Wall of Separation

On August 13, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 58: 3

Why have we fasted and thou dost not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and Thou dost not notice?

This is an age old question. Father, we are doing what we should do. Behold our righteousness. Yet, you are far off. You do not hearken to the voice of your people. Why is the Almighty God silent and impotent?

I love the book of Isaiah. He shows us that each one of us is Zion. We are that piece of the nation of Israel encapsulated in the guise of one person. As Isaiah speaks about the nation of Israel, our own names ring through the heavens. We are Israel. We are Zion. We have been given the keys to the Kingdom and the responsibility that goes with them.

One of Israel’s obvious problems was their favorable impression of their own righteousness. We are doing everything right Father. See our fast. See us in church every week. Why is God not answering our prayers? Anytime we rely on our own rightness, rather than the goodness of the Lord, we have immediately gone the way of pagans. Though we may not intend to hold our righteousness up to God in a demand for service, we so often do just that in subtle ways.

The Holy Spirit, through Isaiah offers additional answer. We have an uncomfortable way of isolating God by our actions. In Chapter 59, verse 2 Isaiah wrote, “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.” Doesn’t that chill your bones? People don’t like to hear pastors talk about sin and iniquity, but the truth is that many of us have things that we are doing, or not doing, that keep us from approaching God openly. Our own guilt drives a wedge between us. Maybe we didn’t spend enough time in our Bibles last week and feel guilty because of it. That guilt can be deep down in a person’s soul such that they are hardly aware of it in their mind. It separates them from God though.

Jesus took all of our sin upon himself so that we could commune with the Father. However, whatever we are doing or not doing, that convicts our souls will separate us from God. One strategy people employ is to keep moving so fast, stay so busy, never take the time to slow down and meditate or quietly be with God so that we never feel the sting of our shortcomings. They stay buried deeply enough that our shallowly lived life is immune. Unfortunately, those buried truths are a hazard to our health, our relationships and of course, our relationship with the Father.

If you feel like the Father is far away, ask yourself if you are isolating Him by some action of your own. Ask yourself if you have guilt embedded in your soul. Is there sin putting a wall of division between you? Notice in the scripture that it is we who have separated ourselves from God. Not the other way around. He is waiting for you to clear up what is in your soul so that you can hang out together. He loves you more than you can even comprehend. Do some soul searching and make sure there is nothing separating you from your beloved.

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Snakebite

On August 12, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 64: 8

So they will make him stumble; their own tongue is against them.

David wrote this psalm as a complaint against a group of people who were gossiping about and plotting against him. In the end, it is their own words and schemes which will trip them up. That is the way with gossip, the outcome of treachery.

You may feel vindicated if someone has been badmouthing you. Take solace in the fact that their words will eventually turn around and bite them. If you are prone to gossip, heed this warning. Gossip is like a snake, you may think you have it by the tale but it finds a way to turn and bite you.

For that matter, gossip just isn’t kind. Our Father is kindness, gentleness and goodness. It is hard to imagine that gossip would fit in with Him and if it doesn’t fit with Him, then it doesn’t fit with us. We are supposed to live our lives in Him, after all.

This psalm also reveals that the schemes and traps we plot against others, ensnare us. Again, great vindication if you have been the subject of such plots. Not such good news if you are the architect of schemes.

There is not grace, no goodness is talking about others or devising ways to trip them up. Our job is to show the love and mercy of God to everyone. It’s not always the job we would choose but it is the one to which we have been appointed by our Father. Let only good proceed from our mouths, O Lord.

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Non-profit

On August 9, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 4: 2

For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

God’s Word is powerful and has the ability to set people free from any enslaving condition or circumstance. Only, however, if they mix the Word with faith. It is faith which energizes the Word you hear. Think about that for a moment. Do you remember the story about the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed? Jesus said of her, “Your faith has made you well,” (Matthew 9: 22). She mixed her faith with the Word she had heard.

Apparently, she had heard about Jesus and the great works he performed. She probably had heard about other people being made well. I imagine her friends had heard this same news. They probably sat around discussing him. Things were different for her though. She took hold of the good news that was preached about Jesus and she mixed it with faith saying, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well,” (v. 21). What makes the difference between people like her who receive God’s miracles and those who don’t?

The God’s Word translation shows today’s verse in a light which answers that question. “We have heard the same Good News that your ancestors heard. But the message didn’t help those who heard it in the past because they didn’t believe.” Many people have heard the good news preached. Many have read the words in the Bible. Not all believe. One time I heard a pastor say from the pulpit that the miracle of feeding the five thousand was not as represented. His explanation of feeding the multitude was that the good women in that crowd were smart enough to pack provisions and they, therefore, fed the crowd. He is a preacher, but he is not a believer. He doesn’t believe the Bible. So, he is not going to reap the blessings of the Bible.

God said that He sent His Word and healed them, (Psalm 107: 20). His Word healed. All God had to do was send the Word. The Word did the rest. It heals, saves, delivers, restores, blesses, leads, and anything else we need.

The Word can work for any one of us too. However, we need to believe it like the woman in Matthew 9. It takes more than one reading or one message. Those who receive have thought about the Word until their hearts are assured. They are beyond persuasion having passed over into convinced. That same belief and victory is available to each one of us. Spend some time with the Word and with the Father and persuade yourself to belief.

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Death and Taxes

On August 8, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Acts 1: 2 – 3

[U]ntil the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

There was a period of forty days between when Jesus was resurrected and when He ascended to heaven when He made several appearances to his disciples. He had his body and was alive. He ate with them and they touched His body. This is the period of time when Thomas, whom we like to call doubting Thomas, pressed his finger into the wound in Jesus’ side. When Mary, who was the first to encounter the risen Jesus, pressed into Him, He told her not to “cling” to Him because He had not yet ascended to the Father.

It is interesting to note that there was this period of forty days when Jesus appeared to his disciples. He had arisen from the dead with his body but He had not yet ascended to heaven. He used this time to minister to his disciples and to teach and instruct them. I imagine that this was very special time to the disciples. From this we get an understanding of resurrection and that Jesus’ body did not just evaporate in that tomb but that it was raised up. We gain insight into our own day of resurrection and that we also will be alive just as Jesus is now alive. He is alive and this message was truly born in that forty-day period between the resurrection and Jesus’ ascension to His Father when the disciples saw Him, spoke with Him and touched Him. Their experiences with Him during that period strongly influence our message today. He is alive! And we will live with Him for all eternity and the power and glory of His victory. He is most assuredly alive. He lives. And it is for us that He lives. Truly this is a message worth shouting from the rooftops. Our Jesus defeated the bonds of death. He overcame a world of destruction and decay so that we all might live and not die. He conquered death and taxes, the two things that we think cannot be overcome. He had fish paying His tax for Him after all. When we get a real deep revelation of His victory over the things that seem impossibilities to us then we are going to gain our own freedom. We will be truly alive, then, in him.

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Mirror Image

On August 7, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 1: 3       TPT

The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s true nature—his mirror image!

Jesus is the exact representation of God. You can see some great expressions of this idea by reading this verse in a variety of translations. Here are a few:

WE – He is just like God himself,
CJB – The very expression of God’s essence,
NLV – The Son is as God is in every way.

When you look at Jesus, you have seen the Father. That is such an important statement. If you love Jesus, you can feel safe with the Father too. So many people have a poor, even antagonistic relationship with the Father even though they say they love Jesus and confess him as Lord. This ought not be. I don’t know how we have gotten so brain-washed about God’s character. All we have to do is believe the Bible; well, and read it, to see that He is kind and good.

I have observed something else lately. I guess I’ve been seeing bits and pieces of this for years, but Jesus really brought it home to me over the last two weeks. Who we see and experience Father to be is greatly influenced by who we are in our inner selves.

I had noticed that God speaks to each of us in our own voice, tone and manner. When I would hear people relate things the Father spoke to them, I could hear their world view and voice. I remember Kenneth Copeland sharing something the Father communicated with him and I thought, “God, never speaks to me that way.” Later I realized it has everything to do with our different personalities. We do the same thing. We allow ourselves to reflect the communication patterns of those with whom we converse. So, when Jesus or the Father speaks with you, they will use syntax and colloquialisms that you use. That’s cool!

There is a deeper reflection on this too. It goes beyond communication to relationship. Listen to how people describe God or their communion with God. What you will hear has a lot less to do with who God is and more to do with who they are. Jesus reflected God with whom He was connected. You will find that he reflects you too. The thing that brought this into clear focus for me was when Jesus made a joke one day last week. I began speaking with him and Father about their sense of humor. They really do have quite the good sense of humor. People admit that casually and reference giraffes as their evidence. During this conversation, Father showed me that the sense of humor, the flavor of humor that I was experiencing was my own sense of humor. God was reflecting me.

How many people, though, actually know God’s sense of humor personally? You see, if you don’t have humorous nature, Jesus and God will not be able to relate to you on that level. Whatever you give to them is what they have to reflect back to you. A friend of mine caught me calling Jesus “Dude” this week. Okay, people don’t usually refer to him that way but in our closeness and the closeness of the moment, it worked. It reflects our relationship. Later in the week I was working on a Word of the Day when he quite literally made me laugh out loud. Here I was, sitting all alone, laughing aloud. It took me a moment to compose myself. Jesus is funny.

People who are afraid of God, don’t know Him. If they think He is vengeful and judgmental it is because that is what they impose on Him or carry to the meeting themselves. Those who don’t trust Him, are afraid of Him, or think He wants to take something away from them are reflecting themselves onto Him. They won’t let Him express His true nature which is love. He is love. When will we get that? His essence is kindness and gentleness. Endeavor to know God better. Get to know the many facets of who He is. To do that, begin with what you take to Him. Take a light heart and maybe He will tell you a joke too.

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Dangerous Language

On August 6, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 1:29 – 31

[B]eing filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.

Paul is describing a wretched group of people here. First, he shows the malevolence with which they are filled and then he tells us how those things manifest. He begins with “they are gossips” and then goes on through some pretty atrocious attributes. It strikes me that he begins this list of horrible characteristics with gossiping. One would think Paul could have headed his list with something more diabolical than gossip. But maybe, just maybe, gossiping is much more treacherous that we thought. Otherwise, why is it even included in this list? It is keeping pretty bad company.

Most of us recognize the other items in this list and most of us would denounce them. But how many would say that gossip is a real problem and denounce it? How many of us would balk at a gossiper as we would a hater of God or an arrogant, boastful inventor of evil? You see, God is showing us in this passage that the same unloving attitude that makes one an evil hater of God is that which causes us to gossip. Gossip is malignant and creates discord and strife in the body of Christ. It is a big problem as evidenced by its inclusion in this verse. Paul wished to cut it off in the churches to which he ministered. We, therefore, need to be mindful of gossip as well.

Gossiping is not really frowned upon in our society as can be easily evidenced by watching any reality show. They are all about drama and gossip. How many other television shows are completely based on gossip or gossiping? Quite a few. This general acceptance in our society makes it difficult for Christians to recognize the danger of gossip. It even cloaks when Christians are participating in gossip because it does not stand out anymore. And it seems that no one is immune to either the lure or the effect of gossip. But gossip is very damaging to the body of Christ.

Thus, we must all be vigilante to police our words and root out gossip from our lives. As Ephesians 4: 29 instructs us, we should only speak those words which are good for edification. And when we find ourselves trapped in a conversation which turns to gossip and running others down, we must find ways to extricate ourselves. It is best for us when we are around others who are using their words for edification rather than for tearing apart. And maybe as we make an effort to remove ourselves from gossip, others might be influenced as well. Take this message from Paul to heart and be mindful about the things you say and help others grow in their use of language too.

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Energy Drink

On August 5, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 63: 2             TPT

I’m energized every time I enter your heavenly sanctuary to seek more of your power and drink in more of your glory.

This is another Psalm of David’s. He did not write every psalm, but he did write a good many of them. Verse one reminds us why God said David was a man after God’s own heart. It reads, “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Isn’t that good?  From this beginning point David goes on to expressing two important thoughts. Notice though, that he begins in adoration of the Father. I believe that may be a significant fact explaining David’s success.

Verse two goes on to reveal that David believed he routinely entered God’s heavenly sanctuary. That’s quite a statement! How did he enter the Father’s heavenly sanctuary? It must be that in David’s times of meditation he visualized himself entering the Father’s haven. Selah, pause and consider that. David is matter of fact about this part of verse two. It is just the set up for what he wants to say. That tells me that to David this was routine and nothing worth commenting upon. It is just what he did. He entered into the Father’s presence regularly.

I have noted that modern Christians often pray for God to invade our space. First, it shouldn’t be an invasion. He should be welcome here all of the time. The bigger point, though, is that we seem to be keen on inviting the Father into our space but perhaps not quite as intentional about visiting him. There is nothing wrong with asking Dad into our activities. That’s a good thing. It seems clear to me from this passage, though, that we should regularly visit Him at His house.

Second, it must be okay to seek God’s power. It is right here in a psalm. Father didn’t correct David for going to the throne room seeking more of His power. In fact, He apparently granted David’s request in ever increasing amounts. David drank in the Father’s glory. He looked upon the Father in His grace and majesty and was renewed, physically, but likely spiritually, emotionally and mentally as well. David came away from His time meditating WITH the Lord, energized. Wow! Is this going off as loudly in you as it is in me? We gain energy from hanging out with God at His house. Moreover, we are allowed to go to His sanctuary to stock up on energy and seek God’s power and glory.

I find this an empowering verse and I certainly hope you do too. We don’t have to continually, nor solely, pray for God’s glory to infiltrate the earth. That’s great but any time any of us wishes to bathe ourselves in the Father’s glory, we have a standing invitation to the Throne Room of Grace which is full of mercy and refreshing. You can show up and drink in His glory. That is astounding to me. Are you thirsty? I know I am. Let’s see how God’s glory satisfies.

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