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In Whom is Your Trust

Ivey Rorie On September 18, 2014 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Isaiah 2: 22

Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed?

The prophet Isaiah taught the futility of having our trust in a person or in mankind generally. For an even more clear recitation of this senselessness, let us look at the NIV version of this verse: “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” The NIV certainly says it plainly. It is futile, senseless to put our trust in human beings.

The language about the breath in the nostrils is a reference to the short life span of humans. Why put our trust in someone who is but a vapor; here today, tomorrow gone? The only source of true knowledge or wisdom is God Himself. We do not even live long enough to acquire any real wisdom. We can, though, borrow heavily from God who “gives (wisdom) to all men generously and without reproach” (James 1: 5).

Now I know how I approach this verse and others like it. a part of me argues that my reliance is on God rather than on man but I have also learned by now that my quick response is not always accurate. Anytime we are confronted with a verse like this which is so instructional it really pays to slow down a moment and consider from a base perspective. That means that we need to boil down the question to the very root and see what is going on within us. So, here goes. Are we relying on the 6:00 news or the Word of God? Is my doctor’s prognosis the final say or is the Word of God? When I am in need or have a question, who do I call? Do the economic forecasters hold sway over my personal economy or do I trust God for my finances? Who has made a greater impression on my heart, terrorists or God; does fear or faith reign?

We could go on and on. The point is that every area of our lives needs examination in order to determine what or who our source of information is. Are we going to fall susceptible to everything we read on the internet and hear on the news or are we going to stand with God, rely on Him for wisdom and believe His Word? I like what the NIV translation says, what is man that we should take account of him? Here is a free piece of wisdom – only take advice from people who are getting their information from God. If God is not their source then they cannot give you viable advice. Seek God and His wisdom and all will be well.

Said and Done

Ivey Rorie On September 17, 2014 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Zechariah 12: 10

And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

My, how powerful; so much contained in one verse. First we see the promise of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the New Covenant sealed in the giving of the Holy Spirit. Of course, through Jesus we have all been adopted into the family of David so don’t get hung up on the vernacular. The Holy Spirit has been poured out on all who will receive. He is the Holy Spirit of Grace and grace is certainly the hallmark of the new covenant. Jesus ushered in the age of grace through his atoning blood so that we are no longer slaves to the law. We have been freed from all shackles through the victory of Jesus.

It is impossible, though, not to appreciate the prophetic truths contained in this verse. Long before Jesus was born Zechariah wrote about the one who would be pierced. Are you ever amazed by prophecy? I am. God has always wished to reveal Himself and His knowledge to His people. He has given prophetic utterance throughout the ages and even continues to do so today. The glory of these prophecies is best appreciated in retrospect. Our hearts are moved when we read about the firstborn who is pierced. We know who this person is. Think about the people of Zechariah’s day. They didn’t know Jesus. Were they equally amazed by this prophecy? I somehow doubt it. Hopefully they did appreciate what the Lord told them through Zechariah.

Fulfilled prophecy certainly ministers to us today. Our faith in unfulfilled prophecies is bolstered by seeing fulfilled prophecies like the one in today’s selection. It is amazing in its own right but equally so in the way it points to other prophecy. If this one was so eloquently delivered then what does that mean for other Bible prophecy?

The Son has been pierced, the Spirit poured out. This is the last age before the climatic end of the Biblical story. We can watch the blood moons, the signs in the heavens and actually experience prophecy being fulfilled within our seeing. These are days of which the prophets spoke. It is a time of great triumph and joy as we glory in the victory of our Lord Jesus. The time is at hand for all people to turn their faces toward the light. There is a great looming darkness but greater is the light. We will jump with joy like young gazelles at the coming of our Lord and we will see His light shining brightly. We know the end of the story so fear not. The end is nigh but great is the victory of the Lord Jesus and upon His wings you will ride. Take joy. These are the promised days.

God Remembers

Ivey Rorie On September 16, 2014 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Psalm 98: 3 NIV

He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

God has not forgotten His first love; the house of Israel. He is faithful to Israel even today. Israel was the seed that was supposed to germinate and spread the love of God throughout the earth so that all would know of the coming of the Messiah. Perhaps Israel didn’t fulfill the entirety of its commission but the Lord’s faithfulness endures. It was not dependent on the faithfulness of men but rather on the love of God. And God’s love has expanded to the ends of the earth so that it fills every nation and every people even if those people do not acknowledge the love and faithfulness of God.

This verse has a present tense and a prophetic tense about it. It declares that the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of God already. That is because God has filled the earth with life, truth and love. Even the ground and plants have been saturated with God’s faith and love. This has been so since the beginning. If God’s faithfulness and love were absent then there would be no life and scientists find life in the most remote places, even places where it was once thought that no life could exist. Life is the product of the love of God. Where there is love, there is life and vice versa.

The prophetic sense of this passage looked forward to the first coming of Christ and even the second coming. Salvation is extended to all who will receive. There is no person on earth that is precluded from the love of God and the resultant salvation. Even where no preacher has gone and preached, there is the knowledge of God. He has put into the heart of every person the knowledge of Himself. He has catalogued the mountains and streams as a testament to His presence. The world around us testifies to His existence even where no person has carried the gospel. His faithfulness has ordained the coming of the Christ to bring salvation to the world and His love is reaching to the ends of the earth. And where no minister of the gospel has gone before God is laying a foundation right now so that no one will perish without having heard the Word of the Lord.

God is not trying to keep people out of heaven. He is endeavoring to get them into heaven. He is faithful to the small and large and to the ends of the earth. Salvation has come. The saving grace of the Lord is and has filled the earth. We may openly partake of salvation from everything which seeks to hinder us. God’s salvation saves completely. He is faithful in the small things and the large things. Let salvation touch your household today and then by the grace invested in you by the Holy Spirit of God, extend that grace to all without reservation.

Truth Be Told

Ivey Rorie On September 15, 2014 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

Proverb 21: 28 God’s Word Translation

A lying witness will die, but a person who listens to advice will continue to speak.

What an uncommon comparison. The first phrase of this sentence talks about a liar. We would expect, then, for the second phrase to reveal the result for a truthful person. First, is there a presumption that the person who listens to advice will necessarily be a person who speaks truth? Is that why his life and voice will continue? Is there something about a person who will humble themselves and listen to the advice of another which makes them less likely to lie?

No one is surprised to learn that the life of a liar is in peril. There are some things which open the door to the devil getting to run around in one’s life. Anger is one. It opens the door to the devil. Speaking words of fear is another. It is an invitation. I don’t think there is anything we can do that invites more interference in our lives by the evil one than lying. Lies belong to the devil. Jesus called him the father of lies (John 8: 44). He said that there is no truth in the devil. Satan is a murderer and a liar. So when we lie we align ourselves with the devil. We have just invited him into our homes. The result is death. Once the devil gets into your house his objective is to kill you. It is what he does. He deceives lies, kills and destroys. Which part of that do you want?

Conversely, the wise person will listen to advice and will live on to speak the wisdom that she gleans from those to whom she has listened. The way of truth is life. Again, no big surprise here. Jesus said, “I am the way; and the truth, and the life” (John 14: 6) Truth and life go hand in hand. The surprise is that so many of us have not made a quality decision to live by truth. When Jesus speaks truth into your life you receive healing in your spirit, health in your body, prosperity and well-being. All things work together for your good. So, Solomon could end his proverb with this simple statement, choose truth and live.

What Love Requires

Ivey Rorie On September 12, 2014 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 9: 1

So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies; and behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was carried away into exile to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.

People struggle over what they perceive as an angry God of the Old Testament. Admittedly, there is a different tone to some of the passages in the Old Testament but still, we know that God always loved His people. God is love and we know that God does not change (Malachi 3:6). So, if we know that God is love and that He has never changed then we must conclude that He was always a God of love. How, then, do we reconcile some of the harder passages of the Old Testament?

First, people did not understand about the devil in the old days. They thought there was only God. Besides the dialogue in Job there are only a few other mentions of Satan in the Old Testament. It is not until the New Testament that we really learn about the devil and his minions. Therefore, Old Testament writers did not know who to characterize as the source of their trouble. They wrote from what they knew and so they blamed God for their troubles. Read Job’s account for a clear example of this dynamic. So, one of the ways that we can reconcile the Old Testament accounts and a God who is love is from a New Testament perspective which recognizes Satan as the thief, killer, and destroyer. We now know who the enemy is.

Something else has been stirring in my spirit lately in regards to God’s love for us and the Old Testament. Every time recently that I have read anything about the Babylonian captivity a thought has surfaced. Why did a God of love allow His chosen people to go into captivity to pagans? I think the answer is because love required it. The people were out of control. They had given themselves over to pagan religions and such moral turpitude that they were destroying themselves. God needed a way to save them from themselves. They were on course to wipe themselves off of the face of the earth and from memory. So, allowing them to go Babylon, even though as captives might have been the way that God preserved the nation of His people. They were safer in Babylon than on their own. They were like children. If left to their own devices they would have destroyed themselves and their progeny. God hid them away and put them under an administrator who could and would control their erratic behaviors.

Lastly, many times the source of evil tidings is the seed we have sown. When you look at the Old Testament you see, as you see today, that many times people are simply reaping what they have sown. God put a system of inviolable laws in place when He created the earth. Gravity is a good example. Another is that a seed always produces after its own kind. You can’t plant eggplant and reap cucumbers. It just is never going to happen. When the people sowed disobedience and violence those seeds just had to produce ill fortune. This is a principle of the laws of the earth. So, the enemy of the Old Testament sometimes was the people themselves.

In conclusion, perhaps we can see the God of love through the captivity. Maybe the only way God could save His people was to allow someone else to moderate their behaviors. Otherwise, their seed would have continued to grow and would have eventually choked the life out of them. If you begin with the understanding that our Father is a God of love, then many things begin to make sense that were otherwise puzzling. Everything He does is out of love for us.

Life in Death

Ivey Rorie On September 11, 2014 / Word of the Day / Leave a comment

2 Corinthians 4: 10 NIV

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

I will begin by honestly confessing that I do not understand the depth of this verse so I offer it to you for your contemplation. Why does Paul admittedly carry around the death of Christ in his body?

Allow me to show you this passage in context from the New American Standard Bible beginning with verse 8: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” This version shows us that Paul didn’t just carry around the death of Christ in his body but the reality of the dying of Jesus. Paul uses a progressive tense. The truth of Jesus’ death is a continuing reality in Paul and through that the ongoing and increasing life of Christ manifested in his life and in his body.

There is life in death. That is Paul’s ultimate message. He and his team were constantly in peril of death but he shows us that though they were afflicted and persecuted those afflictions and persecutions were not the end of the story. The life of Christ in them sustained them so that they were never crushed, despairing, forsaken or destroyed. In here we see the parable of the sower and the seed. Jesus laid down his life. He died but in his death was the seed, the seed of life. He laid down his life and arose with life eternal. When we receive the death of Christ as a personal reality then we also die. We die to ourselves and arise to the life of Christ. We crucify our flesh in a way which is similar to Jesus’ crucifixion. Then we bury the old self and arise a new person in Christ Jesus.

However, this passage leads one to conclude that this is not a once and for all procedure. Paul said that they were “always carrying about . . . the dying of Jesus.” That event became written on Paul’s DNA. He was crucified with Christ and that reality was imprinted in his body. Since he carried an always present impression of the dying of Christ in his body, there was always a constant regeneration of the life of Christ in his body as well. The life of Christ was not just given to us as in a past tense event. No, the life of Christ is continually manifesting in the children of light. His presence within us is constantly renewed. It is growing as we allow more of his death and ours to permeate every cell of our bodies. So, the more we yield to death, the more life is generated. Crazy huh? But that is how a seed works. Through death it yields life. The more seeds you can convince to die, the greater your harvest will be. Hence, the more we die to self the more we live to Christ which simply means the more of Christ’s life and the fullness of who he is manifests in our experience. His breath becomes our breath. His life permeates our muscles. He becomes the strength in our bones and sinew so that we are in a constant state of regeneration. Life from death. If you would live, then you must die. If you want life continuously renewing in your body then you must continuously give yourself over to the dying of Christ. Carrying Christ’s death in your body is like having a seed planter within you which is constantly sowing life. You will be in a constant state of reaping. You only have to die to live.

Sweet Aroma

Ivey Rorie On September 10, 2014 / Word of the Day / 1 Comment

2 Corinthians 2: 15 NIV

For we are to God the aroma of Christ.

One of the most empowering things we will ever do is to attempt to see ourselves as Father God sees us. We are not worms in the dirt. We are not wretched sinners. Jesus changed all that. We are a sweet aroma to God, the very picture of Jesus himself. You see, that stinky you died and was nailed to a cross on Calvary. The message of the new birth is that you have been born again, born a new. That old person should be buried because it is full of nothing but rot and decay.

However, there is a new you created in the image of God, beautiful and holy. God does not perceive the stench of your past when he looks at you. He smells the sweet aroma of Christ on you. Eau de Jesus is a sublime fragrance. Unlike most colognes and perfumes, once you apply the scent of Jesus it won’t fade. It stays on you and with you forever. It even grows in strength the more you spend time with him. Jesus gets all over you and his glory fills every sense.

The only one hanging on to your rottenness is you. In God’s perception you are clean and aromatic. Put yourself in God’s position and begin to smell the sweet aroma of Jesus wafting from you. It is a comforting aroma which draws all people. Not only are you pleasing in God’s eyes but you are also pleasant to his sense of smell.

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