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."
23 The [former successive line of] priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were each prevented by death from continuing [perpetually in office]; 24 but, on the other hand, Jesus holds His priesthood permanently and without change, because He lives on forever. 25 Therefore He is able also to save forever (completely, perfectly, for eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede and intervene on their behalf [with God].
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Daylight Savings time is here which means Spring is just around the corner.
A time of freshly blooming flowers and the appearance of green leaves on trees.
Which means for those with a taste for something and someplace other than the insides of their homes after a cold winter – a new fresh taste for being outdoors.
During a nature hike, it can be exciting, refreshing and rewarding to follow side trails that veer away from the main trail looking for the signs of the new Spring.
Finding hidden parts of freshly leaved trees and patches of wild flowers, forests or meadows, valley’s, mountains that few have seen before can be exhilarating.
But traveling in unmarked territory can sometimes be dangerous.
Authorities put up boundary signs for good reasons – [Poison Ivy anyone?].
We should obey those signs because they are usually posted to help keep us safe.
Unfortunately, we will sometimes hear about people who were hurt or killed because they ignored warning signs and went into the places of great danger.
Warning signs also exist in our spiritual life.
In particular, Scripture points us to Jesus Christ as “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
In our reading from Hebrews 7 today we see that through Jesus we have access to God.
He is not any temporary Savior; He continually intercedes for us—that is, He continues to mark a clear and 100% safe trail for us in this life and into the next.
Our pilgrimage as Christians is not simply for a period in this life.
It is a journey that stretches forward into the joys and exciting discoveries God has prepared for us with him in eternity.
Are you walking safely today—that is, with God?
Completely Safe
Hebrews 7:23-25New American Standard Bible
23 [a]The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing; 24 [b]Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is also able to save [c]forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
One of the most amazing truths in the Bible is Jesus is able to save completely, perfectly, to the uttermost because of His resurrection from the dead.
In fact our entire belief system hinges on this truth.
Without the resurrection we would die in our sin, shame and guilt.
Apostle Paul said in Romans 4, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25),
meaning that His resurrection is the positive proof that we have been restored to a state as if we had never sinned in the first place.
The payment for sin was satisfied once for all when Jesus was delivered over to death to make atonement.
Since it was satisfied and all debts forgiven, death no longer had claim on Jesus and had to release him from the grave.
This has incredible implications for us, because through Jesus, the grave has no claim on us either.
Jesus has been appointed by God as our High Priest on oath that He would remain as such eternally.
Before this time, death had been a problem in the Levitical priesthood because it continually interrupted this office.
The position of High Priest was a lifetime position (Numbers 35:25).
So it was like starting over every time a new High Priest was appointed following the death of the previous High Priest.
However, since death has no claim on Jesus (Romans 6:9), His priesthood cannot be interrupted, therefore He is able to complete the work assigned to Him as High Priest.
The High Priest’s job was to make atonement for the people once a year.
He was mankind’s representative before God in all things.
The problem was that he first had to sacrifice for his own sins, disqualifying him from approaching God to make atonement in the first place.
Jesus on the other hand was sinless so His sacrifice for sin, when offering himself as payment, was more than enough to permanently wipe out the debt that sin created.
In fact the writer of Hebrews has stated over and over that our sins are paid for, forgiven and forgotten(Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 9:26, Hebrews 9:28, Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 10:14, Hebrews 10:18, Hebrews 10:22).
Which means Jesus’ atonement as High Priest worked the first and only time it was given.
And if it worked, then by no means does it need to be made again (Hebrews 10:10-14).
In fact, Jesus now sits at the right hand of God the Father because His work is finished and complete (Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 10:12).
Since this work is finished and death has no claim on Jesus, he resides as High Priest forever.
And if He lives forever with this office, He is also able to save for all time and eternity those who come to Him by faith.
In fact, God promised Jesus on oath this would always be the case which is why he promised Him He would provide a High Priest, not after the Levitical line perpetuated by death, but after Melchizedek who had no such record of death.
(Hebrews 7:1-3 NASB)
Melchizedek’s Priesthood like Christ’s
7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. 3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.
This is incredible news and very important to know because it assures our hearts before God.
In fact these things have been written to give us insight and confidence in approaching God by faith (John 20:31, 1 John 5:13).
Knowing we have been saved, forgiven and restored to a state where we are justified and righteous before God should give us boldness in approaching Him without the consciousness of sin and resulting guilt (Hebrews 4:16, 10:22 ).
Then knowing Jesus lives forever to assure this relationship, making petitions and intercession on our behalf, should prayerfully usher each and every single one of us into a state of heart peace and empower us to live a life like no other.
These blessed and unyielding truths have been written for our eternal benefit; so that we may all understand all we have access to is only through Christ Jesus.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father in heaven, You made humanity in Your image that we might show forth who You are to the world. Thank You that although we fell into sin and failed in our created calling, You sent Your Son, Jesus, to redeem us as both the once-for-all Sacrifice and the Eternal Priest who offers that great gift. Our lives have been bought with a price – they are Yours, our God – so fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we might live in the fullness of Your power and display the fullness of Your character to the far reaches of this world until the fullness of Your kingdom.
All this we pray, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord to whom, with You and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
8 “Remember the Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God). 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lord your God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock or the temporary resident (foreigner) who stays within your [city] gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy [that is, set it apart for His purposes].
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Keep the Sabbath [verse 8]
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8
Throughout history there have been well-meaning, earnest Christians who have, perhaps without their ever knowing it, who have come to functionally believe the Ten Commandments are really only the Nine Commandments.
Somewhere along the way, some have decided the fourth commandment is not like the rest of the commandments but rather as a relic that belongs in the past.
In truth, though, the ancient command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy has abiding significance for us all, even today.
Why has this simple command fallen on such hard times?
Some have claimed that its regulations and penalties were tied to the old covenant, so it must no longer be relevant.
Yet we do not treat the other commandments this way.
Others have said that the way Jesus spoke of being “lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8) diminished the commandment’s significance and force.
What about Jesus’ apparent intent here?
What the man Rabbi Jesus sought to overturn was not the Sabbath itself but the host of hypocritical external rules of the Pharisees.
I have long suspected what keeps most Christians from thinking of the fourth commandment as we ought to is simply that we do not like its implications.
We do not like, nor appreciate all of the subtle and not so subtle ways it intrudes into our lives, into our leisure and whatever else takes precedence in our hearts.
So we act as though this command is in a different category from the other nine.
However, If we truly want to grasp the significance of the Sabbath and respond to it in a God-honoring way, we must all embrace, as a conviction, the real truth that God has intentionally set aside the Sabbath day as distinct from the rest.
This was the case in the week of creation, with God resting on the seventh day and declaring it sanctified.
The church, in the age of the new covenant, then changed the day from the seventh day of the week to the first day to mark the resurrection of Christ.
In both cases, we see that the distinction of the day is woven into God’s work of creation and redemption.
With that conviction in place, we can see that the day is not simply a day set apart from other days, but it is, in Gospel Truth, a day set apart unto the Lord.
By not seeing it this way, we’ll be tempted to view our spiritual exercises on the Lord’s Day as something to “get over with” in order to “get on with” our week.
If this is our mentality, we stand condemned by the fourth commandment.
The Sabbath ought to be treasured for what it is: a gift of a day on which we enjoy, uninterrupted by leisure commitments or (if possible) by employment, the privilege of God’s presence, the study of God’s word, and the fellowship of God’s people.
Seen like that, this command becomes an invitation: not only to just something we should do but something we will each come to learn how to love to do.
If this is not how you have been viewing God’s Sabbath, then ask yourself:
What’s preventing you from honoring the Lord’s Day?
Take stock of your habits and receive the gift of the Sabbath.
From that next Sunday, be sure that your priority is not to make the Lord’s Day convenient but to make the Lord’s day exclusively about God, to keep it holy.
Keep the Sabbath [verses 9-10]
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lord your God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock or the temporary resident (foreigner) who stays within your [city] gates.[verses 9, 10]
Having established the fourth commandment remains what it has always been—a commandment of the Lord—and as such it is relevant to our lives, we can now turn our hearts, souls, minds, to thinking profitably about how to keep it.
But we must be careful as we get specific about honoring the Sabbath.
The Lord Jesus, after all, had some very harsh, strong words for the Pharisees regarding the way their moral specificity had become a means not of obedience but of self-righteousness (Mark 2:23 – 3:6).
With “quaking and trembling knees” and maturing humility, let’s take some quality time to consider how are we to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
Let us try to explore: How do we prevent worldly concerns—those of leisure, recreation, and work—from infringing on our enjoyment and worship of God?
Let’s think first of public worship.
What kinds of conversations do you typically have prior to the worship service?
Are they concerned at any point with exclusively the things of God, or only ever with sports – making it to the home team game, family, and every other thing?
It takes a conscious and a thoroughly intentional act of the will to give eternal matters the very highest measure of maxed priority in our minds and mouths.
If you were to determine that in your preparation for worship you would set aside every priority which looms, loomed so large on other days, I guarantee the focus of your time at church would be changed.
The same goes for after the service.
When the last song has been sung and the service is over, how long does it take for your mind and conversation to return to worldly matters?
If we were instead to:
commit to spending time after the service speaking to one another about the greatness of God, the truth of His word, and the wonder of His dealings with us,
and praying with one another about the week ahead and the trials we face, then we would begin to understand better the “one another” passages in the New Testament about:
encouraging one another (Hebrews 10:25),
speaking the truth to one another (Ephesians 4:25), and
building one another up (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
—for we would then be prioritizing ourselves to actually living them out.
Similarly, in our private affairs on the Lord’s Day, spiritual improvement should still take priority.
That may mean additional family worship, reading edifying books, prayer, discussion of what was preached that morning, and more—but whatever it means, we should make it our aim not to let the cares of the other six days push into our efforts of growing our spiritual enjoyment of the first day of the week.
If we want to profit from keeping the Sabbath, and if we want to take the fourth commandment more seriously, then our convictions must fuel our actions, and our daily aspirations must turn into daily practices.
Avoid making unique rules that only serve to foster self-righteousness, but consider whether anything worldly needs to change, be re-prioritized Godly.
How would, should, could you change to keep the Sabbath holy the next time Sunday comes round, then Monday, then Tuesday then Wednesday and so on?
Our Sabbath Rest as Our Witness
[sermon illustrations]
The college student broke down in tears over his coffee.
Driven by competition for limited space in a pre-law program, he had just poured himself into studying virtually nonstop, eight hours a day seven days a week. After seven months he found he lost the ambition for learning—and nearly for life itself.
Driven by the desire for promotion and the prospect for more money for him an his growing family, [……….] takes extra work home every single night to get the one up on his fellow workers – he stays up till midnight every night for weeks. Taking no time for dinner with his wife or leisure time his young kids, he hears them crying.
Our reading today states that “in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth … but he rested on the seventh day.”
The ambition and creativity we bring to work is a reflection of our mindset on our Creator’s sovereignty over our lives and over the lives we genuinely value.
It’s part of how we reflect his image and a big part of how we serve as witnesses for him.
God also rested on the seventh day, however, and he calls us to do the same.
For us, good work hinges on good rest.
Without good rest our good work suffers.
The discipline of regular rest is a witness in our fast-paced world, especially when that time is focused on enjoying our Creator.
It speaks of God’s love to command what’s good for us.
Our ambitions would otherwise serve only to distract us from him and drive us into the ground if we let them.
How will you take our rest the rest of this week and this next weekend?
For the sake of good work later, let’s rest.
For the sake of sanity, let’s rest.
For the sake of glory to God in regular worship and fellowship, let’s rest.
God blesses those who “work hard” at resting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s trust him to establish the work and rest of our hands (see Psalm 90:17).
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God, grant us and all our loved ones true rest on this Sabbath Day. May Your Holy and Sacred Presence drive out from among us anger and fear, worry and regret. Send your blessing upon us, that we may be people of the Word. Lord of work and of rest, thank you for these gifts. Help us to work hard and rest well. Please provide work where we need it. Please also bless whatever years of retirement rest we may have.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
2 “I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself any idol, or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth [as an object to worship].
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments are the supreme expression of God’s will in the Old Testament and merit our close attention.
They are to be thought of not as the ten most important commands among hundreds of others, but as a digest of the entire Torah.
The foundation of all of the Torah rests in these Ten Commandments, and somewhere within them we should be able to find all the law.
Jesus expressed the essential unity of the Ten Commandments with the rest of the law when he summarized the law in the famous words,
“ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”(Matthew 22:37-40).
All the law, as well as laws of the prophets, is indicated whenever the Ten Commandments are expressed.
The essential unity of the Ten Commandments with the rest of the law, and their continuity with the New Testament, invites each and every on us to apply them to today’s ministries broadly in light of the rest of the Holy Scriptures.
That is, when applying the Ten Commandments, we will take into account related passages of Scripture in both the Hebrew [Old] and New Testaments.
“You Shall Have No Other Gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3)
The first commandment reminds us that everything in the Torah flows from the love we have for God, which in turn is a response to the love he has for us.
This unconventional, inexpressible miracle of love was demonstrated by God’s deliverance of Israel “out of the house of slavery” in Egypt (Exodus 20:2).
In our heart of hearts, from within the deepest depths of our souls, nothing else in our lives should concern us more than our desire to love and be loved by God.
If we do have some other concern stronger to us than our love for God, and who of us does not have other “stronger concerns,” they are not so much that we are breaking God’s rules, but that we are not really in relationship with Father God.
The other concern—be it money, power, security, recognition, sex, or anything else—has become our god.
These gods will have their own commandments at odds with God’s, and we will inevitably violate the Torah as we try to comply with these god’s requirements.
Observing the Ten Commandments is only conceivable for those who start by being determined to diligently study, to pray at having no other god than God.
In the realm of work, this means that we are not to let work or its requirements and fruits displace God as our most important concern in life.
“Never allow anyone or anything to threaten God’s central place in your life,” as Dr. David W. Gill [https://www.davidwgill.org/] puts it.
Because many people work primarily to make money for their and their family’s future, we might just conclude that an inordinate desire for money is probably one of the most common work-related dangers to the first commandment.
Jesus warned of exactly this danger. “No one can serve two masters…. You cannot serve God and wealth”(Matthew 6:24).
But almost anything related to work can become twisted in our desires to the point that it interferes with our love for God.
How many promising up and coming, careers come to a tragic end because the means to accomplish things for the love of God—such as political power, financial sustainability, steadfast commitment to the job, status among peers, or superior performance—become their alpha to omega ends in themselves?
When, for example, recognition on the job becomes simply far more important than character on the job, is it not a sign that their reputation is displacing their love of God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, as ultimate Alpha to Omega concern?
A practical touchstone in balancing life lived in the world of man and God is to just ask whether our love of God is shown by the way we treat people on the job.
“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (1 John 4:20-21).
If we put our individual concerns ahead of our concern for the people we work with, for, and among, then we have made our individual concerns our god.
In particular, if we treat other people as things to be manipulated, obstacles to overcome, instruments to obtain what we want, or simply neutral objects in our field of view, then we starkly demonstrate that we do not love God with all our heart, soul, and mind as required by the Word of God for the Children of God.
In this context, we can begin to list some work-related actions that have a high potential to interfere with our love for God.
Doing work that violates our conscience.
Working in an organization where we have to harm others to succeed.
Working such long hours that we have little time to pray, worship, rest, and otherwise deepen our relationship with God.
Working among people who demoralize us or seduce us away from our love for God.
Working where alcohol, drug abuse, violence, sexual harassment, corruption, disrespect, racism, or other inhumane treatments mar the image of God in us and the people we encounter in our work – our co-workers and our neighbors.
If we can find ways to avoid these dangers at work—even if it means finding a new job—it would be wise for us to seek God, study, pray, to consider to do so.
If that is not possible, we can at least be aware that we need help and support to maintain our love of God in the face of our work.
“You Shall Not Make for Yourself an Idol” (Exodus 20:4)
The second commandment raises the issue of idolatry.
Making and then Naming our Golden calves then marketing them for all to see.
Idols are gods of our own creation, gods that have nothing to them that did not originate with us, gods that we feel we control.
In ancient times, idolatry often took the form of worshiping physical objects.
But the issue is really one of trust and devotion.
On what “shirt” do we ultimately pin our hope of well-being and success upon?
On whose “lapel” should we ultimately pin our hopes of well-being and success upon?
Anything, Anyone, which is not capable of fulfilling our hope—that is, anything other than God—is an idol, whether or not it is a physical object, even a person.
The story of a family forging an idol with the intent to manipulate God, and the disastrous personal, social, and economic consequences which then tragically follow, are memorably told in Judges 17-21.
In the world of work, it is common to speak of money, fame, and power as potential idols, and rightly so.
They are not idolatrous, per se, and in fact may be utterly necessary for us to accomplish our roles in God’s creative and redemptive work in the world.
Yet when we then imagine that we have ultimate control over them, or that by achieving them our safety and prosperity will be secured, we have begun the so inevitable “foot to shovel to earth to digging our grave” descent into idolatry.
The same may occur with virtually every other element of success, including our preparation, hard work, creativity, risk, wealth and other resources, and favorable circumstances.
As Christian workers, we have to recognize how important these are.
As God’s people, we must recognize when we begin to idolize them.
By God’s grace alone, we can overcome the temptation to worship these good things in their own right.
The development of genuinely godly wisdom and skill for any task is “so that your entire trust may be in the Lord alone”[Proverbs 22:19].
The distinctive element of idolatry is the human-made nature of the idol.
At work, a danger of idolatry arises when we mistake our power, knowledge, and opinions for reality.
When we stop holding ourselves accountable to the standards we set for others, cease listening to others’ ideas, or seek to crush those who disagree with us, are we not beginning to make and shape, obsess over our graven idols of ourselves?
No Image Engraved or in Mind [eXODUS 20:4]
Exodus 20:4 Amplified Bible
4 “You shall not make for yourself any idol, or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth [as an object to worship].
If the first commandment
—“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)—deals with the object of our worship, the second commandment deals with the manner of our worship.
What the second commandment tells us is that it is not enough that we worship the correct God; we must also worship Him correctly.
The crystal clear and immediate meaning of the command is that God is to be worshiped without any visual symbols of Him.
Why the prohibition?
Because God is spirit: infinite and unfathomably great.
No physical representation could ever do justice to His glory and grandeur.
The problem with statues, shrines, and pictures is not that they don’t look good but that no matter how good they look, they will all inevitably severely blur the truth about God’s nature and character.
Such images will tend to distract men and women from genuinely worshiping the true and living God, [John 4:20-24] instead leading them to naively worship whatever physical representation of God is placed before them in the sanctuary.
Yet the second commandment takes us beyond mere images and idol-making and into our own thought life.
Our hands may be innocent of the skills and craftsmanship of hand making graven images, but our thoughts and imaginations are so seldom unskilled.
Any conception of God in our minds and hearts that is not derived from Scripture runs foul of this command.
When God gave strict instructions for the building of the temple, He ordered that the ark of the covenant, on which His presence would dwell, should reside in the Most Holy Place (Exodus 26:34).
What was inside the ark?
Perhaps most significant is what was not in it: it contained no visible, physical, hand shaped representation of God.
Instead, there were the two tablets of the Ten Commandments.
It was as if God was saying to His people, as He says to us, Don’t look for Me in shrines, paintings, or statues. I’m not there. Look for Me in My word.
So we take our cues from God. If we want to worship Him—if we want to meet with Him and know what He is like—we must conform our minds to His word.
Our own attempts to conceive of God apart from divine revelation will utterly, invariably fail.
He has published His truth in His word, and so we are to tether ourselves to what is revealed there.
What’s at stake in this is the integrity not only of our worship but also of our lives—because when people go wrong in their worship, they’ll end up going wrong in their living.
Anything and anyone that encourages us to worship the correct God incorrectly will prove to be a detriment to our spiritual growth.
What an absolute tragedy it would be to embrace an image and miss the person of Christ, to sit at a shrine and miss the Savior, to worship a misconception and fail to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the Holy Words of God.
Instead, resist the temptation to modify God in your mind or to conform Him to your own graven image, and be sure to KNOW Him as He has revealed Himself.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
The Joy of Integrity Prayer
God, my Father, my Guide and Guardian of my life, illuminate my mind so I can better understand just how you want me to live. Your Living Word tells me that people of integrity who diligently follow after your instructions are joyful. You have said that those who obey your laws and search for you with all their hearts are blessed and happy. I plead with you for my own share of that indescribable joy! Intercessor Holy Spirit, please guard me and my thoughts against allowing evil to influence what I believe and do. Help me walk only in your paths. May my actions, and my worship more consistently reflect what you have said is right, good.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
2 “I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Perhaps the most basic truth about the God of Scripture is He is the only one.
There is no other.
This truth ought to simplify things for us because it teaches us that there is only one who is the worthy object of our love, loyalty, and devotion.
But the hearts of men and women are not so easily convinced or instructed.
And so it is necessary for God to give us the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
The danger is not that there are actual other gods for us to worship but that we have a proclivity for making them.
On first glance, this first command is straightforward.
To live for a god other than the true God would be like taking a second spouse while your first spouse is still alive and still happy to be your spouse.
Worse, it would be like taking a second spouse who is in truth a figment of your imagination.
It would be a seriously severe breach of an exclusive relationship.
We must not kid ourselves that we are immune from the possibility of breaking this commandment.
Many of us read it and then picture people bowing down before statues or going through elaborate rituals, and those mental images assure us that we are not in much danger of violating it.
Yet the commandments are not restricted to our outward actions but also relate to the disposition of our minds and hearts.
From this perspective, there is the tough realization we may not be as far from those mental images as we assume.
We may not have statues to which we bow down, but maybe we have segments of our lives that we keep away from God, preserving them under the authority and exclusive sovereignty of some other little “deity”—ourselves, perhaps.
Ask yourself:
“Do I joyfully acknowledge God’s exclusive comprehensive claim on my life?”
“Is God in Alpha to Omega charge of my family, my work, my relationships, my money, my dating, my use of my time, my talents, my gifts and my services?”
Take a close and honest look to see if there are portions of life you try to keep from Him.
In addition to our keeping, “secreting” things away from God, another form of danger is functionally replacing Him.
When we put our family, our job, our hobbies, or anything else in the place that is God’s alone, we violate the first commandment.
To the degree that we allow anyone or anything besides obedience to God to direct our course day to day, we defy His law.
So we are not so safe from the possibility of breaking this commandment as we may think!
While we must acknowledge the truth that there is one God, we must also beware our own ability to put things in His place.
If we do not daily submit ourselves to Him and entrust the entirety of our lives to Him, something will take His place.
We are made to worship.
The question is, are you going to worship the living God or are you going to pretend there is another?
Put serious focus on these words: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’
God’s Word leads us to the full life Christ died for us to live.
The Ten Commandments are guardrails for our modern-day lives.
We no longer live in the Old Testament church, where animal sacrifices upon altars were required for breaking God’s laws.
Today, we live under the new covenant, ushered in by Christ Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross to forgive our multitude of sins.
We cannot follow the Ten Commandments through our own sheer will but can aim to through the power of the Holy Spirit given to us at salvation.
Still, we will never hit the mark of perfection as Christ did. He loved the Father with His whole heart, soul, and mind.
Thankfully, perfection is not required of us.
What Does ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’ Mean?
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Matthew 22:37-39
In ancient times, and in some places and people groups around the globe today, people worship a variety of gods.
God clearly stated, “I am,” and commands His people to worship Him alone.
“No deity, real or imagined, is to rival the one true God in Israel’s heart and life” (NIV Study Bible).
Worshipping other gods gives a false sense of security from a source other than God, who is everywhere, all-powerful, and all-knowing.
The Hebrew, often translated as ‘besides me’ or ‘before me,’ means ‘in my presence.
The point is that nothing else can qualify as god in your life.
The true God is not only to be number one but the only one.
Other gods can also constitute things we place higher than God in our lives.
The Bible defines these as idols, and they can be anything from money and possessions to food and working out or people and relationships.
Anything or anyone we place above God is another god.
As Christians, we are a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” ( 1 Peter 2:9).
We are God’s people, set apart to live according to his ways.
His ways are not, and never will be, our ways.
Our tendencies are to cave to the cravings of our flesh and fall prey to the thinking they will give us the comfort and happiness we need.
God is faithful to bless us in this life, but there is no blessing bigger and more important than the source of the blessing.
Our marriages, best friends, jobs, houses, habits, and hobbies all take a serious backseat to the ONLY One who numbers our days.
Why Is it Important That ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’ Is the First Commandment?
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” [1 Timothy 2:5]
God’s laws are for our own good.
He is a loving Father who provides rules, boundaries, and discipline for His children as any good parent/caregiver does.
We don’t earn or keep our salvation by following God’s rules.
Obedience is a heart issue, which expresses our faith and trust in the Lord by instilling limits in our lives.
He has our best interest in mind.
Though Christians do not believe achieving the law is demanded for salvation, they still see the Ten Commandments as the establishment of God’s moral law.
Jesus called people to an even higher standard by obeying the commandments not only in their behavior but also in their hearts and minds.
When we take the time to be with God each day through prayer, worship, and the Word, we get to know Him better.
We’re not promised an understanding of all of the ways of God, but the deeper our relationship is with Him, the more we trust and obey.
God’s timing in waiting until the third order to give the commandments was no coincidence.
He had already proven Himself as their Deliverer and Provider and it was time to test their faith and reveal His divine standards for them.
God’s people knew then He who He was to them: their Provider and Deliverer.
He is unchanging.
He’s still our Provider and Deliverer today, and so much more.
Why Did God Need to Say ‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me’?
“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.'” Exodus 32:1
God’s people struggled with faithfulness to Him.
In their fickleness, impatience, and lack of faith, they quickly turned to the temptation to worship as other nations did.
This time, it was by creating a golden calf representing Baal to worship.
But over time, Scripture mentions others gods they worshipped, too: Molek, Chemosh, Dagon, Asherah, and more.
In ancient times, this law steered people away from the many false gods worshipped by various cultures.
God’s people were surrounded by other nations who worshipped other gods.
I imagine, much like we easily compare ourselves to others who live different lifestyles today, God’s ancient people often wondered what life would be like if they worshiped other gods.
It’s a temptation they often fell into and angered God with.
What Other Gods Might Christians Be Tempted to Bow Down to Today?
“Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'” Matthew 4:10
Before we are tempted to think of God’s ancient people in a bad light, we have to realize that the devil tempted even Jesus to worship other gods!
In the modern, new covenant age we live in, we are tempted every day to look outside of the providence, provision of God for something the world promises to give us.
In fact, the world will always tempt us to believe we are entitled to certain things, such as amenities and circumstances.
When we genuinely seek to obey it with all our hearts, the first commandment guards us against falling for those lies.
In Modern times, this Commandment is a warning against elevating money or other worldly things to god-like status in our lives.
We could include social media, the Internet, shopping, coffee, or even our gym memberships.
Anything we are tempted to find happiness and peace in other than God is a lie that will end up failing us.
Outside of Christ, we are only wretched.
But in Christ Jesus, united to him, we are completely forgiven of our constant failure to keep them, his constant and perfect keeping of them is credited to us.
Jesus died for us, knowing we would not only be tempted by these things but fall prey to them, too.
Sometimes, we dive right in without much convincing or swaying.
The hope of Christ Jesus assures us forgiveness when we turn from those idols and other gods- no matter how deep we’re in – and come back to the Lord, who is our all in all.
The first commandment addresses a very human struggle, unavoidable even to the most faithful. Following this commandment perfectly is not God’s goal.
He knows we can’t do that.
He is much more concerned with our hearts, our trust in and obedience to Him.
The Holy Spirit will convict us when we’re falling off the rails.
And when we are genuinely repentant to turn back to Jesus, over and over again, He eagerly welcomes us all, washes us with His living water, again and again.
God always has our best interest in mind.
He loves us so much He sacrificed His one and only Son Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.
He saved us from ourselves before we saw our first fleck of sunlight.
He knit us in our mother’s womb with such care, gifted us with talents, and gave each of us a unique purpose on this earth no one else can accomplish.
Our God loves us wholly, perfectly, and completely.
In Him, we find peace and happiness, hope and comfort, encouragement and love.
The true gauge of our lives is measured only by God, the Father, through our relationship with Him through Christ Jesus, our Savior.
He alone knows, and can plumb the deepest depths of our hearts and our souls.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
A Prayer to Have No Other Gods before God
Abba, Father.
You are the best Father to us. Yahweh, You are the path to peace, hope, and grace. Christ Jesus, Messiah, we come to the Father through You alone, by Your sacrifice to forgive our sins. Holy Spirit, You convict and counsel us when we fall away and stray from the guardrails intended to help us live our lives to the full. Help us to cling to this commandment, to love You alone, God. May our lives bring glory to You, today and always. Help us to grow a love for Your Word that inspires us to come to You daily through it, Father. You tell us to pray about everything. Let us each take Your wisdom into every day of our lives and let it fill our hearts to the brim. We pray to saturate our minds with Your wisdom so that we follow it in our daily lives, Father.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
א 2 “I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
The Ten Commandments are some of the most recognizable words in the entire Biblical Canon, yet they are often among the most misunderstood.
How has the coming of Jesus transformed these ancient laws?
Do these commandments still matter to Christians today in 2023?
What does it look like to obey them in today’s world?
What do they tell us about God and His Love for His beloved Children?
In this devotional message we see in verses 1-2 three truths about the Law: it’s given by God, it follows the Gospel, and it’s the path of freedom.
Loved By and Belonging to God
Adonai, The Lord who claims our allegiance is God, our Creator and Savior.
God delivered Israel when he brought them out of Egypt.
They had been slaves there for hundreds of years.
Faithful to his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:13-21; Exodus 3), God called this people his own and continued his work of making them into a nation through which all other nations would be blessed.
Then, many years later, through Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, God brought salvation to the world—and today God includes all who believe in Christ as his people, his worldwide family.
So if we believe in our Savior Christ, we belong to God, and we are His alone.
1 Peter 2:9-10 Complete Jewish Bible
9 But you are a chosen people,[a]the King’s cohanim,[b]a holy nation,[c]a people for God to possess![d] Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; before, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.[e]
1 Peter 2 puts it, we are a holy nation set apart to be “God’s special possession.”
From the beginning, it was love that created us and has bound us to God.
And since our relationship with God is based on love, God’s law is not a burden but a means of unconventional liberty towards showing love to our neighbors.
God, The Giver of Law and Liberty
Exodus 20:1-2King James Version
20 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
To faithfully read and respond to the Ten Commandments, we must first make a diligent effort to pray and study them, understand what they are and are not.
We find clarity in the truth that lies at their head: “I am the LORD your God.”
This poignant reminder of who God is precedes the instructions that follow.
In other words, the I am of God’s person grounds the you shall of His commands.
He can command us because of who He is.
The psalmist further expresses this:
“Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his” (Psalm 100:3).
God created us, and His being our Creator grants Him rights and authority over His creation.
Regardless of the efforts of our world to reject the creational handiwork of God, thus His authority over our lives, His role as our Ruler remains unthreatened.
He has made us; we are His.
When we should remember who spoke the law, we are in a position to grasp the purpose of the Ten Commandments as well as to understand what they are not.
First, the commandments are not a formal list of dos and don’ts given to restrict our personal freedoms.
God is NOT the Ultimate Cosmic Killjoy
God is not the Ultimate cosmic killjoy.
In fact, if you wanted to provide a heading for the Ten Commandments, you could instead call them “The Ultimate Guidelines to Freedom and Joy.”
They do not restrict our freedom but rather give us a blueprint for joy, showing us how life works best.
Second, the commandments are not intended as a ladder up which we climb to attain acceptance with God.
No such ladder has ever existed!
God brought His people out of slavery—from Egypt in the exodus, and from sin and death at the cross—before He called us to obey Him.
So we obey God because we have been “brought out by God,” not in order for us to somehow believe we could ever persuade Him to do so on our own time line.
If that were the case, why then did the bondage last as long as it did despite all the years of crying, pleading by the generations of Israelites held in bondage?
Until Moses had been prepared by 80 years of life at the pinnacle of authority, then at the bottom of authority for His “Burning Bush” encounter with God.
Rather than being rules that save us, the Ten Commandments serve as a mirror in which we should see ourselves, revealing the depths of our sin and our need for a Savior—and they show how we can all live every day to please our Savior.
Third, the Ten Commandments have not been rendered anywhere near obsolete by the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
When Jesus said the two greatest commandments were to love God and love our neighbor, He was summarizing the Ten Commandments (Mark 12:28-31 AKJV).
28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
What does it mean to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength?
The first four commandments tell us. [Exodus 20 verses 3-11]
What does it look like to love our neighbor as ourselves?
The final six commandments flesh that out. [Exodus 20 verses 12-17]
Jesus, master teacher that He was, summed up the ten with the two.
When we see all this, we are ready to read the Ten Commandments and let them transform our lives.
We must see the sin that the commandments reveal and respond in repentance and faith in the only One who fulfilled the law and offers Himself as our Savior.
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, will ensure that this law is not merely etched into our conscience but also inscribed upon our hearts and upon our souls.
Give yourselves unto the Lord our God and His way, and His Truth and His Life you and I will find everlasting love, everlasting joy and His everlasting liberty.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit …
Let us Pray,
Psalm 40The Message
40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.
4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God, turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,” ignore what the world worships; The world’s a huge stockpile of God-wonders and God-thoughts. Nothing and no one compares to you! I start talking about you, telling what I know, and quickly run out of words. Neither numbers nor words account for you.
6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you— that’s not what you’re after. Being religious, acting pious— that’s not what you’re asking for. You’ve opened my ears so I can listen.
7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming. I read in your letter what you wrote about me, And I’m coming to the party you’re throwing for me.” That’s when God’s Word entered my life, became part of my very being.
9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation, I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that. I didn’t keep the news of your ways a secret, didn’t keep it to myself. I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough. I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth For myself alone. I told it all, let the congregation know the whole story.
11-12 Now God, don’t hold out on me, don’t hold back your passion. Your love and truth are all that keeps me together. When troubles ganged up on me, a mob of sins past counting, I was so swamped by guilt I couldn’t see my way clear. More guilt in my heart than hair on my head, so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.
13-15 Soften up, God, and intervene; hurry and get me some help, So those who are trying to kidnap my soul will be embarrassed and lose face, So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable will be heckled and disgraced, So those who pray for my ruin will be booed and jeered without mercy.
16-17 But all who are hunting for you— oh, let them sing and be happy. Let those who know what you’re all about tell the world you’re great and not quitting. And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing: make something of me. You can do it; you’ve got what it takes— but God, don’t put it off.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen
5 Then the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with Moses as he proclaimed the Name of the Lord. 6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth (faithfulness); 7 keeping mercy and lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting (avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt) of the fathers upon the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers].” 8 Moses bowed to the earth immediately and worshiped [the Lord]. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor and lovingkindness in Your sight, O Lord, let the Lord, please, go in our midst, though it is a stiff-necked (stubborn, rebellious) people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your possession.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
What is God Like?
A little boy was working hard on drawing a picture from his Sunday School and his daddy came up from behind, asked him what he was working so hard on.
The son replied, “Drawing a picture of God.”
His daddy said, “You can’t do that, son, Nobody knows what God looks like.”
But the little boy remained undeterred, continued to draw for several minutes.
Without stopping his work, he looked at his picture with satisfaction and said very matter-of-factly, held it in his daddy’s face : “They will in a few minutes.”
We may never know what God’s physical features are, but from the beginning, He does reveal His attributes to us so we can each know what He is about, like.
In Exodus 34:6-7, rather than painting a picture a visual description of God, he writes a list about God’s invisible qualities.
From this, we learn God is merciful and gracious.
Keeping mercy and lovingkindness for the thousands.
He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He is abounding in goodness and truth
He is longsuffering and willing to forgive.
Forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.
We also learn that God will not spare the wicked from punishment.
We also learn that God expects us to automatically respond to who He is with an attitude of repentance and with worship that is worthy of being in His Presence.
“Show Me Your Ways Lord, That I May Find Favor”
Exodus 33:12-13Amplified Bible
Moses Intercedes
12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray you, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways so that I may know You [becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with You, recognizing and understanding Your ways more clearly] and that I may find grace and favor in Your sight. And consider also, that this nation is Your people.”
In Exodus 33:12-13, Moses asked God to teach him more about God’s ways.
Moses said,
“See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.”
In gracious response to Moses’ request for God to show him more about who He was, God shows Moses favor, God passes by Moses and proclaims the attributes about Himself, revealing to a much humbled Moses more about His character.
God wanted Moses (and us) to know that He is not an angry, impersonal God.
Instead, He is a God that loves us, unconventionally, while also being a just God who will hold His Children to account for their words and deeds and punish sin.
The result of God’s revelation to Moses was that Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped God because Moses knew all he needed to accomplish the task God had called him to do was to be in and remain in, the presence of God.
“Hear My Cry Lord, Show Me More of Your Ways”
When was the last time we cried out to God and said,
“Lord show me more of your ways?”
Just as God answered Moses, God will answer us today.
It might be through the Words of truth and life found through scripture that you read and study or in a sermon from your pastor or a song on the radio.
When our desire to know more about God is a longing that is from the heart, God will most abundantly, decisively, definitely and directly reveal Himself.
Where are the “Crying Christians?”
Isaiah 2:2-3 Amplified Bible
2 Now it will come to pass that In the last days The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be [firmly] established as the [a]highest of the mountains, And will be exalted above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house (temple) of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go out from Zion And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
“All nations” is one of my favorite phrases in the Bible.
God is an inclusive God. When he established a beachhead in our fallen world by starting a little nation called Israel, he was already thinking big.
God’s plan was to reach out through Israel to call all nations to himself.
Now, in 2023, Revival has broken out quite literally all over the world.
Thousands upon thousands are responding … they are crying out to God …
Onto the street Corners, into the streets of cities all across the globe …
Into College Campuses …
Into Churches whose pews had more accumulated dust than congregants.
Into malls and supermarkets …
Into the maximum security prisons …
Into the incarcerated for life hearts of violent life long criminals …
Into countries where Jesus Christ is not necessarily the most favored name.
The Word of God for the Children of God goes forth …
Repentance and Baptisms …
“Show us Your Ways, O’ Lord, that we may find Grace and Favor IN THY sight.”
Transformations …
The Message of Salvation through Christ and Christ alone.
God has a Plan …
Jeremiah 29:11-14Amplified Bible
11 For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you. 13 Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and I will [free you and] gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
Jeremiah 29:13 says,
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
How bad do you really want to know more about the Exodus 34:6-7 God?
How badly do you want people to know more about the Exodus 34:6-7 God?
How much do you long for the presence of the Exodus 34:6-7 God to lead you to what He’s called you to do?
With what effort do you seek the Goodness and Mercy, the Slow to Anger and abounding in Steadfast Love, the Faithful and Forgiving and Max Truth of God?
What effort do you bring your Worship, cry out to God: “Show Me Your Ways?”
What strength of plea arises from your heart and soul: “If I have found Favor?”
What percentage of your prayer life includes … “That I May Know God’s Grace?”
What percentage of your heart is “firmly prostrated” before the Lord, your God?
What percentage of thy soul is “squarely grounded” in the life of Savior Christ?
Percentage of thy only hope is saturated in nothing less than the blood of Jesus?
God’s promise of a gospel that reaches “to the ends of the earth” is being realized (Acts 1:8).
All nations are streaming toward the mountain of the Lord’s temple—not by pilgrimage to a physical temple in Jerusalem, but by coming to Jesus, the one alone who fulfills the temple’s deepest meaning of God’s presence among us.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing right now within us.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing right now among us.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing within our homes.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing within our families.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing among our friends.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing among our neighbors.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing within our schools.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing upon, within our streets.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing upon, within our prisons.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing within our communities.
Praise God for all the amazing things He alone is doing within our country.
Praise God for the amazing things He alone is doing right now in our world.
And thank Him that in a tragically shrinking world we can yet experience, be a thriving community with fellow believers from across all cultures and nations.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 150 The Message
150 1-6 Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies; Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his magnificent greatness; Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings; Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute; Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum, praise him with fiddles and mandolin. Let every living, breathing creature praise God! Hallelujah!
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to soprano voices. A Song.
46 God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable], A very present and well-proved help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas, 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains tremble at its roaring. Selah.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her [His city], she will not be moved; God will help her when the morning dawns. 6 The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered and were moved; He raised His voice, the earth melted. 7 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has brought desolations and wonders on the earth. 9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. 10 “Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Be Still and Know that I Am God.
We will tend to believe of being “busy” as something positive—something of a measure of our true success in life, maybe even a compliment—especially when we consider the negative implications of its opposites, being “idle” or “lazy.”
But we should not always assume, consider “busyness” as a Christian virtue.
Have you ever thought that busyness might just be a sign of Christian betrayal rather than Christian commitment?
We should definitely be thankful that many believers are busy for the Lord.
Giving, sacrificing our time and ourselves in service to God’s kingdom is an absolutely essential part of the believer’s life and the Christian experience.
But mere busyness does not necessarily equal faithfulness in the Christian life.
In a time of great social economic political upheaval and national crisis, God emphatically urged his people to simply “be still” and know that he was God.
Twice in Psalm 46, God’s people heard the assurance that the Lord Almighty was with them.
He would be their comfort and mighty fortress.
The key to experiencing that assurance, though, would be to approach God with a stilled heart and quiet trust.
When we actually withdraw from our busy lives to spend time with God, we find ourselves discovering, enjoying, experiencing the truest reality of his presence.
While we are not called by God to be either lazy or idle, neither are we called to a life of non-stop activity and service.
God’s gently emphatic invitation, “be still” unlocks for us the opportunity to experience the maximum allowable joy of actually, genuinely, knowing him.
What a blessed comfort this verse has been to multitudes of believers in Christ, down through the ages, who have heeded God’s invitation and rested on these words of the Psalmist and had their hearts stilled in the presence of the Lord.
What refreshment these simple words have bestowed on many little lambs who have listened to the voice of their Good Shepherd – that Great Shepherd of the sheep Who opens His arms wide to embrace all who will truly trust in His name.
But in context, we see another component to these words of reassurance.
We see a genuine plan to glorify His Name and to exult His Person among the nations of the world who rage against the God of heaven and His anointed King.
He is our Defense and our Defender against the enemies of our soul, and all who rest in Him find courage and strength.
He is our impenetrable refuge from the storms of life and our shelter in the midst of oppression, and we are called to be still and to know that He is God – for His purposes will never fail, He will be glorified throughout the whole earth.
It is of the greatest encouragement, both to His people Israel, and to His children of every age, that men who follow their own atheistic ‘will’ and construct their own anti-God plans, will finally be brought to nothing.
For God, and God alone will be exulted among the heathen and His purposes alone will come to fruition – but we who have trusted Him for salvation are to sit serenely in His presence, in quiet assurance, confidence and in godly trust.
Like the people of Israel in times past, Church-age believers are invited, called upon to ponder, remember the mighty deeds that God has done and to recall the myriad beyond myriads of miraculous, wondrous works that He has performed.
We are to rest confidently in the knowledge that He is our faithful God – the supreme Creator of all and Commander of the armies of heaven Who redeems us by faith in the shed blood of Christ, and will never leave us nor forsake us.
We are to:
rest peacefully in the truth of His Word and be still in His holy presence.
We are to know in our heart, by faith with thanksgiving, that He is the Lord our God Who alone pardons all our iniquities, heals all our diseases, Who redeems our life from the pit, and Who crowns us with lovingkindness and compassion.
He alone is our God Who satisfies our years with good things, renews our youth like the eagle.
He performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious… slow to anger and abounding in steadfast and immovable lovingkindness.
He is our Redeemer our Saviour and Friend.
He alone is our hope and strength, He will be exalted, for it is He who has made us, not we ourselves, for we are His beloved people, the sheep of His pasture.
Although the nations rage like the billows of the sea and the people imagine a vain thing against the Lord God Almighty, we are invited, called to be still in the presence of the Lord and to know Him in our heart by faith, with thanksgiving.
May we ponder what it means to be still in His presence and cease from all our strivings… and truly be at peace in His company – Whom to know is life eternal.
The Importance of How I View God
In light of the past few weeks’ of worldwide revival events, I have been taking more time to reflect and ponder.
My emotions have created a mixed bag, from skepticism to doubt, disbelief, questions, and indescribable awe.
On one hand, I decisively, definitely praise God if He is using these services to truly speak and to deeply ignite and inspire and move to transform lives.
I have not been to any of the services, but I have watched many of the streams and videos and I have been “stilled” and moved to tears of indescribable joy.
I know that God is powerful and can do anything He chooses, especially when we are not expecting it – but witnessing those students, images of people into the streets of our nation’s cities, into prisons and many international cities?
Such an inexplicably powerful experience to see the people acting on their belief that God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is “on the move.”
On the other, however, I think it’s a good and righteous thing to be cautious and careful with what we quickly interpret as come to believe to be the Spirit of God.
Even the Bereans in Acts 17 do this when Paul presents the gospel message to them.
Though eager to hear Paul’s teachings, they move to test them themselves in the Holy Scriptures, Study, Pray, Ponder, and then decide what is from God.
“As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men” (Acts 17:10-12, NIV).
Paul was known as an excellent teacher and an even better friend.
He truly cared that every person heard and had access to the Bible after his conversion from Saul to Paul.
This is why Paul felt called to attend as many missionary journeys as he did!
But no matter how great the speaker, one’s credibility and ability to represent the gospel should always be prudently studied analyzed in light of the Bible.
People are not the source of light themselves but are the ones pointing to the Light.
For this reason, 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 further notes,
“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil” (NIV).
While I am not one to debate or judge if these revival services are real or not, their appearance has caused me to think about how I view God.
And more importantly, if I understand Him.
How Do You View God?
I was born into the Evangelical United Church of the Brethren.
Growing up, I was raised in a traditional EUB Church until 1968 when the churches merged to become the United Methodist Church.
I remember every service, worship session, and layout for an event looked exactly the same.
Over time, I didn’t know why I was doing or saying what I did.
Being so young as I was [7 years old] I didn’t even understand the Apostle’s Creed that I recited by heart every Sunday.
Quickly, God and my relationship with Him became routine, just rehearsed words that needed to be prayed to maintain my perfection status.
By the time I reached high school, my father had remove us from the Methodist Church and we then became members of a local conservative Jewish Synagogue.
My view of a God as my father became fractured was immensely distorted, and I truly started to wonder and ask, where is God, Jesus in the midst of my separation?
Verses that call God our Abba, or Father, have been an enormous challenge for me to understand and accept.
I have wrestled for years with how God can be “One God,” for everyone, angry and loving, forgiving and punishing, reachable, yet above and beyond us all.
But it wasn’t until a recent “live” revival streaming session that I realized I should give my current view of God so much more contemplation – and that led me to todays verse, to ask these questions: “Be Still?” “Do I Understand Him?”
Do I Understand Him?
While I might dare to believe we would all like to say we know and understand God fully, from how He works to why things happen the way they do, I do not think nor do I believe that “understanding God” is even remotely possible.
It is possible to know and have an intimate, close, and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
This is why Jesus came and died for us, so we could partake in this personal relationship with Him.
That’s the core essence of the gospel message.
However, God never expected us to try and figure out all His ways.
Isaiah 55:8-9 notes, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, ESV).
1 Corinthians 2:15-16 furthers this point when it says:
“The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ” (ESV).
While we can obtain a mind like Christ’s, in purity, hope, and love, this does not mean that we will know and understand all that He does.
He is still God, and we are not.
He is still all-powerful, and we are not.
His ways are not our ways, and that is for a reason.
Should We Know It All?
When I was younger, and far more naïve than I am right now, I used to believe that if I knew “everything that would happen to me”, my life would be better.
If I always knew exactly what God wanted me to do, where He wanted me to go, and what He was doing, my life would be easier.
I look back now over the course of the last 43 years and I can only laugh.
As an anxious person, not only would I find all of this information to be rather overwhelming and paralyzing, but I’m confident that if I indeed “knew it all,”
two things would happen:
one, I would not rely on God to get through them,
two, I would try to convince Him, like Moses or Jonah, that I was never ever going to be the right person for whatever task He “dared” called me into.
In Jonah 1, beginning in verse 1, Jonah runs from God because of his fears.
God calls him to a high-caliber task, but Jonah doesn’t feel up for the journey.
Even later, when he runs back to God, he becomes angry at God for His grace, the same grace that was given to him earlier in the chapter.
Countless people in the Bible tried to understand God.
From Abraham, to Moses to Aaron, Job, and David and all the biblical writers.
But if I’ve learned anything from their interactions, it’s that God cannot be entirely understood, and while we can have a close fellowship with Him, He will still be above and beyond anything we could fully comprehend here on earth.
What Have I Learned About How I View God?
So what have I learned about how I view God?
I have learned that while God is a loving Father figure.
He is also so much more than I will ever be able to grasp.
He is unpredictable.
He is unlikely.
He moves in ways we’d think He would and ways we wouldn’t.
He is a quiet, still whisper but also a mighty and powerful storm.
He’s an oxymoron to those who don’t believe in Him and a mystery to those who do.
Today, I am learning that I have many more years of learning to go.
I will not understand Him entirely, but I’m choosing every day to grow closer to Him through prayer, reading the Bible, studying, meditating, and experiencing Him as I live – and something tells me that it’s okay-This is a life-long process.
How I view God is still growing.
I anticipate your view of God is growing as well.
I want to know Him as a Father.
I want you the reader to know Him as a Father.
I’ve known Him as a Friend.
I want you the reader to know Him as a Friend.
And I want to know and view Him for all that He is.
And I want you the reader to know and view Him for all that He is.
Even if it takes the maxed our entirety of a thousand lifetimes to experience:
“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.[Psalm 46:10-11 AMP]
The predicted and the unpredicted.
The known and the unknown.
However He is, that’s how I want to know and view Him.
Why ever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.
Whenever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.
Where ever He is, that is how I want to know and view Him.
Perhaps, you the reader, from wherever you are, will join in the joy?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Lord God Almighty, we rejoice that you are with us. Teach us to be still so that increasingly we can experience your presence in our lives through your Holy Spirit within. Father, I praise You that Your Word stands fast for ever and ever and that Your precious promises encourage me to rest in Your love and drink deeply from the Rock of my salvation. Draw near to every member of Christ’s Body and protect Your people Israel against the increasing roar of the nations. I pray for the salvation of the lost and for Your soon return, when Your name be exalted throughout all the earth and the nations will KNOW that You are God. I ask in the name of my Savior Jesus.
14 “Do not let your heart be troubled (afraid, cowardly). Believe [confidently] in God and trust in Him, [have faith, hold on to it, rely on it, keep going and] believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, because 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 again and I will take you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 And [to the place] where I am going, you know the way.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “[a]I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. Amen.
An experienced traveler knows the value of making hotel reservations.
They spend some time working on their itinerary – the quality of the hotel they will be staying in, the quality of the food from local restaurants, entertainment venues which will help them pass their time while they are away from family.
The very thought of a comfortable room, a comfortable bed, the possibility of a good meal waiting for us at your destination just makes one feel more relaxed.
If we have to be away from our families, we might as well know the best ways we will be able to relax, get our share of work and rest, enjoy that time away.
The trip goes ever more smoothly when you have those advanced reservations.
In our reading for today from John’s Narrative, Rabbi Jesus speaks of hospitable lodging at the end of a long trip.
To comfort his disciples then, He tells us, his followers now , not to be worried during our journey on the road to eternity, on the road to our heavenly abode.
We have to trust in the Father.
In his heavenly abode there are many rooms.
And the Son prepares a special place for us.
The best medicine for a heavenly travelers heart is to utterly trust in God.
As we study this passage, we discover two important facts.
The reservation confirmation for this heavenly lodging is going to be very simple.
BELIEVE IN GOD …
BELIEVE ALSO IN HIS SON, JESUS …
BELIEVE It’s forever safe for us in the hands of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Have you trusted him fully?
But, I can imagine that such a complete level of trust should have come from Rabbi Jesus’ disciples in that Upper Room after they have been told their Rabbi was going away – was going to be arrested, humiliated, brutalized, and killed.
I can also probably safely guess that if we were the ones in that Upper Room, our hearts too would be greatly disquieted and visibly shocked, out of sorts.
Setting aside the indescribable shock of learning your Messiah is about to be [voluntarily] walking down the roadway into his own grave, from which there is no return, is the lingering question for them of exactly what comes afterwards.
A Place, A heavenly place, A heavenly Abode …. A Mansion with many rooms.
Prepared by Jesus Himself … who will return for us one day … take us “home.”
What About this “Heavenly Mansion, Heavenly Home?”
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!” ― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Everyone wants to know about heaven and everyone wants to go there.
Except, who has actually been there and will testify, paint that masterpiece everyone will automatically point to and believe is the true and actual place?
Recent polls suggest that nearly 80% of all Americans believe there is a place called heaven.
I find that statistic encouraging because it tells me that even in this skeptical age there is something deep inside the human heart that cries out,
“There has got to be something more, something better.”
Something more than the pain and suffering of this life.
Something more than 70 or 80 years on planet earth. Something more than being born, living, suffering an dying, and then being buried in the ground.
Sometimes we talk about a “God-shaped vacuum” inside the human heart.
I believe there is also a “heaven-shaped vacuum,” a sense that we were made for something more than this life.
Ecclesiastes 3:11-13Amplified Bible
God Set Eternity in the Heart of Man
11 He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good as long as they live; 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and see and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
God Himself, despite our own self-opinions, has made everything and everyone beautiful and appropriate in their own time, their own unique, individual place.
God has also planted eternity, a sense of divine purpose into our human hearts.
And then gifted us with an insatiable desire we always refer to as “curiosity.”
Considering this notion of “curiosity” and the always and forever lingering question “what comes next for us when Jehovah Ra’ah the shepherd comes?”
It is reasonable to say and then to believe that …
“We were definitely made to live forever somewhere.”
In a very real sense we were made for heaven.
There is another fascinating statistic I should mention.
Not only do most Americans believe in heaven, most people expect to go there when they die.
If you took a microphone to the streets of where ever you live and asked, “Do you think you will go to heaven when you die?”
the vast majority of people would answer, “I hope so,” or “I think so,” or perhaps “I think I’ve got a good chance.
Not very many people would say they aren’t going to heaven.
Perhaps one modest point is in order.
Whenever you talk about living forever somewhere, it would help to know for sure where you are going.
After all, if you’re wrong about heaven, you’re going to be wrong for a long, long time.
With that background, I now consider some what I believe are some of the most frequently asked questions about heaven.
But before I jump in, I should make one preliminary point.
The only things we can know for certain about heaven are the things revealed in the Bible.
Everything else is just speculation and hearsay.
The Bible tells us everything we need to know and I believe it also tells us everything we can know for certain about heaven.
Where is Heaven?
There are three things I can try to tell you in answer to this question.
John 14:1-3Easy-to-Read Version
Jesus Comforts His Followers
14 Jesus said, “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me. 2 There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 After I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back. Then I will take you with me, so that you can be where I am.
1. The most important fact is that heaven is a real place.
Twice in three verses Jesus calls heaven a place.
He means that heaven (“my Father’s house”) is a real place, as real as New York, London or Chicago.
The place called heaven is just as real as the place you call home.
It’s a very real place which is why the Bible sometimes compares heaven to a mansion with many rooms (John 14:1-3) and sometimes to an enormous city teeming with people (Revelation 21).
2. The Bible also tells us that heaven is the dwelling place of God.
His throne is there, the angels are there, the Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven.
Philippians 3:20 says very plainly that “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
That’s why Jesus told the thief on the Cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise”(Luke 23:43).
3. Third (and I find this fact fascinating), the Bible hints heaven is not as far away as we might think.
Because heaven is a real place, we will sometimes think it must be outside our present universe – which would mean billions and billions of light years away.
However, it’s very clear that the early Christians understood that they would pass immediately from this life into the presence of Christ in heaven.
How can that be possible if heaven is “beyond the farthest universal bounds?”
Hebrews 12:22-24Amplified Bible
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels [in festive gathering], 23 and to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to God, who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in heaven) who have been made perfect [bringing them to their final glory], 24 and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant [uniting God and man], and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks [of mercy], a better and nobler and more gracious message than the blood of Abel [which cried out for vengeance].
Hebrews 12:22-24 tells us something amazing about what the gospel has done for us:
“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
The writer is here comparing Mt. Sinai with Mt. Zion.
Under the old covenant no one could come near God except under very strict conditions – and then only by one person – the High Aaronic High Priest .
That’s why the mountain shook with thunder and lightning.
Most of us have heard that heaven is a place where the streets are paved with gold, the gates are made of pearl, and the walls made of precious jewels.
Those images come from Revelation 21, which offers us the most extended picture of heaven in the entire Bible.
If you ask me if I believe those things are literally true, the answer is yes and no.
Yes, they are literally true but no, heaven won’t be anything like we imagine.
It will be infinitely greater.
When John writes about a street paved with gold, I do not doubt his words.
He simply reports what he saw in his vision.
Thus, I believe his words are literally true.
They are also meant to tell us that the things we value so highly in this life will be used to pave the roads in heaven.
Each of the stones and gems mentioned in the chapter represent something to the readers, have very well known and very specific spiritual qualities to them.
They are also meant to tell us that the things of this earth we value so highly in this life will be used to pave the roads in heaven.
You may also google each stone individually … Educate Yourself.
Jesus Has Our Eternal Travel Itinerary Already Prepared For Us
John 14:1-7 The Message
The Road
14 1-4 “Don’t let this rattle you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
5 Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”
6-7 Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”
Believe in God the Father …
Believe in God the Son …
Believe in God the Holy Spirit …
Believe in the Word of God for the Children of God …
Believe in the Life, Death, and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Loving Father, thank You for Christ’s wonderful words of comfort, “Let not your heart be troubled…” Thank You that God the Son came to earth as the Son of Man to bring comfort to my heart, healing to my soul, and live in my spirit. Enable me, in the power of the Spirit, to hold fast to this wonderful truth in Your Word, and I pray that You endow me with the wisdom, the words, and the grace, to pour forth Your great comfort to others who are facing their own difficult trials. Our Father, what a total joy it is to know that Jesus has prepared a place for us in your presence! Help us to overcome our worries and to trust in you fully as we journey with you. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
4 Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; 5 and Joshua said to them, “Cross over again to the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, 6 so that this may be a sign among you; when your children ask later, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall say to them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall become a memorial for Israel forever.”
Joshua 4:19-24 Amplified Bible
19 Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth [day] of the first month and encamped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 And those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. 21 He said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you crossed over, just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; 24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know [without any doubt] and acknowledge that the hand of the Lord is mighty and extraordinarily powerful, so that you will fear the Lord your God [and obey and worship Him with profound awe and reverence] forever.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
The Christian life is, in a sense, one big call to remember.
Our Lord Jesus, speaking of the new-covenant meal of Communion, told us, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19, emphasis added).
Every Lord’s Supper, then, offers us the opportunity to remember together all that is pictured in the bread and wine.
Deuteronomy similarly envisions a scenario in which a son asks his father;
“What is the meaning of the testimonies and statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?” (Deuteronomy 6:20).
The father responds by telling Israel’s story of redemption, highlighting that what God instructs is “for our good always” (v 24).
The book of Joshua, too, commends the same kind of commemoration when the Lord instructs the people to set up 12 memorial stones at the Jordan River, so the stones would become revival“to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”
God wanted His people then—and wants His people today—to ever remember His faithfulness and to tell, testify, confess, to teach others what He has done.
Such remembrances and memorials have always been a significant time to worship and praise for the miraculous works only Himself demonstrates.
But in a day [like now] with endless competing claims on our attention and affections, we need more reminders of God’s faithfulness than ever before.
It’s notable that the examples above are concrete and interpersonal.
We participate in the Lord’s Supper together, and it offers us a multisensory experience to help us remember.
The twelve stones at the Jordan River constituted a physical memorial.
The instruction of Deuteronomy encourages us to have conversations about God’s faithfulness and goodness in our homes.
Please note that the word “conversations” is PLURALIZED.
Meaning more than one –
But not just conversations … but full blown WORSHIP and PRAISE and PRAYER.
But not just one person conversing with the Lord, but a whole bunch of people, putting themselves in front of their “memorial stones” to remember the Lord.
For today’s Christians, every Sunday presents us with the opportunity to gather and remember with God’s people.
But we are going to need more than a weekly touchpoint to sustain ourselves.
Ask yourself:
What habits can I cultivate to remember God’s goodness?
How can I catalog His faithfulness to me and share that with others?
What “memorials” can I set up so that I can remember how God delivered me?
Opportunities to continuously see, instantly recall God’s faithfulness abound.
All we need to do is constantly, continuously look and instantly remember.
Revival at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky – 2023
I do hope and pray that Christians have stable and established faith in Christ.
I feel prayerful. Hopeful.
In fact, I’ve gotten choked up more than once over the last couple days at the thought that a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit could be happening among our Methodist brothers and sisters.
So I have mainly been praying two things:
1. Oh, God. Let it be. Let your mercy pour down in genuine revival, and let these reports be true. And let it not end in Wilmore.
2. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by.
Maybe you will be moved mightily to pray, praise and worship this way as well.
It is of the nature of revival that we cannot know the true extent of it until days, months, and even years afterward.
Acts 5:33-39Amplified Bible
Gamaliel’s Counsel
33 Now when they heard this, they were infuriated and they intended to kill the apostles. 34 But a Pharisee named [a]Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law [of Moses], highly esteemed by all the people, stood up in the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court) and ordered that the men be taken outside for a little while. 35 Then he said to the Council, “Men of Israel, be careful in regard to what you propose to do to these men. 36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody [of importance], and a group of about four hundred men allied themselves with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were scattered and came to nothing. 37 After this man, Judas the Galilean rose up, [and led an uprising] during the time of the census, and drew people after him; he was also killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men [merely human in origin], it will fail and be destroyed; 39 but if it is of God [and it appears that it is], you will not be able to stop them; or else you may even be found fighting against God!”
The distinguishing marks of revival may begin with an outpouring of the Spirit of grace, but that is only the commencement if the work of the Holy Spirit is to prove real and to be authentic and unstoppable, and a major mover of people.
“How do you tell if it is really a work of God? It’s not how high you jump, it’s how straight and how far you will walk when you finally land.”
The last great spiritual awakening in America took place during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
It was a nation divided by war, and things were very dark.
But when things are really dark, God’s light can shine brightly.
Cover headlines from Time magazine went from “Is God Dead?” in 1968 to “Jesus Revolution” in 1971.
What a difference a few years can make, especially when God intervenes.
America needs a spiritual awakening, and the church needs a revival.
The World needs a spiritual awakening ….
An awakening takes place when God sovereignly pours out His Spirit and it impacts a culture.
That is what happened during the Jesus Revolution, and that is what happened during multiple spiritual awakenings in the long history of these United States, predating its establishment as a nation.
A revival, on the other hand, is what the church must experience.
A revival occurs when the church comes back to life, when it becomes what it was always meant to be.
It’s a returning to passion.
I think many times we overly mystify the idea of revival.
We don’t really need to.
Another word we could use for revival is restoration, and that is what the church needs.
Speaking at a conference in 1917, R. A. Torrey gave this prescription for revival:
Let a few of God’s people, they don’t need to be many, get thoroughly right with God themselves—the rest will count for nothing unless you start right there; then let them band themselves together to pray for a revival until God opens the heavens and comes down. Then let them put themselves at God’s disposal to use them as He sees fit. That will bring a revival to any church, any community.
We can’t organize a revival, but we can agonize for it in prayer.
We can call on God to send it.
We can call on the people to come, to consider and to receive God [Acts 2:37-47]
Draw near unto the Lord our God and the Lord will draw near to us.
Psalm 73:28 Amplified Bible
28 But as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God; I have made the Lord God my refuge and placed my trust in Him, That I may tell of all Your works.
Ecclesiastes 5:1Amplified Bible
Your Attitude Toward God
5 Guard your steps and focus on what you are doing as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the [careless or irreverent] sacrifice of fools; for they are too ignorant to know they are doing evil.
Matthew 11:25-30Amplified Bible
Come to Me
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth [I openly and joyfully acknowledge Your great wisdom], that You have hidden these things [these spiritual truths] from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants [to new believers, to those seeking God’s will and purpose]. 26 Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 27 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Son except the Father; and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son [deliberately] wills to reveal Him.
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (renewal, blessed quiet) for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy [to bear] and My burden is light.”
James 4:8Amplified Bible
8 Come close to God [with a contrite heart] and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; and purify your [unfaithful] hearts, you double-minded [people].
Where is our Hope for Revival and Remembrance?
Psalm 85 Amplified Bible
Prayer for God’s Mercy upon the Nation.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
85 O Lord, You have [at last] shown favor to Your land [of Canaan]; You have restored [from Babylon] the captives of Jacob (Israel). 2 You have forgiven the wickedness of Your people; You have covered all their sin. Selah. 3 You have withdrawn all Your wrath, You have turned away from Your burning anger.
4 Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your indignation toward us to cease. 5 Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations? 6 Will You not revive us and bring us to life again, That Your people may rejoice in You? 7 Show us Your lovingkindness, O Lord, And grant us Your salvation.
8 I will hear [with expectant hope] what God the Lord will say, For He will speak peace to His people, to His [a]godly ones— But let them not turn again to folly. 9 Surely His salvation is near to those who [reverently] fear Him [and obey Him with submissive wonder], That glory [the manifest presence of God] may dwell in our land. 10 Steadfast love and truth and faithfulness meet together; Righteousness and peace kiss each other. 11 Truth springs from the earth, And righteousness looks down from heaven. 12 Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, And our land will yield its produce. 13 Righteousness will go before Him And will make His footsteps into a way [in which to walk].
In a worship song from the early 2000s, singer/songwriter Brian Doerksen sings,
“Jesus, hope of the nations/ Jesus, comfort for all who mourn/ You are the source of heaven’s hope on earth.”
As believers in Christ, we recognize and worship Jesus as the true hope of the world, and yet it’s astounding how often we pin our hopes on human beings.
In all of our history books, it is clear that people are far more inclined to find hope in leaders, politicians, and celebrities rather than in the one true God.
Why do we do this?
Proverbs 11:4-8 warns that placing hope in humans is futile because any human power will come to nothing.
As the apostle Paul tells us, “There is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1).
By saying this, Paul is assuring believers that in all situations, even in the midst of national turmoil’s and global crises, God is the one who holds all authority.
Any human who has “power” has it only because God allows it to be so.
2 Chronicles 7:1-3Amplified Bible
The Shekinah Glory
7 When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the [[a]Shekinah] glory and brilliance of the Lord filled the house. 2 The priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory and brilliance of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw how the fire came down and saw the glory and brilliance of the Lord upon the house, they bowed down on the stone pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever.”
In other words, through our continuous praise and worship, all our hopes and all our desires must lie with the Only One who is on the throne of the universe.
Our prayers and our worship must be oriented toward Christ, for he is truly the only hope—the only one who can change minds and transform hearts, disperse powers, and bring edification, and redemption and restoration, to bring revival.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray ….
Creator God, you made every living thing, and you hold all things together. Lord, we your Children now pray for you bring restoration to this world that desperately needs your leadership and authority. Please use Your church and their lives as catalysts for renewal, restoration and revival. We have heard of Your great works; please do them again, “stones of remembrance” in our day. And all for the glory, honor and praise of Jesus Christ, our only crucified, Resurrected and returning Lord, Savior and King.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
12-14 I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
How passionate are we about sharing the Gospel?
How much or how little are we willing to extend ourselves, sacrifice and take risks so that unbelievers may become followers of Jesus and believers may become that much better equipped to share the good news of our salvation?
As we approach the Lenten Season and consider these questions, are we helped by the example of the apostle Paul, who heroically, single-mindedly, pursued God’s call through all manner of difficulties and persecutions and throughout the Mediterranean world—all so that others may come to know Christ as Lord?
If nothing else, we we learn that nothing would stop Paul from preaching and teaching about Jesus—not a trial before royalty, a storm at sea, a shipwreck, a poisonous snake bite, chains, or even prolonged wrongful imprisonment.
Paul was hyper-zealous to make all of his days and deeds count for the Gospel.
His dramatic missionary journeys, and finally his journey to Rome to face down the Roman authorities on their home ground, illustrates God’s faithfulness and encourages us to see our circumstances as “God” opportunities for us to throw all of ourselves into our own mission, ministry journey’s to share the Gospel.
As I sit on a pillow in my dining room recovering from “urological surgery,” yesterday, my only thoughts were to start writing another devotional entry.
I can sit here in some fair measure of discomfort with my God, my Savior and the Holy Spirit and my caregiving wife at my side, to feel enormously blessed, so fully and completely grateful for what is stirring me to write and not rest.
God has formed and shaped out a place of such an enormous and intense joy in my heart, in my soul just for sharing of His Gospel, no matter the discomfort.
I have this ministry and mission of writing which Reverend John Wesley states:
“I look on all the world as my parish, thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of the world I am in … I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.”
Even if my only place in the world is my very own dining room in my own home.
As of now, by God’s grace, the matchless power and purpose of His scriptures, His own grand plan, [Isaiah 55:10-13] these writings have reached 125 nations.
I cannot speak to the work God has done, but I am still writing after 18 months.
For GOD my Savior and for the Sake of the Gospel
Philippians 1:12-14Amplified Bible
The Gospel Is Preached
12 Now I want you to know, [a]believers, that what has happened to me [this imprisonment that was meant to stop me] has actually served to advance [the spread of] the good news [regarding salvation]. 13 My imprisonment in [the cause of] Christ has become common knowledge throughout the whole [b] praetorian (imperial) guard and to everyone else. 14 Because of my chains [seeing that I am doing well and that God is accomplishing great things], most of the [c]brothers have renewed confidence in the Lord, and have far more courage to speak the word of God [concerning salvation] without fear [of the consequences, seeing that God can work His good in all circumstances].
Follow Paul through Acts and he leaves you breathless.
He’s constantly on the move, going from place to place.
One moment he’s stitching tents together, then he’s bringing Eutychus back to life, and then he survives a snakebite and heals the sick on Malta.
It’s almost as if you can’t imagine ever being able to keep up with him.
Surely the worst thing that could ever happen to someone like Paul is to be stuck in one house for two years.
But at the conclusion of Acts, that’s exactly how we find him (Acts 28:30-31).
You can just imagine the devil’s response to Paul’s imprisonment:
Now I’ve shut him down! That’ll get rid of him. He won’t be able to go anywhere for a long while. He’ll just shrivel up and die a prisoner.
Not a chance!
It is during Paul’s imprisonment that he penned some of his most noteworthy letters under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—letters that God is still using to transform lives these long and tornado twisting, storm driven 2,000 years later.
And, remarkably, the gospel has continually advanced not only despite Paul’s chains but because of them.
Paul was likely very different from other prisoners.
The soldiers who guarded him would have probably said to one another,
He is the most remarkable person we’ve ever had. We’re used to people constantly cussing, screaming, agitating, and complaining. But this Paul has joy and purpose, and he just preaches!
As a result of Paul’s daily ministry among these soldiers, word began to spread throughout the entire palace guard: The reason this guy is a prisoner is because of Jesus.
They got the point: He’s chained to us, he says, because he’s chained to this man Jesus Christ.
And it appears that some of these guards not only heard the gospel but responded to it.
As they were redeployed throughout the Roman Empire, arriving at their new posts as new men, the gospel would advance to different places through them.
And so Paul’s imprisonment, which at first appeared to be diametrically opposed to the spread of the gospel, actually proved to be essential to it.
You do not need to be a prisoner, a missionary, or an apostle to be used by God in spreading the gospel, nor do you need to wait for all the circumstances in your life to line up just as you want them to before you simply talk about Jesus.
Whether you are in your home, prison, a hospital, an office, a field, or wherever, and whether you realize it or not, you are never far from someone who needs to hear the amazing story of God’s grace.
What are the situations you face that you naturally see as obstacles to sharing the gospel, and how might they in fact be opportunities?
Who are the lost and longing people that God has placed in your life today?
They need God.
And they might only meet Him through your loving, sacred, holy boldness.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 40The Message
40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.
4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God, turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,” ignore what the world worships; The world’s a huge stockpile of God-wonders and God-thoughts. Nothing and no one compares to you! I start talking about you, telling what I know, and quickly run out of words. Neither numbers nor words account for you.
6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you— that’s not what you’re after. Being religious, acting pious— that’s not what you’re asking for. You’ve opened my ears so I can listen.
7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming. I read in your letter what you wrote about me, And I’m coming to the party you’re throwing for me.” That’s when God’s Word entered my life, became part of my very being.
9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation, I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that. I didn’t keep the news of your ways a secret, didn’t keep it to myself. I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough. I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth For myself alone. I told it all, let the congregation know the whole story.
11-12 Now God, don’t hold out on me, don’t hold back your passion. Your love and truth are all that keeps me together. When troubles ganged up on me, a mob of sins past counting, I was so swamped by guilt I couldn’t see my way clear. More guilt in my heart than hair on my head, so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.
13-15 Soften up, God, and intervene; hurry and get me some help, So those who are trying to kidnap my soul will be embarrassed and lose face, So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable will be heckled and disgraced, So those who pray for my ruin will be booed and jeered without mercy.
16-17 But all who are hunting for you— oh, let them sing and be happy. Let those who know what you’re all about tell the world you’re great and not quitting. And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing: make something of me. You can do it; you’ve got what it takes— but God, don’t put it off.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria, In Excelsis Deo, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia Amen.
