Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
As Paul took his leave of the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, the Apostle felt an urgent compulsion from the Holy Spirit to go back to the city of Jerusalem.
He declared to all present he had no idea what would happen to him when he got there, but he had a clear sense hard times and imprisonment awaited him.
Then he made this incredibly valuable and impossibly staggering statement:
“I do not account my life of any value.”
Acts 20:22-24 The Message
22-24 “But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
As Paul took his leave of the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, the Apostle felt an urgent compulsion from the Holy Spirit to go back to the city of Jerusalem.
He declared to all present he had no idea what would happen to him when he got there, but he had a clear sense hard times and imprisonment awaited him.
Then he made this incredibly valuable and impossibly staggering statement:
“I do not account my life of any value.”
“I do not account my life of any value.”
What an incredibly shocking statement summarizing Paul’s own deep, abiding passion for the urgent way he personally views the sum total of his valued life.
“If my life isn’t of any value, it’s not precious to me, I got one thing I’m focused on, and that’s the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus, testifying to the gospel of his grace.”
This was not first century mindset of masochism—some strange utter hatred of personal joy, happiness, self control, peace, or spiritual health, or physical life.
So what, then, did Paul mean by declaring his life completely valueless?
Simply this:
that solely for the sake of His Savior Jesus and the Kingdom of God, he did not regard his own life as so precious a possession as to be held on to at all costs!
What value we assign to our lives is summarized by people often nonchalantly saying, “Well, as long as I have got breath, and health, that’s all that matters!”
“I am happy I am still breathing, my heart is still beating and I am standing!”
Yes!
Absolutely!
Value all of these things and so much more!
Be happy you are still breathing, your heart is beating and you are standing!
But that is not all that is to be valued, all that matters in the Kingdom of God!
Be Comforted but also recall our invaluable bodies are steadily passing away. (Isaiah 40:1-9)
We are crumbling even as we live and breathe.
We may have our health today, but a day will come when we do not.
Unless we are able to say with Paul, “To live is Christ,” we cannot legitimately affirm with him, “and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
The only way that death can be a valued gain is if Christ is urgently everything.
And if Savior Christ is valued as urgently everything, as Paul says He is, then we can declare with him, My life is not ultimate. I don’t need to protect it as the most precious thing I have. I want to spend it for the most precious person I’ll ever know.
What mattered most to Paul was that he finished his life trusting Christ and carried out to the best of his abilities the ministry Christ had given him.
He felt a compelling, overwhelming resolve to complete the task of testifying to “the gospel of the grace of God” everywhere he could reach by foot or by boat.
There’s a task!
There’s a purpose, significance, an agenda, a calling!
There is a Christian lifestyle which matters to the Kingdom of God!
There is a Christian lifestyle worthy of being valued!
And this is the task entrusted to all of us—the Great Commission to (Matthew 28:16-20) to let everyone we meet know the good news of God’s amazing grace.
Matthew 28:16-20 English Standard Version
The Great Commission
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
“If Only I May Finish My Course …”
Acts 20:22-24 Amplified Bible
22 And now, compelled by the Spirit and obligated by my convictions, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly [and emphatically] affirms to me in city after city that imprisonment and suffering await me. 24 But I do not consider my life as something of value or dear to me, so that I may [with joy] finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify faithfully of the good news of God’s [precious, undeserved] grace [which makes us free of the guilt of sin and grants us eternal life].
From time to time, I will silently pray about each of these verses in Acts 20:22-24 and as I do quietly pray through them I will find myself constantly driven, then more urgently praying for the spread of the gospel through all our lives.
It then feels like every chapter and verse I can recall and prayer that flows from every verse and every chapter has got to help me to faithfully share the gospel.
That’s exactly what Paul is expressing here.
Think about it.
Paul knows he’s on this earth specifically for the spread of the gospel.
He urgently desires, and he says later, “I want to depart and be with Christ, but it’s better that I’m here.
Philippians 1:21-24 Amplified Bible
To Live Is Christ
21 For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity]. 22 If, however, it is to be life here and I am to go on living, this will mean useful and productive service for me; so I do not know which to choose [if I am given that choice]. 23 But I am hard-pressed between the two. I have the desire to leave [this world] and be with Christ, for that is far, far better; 24 yet to remain in my body is more necessary and essential for your sake.
In God’s wisdom. He’s left me here for the spread of the gospel. This is what I want to do. I want to testify of his grace.”
Acts 20:24 Reminds Us of the Bible’s Teaching
Let’s look at our lives in a similar way.
I’m not saying this is the only thing we do in the world.
This is obviously not what the Bible is teaching, but the Bible is teaching that this is primary.
We are here on this earth for the spread of the gospel of the grace of God.
We are here exclusively to help other people know how good, and great, and gracious, and glorious and invaluable God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are to all.
This is the opportunity God has given us every day and the place where he has put us in the world to make this good news to others.
A billion years from now what’s going to matter most is whether or not we have made this good news known to as many others as is possible in ones lifetime.
Acts 20:24 Leads Us to Have a Right Perspective
God, we ought to be urgently praying:
“Please give us a right perspective on our lives here.”
“God, Help us not to miss this glorious purpose you’ve entrusted to us.”
“We want to be a part of testifying to the gospel of your grace, telling other people about your love in Christ.”
“Lord, we don’t want to get to the end of our lives and look back and not have done this, not have given our whole lives to this, not having spent our lives doing this.”
In all the places I find myself, and I think about my life, my schedule this week.
I think about each person who’s praying this and their lives, their schedule, the different workplaces where they are, the different places where they live, the different people around them who probably don’t know Christ as their Savior.
“Lord, help us all. Help us all, we pray, to be faithful to testify to the gospel of your grace. And, Lord, help us not to neglect this most important ministry.”
This Reminds Us of Our Duty to Proclaim the Gospel
Obviously, we know we are not Paul in the same way that he was an apostle in the New Testament.
But we do know that, like the Apostle Paul, we have been urgently sent out by Christ with an urgent message, a gospel of God’s abundant and eternal life so to proclaim.
“Dear God, Help us urgently, we pray, to do it faithfully.”
“May I say in my own hearts my life I don’t count of any value.”
“Precious unto myself.”
“If only by your grace, I may finish this race and complete this ministry that I have been given from you, this opportunity that you have given to me, to urgently testify to, and witness exclusively unto, the gospel of your exceedingly amazing grace.”
“God, help me to be faithful to run that race today and to do this work today.”
“For the exclusive glory of your name and for the exclusive and urgent spread of your gospel, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.“
Living Out and Into A Lifestyle of Urgency
In these most contemporary of “lets hurry up and wait” how are you and I, like Paul, to live a life of urgency so that you and I might keep going until the end?
You and I must run our race with all our might, with the finish line in view.
Do not look for any opportunity to bow out or slow down before the final lap is over and urgently run with all our strength and running right through the tape, gripped by Christ’s love, energized by God’s Spirit, and guided by God’s Word.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Heavenly God, Author of my life, Perfecter of my faith, be with me as I run the race of becoming more like your son Jesus. I pray God that you remove my selfishness so I follow what’s best for You, not what’s best for me. When I am tired, please give me strength to finish the race with joy. Let my actions, my witness and my testimony show the meaning of the gospel, reveal the invaluable message of Christ my Savior.
24 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, [a]and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it happened, as they were [b]greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ”8 And they remembered His words.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
There is a new song of Triumph coming forth from the Heavens above.
Psalm 19 The Message
19 1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God makes a huge dome for the sun—a superdome! The morning sun’s a new husband leaping from his honeymoon bed, The daybreaking sun an athlete racing to the tape.
6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset, Melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith.
7-9 The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree.
10 God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.
11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure. Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; Then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray. Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-My-Altar.
Except, who is listening to these raucous words of song and triumph?
The heavens sing their words of the Glory and Triumph of God!
They emanate from the deepest reaches of heaven down to the earth below.
They begin echoing outward unto a sleeping humanity from a place of death.
Hushed and Quiet though they may be in this moment at that place of death, they are none the less quite real and quite audible to those who will come to it.
The song will come unexpectedly to those whose hearts and whose souls were prepared to be curious about it, receive it and see it and then utterly believe it!
In this place of uncleanness and death, there is a sure and certain witness here!
In this place of darkness and stench, there is a sure and certain testimony here!
Let us now lend our eyes and ears to what this witness and testimony might be.
“Welcome to this Happy morning!”
“Welcome all ye curious ones!”
“Welcome all ye despondent ones!”
“Welcome all ye silent and tearful and mournful ones!”
“Welcome all ye defeated, downtrodden and broken ones!”
“Welcome all ye faith-filled and faithful and hope-filled hopeful ones!”
“It is wonderful to gather in our beautiful Kingdom of God to celebrate the glory and triumph of God and the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Yes! there is, emanating from here a new, fresh song of witness and testimony.
Except, no one in particular is hearing, even listening to the words of welcome.
In fact, if we were to look at this place in that moment, we would see nobody.
Perhaps because the deafening silence of the glorious words “He is not here!” “praise God” are coming from an empty tomb which has been beckoning others where no others are paying attention, in close proximity or listening distance.
The expectancy of the glorious and triumphant message found from within the empty tomb is not one that is even the least bit anticipated, shared nor shouted.
The “Behold, Our God Wins!” witness and the living breathing testimony of the empty tomb sits all alone in a darkened silence in a place of the unclean dead.
Now, finally – a group of women come over the hill and down a path leading to the tomb of the one whom in life had been believed to be their “Messiah King.”
Three days ago, he had been brutally killed, humiliated as the ultimate criminal.
Because of Sabbath rules, he had been hastily buried and sealed behind a rock.
The women came bearing spices which they had prepared to finish preparing the not so pleasant smelling body of their dead best friend and their king.
But instead of finding a sealed tomb they came upon an open one.
Amazingly, unexpectedly, the stone had somehow been rolled off to the side.
Curious and probably just a wee bit afraid of what they would or would not find, they enter the tomb of their Rabbi and find it empty – there was just no corpse.
The women had come to anoint his body for the burial when they suddenly encountered a pair of angels asking this question – “so, why are you here?”
Followed up by the good news, “He is not here; he has risen!”
What a great and wholly unexpected sequence of “GOD” events for their souls.
Such wonderful good news.
The faith-filled faithful of God went to the tomb before all others were awake.
With their whole selves, in the darkness, their eyes beheld an open tomb and a rock much too heavy for them to remove by themselves rolled off to the side.
Instead of running away and screaming into the night to tell somebody else, the curiosity of the words to a new song reached their souls, so they all went inside.
They lingered inside and witnessed to an unanticipated, unexpected, emptiness inside the tomb of their fallen Rabbi they could not understand nor easily grasp.
As they were all greatly perplexed by this sequence of events, they clearly see the two men in shiny garments standing there, they clearly hear their words:
5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ”
“He is NOT here!”
“But, IS Risen!”
Jesus is alive!
Death is defeated!
Witness to, Testify that, The Stone Was Rolled Away
Luke 24:5-8 The Message
4-8 They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there. The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship. The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up. Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?” Then they remembered Jesus’ words.
The gospel of Luke opened with angels delivering messages to Zacharias, Mary, some shepherds quietly going about their everyday duties protecting the sheep.
And to the shepherds, it was a melodious message of great joy for all people.
The message delivered here was also a message of great joy to all people.
Death had been conquered.
Jesus had defeated the power of death.
No longer do we have to fear death.
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians. 15:55).
Implications: the Witness and Testimony of a Rock Rolled Away
When we consider Jesus as Messiah, most of us think immediately in personal terms: Jesus is my Messiah. He forgives my sins. He lives in me.
All of which, of course, is true.
But 1st-century Jewish expectations concerning the messiahship of Jesus were far broader than that.
If we had talked with a 1st-century Jew about his or her messianic expectations, we would have discovered hopes that were, in a sense far grander in their scope.
The Jews anticipated that their long-awaited Messiah would come to defeat the pagans who held sway over them, to decisively conquer their enemies, then to rebuild the temple, and to once again establish God’s just rule upon the earth.
Theirs was a nationalistic hope—a hope that the Messiah would come and vindicate the nation of Israel.
Jesus’ arrival, together with the miracles He performed, stories He told, and the prophecies He fulfilled, built to a great crescendo of high expectation among His followers, that Jesus was in fact sent of God as their true conquering king.
But just when they began to think that He really would be the one to politically redeem the people of Israel, at Calvary they saw all of their messianic hopes hanging up on a Roman gibbet, a gallows, an ugly instrument of pain and death.
And when Jesus cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), many of them must have quite literally agreed – any hope for their future of prosperity – was “finished.”
Now the question beckons us: How, then, did this group of believers, whose messianic hopes had been buried in a Palestinian tomb, not only continue to believe that Jesus was the Messiah but stand in the streets near where He had been executed and make an unashamed declaration of His messiahship?
The answer comes reverberating through the pages of the New Testament is found in the witness of an immovable rock having been summarily removed, somebody physically entering an empty tomb: the bodily resurrection of Jesus!
The angelic announcement to the women who had brought spices to embalm a corpse provoked a radical reassessment of what the believers had witnessed on the past Friday and a complete change in their view of their lives and futures.
When the Messiah reappeared among them, as alive as ever, these previously sad, sorrowful, defeated, brokenhearted disciples were radically transformed into bold, joyful witnesses with the loudest heartfelt songs of God’s triumph.
They now have a sure and certain witness, bearing testimony to the reality of Christ resurrected with a body that could be seen, handled, and touched, and yet also possessing capacities to do what His pre-resurrection body had not done.
His earthly work of salvation was finished;
His life and His reign were most certainly not!
By His Resurrection,
By God’s own Authority and only through God’s power,
His life and His reign were most certainly never going to end
Only in the disciples’ actions that night, seeing the rock moved away, their display of courage and not fear, to physically enter the tomb, enter, witness its emptiness, exit the tomb, hear the words of the two white clad angels, their recognition of His risen presence did Christ’s messiahship finally make sense.
Indeed, what the early Jewish believers discovered when they “found the stone rolled away from the tomb” (Luke 24:2) and saw “Jesus himself stood among them” entering through a locked and sealed door and into the Upper Room (v 36) was that an eternal hope, joy, and triumphant power ignited within their hearts.
And these remain available to all who put their trust in Jesus, the resurrected Messiah.
It is the triumph of the resurrection, and only the triumph of the resurrection, changes our witness of sadness, sorrow, and defeat into hope, joy, and power.
It is the resurrection, and only the resurrection, that declares that our Messiah will defeat His enemies, will restore His people, and will rule from sea to sea.
The Glory of God, The Triumph of God that morning, The resurrection of Jesus our Lord, Savior will change everything about how you go about your day today.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
We Are One with the Risen Christ
Lord of life, we lift our hearts to you. As the dawn breaks, may we carry the unity we share into every moment knowing that we are one with the risen Christ. Lord, we lift our eyes to you. As the sunrises, may this moment stay with us, reminding us to look for the beautiful colors of promise in your word. Lord, we lift our prayers to you. As the dew air falls, may we breathe this morning in and know that like the earth, you sustain us, keep us and work within us always. And so, we lift our voices to you. We celebrate the greatest day in history, when Jesus rose from death, defeated darkness and bathed the world in stunning resurrection light. May we ever live to praise you! Thank you Lord of my my life and my Salvation that, in you, I no longer need to fear death and its great unknown. Instead, I can face it with confidence, knowing that you have truly defeated it. And, that on the other side of death, I will be with you forever.
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not borne him any children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See here, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. I am asking you to go in to [the bed of] my maid [so that she may bear you a child]; perhaps I will [a]obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to Sarai and did as she said. 3 After Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian [maid], and gave her to her husband Abram to be his [secondary] wife. 4 He went in to [the bed of] Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress [regarding Sarai as insignificant because of her infertility]. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “May [the responsibility for] the wrong done to me [by the arrogant behavior of Hagar] be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, and when she realized that she had conceived, I was despised and looked on with disrespect. May the Lord judge [who has done right] between you and me.” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your maid is entirely in your hands and subject to your authority; do as you please with her.” So Sarai treated her harshly and humiliated her, and Hagar fled from her.
7 But [b]the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, on the road to [Egypt by way of] Shur. 8 And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where did you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your mistress, and submit [c]humbly to her authority.” 10 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” 11 The Angel of the Lord continued,
“Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall name him Ishmael (God hears), Because the Lord has heard and paid attention to your persecution (suffering). 12 “He (Ishmael) will be a wild donkey of a man; His hand will be against every man [continually fighting] And every man’s hand against him; And he will dwell in defiance of all his brothers.”
13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are [d]God Who Sees”; for she said, “Have I not even here [in the wilderness] remained alive after [e]seeing Him [who sees me with understanding and compassion]?” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi (Well of the Living One Who Sees Me); it is [f]between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son; and Abram named his son, to whom Hagar gave birth, [g]Ishmael (God hears). 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.
The Word of God for the Children of God
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Today’s story centers on the painful triangle of relationships between Abram, Sarai, and Sarai’s slave Hagar.
The ancient story contains moral weakness, self pity, jealousy, competition, contempt, scorn, rejection, revenge, meanness, and other emotional violence.
When the situation becomes unbearable, Sarai sends Hagar to Abram that Abram should have sexual relations with her and then bear the family a child.
A child is conceived and this is where things really break down.
Hagar looks down with jealousy and contempt upon Sarai in her infertility.
What had started with Sarai good intentions, her self sacrifice to give Abram a lasting hope for the continued future of his lineage, just turned seriously sour.
Sarai blamed Abram ….
Sarai wanted maximum accountability from Abram for Hagar’s behaviors.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “May [the responsibility for] the wrong done to me [by the arrogant behavior of Hagar] be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, and when she realized that she had conceived, I was despised and looked on with disrespect. May the Lord judge [who has done right] between you and me.”
Abram washes his hands of the matter ….
6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your maid is entirely in your hands and subject to your authority; do as you please with her.” So Sarai treated her harshly and she humiliated her, and Hagar fled from her.
But now she is in a desperate situation: pregnant and alone in the desert with barely enough provisions for survival.
It all began with a promise from God to secure Abram’s family future.
Time had lapsed and a hopeful, hope-filled promise turned into a situation of impatience and desperation, a lapse of personal faith in God to change lives.
We are greatly shocked by the sequence of events – great promise to an even greater descent into great jealously, rage, humiliation – threatening the family.
Putting the prospect of great hope in a blessed and abundant future in jeopardy.
But the one thing we notice which seems to be missing from this tragic story is anyone’s attempt to seek out God, to pray for change, courage, patience, mercy.
The one thing we do not see is any sincere desire for an “attitude adjustment.”
To caught up in their very raw emotions …. there is no offer of prayer to God.
This instantaneous moment when all Abram, Hagar and Sarai can see is each other trying to sort out an extraordinarily volatile situation by their own wills.
Was grace an unknown commodity?
Was the thought of compassion or mercy an unknown commodity lost to anger?
On the human side … very much so.
Too fast to respond with raw unfiltered emotions is all too soon our first hope, first response for lasting meaningful successful resolution to a hopeless cause.
But, what if we were to counsel these parties and try to insert a moment or two of “attitude adjustment” – set these people apart – insert another perspective?
Remind them in the midst of this, there’s grace and mercy in this raw story too.
Remind them and ourselves of the promise: the presence, sovereignty of God?
The name for God in this text draws from the Hebrew word ‘roi’, which has to do with “looking,” “appearance,” “seeing,” and “sight.”
Abram and Sarai seem to have lost their sight, vision, of God’s faithfulness.
Yet, alone and utterly forsaken in the desert—in her darkest moment—Hagar realizes that El Roi, “the God who sees,” sees her, has never lost sight of her.
Some choose to see God, envision God, prayed, inserted into their situations.
Look for hope in seemingly hopeless situations ….
Believe all things “impossible in our eyes” are always possible in God’s eyes.
Others?
Like Abram and Sarai (and perhaps us?) in that moment …. not so much ….
Don’t we all find ourselves at times in desperate situations?
Even if our circumstances are not desperate, they can certainly be difficult at times, and we can absolutely feel as if we will never have a hope for any future.
Life was harsh and difficult in those ancient of days and even today is difficult, and living in today as a Christian does not mean we are spared those difficulties.
As we will continue to confront and face illness, unemployment, heartache, broken relationships, separations and divorces and other moral challenges, we are always and forever will be confronted by this single fundamental question:
Is their an “Attitude Adjustment” anywhere in our futures?
Is there time for a “God sized” “Attitude Adjustment” anywhere in our plans?
Is God’s perspective going to be even minimally, voluntarily sought out?
Remember the faithful Promises of God for an abundant future of hope?
Not our own hope or lack of hope we exclusively reserved for ourselves?
Lose sight of God’s wisdom to know how we should respond to adversity?
Walk the narrow paths of God’s promises?
Walk the broad pathways which lead to our destruction? (Matthew 7:13-14)
Walk the path of faith or will we try to take matters into our own hands?
Abraham was a man who was just like us—he experienced both triumph and failure in his walk of faith.
God had personally promised Abram to make his family a nation and to bless the world through someone from that nation (Genesis 12:1-3).
Though childless, elderly Abraham and his wife, Sarah, would have their “very own son” who would be their heir (Genesis 15:4).
Abraham “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” an even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive Isaac. (Hebrews 11:8-11)
But after years and years of waiting, Abram and Sarai’s faith had wavered.
They were expecting God to act in good faith, but now had grown impatient.
Presumably, on a monthly basis, their hopes would rise and collapse—and with every passing month and year, Sarah grew older, sadder, and more impatient.
So it was that they reached an explosive crisis of faith.
They knew that God is real, that God is all-powerful, and that God had promised them a son, but they also knew they both got older and didn’t yet have a son.
Would they allow the questions of their hearts to overturn their faith or would they allow their vision of faith in God to overturn the questions of their hearts?
The verses above narrate the sorry conclusion: they took matters into their own hands, and the “best” solution that they adopted was a destructive self-effort.
In doubting and despair, Sarai ordered Abram to sleep with her maid servant, Hagar, in hopes of bringing about the promised child, and Abraham complied.
Perhaps this was acceptable practice in that time and culture, based on the idea that the children of such a union would belong to the owner of the slave-girl.
Abram undoubtedly informed Sarai of God’s promise to him, and Sarai perhaps thought that this was necessary in order to bring about God’s plan for them.
Ancient and Contemporary 20/20 hindsight being what it is, always will be;
It was the wrong decision.
Doubting that God would keep His promise, they instead sought to bring it about by their own (immoral) actions.
They made their decision based on expediency.
They didn’t ask, What is right?
They asked, What can we do for ourselves that will “work things out” for us?
They allowed pragmatism to be their guide over and against faith—and in doing so, they brought about more suffering, more pain, and more heartache for themselves and for Hagar.
They thought intervening by their own devices and their understanding of human nature would simplify things; instead, it complicated everything.
Making Attitude Adjustment, Leaving Matters in God’s Hands
Whenever we set faith aside and apply self-effort, we complicate our lives.
Whenever we seek to take things into our own hands and make our own plans instead of trusting God to keep His promises, we end up with chaos, heartache.
Faith and waiting go hand in hand.
Do not lose heart as you sit in life’s waiting rooms.
It is always right to wait upon God, and it is always right to wait for God.
God sees and knows everything and everyone.
We do not know everything and everyone.
But we can know God more than we do now – if we want to know Him more.
If we want to surrender the sum total of who we believe we are in our eyes.
What areas of life do we need to “make adjustments” to live this out today?
But even in times of hopelessness,
can we adjust our way of thinking an believing we are each Blessedly Assured:
El Roi, “the God who sees,” is 100% watching over us, 100% seeing us, 100% protecting, 100% providing for us all in our darkest hour of need (Psalm 23)?
It is too deep in our human nature, our bleakest moments we too feel all alone.
What is my natural response?
What is your natural response?
What is our natural response?
With a bit of tweaking (attitude adjustment) by the Lord our Savior,
By God’s matchless grace, faithful mercy. one and done forgiveness and love,
What might our “God-Adjusted” responses become?
Job 19:23-27Amplified Bible
Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”
23 “Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were recorded in a scroll! 24 “That with an iron stylus and [molten] lead They were engraved in the rock forever! 25 “For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, And at the last He will take His stand upon the earth. 26 “Even after my [mortal] skin is destroyed [by death], Yet from my [immortal] flesh I will see God, 27 Whom I, even I, will see for myself, And my eyes will see Him and not another! My heart faints within me.
El Roi, “the God who sees,” has never lost sight of us, promises to care for us.
Surely, the Goodness and Mercy of God do follow us all the days of our lives!
What greater, more blessed assurance can we “adjust” ourselves to believing?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 16 The Message
16 1-2 Keep me safe, O God, I’ve run for dear life to you. I say to God, “Be my Lord!” Without you, nothing makes sense.
3 And these God-chosen lives all around— what splendid friends they make!
4 Don’t just go shopping for a god. Gods are not for sale. I swear I’ll never treat god-names like brand-names.
5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only. And now I find I’m your choice! You set me up with a house and yard. And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart. Day and night I’ll stick with God; I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed. You canceled my ticket to hell— that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face. Ever since you took my hand, I’m on the right way.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
10 For the one who has once entered His rest has also rested from [the weariness and pain of] his [human] labors, just as God rested from [those labors uniquely] His own. 11 Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest [of God, to know, experience it for ourselves], so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience [as those who died in the wilderness]. 12 For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged [a]sword, penetrating as far as the division of the [b]soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.13 And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, and revealed to the eyes of Him with whom we have to give account.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
The 19th-century English preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said the Reformation began when Martin Luther found an old discarded Bible in his monastery.
As he postured himself, he began to read it, subtly God’s Word grew like a seed in his heart and his soul, and the result was a world-transforming movement.
But this gentle image of a seed is not the way the incomparable power of God’s Word is described in Hebrews 4:12, one of the key verses in the foundational idea of sola Scriptura, or “Scripture alone.”
Here God’s Word is described as a sharp, powerful, and precise blade, dividing the whole complete truth from all of the rebellious lies we harbor in our hearts.
Only Scripture has this power—not the traditions of any church, nor the acutely accurate insights of any leader.
As Luther said, “A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it.”
Indeed, in speaking about the Reformation that he initiated, Luther said, “I did nothing. The Word did everything.”
God’s Word, the Bible, has a precision and a power we will find nowhere else.
Will you let it be active in you?
Read it with an open heart?
Let it form the words that come from your mouth?
Let it shape the actions you take?
Adjusting (without our permission and utterly against our wills) our attitudes?
Eventually arriving at the God anointed place where only by knowing and living in and through God’s Word can we please him and serve him in our daily lives?
Is there enough moral courage to let the Word of God take command of our life?
What Does it take to be Courageous?
Isaiah 45:5-7Amplified Bible
5 “I am the Lord, and there is no one else; There is no God except Me. I will embrace and arm you, though you have not known Me, 6 That people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun [the world over] That there is no one except Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, 7 The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing peace and creating disaster; I am the Lord who does all these things.
Courage back-builds as we spend time soaked in the Truth of God’s Word.
Understanding who God is and who we are as His children allows us to realize our need for Him.
When we don’t know what’s going to happen, God is already there.
He is all-knowing, everywhere, all of the time.
There is no other God, …..
Isaiah repeated three times in today’s key verses.
Any time a word or phrase is repeated in Scripture, we can assume it’s of heightened importance.
There is no other God.
He alone is mighty to save.
He gives us what we need to live the lives He’s put us on earth to live, before we even know who He is.
We have a never-ending supply of courage available to us, through Christ Jesus.
His Holy Spirit lives in us, activating a supernatural bravery in each of us who dare to publicly proclaim Him our Lord and our Savior.
The One True God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
There is no other – period!
There can never be another – period!
There will never be another – period!
Our only living hope is in living for Him.
Our only living hope comes from living from Him,
…. as does the courage and bravery we need to wait patiently on Him.
How does the Word of God define Courage?
Joshua 1:5-9Amplified Bible
5 No man will [be able to] stand before you [to oppose you] as long as you live. Just as I was [present] with Moses, so will I be with you; I will not fail you or abandon you. 6 Be strong and confident and courageous, for you will give this people as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers (ancestors) to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do [everything] in accordance with the entire law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper and be successful wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be [a]successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified or dismayed (intimidated), for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Courage is born from confidence in our Creator.
Courage shows up 124 times in the Amplified translation of the Bible.
The dictionary definition of courage is “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.”
We aren’t promised an easy life following Christ Jesus, but we are guaranteed all we need is the courage drawn from living into, out from, the unchangeable moral, ethical truths in, and throughout the length and breadth of the Word of God to move forward boldly to accomplish what the Lord has set us here to do.
Halley’s Bible Handbook Notes explains “God’s superiority over idols is proven by His ability to foretell the future.
Says Isaiah, our God, whom we worship in our Hebrew nation, not only can do what human beings do, He can do some things that they cannot do: He can foretell things to come.”
Psalm 27:14 says,
“Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, with patiently for the LORD.”
Courage can be stillness, seeking the Lord and waiting patiently for His direction and wisdom.
Instead of rushing to the aid of others to download a situation in exchange for opinions, we wait on the Lord.
Instead of allowing our reactions to go unfiltered, we wait on the Lord’s direction.
It sometimes takes more courage to be still and silent.
Jesus often retreated to pray to the Lord, and returned strengthened.
Isaiah wrote:
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
God is doing all of the work!
He is with us, and He is God!
He strengthens us and helps us. He holds us up in His victorious right hand. Christ Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, victorious over death.
He willingly sacrificed His life for us on the cross, rose three days later, and then ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of His Father.
It’s His sacrifice and His victory we draw strength from!
Moses told God’s people, and Joshua, before they entered the promised land:
“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD you God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
God is doing all of the work!
He is with us, and He is God!
He strengthens us and helps us. He holds us up in His victorious right hand.
Christ Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, victorious over death.
He willingly sacrificed His life for us on the cross, rose three days later, and then ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of His Father.
It’s His sacrifice and His victory we draw strength from!
Moses told God’s people, and Joshua, before they entered the promised land:
“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD you God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
Quickest Way From Timidity to Courage to Attitude Adjustment
Hebrews 4:12Amplified Bible
12 For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged [a]sword, penetrating as far as the division of the [b]soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Have you ever found yourself in need of an attitude adjustment?
If so, be encouraged, as you’ve reached the most critical step in receiving one by acknowledging and recognizing, confessing and believing you are in need of it.
Realizing and recognizing there are wrong attitudes in your heart and mind is the breakthrough moment to a new attitude.
So many of us walk around, living day-to-day with no idea we might need some adjustments.
For sure, God is quick to recognize wrong attitudes in us, even if we think we’re covering them up with our words.
“These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).
Although wrong attitudes are often easy for us to see in others, for some reason, they are usually very difficult to see in ourselves.
Because it is sometimes almost impossible to see wrong attitudes within us, what is the quickest way to an attitude adjustment?
As Hebrews 4:12 explains, when we commit to reading God’s Word, it has the power to cut through our soul and spirit and to judge our heart’s attitudes.
Nothing else in the world has the ability to do so like the living Word of God.
God’s Word Actively Exposes and Corrects Wrong Attitudes
God’s Word is so vital to our daily lives and the quickest way to recognize and reveal hidden mindsets, especially helpful in addressing and adjusting wrong and sinful attitudes.
Because it is alive and active, it doesn’t ever grow outdated or irrelevant to correct current incorrect thoughts and ways of thinking.
Before wrong attitudes can enter our hearts, God’s Word has the power to stop them before we accept them into our thinking.
As2 Timothy 3:16 explains, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”
Three Ways God’s Word Adjusts Attitudes
As well, Proverbs 6:21,22 describes three ways it has the ability to help us live daily with the right attitude when we take the time to make it the top priority in our lives by reading, studying, and applying it to our lives.
”Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.”
1. God’s Word guides our attitudes.
His Living Word will not ask our permission to take the lead in our lives to help us guide our thoughts, Words, and actions each and every day to be aligned with His ways over worldly wisdom and philosophies.
As 2 Corinthians 10:5 explains, with God’s Living and Active Word,
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2. God’s Word protects our attitudes as we sleep.
Have you ever woken up in a bad mood, feeling disgruntled, upset, negative, and on edge, not knowing why?
Well, that isn’t just by accident.
The enemy of our souls works through the night to influence our thoughts and attitudes.
But as Christians, we don’t have to wake up with wrong thinking and mindsets because God says His words will protect and watch over us when we’re sleeping, guarding our hearts and minds against the onslaught of the enemy’s attacks.
His Word works as a shield against the enemy’s midnight assaults.
As Proverbs 30:5 assures, “Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.”
3. God’s Word speaks to our attitudes during the day.
When we’re awake, God will personally speak to us through His Word.
Because it is alive and active, when we take the time to read it, study it and too, know it, God will speak to us through it at times when we need to hear His voice.
Although some think and believe God’s Word only speaks to us in a general way, truth and Holy Spirit reality reveals He speaks through it to our hearts, to our souls and minds in very personal deep, life-changing, transformational ways.
Intersecting Faith and Life:
How is your attitude today?
How is your attitude right exactly in this exacting moment?
Did you wake up in a bad mood?
Wake up on the Wrong side of the bed or the leftover grounds Coffee Pot?
Too many twists and turns and not enough “straight roads ahead?”
Everybody and their grandmother honking their horns behind a stalled car?
Most of us often don’t recognize wrong attitudes within ourselves, or even worse, until somebody else notices us, repeatedly, annoyingly starts tapping on our shoulder, or nudges their elbows in our ribcage and we justify having them.
If you and I are not sure how you and I are doing today, Pray to God to expose any wrong attitudes in your heart and correct wrong thinking with His Word.
A Hand holding a wrench to adjust the brain in an opened human head. adjusting, fixing or changing, or creating a new ,better way of thinking.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Lord, today, in this moment I must confess that sometimes I choose to focus on the contraries and negatives, instead of focusing on what you’ve called me to focus on. Help me take the words of Philippians 4:8 to heart. Help me to find those Words of Scripture which in every moment of every day, will help me to narrow my focus onto whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable, so that my attitude may adjusted, fine tuned to reflect and honor you. As I practice shifting my perspective, keep my heart from growing cold or bitter. Teach me to remember that I am not a slave to my negative emotions. Because of your Holy Spirit, I can tell those emotions to be removed and turn my eyes to the things of you, instead. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
2 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Wisdom, Knowledge and Happiness
As a boy, Charles Dickens knew poverty from bitter experience.
He never forgot what he had learned.
Many of his novels deal with the huge gap between wealth and poverty.
Perhaps the most unforgettable is A Christmas Carol.
Its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a “grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner” who can squeeze blood out of a stone.
Bob Cratchit, his underpaid bookkeeper, shivers in his unheated corner of the office.
But Bob has learned to be content in his situation.
At the meager Cratchit-family Christmas dinner, Bob proposes a toast: “Merry Christmas to Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast!”
Mrs. Cratchit objects with the scornful words about Scrooge, but Bob, in all humility replies mildly, “My dear, it’s Christmas … and for the children!”
For all his poverty, Cratchit has wisdom and happiness.
But Scrooge, for all his wealth, has a bleak and miserable “business sense” life.
Here is something of the complexity and mystery about wealth and poverty.
Most people think and deeply believe that wealth brings happiness.
But that is not always so.
Happiness and contentment can exist in the midst of scarcity.
What’s more, the rich can be righteous, and they can be a blessing to the poor.
And just the opposite is equally true, the righteous poor can be a humble and humbled and humbling blessing to the rich – all one needs is a bit more wisdom.
Knowledge of God, Understanding of God through study of His Word, Faith in God, Wisdom from God and living by his love are the keys to finding happiness.
The “Keys” to “Finding” Happiness
Have you ever had someone try to sell you something? What’s the typical pattern a salesperson uses? First, they tell you all the amazing benefits of their service or product. “Our miracle product…
…will lower cholesterol…” …will help you burn fat and lose weight…” …will keep your information safe and secure…” …will give you better gas mileage…” …will make you happy and content…”
And then once you’re convinced they show you the price tag…
“For only four payments of $999.99…” “If you only eat Subway for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day…” “If you sign up for our monthly never-ending subscription-based service…” “Your monthly car payment can be as low as…” “If you sign your life and soul over we will…”
The typical pattern is—here’s the benefits and then here’s how you get them.
Today, I want to reverse that pattern.
First, I want to tell you how to get wisdom, then I want to tell you its benefits.
This is the pattern our passage takes and I like it because when I finally tell you the benefits of wisdom you’ll be able to weigh in your own mind if it’s worth it.
So first…
How to get Wisdom
Wisdom is “skill for living”, but living God’s way instead of our own way.
Once again the father-figure in Proverbs is teaching his son (who we can all put ourselves in the place of) how to get wisdom.
He tells him four ways to get wisdom (not four different ways).
You should do them all if you want to get wisdom.
Proverbs 2:1-5New International Version
Moral Benefits of Wisdom
2 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— 3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
The first way to get wisdom we find in verse one.
1. BELIEF IN GOD’S WORD (VERSE 1)
The father-figure says, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you…”
The author Solomon is talking about a father’s words found in the book of Proverbs, but he’s also talking about God’s whole Word, the Hebrew Scriptures.
The word for commands (mitzvah) can also mean the laws God gave his people Israel (Genesis 26:5; Exodus 26:28).
So it’s like Solomon or the father-figure is saying, “My son, if you want wisdom, believe in God’s Word.”
Each one of us comes to a turning point in our lives where we have to decide the final rule for our lives.
Is it going to be God’s unchanging perfect words and commands that although they are hard we know they are good, true, and best?
Or are we going to choose our own feelings and intuitions and desires and what the world says is best?
God’s Word offers us a firm-foundation for our lives, a foundation that won’t let us down.
But if we choose anything else we’re choosing something that might say one thing today and a different thing tomorrow.
Eggs are good for you. Eggs are bad for you.
Drink coffee. Coffee is bad for you.
Drink more milk. Drink soy milk. Drink almond milk.
Turn right when we should have turned left or stayed straight and narrow.
Stay with Gasoline Vehicles or “Go Green” with Hybrids and Electric cars.
This career path or that career path
How about with what we understand to be the “serious things” of our lives?
Changing and Shifting winds, sands, and crashing waves “defining” what our “correct” Morals and Ethics are “supposed to be” according to the wisest of the most educated, connected, influential, powerful, wealthy “people” on internet.
How many issues can you think or heard of where 10-20 years ago everyone said one things was seriously averse, now today people say just the opposite?
That is generational shifting sands, that’s stormy waters (James 1:5-8).
How about those who “stay the course on the narrow road” and stay steadfast:
“I only want to build my life on the rock of God’s Word that never changes!”
Resolving the Ceaseless Conflict between belief and unbelief in Christ the Lord.
Does knowledge and understanding the Word of God for His Children and the outpouring of the anointing oils its blessed wisdom still have any relevance?
First, we get wisdom by believing in God’s Word.
2. MEMORIZATION OF GOD’S WORD (VERSE 1)
We’re still in verse one. What does it mean to “store up” something?
Did any of you prepare for the Y2K bug?
So kids, a long time ago everyone was worried that when the clocks on our computers turned from December 31st 1999 to January 1st 2000 there was going to be a computer meltdown that would cause world food shortages and financial errors—basically, the apocalypse to end all apocalypses.
So prepare people stored up canned food, powdered food, dried food, and water and drinks that would not go bad.
Our single person household bought whole shelves of Kool-Aid powdered drink.
So by golly if the world failed I am still going to have a storehouse of Kool-Aid.
And when Y2K came and no one but Blockbuster video had problems I still had my Kool-Aid powdered drink, for a while it tasted good, then I got tired of it all.
Wisdom ended up throwing most of it out, to this day wisdom will not drink it.
I “stored up” for the long term to avert disaster.
But so much of what I had stored up for the long term spoiled, went to waste.
Likewise, God calls us to “store up” his Word within us to avert disaster in our lives.
How do we do that?
By memorizing themes and passages weaved in and throughout the Bible.
I want to encourage everyone to “store up” God’s Word in our own hearts because God uses it to strengthen us, give us hope, and teach us how to live.
Outline, underline, color mark foundational verses from the bible – what text speaks to your heart and to your soul and to your life at the moment you read it.
Put it on your mirror or fold it over in your Bible, somewhere you will see it and memorize it.
Read, study, pray and memorize other verses too, one’s that will remind you of the never ending relevance, significance of hope and God’s love and promises.
Second, we get wisdom by memorizing God’s Word.
3. ACCEPTANCE OF GOD’S WORD (VERSE 2)
Proverbs 2:2 says to turn our ears to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding.
Do you ever get in a disagreement and the person you are fighting with says, “You’re not listening to me!”
Sometimes that’s true.
One person is not paying attention because they’re too busy talking or thinking.
But usually that means “You’re not agreeing with me.”
Proverbs 2:2 is saying to get wisdom we need to hear it with our ears and accept it with our hearts and agree to it with our lives.
We need to open ourselves up and let God’s Words and ways sink deep into who we are.
In Hebrew culture the heart was the core of a person, their true identity.
We do not want God’s Word to go in one ear and out the other, but go in through the ear, through the mind, and down deep into our heart.
When I prepare devotionals that’s one of the things I think about.
I want God’s Word to affect me first but then I want it to affect you all too.
We don’t want to just sit here and hear without listing or agreeing.
The absolute significance of God’s Word and truth is too eternally important.
Third, we get wisdom by accepting God’s Word.
4. ASK GOD FOR IT THROUGH PRAYER (VERSES 3 AND 4)
This is perhaps the simplest way to get wisdom, ask God for it.
Verse 3tells us to “call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding” (NIV).
If you and I want wisdom, pray that God will give us some.
Sometimes prayer is the only step we take.
We ask God for wisdom but we don’t try to memorize and understand his Word.
Prayer goes hand and hand with God’s Word.
It’s like peanut butter and jelly or eggs and bacon or it is like fish and chips.
God’s Word and prayer together make a delicious wisdom platter.
If you and I want wisdom, we have to ask God for it. (1 Kings 3:5-15)
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (NIV)
One of the points Spurgeon makes is that wisdom isn’t just knowing how to “be wise ‘enough’ to make the ‘right decisions’,” but wisdom is a character quality molded, shaped, then reshaped by “interpreting” our experiences.
When you and I pray for wisdom it’s not only that we would make the right choice (it is that) but it’s also praying that God would make us into the kind of people who would make the right choice.
It’s praying God would mold, shape, develop and transform our moral and our ethical character so we choose to do we do it with integrity and discernment.
So how do we get wisdom?
First, by believing in God’s Word.
Second, by studying and memorizing God’s Word.
Third, by accepting God’s Word,
and fourth, by asking God for wisdom through prayer.
Now I’ve told you how to get wisdom, but what are the benefits of wisdom?
What makes it worth doing all those things?
What makes it worth signing up for and sitting inside a classroom for?
The Benefits and Value of Wisdom
The point of these things is not just to do them for the sake of doing them, but for the sake of something greater.
Did you ever watch those old Mastercard commercials?
A man and woman walk into a gas station.
As the gas station attendant rings up their purchases he says:
chips: $3 frozen beverage: $2 gas: $31 starting a new life together: priceless…
But then the woman shakes her head “no” so the gas station attendant tries again.
rekindling a fire that never went out? (she shakes her head again) satisfying a much-needed slushy fix?… Priceless.
So what’s the priceless things we are seeking by pursuing wisdom?
God himself.
Proverbs 2:5-6New International Version
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Verse 5 says if we seek wisdom, “then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”
The fear of the Lord is believing that God’s “threats are real and his promises are true”.
Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the grave shows us that God’s threats are real—that if we don’t deal with our sins he will put us to death—but his promises are real—that if we put our faith and trust in him he will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It’s as we come to understand who God is through Christ Jesus that we begin to actually know God.
Do you want to know about God or know God?
You might know a lot of things about your favorite celebrity or professional sports athlete, you might know what movies they’re in or their batting average, but that doesn’t mean you know them.
There’s a simple test for if you know them.
Do they know you?
If I were to walk up to Tom Cruise or Tom Brady and if I were to name drop your name what would they say?
“Oh yeah. I know him!” Or more likely … “I am sorry, Who?”
Come with me one step further.
If I were to walk up to God and to name drop your name what would he say?
“Oh yes, I know him/her. I love him/her very much … Or “I am sorry, Who?”
We seek wisdom because we’re seeking God.
We want to know him.
But the next verse tells us this is only possible by God’s grace.
Proverbs 2:6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (NIV)
We can only know God if we want to acknowledge God, to know us.
We can only acquire wisdom if God wants to give it to us.
It’s both an “as we seek” and an “as he gives” kind of exchange.
We seek to obey and know God and God gives us a relationship with him.
Or put it in the reverse.
God gives us a relationship with him and so we obey and know God.
What’s the priceless benefit of wisdom? Knowing God himself.
The benefits just keep growing out of this.
If you know God you are part of the family and God protects you.
Proverbs 2:7-8New International Version
7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
Benefit and Value of God’s Protection (Verses 7-19)
Proverbs 2:7-19 New International Version
7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. 10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. 11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.
12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, 13 who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, 14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, 15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, 17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.[a] 18 Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. 19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.
God’s wisdom grants us protection from potential disasters.
I don’t mean natural disasters but rather God’s wisdom protect us from ourselves, from bad things we might do.
God’s wisdom protects us from:
Committing injustice (v9-11) – Sinning against others by treating them unfairly. If God gives us his wisdom we will want to treat others with fairness and equity even at cost to ourselves.
Wicked men (or women) who love sin (v12-15) – “those who take advantage of others for their own gain.” As God grants us wisdom and character like His we won’t be drawn to them but will learn how to recognize them for who they are.
Unfaithful women (or men) who break their marriage promise (v16-19) – Verse 16 says that “Wisdom will save you […] from the wayward woman with her seductive words.” (NIV) Sometimes beauty might cause a break in marriage vows but often it is words, words of affirmation and acceptance. It’s a listening ear. Emotional adultery comes before acting it out. God gives us wisdom so we know how to stay away from relationships that lead to this kind of disaster.
But there’s one more benefit to wisdom.
A FOREVER HOME WITH GOD (VERSES 20 to 22)
Proverbs 2:20-22New International Version
20 Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
Proverbs 2:21 says, “For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;” (NIV)
It’s an interesting way to close this passage in Proverbs because it’s a reminder to the Israelite people that they get to stay in the promised land if they obey God and keep his commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).
But where’s the promise for us?
The benefits of wisdom are knowing God, protection from mistakes in this life, and an eternal home with God in the life to come.
Hebrews says that the heroes of our faith “were longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).
If that’s you, if you are the one longing for a better home, then pursue wisdom.
Seek God by believing his Word, memorizing it, accepting it, and prayer.
John 14:5-14New International Version
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[a] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Wisdom is a gift, but it’s a gift we help work for.
Knowing God is a gift!
Spending eternity with him is a gift!
His protection is a gift!
But they are gifts we have to choose to seek by choosing to seek His wisdom.
John 14:1-3New International Version
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Let our hearts not be troubled.
Believe in God!
Believe in His Resurrected Son, Jesus!
Believe in God’s Holy Spirit!
Let our Hearts Seek His wisdom and we WILL find our forever home with God!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Holy God, Word made flesh, let us come to this word open to being surprised. Silence our agendas; banish our assumptions; cast out our casual detachment. Confound our expectations; clear the cobwebs from our ears; penetrate the corners of our hearts with this word. We know that you can, we pray that you will, and we wait with great anticipation. Amen.
Empty us, Great God, of all that prevents us from hearing what you want us to hear. Empty us of our preconceptions, our preoccupations and our prejudices. Empty us that we might be filled with your Spirit and your Word. Empty us that we might be filled for ministry and mission. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
Calm us now, O Lord, into a quietness that heals and listens. Open wounded hearts to the balm of your Word. Speak to us in clear tones so that we might feel our spirits leap for joy and skip with a living hope as your resurrection witnesses. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
2 1-5 Good friend, take to heart what I’m telling you; collect my counsels and guard them with your life. Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom; set your heart on a life of Understanding. That’s right—if you make Insight your priority, and won’t take no for an answer, Searching for it like a prospector panning for gold, like an adventurer on a treasure hunt, Believe me, before you know it Fear-of-God will be yours; you’ll have come upon the Knowledge of God.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
On a brochure I saw in the Narthex of a new church I read these words in red:
“If I am really a Christian … then why isn’t Jesus Christ more real in my life?”
It made for rather interesting reading considering the church was a new plant and had only opened its doors to the community a scant ninety days before.
It was actually quite thought provoking – even more so than I first expected.
If you have ever wondered about that, “why isn’t Jesus more real to me,” you should know that you are not the first and you will not be the last one either.
Even writers of the Bible, especially the psalmists, wrestled with this question.
Even the Book of Proverbs offers its readers many intriguing statements which even today have turned into contemporary Parent to Children admonishments.
1. Many hands make light work
When many people work together to accomplish a difficult task, it doesn’t seem so difficult. That is the general meaning of this proverb. In other words, if many people work together, the work is easier and is usually completed more quickly.
2. Honesty is the best policy
It is best to always be honest and tell the truth, even when telling the truth hurts you. By doing so, humbling self will win the trust and respect of others.
3. Don’t judge abook by its cover
Don’t be too quick to form an opinion or make a judgment about someone or something based on its outward appearance – you could embarrass yourself.
4. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way
If your desire to accomplish something is strong enough, you will find a way to do it.
5. Actions speak louder than words
A person’s true character can be seen by what he does, not by what he says. A person can talk as much as he wants, but he may not actually do anything to back up his words. All the bluster and bravado of leadership loses its luster if the one doing all of the bragging inevitably does nothing, retreats from their words.
6. Always put your best foot forward
The meaning of this proverb is that you should always try your best to make a good first impression on others; reveal and show your best traits and qualities.
7. Do not be wise in thine own eyes
The meaning of this proverb is very clear: the consistent witness of Scripture is that Jehovah God and God alone is the One, only true source of wisdom and life.
If we are faith-filled and faithful in following Him, He will “abundantly” bless us; if not, in our own self righteousness, we risk significant peril and judgment.
One of the most dangerous traps we can fall prey to is justifying ourselves based on our own self reported, ideals, definitions and understandings of judgment.
When we assume that we are more in the right than not and others are more in the wrong than not, including “God is more wrong,” it is a recipe for disaster.
When we automatically assume we are smarter than others, then find out we are not … much to our detriment and personal embarrassment – “eating crow.”
When we try to assume that our understanding of smart is the same as God’s and we come up square against the mirrors of our wildest display of ignorance.
The Book of Proverbs puts our perspective of our lives directly in God’s face, the end result is we invariably learn we are neither smarter nor wiser than anyone.
God desires we understand balancing our life, morals and ethics with His Ways.
We desire and boast of our own abilities, about how we ourselves balance our own lives with our own understanding of own morals and ethics absent God.
There are many reasons, of course, why people might sometimes feel that way.
I will let each reader draw from their own experiences for their own rationales.
Wisdom of Self Reliance versus Wisdom of Reliance on God and God alone?
One place to start in reflecting on this is to recognize that God highly desires and also highly values an ever growing spiritual depth, maturity in his people.
Not necessarily intellectual depth or all kinds of biblical knowledge —though these things are good—but connectional depth in relationship with God, as opposed to the shallowness, superficiality of human to human relationships.
“That we may know HIM more, that we may know OUR selves less.” (John 3:30)
Proverbs 2:1-5 talks about accepting and storing up and turning our ear and soul and applying our heart and calling out for insight and crying aloud for greater and greater understanding of God and looking and searching for God.
It uses action words like these; applying, calling, crying, looking, searching for, to describe what we should be actively engaging in our daily pursuit of wisdom.
Bottom line?
If we want to have it,
If we have to want it,
We have to be willing to engage in a process which involves actual action.
We have to be fully committed to the pursuit, wantonly going after wisdom.
It will take an enormous amount of work, and it will take your whole heart.
Most things, which nowadays, humanity is quite more reluctant to engage in.
But, without that, God, Jesus and Holy Spirit—and wisdom—won’t seem real.
With my eyes being widened from their slumber ….
With a constant sensation of a “tap tap tap” upon my shoulders ….
With someone or something putting their “elbows” into my side ….
With my interest being peaked ….
With my soul being quickened by something or someone ….
It makes me want to dig a little deeper, again.
It makes me want to listen more to what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to me.
“Where is Jehovah God nudging me towards … what future with what hope?”
What if we really listen and hear what God really says in Proverbs?
Proverbs 2:1-5 Amplified Bible
The Pursuit of Wisdom Brings Security
2 My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, 2 So that your ear is attentive to [skillful and godly] wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding [seeking it conscientiously and striving for it eagerly]; 3 Yes, if you cry out for insight, And lift up your voice for understanding; 4 If you seek skillful and godly wisdom as you would silver And search for her as you would hidden treasures; 5 Then you will understand the [reverent] fear of the Lord [that is, worshiping Him and regarding Him as truly awesome] And discover the knowledge of God.
Have you ever thought about the difference between hearing and listening?
Did you know there was a real difference?
To “listen” means that we are paying attention to the sound, thoughtful and considerate attention to the sound.
To “hear” refers to perceiving something with our ears, kind of like seeing with our ears.
In the long and winding concourse of living and loving life today there are quite literally hundreds of diverse noises a day which are competing for our attention.
There are so many different noises and sounds that most of us do not pay very much attention to most of them – we shut them out as “background noises.”
The television can be on, the phone ringing, video games blasting, radios in our ears and everyone in my house talking at once and I can still tune most of it out.
It is not I am not hearing all the cacophony of noise, but I am not listening to it.
But all of that discipline of “tuning out,” and “not listening” carries a big risk.
What else am I “tuning out,” or “not hearing” or “listening to?”
Psalm 19:1-3 Amplified Bible
The Works and the Word of God.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
19 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And the expanse [of heaven] is declaring the work of His hands. 2 Day after day pours forth speech, And night after night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there [spoken] words [from the stars]; Their voice is not heard.
My Mom used to tell me when everything seemed to be going backwards;
“Look unto the sun by day and the stars by night and know it will be alright!”
God gave us eyes to see the sunshine, beauty and grandeur of nature around us.
God gave us a curiosity that when we see the stars at night – we have to know just how many of them we can count – so we lie back on the ground and count.
God also gave each and everyone of us two ears to hear the beauty of sound and one mouth, He gave us the ability to listen so that the sound can be understood.
When both hearing and listening and minimal speaking working together in unison, we have a quiet, quieted, understanding of the purpose of the sound.
You can hear music and feel music but not actually listen to the words.
When both music and lyrics are understood, the beauty and meaning of the whole song is revealed to you.
You can hear the words of a person speaking to you, but if you truly listen to the person, you will better understand their heart, the meaning behind their words.
The same principle holds true with God’s Word.
We can hear the Word preached, taught and read.
We can read the Word ourselves and hear our own voices speak it.
But, when we really listen to God’s Word, then our understanding begins to change.
So many times, people leave church after having heard a sermon and not ever remember anything about it.
When we look up to the heavens, we may only hear the sound of the winds rushing through the trees, crickets or the frogs in the pond, birds in the air.
We cannot see the winds nor the crickets nor the frogs nor the birds in the air.
We know they are there because we can hear the sounds of the winds through the leaves, from rubbing of the crickets legs, frogs croaking and birds singing
When we are listening and giving consideration to what we are hearing, we will leave thinking about what we just heard.
The next step is to start talking back to God, asking Him to open up more of our hearts and souls to understanding what is being communicated from all sides.
Take time today, think about how much you hear versus how much you listen.
How much are you missing of what God has for you?
Is He talking to you but you are not paying attention?
Take your Bible, dust off its cover and read today’s text from Proverbs 2:1-5.
Instead of just reading the words and hearing them in our heads, pray the Holy Spirit will give us the power to listen, to understand the message God has for us.
When the Word of God truly becomes His voice in our life, then our hearing and our listening will open up our souls unto a new world of understanding for us.
Our lives are guaranteed to change.
But it all begins with God’s wisdom which comes from understanding the difference between hearing and listening—so, start listening to God today.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Jehovah God,Lord of wisdom, Author of my life, there are so any truths to sort out, so many ways of understanding what my eyes behold and what my ears hear, I cannot listen to it all for it is just too overwhelming. Being overwhelmed, I am sometimes finding understanding the wisdom of Bible to be difficult. I know you want me to apply your word to my life. I thank you for giving me your word so I can grow in my relationship with you. Help me to grasp what you want me to know as I read your revealed word. Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. Be my teacher, so I can live and obey your word. Thank you for your wise advice. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
33-40 God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course. Give me insight so I can do what you tell me— my whole life one long, obedient response. Guide me down the road of your commandments; I love traveling this freeway! Give me an appetite for your words of wisdom, and not for piling up loot. Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the pilgrim way. Affirm your promises to me— promises made to all who fear you. Deflect the harsh words of my critics— but what you say is always so good. See how hungry I am for your counsel; preserve my life through your righteous ways!
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
At whatever level of education, there is something truly special about learning from a master teacher: a confident, renowned expert in his or her chosen field.
Many graduate students select their universities based on the opportunity to work with esteemed professors in their desired specialties.
But have you considered that as Christians, at whatever measure of faith we have the singularly unique opportunity and the privilege to learn “life” daily from our Master Teacher, as His Spirit works in our hearts through His word?
His experience of navigating life in all of its facets, is infinitely extensive.
His preparation for navigating life, more thorough than anyone can imagine.
His instruction is comprehensive, and He promises to do the teaching Himself, with His Holy Scriptures as our “textbook” guide.
And even better, He does so as a master instructor who is also a Father, taking a deeply personal, deeply intimate interest in the welfare of each of His children.
God’s instruction for life is vital.
It is vital for beginners in the Christian life.
We begin our journey of Christianity as infants on our knees, unaware of God’s ways, truths and dealings and consequently unaware of truths about ourselves.
But when we are born into life with God, Jesus and Holy Spirit, we become new creations in Him, we cease to take pride in our own opinions, live for ourselves, or to regard Christ from any worldly point of view (2 Corinthians 5:12-17).
Our anointing into His life, the outpouring of His oils upon who we are and who we will become begins, at first drop by ever precious drop, then like a wide river.
As we raise in our faith experiences, understanding truth, from knees to feet, we become ready to hear what God says instead of telling Him what we think.
By grace, we learn to see, learn to live life clearly, through God’s perspective.
God’s instruction is also vital for those who are confused or uncertain.
The Bible tells us we are wayward and foolish, ignorant and arrogant people.
When the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, he sternly warned that among his congregations there would always be those “led astray by various passions, always learning and never quite able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:6-7).
Only through the continuous ministry the Holy Spirit is it possible for us to spiritually mature instead of drifting like children from one idea to another.
His instruction is also vital for the careless and the forgetful—and however long we may have been Christians, we get careless and are easily forgetful!
That’s why the Word of God for His Children tells, teaches us, again and again to remember. Paul urged Timothy to “remember Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:8).
The man, Rabbi Jesus urged His disciples to “remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32), who looked and turned back.
The Teacher, in the wise and ancient words from Ecclesiastes calls out to us, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Indeed, the ministry of teaching and preaching is essentially a ministry of reminders—and so are our own personal daily personal devotional times.
Charles Spurgeon once said,
“He who has made you his child, He will put you to school, and He will teach you until you shall know the Lord Jesus alone as the way, the truth, the life.”
When we ourselves, enter into our own private “prayer closets,” alone with our God, as we attentively sit at our desks, in “His Classroom,” as we read with Him or listen with Him, to Bible teaching, we are all participating in a divine, sacred time of invaluable dialogue and begin to experience deep-seated heart change.
Somewhere in our core, we know holy instruction is taking place—we are being instructed by the very one who inspired the book whose pages we are studying.
Reality; Living Life on our own terms, we are so helpless apart from the Lord.
Like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 Vs 33-40, it is so very important that we all learn to ask and depend upon God to teach us His decrees and then to follow them.
How can we come to an understanding of “living life” absent of God’s Word?
Again, we must ceaselessly ask Him to help us to understand and obey His law.
Sadly, I think many Christians are weak because they depend upon themselves; they believe they have the onerous ability in themselves to be obedient to God.
Reality is, we are each creatures of this world, creatures of sin, and as such are greatly influenced by those all around us to redefine what it means to do good.
However, only our master Teacher God, through the life, death, resurrection of His Son can show us the truth of His Word and then give us the ability to obey it.
Continually ask Him, plead with Him, to help you humble yourself before Him.
As a Christian, He is your only Lord and Savior, He alone can turn your eyes away from worthless things and preserve your life according to His Word.
What then are the results for the Christian who turns to God for help?
He gives us Kairos, the grace, to be obedient to Him and takes away disgrace.
Not the disgrace of the world, but disgrace before God which comes from deep within the deepest recesses of our disobedient hearts and unrepentant lives.
Then, like the Psalmist we will long for God’s precepts to turn the upside down to the right side up, we will find our lives preserved inside His righteousness.
Do you and I understand that?
Do you and I seriously desire or want to understand that?
Do we severely desire or want to come to even a minimal understanding?
On the surface …. probably …. even most definitely, more decisively NOT!
Deeper down though, where only God can reach us through His Word (Hebrews 4:12), though if we were to actually look eye to eye, face to face, at the deepest desires, needs, desperate wants of our souls, I am of the opinion, our soul wins!
I don’t always try to understand the Words of my Teacher as much as I ought to.
I wonder when I fail in learning His lessons, Why does He even bother with us?
But, praise God, He does –
John 3:16-18 The Message
16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
He grants us the true joy in life which can only come from an obedient heart.
Pray, like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 Vs 33-40, God will give you understanding, teachable hearts, then direct you on the path of obedience to Him, to His laws.
This is what God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enables all His servants to do.
What an opportunity, and privilege, it is to open His word, anticipate the work of His Spirit, and pray, “Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes”! (verse 33)
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Almighty God, in you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of your Word; and give us grace that we may clearly understand and freely choose the way of your wisdom. God, source of all light and truth, by your Living and Active Word you give light and life to the soul. Pour out upon us the spirit of wisdom and understanding that our hearts and minds may be opened.Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept your Word. Silence in us any voices but your own, so we may hear your Word and also do it; through Christ our Lord. Amen
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, And I will [steadfastly] observe it to the end. 34 Give me understanding [a teachable heart and the ability to learn], that I may keep Your law; And observe it with all my heart. 35 Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. 36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies And not to dishonest gain and envy. 37 Turn my eyes away from vanity [all those worldly, meaningless things that distract—let Your priorities be mine], And restore me [with renewed energy] in Your ways. 38 Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant, As that which produces [awe-inspired] reverence for You. 39 Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your ordinances are good. 40 I long for Your precepts; Renew me through Your righteousness.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
The Word of God gives us many insights into the real value of things.
In our reading for today, the psalm writer prays,
“God, Teach Me, Give Me Understanding, Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes [soul] away from worthless things.”
All our earthly possessions will prove 100% worthless on the judgment day.
In contrast, the Word of God gives us the good news, the knowledge of complete forgiveness of sin, of God’s unconditional love and of guaranteed eternal life.
What can be more valuable than that?
Perhaps, a better understanding of God’s perspective through a writers “eyes?”
We need to be continually reminded to envision value from God’s perspective, because worshiping wealth remains a powerful attraction.
Jesus himself warned us, “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24), instead, trying to teach us His value to “store up treasures in heaven.”
Using a much familiar and much beloved verse from Psalm 23 ….
Let us try to reach into God’s perspective through David’s eyes and experiences.
Let’s start by inviting God’s Holy Spirit into our minds to recall this promise:
“God Anoints Our Heads With Oil and Our Cups Runneth Over.” Psalm 23:5b
What incredibly deep imagery we are presented with by these poetic words.
But, what of our own understanding the words, their historical context, their connections from their writing, some three thousand years ago unto now?
Breaking down the ancient experiences, those ancient thoughts that ……
We are someway connected to its human writer, David, King and Shepherd?
Examining the Words and the Imagery, what David had envisioned of God?
“POURING OUT” OURSELVES INTO PSALM 23’S IMAGERY
God ceaselessly, continually pours the Oils of His Blessings upon our heads.
So much so that our Cups (How big and how deep are they anyway?) overflow.
They “overflow” and they “saturate” every part of our inner and outer bodies.
No parts of our hearts or our souls or our minds are left untouched by the oils.
No parts of our hearts or our souls or our minds are left uninfluenced by them.
Allowed to touch us, with our knowledge or without our knowledge, with our permission or without our permission, in clothes, in nakedness, we are touched.
Without exception, this anointing of “oils” reaches into every part of our lives.
This anointing of “oils” is the outpouring of the precepts of the Word of God by God’s Holy Spirit upon the welcoming, unwelcoming, repentant, unrepentant.
In more ways we can count or even allow ourselves to imagine, the “oils” are touching each and everyone of us right in this exact, exacting “God” moment.
A drop here, a drop there …. like an invisible eye dropper held over our heads being slowly and steadily squeezed out or just like standing in a rain storm.
We feel the “drops” or we don’t feel the “drops” – but they are definitely there.
They are absolutely unavoidable, no one can dodge them ….
We “feel” them and we can try to learn and understand them and their purpose.
We are touched by the “oils,” our souls will be unavoidably influenced by them.
Slowly, imperceptibly, subtly, drop by drop, until they become, by the hand of God, a steady flow, then an outpouring and then a flood, then an immersion.
In anticipation of joy or in anger, head scratching certainty or uncertainty, we start to acknowledge the flow, the goodness of it or the convictions behind it.
Our awareness of the “oils of anointing” presence, is kindled like a newly struck match with its inevitable flames, its light and its heat starting to become visible.
God’s “oils of anointing ,” outpouring and spreading, covering, saturating, immersing, overflowing : our knowledge, understanding of the Word of God!
Obediently, we stand in our places, feeling the outpouring, living inside its flow.
Life begins to subtly, perhaps suddenly begins to change ….
Thoughts and perceptions of events subtly, perhaps suddenly, begins to change.
We are either sure we like it or we will surely fight mightily against liking it.
With mounting Certainty or growing and maturing Uncertainty, we stand there.
We may try to run and hide to the furthest remotest places on earth from it.
But we can’t escape its influence upon everything our “life has been all about.”
We get tired so we stop running – and in whatever emotion we are then feeling;
How can we not eventually, subtly, suddenly, inevitably, not respond by praying
“Okay, something or someone has my undivided attention ….”
“No More Running ….”
“No More Hiding ….”
“One way or the Other …. “
“As the Deer Pants for the Waters ….”
“as My [a]soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for ???, as my flesh longs and [my soul] now sighs for [answers] In a dry, weary land where there is no water ….”
Psalm 119:33-40The Message
33-40 God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course. Give me insight so I can do what you tell me— my whole life one long, obedient response. Guide me down the road of your commandments; I love traveling this freeway! Give me an appetite for your words of wisdom, and not for piling up loot. Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the pilgrim way. Affirm your promises to me— promises made to all who fear you. Deflect the harsh words of my critics— but what you say is always so good. See how hungry I am for your counsel; preserve my life through your righteous ways!
And now, perhaps begins the gradual ascent, by our humbled descent, into what David the Psalmist wrote, an appreciation of, greatest desire for understanding;
Psalm 23Amplified Bible
The Lord, the Psalmist’s Shepherd.
A Psalm of David.
23 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still and quiet waters. 3 He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the [sunless] [a]valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed and refreshed my head with [b]oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.
A Well Considered Word About the Value of God’s Perspective
Isaiah 55:8-11Amplified Bible
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts higher than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, Making it bear and sprout, And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 So will My word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me void (useless, without result), Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
When we do not think like God, we are not in His image.
We cannot say as Jesus did,
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
God, in His wisdom, has willed we grow in His image through exercising faith in what He says, buttressed by what He reveals of Himself through His creation.
The fundamental difference between the person of faith and the unbeliever is revealed by the way they judge things.
The unbeliever, of the world, judges things by worldly standards, by his senses, and by looking at his watch, his smartphone screen and by his calendar time.
The person learning to think like God brings God into everything, viewing things from His perspective, by His values.
He ascertains how the activity, event, or thing looks in terms of eternity.
He seriously meditates on God’s sovereignty over all things.
At times, doing this puts the screws to his trust because the Bible says God’s judgments are “unsearchable . . . and his ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33).
Faith holds a person steady.
Because we often do not think like Him, and because we do not have His perfect perspective, we often do not know nor fully understand, what it is God doing.
Only in hindsight do we understand what is occurring in our personal life, to the church, or in the world in the outworking of prophecy.
So we must trust Him, and in the meantime weigh His perspective against what we “perceive” is happening and what we understand is its “possible” outcome.
O soul are you weary and troubled No light in the darkness you see There’s light for a look at the Savior And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
His word shall not fail you he promised Believe him and all will be well Then go to a world that is dying His perfect salvation to tell
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
O soul are you weary and troubled No light in the darkness you see There’s light for a look at the Savior And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and graceHelen Howarth Lemmel (1922)
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Holy and gracious God, you are the greatest and wisest of all. You are full of wonders and ways that no mere human can ever fully comprehend. Lord, I seek to understand you and your ways better so that I can more rightly live my life according to your commandments. I pray for your divine illumination in my heart and mind. Help me see what you intend for me to see. Help me understand what you intend for me to understand. Open my eyes and my ears to see you and hear your whispers. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10New International Version
7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
In this psalm, we see a beautiful portrait of God as our good and faithful Shepherd Who leads us by still waters and guides us into the way of peace.
He is, indeed, worthy of our worship and praise.
He is the One Who upholds and protects, Who blesses and comforts, Who bountifully provides good things for us in the presence of our enemies.
Enemies, up to and including ourselves as our own worst enemies.
And He is the One Who intercedes for us in heavenly places.
The picture is painted in this well-loved psalm of David, is that of our faithful God, our merciful and gracious Saviour, our good and caring Shepherd Who keeps us, protects us, provides for us through all the changing scenes of life.
Our faithful, and merciful God first identified Himself as Jehovah-Jireh, our gracious Provider, to Abraham when he was halted, by the Lord, from offering up his son, first born son, Isaac, as his sacrifice of abiding love and obedience.
And throughout both testaments, we discover God as the One Who provides rain and sunshine for the earth, nourishment for the flowers and ravens, a father for the fatherless, a righteous judgment for the widow, a friend for the friendless.
Our faithful God is the one who fed the hungry multitude, provides comfort for the broken-hearted, gives succor to the weak, strength to the weary, hope to the afflicted, salvation to all who trust in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, for while we were yet His enemies, grievous unrelenting sinners, God in His grace provided a Kinsman-Redeemer to save His people from their sins.
Our good and loving God supplies all our needs, according to His riches in glory, through Christ Jesus our Savior.
And here in this well-loved and oft-repeated psalm of David, we discover:
“The Lord has prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies. He has anointed our head with oil, our cup of overflows with His goodness and love.”
Though we may be afflicted on all sides… pressured, perplexed, and persecuted for righteousness sake, we are not forgotten nor abandoned by our Heavenly Lord… for Jesus is with us always and forever, even to the end of the age.
He has prepared a table before us, in the presence of those that hate and despise us, He has covered it with all we need and every spiritual blessing – which He Himself had purchased for us through His own life’s blood, on Calvary’s Cross.
Though we live in the combat-zone of this fallen world system, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… and the peace of God which guards our hearts in the midst of an abundantly, severely crooked and perverse generation.
The anointing oil that is being continuously poured over our heads is the soothing ointment of His incomparable never-ending love.
It is a precious promise to all His children, for we have been made kings and priests and prophets of the living God – and have an eternal guarantee that His Word is faithful and true and all of His promises are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Christ.
Surely, in the company of all of God’s angels and with David we can proclaim,
“My cup of blessing runneth over,” for His grace is limitless, His love is boundless, His charity and mercy endures from one generation to another.
Why such an inconceivable magnitude of maximum Joy?
Because together, in the presence of our Great Shepherd, we have just seen, and envisioned and witnessed and can now testify to all the prophetic descriptions of heavenly places like green pastures, quiet waters, and paths of righteousness.
By the Word of God for the Children of God, our heads have been anointed with His oil of abundant life and incomprehensible love and now our cups overflow.
We have seen through the Word of God for His Children, the strong, steady hand of the ever vigilant shepherd at work with his shepherd’s rod and staff.
By the Word of God for His Children, We have received the invitation to the table of the Lord which is prepared for his precious flock before our enemies.
And now there is one more activity we need to plumb, to see in this final scene.
“He Anoints My Head With Oil”
This may seem like an odd custom since it is something that never occurs much anymore in our own time and culture, in our faith traditions and in our church.
Maybe this custom of pouring oil over the head needs a little more explanation.
First of all, we are not talking about the kind of oil that comes from petroleum.
The 1st century people in the Bible did not drill any oil out of the ground, they did not even know what petroleum oil was, nor would they have any use for it.
So, please do not think at all about oil in the Bible as anything like we use today.
We are not talking about motor oil; it’s not the 5W-30 synthetic blend you find at the Valvoline shop or any local vehicle repair establishments down the road.
The region around the Mediterranean is perfect climate for growing olive trees.
The most common oil in Israel was olive oil used for cooking.
There were also other plant-based oils used mostly as perfumes and medicines from such sources as myrrh and nard.
It is probably the closest equivalent to what we use today as “Essential Oils” (if you are familiar with the use that term).
Let’s also remember that the people back in Bible times did not all have showers in their homes, and there was no such thing as shampoo and perm in that time.
The use of fragrant oils in their hair was a common way of what people in that day would have considered basic hygiene.
Not that people would do this every day as we might consider hygiene to be part of our regular habits; it was more the mark of a special occasion in their time.
Putting fragrant perfume in hair was considered part of the expectation to be presentable before coming to a party, other type of important social gathering.
That’s the launching point we are taking today in order to consider how this last scene of Psalm 23 applies into our world today.
Jump with me, then, to the Book of Ecclesiastes for another brief glimpse at how this cultural custom of ointment poured in a person’s hair shows up.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 New International Version
7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
Perhaps it is helpful to explain that anointing with oil had several other uses and meanings in the Bible.
This may help clear up any confusion for people who may be familiar with many of the other places in scripture that anointing with oil occurs.
It shows up as a medicinal practice for healing since they thought that fragrant oils had significantly positive medical benefits.
It also shows up as a symbolic declaration of royalty; kings would be anointed as a part of the Coronation sequence.
It also would take place as part of the burial ritual whenever somebody in those ancient of days and that time passed away.
I do not think the anointing with oil mentioned in Psalm 23 has anything to do with these functions of ointment.
Context of Psalm 23:5 makes it clear anointing with oil is understood as basic hygiene people would do as preparation for joining a special social occasion.
And this is certainly the same function of anointing we see in Ecclesiastes 9:8.
For this devotional today, then, let’s dig into what is happening in these few verses in Ecclesiastes as a way of helping us understand what David means by this scene in which the shepherd is seen anointing his flock of sheep with oil.
Ecclesiastes can be a difficult book of the Bible to contextually understand.
I can see where this passage from chapter 9 might be easily misunderstood.
At eye level the way it comes at us translated into the English language, it might seem like a kind of an off-putting and depressing outlook on our everyday life.
One big proverbial hardcore slap in the face saying “You might as well just go eat your dinner because your meaningless, ridiculous life isn’t going anywhere else.”
Of course, through revelation from the Holy Spirit, there’s definitely something much different going on in this passage; and it is not have a depressing outlook.
The key here is that we cannot get hung up on a few English words which don’t do the best job of conveying to readers all the richness of the Hebrew language.
Let me pull at two examples of difficult Hebrew words in Ecclesiastes, and one Hebrew word from Psalm 23.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, our NIV Bibles repeat the theme of “meaningless” over and over again (an eye popping 33 times) throughout the entire book.
Other English translations use the word “vanity” as the repeated theme.
The Hebrew word is hebel.
It literally comes from the same Hebrew root as “a breath.”
Hebel carries with it the nuance of being incredibly insignificant or extremely momentary.
I would say that in the context of Ecclesiastes, the word “momentary” would be a much better English word to use in order to capture what the wisdom writer is really trying to say about the experience of human life when compared to God.
It is not that life is meaningless in the sense that human life has no purpose.
It is more the point of Ecclesiastes to show human life is so very momentary when placed in comparison and contrast directly next to the eternity of God.
Hang onto that one. we will pull it back in a minute to consider how the brief and limited experience of human life plays into understanding this passage.
The other Hebrew word in Ecclesiastes I want us to consider here is heleq.
The NIV translates this into English as “lot.”
Verse 10 says that our lot in life and in all our toilsome work is simply to enjoy our family and a meal.
I think the word “lot” might just make it sound like a random fate over which we have absolutely no control.
An English dictionary defines lot as fate, predicament, plight, or doom.
It is generally considered a negative thing.
But this is not the meaning of the Hebrew word heleq.
It refers instead to something which we can better be defined as “portion, distribution, allocation, or share.”
The wisdom writer in Ecclesiastes is pointing out that even in this human life which is so very momentary and comparatively brief next to the eternity of God, in grace, Jehovah Jireh still freely, gifts, gives out a portion/share of goodness.
The writer of Ecclesiastes identifies this portion/share of goodness from God coming in the simple little things of life.
Enjoying the blessing of good food and drink in the company of family and friends is the example of goodness to which the writer refers in this chapter.
And about these simple enjoyments, the wisdom writer says in verse 8.
8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.
Here again, the wearing of bright clothing and pouring of fragrant ointment in the hair is an expression of a special social occasion.
This kind of celebration didn’t happen every day.
But the point of Ecclesiastes here is to say treat every single day like that.
Life is so very momentary, take each new day as a precious gift from God.
And each new day which we receive from God contains the portion/share of his blessing for us to enjoy.
Treat every single day as a singularly unique, singularly special example of God’s grace, because these unique and special examples of God’s grace show up most often every single day in the simple, most ordinary little things of life.
Look at how Eugene Peterson translates these verses from Ecclesiastes in his Message version of the Bible.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10The Message
7-10 Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don’t skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love Each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange For the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it, For there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think In the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed.
This is why verse 10 can go on to say, in a more contemporary sense: “Go ahead! Do not fear! Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might for God.”
“There is only one way to go, in whatever you do for God,
Whatever You Do For God … Just Max it out! Go for the Gusto!
Do not ever underestimate exactly how much God is right there with you even in the small or inconsequential, ordinary or less than ordinary, things of this life.
How frequently do we fail to realize, or do we take for granted the ways in which all of the tiny simple blessings, the miracles of each and every day stack up to be a never ending stream of Jehovah Jireh’s faithful and abiding provision of grace.
But, the often unspoken truth of the matter is we do miss it because so often we will see these things as so tiny and ordinary and insignificant and momentary.
Yet this is exactly the place in our everyday lives where God chooses to meet us.
Even though Ecclesiastes points to this daily provision of blessing as our “lot in life” (our portion/share), it stacks up day after day, week after week, and month after month, year after year becoming an extraordinary gift beyond measure.
Our proper place then is to see each new day as an extension of that gift from God. “Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.”
Always treat each and every new day as a remarkably special gift from God.
Bringing it back to god and Psalm 23 now.
The seventh and final scene is one of embracing the LORD as our shepherd each and every day.
It is a recognition of just how incredibly remarkable it is that the eternal creator of the universe who have existed forever and ever beyond our brief momentary lives, that this God, Jehovah Jireh chooses to make himself our shepherd.
That Jehovah God redeems us in his love which, through grace, portions itself our to us each and every day.
Here’s a secret.
The word anointing never actually shows up in Psalm 23.
Yes, I know we have been focusing this entire last scene on a line from Psalm 23 which says he anoints my head with oil.
It is a much more obscure Hebrew word, dashen, which only shows up eleven times in the entire Bible.
Most of those times it is translated into English as “fatten” or “make fat.” It carries the idea of making something bigger or more abundant.
Do you see what David is actually saying here in Psalm 23?
The LORD is my shepherd who dashen [anoints?] my head with oil.
No; we are to understand that it’s far, far, more deeper than that.
The LORD is my shepherd whodashen [abundantly pours out an excessively lavish amount] of oil upon my head.
Contemplating the depths of David’s heart and soul at its writing, perhaps this is why David chose to finish the verse of Psalm 23:5 with “my cup overflows.”
Let’s find an application by connecting these two passages from Psalm 23 and Ecclesiastes 9.
Perhaps we all find ourselves from time to time stuck waiting for something better.
Like so many of you, I’m waiting right now for a time when we can all have more economic certainty, lower inflation rates, better housing markets.
I would love to be able to fulfill a life long dream of building a log cabin for my retirement from plans my late father drew up when he was preparing to retire.
He never got a chance to fulfill those dreams because he got sick and died.
I would love to fulfill that legacy for my family, but interest rates are too high.
Maybe it’s waiting for our health to stabilize, a job promotion; maybe it is waiting to be done with school; maybe, like me, it’s waiting for retirement.
We can always make a million excuses why we might think the ‘real’ anointing of God’s blessing in our lives has not yet arrived.
We get trapped into thinking the anointing of God’s blessing is some kind of heavenly lottery which at some point is going to just dump upon us because scripture tells us that the blessing of God is extravagantly abundant.
So that’s what we expect: extravagant abundance.
And then real life intrudes and our lives are stuck waiting for it to “unstuck.”
Scripture is not wrong. God’s blessing is extravagantly abundant.
But what we should also see from scripture today is that the blessing of God is portioned out to be exactly what we need for each and every day.
The extravagant abundance of God’s blessing is not something for which you have to wait.
You and I have got it already.
You and I are receiving it right now.
And God constantly weaves his blessing into all the tiny ordinary pieces and places of everyday life.
The poet of Ecclesiastes says,
“whatever your hand find to do, do it with all your might.”
Do not miss the opportunity to treat each and every new day as a miracle gift from God filled with exactly what it is you and I need from God, to live in his will and thrive abundantly as a disciple of His Son and our Savior Jesus.
It may look small and ordinary and insignificant and momentary.
But day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year it piles up into a lifelong testimony which declares:
Psalm 23 Amplified Bible
The Lord, the Psalmist’s Shepherd.
A Psalm of David.
23 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still and quiet waters. 3 He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the [sunless] [a]valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed and refreshed my head with [b]oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.
The whole Psalm 23:5 experience serves to strengthen our faith, draw us closer to our heavenly Father, and to envision and realize just how faithful He truly is.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Heavenly Father, how I praise and thank You for Your Word and the comfort and strength it gives me. Thank You that You are my Shepherd and my Provider. Thank You that You are with me through the darkest days as well as during the sunny times, and thank You that You have provided all that I need, according to Your riches in glory. Thank You that You are my God and Saviour. You have, indeed, prepared an overflowing table before me in the presence of my enemies and have anointed my head with the oil of abundant, eternal gladness. My cup overflows with Your never-ending blessings, for which I give praise and shout “thank You!” In Jesus’ name.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
2 “To the angel (divine messenger) of the church in [a]Ephesus write:
“These are the words of the One who holds [firmly] the seven stars [which are the angels or messengers of the seven churches] in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands (the seven churches):
2 ‘I know [b]your deeds and your toil, and your patient endurance, and that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and have tested and critically appraised those who call themselves apostles (special messengers, personally chosen representatives, of Christ), and [in fact] are not, and have found them to be liars and impostors; 3 and [I know that] you [who believe] are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and that you have not grown weary [of being faithful to the truth]. 4 But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]. 5 So remember the heights from which you have fallen, and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will] and do the works you did at first [when you first knew Me]; otherwise, I will visit you and remove your lampstand (the church, its impact) from its place—unless you repent.6 Yet you have this [to your credit], that you hate the works and corrupt teachings of the [c]Nicolaitans [that mislead and delude the people], which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who [d]overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant [the privilege] to eat [the fruit] from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.’
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Throughout the first century A.D., Jesus’ followers fanned out across the Roman Empire to spread the good news of God’s salvation in Christ.
They formed communities to support and encourage each other in life, faith, and witness.
Yet by the end of the first century, persecution came to many Christians in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), and they needed support.
The Apostle John, the one whom Jesus loved to the utmost, one of the exiled leaders, took the people into his heart, wrote the book of Revelation to them.
It’s filled with words meant to encourage the hearts of men and visions of eternal hope from Jesus to the churches, whom he calls golden lampstands.
What a comfort to know Christ the King walks among the churches he loves.
In the first of seven messages to different churches, Jesus tells the church in Ephesus that he knows their deeds, hard work, and perseverance.
He also directly challenges them, giving compliments before critique.
That’s a pattern we can definitely follow in our families, schools, workplaces, and churches: which is to edify, build each other up before naming challenges.
Church communities are filled with blessing because Jesus walks among us!
Christians which gather together, Koinonia, Fellowship, Care for each other, hear biblical preaching and teaching, Love God, praise God, and pray together.
We host programs, help community causes, and contribute to Local missions causes which demonstrate how much we love God, our neighbors and selves, we serve and respond to natural disasters international relief and World missions.
IDEALLY …. WE LOVE GOD AS MUCH AS WE LOVE NEIGHBORS AND SELVES!
WE ALL CALL THESE CHURCHES ONE’S WE LOOK TO BE CONNECTED WITH!
FIRST, WE SAY THESE CHURCHES ARE INTENSELY IN LOVE WITH GOD!
SECOND, WE SAY THESE CHURCHES ARE INTENSELY IN LOVE WITH PEOPLE!
But ….
And envision this very real possibility ….
Exceedingly and Abundantly and Carefully and Critically and Realistically,
Diligently, Prudently, with 20/20 Hindsight and with Prophetic Foresight,
A church which seems to model exactly the opposite of that Ideal Church?
What About A Church Which Exhibits No Heart, No Love for God?
Love is definitely a many splendored thing or at least the essence of the words and lyrics were popularized into culture by the movie of the same name in 1955.
Crooner Andy Williams and the Four Aces continued to make the song popular.
While love can, and indeed, should absolutely be viewed as a “many splendored thing,” ultimately it’s defined, splendored by what a person does with that love.
Saying one loves another is an important step to building a relationship but love is found and demonstrated in and through our daily actions, not just by words.
Many Splendored Love is an infinitely deeper emotion than just liking a person.
To like another is to share in common pursuits on a casual basis but love is a bond which cements a multitude of hearts into one with steadfast, immovable devotion, deep abiding care, absolute fidelity, commitment, and allegiance.
It is important in marriage to be friends but marriage is deeper when love is at the root of all feelings – which is especially true with our relationship with God.
We so casually say and preach it is easy to like God and to view Him as a friend.
This does not require any commitment or allegiance.
Having a friendship with God likes various aspects of His character but never covenant obligates the individual to a linked mutual commitment of devotion.
Many people are friends of God but never grow to love Him.
Sometimes, relationships blossom with passionate love but wane in time and space to become a “manufactured” vision of 2 people living in the same house.
Love fades into Friendship which gradually, subtly, “takes over” and while the relationship is, remains “civil”, there is little prophetic vision or no true love.
Proverbs 29:18 Amplified Bible
18 Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained; But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God].
The growing trouble with many in the church is they are more comfortable being friends of God rather than having a “deeply devoted” love for Him.
What little is known about the church in Ephesus comes from the writings of Luke, Paul, and John.
Dr. Luke describes the history of the church in the Acts of the apostles, Paul writes a wonderful letter to the saints at Ephesus and Apostle John’s revelation reveals the church in Ephesus had gone through many changes over the years.
The beginning of the Ephesian church was filled with great promise and hope.
Paul spent three years working with the people of God in this great city and there were many saved through the preaching of the gospel.
The letter of Ephesians is a treatise on the majesty of the church and character, testimony and witness of the Church there and witness of its kingdom citizens.
In the final book of the Bible, Jesus commends the saints in Ephesus for their work, their diligent labor, and patience in defending the cause of Savior Christ.
They had preserved through difficult times and were to be commended.
However, the church had lost something over the years that threatened its existence – The church at Ephesus had fallen out of love with the Lord God.
There is no doubt the church was doing all the right things in the right way.
It was evident they were a working group, laboring mightily in the work of the kingdom and withstanding all those who would oppose the teachings of Christ.
While these were indeed very commendable traits, what they lacked was the love they once had – The Lord challenged them because of their lack of love.
Sometimes in marriage, love will decline and grow tired.
Two people live together in the same place but have little or no interest in the needs, the hopes, the dreams, the wants, the deep requirements of the other.
This can likewise happen to the Children of God.
They can like God and obey His commandments but have no real love for Him.
Their hearts are filled with the socio-cultural, socio-economic, socio-political world and they have a deeper, greater interest in worldly matters than spiritual.
Love, as a “many splendored thing” must absolutely, be cultivated daily.
Steadfast, Immovable Devotion for the Lord does not come by simple osmosis but a very constant, hardcore, effort to learn more, grow more and love more.
It must be continually built upon through a heart of seeking the love of God.
Revelation 2:4-7 The Message
4-5 “But you walked away from your first love—why? What’s going on with you, anyway? Do you have any idea how far you’ve fallen? A Lucifer fall!
“Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I’m well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle.
6 “You do have this to your credit: You hate the Nicolaitan business. I hate it, too.
7 “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
It is easy to fall out of love with the Lord when the spiritual becomes routine.
A church leaving their first love is forgetting the grace of God and His mercy.
Regaining the first full measure of God’s first love comes from committing our spirit once again to knowing, understanding, longing to be drawn closer to God.
Jesus knows each church community and each person in it.
He knows every single one of our strengths.
He knows every single one of our faults, failures, failings and weaknesses.
The community of believers at Ephesus received praise from Jesus for their persevering in the truth.
Yet there was a definite character flaw needing their immediate attention.
They had lost their first love.
This is a powerful revelation.
Church communities can be faithful defenders of God’s truth, but their first love for God can become clouded with cultural minutiae can also grow cold.
“God Splendored” Love is what happens when the amazing grace, mercy, and love of God wash over us, cleansing us, flooding our souls, and making us new.
It seems incredible, almost impossible to wrap our hearts and souls around, but God absolutely loves us without limit, though we do not deserve any of his love.
Every church community and every member of it needs to labor in the utmost, linger to the outermost tolerance and live in the wonder of God’s gracious love.
We need to always strive to envision new ways to remember and celebrate this “God splendored” love in our studies, the songs we sing, the prayers we raise, the stories we share, the sacraments we celebrate, the care we give to others.
Jesus uses a word in this letter that brings us back to the way he started his public ministry: “repent.”
This is a call to turn around, change direction, and get back on course.
For church communities to be Spirit-filled, “golden lampstands,” the passion of God’s very first love for each of us needs to be pulsing throughout our veins.
The more “many splendored” deposits of God’s first love for us, made into the divine love bank, the greater the eternal dividends received from our Lord God.
It takes much labor and even greater sacrifices to make a marriage “work,” to never let our “first love” diminish, never allow “splendored” love to grow stale.
It is unacceptable to leave behind the first love experienced in the family of God.
Let us pray to the Holy Spirit, to revive our first vision of our first love for God!
Let our first love for God grow more and more, draw closer unto God every day.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God who is Love,Lord of All, life is a journey full of stumbling blocks and challenges. With each hurdle, there is growth. With each setback, a valuable lesson. Lord, I ask that You give us the wisdom and presence of mind to learn from our mistakes and pitfalls. by thy Holy Spirit, Remind me and Your Church of our very first love for You, Help us to approach these things with maturity, so that we can live closer to You.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
