Month: December 2020

The question asked is just as deep as it was when this Psalm was originally written…how can a young man (or young woman) keep their way pure? In today’s world of excess, immediate gratification, and debasement it’s even more difficult to maintain self-discipline, purity of conduct, and good decision-making. So the idea here is to use God’s Word as a shield or buffer against the urges to wander. If we read Job 22:21-23 we see the three musts of maintaining God’s Word in our heart. They are: Submit to God, accept instruction from Him, and return to the Almighty when we’ve strayed. God’s command for us all, no matter what age, is summed up well in Deuteronomy 6:5, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

This verse is a study in darkness and light…happiness and unhappiness…hope and ruin. Especially this year as the days have become shorter and shorter I think we all have been suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder. And so we decorate for Christmas…dispelling the darkness with twinkling lights, shining ornaments, and glowing candles. But the world around us needs more than to see superficial Christmas decorations…they need the light of Jesus Christ. When Jesus said, “Follow Me.” it meant so much more than just following Him. It starts with believing and trusting in His death and resurrection…then obeying, learning, and acting according to His example…and finally, it’s in abiding in His fellowship and sharing in His sufferings through self-denial. That’s how we can “shine” in the darkness around us…or as Matthew 5:16 tells us, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and praise your Father in heaven.” This darkest part of the year will be for many a very unhappy time. They have lost loved ones, jobs, and hope. So as you follow Jesus you can be that light that brings them promise. For it is written, “The path of righteousness is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” (Proverbs 4:18) Be that light to someone today.

In this Chapter of I Kings Solomon is dedicating the Temple he has built to the Lord. But it tells us in verse 55 that he then stood and blessed the people, reminding them that all other nations would be watching them and their faithfulness towards God. Further warning them, “But your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by His decrees and obey His commands, as at this time. (I Kings 8:61) Other nations might of been impressed by the magnificence of the Temple, but Solomon reminded the people it would be their total obedience and trust in their God that would make the real difference.

Paul is describing what we would call now a days Carnal Christianity. Believers that call themselves Followers of Christ yet are the most negative and critical among the Body of Believers. They are the first to sow discord and dissension over insignificant details…and when they see good in others, rather than celebrating with them, they become envious and resentful…attempting to discount and even discredit the good work that was done. In Galatians 5:19-20, Paul illustrates acts of the sinful nature…and then goes on to list 15 examples…quite a list I must say…so no wonder he was chastising the Church in Corinth for its worldliness, he wanted them to move beyond their pettiness and selfish ambition.

Saul was the first king of Israel, initially anointed to that position by the prophet Samuel. But Saul showed himself to be a man with no regard for God’s Word or Will. Rather, Saul desired to do things his way in a helter-skelter manner filled with jealously, unrepentance, and blatant disobedience to God. It finally got to the point that God basically said, “Enough is enough, I am taking My anointing from you.” (I Samuel 15:23) And so we find Samuel delivering God’s message of regret to a pompous Saul.

“One of you will betray Me.” You can only imagine what was going through the minds of the apostles. All but Judas were thinking, “How could one of us double cross our Lord? “It surely can’t be me!” But to add further insult to injury, Jesus informed them a little while later that they would all likewise fall away and desert Him. (Matthew 26:31) Betraying Jesus is much easier than we think, and it happens in a flash of hesitation, fear, or indecision. For anytime we don’t stand for Him and the truth… we betray our Lord.

If the Pentateuch, or the Mosaic Law, had the power to save and give us eternal life…Jesus wouldn’t have had to come to earth to redeem mankind. Paul explains this further in Galatians 3:21 when he writes, “Is the Law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a Law had been given that could impart life then righteousness would certainly have come by the Law.” No Law has the power to give eternal life…only the atoning death of Christ can do that….given to us by the grace of God.

Because of Israel’s wickedness, the Lord gave them over to the Midianites who severely oppressed the Jews for seven years. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon the idea of being a mighty warrior was the farthest thing from his mind. He and his people had been living in constant fear and poverty for years as the Midian army destroyed their crops and stole livestock. How could this angel call him brave and fearless when he was living like a scared animal? The angel was speaking God’s vision into Gideon…that the blessing of the Lord was upon him. And when the angel called Gideon a mighty warrior, he was declaring to Gideon what he was yet to become. So many times, God’s vision for us is so astonishing, we are stunned and flabbergasted by Him even suggesting we could do it. But remember, like Gideon, God’s blessing is with us, and He is speaking into us what has yet to take place.

When Jesus told this parable to the crowd, He was telling them things they already knew…mainly that if you lost a sheep, any respectable and determined shepherd would go out looking for it. That’s because sheep equaled money, and each lost or dead one acutely effected the shepherd’s bottom line. And no where else do we see this idea better explained than in the 23th Psalm. For David was himself a shepherd, caring for his father’s flocks, which may have led him to ponder the correlation between himself and his sheep and how he could trust the Lord, his heavenly Shepherd. In Biblical times shepherds were a scrappy bunch, but there was one thing about them you couldn’t deny…when a sheep wandered off, they were relentless in their search to bring it back safely to the flock. Jesus is just as determined…refusing to give up, for He tells us in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Job’s three friends…and I use the term loosely…had all wrongly assumed that his painful suffering had been brought on by some grievous hidden sin Job had committed. Their discussions with Job centered around the premise that he had wandered from God…which was untrue, but they were very quick to point out the possibilities. We are much the same…we are quick to point out people’s sins, even if we don’t have all the facts. We pass judgment on those who are spiritually weak or have slipped into immorality without even thinking of the damage it’s doing. Let’s face it, we know when we’ve sinned, and we don’t need some self-righteous “friend” to show us the error of our ways. Rather, what we need is someone coming up to us in love and discretion putting a arm around our shoulder and pointing us back to Jesus.