Shall the Dead Arise? (Psalm 144-145, 88-89) – May 16

Psalm 144  “That there be no outcry in the streets.”  I could have chosen the wonderful verses about God being our refuge and fortress, or the one that says why are you mindful of man, oh Lord.  But this one really jumped off the page to me.  It seems there is always outcry in the streets these days.  The Gaza war, gay rights, climate change, immigration – all of these have sparked outcry in the streets.  Imagine the peace we would have if these things were resolved in a mutual fashion, under the authority of God’s word.  Peace in our country would abound.  Don;t these protesters realize that they are robbing us of our peace by protesting for peace?

Psalm 145 “You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing”  Rain comes on the just and the unjust, and every living thing takes nourishment from the bounty of the earth. The sun gives heat to everyone, and the brilliant night skies are there for everyone to see.  The air is full of oxygen , which our bodies need to live, and the whole earth is full of the necessities of life.  God gives these things to all – there is none exempt.  God’s hand is open to all, and so few grasp it.  We are blessed to know where our provision comes from.

Psalm 88 “Shall the dead arise to praise you” I came across this verse a few years ago and a poem sprang up within me.  The dead shall arise to praise him!  Those who are dead in their sins will rise up with a victory shout when they accept the loving kindness and mercy shown on the cross.  Then will leap for joy when their sins are thrown away as far as the east is from the west.  They will be washed white as snow by the cleansing blood of the Land.  They will no longer be dead. but alive in Christ!  And they shall praise Him!

Psalm 89  “My covenant I will not break.”  In today’s world, it seems that treaties and promises are broken all the time.  The covenant of marriage is a farce to many,  and is not binding at all.  The world does not take covenants seriously, but God does.  The new covenant that Jesus gave us will endure for wll time, just as the covenant of the rainbow has endured since the days of Noah.  We can rest assured of this truth! 

Here is a link to my reading of the poem I wrote on Psalm 88.  I pray you will take the three minutes to listen to it.

Keep His Charge (1 Kings 2, 1 Chron 29, Psalms 4-11) – May 6

David gives one last charge to Solomon before he dies, and it is one that we would be wise to heed today.  He tells Solomon to keep the charge of the Lord.  Keeping a charge means to fulfill our obligation to someone.  Paul mimics this when; he writes “walk worthy of the vocation to which you are called” (Eph 4:1).  David then  tells his son, the new King, how to keep this charge.  He tells Solomon to walk in His ways, keep His statues, His commandments, his Judgments and His testimonies.  A deeper dive shows us that these are separate things we must take note of in order to keep the charge God has put in our own lives.

Walking in His ways means to take on the attributes of God.  In Exodus 34:6-7 God tells us what those attributes are.  He is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, and forgives rebellion and sin.  That’s a lot to try and take in, but that is the way God wants us to walk.  SWe are made in His image, and that means we are made to be able to walk this way.  Our human nature is opposed to many of these things, but the new creature that comes alive in us when we accept Jesus as our Savior is abounding in these qualities.  We just have to learn to walk in them, and that takes the rest of our lives to master.  This is what Paul talks about when he says “work out your own salvation.”  With all my heart, I want to walk in His ways!

Keeping His statutes involves being obedient to all the rules set forth in the law given to Moses.  Statutes are civil laws, and boundaries set on what can or can;t be done.  It would be similar today to keeping the speed limit, or not trespassing.  We have an obligation to keep those laws, those statutes that are st-et forth by the powers in  authority over us, and Solomon had an obligation to keep the civil laws that were given to Moses so many centuries earlier.

Keeping His commandments is an obvious one.,  There are ten of them.  Many of us know them by heart, and are guilty, at one time or another inmour lkvies, of breaking a majority of them.  It is easy for us to show someone they are a sinner before God by using these simple yet all encompassing, commandments.  Ask them if they have ever stolen anything, down to a paper clip from the place they work.  Ask if they have ever taken the Lord’s name in vain.  Ask if they have ever looked at a person of the opposite sex with lust.  Ask if they have ever really wanted what someone else had.  Almost every human being would answer yes to all of these.  We are all guilty before God, and this is why we needed Jesus to come and die for our sins.  David says Solomon should do all he can to keep these commandments, and we should do the same.

His judgments involve making the right decision.  That is what judgment is.  We can judge rightly, or wrongly.  Solomon made his wisest decision right at the beginning of his reign when he chose wisdom above all else,  he then went on to write most of the Proverbs, which show us what right judgment is all about.  he may not have been the best example with the life he lied, as we see in Ecclesiastes.  But he left us with judgments from God that we should follow day in and day out.

And, lastly, His testimonies.  These are the hundreds upon hundreds of stories that litter the pages of the Bible.  We can learn so much from reading these stories over and over again.  Joseph, Ruth, Esther, Nehemiah, Gideon, Samson and so many other stories are there to teach us lessons about the life we should be living.  Walking in these testimonies will strengthen us in our walk with God.

Then we read several Psalms, which were most likely written earlier in David’s life, but are included here in our reading.  The Psalms show us David’s heart.  That is important for us because David was said to be a man after God’s own heart.  The Psalms are songs of victory, longing, devotion, sadness, rejoicing, wonder and awe.  We would do well to dwell in the Psalms often, because they can speak life into our weary walk. May we all keep His charge and walk in His ways the rest of our lives, that others may “see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven”

A Higher Standard (2 Sam 6, 1 Chron 16) – April 23

Today;s reading got me thinking about the time the ark was in Philistine hands.  I recalled that the Philistines were stuck with sores and pain all over their body, but were never killed for handling the Ark wrong.  They put it on a cart to move it around, and then to send it back to Israel.  Nowhere does it say they did not touch it to move it around.  Yet, when one member of Israel’s procession to bring the ark back to Jerusalem puts his hand out to steady the ark, he dies.  David then remembers that the Levites were called to carry the ark, and not put it on a cart.  He does it right the second time.

This is a powerful lesson to all of us.  We see and hear the world all the time using the Lord’s name in vain as our precious Savior is the number one name used as a curse word, and the Father is right along with Him.   We see the world dishonoring their parents, ignoring the Sabbath, making idols for themselves, stealing, and coveting all the time.  Yet it seems they are held unaccountable for these things.  While if we as Christians do the same, we are not only mocked by society for being hypocrites, but in trouble of breaking God’s commands, and thus in danger of losing our souls.  Is this a double standard on God’s part?

No, it is not.  Not at all.  We are held accountable for the light that has been shined on our own lives.  James 4:17 says that if we know to do good, and do not do it, it is sin for us.  The world does not realize what they’re saying is wrong.  But if we, as Christians, take on the same language, we know better, and it is sin for us.  If we know to do something that the Bible has taught us, that is light that has been shed on our path.  John 1:4 says that in Jesus was life, and His life was the Light of men.  As we follow Jesus, He, through His words, becomes the Light that brings us out of darkness.  When we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with God.  but if we ignore that Light, we walk in darkness, which is sin.  The world is already in darkness, and needs the Light to shine through us by our actions and words.  That is why Christians are held to a higher standard, and we should be!  And that is why the Philistines weren’t killed for mishandling the ark, but the Israelites were.  Israel knew better!

David;s dancing before the Lord caused Michal to be very distressed and upset, and resulted in her becoming barren.  She was the love of David;s life, but never bore him a child.  The result of mocking the worship of God is never good.  I have nothing against dancing before the Lord, as long as it is done decently and in order.  I have seen many that do not follow this.  They are accountable for what they do.  I am not accountable for them, and will stand back and rejoice with them because they are rejoicing.  It does the body of Christ no good to mock them, as this might make our own church barren. bearing no fruit.  But if we do see something that is out of morder in our church, we should take it to the Pastor and let him deal with it.  And it should be dealt with privately at first, not publicly, unless it is a dangerous teaching that is completely wrong.  That has to be stopped immediately.  In this portion of scripture, David is doing nothing wrong at all. He is thrilled the glory of God is back in Jerusalem, and he is celebrating.  We should celebrate the awesome presence of God!

I Just Need Jesus!

Samson had a real problem with women.  He was filled with lust and we see it all through his story.  I imagine him as a very good looking, tall man who could charm any girl he wanted to.  And his exploits made him even more desirable.  He finally finds Delilah, and they begin to live together it seems.  Delilah is not very loyal though, and we all know the story.  The story is about lust to me.  How could Samsoin possibly not know what Delilah was up to when three times she sent the Philistines in to capture him after he had supposedly given away his secret of strength?  But he doesn’t get it, and as a result he finally succumbs to Deilah, and he is taken captive and his eyes are put out.  What a tragedy!

This whole story really speaks to me.  I have had a problem with lust all my life, but mine is not for other women.  I am happy with my wife being the one woman in my life physically, and she has been for over 45 years.  However, all through our marriage I have fought a problem with pornography.  It is a hard battle that keeps enticing me back, just as delilah enticed Samson.  I give in way too easily, and always know the result will be the shame of losing the battle again.  It;s not that God has not tried to get my attention during this time.  I had a detached retina, injured my right shoulder so I could not react to porn the way I wanted, had my finger amputated, had cancer, and now Glaucoma is threatening to make me blind.  How many times will I be warned before I heed the warning?  I am no better than Samson in this respect.  But in the end, Samson finally gains the victory, and it is because the Lord strengthened him to win.  Oh Lord, strengthen me to win!

The story of Mica and his Levite is also very interesting.  He has an idol in his house, and an ephod, so the priest decides it would be good to get paid to live with him and be his personal priest.  When the Danites come, He sees a greater opportunity to become a Levite to a whole tribe, and he jumps on that.  But it is all wrong, because they are not worshipping Almighty God, but an idol made with man’s hands.  It was idolatry at its worst, especially for the Levite, who sold his priesthood and sacrificed to false gods.  In my own life, I may not have carved images lying around that I worship, but I do turn away from God way too often to indulge in my own desires.  As Paul said, “I do the things I shouldn’t  do, and I don’t do the things I should do.”  Porn is one of those things, and I pray every day that it will be gone out of my life.  I don’t need any idols creeping up at any time.,  I just need Jesus!

Defeat the Enemy Within (Judges 9-11) – March 3

In Abimelech, we see a great example of what happens when we do not drive out the enemy from our hearts.  We will start to fight internally with ourselves.  Abimelech fought with Shechem, and this city was an Israelite city.  The children of Israel had not driven out all of the inhabitants of the land, which they were commanded to do.  This resulted in them serving other gods.  Now they are even turning against themselves.  What a tragedy!  They would not defeat the enemy tribes that lay in their possession, yet they thought they could fight one another!  Abimelech eventually finds his defeat at the hands of a woman.

We must get rid of all sin in our lives.  These insidious things that we do that we should not do, or that we don’t do that we should do, need to be defeated.  We will always have turmoil within if we do not get this accomplished.    This is the enemy within, and he must be driven out or we will start to fight against ourselves.  It is not by our own strength that we can do this, but by the strength that God has given us through the Holy Spirit.  His voice calls out to us, trying to get us to turn from our sin, yet we do not listen.  I need to hear Him guiding me to victory, day after day.  I would certainly rather defeat the enemy than fight against myself!

Then we see Jepthah, who at first was rejected by Israel, but is asked to come back and fight against the Philistines, who had come in and challenged the Israelites.  Israel had once again turned to other gods.  It is so sad, that after all God has done for them, they continually turn back to the gods of the land, and away from the God of deliverance.  I am in no position to criticize them, though.  I have continually turned back to my own idols and sinful ways through the 48 years that I have been saved. He delivered me from all my sin, but I tend to creep back to the altar of my own idolatry on a regular basis.  I am weak in my own strength, and need to look to Jesus, who is he one who gives me strength.  Through Him, and only through Him, can I defeat this enemy, because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me

Jepthah reminds the King of the Amorites exactly why they deserved the land they had taken possession of.  I need to let the enemy know that I have been rewarded this victory but the only one who can give me victory, and that God almighty through His Son, Jesus Christ.  He may not listen, but my confession is still true. He may still fight against me, but that in no means lessens the victory God has given me.  I just need to stand my ground, and the enemy will have to flee.  It’s time to take possession of the land!