The Fourth Commandment: Our Rest, Our Witness. Remember the Sabbath. Exodus 20:8-11

Exodus 20:8-11 Amplified Bible

⁸“Remember the Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God). ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lord your God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock or the temporary resident (foreigner) who stays within your [city] gates. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy [that is, set it apart for His purposes].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

Keep the Sabbath [verse 8]

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8

Throughout history there have been well-meaning, earnest Christians who have, perhaps without their ever knowing it, who have come to functionally believe the Ten Commandments are really only the Nine Commandments.

Somewhere along the way, some have decided the fourth commandment is not like the rest of the commandments but rather as a relic that belongs in the past.

In truth, though, the ancient command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy has abiding significance for us all, even today.

Why has this simple command fallen on such hard times?

Some have claimed that its regulations and penalties were tied to the old covenant, so it must no longer be relevant.

Yet we do not treat the other commandments this way.

Others have said that the way Jesus spoke of being “lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8) diminished the commandment’s significance and force.

What about Jesus’ apparent intent here?

What the man Rabbi Jesus sought to overturn was not the Sabbath itself but the host of hypocritical external rules of the Pharisees.

I have long suspected what keeps most Christians from thinking of the fourth commandment as we ought to is simply that we do not like its implications.

We do not like, nor appreciate all of the subtle and not so subtle ways it intrudes into our lives, into our leisure and whatever else takes precedence in our hearts.

So we act as though this command is in a different category from the other nine.

However, If we truly want to grasp the significance of the Sabbath and respond to it in a God-honoring way, we must all embrace, as a conviction, the real truth that God has intentionally set aside the Sabbath day as distinct from the rest.

This was the case in the week of creation, with God resting on the seventh day and declaring it sanctified.

The church, in the age of the new covenant, then changed the day from the seventh day of the week to the first day to mark the resurrection of Christ.

In both cases, we see that the distinction of the day is woven into God’s work of creation and redemption.

With that conviction in place, we can see that the day is not simply a day set apart from other days, but it is, in Gospel Truth, a day set apart unto the Lord.

By not seeing it this way, we’ll be tempted to view our spiritual exercises on the Lord’s Day as something to “get over with” in order to “get on with” our week.

If this is our mentality, we stand condemned by the fourth commandment.

The Sabbath ought to be treasured for what it is: a gift of a day on which we enjoy, uninterrupted by leisure commitments or (if possible) by employment, the privilege of God’s presence, the study of God’s word, and the fellowship of God’s people.

Seen like that, this command becomes an invitation: not only to just something we should do but something we will each come to learn how to love to do.

If this is not how you have been viewing God’s Sabbath, then ask yourself:

What’s preventing you from honoring the Lord’s Day?

Take stock of your habits and receive the gift of the Sabbath.

From that next Sunday, be sure that your priority is not to make the Lord’s Day convenient but to make the Lord’s day exclusively about God, to keep it holy.

Keep the Sabbath [verses 9-10]

⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lord your God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock or the temporary resident (foreigner) who stays within your [city] gates. [verses 9, 10]

Having established the fourth commandment remains what it has always been—a commandment of the Lord—and as such it is relevant to our lives, we can now turn our hearts, souls, minds, to thinking profitably about how to keep it.

But we must be careful as we get specific about honoring the Sabbath.

The Lord Jesus, after all, had some very harsh, strong words for the Pharisees regarding the way their moral specificity had become a means not of obedience but of self-righteousness (Mark 2:23 – 3:6).

With “quaking and trembling knees” and maturing humility, let’s take some quality time to consider how are we to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Let us try to explore: How do we prevent worldly concerns—those of leisure, recreation, and work—from infringing on our enjoyment and worship of God?

Let’s think first of public worship.

What kinds of conversations do you typically have prior to the worship service?

Are they concerned at any point with exclusively the things of God, or only ever with sports – making it to the home team game, family, and every other thing?

It takes a conscious and a thoroughly intentional act of the will to give eternal matters the very highest measure of maxed priority in our minds and mouths.

If you were to determine that in your preparation for worship you would set aside every priority which looms, loomed so large on other days, I guarantee the focus of your time at church would be changed.

The same goes for after the service.

When the last song has been sung and the service is over, how long does it take for your mind and conversation to return to worldly matters?

If we were instead to:

commit to spending time after the service speaking to one another about the greatness of God, the truth of His word, and the wonder of His dealings with us,

and praying with one another about the week ahead and the trials we face, then we would begin to understand better the “one another” passages in the New Testament about:

encouraging one another (Hebrews 10:25),

speaking the truth to one another (Ephesians 4:25), and

building one another up (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

—for we would then be prioritizing ourselves to actually living them out.

Similarly, in our private affairs on the Lord’s Day, spiritual improvement should still take priority.

That may mean additional family worship, reading edifying books, prayer, discussion of what was preached that morning, and more—but whatever it means, we should make it our aim not to let the cares of the other six days push into our efforts of growing our spiritual enjoyment of the first day of the week.

If we want to profit from keeping the Sabbath, and if we want to take the fourth commandment more seriously, then our convictions must fuel our actions, and our daily aspirations must turn into daily practices.

Avoid making unique rules that only serve to foster self-righteousness, but consider whether anything worldly needs to change, be re-prioritized Godly.

How would, should, could you change to keep the Sabbath holy the next time Sunday comes round, then Monday, then Tuesday then Wednesday and so on?

Our Sabbath Rest as Our Witness

[sermon illustrations]

The college student broke down in tears over his coffee.

Driven by competition for limited space in a pre-law program, he had just poured himself into studying virtually nonstop, eight hours a day seven days a week. After seven months he found he lost the ambition for learning—and nearly for life itself.

Driven by the desire for promotion and the prospect for more money for him an his growing family, [……….] takes extra work home every single night to get the one up on his fellow workers – he stays up till midnight every night for weeks. Taking no time for dinner with his wife or leisure time his young kids, he hears them crying.

Our reading today states that “in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth … but he rested on the seventh day.”

The ambition and creativity we bring to work is a reflection of our mindset on our Creator’s sovereignty over our lives and over the lives we genuinely value.

It’s part of how we reflect his image and a big part of how we serve as witnesses for him.

God also rested on the seventh day, however, and he calls us to do the same.

For us, good work hinges on good rest.

Without good rest our good work suffers.

The discipline of regular rest is a witness in our fast-paced world, especially when that time is focused on enjoying our Creator.

It speaks of God’s love to command what’s good for us.

Our ambitions would otherwise serve only to distract us from him and drive us into the ground if we let them.

How will you take our rest the rest of this week and this next weekend?

For the sake of good work later, let’s rest.

For the sake of sanity, let’s rest.

For the sake of glory to God in regular worship and fellowship, let’s rest.

God blesses those who “work hard” at resting in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s trust him to establish the work and rest of our hands (see Psalm 90:17).

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

God, grant us and all our loved ones true rest on this Sabbath Day. May Your Holy and Sacred Presence drive out from among us anger and fear, worry and regret. Send your blessing upon us, that we may be people of the Word. Lord of work and of rest, thank you for these gifts. Help us to work hard and rest well. Please provide work where we need it. Please also bless whatever years of retirement rest we may have.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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The Second Commandment: Have or Make No Image Engraved or in Mind. Exodus 20:1-4

Exodus 20:1-4 Amplified Bible

The Ten Commandments

20 Then God spoke all these words:

²“I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³“You shall have no other gods before Me.

⁴“You shall not make for yourself any idol, or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth [as an object to worship].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments are the supreme expression of God’s will in the Old Testament and merit our close attention.

They are to be thought of not as the ten most important commands among hundreds of others, but as a digest of the entire Torah.

The foundation of all of the Torah rests in these Ten Commandments, and somewhere within them we should be able to find all the law.

Jesus expressed the essential unity of the Ten Commandments with the rest of the law when he summarized the law in the famous words,

“ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

All the law, as well as laws of the prophets, is indicated whenever the Ten Commandments are expressed.

The essential unity of the Ten Commandments with the rest of the law, and their continuity with the New Testament, invites each and every on us to apply them to today’s ministries broadly in light of the rest of the Holy Scriptures.

That is, when applying the Ten Commandments, we will take into account related passages of Scripture in both the Hebrew [Old] and New Testaments.

“You Shall Have No Other Gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3)

The first commandment reminds us that everything in the Torah flows from the love we have for God, which in turn is a response to the love he has for us.

This unconventional, inexpressible miracle of love was demonstrated by God’s deliverance of Israel “out of the house of slavery” in Egypt (Exodus 20:2).

In our heart of hearts, from within the deepest depths of our souls, nothing else in our lives should concern us more than our desire to love and be loved by God.

If we do have some other concern stronger to us than our love for God, and who of us does not have other “stronger concerns,” they are not so much that we are breaking God’s rules, but that we are not really in relationship with Father God.

The other concern—be it money, power, security, recognition, sex, or anything else—has become our god.

These gods will have their own commandments at odds with God’s, and we will inevitably violate the Torah as we try to comply with these god’s requirements.

Observing the Ten Commandments is only conceivable for those who start by being determined to diligently study, to pray at having no other god than God.

In the realm of work, this means that we are not to let work or its requirements and fruits displace God as our most important concern in life.

“Never allow anyone or anything to threaten God’s central place in your life,” as Dr. David W. Gill [https://www.davidwgill.org/] puts it.

Because many people work primarily to make money for their and their family’s future, we might just conclude that an inordinate desire for money is probably one of the most common work-related dangers to the first commandment.

Jesus warned of exactly this danger. “No one can serve two masters…. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24).

But almost anything related to work can become twisted in our desires to the point that it interferes with our love for God.

How many promising up and coming, careers come to a tragic end because the means to accomplish things for the love of God—such as political power, financial sustainability, steadfast commitment to the job, status among peers, or superior performance—become their alpha to omega ends in themselves?

When, for example, recognition on the job becomes simply far more important than character on the job, is it not a sign that their reputation is displacing their love of God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, as ultimate Alpha to Omega concern?

A practical touchstone in balancing life lived in the world of man and God is to just ask whether our love of God is shown by the way we treat people on the job.

“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (1 John 4:20-21).

If we put our individual concerns ahead of our concern for the people we work with, for, and among, then we have made our individual concerns our god.

In particular, if we treat other people as things to be manipulated, obstacles to overcome, instruments to obtain what we want, or simply neutral objects in our field of view, then we starkly demonstrate that we do not love God with all our heart, soul, and mind as required by the Word of God for the Children of God.

In this context, we can begin to list some work-related actions that have a high potential to interfere with our love for God.

Doing work that violates our conscience.

Working in an organization where we have to harm others to succeed.

Working such long hours that we have little time to pray, worship, rest, and otherwise deepen our relationship with God.

Working among people who demoralize us or seduce us away from our love for God.

Working where alcohol, drug abuse, violence, sexual harassment, corruption, disrespect, racism, or other inhumane treatments mar the image of God in us and the people we encounter in our work – our co-workers and our neighbors.

If we can find ways to avoid these dangers at work—even if it means finding a new job—it would be wise for us to seek God, study, pray, to consider to do so.

If that is not possible, we can at least be aware that we need help and support to maintain our love of God in the face of our work.

“You Shall Not Make for Yourself an Idol” (Exodus 20:4)

The second commandment raises the issue of idolatry.

Making and then Naming our Golden calves then marketing them for all to see.

Idols are gods of our own creation, gods that have nothing to them that did not originate with us, gods that we feel we control.

In ancient times, idolatry often took the form of worshiping physical objects.

But the issue is really one of trust and devotion.

On what “shirt” do we ultimately pin our hope of well-being and success upon?

On whose “lapel” should we ultimately pin our hopes of well-being and success upon?

Anything, Anyone, which is not capable of fulfilling our hope—that is, anything other than God—is an idol, whether or not it is a physical object, even a person.

The story of a family forging an idol with the intent to manipulate God, and the disastrous personal, social, and economic consequences which then tragically follow, are memorably told in Judges 17-21.

In the world of work, it is common to speak of money, fame, and power as potential idols, and rightly so.

They are not idolatrous, per se, and in fact may be utterly necessary for us to accomplish our roles in God’s creative and redemptive work in the world.

Yet when we then imagine that we have ultimate control over them, or that by achieving them our safety and prosperity will be secured, we have begun the so inevitable “foot to shovel to earth to digging our grave” descent into idolatry.

The same may occur with virtually every other element of success, including our preparation, hard work, creativity, risk, wealth and other resources, and favorable circumstances.

As Christian workers, we have to recognize how important these are.

As God’s people, we must recognize when we begin to idolize them.

By God’s grace alone, we can overcome the temptation to worship these good things in their own right.

The development of genuinely godly wisdom and skill for any task is “so that your entire trust may be in the Lord alone” [Proverbs 22:19].

The distinctive element of idolatry is the human-made nature of the idol.

At work, a danger of idolatry arises when we mistake our power, knowledge, and opinions for reality.

When we stop holding ourselves accountable to the standards we set for others, cease listening to others’ ideas, or seek to crush those who disagree with us, are we not beginning to make and shape, obsess over our graven idols of ourselves?

No Image Engraved or in Mind [eXODUS 20:4]

Exodus 20:4 Amplified Bible

⁴“You shall not make for yourself any idol, or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth [as an object to worship].

If the first commandment

—“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)—deals with the object of our worship, the second commandment deals with the manner of our worship.

What the second commandment tells us is that it is not enough that we worship the correct God; we must also worship Him correctly.

The crystal clear and immediate meaning of the command is that God is to be worshiped without any visual symbols of Him.

Why the prohibition?

Because God is spirit: infinite and unfathomably great.

No physical representation could ever do justice to His glory and grandeur.

The problem with statues, shrines, and pictures is not that they don’t look good but that no matter how good they look, they will all inevitably severely blur the truth about God’s nature and character.

Such images will tend to distract men and women from genuinely worshiping the true and living God, [John 4:20-24] instead leading them to naively worship whatever physical representation of God is placed before them in the sanctuary.

Yet the second commandment takes us beyond mere images and idol-making and into our own thought life.

Our hands may be innocent of the skills and craftsmanship of hand making graven images, but our thoughts and imaginations are so seldom unskilled.

Any conception of God in our minds and hearts that is not derived from Scripture runs foul of this command.

When God gave strict instructions for the building of the temple, He ordered that the ark of the covenant, on which His presence would dwell, should reside in the Most Holy Place (Exodus 26:34).

What was inside the ark?

Perhaps most significant is what was not in it: it contained no visible, physical, hand shaped representation of God.

Instead, there were the two tablets of the Ten Commandments.

It was as if God was saying to His people, as He says to us, Don’t look for Me in shrines, paintings, or statues. I’m not there. Look for Me in My word.

So we take our cues from God. If we want to worship Him—if we want to meet with Him and know what He is like—we must conform our minds to His word.

Our own attempts to conceive of God apart from divine revelation will utterly, invariably fail.

He has published His truth in His word, and so we are to tether ourselves to what is revealed there.

What’s at stake in this is the integrity not only of our worship but also of our lives—because when people go wrong in their worship, they’ll end up going wrong in their living.

Anything and anyone that encourages us to worship the correct God incorrectly will prove to be a detriment to our spiritual growth.

What an absolute tragedy it would be to embrace an image and miss the person of Christ, to sit at a shrine and miss the Savior, to worship a misconception and fail to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the Holy Words of God.

Instead, resist the temptation to modify God in your mind or to conform Him to your own graven image, and be sure to KNOW Him as He has revealed Himself.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

The Joy of Integrity Prayer

God, my Father, my Guide and Guardian of my life, illuminate my mind so I can better understand just how you want me to live. Your Living Word tells me that people of integrity who diligently follow after your instructions are joyful. You have said that those who obey your laws and search for you with all their hearts are blessed and happy. I plead with you for my own share of that indescribable joy! Intercessor Holy Spirit, please guard me and my thoughts against allowing evil to influence what I believe and do. Help me walk only in your paths. May my actions, and my worship more consistently reflect what you have said is right, good.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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What does it mean for us to have no other gods before God? Exodus 20:1-3

Exodus 20:1-3Amplified Bible

The Ten Commandments

20 Then God spoke all these words:

²“I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³“You shall have no other gods before Me.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

Perhaps the most basic truth about the God of Scripture is He is the only one.

There is no other.

This truth ought to simplify things for us because it teaches us that there is only one who is the worthy object of our love, loyalty, and devotion.

But the hearts of men and women are not so easily convinced or instructed.

And so it is necessary for God to give us the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.”

The danger is not that there are actual other gods for us to worship but that we have a proclivity for making them.

On first glance, this first command is straightforward.

To live for a god other than the true God would be like taking a second spouse while your first spouse is still alive and still happy to be your spouse.

Worse, it would be like taking a second spouse who is in truth a figment of your imagination.

It would be a seriously severe breach of an exclusive relationship.

We must not kid ourselves that we are immune from the possibility of breaking this commandment.

Many of us read it and then picture people bowing down before statues or going through elaborate rituals, and those mental images assure us that we are not in much danger of violating it.

Yet the commandments are not restricted to our outward actions but also relate to the disposition of our minds and hearts.

From this perspective, there is the tough realization we may not be as far from those mental images as we assume.

We may not have statues to which we bow down, but maybe we have segments of our lives that we keep away from God, preserving them under the authority and exclusive sovereignty of some other little “deity”—ourselves, perhaps.

Ask yourself:

“Do I joyfully acknowledge God’s exclusive comprehensive claim on my life?”

“Is God in Alpha to Omega charge of my family, my work, my relationships, my money, my dating, my use of my time, my talents, my gifts and my services?”

Take a close and honest look to see if there are portions of life you try to keep from Him.

In addition to our keeping, “secreting” things away from God, another form of danger is functionally replacing Him.

When we put our family, our job, our hobbies, or anything else in the place that is God’s alone, we violate the first commandment.

To the degree that we allow anyone or anything besides obedience to God to direct our course day to day, we defy His law.

So we are not so safe from the possibility of breaking this commandment as we may think!

While we must acknowledge the truth that there is one God, we must also beware our own ability to put things in His place.

If we do not daily submit ourselves to Him and entrust the entirety of our lives to Him, something will take His place.

We are made to worship.

The question is, are you going to worship the living God or are you going to pretend there is another?

Put serious focus on these words: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’

God’s Word leads us to the full life Christ died for us to live.

The Ten Commandments are guardrails for our modern-day lives.

We no longer live in the Old Testament church, where animal sacrifices upon altars were required for breaking God’s laws.

Today, we live under the new covenant, ushered in by Christ Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross to forgive our multitude of sins.

We cannot follow the Ten Commandments through our own sheer will but can aim to through the power of the Holy Spirit given to us at salvation.

Still, we will never hit the mark of perfection as Christ did. He loved the Father with His whole heart, soul, and mind.

Thankfully, perfection is not required of us.

What Does ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’ Mean?

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Matthew 22:37-39

In ancient times, and in some places and people groups around the globe today, people worship a variety of gods.

God clearly stated, “I am,” and commands His people to worship Him alone.

“No deity, real or imagined, is to rival the one true God in Israel’s heart and life” (NIV Study Bible).

Worshipping other gods gives a false sense of security from a source other than God, who is everywhere, all-powerful, and all-knowing.

The Hebrew, often translated as ‘besides me’ or ‘before me,’ means ‘in my presence.

The point is that nothing else can qualify as god in your life.

The true God is not only to be number one but the only one.

Other gods can also constitute things we place higher than God in our lives.

The Bible defines these as idols, and they can be anything from money and possessions to food and working out or people and relationships.

Anything or anyone we place above God is another god.

As Christians, we are a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” ( 1 Peter 2:9).

We are God’s people, set apart to live according to his ways.

His ways are not, and never will be, our ways.

Our tendencies are to cave to the cravings of our flesh and fall prey to the thinking they will give us the comfort and happiness we need.

God is faithful to bless us in this life, but there is no blessing bigger and more important than the source of the blessing.

Our marriages, best friends, jobs, houses, habits, and hobbies all take a serious backseat to the ONLY One who numbers our days.

Why Is it Important That ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’ Is the First Commandment?

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” [1 Timothy 2:5]

God’s laws are for our own good.

He is a loving Father who provides rules, boundaries, and discipline for His children as any good parent/caregiver does.

We don’t earn or keep our salvation by following God’s rules.

Obedience is a heart issue, which expresses our faith and trust in the Lord by instilling limits in our lives.

He has our best interest in mind.

Though Christians do not believe achieving the law is demanded for salvation, they still see the Ten Commandments as the establishment of God’s moral law.

Jesus called people to an even higher standard by obeying the commandments not only in their behavior but also in their hearts and minds.

When we take the time to be with God each day through prayer, worship, and the Word, we get to know Him better.

We’re not promised an understanding of all of the ways of God, but the deeper our relationship is with Him, the more we trust and obey.

God’s timing in waiting until the third order to give the commandments was no coincidence.

He had already proven Himself as their Deliverer and Provider and it was time to test their faith and reveal His divine standards for them.

God’s people knew then He who He was to them: their Provider and Deliverer.

He is unchanging.

He’s still our Provider and Deliverer today, and so much more.

Why Did God Need to Say ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’?

“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.'” Exodus 32:1

God’s people struggled with faithfulness to Him.

In their fickleness, impatience, and lack of faith, they quickly turned to the temptation to worship as other nations did.

This time, it was by creating a golden calf representing Baal to worship.

But over time, Scripture mentions others gods they worshipped, too: Molek, Chemosh, Dagon, Asherah, and more.

In ancient times, this law steered people away from the many false gods worshipped by various cultures.

God’s people were surrounded by other nations who worshipped other gods.

I imagine, much like we easily compare ourselves to others who live different lifestyles today, God’s ancient people often wondered what life would be like if they worshiped other gods.

It’s a temptation they often fell into and angered God with.

What Other Gods Might Christians Be Tempted to Bow Down to Today?

“Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'” Matthew 4:10

Before we are tempted to think of God’s ancient people in a bad light, we have to realize that the devil tempted even Jesus to worship other gods!

In the modern, new covenant age we live in, we are tempted every day to look outside of the providence, provision of God for something the world promises to give us.

In fact, the world will always tempt us to believe we are entitled to certain things, such as amenities and circumstances.

When we genuinely seek to obey it with all our hearts, the first commandment guards us against falling for those lies.

In Modern times, this Commandment is a warning against elevating money or other worldly things to god-like status in our lives.

We could include social media, the Internet, shopping, coffee, or even our gym memberships.

Anything we are tempted to find happiness and peace in other than God is a lie that will end up failing us.

Outside of Christ, we are only wretched.

But in Christ Jesus, united to him, we are completely forgiven of our constant failure to keep them, his constant and perfect keeping of them is credited to us.

Jesus died for us, knowing we would not only be tempted by these things but fall prey to them, too.

Sometimes, we dive right in without much convincing or swaying.

The hope of Christ Jesus assures us forgiveness when we turn from those idols and other gods- no matter how deep we’re in – and come back to the Lord, who is our all in all.

The first commandment addresses a very human struggle, unavoidable even to the most faithful. Following this commandment perfectly is not God’s goal.

He knows we can’t do that.

He is much more concerned with our hearts, our trust in and obedience to Him.

The Holy Spirit will convict us when we’re falling off the rails.

And when we are genuinely repentant to turn back to Jesus, over and over again, He eagerly welcomes us all, washes us with His living water, again and again.

God always has our best interest in mind.

He loves us so much He sacrificed His one and only Son Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

He saved us from ourselves before we saw our first fleck of sunlight.

He knit us in our mother’s womb with such care, gifted us with talents, and gave each of us a unique purpose on this earth no one else can accomplish.

Our God loves us wholly, perfectly, and completely.

In Him, we find peace and happiness, hope and comfort, encouragement and love.

The true gauge of our lives is measured only by God, the Father, through our relationship with Him through Christ Jesus, our Savior.

He alone knows, and can plumb the deepest depths of our hearts and our souls.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

A Prayer to Have No Other Gods before God

Abba, Father.

You are the best Father to us. Yahweh, You are the path to peace, hope, and grace. Christ Jesus, Messiah, we come to the Father through You alone, by Your sacrifice to forgive our sins. Holy Spirit, You convict and counsel us when we fall away and stray from the guardrails intended to help us live our lives to the full. Help us to cling to this commandment, to love You alone, God. May our lives bring glory to You, today and always. Help us to grow a love for Your Word that inspires us to come to You daily through it, Father. You tell us to pray about everything. Let us each take Your wisdom into every day of our lives and let it fill our hearts to the brim. We pray to saturate our minds with Your wisdom so that we follow it in our daily lives, Father.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Psalm 46 Be Still and Ponder Upon the Importance of How We Each View God.

Psalm 46 Amplified Bible

God the Refuge of His People.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to soprano voices. A Song.

46 God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable],
A very present and well-proved help in trouble.
²
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas,
³
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains tremble at its roaring. Selah.

⁴
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
⁵
God is in the midst of her [His city], she will not be moved;
God will help her when the morning dawns.
⁶
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered and were moved;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.
⁷
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

⁸
Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has brought desolations and wonders on the earth.
⁹
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
¹⁰
“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.”
¹¹
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

Be Still and Know that I Am God.

We will tend to believe of being “busy” as something positive—something of a measure of our true success in life, maybe even a compliment—especially when we consider the negative implications of its opposites, being “idle” or “lazy.”

But we should not always assume, consider “busyness” as a Christian virtue.

Have you ever thought that busyness might just be a sign of Christian betrayal rather than Christian commitment?

We should definitely be thankful that many believers are busy for the Lord.

Giving, sacrificing our time and ourselves in service to God’s kingdom is an absolutely essential part of the believer’s life and the Christian experience.

But mere busyness does not necessarily equal faithfulness in the Christian life.

In a time of great social economic political upheaval and national crisis, God emphatically urged his people to simply “be still” and know that he was God.

Twice in Psalm 46, God’s people heard the assurance that the Lord Almighty was with them.

He would be their comfort and mighty fortress.

The key to experiencing that assurance, though, would be to approach God with a stilled heart and quiet trust.

When we actually withdraw from our busy lives to spend time with God, we find ourselves discovering, enjoying, experiencing the truest reality of his presence.

While we are not called by God to be either lazy or idle, neither are we called to a life of non-stop activity and service.

God’s gently emphatic invitation, “be still” unlocks for us the opportunity to experience the maximum allowable joy of actually, genuinely, knowing him.

What a blessed comfort this verse has been to multitudes of believers in Christ, down through the ages, who have heeded God’s invitation and rested on these words of the Psalmist and had their hearts stilled in the presence of the Lord.

What refreshment these simple words have bestowed on many little lambs who have listened to the voice of their Good Shepherd – that Great Shepherd of the sheep Who opens His arms wide to embrace all who will truly trust in His name.

But in context, we see another component to these words of reassurance.

We see a genuine plan to glorify His Name and to exult His Person among the nations of the world who rage against the God of heaven and His anointed King.

He is our Defense and our Defender against the enemies of our soul, and all who rest in Him find courage and strength.

He is our impenetrable refuge from the storms of life and our shelter in the midst of oppression, and we are called to be still and to know that He is God – for His purposes will never fail, He will be glorified throughout the whole earth.

It is of the greatest encouragement, both to His people Israel, and to His children of every age, that men who follow their own atheistic ‘will’ and construct their own anti-God plans, will finally be brought to nothing.

For God, and God alone will be exulted among the heathen and His purposes alone will come to fruition – but we who have trusted Him for salvation are to sit serenely in His presence, in quiet assurance, confidence and in godly trust.

Like the people of Israel in times past, Church-age believers are invited, called upon to ponder, remember the mighty deeds that God has done and to recall the myriad beyond myriads of miraculous, wondrous works that He has performed.

We are to rest confidently in the knowledge that He is our faithful God – the supreme Creator of all and Commander of the armies of heaven Who redeems us by faith in the shed blood of Christ, and will never leave us nor forsake us.

We are to:

rest peacefully in the truth of His Word and be still in His holy presence.

We are to know in our heart, by faith with thanksgiving, that He is the Lord our God Who alone pardons all our iniquities, heals all our diseases, Who redeems our life from the pit, and Who crowns us with lovingkindness and compassion.

He alone is our God Who satisfies our years with good things, renews our youth like the eagle.

He performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious… slow to anger and abounding in steadfast and immovable lovingkindness.

He is our Redeemer our Saviour and Friend.

He alone is our hope and strength, He will be exalted, for it is He who has made us, not we ourselves, for we are His beloved people, the sheep of His pasture.

Although the nations rage like the billows of the sea and the people imagine a vain thing against the Lord God Almighty, we are invited, called to be still in the presence of the Lord and to know Him in our heart by faith, with thanksgiving.

May we ponder what it means to be still in His presence and cease from all our strivings… and truly be at peace in His company – Whom to know is life eternal.

The Importance of How I View God

In light of the past few weeks’ of worldwide revival events, I have been taking more time to reflect and ponder.

My emotions have created a mixed bag, from skepticism to doubt, disbelief, questions, and indescribable awe.

On one hand, I decisively, definitely praise God if He is using these services to truly speak and to deeply ignite and inspire and move to transform lives.

I have not been to any of the services, but I have watched many of the streams and videos and I have been “stilled” and moved to tears of indescribable joy.

I know that God is powerful and can do anything He chooses, especially when we are not expecting it – but witnessing those students, images of people into the streets of our nation’s cities, into prisons and many international cities?

Such an inexplicably powerful experience to see the people acting on their belief that God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is “on the move.”

On the other, however, I think it’s a good and righteous thing to be cautious and careful with what we quickly interpret as come to believe to be the Spirit of God.

Even the Bereans in Acts 17 do this when Paul presents the gospel message to them.

Though eager to hear Paul’s teachings, they move to test them themselves in the Holy Scriptures, Study, Pray, Ponder, and then decide what is from God.

“As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men” (Acts 17:10-12, NIV).

Paul was known as an excellent teacher and an even better friend.

He truly cared that every person heard and had access to the Bible after his conversion from Saul to Paul.

This is why Paul felt called to attend as many missionary journeys as he did!

But no matter how great the speaker, one’s credibility and ability to represent the gospel should always be prudently studied analyzed in light of the Bible.

People are not the source of light themselves but are the ones pointing to the Light.

For this reason, 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 further notes,

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil” (NIV).

While I am not one to debate or judge if these revival services are real or not, their appearance has caused me to think about how I view God.

And more importantly, if I understand Him.

How Do You View God?

I was born into the Evangelical United Church of the Brethren.

Growing up, I was raised in a traditional EUB Church until 1968 when the churches merged to become the United Methodist Church.

I remember every service, worship session, and layout for an event looked exactly the same.

Over time, I didn’t know why I was doing or saying what I did.

Being so young as I was [7 years old] I didn’t even understand the Apostle’s Creed that I recited by heart every Sunday.

Quickly, God and my relationship with Him became routine, just rehearsed words that needed to be prayed to maintain my perfection status.

By the time I reached high school, my father had remove us from the Methodist Church and we then became members of a local conservative Jewish Synagogue.

My view of a God as my father became fractured was immensely distorted, and I truly started to wonder and ask, where is God, Jesus in the midst of my separation?

Verses that call God our Abba, or Father, have been an enormous challenge for me to understand and accept.

I have wrestled for years with how God can be “One God,” for everyone, angry and loving, forgiving and punishing, reachable, yet above and beyond us all.

But it wasn’t until a recent “live” revival streaming session that I realized I should give my current view of God so much more contemplation – and that led me to todays verse, to ask these questions: “Be Still?” “Do I Understand Him?”

Do I Understand Him?

While I might dare to believe we would all like to say we know and understand God fully, from how He works to why things happen the way they do, I do not think nor do I believe that “understanding God” is even remotely possible.

It is possible to know and have an intimate, close, and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is why Jesus came and died for us, so we could partake in this personal relationship with Him.

That’s the core essence of the gospel message.

However, God never expected us to try and figure out all His ways.

Isaiah 55:8-9 notes, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, ESV).

1 Corinthians 2:15-16 furthers this point when it says:

“The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ” (ESV).

While we can obtain a mind like Christ’s, in purity, hope, and love, this does not mean that we will know and understand all that He does.

He is still God, and we are not.

He is still all-powerful, and we are not.

His ways are not our ways, and that is for a reason.

Should We Know It All?

When I was younger, and far more naïve than I am right now, I used to believe that if I knew “everything that would happen to me”, my life would be better.

If I always knew exactly what God wanted me to do, where He wanted me to go, and what He was doing, my life would be easier.

I look back now over the course of the last 43 years and I can only laugh.

As an anxious person, not only would I find all of this information to be rather overwhelming and paralyzing, but I’m confident that if I indeed “knew it all,”

two things would happen:

one, I would not rely on God to get through them,

two, I would try to convince Him, like Moses or Jonah, that I was never ever going to be the right person for whatever task He “dared” called me into.

In Jonah 1, beginning in verse 1, Jonah runs from God because of his fears.

God calls him to a high-caliber task, but Jonah doesn’t feel up for the journey.

Even later, when he runs back to God, he becomes angry at God for His grace, the same grace that was given to him earlier in the chapter.

Countless people in the Bible tried to understand God.

From Abraham, to Moses to Aaron, Job, and David and all the biblical writers.

But if I’ve learned anything from their interactions, it’s that God cannot be entirely understood, and while we can have a close fellowship with Him, He will still be above and beyond anything we could fully comprehend here on earth.

What Have I Learned About How I View God?

So what have I learned about how I view God?

I have learned that while God is a loving Father figure.

He is also so much more than I will ever be able to grasp.

He is unpredictable.

He is unlikely.

He moves in ways we’d think He would and ways we wouldn’t.

He is a quiet, still whisper but also a mighty and powerful storm.

He’s an oxymoron to those who don’t believe in Him and a mystery to those who do.

Today, I am learning that I have many more years of learning to go.

I will not understand Him entirely, but I’m choosing every day to grow closer to Him through prayer, reading the Bible, studying, meditating, and experiencing Him as I live – and something tells me that it’s okay-This is a life-long process.

How I view God is still growing.

I anticipate your view of God is growing as well.

I want to know Him as a Father.

I want you the reader to know Him as a Father.

I’ve known Him as a Friend.

I want you the reader to know Him as a Friend.

And I want to know and view Him for all that He is.

And I want you the reader to know and view Him for all that He is.

Even if it takes the maxed our entirety of a thousand lifetimes to experience:

“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.” ¹¹The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah. [Psalm 46:10-11 AMP]

The predicted and the unpredicted.

The known and the unknown.

However He is, that’s how I want to know and view Him.

Why ever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.

Whenever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.

Where ever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.

Perhaps, you the reader, from wherever you are, will join in the joy?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord God Almighty, we rejoice that you are with us. Teach us to be still so that increasingly we can experience your presence in our lives through your Holy Spirit within. Father, I praise You that Your Word stands fast for ever and ever and that Your precious promises encourage me to rest in Your love and drink deeply from the Rock of my salvation. Draw near to every member of Christ’s Body and protect Your people Israel against the increasing roar of the nations. I pray for the salvation of the lost and for Your soon return, when Your name be exalted throughout all the earth and the nations will KNOW that You are God. I ask in the name of my Savior Jesus.

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Lenten Preparation for Repentance: When Our Defenses Crumble, Where Will We Run to take Refuge? Psalm 11

Psalm 11 Amplified Bible

The Lord a Refuge and Defense.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

11 In the Lord I take refuge [and put my trust];
How can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to your mountain;
²
For look, the wicked are bending the bow;
They take aim with their arrow on the string
To shoot [by stealth] in darkness at the upright in heart.
³
“If the foundations [of a godly society] are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?”

⁴
The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.
His eyes see, His eyelids test the children of men.
⁵
The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,
And His soul hates the [malevolent] one who loves violence.
⁶
Upon the wicked (godless) He will rain coals of fire;
Fire and ^[a]brimstone and a dreadful scorching wind will be the portion of their cup [of doom].
⁷
For the Lord is [absolutely] righteous, He loves righteousness (virtue, morality, justice);
The upright shall see His face.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

What does it mean to ‘rend the heart,’ and not just the clothing?

Much more than simply giving a whole array of apologies for bad behaviour.

David the Psalmist is urging the people to remember God’s covenant promises.

It’s easy to make outward shows of penitence without reaching inward to the heart.

David calls for the same depth of repentance which Jesus calls for.

To that end, as we once again prepare ourselves for tomorrow, Ash Wednesday for me to reminds each of us that Lent is so very much more than simply a time apologize for our “weaknesses” so just to ‘get my life back on track,’ as it were.

Lent is a time of focusing what ought to be our habit of seeing the heart anyway.

Above all, Lent reminds us of the character of God, which we all too easily lose sight of when we stray from those habits of the heart: forgiving and gracious, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

But, once we commit ourselves to the works of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, once we send our hearts into engaging with the sword of God’s Word,

It is promised by the Lord that changes and transformations will take place.

When those changes and transformations start and God is getting under our skins, into our souls, there is no stopping God from achieving His desired ends.

It is only a matter of choosing our desired response – run to self or run to God.

Build our own Castles, taking safe refuge in our own self defense mechanisms, or as the Prophet Isaiah predicted would one day have to happen to humanity;

Isaiah 2:2-5Amplified Bible

²
Now it will come to pass that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be [firmly] established as the ^[a]highest of the mountains,
And will be exalted above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
³
And many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house (temple) of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the law will go out from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴
And He will judge between the nations,
And will mediate [disputes] for many peoples;
And they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up the sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.

⁵
O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

In our hearts an in our souls …

The Mountain of the Lord is firmly established as the Highest Mountain.

When the people say … come, let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord,

To the House of the God of Jacob;

That He may teach us His ways …

That we may walk in His paths…”

Then the Revival of our Hearts and our Souls may truly have their re-birth.

O’ House of Jacob …

O’ Body of Christ …

O’ Child of God …

COME …

Choose This Day Where You Should Run For Refuge

11 In the Lord I take refuge [and put my trust];
How can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to your mountain; [Psalm 11:1]

When it comes to degrees and measures of crises in our life, it is not a matter of whether they will come but when and then just how hardcore they will be.

When they do arrive in whatever capacity and catastrophe, our response will be to flee to a safe refuge— a safe haven somewhere or something or someone we implicitly trust will keep us safe and protect us from all the pounding storms.

So the question then will not be whether we will flee but where we will flee to.

Some of us will take the advice of David’s friends in Psalm 11.

These advisors urged him to “flee like a bird to your mountain.”

Difficulty had come for David, seemingly in the form of threats to his life, with wicked people preparing to aim their arrows at him (Psalm 11:2).

The counsel he received was essentially to head for the hills, to get away, to go somewhere that removed him from adversity as fast as he could if not faster.

David did not heed this advice.

But what about you?

But what about me?

While you and I likely will never face armed foes threatening you with violence, and for those whose lives intersected with combat zones, crisis will come to you someday, in one form or another, in some measure and some degree or another.

It could be social pressure, peer pressure, to compromise biblical convictions, an unwanted diagnosis, or intense relational or financial or an personal strife.

Where will you flee?

Where will I flee?

Will we too head for the hills, finding some form of escapism, be it an effort at numbing yourself with endless media consumption or abusing a substance, or throwing yourself into hyperdrive, frenetic activity in another part of your life?

Or will you and I be able to say with David, “In the LORD I take refuge”?

David had seen God deliver him from bears, lions, and a Philistine giant.

The Lord had more than sufficiently proven Himself to be a trustworthy refuge, and David remembered those moments and took that to heart, relying on God.

David knew the Lord was a mighty refuge; that had been borne out again and again in his life – his trust in God was grounded and rooted deep in experience, making it sturdy enough to withstand life’s darkness and the Evil One’s darts.

Have your eyes been opened to God’s trustworthiness?

Have you trusted Him in response?

If you are a Christian, remember that your new life began by taking refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once, you were facing the wrath of an eternal God, with no hope to be found.

The only hope you had was to cast yourself on God’s mercy and embrace the salvation offered in Christ, and so you fled to Him and found eternal refuge.

God desires for you and me to seek refuge in Him not only at the beginning of the journey but until Christ returns or calls us home, and not only for eternal salvation but in the measures and degrees of storms of this concourse of life.

Trouble will come—and when it does, you can either head for the hills or you can lift up your eyes beyond the hills and to the Lord “who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2), facing the crisis with 100% confidence and, yes, even joy.

100% Trust, Confidence and yes, even Joy … in God, the Father.

100% Trust, Confidence and yes, even Joy … in God, the Son.

100% Trust, Confidence and yes, even Joy … in God, the Holy Spirit.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord God Almighty, shaper and ruler of all creatures, we pray for your great mercy, that you guide us towards you, for we cannot find our way. And guide us to your will, to the need of our soul, for we cannot do it ourselves. And make our mind steadfast in your will and aware of our soul’s need. Pray, Lord, to shield us against our foes, seen and unseen. Teach us to do your will, that we may inwardly love you before all things with a pure mind. For you alone are our maker and our redeemer, our help, our very best friend, comfort, our trust, our hope; praise and glory be to you now and forever.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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Are we Looking Through Heaven’s Open Door? 10 Reasons We Should Believe in Heaven. Revelation 4:1-4

Revelation 4:1-4Amplified Bible

Scene in Heaven

4 After this I looked, and behold, ^[a]a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a [war] trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” ²At once I was in [special communication with] the Spirit; and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne. ³And He who sat there appeared like [the crystalline sparkle of] ^[b]a jasper stone and [the fiery redness of] a sardius stone, and encircling the throne there was a rainbow that looked like [the color of an] emerald. ⁴Twenty-four [other] thrones surrounded the throne; and seated on these thrones were ^[c]twenty-four elders dressed in white clothing, with crowns of gold on their heads.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Once John was charged to write the book of Revelation, when he met with the resurrected, glorified Lord Jesus in chapter 1, and having received Christ’s 7 letters to the 7 churches in chapters 2-3, he is given a vision of the throne room of God and commanded to, “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

Not only was John given important information for the Churches, but he was also commanded to ‘see’ and to ‘hear’ what was going to happen beyond the current Church age, “after these things.”

After acting as God’s heavenly, High Priest to the Church-age saints and interceding as heaven’s Mediator between God and man, John is shown how Christ will begin to take on His role of Judge, before returning to earth to claim His position as King of kings and Lord of lords.

“I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven,” John writes, “and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me.”

The angel who met John in the prologue was the same angel who accompanied him throughout the entire revelation of Jesus Christ – which the Father gave to His Son… to give to John through His angel.

The apostle John was about to receive a preview of the future, which began with a vision of heaven in chapter 4 and moved to the worship of the Lamb of God in chapter 5.

He saw One seated on the throne which had the appearance of crystal-clear jasper and a blood-red Sardis stone, and John recorded that there was a rainbow surrounding the throne that reminded him of a brilliant green emerald.

Twice he was summoned to, “come up here.”

The same voice which sounded like that of a trumpet in chapter 1, commanded him to join the heavenly host of angelic beings that surrounded the throne of God, by means of a door which was standing open in heaven.

And being, “in the spirit on the Lord’s day,” John was given an amazing insight into the future.. and greater revelation of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God and Lion of the tribe of Judah.

After Christ’s revelation to the Churches ended, John’s vison changed, and he was ushered into heaven – in spirit and in truth.

He discovered that the heavenly scene into which he had been brought, was preparing to unseal a special scroll which had been securely sealed by God Himself with seven seals.

As the heavenly scene unfolded, John discovered that he was witnessing to the precursor of the prophesied judgement on earth – the Day of the Lord which he recorded in chapters 6-19 when the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

The sight that John saw during chapters 4-5, were the heavenly preparation for that future time of Great Tribulation, recorded in chapters 6-19, which is to fall on a Christ-rejecting sinful world and which will bring Israel to national repentance and punishment to the God-hating, Christ-rejecting, sinful world.

While John’s body remained on earth, his spirit was translated into heaven where he witnessed a vision of the angelic host that surround the throne of Almighty God – the Ancient of Days.

As he looked, John was introduced to four living creatures who worship God day and night and 24 elders who were clothed in white raiment with crowns of gold on their heads.

The vison of the throne-room of God, the worship of the Lamb Who was slain, and the presentation of a seven-sealed scroll, which no-one but Lamb could break, are all part-and-parcel of the heavenly vision John saw in chapters 4 and 5.

It was after he had received Christ’s revelation to the Church (chapters 1-3) but before the revelation of Christ to the world in His role as Judge (chapters 6-19) when the wrath of God is poured out upon the children of disobedience, that the aged apostle John looked,

“and behold, a door was standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said to him, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.'”

In chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation, the focus shifts to a new and powerful story of God’s ongoing mission.

This new section begins with John seeing “a door standing open in heaven.”

This picture surprises us because we know that an open door often extends an invitation to come in.

This is an enticing opportunity to believe because heaven is often considered a place of mysteries that we do not have access to.

For the most part, it is God’s secret—at least from our day-to-day living in this life.

But here Jesus opens heaven’s door.

And in a voice like a trumpet, he welcomes us, saying, “Come up here.”

The invitation promises to reveal “what must take place after this.”

But as John tells the story of walking through heaven’s open door, the future is not the first thing that catches his attention.

Instead, he sees “a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.”

Heaven’s open door has us standing before the throne of all thrones, from which everything in heaven and on earth is loved and cared for.

Still today, the Holy Spirit opens heaven’s door wide so that we can visualize, believe, this scene and let its story encourage us to live by faith in Jesus today.

Considering Reasons to Believe in Heaven

Let us strive to remember that the one who reads, hears, and takes to heart this amazing revelation is blessed.

“Blessed is he that reads, and those that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand.”

Believing in Heaven …

“Heaven is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.” –Stephen Hawking

I’m afraid of the dark.

If we are talking about the endless kind of darkness which offers us no light anywhere, no hope ever, and nothing but nothingness, who among us would not panic at the thought of that?

I expect people like Mr. Hawking simply find the idea of Heaven too good to be true, and thus conclude that it must be a product of man’s delusional yearning for “pie in the sky by and by.”

And yet, there are solid reasons for reasonable people to believe in the concept of a Heavenly home after this earthly life.

Here are some that mean a lot to me.

By no means is this list exhaustive.

It’s simply my laymen’s thinking on the subject.

The God who made us created us with a longing for Himself and a satisfaction in nothing less. {Ecclesiastes 3:1-22}

When we get to Heaven, we will finally be satisfied, but not until then.

“I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15).

“I go to prepare a place for you,” said our Lord. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:3).

If it were not so, I would have told you.

Jesus said that.

I believe Him.

I choose to believe.

1. Jesus Believed in Heaven

In fact, He claimed to be a native.

The Lord said to Nicodemus, “No one has been to Heaven except the One who came from there, even the Son of Man.” (John 3:13). No one knows a place like a native.

Jesus told the dying thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43).

So, wherever we go when we die, it’s a paradise.

True, He left us a thousand unanswered questions on the subject, but what He told us is pure gold.

For instance, when He returns, the dead in Christ accompany Him (I Thessalonians 4:14).

It appears that our eventual destination is somewhere different from the initial, intermediate place called “Paradise,” but we should have no trouble leaving the details to Him – after all, we can trust the One who died for us.

2. Scripture consistently teaches the existence of Heaven.

We must not let people get by with saying the Old Testament knew nothing of Heaven.

“I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” said David in everyone’s favorite psalm.

Or this one: “As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15).

Job said, “My Redeemer liveth and at last shall stand upon the earth; yet even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes shall see and not another” (Job 19:25-27).

Neither must we cave to those who say the only way to understand such verses is to get inside the mind of the one who said those words originally, as if what they said is determinative and authoritative.

Peter said the prophets said more than they understood and even angels could not fathom some of these things. (I Peter 1:12).

3. I believe in Heaven because I believe in earth.

It’s so wonderful.

There is nothing else like it in the universe.

Suppose we lived in some distant world and all we knew was the planets we have seen–the barren, rocky planets that are molten in the day and frigid at night, those covered with acidic clouds or endless hurricanes–

and if someone told us about earth, with its steadiness, its atmosphere, its lovely scenery and its plant life and the richness of its minerals and a thousand other delights, we would find it hard to believe.

And yet here it is.

We are residents of this amazing planet.

We take the earth in stride because it’s all we know.

4. There has to be a heaven to even up the earthly hell God’s most faithful sometimes endure for Jesus’ sake.

Those of us who are “carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease,” to use Isaac Watts’ unforgettable image, have little idea of the price some have paid for their loyalty to Jesus Christ through the centuries.

Many live under oppressive regimes in our day, punished for doing nothing more than meeting in someone’s living room to worship or giving a friend a Bible.

I’m tempted to say “God owes them, big time,” but I don’t believe I want to be presumptuous or blasphemous.

“God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love that you have shown toward His name in having ministered to the saints, and in still ministering” is how Hebrews 6:10 puts it.

If God were not to reward the faithfulness of the most loyal, it would be sin on His part.

After all, “this momentary light affliction is working for us an exceeding weight of glory far beyond all comparison” says 2 Corinthians 4:17.

5. Every caterpillar/butterfly testifies to our heavenly future.

Suppose we could inform that caterpillar crawling across a leaf of the glorious future just ahead of him (it?).

Would that humble creature believe he (it) would someday have gorgeous wings and flit through the sky?

So, why do we have such difficulty believing in the destiny God has planned for and promised to His own?

6. I believe in Heaven because the alternative belief is in despair.

“I would have despaired had I not believed I would see the goodness of God in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).

This world, by the way, is not the land of the living, but is the land of the dying.

The “land of the living” is just over the next ridge, immediately following our final breath here.

Jesus said, “Because I live, you too shall live.”

Who among us has not grieved at the thought of never seeing a precious loved one again, as we have left the cemetery.

The alternative to faith is despair.

7. I believe in Heaven because some of the best people who ever lived believed in Heaven.

Pick up a Bible and read it ….

A whole lot of formerly ordinary people from literally all walks of life had come to faith in God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit long before I was ever even told there was a God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [Hebrews 11, Hebrews 12:1-2.]

8. I believe in Heaven because I believe in hell.

Luke 16:27-28Amplified Bible

²⁷So the rich man said, ‘Then, father [Abraham], I beg you to send Lazarus to my father’s house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—in order that he may solemnly warn them and witness to them, so that they too will not come to this place of torment.’

There has to be a hell.

I don’t like to think much about hell.

But I have to because God’s Word teaches about it.

The plain truth is that hell is real, and real people go there forever.

Several times in the Gospels we read Jesus was grieved when people turned away from him–grieved because he knew they were walking down the road that eventually would lead to hell.

The message Jesus brought is simple: Unless you turn and put your trust in me, you will die in your sins and face an eternity without me.

In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we see the rich man begging for a little relief from his suffering.

Father Abraham explains that this kind of relief is not possible.

The rich man then turns his attention toward his brothers who are still living.

“Then I beg you … send Lazarus… Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.”

Notice a short time in hell turned this unbeliever into a motivated evangelist.

In a sense the rich man is saying,

“Someone has got to warn people that hell is real and that real people go there.”

How tragic that the man in this story found out too late.

What’s it going to take for you to become motivated?

Pray God’s grace, not his wrath, will fill your heart with a passion to save the lost.

9. I believe in Heaven because it’s a great incentive to responsible living and compassionate everything.

Skeptics will point to the shallow sayings of some believers that for the Heaven-bound this world does not matter, and that improving life on Earth is just so much arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Those who say such are wrong, their thinking unbiblical, their teachings are misleading.

We have great responsibilities here in this life, and it’s not just to get people to (ahem) “pray the sinner’s prayer” so they can go to heaven.

We were commissioned to make disciples, a far bigger thing.

“The heavens are the heavens of the Lord,” says Psalm 115:16, “but the earth He has given to the sons of men.”

We are stewards of this planet, and thus answerable to Him.

I’ll go so far as to say those who are working to give the planet clean air and pure water, safe streets, are also doing the work of the Lord in their own way.

10. I believe in Heaven because of reasons I’m yet to discover.

There is so much more.

As some have said, we are “hard-wired” to believe in God and likewise in Heaven.

I willingly accept that and see it as residue of the creation.

The God who made us created us with a longing for Himself and a satisfaction in nothing less.

When we get to Heaven, we will finally be satisfied, but not until then. “I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15).

“I go to prepare a place for you,” said our Lord. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:3).

“If it were not so, I would have told you.”

Jesus said that. I believe Him.

I simply choose to believe.

God, the Father …

God, the Son …

God, the Holy Spirit …

The Revealed Word of God …

The Resurrection ….

In Heaven …

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Heavenly Father, thank You for the book of Revelation and for the greater insight and understanding it gives us into the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus, of what is to take place after He comes to take the members of His mystic Body to be with Himself, and how we should live in this present age. I pray that You would bless me as I read and take to heart all that is written in this final book of Scripture. Thank You that You are the eternal and immutable God Whose plans and purposes can never fail. Thank You for the Cross of Christ and His glorious Resurrection, which secured for us an eternal inheritance, by faith. I pray that all I say and do would give glory to You and that one day I may cast my crown before His feet. Thank you for all Your goodness and grace to me and to all men. This I pray in Jesus’ wonderful name.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen

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“Stones of Remembrance!” God’s Call to Remember Revival. Joshua 4:4-7, 19-24

Joshua 4:4-7 Amplified Bible

⁴Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; ⁵and Joshua said to them, “Cross over again to the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, ⁶so that this may be a sign among you; when your children ask later, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷then you shall say to them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall become a memorial for Israel forever.”

Joshua 4:19-24 Amplified Bible

¹⁹Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth [day] of the first month and encamped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. ²⁰And those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. ²¹He said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²²then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you crossed over, just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; ²⁴so that all the peoples of the earth may know [without any doubt] and acknowledge that the hand of the Lord is mighty and extraordinarily powerful, so that you will fear the Lord your God [and obey and worship Him with profound awe and reverence] forever.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

The Christian life is, in a sense, one big call to remember.

Our Lord Jesus, speaking of the new-covenant meal of Communion, told us, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19, emphasis added).

Every Lord’s Supper, then, offers us the opportunity to remember together all that is pictured in the bread and wine.

Deuteronomy similarly envisions a scenario in which a son asks his father;

“What is the meaning of the testimonies and statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?” (Deuteronomy 6:20).

The father responds by telling Israel’s story of redemption, highlighting that what God instructs is “for our good always” (v 24).

The book of Joshua, too, commends the same kind of commemoration when the Lord instructs the people to set up 12 memorial stones at the Jordan River, so the stones would become revival “to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

God wanted His people then—and wants His people today—to ever remember His faithfulness and to tell, testify, confess, to teach others what He has done.

Such remembrances and memorials have always been a significant time to worship and praise for the miraculous works only Himself demonstrates.

But in a day [like now] with endless competing claims on our attention and affections, we need more reminders of God’s faithfulness than ever before.

It’s notable that the examples above are concrete and interpersonal.

We participate in the Lord’s Supper together, and it offers us a multisensory experience to help us remember.

The twelve stones at the Jordan River constituted a physical memorial.

The instruction of Deuteronomy encourages us to have conversations about God’s faithfulness and goodness in our homes.

Please note that the word “conversations” is PLURALIZED.

Meaning more than one –

But not just conversations … but full blown WORSHIP and PRAISE and PRAYER.

But not just one person conversing with the Lord, but a whole bunch of people, putting themselves in front of their “memorial stones” to remember the Lord.

For today’s Christians, every Sunday presents us with the opportunity to gather and remember with God’s people.

But we are going to need more than a weekly touchpoint to sustain ourselves.

Ask yourself:

What habits can I cultivate to remember God’s goodness?

How can I catalog His faithfulness to me and share that with others?

What “memorials” can I set up so that I can remember how God delivered me?

Opportunities to continuously see, instantly recall God’s faithfulness abound.

All we need to do is constantly, continuously look and instantly remember.

Revival at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky – 2023

I do hope and pray that Christians have stable and established faith in Christ.

I feel prayerful. Hopeful.

In fact, I’ve gotten choked up more than once over the last couple days at the thought that a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit could be happening among our Methodist brothers and sisters.

So I have mainly been praying two things:

1. Oh, God. Let it be. Let your mercy pour down in genuine revival, and let these reports be true. And let it not end in Wilmore.

2. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by.

Maybe you will be moved mightily to pray, praise and worship this way as well.

It is of the nature of revival that we cannot know the true extent of it until days, months, and even years afterward.

Acts 5:33-39Amplified Bible

Gamaliel’s Counsel

³³Now when they heard this, they were infuriated and they intended to kill the apostles. ³⁴But a Pharisee named ^[a]Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law [of Moses], highly esteemed by all the people, stood up in the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court) and ordered that the men be taken outside for a little while. ³⁵Then he said to the Council, “Men of Israel, be careful in regard to what you propose to do to these men. ³⁶For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody [of importance], and a group of about four hundred men allied themselves with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were scattered and came to nothing. ³⁷After this man, Judas the Galilean rose up, [and led an uprising] during the time of the census, and drew people after him; he was also killed, and all his followers were scattered. ³⁸So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men [merely human in origin], it will fail and be destroyed; ³⁹but if it is of God [and it appears that it is], you will not be able to stop them; or else you may even be found fighting against God!”

The distinguishing marks of revival may begin with an outpouring of the Spirit of grace, but that is only the commencement if the work of the Holy Spirit is to prove real and to be authentic and unstoppable, and a major mover of people.

“How do you tell if it is really a work of God? It’s not how high you jump, it’s how straight and how far you will walk when you finally land.”

The last great spiritual awakening in America took place during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

It was a nation divided by war, and things were very dark.

But when things are really dark, God’s light can shine brightly.

Cover headlines from Time magazine went from “Is God Dead?” in 1968 to “Jesus Revolution” in 1971.

What a difference a few years can make, especially when God intervenes.

America needs a spiritual awakening, and the church needs a revival.

The World needs a spiritual awakening ….

An awakening takes place when God sovereignly pours out His Spirit and it impacts a culture.

That is what happened during the Jesus Revolution, and that is what happened during multiple spiritual awakenings in the long history of these United States, predating its establishment as a nation.

A revival, on the other hand, is what the church must experience.

A revival occurs when the church comes back to life, when it becomes what it was always meant to be.

It’s a returning to passion.

I think many times we overly mystify the idea of revival.

We don’t really need to.

Another word we could use for revival is restoration, and that is what the church needs.

Speaking at a conference in 1917, R. A. Torrey gave this prescription for revival:

Let a few of God’s people, they don’t need to be many, get thoroughly right with God themselves—the rest will count for nothing unless you start right there; then let them band themselves together to pray for a revival until God opens the heavens and comes down. Then let them put themselves at God’s disposal to use them as He sees fit. That will bring a revival to any church, any community.

We can’t organize a revival, but we can agonize for it in prayer.

We can call on God to send it.

We can call on the people to come, to consider and to receive God [Acts 2:37-47]

Draw near unto the Lord our God and the Lord will draw near to us.

Psalm 73:28 Amplified Bible

²⁸
But as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge and placed my trust in Him,
That I may tell of all Your works.

Ecclesiastes 5:1Amplified Bible

Your Attitude Toward God

5 Guard your steps and focus on what you are doing as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the [careless or irreverent] sacrifice of fools; for they are too ignorant to know they are doing evil.

Matthew 11:25-30Amplified Bible

Come to Me

²⁵At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth [I openly and joyfully acknowledge Your great wisdom], that You have hidden these things [these spiritual truths] from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants [to new believers, to those seeking God’s will and purpose]. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. ²⁷All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Son except the Father; and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son [deliberately] wills to reveal Him.

²⁸“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. ²⁹Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (renewal, blessed quiet) for your souls. ³⁰For My yoke is easy [to bear] and My burden is light.”

James 4:8Amplified Bible

⁸Come close to God [with a contrite heart] and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; and purify your [unfaithful] hearts, you double-minded [people].

Where is our Hope for Revival and Remembrance?

Psalm 85 Amplified Bible

Prayer for God’s Mercy upon the Nation.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

85 O Lord, You have [at last] shown favor to Your land [of Canaan];
You have restored [from Babylon] the captives of Jacob (Israel).
²
You have forgiven the wickedness of Your people;
You have covered all their sin. Selah.
³
You have withdrawn all Your wrath,
You have turned away from Your burning anger.

⁴
Restore us, O God of our salvation,
And cause Your indignation toward us to cease.
⁵
Will You be angry with us forever?
Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
⁶
Will You not revive us and bring us to life again,
That Your people may rejoice in You?
⁷
Show us Your lovingkindness, O Lord,
And grant us Your salvation.

⁸
I will hear [with expectant hope] what God the Lord will say,
For He will speak peace to His people, to His ^[a]godly ones—
But let them not turn again to folly.
⁹
Surely His salvation is near to those who [reverently] fear Him [and obey Him with submissive wonder],
That glory [the manifest presence of God] may dwell in our land.
¹⁰
Steadfast love and truth and faithfulness meet together;
Righteousness and peace kiss each other.
¹¹
Truth springs from the earth,
And righteousness looks down from heaven.
¹²
Indeed, the Lord will give what is good,
And our land will yield its produce.
¹³
Righteousness will go before Him
And will make His footsteps into a way [in which to walk].

In a worship song from the early 2000s, singer/songwriter Brian Doerksen sings,

“Jesus, hope of the nations/ Jesus, comfort for all who mourn/ You are the source of heaven’s hope on earth.”

As believers in Christ, we recognize and worship Jesus as the true hope of the world, and yet it’s astounding how often we pin our hopes on human beings.

In all of our history books, it is clear that people are far more inclined to find hope in leaders, politicians, and celebrities rather than in the one true God.

Why do we do this?

Proverbs 11:4-8 warns that placing hope in humans is futile because any human power will come to nothing.

As the apostle Paul tells us, “There is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1).

By saying this, Paul is assuring believers that in all situations, even in the midst of national turmoil’s and global crises, God is the one who holds all authority.

Any human who has “power” has it only because God allows it to be so.

2 Chronicles 7:1-3Amplified Bible

The Shekinah Glory

7 When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the [^[a]Shekinah] glory and brilliance of the Lord filled the house. ²The priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory and brilliance of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. ³When all the people of Israel saw how the fire came down and saw the glory and brilliance of the Lord upon the house, they bowed down on the stone pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever.”

In other words, through our continuous praise and worship, all our hopes and all our desires must lie with the Only One who is on the throne of the universe.

Our prayers and our worship must be oriented toward Christ, for he is truly the only hope—the only one who can change minds and transform hearts, disperse powers, and bring edification, and redemption and restoration, to bring revival.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray ….

Creator God, you made every living thing, and you hold all things together. Lord, we your Children now pray for you bring restoration to this world that desperately needs your leadership and authority. Please use Your church and their lives as catalysts for renewal, restoration and revival. We have heard of Your great works; please do them again, “stones of remembrance” in our day. And all for the glory, honor and praise of Jesus Christ, our only crucified, Resurrected and returning Lord, Savior and King.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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Our Lives For the Sake of the Gospel. Philippians 1:12-14.

Philippians 1:12-14The Message

They Can’t Imprison the Message

^12-14I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

How passionate are we about sharing the Gospel?

How much or how little are we willing to extend ourselves, sacrifice and take risks so that unbelievers may become followers of Jesus and believers may become that much better equipped to share the good news of our salvation?

As we approach the Lenten Season and consider these questions, are we helped by the example of the apostle Paul, who heroically, single-mindedly, pursued God’s call through all manner of difficulties and persecutions and throughout the Mediterranean world—all so that others may come to know Christ as Lord?

If nothing else, we we learn that nothing would stop Paul from preaching and teaching about Jesus—not a trial before royalty, a storm at sea, a shipwreck, a poisonous snake bite, chains, or even prolonged wrongful imprisonment.

Paul was hyper-zealous to make all of his days and deeds count for the Gospel.

His dramatic missionary journeys, and finally his journey to Rome to face down the Roman authorities on their home ground, illustrates God’s faithfulness and encourages us to see our circumstances as “God” opportunities for us to throw all of ourselves into our own mission, ministry journey’s to share the Gospel.

As I sit on a pillow in my dining room recovering from “urological surgery,” yesterday, my only thoughts were to start writing another devotional entry.

I can sit here in some fair measure of discomfort with my God, my Savior and the Holy Spirit and my caregiving wife at my side, to feel enormously blessed, so fully and completely grateful for what is stirring me to write and not rest.

God has formed and shaped out a place of such an enormous and intense joy in my heart, in my soul just for sharing of His Gospel, no matter the discomfort.

I have this ministry and mission of writing which Reverend John Wesley states:

“I look on all the world as my parish, thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of the world I am in … I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.”

Even if my only place in the world is my very own dining room in my own home.

As of now, by God’s grace, the matchless power and purpose of His scriptures, His own grand plan, [Isaiah 55:10-13] these writings have reached 125 nations.

I cannot speak to the work God has done, but I am still writing after 18 months.

For GOD my Savior and for the Sake of the Gospel

Philippians 1:12-14Amplified Bible

The Gospel Is Preached

¹²Now I want you to know, ^[a]believers, that what has happened to me [this imprisonment that was meant to stop me] has actually served to advance [the spread of] the good news [regarding salvation]. ¹³My imprisonment in [the cause of] Christ has become common knowledge throughout the whole ^[b]praetorian (imperial) guard and to everyone else. ¹⁴Because of my chains [seeing that I am doing well and that God is accomplishing great things], most of the ^[c]brothers have renewed confidence in the Lord, and have far more courage to speak the word of God [concerning salvation] without fear [of the consequences, seeing that God can work His good in all circumstances].

Follow Paul through Acts and he leaves you breathless.

He’s constantly on the move, going from place to place.

One moment he’s stitching tents together, then he’s bringing Eutychus back to life, and then he survives a snakebite and heals the sick on Malta.

It’s almost as if you can’t imagine ever being able to keep up with him.

Surely the worst thing that could ever happen to someone like Paul is to be stuck in one house for two years.

But at the conclusion of Acts, that’s exactly how we find him (Acts 28:30-31).

You can just imagine the devil’s response to Paul’s imprisonment:

Now I’ve shut him down! That’ll get rid of him. He won’t be able to go anywhere for a long while. He’ll just shrivel up and die a prisoner.

Not a chance!

It is during Paul’s imprisonment that he penned some of his most noteworthy letters under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—letters that God is still using to transform lives these long and tornado twisting, storm driven 2,000 years later.

And, remarkably, the gospel has continually advanced not only despite Paul’s chains but because of them.

Paul was likely very different from other prisoners.

The soldiers who guarded him would have probably said to one another,

He is the most remarkable person we’ve ever had. We’re used to people constantly cussing, screaming, agitating, and complaining. But this Paul has joy and purpose, and he just preaches!

As a result of Paul’s daily ministry among these soldiers, word began to spread throughout the entire palace guard: The reason this guy is a prisoner is because of Jesus.

They got the point: He’s chained to us, he says, because he’s chained to this man Jesus Christ.

And it appears that some of these guards not only heard the gospel but responded to it.

As they were redeployed throughout the Roman Empire, arriving at their new posts as new men, the gospel would advance to different places through them.

And so Paul’s imprisonment, which at first appeared to be diametrically opposed to the spread of the gospel, actually proved to be essential to it.

You do not need to be a prisoner, a missionary, or an apostle to be used by God in spreading the gospel, nor do you need to wait for all the circumstances in your life to line up just as you want them to before you simply talk about Jesus.

Whether you are in your home, prison, a hospital, an office, a field, or wherever, and whether you realize it or not, you are never far from someone who needs to hear the amazing story of God’s grace.

What are the situations you face that you naturally see as obstacles to sharing the gospel, and how might they in fact be opportunities?

Who are the lost and longing people that God has placed in your life today?

They need God.

And they might only meet Him through your loving, sacred, holy boldness.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 40The Message

40 ^1-3I waited and waited and waited for God.
    At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
    pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
    to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
    a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
    they enter the mystery,
    abandoning themselves to God.

^4-5Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
    turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
    ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
    compares to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
    and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
    account for you.

⁶Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
    that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
    that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
    so I can listen.

^7-8So I answered, “I’m coming.
    I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
    you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
    became part of my very being.

^9-10I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
    let the congregation know the whole story.

^11-12Now God, don’t hold out on me,
    don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
    are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
    a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
    I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
    so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.

^13-15Soften up, God, and intervene;
    hurry and get me some help,
So those who are trying to kidnap my soul
    will be embarrassed and lose face,
So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable
    will be heckled and disgraced,
So those who pray for my ruin
    will be booed and jeered without mercy.

^16-17But all who are hunting for you—
    oh, let them sing and be happy.
Let those who know what you’re all about
    tell the world you’re great and not quitting.
And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing:
    make something of me.
You can do it; you’ve got what it takes—
    but God, don’t put it off.

Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.

Gloria, In Excelsis Deo, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia Amen.

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Utterly Unconventional Love of God and Saint Valentine’s Day. Ephesians 3:17-19

Ephesians 3:14-21Amplified Bible

¹⁴For this reason [grasping the greatness of this plan by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ] I bow my knees [in reverence] before the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth ^[a]derives its name [God—the first and ultimate Father]. ¹⁶May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, ¹⁸be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; ¹⁹and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

²⁰Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, ²¹to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

God gave us Jesus as a way of saying, “I love you and you are special to me.”

That is a really great gift, isn’t it?

Much better than Valentine’s cards, or candy, or flowers.

Still, we have those special people in our lives whom we need to give our fullest possible attention to – our wives, our sweethearts, our very good friends, those co-workers who work with us and beside us and those whom we may supervise.

Treat them special because they are special – who and what and why they are is absolutely 100% irreplaceable – every single one of their lives utterly matters.

They need to know that they are truly respected, loved and deeply appreciated.

God’s Unconventional Love versus Valentine’s Day

Ephesians 3:14-19The Message

^14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

Everyday is a special day when we open our eyes, take that next breath, set our feet upon the floor, walk forth into the kitchen get that very first cup of coffee.

We look outside, greet the morning, are welcomed by the dawn’s new sun.

A hand that raises the blades of a Venetian blind to look out the window at the sky of a sunny day.

Tomorrow, however, is a wee bit more of a special day.

Yes, it is Valentine’s Day.

But does everyone know the origin of this day?

It is a very old tradition which started because of a Bishop named Valentinus.

He lived back in the days of the Roman Empire.

Long ago, Roman officials were against young people getting married in the church.

Many young Christians wanted to be married by the priest, in the church, with God’s blessing.

Valentinus was sympathetic to these people and continued to help marry them, even though he was often threatened by the government authorities.

Sadly, he was taken to Rome and put to death for his faith and his defiance of the Emperor’s rule.

In memory and honor of Saint Valentinus, young couples started talking about choosing a Valentine, when they were actually talking about choosing a bride.

Now we call this day, Saint Valentine’s Day.

In the modern era, many people give their sweethearts Valentine’s Day cards with hearts all over them.

Some people give candies or flowers.

A red carnation or a red rose means “I love you.”

These are all ways that people show their love.

But God also gave us a gift to show us that He loved us.

It was Jesus. God gave us Jesus as a way of saying, “I love you and you are special to me.”

That is a really great gift, isn’t it?

Much better than cards, or candy, or flowers.

Today, let us meditate on biblical love, the greatest love of all time.

There once was a very old pastor, who was suffering from a long battle with cancer.

A few days before his death, he continued to hold on to a special verse that was the source of his inspiration.

He placed a bookmark where his favorite scripture passage was written:

“Who shall separate us from the love Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:34-35 KJV).

Despite facing such a trail in his life, the old pastor was most certainly blessed with the power “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ;” a love that surpasses knowledge.

As children of God, we understand the fact that the root and foundation of creation is love.

It “surpasses knowledge.”

We know about human love.

Human love comes with the understanding that love comes as a reward for being good, for being faithful, being trustworthy and true, for being kind, for giving gifts, and for acting and for responding with appropriate behavior.

But this is not the same as the love which is embedded in the foundation of creation.

This is not the love that surpasses knowledge.

This is not the love that Paul prays we might have the power to grasp.

God’s love flows freely, without consideration of reward or any plan of equal or unequal or non-existent compensation.

This is a love that is not inherent to human nature.

We are more inclined to return love for love.

But the Scripture says,

“… how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:20-21).

If we are to approach love in the way of biblical love, we must meditate on what it means when the Bible says, we must love God and each other as ourselves.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15:13-17)

Today, I would like to meditate on 3 questions about this amazing kind of love.

The first question is this:

Where does Love come from?

Where Does Love Come From?

Now some of you would answer, ‘that’s easy–it comes from within.’

Some may say, ‘It’s something that happens naturally as we mature as human beings.’

However, remember how hard it is to teach children to share?

That sharing instinct is not natural to them, but it is taught.

A human instinct is: self-survival.

C.S. Lewis, the famed English scholar, studied the various Greek words for love.

He came to distinguish the difference between what he called “needed love” and “gift love.”

Needed love is described as self-evident.

It is the most common kind of love in our world.

It is a mortal and human concept of love.

I love you, BECAUSE you love me.

I love you, because you provide for me, because you support me, and because you meet my needs.

Mr. Lewis illustrates that when we humans say to another, “I love you,” what we are really meaning is, “I need you, I want you. You hold value in my life.”

Now in contrast to “needed love” Mr. Lewis describes “gift love.”

This form of loving is born of fullness and wholeness.

The goal of gift love is to enrich and enhance the person whom it loves.

It does not require anything in return, nor does it hold requirements.

“Gift love moves out to bless and to increase rather than to acquire or to diminish. Gift love is more like a bountiful, artesian well that continues to overflow than a vacuum or a black hole. (C.S. Lewis)”

Mr. Lewis concludes this is what God’s love is all about. God’s love is gift love, not needed love.

This, of course, is the meaning of agape love; unconditional love.

Are we capable of agape love– loving as God loves?

To an extent we are.

But, we must go to the source of love, and the source of all love is God.

Jesus says in John’s narrative today, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. (John 15:13)”

Perfect love does not come from within, it only comes from above.

And when God lives within us, we become capable of expressing perfect love.

Please take secure hold of your BIBLES and turn with me to 1 John 4:7-11.

In his first epistle, John writes,

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” So, that is the answer to the first question: where does love come from? It comes from God. Then John adds, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:7-11).

The Second Question is ….

What does this Love look like?

A young girl came home one day bursting with good news.

“Mom, Dad, I know why we had to learn grammar!” she exclaimed.

“It is so we can understand God.”

Her mom and dad gave her a puzzled look, so the young girl explained.

“God is love, and love can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a verb.”

What a powerful concept!

Now doesn’t that preach a sermon or three lasting all the live long day!

Love isn’t just a vague feeling.

It is an action, an attitude, a spirit, and a character trait.

Since Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God, his every attitude, thought, word, action and deed was motivated by the love of God for Him and too, vice versa.

He was motivated completely and without reservation by love.

So, what does love look like?

Gift love is best illustrated with Jesus, a blameless man, hanging on a cross simply and solely because of God’s love for us.

We cannot meet any of God’s needs or even all of God’s commands.

But God’s nature is to give love, unconditionally, unconventionally, even at times when we do not deserve it.

As John writes,

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

God’s gift love is a pure and perfect love.

It is an unconventional, never-ending, and everlasting kind of love.

It does not ask for you to meet up to requirements, and it does not ask for compensation.

No matter how many times we sin or fall short of the Glory of God, His love never left us.

No matter how many times the world rebuked Him, His love never left us.

What does love look like?

There is no Greater and more Powerful image than Jesus on the Cross.

That is perfect love.

Perfect love looks like God, for He is love.

God and love are not two realities; they are one.

God’s infinite power of being is: the infinite power of love.

In every movement of love we are dwelling in God and God in us.

And when we accept the Holy Spirit into our lives, we allow God’s perfect love to be pictured through us.

We can also illustrate perfect love through the way we live.

Through every attitude, thought, word, and deed, we have.

Christians are called to be a reflection of the image of God.

We reflect God’s perfect love so that others can also see what true perfect love looks like.

Love unconditionally, unconventionally to all.

Now, the third and last question is:

What does such love require from us?

Jesus answers this question in John 15:13-17,

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

Jesus has issued the command: “Love each other as I have loved you.”

We are required by God’s command to love others as he has loved us–not with needed love, but with gift love.

Not because of anything they can or have done for us, but because of what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has done for us.

Luke 6:27-32Amplified Bible

²⁷“But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: ^[a]Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹Whoever ^[b]strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one also [simply ignore insignificant insults or losses and do not bother to retaliate—maintain your dignity]. Whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks of you. ^[c]Whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. ³¹Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. ³²If you [only] love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

The world lives by the philosophy: “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

To do good for people who are incapable of doing anything for you in return.

This is gift love, agape love. It is the love of God.

And of course, dear brother and sisters, this is the hardest form of love to give.

It is hard to love someone unconventionally when they cannot or will not or refuse to do the same for you.

But when the Spirit of the Lord is within, He will give you the strength to love.

The strength to be patient and compassionate.

The strength to reflect agape love to others who do not know God.

For the greatest command was to love God, and the second greatest command was to love one another.

Concluding Reflection’s: Love That Surpasses Knowledge

Ephesians 3:16-19Easy-to-Read Version

¹⁶I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. ¹⁸And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. ¹⁹Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.

Love is commonly considered an emotion—a feeling, inclination of the heart.

Love involves knowing the person we love, and yet even that knowledge is not the end of love.

Paul reminds his readers of this basic truth when he prays that they may “know this love that surpasses knowledge.”

Paul is talking here about the love of God, and he’s saying that it’s not enough to know about God without having love for God.

The standard of love that believers strive for is to “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

That’s a high standard indeed!

God is, in every way, far beyond what our minds can comprehend or our hearts can contain.

We will never achieve this total fullness!

But what a powerful prayer this is—and what a wonderful goal to guide us in living our life!

To be continually growing in this “fullness of God” and his love is the delight of discipleship.

This is a wonderful prayer offered for us—but it’s also a prayer to offer on behalf of others.

What a transformation of our relationships when an entire community of Christ’s disciples experiences together a growing fullness of God’s love.

It’s beyond our ability to imagine!

Valentines Day is known as the day of love.

But God’s love lasts for eternity.

It is a perfect LOVE that loves unconditionally and unconventionally.

Where does perfect love come from?

It comes from God alone, and works within us when we become His children.

What does perfect love look like?

It looks like Jesus, a blameless man, hanging on a cross, for a world which did not deserve Him.

And as His children we reflect that image through our actions, our attitudes, thoughts, words, and deeds.

And what does such perfect love require out of us?

It requires us to move beyond “needed love” and give “gift love”.

To look around at others who are in need of God’s love and to give it to them–not asking what they can do for us, remembering what Christ has done for us.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

We bow our hearts before You, Father God. You are the Creator of everything we see in heaven and on earth. We pray that out of Your glorious, unlimited resources, You would strengthen our hearts and minds through the power of Your Holy Spirit. May Your love be the rich soil in which our lives are rooted. May Your love be the only firm foundation upon which we build, so that, together with all Your people everywhere, we would come to truly understand how long, how high, how wide and how deep Your love really is—how it far surpasses anything we can imagine. God, fill us with the fullness and the power that comes from You alone, so that our lives would reflect your goodness and grace to the world around us. Lord, fill us to overflowing with the knowledge and the wisdom of your fullness so that we love you more and serve you better. Help us to keep offering this prayer for others, that we may all grow in you.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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“Ambitious” Guests of Honor: Jesus Teaches About Humility and Service. Luke 14:7-14

Luke 14:7-14 Amplified Bible

Parable of the Guests

⁷Now Jesus began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been selecting the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down [to eat] at the place of honor, since a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by the host, ⁹and he who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place,’ and then, in disgrace you proceed to take the last place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit down [to eat] at the last place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; and then you will be honored in the presence of all who are at the table with you. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled [before others], and he who habitually humbles himself (keeps a realistic self-view) will be exalted.”

¹²Jesus also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the ^[a]righteous (the just, the upright).”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Parable of the Honored Ambitious Guests …

The guests and host of a banquet met Jesus.

At the banquet, the guests tried to sit in seats of honor, near the place where the host would sit.

This was common in that society, which cared about honor for people who were respectable and had status in the community.

It was also common to invite people over who would invite you back, because you could then benefit socially from attending another dinner party hosted by someone else.

But Jesus introduced a different kind of world by what he said to the guests and the host.

He told them to sit in the least honorable seats, and to invite guests who were too poor to return the invitation.

In this way Jesus revealed a way of life in which status doesn’t matter, and in which shame and honor are erased.

Jesus revealed this way of life in his teachings, and he made this way of life possible by becoming the most despised outsider of all.

He died on a cross and bore the worst of all rejections in order to make God’s kingdom a reality in our world.

God’s kingdom is the only place where the only status that matters is that we are “loved by God.”

God’s kingdom is a gift that Jesus Christ gives to us.

Jesus Teaches About Ambition, Humility, Service

Ambition can be a powerful ally or a destructive enemy.

If your ambition is misplaced and fueled by shallow wants and superficial desires, you will find yourself perpetually dissatisfied, ultimately discontent.

The Bible talks about that type of ambition in Matthew 6:24, warning against greed and the insatiable desire to earn more money than you could ever spend.

If wealth and riches and status are your ambition, you will never be satisfied.

There is nothing wrong with ambition or about being ambitious ….

There is nothing wrong with Christian or with a Christian being ambitious.

There’s nothing wrong with making money, but you have to own the money; you can’t let it own you – love of money is not supposed to be our ambition.

You and I have to have a more sacred purpose that’s greater than money.

The money will come to you through hard work and God’s blessing.

Your greater purpose should be what your ambitions push you towards.

Matthew 6:33 affirms this by giving us the insight that God knows our desires.

God knows what fuels us, and if we aren’t scheming and plotting to send someone to ruination, He wants to bless us with the things that we seek.

Jesus advises that if you and I seek first the Kingdom of God then He will give you and I everything that you and I need, and more.

Humility and service are just two of the other values that Jesus not only taught but exemplified during His earthly ministry.

On so many occasions in the Bible, we read Jesus teaching His disciples to always consider others before themselves. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the importance of self-denial and service to others.

In Luke 14:7-14, Jesus used the occasion of a banquet to give insight into humility and service.

He addressed the guest regarding humility in verses 7 to 10, And in verses 12 to 14, He spoke to the host about serving others.

Luke 14:7-14The Message

Invite the Misfits

^7-9He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table. Noticing how each had tried to elbow into the place of honor, he said, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.’ Embarrassed, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.

^10-11“When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, If you walk around all high and mighty, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

^12-14Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”

Be Ambitious and Humble Yourself and Be Exalted …

Jesus’ teaching is clear – do not think so highly of yourself that you always come expect the very best treatment at all times.

No matter who you think or believe or perceive yourself to be when you are in public or in society, remember that there’s always somebody higher than you.

Being ambitious might be good at times but certainly not on many occasions.

Imagine a famous big city mayor who went to a wedding banquet along with his bodyguards and servicemen.

Upon his arrival, the host was too busy attending to other guests so he could not personally welcome him.

Thinking he was the most highly regarded guest, the mayor naturally walked into the dining hall and sat, took the best seat and made himself comfortable.

When the host noticed his presence, he came and whispered to his ear that the seat he occupied is reserved for the governor.

At this very public event, the mayor had no choice but to get up so the governor could take his rightful seat.

With all of the media outlets present, and their cameras following his every move, what a huge embarrassment for the mayor knowing all eyes are on him.

Humility and the “Ambitious Famous” Christian

Humility is a fundamental grace in the Christian life, and yet it is elusive.

There may be times when we think we deserve VIP treatment because of who we are in the church or society.

We are the Pastor – therefore we are entitled to the very best parking space.

Head of Table: We were the chairperson for the building committee and we just carried out the most successful capital campaign in the history of the church.

The Matriarch and the Patriarch of the Church – Head of the Line meal tickets.

Or perhaps there have been times when we ourselves exhibited false humility.

Do you think you have this “I am all this, that and the other, ergo…” virtue?

Please allow me to say, “If you know you have it, you have already flaunted it!”

As someone rightly said, “Humility is not thinking meanly of ourselves; it is simply not thinking of ourselves at all.”

Jesus is the greatest example of humility, and we would do well to ask the Holy Spirit to enable us to more imitative of Him and significantly less of ourselves.

A True Act of Ambitious Charity …

The Lord Jesus also emphasized the importance of treating people equally regardless of their social and economic status.

Unfortunately, when we are the one’s who are hosting a banquet, we prefer to invite rich and powerful people – trying to increase our status and self esteem.

But Jesus told the host of the banquet that when he holds a feast, he should be extraordinarily radical and also invite the poor, the lame, and the blind.

Why should the host do what Jesus said?

It’s because these people won’t be able to repay him.

They could not invite him back because they couldn’t afford to host a banquet!

However, the host will raise his standard of living in the eyes of the community he is living, showing true compassion, receiving his reward at the resurrection.

The reality is that whenever we host a party, we just prefer to invite our friends, relatives, and the rich and famous.

We want to have people who can bring the very best, most expensive gifts or those who can invite us to their party in the future.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with inviting these people.

When Rabbi Jesus said, “Do not invite your friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors,” He did not mean absolute prohibition.

Such language is common in Semitic discourse and is used for emphasis.

Jesus’ point here is that inviting one’s friends and relatives cannot be classified as a spiritual act of charity.

It may also be a rebuke against those prone to reserve their hospitality for rich neighbors.

They intentionally do this knowing that these guests will automatically feel obligated to return the favor.

And if they fail to automatically invite us back we take an automatically offense and as an excuse to discontinue the relationship – bear an everlasting grudge.

Greatness and Servanthood and Ambition …

Matthew 20:20-28Amplified Bible

Preferred Treatment Asked

²⁰Then [Salome] the ^[a]mother of Zebedee’s children [James and John] came up to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down [in respect], asked a favor of Him. ²¹And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered Him, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit [in positions of honor and authority] one on Your right and one on Your left.” ²²But Jesus replied, “You do not realize what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup [of suffering] that I am about to drink?” They answered, “We are able.” ²³He said to them, “You will drink My cup [of suffering]; but to sit on My right and on My left this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”

²⁴And when the [other] ten heard this, they were resentful and angry with the two brothers. ²⁵But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles have absolute power and lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them [tyrannizing them]. ²⁶It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your [willing and humble] slave; ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many [paying the price to set them free from the penalty of sin].”

In Matthew 20:26-27, Jesus taught His disciples that greatness is parallel to servanthood.

Jesus said in response to the request of James and John’s mother for them to be given high places in God’s Kingdom.

In his reply, Jesus poignantly highlighted about being a “servant.”

The word here means a “slave” and our English word “deacon” comes from it.

Not every servant was a slave, but every slave was a servant.

The Lord was teaching His disciples that the style of greatness and leadership for believers is different.

The Gentile leaders dominate in a dictatorial fashion, using carnal power and authority.

Believers are to do the opposite.

They lead must by being servants and giving themselves away for others, as Jesus did.

Sadly, in the church today we have many “celebrities” but so very few servants.

There are many who want to “flaunt” their authority but few who want to take the towel and water filled basin and get on their knees and wash “dirty” feet.

But while there are people who are still willing to serve, it’s interesting to note that they also have their motives.

Some are sincerely serving only to glorify God but others serve for honor and place and recognition of their “ambitious,” “obviously superior spirituality.”

What’s your motive for serving God and others?

Some final reflections and ambitious thoughts …

In Philippians 2:3-4, Paul uses the example of Jesus’ humility and service to encourage believers to do the same.

He uses the word “selfishness” which is sometimes rendered “strife” because it refers to “us versus them versus everybody, anybody else” rivalry.

It speaks of the pride that prompts people to push for their own way.

And then Paul encourages the church to have humility of mind.

It was a term of derision with the idea of being low, shabby, and humble.

The basic definition of true humility is regarding others as more important than yourself.

Our motive for being humble and serving others must be the praise of God and not the applause of men.

We must care significantly more about our eternal reward in heaven and not the temporary “we cannot take it with us to the grave” pseudo recognition on earth.

Remember, “You can’t get your reward twice” (Matthew 6:1-8).

On the day of judgment, many who today are first in the eyes of men will be last in God’s eyes.

And many who are last in the eyes of men will be first in the eyes of God (Luke 13:30).

The story is told about a wise man who shunned publicity.

He would speak every once in a while and when he speaks everyone listens to him.

After speaking he would immediately hide away into his own private place.

There would be rare times that he granted interviews and when he does he would always point to God as the giver of whatever wisdom that he possesses.

Many of us may be tempted to own to ourselves the wisdom or material wealth that we presently have.

But we should not allow ourselves to be possessed by that temptation, for who are we to own to ourselves what we have?

We have to always remember that we are mere vessels of God, whatever we have comes from God.

In our gospel text, Jesus highlights the great virtue of humility.

Jesus tells us to always be humble and not to crave for attention and adulation.

Why?

For the simple reason that the more humbler we are the more that Jesus is seen both with us and within us and emanating outward into the world from us.

The humbler we are the more the we become His effective vessels in this world.

The humbler you are the more that you allow Jesus’ light to shine upon you.

The humbler you are the more that you allow Jesus’ light to shine out from you.

The more light which emanates from us, more the light of Savior Jesus shines.

Maybe in some part of the earth we still walk on, the light of His Salvation;

Overly Ambitious Thoughts and Overly Ambitious Christians

Matthew 5:13-16 Amplified Bible

Disciples and the World

¹³“You are the ^[a]salt of the earth; but if the salt has ^[b]lost its taste (purpose), how can it be made salty? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and walked on by people [when the walkways are wet and slippery].

¹⁴“You are the light of [Christ to] the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; ¹⁵nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Do we walk/talk the kind of “shining” humility, our Savior now requires of us?

We walk/talk the kind of “shining” servanthood our Savior now requires of us?

I am pondering the imponderable possibilities if the answers are actually: YES!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord God, we are shocked and awed by the kind of kingdom Jesus has introduced—it seems upside down and backwards to us. Its simple wisdom is wonderfully radical to us, the possibilities which would come from actual practice are enormous. We thank you for the great love that your kingdom reveals when we allow it to shape our lives.

Hospitable God, you invite us to a banquet where the last may be first, where the humble and the mighty trade places. Let us share your abundance with no fear of scarcity; let us greet strangers as angels you have sent! Send your Holy Spirit now so that we may find a place at your table and welcome others with radical hospitality. In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus, Guest at all our tables, we pray. Amen.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum!

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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Exodus 20:8-11 Amplified Bible

Keep the Sabbath [verse 8]

Keep the Sabbath [verses 9-10]

Our Sabbath Rest as Our Witness

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Exodus 20:1-4 Amplified Bible

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments

“You Shall Have No Other Gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3)

“You Shall Not Make for Yourself an Idol” (Exodus 20:4)

No Image Engraved or in Mind [eXODUS 20:4]

Exodus 20:4 Amplified Bible

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Exodus 20:1-3Amplified Bible

The Ten Commandments

What Does ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’ Mean?

Why Is it Important That ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’ Is the First Commandment?

Why Did God Need to Say ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’?

What Other Gods Might Christians Be Tempted to Bow Down to Today?

A Prayer to Have No Other Gods before God

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Psalm 46 Amplified Bible

God the Refuge of His People.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to soprano voices. A Song.

Be Still and Know that I Am God.

The Importance of How I View God

How Do You View God?

Do I Understand Him?

Should We Know It All?

What Have I Learned About How I View God?

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Psalm 11 Amplified Bible

The Lord a Refuge and Defense.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

Isaiah 2:2-5Amplified Bible

COME …

Choose This Day Where You Should Run For Refuge

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Revelation 4:1-4Amplified Bible

Scene in Heaven

Considering Reasons to Believe in Heaven

Believing in Heaven …

1. Jesus Believed in Heaven

2. Scripture consistently teaches the existence of Heaven.

3. I believe in Heaven because I believe in earth.

4. There has to be a heaven to even up the earthly hell God’s most faithful sometimes endure for Jesus’ sake.

5. Every caterpillar/butterfly testifies to our heavenly future.

6. I believe in Heaven because the alternative belief is in despair.

7. I believe in Heaven because some of the best people who ever lived believed in Heaven.

8. I believe in Heaven because I believe in hell.

Luke 16:27-28Amplified Bible

9. I believe in Heaven because it’s a great incentive to responsible living and compassionate everything.

10. I believe in Heaven because of reasons I’m yet to discover.

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Joshua 4:4-7 Amplified Bible

Joshua 4:19-24 Amplified Bible

Acts 5:33-39Amplified Bible

Gamaliel’s Counsel

Psalm 73:28 Amplified Bible

Ecclesiastes 5:1Amplified Bible

Your Attitude Toward God

Matthew 11:25-30Amplified Bible

Come to Me

James 4:8Amplified Bible

Where is our Hope for Revival and Remembrance?

Psalm 85 Amplified Bible

Prayer for God’s Mercy upon the Nation.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

2 Chronicles 7:1-3Amplified Bible

The Shekinah Glory

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Philippians 1:12-14The Message

They Can’t Imprison the Message