Month: October 2022

Hosea 6:3 ” Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like Winter rains, like the Spring rains that water the earth.”

How certain were you that the sun would come up this morning? Hosea uses the dawning of the morning sun and the timely rains for farmers to compare to God’s reliability. These reoccurring events of nature that revive & renew the earth are dependable and trustworthy…we just expect them to happen. That’s how certain we should be about God’s promises to us. That’s because He is a Covenant-keeping God and He desires restoration over destruction of His people. So we should persevere not only to know Him, but to grow in our relationship with Him.

Matthew 6:25-27 ” Therefore I tell you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they don’t sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “

In these verses Jesus points out the birds of the air and their absolute trust in what the future holds for them…and that our worrying changes nothing. So why do we spend so much of our time worrying about things we don’t really have control over? The key word here is being in control. When we have no control over the situation, anxious thoughts crowd in. We fret and stew …agonizing over things beyond our control…thinking that somehow worrying about them will change things…but the only thing that changes is our worrying, which leads to uncertainty, which leads to a faltering of our faith and lack of trust in the only One Who can change things. Lord, I know my life is but fleeting and all my worrying will not change a single thing . Please lift this weight of worry from my heart and walk beside me continually reminding me that it’s You in control. Amen.

Psalm 128:1-2 ” Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.”

Have you ever considered this…God has specifically place you in your current job as His missionary? That’s right, your mission field is your workplace. But too often we become discouraged when we look at our very worldly place of employment and think anything we say or do will never make a difference. Paul voiced this same concern in Philippians 2:16…wondering if he had run or labored in vain. But Paul also modeled for us how to strive on with the work God had given him. His walk with the Lord was manifested in the work of his hands…always seeking for the ultimate purpose in his life… Paul’s success was found in his service to others. You go to work everyday regardless…why not labor for the Lord there, showing grace and mercy, kindness and excellence in His Name.

The “What if’s” of fear vs the “Even if God does not” of faith.

Fear goes around clothed in the “What ifs” of our daily life. Its grandest dress being the “What ifs” of the unknown. But we need only remember that there is no element of the unknown to God…for He knows all from beginning to end. So the “What ifs” of fear have no place in our true knowledge of Him…for within His deliverance is peace. And all we can then say is, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” (Hebrews 13:6)

The “Even if God does not” type of faith is forged in the valley of disappointment, pain, and grief. That’s because, we see God’s glory up on the mountaintop…but we must live it out in the valley…for that’s where true faithfulness is found. That’s where our faith is tested and tried…to a point where no longer is it a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits…a faith, that no matter what God does, we will trust in Him. And probably the highest and greatest expression of this “Even if God does not” type faith comes from Job when he said, “Though He slay me, I will trust in Him.”

Psalm 94:19 ” When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought joy to my soul.”

Troubling thoughts seem to grow and crowd our minds in the quiet of the night. Anxiety gives way to depression as our emotional strength waivers. David, Saul, Job, and Solomon were all God’s servants…all of them walking close to Him, yet all struggled with melancholy. Lord, in the darkness, be our light. Remind us that in our weakness You are our strength. We know that life carries great burdens…but neither are we meant to shoulder them alone. Let us look to You Lord, for we know You care for us & know all our needs…so we place our confidence in You.

God sees, He saves, He sends, He supplies.

God sees us. No, He really sees us. Psalm 56:8 goes so far as to say that God records and gathers our tears in a bottle. God sees us and He is our refuge and strength and an ever-present help in times of trouble.

God saves us. He saves us because we can’t save ourselves. ” Don’t put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.” (Psalm 146:3)

God sends us. Yes, that means you! “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.” (II Corinthians 5:20) He sends you to do good works which God prepared in advance for you to do.

God supplies. If He calls, He will supply. And God is faithful…He will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Jeremiah 51:46 ” Don’t lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.”

Jerimiah’s message to Judah under Babylonian captivity was that of encouragement under duress. This verse is part of his oracle of judgment against the nation of Babylon, of which the Jewish people would spend 70 years in confinement. Jeremiah reassured them that their exile would not last forever, even though the journey through life may be painful and bitter. “Don’t fear, O Jacob My servant – you will again have peace and security and no one will make you afraid.” (Jeremiah 46:27) And this goes for us today, as international reports circulate concerning political & cultural unrest. We are not to be afraid…the Lord is still with us, we are not forgotten, and God is still in control.

II Peter 3:15-16 ” Just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

From the very beginning man has misinterpreted and distorted the Word of God. Jeremiah warned of false teachers & prophecies in Jeremiah 23:36…that every man’s words becomes his own (not God’s) and so man distorts the words of the living God. Psalm 56:5 speaks of man twisting God’s Words, or changing their meaning. In these verses, Peter is reassuring his readers that Paul’s writings, while they may not be easy to understand or comprehend without careful study, were inspired and authoritative writings. And instead, it was the false teachers that were perverting his writings. But with a personal solid foundation of faith, Peter was telling them that these mysteries would be unveiled.

Nehemiah 4:1-2 ” When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, ‘What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble – burned as they are?’ “

Jerusalem lie in ruins, reduced to rubble, its walls broken down, its gates burned by fire…but the gracious hand of the Lord was on Nehemiah to rebuild the city. But as soon as reconstruction commenced so did the opposition. Sanballat was a Samaritan who openly mocked and scoffed Nehemiah – certain that what Nehemiah started he’d be unable to finish – but Sanballat completely underestimated the power of God. And try as he might, Sanballat was unable to stop the progress…despite all his false reports and threats, they failed to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Which shows us that no one can stop God, or as Proverbs 46:10 says, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

I Corinthians 2:12-13 ” We’ve not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit Who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in Words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in Spiritual Words.”

The Church in Corinth had a rather unhealthy appetite for rhetorical speeches…high & lofty discourses that said a lot, but had no substance to them…thanks to Greek influence. So enter Paul, who came with the Gospel Message – Christ crucified …in all its simplicity…but the Church wanted more…they wanted their ears tickled with eloquent speeches. This is where Paul sharply compares the differences between worldly or fleshly wisdom & the divine wisdom given by the Holy Spirit…or as he wrote in I Corinthians 1:17, “For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” The wisdom of the world today can’t understand or begin to accept the simpleness of the Gospel Message…to them it’s too easy, and too crazy to even consider…but in the end God’s Word will stand alone.