Recovery

On August 22, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 35: 26 – 28          NIV

May all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and confusion; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace. May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.” My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long.

It has taken three days to share with you the insight and emotional outpouring of David which is found in the 35th Psalm. I wanted to give you this psalm because I know that we all have been in David’s shoes emotionally.

One of the key points we can glean from this passage is that David knew his Bible. In this passage he essentially prayed Genesis 12: 3 which reads, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” It is always wise to pray the promises God has already given us. Where there is a passage which relates to our circumstance then we already know God’s will. In this case, all we have to do is line up our prayer with the promise God has already given.

The other point which I think is key is to notice how David ends this Psalm. He was certainly in great distress and poured out his heart to God but when he gets to the end he has reached the point of declaring God’s greatness. That is one of the keys to David’s success and to his great relationship with God. There are other psalms wherein David begins with a recitation of his troubles but always at the end he has laid his problem at the throne of God and taken up his instrument to sing praises to the Most High. This is a very valuable lesson. It is acceptable to lament your woes. It is okay to tell God your troubles and your feelings, but do not end your conversation there. Keep communicating with God until you reach the praise and thanksgiving stage. Keep praying until your trust in His saving grace has returned to you. Remember too, that our New Testament instruction from Jesus is to pray for our tormentors. Their actions will return to them because of the bad seed they have sown. However, we now have the power and authority to even save them from themselves because in Jesus we can pray for their healing and a reversal of their fortunes. It certainly is not the easiest thing in the world to do but we have Jesus, and in him all things are possible, even praying for our enemies.

Back to Top

The Blessing

On May 4, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 28: 2 – 14

2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God. 
3Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.
5Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you seven ways.
8The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
9The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in His ways.
10So all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of you.
11And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the produce of your ground in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
12The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
13And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail, and you only shall be above, and you shall not be underneath, if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully,
14 And do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

You need to know the blessing. This is your heritage and your birthright. This represents part of your covenant rights with the Father. These verses are what Jesus went to the cross to purchase for you. This is the message of the cross. We were lost. We were estranged from our Father. When we had no way back to the Father, Jesus became the way. Father God wanted us in unity with Him. He wanted us to be blessed. He created all this earth in order to bless us, but we lost our way. So, compelled by His deep love for us, He sent His only son that we all might be reconciled to Him.

We, the church, have become the downtrodden and abased. But Jesus, our Lord, went to the cross in order to put us back in right standing with our Father. He took on the curse and became the curse so that we could again walk in the righteousness with which God adorned us at the beginning of the age. We must now reclaim that heritage and our rights and no longer be the oppressed but rather live as the kids of the King. We must accept our rightful place and step into it. You are the child of the Most High. What more do you need? You are a princess, a prince of the greatest kingdom ever to be. Stand your ground as an heir to the promise and no longer see yourself as a slave nor let anyone convince you of your lowly station in life. The King of all put His son on the cross so that you can stand in the blessing created for you. Celebrate who you are in Him.

Back to Top

Rewarder

On April 12, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 11: 6

He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

People are so worried about God being a judge but the truth is that He is a rewarder. It is a perverted generation that calls God a harsh judge, a critical appraiser. He is the lover of our souls. If was for this reason that he sent Jesus here to die, because he loves us. John 3: 16 tells us so plainly that God sent Jesus so that we would be saved. What kind of logic extrapolates from this that He saved us just to subject us to harsh judgment. He already knew what He was getting when He sent Jesus. Had He not watched the decrepit nature and acts of humanity before he sent Jesus? 

It was precisely because God saw and knew how lost we were that He sent Jesus here to be our savior. Now He is able to just love us. God has always loved us, even when we were unlovely. He wants to pour out that love on us and He can because Jesus removed the sin that stood between us. God is the giver of good gifts. He is like a grandparent, He just gives us good things because He loves us. We don’t have to earn them. His love is all it takes to make us worthy. 

When Jesus comes back in all his glory he is bringing rewards, he is bringing prizes. “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done” Matthew 16: 27 (NIV). The judgment is that the light came into the world and people rejected the light (John 3: 19), but not you. You love the light and have made him the Lord of your life and now he has rewards for you. When he comes, he is bringing you presents.

Isn’t that just like a grandparent too? Grandma doesn’t ask if you’ve been good before she buys you that prize. And we know it too! We just run up to our grandparents and ask, “What did you bring me?” It never crossed our minds to ask ourselves if we were worthy? 

God is a rewarder and Jesus is bringing presents when he comes. They both just want to bless you, not judge you. Go crawl into Dad’s lap and receive His blessings.

Back to Top

Redeemed, Restored & Renewed

On April 6, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Galatians 3: 13 – 14

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” – in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.

This is a message of the cross that we do not hear often and yet it is so profound that we should be shouting it from the housetops. This is a huge statement. While we were yet under the curse, God provided a way, the way, to redeem us from that curse. Jesus Christ, our beloved, went to the cross not to bear the burden of the curse but rather he became a curse so that we could be freed from the curse, from sin and from death. Jesus went to the cross so that we could be redeemed from the curse of the law and thereby be reconciled to God and into the blessing of Abraham.  

This passage encourages further study for it demands an answer to the question, “What is the blessing of Abraham?” It also answers many questions and some very large ones at that. We know, beyond doubt, that we are to live lives of blessing being no longer under the curse. We are heirs of all of the promises God made to Abraham. We know what the Christian life is to look like and it is not one of sickness, disease and poverty. Those are in the curse. It is not a life on anguish and torture. We are delivered from the curse of the law, from the power of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear son.

Additional text: Deuteronomy 28: 1-14

Back to Top

Reverential Awe

On March 18, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 25: 12                                   Index Card 4

Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

First, let us remind ourselves that the kind of fear written of in this passage is more akin to reverence. It is reverential fear. I personally think of it as awestruck wonder and veneration. For those who revere the Lord, who admire and respect Him, there is a multitude of blessing. Among the myriad blessings is that God will instruct you and lead you. 

Understand, though, that God is not withholding any blessing now. His desire is always to help you to choose wisely and to lead you according to His ways. The only reason He does not do so more often is because of our attitudes. He cannot advise a person who does not turn to Him asking for His advice. We fail to seek Him and to seek His advice.  

Look, you are not going to ask advice of someone you don’t respect and God is not going to force His wisdom down your throat. He wishes to instruct you. He longs to lead you. Turn to him with a reverential attitude seeking wisdom and guidance and you shall receive.

 

Back to Top

A Model Example

On January 15, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Genesis 14: 18 -21

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tenth of all.

It is a little difficult to tell what is going on here without reading the entire story so let me expound just a little. Abraham, before his name was changed from Abram to Abraham, had gone out to battle against some kings. These kings had, as part of their spoils from previous battle, taken Lot and his family captive. So, Abram (Abraham) went out against them in order to rescue Lot, his nephew. Abram won and reclaimed all the goods and people that had been taken. Melchizedek, who was a high priest, ministered to Abram after the battle and blessed Abram and Abram gave to Melchizedek a tenth of all the spoil or tenth of all of the income of the battle. This is the model of the tithe. As you read on in the story, you find out that various distributions were made after the battle. In fact, Abram ended up keeping nothing. It is interesting to note, though, that the ten percent was paid over to Melchizedek before any other distributions were made. That is the tithe and it provides that there will always be food in the house of God to meet every need.

Back to Top

Abundant Grace

On January 12, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Timothy 1: 14                   (Amplified Version)

And the grace (unmerited favor and blessing) of our Lord actually flowed out superabundantly and beyond measure for me, accompanied by faith and love that are to be realized in Christ Jesus.

This passage was written by the Apostle Paul. He was recounting how he blasphemed the Lord and persecuted the church. Yet nonetheless, Christ, through grace, showed him mercy. How is it that the Lord was willing and able to show such kindness to this man even while he was torturing and murdering Christians? The mercy of the Lord and of our Father is beyond comprehension. Jesus poured out on Paul superabundant favor and blessing. It certainly was not because Paul earned it. It comes just from the Father’s deep love.

Paul, unlike so many modern Christians, was able to receive God’s abundance. Why? I believe the answer is two-fold. I think that one of the reasons Paul was able to receive God’s abundant, beyond measure grace is that he, first, completely knew that he was unworthy and undeserving. This freed him to just receive by grace. He did not try to earn God’s favor because he knew that he was way beyond that.

Secondly, I think that Paul was so humble and grateful that his heart was wide open before the Lord of grace. I deeply desire for the church to draw close to God just as Paul was intimate with him. We see the abundant love and grace that the Father has for us. Now if we can sincerely open ourselves to him the way Paul did, we might also walk in the kind of grace that was afforded Paul. Let us not wait for God to knock us off our donkeys though. Let us all, with blind faith, reach out to the source of all and invite him into the deepest part of our beings.

Back to Top