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."
3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
4 Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” 5 and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.
6 And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
8 And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Hearing the voice of God is something that everyone, Christian or not, wants to experience.
Although we all want to hear God, actually doing it, for most of us, is sort of a mysterious process.
We often don’t know how to hear God consistently, if at all.
Yet hearing and understanding what God is saying is critical for our spiritual development.
As we look at people in the Bible who heard from God, Samuel was one of the best.
The story of Samuel is found in 1 Samuel 3:1-10.
Samuel, who was just a boy, was living and serving the priest in the temple.
We are told that, “the word of the LORD was rare in those days” (v.1 ESV).
Not many people were hearing the voice of God.
Yet this rare young man was about to experience something people in the land of Israel had not seen nor had heard for quite some time; Samuel was about to clearly and succinctly hear his name called from the LORD three times.
As we look at this story about Samuel, we can discern there are six steps which can take some of the mystery out of clearly, succinctly hearing the voice of God:
1. Position Yourself Close to God
Samuel set his bed up in the temple, “where the ark of God was” (v.3 ESV).
Samuel had never heard God speak before.
Samuel did not know what to expect, but what he did know was that if he hung around the temple, God would eventually show up.
Through Bible Study, personal devotions, times of fellowship, and regular church attendance, are we now putting ourselves in a place where God is?
2. Find a Place of Regular Service to God
In v.1 it says, “Samuel was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli” (ESV).
If we want to hear the voice of God, we have to be doing the things of God.
If we’re not serving, don’t wonder why we are not hearing the voice of God.
3. Listen for God’s voice
Eli was “lying down in his usual place” (v.2 NIV), too set in his own ways, too set, too accepting in the past lack, the rarity of revelation, too preoccupied with his own, son’s interests, his own physical and spiritual limitations to hear God.
When God began speaking, he was not used to listening.
He too easily accepted the unchangeable; the precious rarity of God’s voice.
Status Quo was the Status Quo …
Who before him had taught and mentored him on how to listen for God?
Many times to hear what God is saying we have to slow down and take time to get close to God.
We have to put aside our interests and lean in to hear what God is saying.
How close was Eli to God?
How accepting was Eli that even at his current season and stage and condition of life, he could still get closer to God – “teaching an old soul new ‘God’ truths?
How accepting are we ourselves, in our current seasons, stages and conditions of life, that we too can still get closer to God – “teaching us new ‘God’ truths?
4. When God Calls, Respond Eagerly
When we hear our parents calling to us, we look to respond eagerly.
When we hear our spouses calling to us, we look to respond eagerly.
When we hear our children calling to us, we look to respond eagerly.
When Samuel first heard his name called, even in the middle of the night he got out of his bed, rushed to Eli’s bedside to inquire of Eli: “why have you called?”
This repeated itself three times until Eli finally realized it was truly God calling.
When Samuel heard, recognized the voice of the Lord he was immediately up and moving (v.4) and declaring – “Speak Lord, for Your Servant is Listening!”
If we want to hear the voice of God, we need to be not just ready to put ourselves into action eager to do what He tells us – we need to be obedient enough to do it!
James 1:17-22 English Standard Version
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.[a]18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Hearing and Doing the Word
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
5. When God Speaks, Obey Him
Starting in this passage and throughout the rest of his life, Samuel consistently obeyed the Lord.
No matter what God told him, Samuel did it.
From that point on, “the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground” (1 Samuel 3:19 ESV).
For us, probably the quickest way to turn off God’s voice is to disobey him.
6. Read and Study the Word of God
After God spoke to him in this passage, the Bible tells us,
“The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His Word”(1 Samuel 3:21 NIV).
If you want to hear from God, you have to know what the Bible says.
God is speaking.
God wonders to what extent we are genuinely listening.
God wonders to what extent we are genuinely hearing Him.
He wants to give you wisdom to lead your family, at your job, in your church, and in every area of life.
The questions we have to be asking ourselves is not whether God is speaking, but whether or not we are hearing Him, and whether or not we are listening?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Savior Jesus, Giver of boundless peace and wisdom, I so easily get distracted when I’m trying to focus and hear your Holy Spirit. Help me to quiet my mind in the middle of my busy life. Help me to pause and to make space to listen to the most important voice of all. Empower me to be a good listener to the gentle whispers of your Spirit. Help me follow the example of Jesus, who would slip away in the evening or the early morning to be alone with you. Teach me to listen, to hear and to abide in you. 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.
11 Lives of careless wrongdoing are run-down shacks; holy living builds soaring cathedrals.
12-13 There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell. Sure, those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Reflections: 20/20 Hindsight and Run Down Cabins in the Woods
Many of us have had moments when we have looked back on a past decision and wondered, “How did I ever think that was a good idea?”
Yet at the time, that decision or choice probably seemed right to us.
There’s a reason why people say, “Hindsight is 20/20.”
This means that you and I can often see a situation more clearly (as with 20/20 vision) after it has passed and you have had time to learn and also lament from some of the choices or lack of choices you have or have not made.
Our own ability to see clearly in the present moment is limited.
And what appears to be a right decision or right thinking in the moment can sometimes do more harm than good.
There is a reason why people also seriously lament that “Hindsight is 20/20.”
Paint a portrait “Hindsight is 20/20” for your living room wall might look strikingly, an infinity mirrored vision of one man looking at his own back.
illustration of man reflecting himself in the mirror, loop surreal concept
9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift. [Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 Message]
Solomon was a wise son who paid attention to his father, David.
He also sought to be a wise father by sharing his wisdom with his own sons and compiling his own set of righteous guidelines and the learned sayings of others, into a compendium, then, today, and tomorrow, is called the Book of Proverbs.
He did this to encourage his own children towards righteous living.
Reverence for the Lord our God and trust in His Word is the foundation upon which true wisdom is based and we in the Church age have discovered that in our Savior Christ Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Living and Learning from our wise and foolish choices in life are of a true and lasting benefit and these ‘Proverbs of Solomon’ are an amazing collection of maxims for profitable living – ancient learning from the wisest of the wise.
They cover an extraordinarily wide range of subject matter which can surely help the reader to prevent foolish behaviour and ungodly decisions in areas like relationships and friendships, laboring, working, finances, and a fruitful life.
This not only pleases God and demonstrates faith in His Word, but gives every day measured advice on peaceful living while avoiding troublesome situations.
Like much of the book of the Proverbs, Chapter 14 is written in couplets which contrast wise and foolish behaviour.
We read a wise woman builds her home, but the foolish woman tears it down; the one who walks in uprightness fears God, while the devious despises Him.
This chapter also compares and contrasts a trustworthy witness with a false one, bitterness with joy, also foolish and wise attitude towards sin, and the inevitable destruction of wicked men with the upright man, who will flourish.
In this verse the couplet has a poignant twist, demonstrating the truly chilling consequences of self-deception.
It explains that a bad decision… which may seem to be a good and wise choice from a human perspective, will in fact result in disaster.
“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
The collection of people in this proverb are deluded and devoid of true wisdom and understanding, which comes from God alone.
By falsely judging a situation to be beneficial, they find that the thing which appeared so enticing and which they thought was so right, had the opposite effect and only brought them to disaster.
This saying is a ‘stand-alone’ truth that is applicable to every man, but in order to discover the godly way to go, the correct choices to make, the true path that leads to life and light, peace and hope… the entire book of Proverbs needs to be seriously taken into account for it records every aspect of living a godly life.
Perhaps the key to the entire book of Proverbs, upon which all every piece of good advice is founded, is the truth Solomon taught his son in chapter 3,
Proverbs 3:5-8 English Standard Version
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 8 It will be healing to your flesh[a] and refreshment[b] to your bones.
Guidance for godly and ungodly living can be found throughout these Proverbs and it is attributed to lifelong observations of Solomon – the wisest of the wise by God’s gift [1 Kings 3:5-15] but also the very pinnacle of fools [1 Kings 11:1-4]
Illustration of man, face hidden, looking down at the end of his life’s surreal path
Jesus also spoke to the interested, disinterested, about 20/20 hindsight …
20/20 Examining Our Faith and How We Choose to Look at Things
Matthew 6:25-34 New King James Version
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one [a]cubit to his [b] stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not [c]arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Six years ago, in the atrium of our church one Sunday, I noticed one of our senior members standing quietly.
Her face wasn’t happy, but it was welcoming. I understood the look of tiredness and concern he showed.
Her husband of 63 years had just recently passed away from Lung Cancer.
She told me her 60 year old son was battling several serious health issues.
At 88 years of age, it was obvious that her own health was not robust.
And yet he was there, at church among the worshipers.
I reached out to shake her hand and asked, “How are you doing?”
Her less-than-enthusiastic response: “Okay, I guess.”
After a pause she stated bluntly, “I don’t care about anything anymore.”
Caught by Surprise, I asked, “Nothing?”
She shifted a bit and then said, “There was a time when I liked boats and cars and lots of things.
I got excited about them.
They kept our family together, gave our lives genuine meaning,
But they don’t mean anything to me anymore.”
I began to understand.
Material things no longer grabbed her attention.
Desire for stuff no longer preoccupied her.
As her husband suffered for so long with cancer, lost his ability to relate to others, and as he increasingly depended on others to care for his every need, she had grown to know the wearing and wearying effects of caring for him.
That she had to sometimes also care for her ailing son at the same time,
Her outlooks and perspectives on life had drastically changed.
Things decreased in importance, and relationships—with God, with family, with church—became her priority.
This sister was learning more deeply the meaning of seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and her quiet strength was truly heartwarming.
That at any age we should come to such a time in life where we are able to sit down long enough with ourselves and our Savior Jesus and seriously converse.
20/20 Hindsight … All Those Choices that Seemed Right to Us
Jesus warned his disciples that following him would not be easy or even look like a good idea at times.
He spoke about the costs of being his disciple, but he also promised that his way leads to life.
He said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
In other words, there will be many right and wrong choices that appear to be right (even religiously) and seem more attractive than the way of Jesus, but in the end they will bring grief and misery and destruction, poverty and despair.
We cannot just stop living life, making choices and making decisions simply because we fear for the future – we first line up all our infinite regrets in a row.
A spiritually stagnant Christian …
A steadfastly immovable, ice cold, immobile, spiritually stagnant Christian …
A steadfastly immovable, ice cold, immobile, spiritually stagnant Church …
Struggling mightily to rediscover their first choice, and how and why and where and when all salvation came by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, for there is no other name given among men whereby we must each be saved…
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Hoy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Heavenly Father, thank You for my great salvation in Christ and that in Him is found all wisdom and knowledge. Thank You for the many principles and precepts that are so helpful and encouraging in the book of Proverbs. I pray that throughout my life, I would Come to more wisely apply its wise concepts and trust in You in all things, and not seek to choose to do anything according to my own limited understanding. Give me discernment I pray, keep me from all forms of self-delusion and self-deception. May I never be foolish enough to journey along the paths that may seem right to me but ends in destruction. Thank You that You have promised to guide my steps and may my ear be ever open to Your direction. This I ask in Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
One Possible Choice When Choosing Your Source for Help In Daily Living
12 “Even now,” says the Lord, “Turn and come to Me with all your heart [in genuine repentance], With fasting and weeping and mourning [until every barrier is removed and the broken fellowship is restored]; 13 Rip your heart to pieces [in sorrow and contrition] and not your garments.” Now return [in repentance] to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness [faithful to His covenant with His people]; And He relents [His sentence of] evil [when His people genuinely repent]. 14 Who knows whether He will relent [and revoke your sentence], And leave a blessing behind Him, Even a grain offering and a drink offering [from the bounty He provides you] For the Lord your God?
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Lent Begins … Does Hope Also Begin For Hurting Hearts?
In a large number of churches today, the ancient words of today’s Scripture reading will be read every year in the traditional Ash Wednesday liturgy.
Ash Wednesday, which falls this year on February 22, is the first day of Lent, a season in the church calendar that invites believers in God and non-believers as well, to maybe start paying special attention to the suffering and death of Jesus.
Why are these instructions about rending hearts and not garments significant?
In the Bible the rending and tearing of clothes is a sign of mourning and is often accompanied by the placing of ashes on one’s head.
Biblically, Jacob tore his clothes when he heard a report that his son, Joseph, had been killed (Genesis 37:34).
And when young King Josiah heard the words of the Book of the Law after it was rediscovered in the temple, he tore his robes as a sign of grief over the nation’s sin (2 Kings 22:11).
The Patriarch Job, when he had suddenly lost everything – including his health, he sat down on the ground and covered himself from head to toe with ashes.
Sometimes, the harsh and harshest realities of life will cause us to sit ourselves own on the ground and desire to “cover ourselves from head to toe with ashes.
Sometimes the reality of sin is enough to break our hearts.
The season of Lent reminds us that no one felt the pain of sin more than Jesus.
Jesus had already given up everything he was at home with His Heavenly Father to come to us and to offer up to His maxed out example of genuine Godly living. [John 3:16-18, Philippians 2:1-11]
John 3:16-18 The Message
16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
Philippians 2:5-11 The Message
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
When he was arrested, beaten, humiliated, crowned then crucified, Jesus was fully and completely, utterly, publicly stripped of his dignity and his garments.
More than that, his heart broke under the weight of our sin.
Joel’s reading for today is God’s invitation to return to him is answered by our looking to the cross of Christ, asking forgiveness through his sacrifice for us.
God promises to come unto us, wash away our sin and give us new life through the One whose torn garments, broken heart bring 100% healing for the world.
We Must Answer the Question: Will I Give My Heart Any Hope?
Joel 2:12-14 The Message
Change Your Life
12 But there’s also this, it’s not too late— God’s personal Message!— “Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!”
13-14 Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God, your God. And here’s why: God is kind and merciful. He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot, This most patient God, extravagant in love, always ready to cancel catastrophe. Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now, maybe he’ll turn around and show pity. Maybe, when all’s said and done, there’ll be blessings full and robust for your God!
Joel is the prophet who compares the coming Day of the Lord with a succession of locust invasions, which sequentially devour every crop and all vegetation in an unrelenting, visibly shocking, path of progressive destruction.
Both grain and fruit harvests fail due to the devastating onslaught of this four-pronged locust infestation.
The total destruction of Israel’s wheat and barley crops, along with the failure of the entire fruit harvest, causes all the people and priests alike to mourn and lament bitterly at how hopeless everything had become before their very eyes.
Not only were the priests instructed to mourn and call for a sacred assembly, but the entire nation was commanded to fast and to cry out to the Lord their God, in sincere repentance of heart.
Israel failed to heed the past prophetic warnings of earlier prophets.
Joel’s heartfelt appeal for repentance, his warning of coming destruction, is one more demonstration of the nation’s continued rebellion against the God of their forefathers, their refusal to heed His Word and obey the covenant promises they made at Mount Sinai.
What the chewing locusts left was eaten by the swarming locusts.
And what they did not devour, was taken by the crawling locusts and then the consuming ones.
In like manner, the prophesied day of the Lord will be one of the greatest destructions to befall the rebellious nation of Israel.
It will be a time such as the world has never seen, nor would ever see again.
However, it will be a time when Israel calls out to the Lord and He will hear and rescue His people.
The entire passage compares the advance and destruction of this terrible locust invasion with speedy horses.
It likens them to a vast army of marching men of war who steadily advance with unrelenting menace, in a strict formation – but who plunder everything in their path like a well organized band of marauders and thieves.
Israel’s rebellion against the Lord, which included sloth and drunkenness, resulted in the barrage of these devouring locusts.
And the consequences of their continued rebellion, apostasy, and disobedience, would result in judgement – the coming ‘Day of the Lord’.
Joel’s entire prophecy was given to the nation of Israel.
Although it was partially fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when many men of Israel repented of their sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the full and final fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy, which begins with a day of thick darkness and progresses into the glories of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ,
will take place at the end of Daniel’s 70th week i.e. the Great Tribulation, which is sometimes called the Time of Jacobs Trouble.
The continued grace and mercy of God can be seen in His divine appeal to the people of Judah to repent of their sins and return to the Lord – for we read:
“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning.”[verse 12]
Both for the nation of Israel and for unsaved Gentiles alike, the precious truth of this passage is that it is never too late for sinners or backsliders to turn away from their sins, to return to the Lord with all their heart, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation.
It is a beautiful demonstration the goodness, grace, and mercy of our long-suffering God, remains fully open to ALL who will simply trust in His Word,
remember His goodness, genuinely return to Him with heart and soul – and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.
It shows that fasting, with weeping and morning, is often associated with true repentance of heart.
And although, there is no written covenant, set rules, or legalistic regulations which are required of Church-age believers, it is very important and wise to take note of things that outwardly demonstrate an inward change of heart.
That is why the LORD says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.— Joel 2:13 NLT
God is far more concerned about hearts genuinely loving Him and longing to be in a relationship with Him than He is about a lot of external religious trappings.
The Hebrew Testament prophets emphasized that God’s people often lost their hearts to what was false and only gave lip service to God in their rituals.
Jesus also emphasized that God wanted us to love Him and serve Him from our hearts and not just by going through religious motions.
For us to make the max best decision possible “hope for our hearts,” We must hear several of Joel’s key phrases passionately speaking God’s invitation to us:
“Give me your hearts…”
“Don’t tear your clothing… tear your hearts instead.”
God pleads for us to return to Him, wholeheartedly:
“Turn to me now, while there is time.”
Why would the Almighty God plead with His lowly creations?
Because YHWH loves us and longs for us to come home to Him, and love Him — heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Our “Abba” Father is full and maxed out of unfailing love[John 3:16-18]
even now yearns to be utterly received, “merciful and compassionate”to us!
The amazing, awe-inspiring truth is as simple and straightforward as it is glorious: The Creator of the universe, with all of its vastness, mystery, and beauty, 100% knows us and longs for us to draw near to Him and know Him.
Let’s come to this God seeking to hug Him, and embrace Him and love Him and know Him and experience Him exactly as we are now loved and known by Him!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Merciful God, you called us forth from the dust of the earth; you claimed us for Christ in the waters of baptism. Look upon us as with mercy and forgiveness as we enter these next Forty Days bearing the mark of ashes, and torn and rendered hearts and please bless the journey through the desert of Lent to the blessed font of rebirth. As we remember our mortality and seek penitence today, we know you to be a God who is rich in forgiveness and abounding in steadfast love, love that culminates in eternal life with you. Guide our steps this Lent, so that we might find greater fulfillment in your promises and better serve others with a heart that’s reflective of you. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
11 In the Lord I take refuge [and put my trust]; How can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to your mountain; 2 For look, the wicked are bending the bow; They take aim with their arrow on the string To shoot [by stealth] in darkness at the upright in heart. 3 “If the foundations [of a godly society] are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”
4 The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes see, His eyelids test the children of men. 5 The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, And His soul hates the [malevolent] one who loves violence. 6 Upon the wicked (godless) He will rain coals of fire; Fire and [a]brimstone and a dreadful scorching wind will be the portion of their cup [of doom]. 7 For the Lord is [absolutely] righteous, He loves righteousness (virtue, morality, justice); The upright shall see His face.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
What does it mean to ‘rend the heart,’ and not just the clothing?
Much more than simply giving a whole array of apologies for bad behaviour.
David the Psalmist is urging the people to remember God’s covenant promises.
It’s easy to make outward shows of penitence without reaching inward to the heart.
David calls for the same depth of repentance which Jesus calls for.
To that end, as we once again prepare ourselves for tomorrow, Ash Wednesday for me to reminds each of us that Lent is so very much more than simply a time apologize for our “weaknesses” so just to ‘get my life back on track,’ as it were.
Lent is a time of focusing what ought to be our habit of seeing the heart anyway.
Above all, Lent reminds us of the character of God, which we all too easily lose sight of when we stray from those habits of the heart: forgiving and gracious, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
But, once we commit ourselves to the works of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, once we send our hearts into engaging with the sword of God’s Word,
It is promised by the Lord that changes and transformations will take place.
When those changes and transformations start and God is getting under our skins, into our souls, there is no stopping God from achieving His desired ends.
It is only a matter of choosing our desired response – run to self or run to God.
Build our own Castles, taking safe refuge in our own self defense mechanisms, or as the Prophet Isaiah predicted would one day have to happen to humanity;
Isaiah 2:2-5Amplified Bible
2 Now it will come to pass that In the last days The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be [firmly] established as the [a]highest of the mountains, And will be exalted above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house (temple) of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go out from Zion And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, And will mediate [disputes] for many peoples; And they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up the sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.
5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
In our hearts an in our souls …
The Mountain of the Lord is firmly established as the Highest Mountain.
When the people say … come, let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord,
To the House of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us His ways …
That we may walk in His paths…”
Then the Revival of our Hearts and our Souls may truly have their re-birth.
O’ House of Jacob …
O’ Body of Christ …
O’ Child of God …
COME …
Choose This Day Where You Should Run For Refuge
11 In the Lord I take refuge [and put my trust]; How can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to your mountain; [Psalm 11:1]
When it comes to degrees and measures of crises in our life, it is not a matter of whether they will come but when and then just how hardcore they will be.
When they do arrive in whatever capacity and catastrophe, our response will be to flee to a safe refuge— a safe haven somewhere or something or someone we implicitly trust will keep us safe and protect us from all the pounding storms.
So the question then will not be whether we will flee but where we will flee to.
Some of us will take the advice of David’s friends in Psalm 11.
These advisors urged him to “flee like a bird to your mountain.”
Difficulty had come for David, seemingly in the form of threats to his life, with wicked people preparing to aim their arrows at him (Psalm 11:2).
The counsel he received was essentially to head for the hills, to get away, to go somewhere that removed him from adversity as fast as he could if not faster.
David did not heed this advice.
But what about you?
But what about me?
While you and I likely will never face armed foes threatening you with violence, and for those whose lives intersected with combat zones, crisis will come to you someday, in one form or another, in some measure and some degree or another.
It could be social pressure, peer pressure, to compromise biblical convictions, an unwanted diagnosis, or intense relational or financial or an personal strife.
Where will you flee?
Where will I flee?
Will we too head for the hills, finding some form of escapism, be it an effort at numbing yourself with endless media consumption or abusing a substance, or throwing yourself into hyperdrive, frenetic activity in another part of your life?
Or will you and I be able to say with David, “In the LORD I take refuge”?
David had seen God deliver him from bears, lions, and a Philistine giant.
The Lord had more than sufficiently proven Himself to be a trustworthy refuge, and David remembered those moments and took that to heart, relying on God.
David knew the Lord was a mighty refuge; that had been borne out again and again in his life – his trust in God was grounded and rooted deep in experience, making it sturdy enough to withstand life’s darkness and the Evil One’s darts.
Have your eyes been opened to God’s trustworthiness?
Have you trusted Him in response?
If you are a Christian, remember that your new life began by taking refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Once, you were facing the wrath of an eternal God, with no hope to be found.
The only hope you had was to cast yourself on God’s mercy and embrace the salvation offered in Christ, and so you fled to Him and found eternal refuge.
God desires for you and me to seek refuge in Him not only at the beginning of the journey but until Christ returns or calls us home, and not only for eternal salvation but in the measures and degrees of storms of this concourse of life.
Trouble will come—and when it does, you can either head for the hills or you can lift up your eyes beyond the hills and to the Lord “who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2), facing the crisis with 100% confidence and, yes, even joy.
100% Trust, Confidence and yes, even Joy … in God, the Father.
100% Trust, Confidence and yes, even Joy … in God, the Son.
100% Trust, Confidence and yes, even Joy … in God, the Holy Spirit.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Lord God Almighty, shaper and ruler of all creatures, we pray for your great mercy, that you guide us towards you, for we cannot find our way.And guide us to your will, to the need of our soul, for we cannot do it ourselves. And make our mind steadfast in your will and aware of our soul’s need.Pray, Lord, to shield us against our foes, seen and unseen.Teach us to do your will, that we may inwardly love you before all things with a pure mind. For you alone are our maker and our redeemer, our help, our very best friend, comfort, our trust, our hope; praise and glory be to you now and forever.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
