Author: kezha1

I’ll be the first to admit…I make mistakes – I fail miserably – I struggle. At times I’m a complete and total mess falling very short from what God would ever want for me. But I’m God’s mess, and I know beyond the shadow of doubt that God can turn any mess into a masterpiece. And in this is where wisdom lies. For wisdom calls to me, “Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.” that’s because all wisdom and understanding have their source in God, and the fear of the Lord is where wisdom can be found. And when I am rightly related to God, daily meditating on His Word, I find this wisdom…powerful and encouraging, that gives me insight and prudence to make better decisions.

Why do you go to Church? Do you go out of duty, or obligation…or maybe because you’re expected to? May I be so bold as to say you need to go to Church for others, not yourself…so hear me out. The Psalms are full of praise and worship among the brethren, ” I will give You thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise You.” (Psalm 35:18) for when we gather together with others to worship God, everyone is encouraged and uplifted. So if you’re not there…you are truly missed…for a part of the body is missing. Some of my greatest encouragement in Church has come from seeing people going through really tough times, but still in Church every Sunday. We’re talking cancer, loss of a spouse, and other devastating events, and sure they spend the Service broken and weeping…but they are there among us and we can love and pray for them. They say that worship will get you through some of the roughest times in your life, because it shifts your focus from the problem to the Problem Solver. So remember, when you are in Church, amongst the Body of Believers, we are all edified.

In Ephesus there was a silversmith by the name of Demetrious who crafted idols, but he was losing business on a daily basis. Why? Because Paul was preaching the Gospel Message in Ephesus and people were coming to Jesus and renouncing their man-made shrines. So Demetrious called together his fellow craftsmen to rile up the city. His tactic was to deceive, twist the truth, and exaggerate when he told the crowd, “Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited…” (verses 25-27) In other words, Demetrious appealed to their greed and persuaded them that Paul’s preaching was impacting their livelihood and that it needed to be stopped at all cost. And all this cunning deception worked, for after he spoke soon the whole city was in an uproar….but comically, it backfired on him, for it tells us that most of the people didn’t even know why they were there rioting and the officials dispersed the crowd without charging Paul for anything.

If the Old Covenant had been perfect…Jesus would have never had to come to earth. If the priests didn’t have to repeatedly offer sacrifices daily and yearly for unattainable cleansing…Jesus could of stayed in heaven. But the Old Covenant, based on works, (first spoken of in Jeremiah 31:31-34) was flawed from the beginning…because mankind is flawed and in our corrupt condition it’s impossible to keep perfectly. That’s why Jesus came…to free us from the yoke of ceremonial observances, rites, and rituals that never completely took our sins away. The New Covenant then becoming a law of faith rather than works…a law of the Spirit of life rather than sin and death…and a perfected law as Jesus offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice…once for all.

When the priests and Levites traveled out into the desert they wanted a name. But John the Baptist was emphatic…”No, I’m not the Messiah and neither am I Elijah.” This shows up again in Acts 14:12 when Paul and Barnabus healed a crippled man in Lystra…and suddenly the crowd wanted to give them names in order to make sacrifices to them. The caution here is that as humans we want to idolize the person, not the events surrounding them. Time after time in the Gospels Jesus had encounters with nameless people…the woman with the issue of blood, the demon-possessed man, the woman at the well, the leper. The Gospels are written this way so that each one of these anonymous people could be you or me, only in a different time and place. That’s because each one of these unknown, nameless people were sinners needing Jesus in their life, and we don’t need their name to appreciate the teaching.

God spoke to Abimelech, a heathen king of Gerar, after he had taken Sarah into his harem, showing God’s intervention and complete control over the entire situation…even when her husband, Abraham, had been unfaithful to God and deceitful to Abimelech. Similarly, we see in I Samuel 25, God preventing David from harming a very foolish man named Nabal… his wife Abigail telling him, “The Lord has kept you from blood shed and avenging yourself.” We tend to think God’s power and control is limited to His people alone, but from the beginning we see otherwise. In Exodus 14:17, God uses another heathen king as a pawn in the deliverance of His people, saying, “I will gain glory through Pharaoh.” It doesn’t matter the person, be it Believer or Non Believer, God is still in control… for it tells us in Psalm 33:10, “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples.”

Human nature and the world today tells us that we can be a success solely by our own efforts. Everywhere you see the hype to be independent, self-reliant, and self-sufficient. But it tells us here that God humbled His people by challenging their self-sufficiency & testing their obedience simply by letting them go hungry. He then provided a miraculous provision called manna to further teach them the necessity for dependence on Him and Him alone. At any instant, God can strip us of our proud independent spirit, leaving us with a life-changing choice to make. In that humbling moment, Job 22: 21-23 exhorts us to submit, accept instruction, laying up God’s Word in our heart, and return to the Almighty that we might be restored.

People of all ages have tried to predict the Second Coming, all the way back to the disciples who pressed Jesus to tell them when the Kingdom would be restored. His answer to them was, “It isn’t for you to know the times or dates…” (Acts 1:7) So the next time you hear someone claiming to know when the Day of Judgment is going to take place…think of this…if God hasn’t even told His Son, Jesus, do you really think He would spill the beans to that person?

So how important is knowing God’s Word? Pretty important according to this Scripture. Where sin dulls our senses, the Word of God will produce the most exquisite pain of conviction…cutting through to our inner parts and deepest recesses of our being, revealing His truth to us. But unless we’ve tasted of His Word and stored it in our hearts, we’ll come to rely on our common sense instead. Yet the Word of God never speaks of common sense or of acting impulsively…that’s because His Word is flawless. Instead, God’s Word is inspirational, living, and active…revealing knowledge, truth, and revelation…and never returns to Him void.

As a Follower of Christ there are certain responsibilities I must answer to…things I am accountable for in order to have clean hands and a pure heart…which means a determined life style where all my actions, thoughts, and motives are righteous ones. You may call it purity of heart and mind…you may call it holiness, but either way, it’s Spiritual harmony with God. For me, it’s a conscious effort daily… choosing to remain clean from the world’s pollution of sin. Is it easy? NO! But I am told in Hebrews 12:14 to, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; for without holiness no one will see the Lord.” The promise here is that in the end I will experience and share in God’s Presence, which will make it all worth it as I behold His face.