer) would pervert all that God had done and said. So God has to find those individuals here who will work with Him. Since God is honorable, the only way into this earth is through woman. A big difference between God and Satan is that God is a gentleman who always gives choices and never forces Himself on anyone. Satan always forces, and never gives choices.
So as time went by God would find a man or a woman through whom He could work. Yes, God even appeared, in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night to the children of Israel, but they asked that He no longer would appear to them. Even while He did, they still sinned so badly that God wanted to destroy them again. So even His actual presence did not prevent sin.
What is sin? Sin is a thing you do that leads to death. Yes, even something as minor as gossip (false witness, lie) is a sin, and it leads to death. The reasoning is basically simple;
Anything that is of God is life.
Anything that is not of God is of Satan.
Anything of Satan is death and destruction.
God is not a man that He could lie. God is truth, so the lie is truth perverted.
Let's get back on track.
God sees that His being in the presence of man, visible to man, does not work. So He decides that the removal of His visible presence may help us be better. How could that help? It would require man to seek God on a higher plane than this physical one. Too many seek God for the wrong reasons and in doing so never find Him. Man often only seeks him out when there is some kind of trouble. Read the Old Testament and see how many times Israel ignored God until they needed Him. Notice how fast they sought Him out, but only when He was needed.
Some of you may say you have sought out God, and you found nothing. First, how long did you seek Him? Second, what did you do to seek Him? Did you, for a day or two (or less) moan and groan, expecting Him to show up and bail you out? It takes some a year, two years, or more.
Others have taken as short as days to find God. First you have to get through a lot of lies to get to the truth. When you get to the truth you will always find God. He is there trying to get to you, but He will not break His words (law). That would pervert the things He has set up. He will not be found in the lie. What is the lie? That God will hear and answer you if you are good or moan loud enough. Moaning does not move God, faith does.
What is faith? At first faith is having confidence in, trusting in, and relying on Christ for salvation. Christ is a Greek word, which means The Anointed One. Anointed means Saturated in the Spirit of God, the Power and wisdom of God. So faith would be having confidence in, trusting in and relying on the power and wisdom of God to save you from whatever you need saving from. It is like being a child. Have you ever noticed how a child trusts, and has confidence in, and reliance on his/her parents for everything? Well, faith that moves God is like that faith that children have in their parents. That is how you contact God.
A big hindrance to this is that we have been filled with lies. From day one we have been inundated with the lies of church leaders, politicians, and even family members. For instance, how many of you bring up your children or were brought up believing in Santa Claus? People tell their children this lie and ask them to believe. Then, the children get old enough to know better.
How hard is it for them to believe in someone that they can not see, when the one they could see (in a red suit) turned out to be a lie? How much does good old Santa seem like God? Songs, that say he knows when you are naughty or nice or he's coming to town so don't cry or he will know.
It's not just Santa Claus. How about the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny? Harmless? NO, not when you are talking about a child during the time of his/her life when they are most impressionable. These are not the only lies. In the past, we have been led to believe in politicians, only to be lied to and then let down. The same goes for church leaders.
Do not believe in man, but in God only, because God can not let you down. Only man can let you down. God never set things up this way, man did.
1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
We really have all the tools that we need to find God and live the life we should. The tools are the Bible, faith, and prayer. You may ask, why does God not show Himself? He does! But we are too blind to see Him. We are blinded by the things around us like TV, movies, music, sports etc.
The really funny thing is that we are too afraid to get to know God. However we allow ourselves to be programmed by people who we do not know and do not know Him. As far as we know these people could be ax murderers, child molesters, rapists, etc. Who am I talking about? The people who write and produce the TV shows and movies we watch, or those who program the games our children play on X-BOX or Nintendo.
Why does God allow so many bad things to happen? He does not, We do! We have an enemy and we ignore him and allow him to do these things. Oh yes, Satan is still here, and he really does not want you to realize that he is still here, or even that he exists.
John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16 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.
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
God is love! The only way He could help us was to give us a way out. The way was through His Son. He does not condemn us if we do not choose Him; we condemn ourselves. If we choose God's way then we choose life. What do we give up? We must really give up so much–Death and destruction. People who drink, smoke, or have sex with their spouse are not condemned. The smoker or drinker may shorten his/her life here, but they are not condemned to hell. Yes, a lot of people quit smoking and drinking when they get to know God. That’s not because they MUST, but because they want to, because they found more in life. They found something with which to replace the artificial, external, physical stimuli.
God made it very simple–believe in His Son. If you do sin, repent and God will forgive you. It can not be any simpler.
If you want more out of life and you want to avoid bad things from happening to you and your family, you will have to read the manual. You will have to spend time with the One who wrote the manual. Then you will avoid most of those terrible and awful things you hear about. The manual is the Bible, and the One who wrote it is God. The bad things are any of those things you don't want in your life. Please read the book of John in the Bible. Read it over and over until you have a full understanding and while you read ask God through His Spirit to help enlighten you to understand what you are reading.
Talk to God, He is real. If you do it enough and give Him a chance to get a word in edgewise you will hear Him. Don't set a time limit. Set yourself time to do it until you know what the following verse means.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
I have endeavored to answer some of the questions that we had at the beginning, but due to the limitations of time and space, I was only able to skim over some and give you a very short version of others. If you research on your own what I have started here I think you will find that a lot of scientists are even finding God.
My prayer for you is that you find God and have a beautiful relationship with Him. (Amen)
Please get your own copy of this book.
Hearing From God
Monday, October 13, 2008
Is God Boring?
Daily Devotions
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I don't think so. But many people believe so. If we apply our imaginations to various aspects of life, we can see that there are ways we can still be of God and worship, serve Him with enthusiasm, and not in boredom. According to John Piper, when he spoke at Northwestern College as part of their year-long 100th anniversary celebration, (the title of his message was "The Supremacy of God in the Life of the Mind."). One capability of the mind that he focused on was the imagination. He said that imagination applies to everybody who has a mind. Here's what I said:
One of the great duties of the Christian mind is imagination. It is not the only thing the mind does. The mind observes. The mind analyzes and organizes. The mind memorizes. But imagination is different. It does not observe or analyze what's there; it imagines what is not seen but might be there and might explain what is there (as in the case of most scientific discoveries). Or it imagines a new way of saying what is there that no one has said before (as in the case of creative writing and music and art).
 | The Power of Praying Through the Bible By Stormie Omartian / Harvest House Publishers Join best-selling author Omartian on a journey of discovery from Genesis to Revelation! Based on devotions from The Power of a Praying Woman Bible, this encouraging guide reveals how God designed prayer so that we can communicate with him, embrace the promises of Scripture, release burdens to his care, walk with Jesus, and listen to the Spirit. 400 pages, softcover from Harvest. |
John Piper aslo said that imagination is a Christian duty for two reasons. One is that you can't apply Jesus' golden rule without it. He said, "Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them" (Matthew 7:12). We must imagine ourselves in their place and imagine what we would like done to us. Compassionate, sympathetic, helpful love hangs much on the imagination of the lover.
The other reason he said that imagination is a Christian duty is that when a person speaks or writes or sings or paints about breathtaking truth in a boring way, it is probably a sin. The supremacy of God in the life of the mind is not honored when God and his amazing world are observed truly, analyzed duly, and communicated boringly. Imagination is the key to killing boredom. We must imagine ways to say truth for what it really is. And it is not boring. God's world - all of it - rings with wonders. The imagination calls up new words, new images, new analogies, new metaphors, new illustrations, new connections to say old, glorious truth. Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful.
Imagination may be the hardest work of the human mind. And perhaps the most God-like. It is the closest we get to creation out of nothing. When we speak of beautiful truth, we must think of a pattern of words, perhaps a poem. We must conceive something that has never existed before and does not now exist in any human mind. We must think of an analogy or metaphor or illustration which has no existence. The imagination must exert itself to see it in our mind, when it is not there. We must create word combinations and music that have never existed before. All of this we do, because we are like God and because he is infinitely worthy of ever-new words and songs.
A college - or a church - committed to the supremacy of God in the life of the mind will cultivate many fertile, and a few great, imaginations. And O how the world needs God-besotted minds that can say the great things of God and sing the great things of God and play the great things of God in ways that have never been said or sung or played before.
Imagination is like a muscle. It grows stronger when you flex it. And you must flex it. It does not usually put itself into action. It awaits the will. Imagination is also contagious. When you are around someone who uses it a lot, you tend to catch it. Please, hang out with some people who are full of imagination, and that you exert yourself to think up a new way to say an old truth. God is worthy.
Ada
Saturday, October 11, 2008
What Cancer Cannot Do
I was having my Devotionals the other day, and I read this passage which has become one of my favorites. I was so moved by the words and the way they apply to so many parts of my life and maybe yours too. Here it goes;
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
And Pastor Adrian Rogers asked this question in his Daily Devotionals, "What if you had an appointment with the doctor and found out that you had cancer? Maybe you have heard this news or heard it on behalf of a loved one. I want to tell you some things cancer cannot do. Cancer cannot shatter hope. Cancer cannot corrode faith. Cancer cannot eat away peace. Cancer cannot place a limit on eternal life. Cancer cannot quench the Spirit of God and cancer cannot lessen the power of the resurrection. That’s how limited cancer is!"
If there's anyone you know who has cancer, please share this good News with them to givethem some hope and maybe life. If possible, pray with them or for them that they may know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
And Pastor Adrian Rogers asked this question in his Daily Devotionals, "What if you had an appointment with the doctor and found out that you had cancer? Maybe you have heard this news or heard it on behalf of a loved one. I want to tell you some things cancer cannot do. Cancer cannot shatter hope. Cancer cannot corrode faith. Cancer cannot eat away peace. Cancer cannot place a limit on eternal life. Cancer cannot quench the Spirit of God and cancer cannot lessen the power of the resurrection. That’s how limited cancer is!"
If there's anyone you know who has cancer, please share this good News with them to givethem some hope and maybe life. If possible, pray with them or for them that they may know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Sealed with the Holy Spirit
BIBLE MEDITATION:
“...ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
Ephesians 1:13
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit of God seals you into Himself. What does it mean to be sealed? It means to put the King’s seal on you. The King’s seal can be broken by no man. That means you are His for all time and eternity. Second Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His.” You are sealed into a relationship with God by the Holy Spirit.
ACTION POINT:
Read Daniel 6 and Matthew 27. Note the similarities in the accounts of Daniel and Jesus being sealed away for death and how the Almighty God delivered them unto life!
From Pastor Adrian Rogers
“...ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
Ephesians 1:13
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit of God seals you into Himself. What does it mean to be sealed? It means to put the King’s seal on you. The King’s seal can be broken by no man. That means you are His for all time and eternity. Second Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His.” You are sealed into a relationship with God by the Holy Spirit.
ACTION POINT:
Read Daniel 6 and Matthew 27. Note the similarities in the accounts of Daniel and Jesus being sealed away for death and how the Almighty God delivered them unto life!
From Pastor Adrian Rogers
Brokenness: The Principle
I thought this was interesting, and decided to share. Please, let me know what you think. Thanks.
John 12:24-25
Brokenness hurts, and most of us would rather live without any seasons of pain. Yet during such times, the Lord often does His greatest work in our lives, reshaping and realigning us for His divine purposes.
Jesus beautifully explains the principle of brokenness in John 12:24-25, where He compares our life to a single grain of wheat. If we hold a kernel in our hands, nothing will happen. If we carefully place it in a jar or on a shelf for safekeeping, it will just sit there indefinitely. In its safety, the grain will essentially be useless.
However, if that kernel is placed in the soil where its protective layer is stripped away, something amazing happens. Before long, a little sprout will emerge from the earth and start to grow into something different, useful, and beautiful. Moreover, that new stalk will produce more grains that can be planted, and the stalks they produce will do the same. It's an amazing cycle of life, wherein a single kernel can lead to countless stalks of wheat. But it has to start with the brokenness of one grain.
Jesus did not just speak this example; He lived it. By sacrificing Himself, He was broken and placed in the ground. From that brokenness came new life for us all. From that one "grain," countless new believers, each with a new life, have sprung forth.
Are you feeling broken today? If so, remember the principle of the broken grain. God has certainly not abandoned you; instead, He may be leading you into a season of radical new growth.
FEATURED RESOURCE
Dr. Charles Stanley
John 12:24-25
Brokenness hurts, and most of us would rather live without any seasons of pain. Yet during such times, the Lord often does His greatest work in our lives, reshaping and realigning us for His divine purposes.
Jesus beautifully explains the principle of brokenness in John 12:24-25, where He compares our life to a single grain of wheat. If we hold a kernel in our hands, nothing will happen. If we carefully place it in a jar or on a shelf for safekeeping, it will just sit there indefinitely. In its safety, the grain will essentially be useless.
However, if that kernel is placed in the soil where its protective layer is stripped away, something amazing happens. Before long, a little sprout will emerge from the earth and start to grow into something different, useful, and beautiful. Moreover, that new stalk will produce more grains that can be planted, and the stalks they produce will do the same. It's an amazing cycle of life, wherein a single kernel can lead to countless stalks of wheat. But it has to start with the brokenness of one grain.
Jesus did not just speak this example; He lived it. By sacrificing Himself, He was broken and placed in the ground. From that brokenness came new life for us all. From that one "grain," countless new believers, each with a new life, have sprung forth.
Are you feeling broken today? If so, remember the principle of the broken grain. God has certainly not abandoned you; instead, He may be leading you into a season of radical new growth.
FEATURED RESOURCE
Dr. Charles Stanley
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
| The Power of Praying Through the Bible By Stormie Omartian / Harvest House Publishers Join best-selling author Omartian on a journey of discovery from Genesis to Revelation! Based on devotions from The Power of a Praying Woman Bible, this encouraging guide reveals how God designed prayer so that we can communicate with him, embrace the promises of Scripture, release burdens to his care, walk with Jesus, and listen to the Spirit. 400 pages, softcover from Harvest. |
![23516: Praying God"s Word](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tfd1VYq0eCiSpNuyWUjd1ctfQ8vuelLeG29ITf0-DodSuMtKc5pd2BtFC-vUSQSbXQfhB-M0oYF2iw_gH9mCC0QZaI14YqLflJlsLgYzWzkvc=s0-d "23516: Praying God"s Word") | Praying God's Word By Beth Moore / B & H Publishing Group In Praying God's Word, Beth Moore teaches how the truth of Scripture and the power of prayer can help destroy the strongholds of sin in your life. Moore begins by carefully identifying fourteen common strongholds such as anger, unforgiveness and addiction that threaten to destroy your spiritual life. She then presents Scriptures that are arranged in prayer form, so that you can use them as a means of fighting against and ultimately destroying these strongholds of sin. |
 | In Step with God: Understanding His Ways and Plans for Your Life By Charles F. Stanley / Thomas Nelson How do you make all the choices you face every day? Stanley reveals that understanding, considering, and trusting God's character will help you align your life with the direction he has for you. Discover how to know when to make big decisions; what God has for your future; why you're in difficult circumstances; and more. 256 pages, hardcover from Nelson. |
Preparing for Hurricane Ike
| In Step with God: Understanding His Ways and Plans for Your Life By Charles F. Stanley / Thomas Nelson How do you make all the choices you face every day? Stanley reveals that understanding, considering, and trusting God's character will help you align your life with the direction he has for you. Discover how to know when to make big decisions; what God has for your future; why you're in difficult circumstances; and more. 256 pages, hardcover from Nelson. |
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It's kind of difficult to say which is tougher; the Hurricane with the winds, rain, etc. Or the damages and the cleanups that the Hurricane leaves behind. Well both, sort of. The winds from my experience is scary. The way it hits against the windows, the walls of the house, and shakes the house. It's not the best thing to witness in life. But, that's not all. Some people are usually more prepared for things like this than others. Usually, the more prepared ones are those who have gone through it before. They know how it is. They're aware of the lights going off, trees falling, water problems among other things that happen when the storm is raging. Some others that are prepared are the ones who tune in to the News Channels, Radio stations for News, Weather Channels, and maybe read the Newspaper.
As we know, knowledge is power. There are those who maybe just want to try out their Faith. They believe that nothing will happen, after all, God is God. And, some others are not even aware of what is happening. This is just how it is in our Christian lives. Some of us are always "in tune" with God, the Holy Spirit. And we receive the messages, the warnings against danger, against temptations. And because we are "in tune", we are on the same "Frequency" with God, the Holy Spirit, we listen, and we obey. And guess what, we prepare ourselves for "it". We read the Bible, the Word of God. We sing songs of Praise and Worship. We pray. All these, to get us prepared so that we can overcome. (1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24; John 16:3, 4, 13; Proverbs 20:27)
This brings me to talk about being God-Inside Minded. I believe as people of God, when we become "in-tuned" with God, we become God-Inside Minded. We are no longer of the world, even though we're in the world. We are "spirits" living in a natural world. We have souls, and we live in a physical body. We receive the Spirit of God who guides us into all truth through our regenerated human spirits. The Spirit of God living inside of us leads us in all. And all we do is look inside of us, and know that His spirit is there. After a while, we become spirit-conscious. But this can last all through life, only if we dwell in the Word of God, making sure the Word does not depart out of our mouths. We meditate upon it day and night. (1 Corinthians 2:12; Romans 8:14 - 16; John 3:6, 7; James 2:22; Joshua 1:8)
On Saturday, my husband and I had to go to the church for a church duty, and as we were driving along the streets, we noticed there were so many cars on the road, this was just after the rain stopped. But, we noticed that people were searching for food. On our our way back home, we became hungry. And, since there was no light and our stove and oven are electric, I couldn't cook. As we drove into our driveway, we noticed that our neighbors to the left and right had light from their generators. Also, on our way home along one of the streets we drove through, there was a Popeye that was open. But guess what? It had a very long line. Over 20 cars lined open to buy food. Later on when I was talking to my sister, she asked me why we were not prepared. She and another sister had warned us to get prepared in every way. We were not. We eventually ate cake, raisin-bread and sardines, and drank some chocolate beverage, the water came from the tap.
Why am I writing about this? Preparedness, not just for Hurricane Ike, but in the Spiritual also. "Put on the full armor of God ...." Ephesians 6:11-14. We should put on the Word, which is truth. It contains all the weapons of our warfare, which are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
We should put on the breastplate of righteousness, which is faith and love. Our feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In Christ Jesus, we have peace and pursue peace with all men.
We also need to take the shield of faith, with which we are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; the helmet of salvation (holding the thoughts, feelings, and purpose of god's heart); and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So that, in the face of all trials, tests, temptations, Hurricanes, tornadoes, and tribulation, we cut to pieces the snare of the devil by speaking the Word of God. For "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world". (2 Corinthians 10:4; Ephesians 6:14 - 17)
So, I believe that we should pray at all times - on every occasion, in every season - in the Spirit, with every manner of prayer and entreaty. In that way, we will keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding on behalf of all others in our lives and outside our lives. Our loved ones, friends, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances, church members, every one including the needy, the homeless. Let's remember that the Hurricane Ike, has rendered a lot of people homeless.
More Scripture References: Ephesians 2:14; Psalm 34:14; 2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 John 4:4; 2 Corinthians 3:5, 6.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
My Life as a Christian
I thank God for all who came out unscathed from the Hurricane Ike in Texas. And in my prayers, I remember those who did not make it. And those who lost their homes/properties. My family is safe, (thank God). It was scary, (the wind). At some point, I thought the house was going to fall or something. But, Glory to God, my family and I, did not suffer any serious damages.
Times like this raise all kinds of questions about God. Why does God let things like this happen? Does He not love us as the Bible, His Word says? Is He punishing us? If so, what for? And why? But then His word says, "in all things, give thanks". But, then when things like Hurricane happen, it does not mean we are not loved. Because, God loves us. "We love Him, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19.
May we continue to be steadfast in the Lord Jesus. For the steadfast of the Lord never ceaseth.
Times like this raise all kinds of questions about God. Why does God let things like this happen? Does He not love us as the Bible, His Word says? Is He punishing us? If so, what for? And why? But then His word says, "in all things, give thanks". But, then when things like Hurricane happen, it does not mean we are not loved. Because, God loves us. "We love Him, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19.
May we continue to be steadfast in the Lord Jesus. For the steadfast of the Lord never ceaseth.
Friday, September 12, 2008
My Life as a Christian
![202025: Rebecca"s Reward, Daughters of Blessings Series #4](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sorfZYe_UOtDUHqVzsYJXt1cTHSjxE9hcM8nmQDCn8oizWLAHgK4xkrS-a_wnHe4ZL5uPKWf-Sj3IEH6f2ZLiAmz8-AgpkLv2w_Aklwc-sv1gT=s0-d "202025: Rebecca"s Reward, Daughters of Blessings Series #4") | Rebecca's Reward, Daughters of Blessings Series #4 By Lauraine Snelling / Bethany House Nineteen-year-old Rebecca Baard has experienced more than her share of sorrow, and now she is afraid to open her heart to love. Besides, no man has ever shown enough interest in her to come courting. So Rebecca's friends set out to remedy the situation, concocting social events to attract all the eligible bachelors in Blessing and advising her in the use of feminine wiles. When none of these efforts seem to work, Rebecca tries yet another tack, only to discover that even the best of intentions can't keep events from taking a surprising turn. Will Rebecca overcome her fears, or will she settle for something less than love? |
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I was born into a christian home. My Grandparents were serious christians. They were part of the church leadership. My mother, a Choir leader. Headed a Bible-based Fellowship. Attended most Christian programs, church based, and outside church. My Dad, a church leader, has played different major roles in the Church of Jesus Christ. We, (me and my 3 sisters and my parents, woke up everyday as early as 5 in the morning for Devotionals and prayer, and words of wisdom from both parents, mostly my Dad, and ended the day with the same, but with other members of our household.
I accepted Jesus into my life at the age of 16. I was in my first year in college then. I consider myself a "true born-again" christian. As a child, I went through all the "rituals" a little child in the church is supposed to go through: infant baptism, sunday school enrollment, member of the Girls' Brigade, a member of a young women's group, CGIT (Christian Girls' In Training), confirmation, etc. I actively participated in the church activities, reciting Bible passages in front of a congregation of maybe over 100 members, singing, taking up roles in dramas, 1st and 2nd bible readings, etc. I thought all these automatically made one a "true christian". I believed this gave me a VIP ticket to heaven, I was special. I believed I was saved.
But, in the course of life, I found out all I did as a kid, young girl, were not enough. Infact, I discovered chrisitianity is deeper than that. I went to church every Sunday, attended Church weekly programs. I was "worshipping" God. In a way, yes, I was. But, not really the way God wants me to. I found out that worshipping God is deeper than I thought...
Sunday, September 7, 2008
God First
Pastor Jerry Wilhite, author
It is time to make a decision. Either you are for or not for God. This may sound harsh and like we are judging or coming down on some. But it is just the truth; you are either for or against God.
And if you are for then God has to be first in your life, first over spouse, parents even children. With God first all the rest will be blessed.
Matthew 22
37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38. This is the first and great comandment.
To have God first we must dedicate time daily to God, not just reading His word and praying, but listening.
Matthew 15
3. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the comandment of God by your tradition?
4. For God comanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
5. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6. And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the comandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
7. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the comandments of men.
Jesus said it best, when we learn from man, we learn of man, the only way to learn of and about God is from God, not just His word, but via His spirit. All the rest is tradition, and tradition can lead us from God.
John 1426. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
God should be first because He said it, but also with anything else before God in your life will open a hole for Satan to enter. And that will eventually cause you to fall away.Other verses that you need to read are:
1. John 15:26
2. Romans 8:16
3. I John 2:20-27
4. I John 4:1-3
5. 1 Corinthians 1:24
6. 1 Corinthians 1:11-13
7. Hosea 4:6 (Revelations 1:6)
A study does not have to be long to be effective.
For those who really want to grow, and to know God, read this next paragraph.
After reading (if you have not read all of the above scriptures stop now and do so) all of the above scripture you should understand that you are suppose to actually hear from God. Actually hear His voice, and to know it is God.
1. Dedicate time daily to hear from God.
2. Find a place that is free of any distractions and is quite.
3. Ask God to help you hear His voice. And daily sit and listen to and for the voice of God.
You must do this daily for atleast 30 minutes a day, not missing any days for any reason. Then sit and listen until you hear, and then ask what you read in I John 4:1-3 to verify it is God and not Satan you are hearing from. And all that is left then is to continue until you hear God's voice constant in your life.How long does it take to hear from God?The average is about 2 months, some hear in days and others take longer. How long should not be important, the only thing that should be impotant is doing it and not stopping for any reason. It is worth the time, imagine hearing from God and all doubt about God and salvation disappearing forever.
It is time to make a decision. Either you are for or not for God. This may sound harsh and like we are judging or coming down on some. But it is just the truth; you are either for or against God.
And if you are for then God has to be first in your life, first over spouse, parents even children. With God first all the rest will be blessed.
Matthew 22
37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38. This is the first and great comandment.
To have God first we must dedicate time daily to God, not just reading His word and praying, but listening.
Matthew 15
3. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the comandment of God by your tradition?
4. For God comanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
5. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6. And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the comandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
7. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the comandments of men.
Jesus said it best, when we learn from man, we learn of man, the only way to learn of and about God is from God, not just His word, but via His spirit. All the rest is tradition, and tradition can lead us from God.
John 1426. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
God should be first because He said it, but also with anything else before God in your life will open a hole for Satan to enter. And that will eventually cause you to fall away.Other verses that you need to read are:
1. John 15:26
2. Romans 8:16
3. I John 2:20-27
4. I John 4:1-3
5. 1 Corinthians 1:24
6. 1 Corinthians 1:11-13
7. Hosea 4:6 (Revelations 1:6)
A study does not have to be long to be effective.
For those who really want to grow, and to know God, read this next paragraph.
After reading (if you have not read all of the above scriptures stop now and do so) all of the above scripture you should understand that you are suppose to actually hear from God. Actually hear His voice, and to know it is God.
1. Dedicate time daily to hear from God.
2. Find a place that is free of any distractions and is quite.
3. Ask God to help you hear His voice. And daily sit and listen to and for the voice of God.
You must do this daily for atleast 30 minutes a day, not missing any days for any reason. Then sit and listen until you hear, and then ask what you read in I John 4:1-3 to verify it is God and not Satan you are hearing from. And all that is left then is to continue until you hear God's voice constant in your life.How long does it take to hear from God?The average is about 2 months, some hear in days and others take longer. How long should not be important, the only thing that should be impotant is doing it and not stopping for any reason. It is worth the time, imagine hearing from God and all doubt about God and salvation disappearing forever.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Can We Worship For Our Own Entertainment?
There is an erroneous idea today that the main reason we attend worship is to "get something out of the service", rather than going there to give our worship to God. This is a selfish motive on our part. This is the reason people cannot be satisfied with the worship service when their emphasis is not on the proper object of worship, God. People want to "do their own thing" in the worship of the church. What the Bible has to say about worship for many people is of little consequence as long as they are happy and feel good. We must be concerned with what God says on how He is to be worshipped instead of what we might want to offer Him.
The United States has produced the most entertainment-oriented people the world has ever known. We have more forms of amusement than has ever been know to man, but we still want more. In our age everything is designed to appeal to our emotions and to entertain us. We seem to have forgotten our worship service is to bring glory and honor to God, and not to entertain ourselves. When we have choirs to sing to us and concerts to entertain us, we are not worshipping God; but we have become the spectators who are being entertained. Worship is not a spectator event. We dare not become spectators, because in worship it is God who is the spectator. People have the roles reversed. People expect divine will to conform to what seems right in their own eyes. Proverbs 12:15 says, "The way of the fool is right in his own eyes." The emphasis is how can the worship service be made more entertaining to people to please themselves and not God.
Worship to God is holy and sacred. To pervert and corrupt it with entertainment and what we can "get out of the service" in trying to please and gratify ourselves is nothing short of blasphemy! The sacredness of true worship must not be sacrificed on altars of entertainment-oriented quartets, choirs, and other entertainment groups. We are as Hebrews 13:15 says to "Offer the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." In worship we must be the participants, not the observers. We want to please and entertain ourselves. In Galatians 1:10 the question is asked, "Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Worship is God-centered not man-centered. When our worship is to please God instead of ourselves, then and only then will our worship be much more meaningful and spiritually uplifting to us and acceptable to God.
When people seek an "emotional high" from worship and don’t get it, they are disappointed and start blaming the song service, the preacher, etc. The world wants their worship service to be "more entertaining", thus they are failing to worship God in spirit and in truth. Where in the Bible can we go to show that our worship is designed to please the worshipper. The desire to have an experience or an encounter along the lines of mysticism also gives little regard to what God says in the Bible.
Our worship to God requires commitment on our part. People had rather worship Christ as a babe in a manger than Christ as their crucified savior. Their worshipping Christ as a babe in a manger requires no commitment on their part. They feel they can put Him in a box and live the rest of the year as they please. But worshipping Christ as our crucified savior requires commitment, a complete change of our life, and a willingness to do all that He says. Jesus says in Matthew 10:37, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." God and Christ must be first in our lives, and this requires that we be committed to them.
Click Here!
The United States has produced the most entertainment-oriented people the world has ever known. We have more forms of amusement than has ever been know to man, but we still want more. In our age everything is designed to appeal to our emotions and to entertain us. We seem to have forgotten our worship service is to bring glory and honor to God, and not to entertain ourselves. When we have choirs to sing to us and concerts to entertain us, we are not worshipping God; but we have become the spectators who are being entertained. Worship is not a spectator event. We dare not become spectators, because in worship it is God who is the spectator. People have the roles reversed. People expect divine will to conform to what seems right in their own eyes. Proverbs 12:15 says, "The way of the fool is right in his own eyes." The emphasis is how can the worship service be made more entertaining to people to please themselves and not God.
Worship to God is holy and sacred. To pervert and corrupt it with entertainment and what we can "get out of the service" in trying to please and gratify ourselves is nothing short of blasphemy! The sacredness of true worship must not be sacrificed on altars of entertainment-oriented quartets, choirs, and other entertainment groups. We are as Hebrews 13:15 says to "Offer the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." In worship we must be the participants, not the observers. We want to please and entertain ourselves. In Galatians 1:10 the question is asked, "Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Worship is God-centered not man-centered. When our worship is to please God instead of ourselves, then and only then will our worship be much more meaningful and spiritually uplifting to us and acceptable to God.
When people seek an "emotional high" from worship and don’t get it, they are disappointed and start blaming the song service, the preacher, etc. The world wants their worship service to be "more entertaining", thus they are failing to worship God in spirit and in truth. Where in the Bible can we go to show that our worship is designed to please the worshipper. The desire to have an experience or an encounter along the lines of mysticism also gives little regard to what God says in the Bible.
Our worship to God requires commitment on our part. People had rather worship Christ as a babe in a manger than Christ as their crucified savior. Their worshipping Christ as a babe in a manger requires no commitment on their part. They feel they can put Him in a box and live the rest of the year as they please. But worshipping Christ as our crucified savior requires commitment, a complete change of our life, and a willingness to do all that He says. Jesus says in Matthew 10:37, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." God and Christ must be first in our lives, and this requires that we be committed to them.
Click Here!
Desiring God
Revelation 22:8-9
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God."
Reasons for a Series on Worship
I begin today a series of messages on worship. There are two reasons, at least. One is that worship is what we were created for. This is the final end of all existence: the worship of God. God created the universe so that it would display the worth of his glory. And he created us so that we would see this glory and reflect it by knowing and loving it - with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. The other reason is that since the last time I preached on worship, hundreds of new people have come to Bethlehem, including a new lead worshipper, Chuck Steddom. So we need to rebuild a common vision of what worship is and what we are gathering to do on Sunday morning, and scattering to do on Monday morning. What is it? Why do we do it? How do we do it? Those are the questions for the next several weeks, and I think you are going to be surprised what we find in the Bible, which is where we will be looking for answers.
Worship God!
I begin with Revelation 22:9 not because I intend to do an exposition of it today, but because I want us to hear the simple command, "Worship God!" The angel said to John, when he fell down at the angel's feet, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God." In other words, don't worship angels, worship God! Don't worship nothing, worship God! Don't neglect God or despise God, worship God! This is the last chapter of the Bible, and this is the last duty of man: worship God!
What I aim to do this morning is a broad overview of the New Testament by way of introduction to the theme.
What we find in the New Testament, perhaps to our amazement, is an utterly stunning degree of indifference to worship as an outward ritual, and an utterly radical intensification of worship as an inward experience of the heart.
No Gatherings Called "Worship Services" in the New Testament
Let's begin with a startling fact, namely, that in the epistles of the New Testament there is very little instruction that deals explicitly with corporate worship - what we call worship services. Not that there were no corporate gatherings for worship: 1 Corinthians 14:23 speaks of "the whole church gathering together," and Acts 2:46 speaks of the early church "attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes," and Hebrews 10:25 speaks of "not neglecting to meet together." But this is not much and the remarkable thing is that, even when the gatherings are in view, the apostles do not speak explicitly of "worship."
Let me illustrate this so that you feel its full force. In the Old Testament the most common word for worship is the Hebrew word hishtahvah (or some related form of that word). Its basic meaning is "bow down," with the sense of reverence and respect and honor. It occurs 171 times. In the Greek Old Testament, 164 of those instances of this Hebrew word are translated by the Greek word proskuneo.
In the Greek New Testament this is the main word for worship - proskuneo. But when you look at its use something astonishing appears. The word is common in the gospels (26 times) - people would often bow down worshipfully before Jesus. And it is common in the book of Revelation (21 times) because the angels and elders in heaven often bow down before God. But in the epistles of Paul it occurs only once, namely in 1 Corinthians 14:25 where the unbeliever falls down at the power of prophecy and confesses God is in the assembly. And it doesn't occur at all in the letters of Peter, James or John.
Now this is remarkable - that the main word for worship in the Old Testament is virtually absent from the letters of the New Testament. Why is this? Why are the very epistles that are written to help the church be what it ought to be in this age almost totally devoid of this word and of explicit teaching on the specifics of corporate worship?
"Something Greater than the Temple is Here"
Let me suggest a reason. I think the reason is found in the way Jesus treated worship in his life and teaching. His main statement is found in John 4:20-24. But before we look at that, consider a few other things he said. For example, his attitude to the Temple - the main place of Jewish worship - was not at all what the Jewish leaders thought it should be.
When he wove a whip and drove out the money changers, the reason he give is not for the sake of proper sacrifices but for the sake of prayer—in fact prayer for all the nations. "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations" (Mark 11:17). In other words he focused attention away from the outward acts of Jewish sacrifices to the personal act of communion with God in prayer for all peoples.
Then he said two other things about the temple that pointed to a radically altered view of worship. He said, "Something greater than the Temple is here," referring to himself (Matthew 12:6), and he said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). This attitude to the Temple not only got him killed (Mark 14:58; 15:29), but it also got Stephen killed (Acts 6:14). That's how important it was.
What Jesus was doing was identifying himself as the true Temple. "Something greater than the Temple is here." In himself he will fulfill everything the Temple stood for, especially the place where believers meet God. So here again he is perting attention away from worship as a localized thing with outward ritual to a personal, spiritual experience with himself at the center. Worship does not need a building, a priesthood and a sacrificial system. It needs the risen Jesus.
True Worship is in Spirit and in Truth
What Jesus was doing to worship in the way he related to the Temple is made explicit in John 4:20-24. Here he uses the word proskuneo - that dominant Old Testament word for worship - and shows that it was laden with outward and localized meaning, and transforms it into a concept that is mainly inward rather than outward, and mainly pervasive rather than localized.
The woman at the well said:
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." [The word for worship used here is that common Old Testament word, proskuneo; and note the localized emphasis in her mind.] Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father." (John 4:20-21)
Here you can see him loosening worship from its outward and localized connotations. Place is not the issue: "neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem." He goes on,
But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (verses 23-24)
Here is the key sentence: true worship, which was anticipated for the age to come, has arrived: "the hour is coming [in the age to come] and now is [here in me]." And what marks this true future worship that has broken into the present time from the glorious age to come is that it is not bound by localized place or outward form. Instead of being in this mountain or in Jerusalem, it is "in spirit and in truth."
What Jesus is doing here is stripping proskuneo of its last vestiges of localized and outward connotation. Not that it will be wrong for worship to be in a place or that it will be wrong for it to use outward forms; but rather he is making explicit and central that this is not what makes worship worship. What makes worship worship is what happens "in spirit and in truth" - with or without a place and with or without outward forms.
What do those two phrases mean: "in spirit" and "in truth"?
I take "in spirit" to mean that this true worship is carried along by the Holy Spirit and is happening mainly as an inward, spiritual event, not mainly as an outward bodily event. And I take "in truth" to mean that this true worship is a response to true views of God and is shaped and guided by true views of God.
So what Jesus has done is break decisively the necessary connection between worship and its outward and localized associations. It is mainly something inward and free from locality. This is what he meant when he said, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me" (Matthew 15:8-9). When the heart is far from God, worship is vain, empty, non-existent. The experience of the heart is the defining, vital, indispensable essence of worship.
True Worship is not Oriented on a Place or an Event
Now let's go back to our earlier question: why is the central Old Testament word for worship, proskuneo, virtually boycotted by Peter, James, John and Paul in the letters they write to the churches?
I think the reason is that the word did not make clear enough the inward, spiritual nature of true worship. It carried significant connotations of place and form. The word was associated with bodily bowing down and with the actual presence of a visible manifestation to bow down before.
In the gospels, Jesus was really there in visible form to fall before. So the word proskuneo is used a lot. In the book of Revelation the bowing down usually happens to God's manifestation in heaven or to false gods on the earth. So the word proskuneo is used widely in Revelation too.
But in the epistles something very different is happening. Jesus is not present in visible glory to fall before. Therefore the whole tendency of the early church - at least as it moved out of Jerusalem - was to deal with worship as primarily inward and spiritual rather than outward and ritualistic, and primarily pervasive rather than localized.
To confirm this, and see even more clearly how radically non-place- and non-event-oriented the New Testament view of worship is, consider what Paul does to some of the other words related to Old Testament worship.
For example, the next most frequent word for worship in the Old Testament (after proskuneo) is the word latreuo (over 90 times, almost always translating `abad) which is usually translated "serve," as in Exodus 23:24: "You shall not worship their gods or serve them."
When Paul uses it for Christian worship he goes out of his way to make sure that we know he means not a localized or outward form for worship practice but a non-localized, spiritual experience. In fact, he takes it so far as to treat virtually all of life as an act of worship when lived in the right spirit. For example, in Romans 1:9 he says, "I serve [or: worship] God in my spirit in the preaching of the Gospel." And in Philippians 3:3 Paul says that true Christians "worship God in the Spirit of God . . . and put no confidence in the flesh." And in Romans 12:1 Paul urges Christians to "present your bodies as living and holy sacrifices acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship."
So even when Paul uses an Old Testament word for worship, he takes pains to let us know that what he has in mind is not mainly a localized or external event of worship but an internal, spiritual experience - so much so that he sees all of life and ministry as an expression of that inner experience of worship.
You see the same thing if you take the New Testament use of the Old Testament language for Temple "sacrifices" and "priestly service." The praise and thanks of the lips is called a "sacrifice to God" (Hebrews 13:15). But so are good works in everyday life (Hebrews 13:16). Paul calls his own ministry a "priestly service [of worship]" and he calls the converts themselves an "acceptable offering [in worship]" to God (Romans 15:16; see also Philippians 2:17). He even calls the money that the churches send him "a fragrant aroma and acceptable sacrifice to God [in worship]" (Phililippians 4:18). And his own death for Christ he calls a "drink offering to God" (2 Timothy 4:6).
Worship Happens in the Heart, Every Day and all the Time
So you can see what is happening in the New Testament. Worship is being significantly de-institutionalized, de-localized, de-ritualized. The whole thrust is being taken off of ceremony and seasons and places and forms; and is being shifted to what is happening in the heart - not just on Sunday, but every day and all the time in all of life.
This is what it means when we read things like, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). And "whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father" (Colossians 3:17). This is the form of worship commanded in the New Testament: to act in a way that reflects the value of the glory of God - to do a thing in the name of Jesus with thanks to God. That is the basic form of living worship. But the New Testament uses those greatest of all worship sentences without any reference to worship services. They describe life.
Even when Paul calls us to "be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father," there is no reference to a time or place or a service. In fact, the key word is "always" - "always giving thanks for all things in the name of Jesus" (see Colossians 3:16). This may, in fact, be what we should do in a worship service, but it is not Paul's burden to tell us that. His burden is to call for a radical, inward authenticity of worship and an all-encompassing pervasiveness of worship in all of life. Place and form are not of the essence. Spirit and truth are all-important.
"A Continuous Act of Worship"
This is what gripped and shaped the reformed tradition, especially the Puritans and their heirs. The Puritans carried through the simplification and freedom of worship in music and liturgy and architecture. Patrick Collinson summarizes Puritan theory and practice by saying that, the life of the Puritan was in one sense a continuous act of worship, pursued under an unremitting and lively sense of God's providential purposes and constantly refreshed by religious activity, personal, domestic and public.
One of the reasons Puritans called their churches "meeting houses" and kept them very simple was to pert attention from the physical place to the inward, spiritual nature of worship.
My conclusion then is that in the New Testament there is a stunning indifference to the outward forms and places of worship. And there is, at the same time, a radical intensification of worship as an inward, spiritual experience that has no bounds and pervades all of life. These emphases were recaptured in the Reformation and came to clear expression in the Puritan wing of the Reformed tradition.
What begs for attention now is the question: what is the essence of that radical, authentic, inward experience called worship, and how is it that this experience comes to expression in gathered congregations and in everyday life? We will turn to that next week.
© Desiring God
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God."
Reasons for a Series on Worship
I begin today a series of messages on worship. There are two reasons, at least. One is that worship is what we were created for. This is the final end of all existence: the worship of God. God created the universe so that it would display the worth of his glory. And he created us so that we would see this glory and reflect it by knowing and loving it - with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. The other reason is that since the last time I preached on worship, hundreds of new people have come to Bethlehem, including a new lead worshipper, Chuck Steddom. So we need to rebuild a common vision of what worship is and what we are gathering to do on Sunday morning, and scattering to do on Monday morning. What is it? Why do we do it? How do we do it? Those are the questions for the next several weeks, and I think you are going to be surprised what we find in the Bible, which is where we will be looking for answers.
Worship God!
I begin with Revelation 22:9 not because I intend to do an exposition of it today, but because I want us to hear the simple command, "Worship God!" The angel said to John, when he fell down at the angel's feet, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God." In other words, don't worship angels, worship God! Don't worship nothing, worship God! Don't neglect God or despise God, worship God! This is the last chapter of the Bible, and this is the last duty of man: worship God!
What I aim to do this morning is a broad overview of the New Testament by way of introduction to the theme.
What we find in the New Testament, perhaps to our amazement, is an utterly stunning degree of indifference to worship as an outward ritual, and an utterly radical intensification of worship as an inward experience of the heart.
No Gatherings Called "Worship Services" in the New Testament
Let's begin with a startling fact, namely, that in the epistles of the New Testament there is very little instruction that deals explicitly with corporate worship - what we call worship services. Not that there were no corporate gatherings for worship: 1 Corinthians 14:23 speaks of "the whole church gathering together," and Acts 2:46 speaks of the early church "attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes," and Hebrews 10:25 speaks of "not neglecting to meet together." But this is not much and the remarkable thing is that, even when the gatherings are in view, the apostles do not speak explicitly of "worship."
Let me illustrate this so that you feel its full force. In the Old Testament the most common word for worship is the Hebrew word hishtahvah (or some related form of that word). Its basic meaning is "bow down," with the sense of reverence and respect and honor. It occurs 171 times. In the Greek Old Testament, 164 of those instances of this Hebrew word are translated by the Greek word proskuneo.
In the Greek New Testament this is the main word for worship - proskuneo. But when you look at its use something astonishing appears. The word is common in the gospels (26 times) - people would often bow down worshipfully before Jesus. And it is common in the book of Revelation (21 times) because the angels and elders in heaven often bow down before God. But in the epistles of Paul it occurs only once, namely in 1 Corinthians 14:25 where the unbeliever falls down at the power of prophecy and confesses God is in the assembly. And it doesn't occur at all in the letters of Peter, James or John.
Now this is remarkable - that the main word for worship in the Old Testament is virtually absent from the letters of the New Testament. Why is this? Why are the very epistles that are written to help the church be what it ought to be in this age almost totally devoid of this word and of explicit teaching on the specifics of corporate worship?
"Something Greater than the Temple is Here"
Let me suggest a reason. I think the reason is found in the way Jesus treated worship in his life and teaching. His main statement is found in John 4:20-24. But before we look at that, consider a few other things he said. For example, his attitude to the Temple - the main place of Jewish worship - was not at all what the Jewish leaders thought it should be.
When he wove a whip and drove out the money changers, the reason he give is not for the sake of proper sacrifices but for the sake of prayer—in fact prayer for all the nations. "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations" (Mark 11:17). In other words he focused attention away from the outward acts of Jewish sacrifices to the personal act of communion with God in prayer for all peoples.
Then he said two other things about the temple that pointed to a radically altered view of worship. He said, "Something greater than the Temple is here," referring to himself (Matthew 12:6), and he said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). This attitude to the Temple not only got him killed (Mark 14:58; 15:29), but it also got Stephen killed (Acts 6:14). That's how important it was.
What Jesus was doing was identifying himself as the true Temple. "Something greater than the Temple is here." In himself he will fulfill everything the Temple stood for, especially the place where believers meet God. So here again he is perting attention away from worship as a localized thing with outward ritual to a personal, spiritual experience with himself at the center. Worship does not need a building, a priesthood and a sacrificial system. It needs the risen Jesus.
True Worship is in Spirit and in Truth
What Jesus was doing to worship in the way he related to the Temple is made explicit in John 4:20-24. Here he uses the word proskuneo - that dominant Old Testament word for worship - and shows that it was laden with outward and localized meaning, and transforms it into a concept that is mainly inward rather than outward, and mainly pervasive rather than localized.
The woman at the well said:
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." [The word for worship used here is that common Old Testament word, proskuneo; and note the localized emphasis in her mind.] Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father." (John 4:20-21)
Here you can see him loosening worship from its outward and localized connotations. Place is not the issue: "neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem." He goes on,
But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (verses 23-24)
Here is the key sentence: true worship, which was anticipated for the age to come, has arrived: "the hour is coming [in the age to come] and now is [here in me]." And what marks this true future worship that has broken into the present time from the glorious age to come is that it is not bound by localized place or outward form. Instead of being in this mountain or in Jerusalem, it is "in spirit and in truth."
What Jesus is doing here is stripping proskuneo of its last vestiges of localized and outward connotation. Not that it will be wrong for worship to be in a place or that it will be wrong for it to use outward forms; but rather he is making explicit and central that this is not what makes worship worship. What makes worship worship is what happens "in spirit and in truth" - with or without a place and with or without outward forms.
What do those two phrases mean: "in spirit" and "in truth"?
I take "in spirit" to mean that this true worship is carried along by the Holy Spirit and is happening mainly as an inward, spiritual event, not mainly as an outward bodily event. And I take "in truth" to mean that this true worship is a response to true views of God and is shaped and guided by true views of God.
So what Jesus has done is break decisively the necessary connection between worship and its outward and localized associations. It is mainly something inward and free from locality. This is what he meant when he said, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me" (Matthew 15:8-9). When the heart is far from God, worship is vain, empty, non-existent. The experience of the heart is the defining, vital, indispensable essence of worship.
True Worship is not Oriented on a Place or an Event
Now let's go back to our earlier question: why is the central Old Testament word for worship, proskuneo, virtually boycotted by Peter, James, John and Paul in the letters they write to the churches?
I think the reason is that the word did not make clear enough the inward, spiritual nature of true worship. It carried significant connotations of place and form. The word was associated with bodily bowing down and with the actual presence of a visible manifestation to bow down before.
In the gospels, Jesus was really there in visible form to fall before. So the word proskuneo is used a lot. In the book of Revelation the bowing down usually happens to God's manifestation in heaven or to false gods on the earth. So the word proskuneo is used widely in Revelation too.
But in the epistles something very different is happening. Jesus is not present in visible glory to fall before. Therefore the whole tendency of the early church - at least as it moved out of Jerusalem - was to deal with worship as primarily inward and spiritual rather than outward and ritualistic, and primarily pervasive rather than localized.
To confirm this, and see even more clearly how radically non-place- and non-event-oriented the New Testament view of worship is, consider what Paul does to some of the other words related to Old Testament worship.
For example, the next most frequent word for worship in the Old Testament (after proskuneo) is the word latreuo (over 90 times, almost always translating `abad) which is usually translated "serve," as in Exodus 23:24: "You shall not worship their gods or serve them."
When Paul uses it for Christian worship he goes out of his way to make sure that we know he means not a localized or outward form for worship practice but a non-localized, spiritual experience. In fact, he takes it so far as to treat virtually all of life as an act of worship when lived in the right spirit. For example, in Romans 1:9 he says, "I serve [or: worship] God in my spirit in the preaching of the Gospel." And in Philippians 3:3 Paul says that true Christians "worship God in the Spirit of God . . . and put no confidence in the flesh." And in Romans 12:1 Paul urges Christians to "present your bodies as living and holy sacrifices acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship."
So even when Paul uses an Old Testament word for worship, he takes pains to let us know that what he has in mind is not mainly a localized or external event of worship but an internal, spiritual experience - so much so that he sees all of life and ministry as an expression of that inner experience of worship.
You see the same thing if you take the New Testament use of the Old Testament language for Temple "sacrifices" and "priestly service." The praise and thanks of the lips is called a "sacrifice to God" (Hebrews 13:15). But so are good works in everyday life (Hebrews 13:16). Paul calls his own ministry a "priestly service [of worship]" and he calls the converts themselves an "acceptable offering [in worship]" to God (Romans 15:16; see also Philippians 2:17). He even calls the money that the churches send him "a fragrant aroma and acceptable sacrifice to God [in worship]" (Phililippians 4:18). And his own death for Christ he calls a "drink offering to God" (2 Timothy 4:6).
Worship Happens in the Heart, Every Day and all the Time
So you can see what is happening in the New Testament. Worship is being significantly de-institutionalized, de-localized, de-ritualized. The whole thrust is being taken off of ceremony and seasons and places and forms; and is being shifted to what is happening in the heart - not just on Sunday, but every day and all the time in all of life.
This is what it means when we read things like, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). And "whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father" (Colossians 3:17). This is the form of worship commanded in the New Testament: to act in a way that reflects the value of the glory of God - to do a thing in the name of Jesus with thanks to God. That is the basic form of living worship. But the New Testament uses those greatest of all worship sentences without any reference to worship services. They describe life.
Even when Paul calls us to "be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father," there is no reference to a time or place or a service. In fact, the key word is "always" - "always giving thanks for all things in the name of Jesus" (see Colossians 3:16). This may, in fact, be what we should do in a worship service, but it is not Paul's burden to tell us that. His burden is to call for a radical, inward authenticity of worship and an all-encompassing pervasiveness of worship in all of life. Place and form are not of the essence. Spirit and truth are all-important.
"A Continuous Act of Worship"
This is what gripped and shaped the reformed tradition, especially the Puritans and their heirs. The Puritans carried through the simplification and freedom of worship in music and liturgy and architecture. Patrick Collinson summarizes Puritan theory and practice by saying that, the life of the Puritan was in one sense a continuous act of worship, pursued under an unremitting and lively sense of God's providential purposes and constantly refreshed by religious activity, personal, domestic and public.
One of the reasons Puritans called their churches "meeting houses" and kept them very simple was to pert attention from the physical place to the inward, spiritual nature of worship.
My conclusion then is that in the New Testament there is a stunning indifference to the outward forms and places of worship. And there is, at the same time, a radical intensification of worship as an inward, spiritual experience that has no bounds and pervades all of life. These emphases were recaptured in the Reformation and came to clear expression in the Puritan wing of the Reformed tradition.
What begs for attention now is the question: what is the essence of that radical, authentic, inward experience called worship, and how is it that this experience comes to expression in gathered congregations and in everyday life? We will turn to that next week.
© Desiring God
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
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