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Salvation Cometh

Ivey Rorie On January 3, 2019 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Psalm 34: 22

None of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

Psalm 34 is one of the truly great psalms of David and in running a search, I find I have written on it several times, especially verse 10. I have never, however, written on verse 22 before. As I read Psalm 34, I found so many great messages and fabulous verses but what of this lonely verse here at the end of this great psalm? Does it have anything to say to you today? Here is what I heard as I read.

Our God is all about rescue and salvation. You have only to read the rest of the psalm to realize that. We talk a lot about John 3: 16 but I don’t think we understand it. I don’t think it has ever penetrated the fibrous matter of our hearts to lodge itself in the tender nucleus where love resides. God so loves every single person on this planet that He allowed His son, His dear and precious child, to be mutilated, beaten and ultimately killed so that not one of us should perish. He sacrificed His beautiful, perfect child so that all the wretched people of this planet could escape that which was due each of us, eternal torment in hell. This is no small thing. It is a lynchpin of Christianity. Ultimately, though, the act of giving the sacrificial, unblemished lamb is not the most important aspect of Christianity. It is merely an obvious outcome when we finally come to understand 1 John 4: 8, “God is love.” You see, when you understand 1 John 4: 8 then John 3: 16 becomes a necessary consequence of who God is. It had to be this way. It’s not a decision. Because God is love, He really had very little choice. He is compelled to rescue those whom He loves. All that is required is that we call upon Him. He cannot, and will not, violate free will. He gave away the power of choice but when you realize that He is moved by compassion you further understand that everything He does is driven by love and love requires Him to rescue you, even from yourself.

This verse from today’s psalm or 1 John 4: 8 is the ultimate salvation scripture. To my way of thinking it is better than John 3: 16. It is because God is love that He sent His beloved. It is God’s driving passion that everyone should enter heaven and live out eternity with Him. He has plans upon plans for getting people into eternal blessing. Jeremiah 29: 11 tells us that God has good plans for us, plans for our well-being, not our destruction, plans for a future and for hope. He has a plan in place to save us from calamity. That is our Father.

People have a very skewed sense of salvation and condemnation. What’s worse, the church even, or especially, has confused Him as the God of condemnation, the God of damnation. That couldn’t be anymore wrong. How hard is it to understand that He is love? When He poured Himself out into the earth, love entered in and love acts a certain way. It saves and nurtures. It is neither vindictive nor critical. God knew what He was getting when He chose us. He isn’t crazy or stupid. He has always had a plan for our ultimate happiness.

So, if you are worried about someone who died without you knowing whether they made a declaration for Christ or not, worry no longer. God has plans to get us into heaven. I am not saying there aren’t wicked people who will choose hell rather than redemption. Unfortunately, there will be some who burn but when doubting those Thomas’ and miscreants see Jesus face to face, they will fall in love with him just like you did. What happened to Thomas once he saw Jesus? He believed, didn’t he? So, fear not. Trust love to find a way. Trust love to rescue us out of the most dire circumstance, even our own doubt and unbelief. Trust God who is your true parent, the lover of your soul.

Trinity Divinity

Ivey Rorie On January 2, 2019 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Psalm 33: 6

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.

This is an interesting verse because we see the trinity at work creating the earth and the universe. We learned from the apostle John that Jesus is the Word. Therefore, when David wrote that the heavens were made by the Word of the Lord, we recognize the involvement of Jesus in creation. Do you remember the devotions written about the Holy Spirit where we learned that the Spirit actually is the breath of God? (For a review click here to see the Word of the Day titled Creative Breath.) God breathed and created. The Holy Spirit was hovering over the void awaiting God’s Word. Then the Word was spoken and the Spirit brought into the earth the manifestation of that spoken Word. God breathed again and human beings were given life.

Old Testament believers didn’t know about the trinity as you do today. Actually, pre-Christian religions regarded the number three as significant but they didn’t know the fullness of why it was special. The Jews were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah but they didn’t realize that he had already played a significant role in their lives. The Spirit was an even greater mystery. Today, though, you can have a relationship with the Father but also one with the Son and with the Spirit.

It seems this is a great place for us to begin the new year, thinking of how we might integrate our lives with each of the people of the trinity and enjoying the power of the trinity. At the same time, we are all setting goals which impact us as triune beings. Perhaps you have a dietary or exercise New Year’s resolution. That effects your body. Maybe you are dedicating yourself to a more routine prayer life for this year. That is a goal which impacts your spirit. And then, perhaps you are going to read more this year or take some classes. The third part of you is involved in that goal, your soul. So, this may be a good time to reflect upon your relationship with God as one triune being to another. It could be the beginning of a wonderful year.

Happy New Year

Ivey Rorie On January 1, 2019 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Where do you want to go this year? The year is new and there is nothing you cannot achieve with the Holy Spirit. January 1st is the eternal do over. Forget your age, for you are neither too old nor too young. You can build on last year’s achievements and springboard off the failures. It is a new day, brand new and all things are possible. Catch a vision of where you would like to go this year. Believe in your heart that your vision is God’s desire.

I pray, with all sincerity, that 2019 fulfills all its promise in your life. I wish you a very Happy New Year where all your dreams come true and I look forward to continuing our journey together and experiencing all the wonder and glory the Lord, our God and Father, has in store for us.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Angels Sing

Ivey Rorie On December 21, 2018 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

You know the lyrics to the famous Christmas Carol, “Hark the herald, angels sing, glory to the new born King!” A herald is a bringer of news, an official messenger. Hearken to the voice of the messenger, in other words, for he is bringing you good news of a great joy, so joyous, in fact, that the angels sing, “Glory, Glory! The King is born!” Think of that, angels celebrating with uplifted voices because the savior has arrived. I guarantee you they are singing, “Glory, glory,” even until today.

There are many images of Christmas and we have many demands placed on us at this time of year. People who are essentially loners are forced into more social gatherings than they can bear. The social creatures must restrain themselves so they have time for the necessary to do’s. Amidst all the holiday furor, where is there time for Christ? Even going to church on Christmas Eve becomes one more thing we have to do. Even as outgoing as I am, there are moments when I, too, want to run away to Christmas Island with Jesus.

The images of boxes and bows, of Santa and the reindeer begin to crowd out the image of angels crying out with loud voices about the coming of the Christ child. Our own voices are muted by the stress of the season and our hears fail to hear the Angelic chorus. Maybe, though, you can sneak away for a few moments. Maybe you can find solitude in the shower or perhaps you need to take a drive in the country. A long walk might be the best medicine you can take. In any event, I pray that you can take some moments, steal some time out of a busy schedule to celebrate Jesus’ birth and what that birth means in your life. Maybe you can put a Christmas CD in the player of your car and crank the volume so loud that it drowns out your own voice. Then, perhaps, you can sing with abandon. This I will promise you, the angels will join your joyous, vocal celebration. You don’t even have to sing on key because all they hear is the beauty of praise lifted up to the king. All that is important is that your heart sings. Believe me, if you will let the joy and the love of the Lord radiate from your spirit, you will stir up the heavenly host. Isn’t that exciting? They will join their voices with yours to celebrate the king.

I pray, in the name of our Lord and King, that you have a very blessed Christmas. I pray that the image of that little child, born 2000 years ago, touches the tender parts of your heart and brings you great joy. I am going to take off the rest of 2018 and heed the advice I give you. Until next year, be blessed!

Wonderful Counselor

Ivey Rorie On December 20, 2018 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Psalm 32: 8

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

This is personal. It’s from God to you. He is telling you that He will give you personal counsel. That is why He says He will counsel you with His eye upon you. There is advice that is good for everyone and which applies to everyone. That is not what this verse is about. This is about giving you daily instruction in the way you should go. Our Father is offering to give you step by step instructions for your plans and your goals. The Passion Translation reads, “I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with my eyes as your guide.” We can see from this version that Yahweh wants to be your partner. He wants to walk with you daily.

Here is the rub, though. How are you at hearing His voice? Okay, here is another question, if God is going to instruct and guide us along our specific life path, then why do we spend so much time worrying and thinking about the choices before us. Yahweh will tell us which choice leads to our goal. He knows what we want and how best to get there. Truly, I find myself thinking that we waste a lot of time thinking about things that are a waste. We could use that time to seek God and get the answers freely. We’re wasting too much time trying to do what God will do for us. This is one of the reasons we find ourselves so busy. We aren’t doing our job and we do not allow God to do His.

If we would dedicate ourselves to seeking God daily, I think we would all find that some of the complexity of life would be alleviated. Much of the drama would disappear and we would live in much greater peace and joy. We wouldn’t be so busy because our Father would show us the ways we should spend our time and He would show us how to proceed in the most timely way. Also, if we spent more time seeking Him and listening for His voice instead of running out the door we would learn to hear His voice better. Sometimes we don’t hear Him because we aren’t listening. Sometimes it is a result of having not spent time learning to hear Him. Either way, He speaks quietly and we must learn to listen in the quiet times of our life.

I have learned that we always have the time to do the things we want to do. For example, we don’t skip a lot of meals, we find the time for them. Our YMCA is packed in the wee hours of the morning. These folks have found time to get their workout in before work. Their dedication impresses me. Perhaps we need to have the same level of dedication towards our Lord.

However, if we truly do not have time to spend with our Father, then it may be that we have too many things on our plate. Sometimes wisdom says we have to eliminate something from our schedule. For myself, I find that I must be more efficient with the time I have. I need ponder time, time just to sit quietly with the Father and ruminate over the things He has been showing me. I cannot do that if I am busy running around all day. So, I try to coordinate my to do’s and errands so that I can get a couple of birds at a time. You may have developed strategies like that too. The bottom line is, our God is daily attempting to lead us in very specific ways that will benefit us. We must be able to hear Him, and we just have to spend time with Him. What good is a mentor or a coach if you never spend any time with them? Carve out some time, every day, to listen to the Father. Get out your pen and journal what He says to you. He is going to save you time and effort if you listen to Him.

Cheer and Courage

Ivey Rorie On December 19, 2018 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Psalm 31: 23 – 24 Passion Translation

Listen to me, all you godly ones: Love the Lord with passion! The Lord protects and preserves all those who are loyal to him. But he pays back in full all those who reject him in their pride. So cheer up! Take courage all you who love him. Wait for him to break through for you, all who trust in him!

I hope some of you took me up on the idea of reading each of these psalms in their fullness as your daily Bible reading. I recommend you read this psalm in the Passion Translation. It reveals David’s emotions and the context of his lyrics better than any of the other translations. If you read the whole psalm, you will see how he arrives at this concluding statement.

He felt abandoned by the Lord, but then realized God was on the scene rescuing him. David hid himself in the Lord and was vindicated despite those who spoke ill of him and mocked him. In the end, David and Yahweh have again triumphed.

David learned something on this journey and what he learned he summarized and attempted to convey through this song. The morale of the story is, take heart, be of strong courage. Let your heart be fortified because the Lord, your God, is on your side and together, you will prevail. God has never forsaken you and never will. Like David, there may be times you feel very alone. You may wonder where God is. Well, I can tell you. He is right there with you. If you close your eyes and listen to the voice of your heart, you will find God’s presence there with you.

David advised us to love God passionately because he learned that this is the secret to life and success in all things. Jesus, referring to Deuteronomy 6: 5, said, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH,” (Mark 12: 30). See, I am guessing there is a huge life lesson in here from David and now Jesus. What are they telling us? David and Jesus are teaching from the same book here. In fact, if you want to see how tuned into the spirit of Jesus David was and how relatable Jesus found David’s writings, look at verse 5 where David wrote, “Into Your hand I commit my spirit,” the words famously uttered by Jesus on the cross. Both of these men knew suffering. They knew what it was like to face unprecedented tribulation. And now, in this seminar living in the breakthrough their combined recitation is love God with all you are, with all the strength of your body, mind, spirit and soul. This is how we get our breakthrough. This is how we live in the blessing of the Lord. We throw our whole selves into a love relationship with he who died for us and the Father who gave him up for us. He is the Lord of the breakthrough, the one who breaks through the barriers and problems for us. Our part is to love him passionately, and why wouldn’t we?

No More Pain

Ivey Rorie On December 18, 2018 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Psalm 30: 1, 5 God’s Word

Verses 7 – 8, 10 – 11 Passion Translation

I will honor you highly, O Lord, because you have pulled me out of the pit. Weeping may last for the night, but there is a song of joy in the morning. I was panic-stricken and became depressed. Still I cried out to you, Lord God. I shouted out for mercy. So hear me now, Lord; show me your famous mercy. O God, be my Savior and rescue me! Then he broke through and transformed all my wailing into a whirling dance of ecstatic praise! He has torn the veil and lifted from me the sad heaviness of mourning. He wrapped me in the glory garments of gladness.

This psalm is full of praise, but it also reveals the intense mourning and emotional torment that David endured. One side of the coin may be praise but often the other side is tumultuous challenge and seemingly insurmountable problems. Reading it immediately made me think of all the hurting people in the world, people who are depressed and even suicidal and my heart, like yours, grieves for these people. I want to say, “Fear not, joy comes in the morning.” The NASB version of verse 5 says that a shout of joy comes in the morning. That’s big. Though the night may be spent in tears, there is hope, there is salvation and the situation will improve.

We sometimes limit Jesus’ scope of salvation to deliverance from sin and hell. Salvation means so much more to Jesus than simply eternal life with him. He is our savior in every single situation in this life. When you comprehend the richness of salvation and eternal life you understand that you are living your eternal life now. It isn’t that we will die and be reborn to eternal life. You are there now, we all are. So, this salvation of which David writes is the deliverance from grief, the release from mourning. It is the hope of a new day, a day which is full of promise and even resurrection. Each day is so new that it truly is a beginning and one thing we know about life, things constantly change. Life is not static. Therefore, though there are huge problems now, ultimately things will alter. For every problem, there is a solution. For every grief there is joy. That seems impossible when one is overwhelmed by grief, but it really is true. David could tell you it’s true and many other people as well.

Why did Jesus tell us to go and share the good news of the gospel? I believe the core of that answer is so that he could save people from the hopelessness of their present situations. We know that God gave his only son so that none should perish but rather that all should pertain to eternal life in paradise with Him (John 3: 16). God took care of eternal life. He has already done what needed doing in order to save us all from eternal damnation. God did that. It was His job. Now, we have a job to do. Jesus told us to go into all the world and share the good news of the gospel. To me that means sharing a lot more than one verse. Sure, tell all people about John 3: 16 and how the Father sacrificed His son and sent him to hell so that we would be spared. Just don’t stop there. Jesus said of himself that he came into the earth to give us life and that more abundantly (John 10: 10). He came to give us a full life, to save us from the train wreck that many of us have made of our lives here on earth. What I am trying to get you to see is that salvation and the good news of the gospel is so much bigger than a singular event, extraordinary though it is.

Jesus wants to save us in our frustrations, from our anger, he wants to heal the emotional scars we carry around, save us from our deepest depression and restore us to joy. Jesus is the joy of the earth. You cannot be in him and with him and depressed. He is glory itself. He is the lifter of our heads. That is good news. He is the lover of our souls. He lifts us even when it feels like the sun won’t rise in the morning. There is no problem which he cannot overcome.

I think our job is to go out and tell people the good news about God and Jesus and how much they love us so that they will not face hopelessness and so they will know they are never alone. Everyone needs to be loved by a love that is so sublime that it is breath to our lungs and health to all our bodies. Jesus is life, there is no life without him (John 14: 6). He has given a piece of himself to every human being so that they might have love, life, and hope. If we will go into the world and simply tell them the good news about a benevolent being who loves them and is powerful enough to save them from whatever torment they encounter, then I pray and believe there will be no suicide in the earth. We have the antidote for depression. God loves us, each and every one. He gave His only son as a sacrificial lamb. That has to stand for something. He didn’t do that because He is ambivalent towards us. Furthermore, He did that for a people who did not know Him, who did not love Him.

Please, send this to anyone you know who needs to hear the good news about being devoutly loved. Share the love and joy of the Holy One, not just so you can get them into heaven, but so they can have some relief right here and right now. There is no reason people have to suffer. Jesus is their saving grace for today, for tonight, for the dark times and the dark places. He is the light, the light of hope. And, say a prayer for everyone who is hurting. Ask the Lord of grace to shine his light more brightly through each one of us so that all, and I do mean all, may know there is a God and that He loves them immensely.

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