Lord, we know of Your intense hatred of idolatry and hypocrisy, and that You will repay Your foes according to what they have done. (Isaiah 59:18) As we look at all the evil in the world, we remember the words of the Psalmist who said, “…as wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God.” (Psalm 68:2) So we echo this verse and say, “Rise up, O Lord! May Your actions be immediate and dramatic…may Your enemies be scattered.”
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I Chronicles 26: 12 ” These divisions of the Gatekeepers, through their chief men, had duties for ministering in the Temple of the Lord, just as their relatives had.”
Have your parents always been active in Church, but you’ve held back…maybe thinking it’s not for you? Look around your Church and assess the age of those who serve the most. Are they in their 20’s or 30’s…or is it more like 60’s and 70’s, or older? The sad fact about many Churches today is that the vast majority of those ministering and volunteering are the elderly of the Church, not younger adults. In this verse, it speaks of the Gatekeepers being chief men…men who were strong and in the prime of their life…charged with guarding and protecting with self-discipline and integrity. The Church is only as young as the people who serve. And when those precious Saints of the Church are gone…what happens next? Who will fill their shoes? Will you?
I Corinthians 12:12-13 ” The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
Here Paul is comparing the human body with the body of Christ…the Church. Just as the many parts of the human body work together in complete harmony…each with its own unique purpose, the body of Christ – the Church and its many parts need to come together in like-mindedness also. And just like the human body, one part cannot work in isolation from the rest. That would be like one Sunday morning your heart getting up and deciding not to be part of your body that day! You may think that your presence at Church doesn’t matter…but it does…the whole body suffers when one part is absent.
Habakkuk 2:18 ” Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? “
So many times our humanness gets in the way of a right relationship with the Lord. In a twisted form of arrogance, we place our wretched past up on a pedestal and proclaim it to be “too terrible” for the Lord to forgive. Yes, your past may be riddled with bad choices…but nothing God hasn’t forgiven beforehand. Murder, adultery, rape…the list goes on in the Bible of deplorable actions done by people in difficult situations. But when they took responsibility for their sins and asked forgiveness…God forgave them. For there’s nothing so serious, so vile, that God’s redemptive power can’t forgive.
Malachi 1:7-8 ” You place defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? says the Lord Almighty.”
Leftovers. For many, they’re not very appetizing. So why do we repeatedly offer them to the Lord ? Those remaining bits and pieces of our time and money in a rather half-hearted attempt at devotion. God doesn’t want our leftovers. He wants our utmost. He doesn’t want what’s left…He wants our very best.
In Christ Jesus…You are a citizen of Heaven.
In this upwardly mobile society, we move about a lot. Sometimes out of necessity, sometimes for pleasure…and there’s times we find ourselves in places that are different, strange, and unlike what we’re accustomed to…and we feel uncomfortable…longing for our home. As Believers, we’re foreigners here on Earth…for our citizenship is in Heaven. (Phil. 3:20) It’s no wonder then that we feel conflicted, uneasy and awkward…we’re just visitors here!
In Christ Jesus…You are redeemed and forgiven.
Forgiveness. For some that’s a hard word to accept. They feel as if they need to “do” something first in order to gain God’s pardon. But to be forgiven by the Lord has nothing to do with us…for it is solely based on God’s unmerited love and mercy… His redemptive power working to heal and make us whole again.
Isaiah 25:1 ” O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.”
Elsewhere in Isaiah it says, “The Lord Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.’ ” Lord, I give You thanks and trust that everything, both big and small, that happens in my life has been prepared long ago. Each wonderful, miraculous, and extraordinary thing that has and will happen to me You have planned out far before I was even born. And I know you have much more for me to be doing, and I look with eager anticipation to the future and Your plans for me. And everyone said, Amen.
Jeremiah 35:6 ” But they replied, ‘We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jonadab son of Recab gave us this command: Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine.’ “
The Lord had directed Jeremiah to invite the Recabite family in and serve them wine. But when he did, they responded with this covenant they had kept for generations. None of them had ever drank wine. The Lord then used this example to show how the Recabites had continued to uphold their forefather’s commandment…yet the people of Judah and Jerusalem couldn’t seem to keep God’s commandments.
Exodus 4: 11-12 ” The Lord said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’ “
Moses had many excuses of why he wasn’t the person to go to the Pharaoh and demand release of the Hebrew children. But the Lord countered with an airtight defense of why Moses was just the right man for the job. We want to argue with God, but speaking from very personal experience…you’ll never win. We can object all we want, but God desires obedience exclusively. For if He calls you to something, He can and will give you whatever skill is needed to accomplish that task. With God, arguing will get you nowhere…obedience on the other hand, will move His Kingdom forward.
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