Week 26
The Lords Day, Week 26! (half way there)
Thoughts on Philippians 1 & 2:
· The most important thing in the world to the Apostle Paul was the advancement of the Gospel. It was more important than his own health, own life, relationships, everything... If it meant he must endure more suffering for the Gospel to continue to go forward, he welcomed it, if it meant he had to die, he welcomed it, for him, to live was Christ and to die was gain... But let's consider this statement a bit more, to live is Christ, Paul gives us some clarity to it in the following verses, "if I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me..." Life meant work for Paul, the labor of proclaiming the Gospel, and this work was much harder than it is for us today. He is writing from prison, and he is there for preaching the Gospel. I think about this dichotomy very often, living for Christ, or being in the actual presence of Christ. I think about how I want to see my everything through this same lens because that's how we grow in boldness, this is how we endure trials and persevere to the end. To recognize that there is only one thing worth living for, and it's that very same thing worth living for that is also worth dying for. I've come to a place in my life where I do truly believe that dying is easy, it's living that's hard. Dying is when eternity with my God, Lord and Savior begins, where I get to experience my true purpose and get to stand before Him fully accepted on account of what He has done to save me from His wrath which is rightfully due to me because of my sin. The real work is in living for Him, and though we don't have it anywhere near as hard as Paul had it, we have our own set of challenges today don't we. We are bombarded with a world that wants you to believe your whole purpose of existence is to be happy. To get to a point in life where it all becomes easy, where hopefully you can just retire, buy a condo, and live out your remaining years enjoying your grandkids, and sipping on margaritas. This may shock some of your, but I don't think there's anything wrong with the sipping on margaritas part... lol But there is something wrong with the rest of it! This life is not meant for happiness, it's not meant to just be enjoyed, it's not meant for us to just relax and wait to be called home. This life is meant to be spent, for His purpose. There is an eternity for us to enjoy, to die is gain, but to live is Christ, it means living for Him, in Him, through Him, to the glory of God alone! Doesn't mean you can't retire, but retirement from vocation, only means the start of a new ministry, one where even more time gets devoted to proclaiming your Savior. Below I've included a sermon clip from a fantastic message by John Piper, just watch it, consider it, and then go and live for Christ.
Brothers and sisters, today is the Lords Day, this is a day that is meant to be enjoyed, and to rest in the work of your Lord and Savior! Please worship with the body of Christ today! Many Churches are finally opening, if your church isn't open, send me a message, I may have room in my yard today as long as the weather holds up! I'll be doing a small service around 1pm today. This isn't every week, next week I'll be back at the Haven, OPC, at 1pm. But I will do it occasionally while I figure out what's next. God bless you all!
Monday, week 26!
Thoughts on Leviticus 7-9:
· Chapter 7 focuses on the Peace offering, of all the offerings and sacrifices this is the only one that the people are able to partake in eating of that which is offered and sacrificed. The peace offering concludes with a meal shared in the presence of God. I think it's fitting to consider the marriage supper of the lamb which is pictured in Revelation. 6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out. “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” This is a culminating event where we are finally sharing this great meal in the full presence of our Lord and Savior, all of this here in Leviticus points ahead ultimately to this, but to Christ first, who will be and for us already was the final bloody sacrifice, and so where do we see the peace offering today. Well, where else to we share a meal together and in the presence of God to remember what He has done to reconcile us to Himself? Communion!!! Which is another representation of a peace offering, where we as a body get too partake in remembrance of that final sacrifice and we do so in the presence of God, which then points forward to that great feast in revelation. My point being is that it is all connected, God doesn't do things without meaning and purpose, and it's only when we look at the entirety of scripture that we can get a peek at it. The only other thing I want to comment on is in Chapter 9, where the Lord accepts their offering. This is the picture we see taking place in verses 22-24, which finishes with the people falling on their faces. Don't miss what's happening here. God is not obligated to accept these sacrifices. He is completely within His right to simply judge the people, to destroy them and pay them their wages... Death. But He doesn't, He accepts their sacrifices, and appears before the people, without destroying them. Their response to fall on their faces is completely appropriate, they are in the presence of God, and they recognize they are undeserving as you and I will as well when we finally stand before Him. We will be in complete awe, and see that apart from the blood of Jesus, we would be destroyed. Apart from His sacrifice for our guilt, our sin and to make peace, your and I would spend eternity making payment for the way in which we sinned against our creator. That God accepts any sacrifice, is only of His grace and mercy. Mercy in that He doesn't give every single one of us exactly what we deserve, and grace in that He gives His elect not only forgiveness, but He also credits to us the active obedience of Christ. Treating us as we actually obeyed all that we were required. Treating us like we were perfect, when we are most definitely not. I'm reminded of a hymn that has become a favorite of mine, "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, when sinners plunged beneath the flood, lose all their guilt and stains..." how is this so??? But for the grace of God it isn't... Consider His grace in everything you do today, that He chose to accept this sacrifice rather than pay directly to us our due wages...
Here's that hymn in a bit of a more contemporary arrangement... Updating is almost complete on the website. Just so you know, here is why it's taking so long. I had to go through and cope and paste every single post since Week 1, first onto a word doc, then format it, then add each one to the website... it's not hard, but boy is it tedious, and I don't have a whole lot of patience for it... lol Yesterday we had a small service in the yard, but the sound on the recording unfortunately didn't come out to well. This Sunday we will likely be meeting at the Haven, OPC in Bohemia at 1pm... I'll keep you updated. God bless.
Tuesday, Week 26!
Thoughts on 1 Kings 19-22:
· First there's Elijah, and just how quickly he goes from hero to zero! I've always been fascinated with this, and yet comforted in a weird way by it to. I've come to believe this is natural for the man and woman of God. We go out empowered by the Holy Spirit for a work, and then when it's complete there's a sense in where we you are humbled by the recognition it was all of God, and in your flesh you are still just as hopeless as you were before. Elijah does this miraculous thing destroying the prophets of Baal, but then Jezebel threatens him and he runs away afraid for his life. It was God working through Him for the destruction of the prophets, God who empowered Him, God who did it all. It's not the God wasn't with Him anymore, but that empowerment is gone, and now left alone for the consequences, he realizes in his flesh he can't stop them from destroying him. I can remember preaching a sermon, and feeling the Spirit's power working through me, to then come down and be met with a problem or sometimes trouble at home and immediately feeling like... What in the world am I doing? I have no business preaching or pastoring, I am hopeless, I can't do this! This is the tension of the person of God, because the truth is we can't do it, none of it, the work that all disciples are called to is an impossible work! But when God works, He does the impossible and sometimes the temptation is to think it's coming from us and the Lord in HIs mercy humbles us. Be grateful for this, because the alternative is to end up like Ahab, the king who got everything he wanted and began to think he didn't need to listen to the Lord, he didn't need to seek the Lord. He instead listed to his wife, he listened to the prophets who only prophesied that which he wanted to hear! We need to be humbled that we don't become spoiled and grow in much confidence in our own abilities! The Christian is one who is always dependent on Christ... Always. Do we yet understand that we are not capable of even getting up in the morning without the mercy of God in our life? Ahab was a wicked king, in the line of wicked kings, and surrounded himself with people who fed his ego and let him think he deserved whatever he wanted. The child of God is one who knows we don't deserve anything but death, and when we receive anything more than that, it is all of Gods mercy and grace. The child of God receives rebuke, correction all in a spirit of humility knowing that what most people know is only but a percentage of the true wickedness in my heart. Elijah and Ahab were nothing a like, except for in the fact that they were human beings. But one was a child of God, the other of Satan, and though Ahab repents later in life, we have to wonder whether or not that was even true repentance with the Lord still punishing those in his household after him.
I hope you are all doing well this week, we have completed another book! Next week we start 2 Kings and we are just about passed the halfway point! Last night I started thinking of Christmas... lol May the Lord bless you all this day and keep you dependent completely on Him to make it through your day. God bless.
Wednesday, week 26!
Thoughts on Psalms 75-77:
· Psalm 75 - Have you considered how is it that in a world full of such injustice, Christians are to remain so content? It is because we do not put our trust in worldly justice, but rather that we recognize that Gods justice is perfect, He judges with equity! This is a Psalm of thanksgiving, and the foundation for thanksgiving is the just judgements of God. That God Himself well execute judgement putting down one and lifting up another, all will drink of the cup of the Lord. Some of HIs cup of wrath and others of the cup of His divine blessing. There is no one that gets away with wickedness, all will eventually stand before God. All that which you and I think no one sees, God sees. Now, the thing about this is that as we reflect and consider these things we will realize this is not really good news for us apart from Christ. You and I, in our ourselves would also be drinking of the cup of wrath, except that Jesus drank our cup for us! Think of how this should impact our disposition though! You and I deserve wrath, God will judge all perfectly, nothing is hidden, and every evil deed will be receive perfect justice. I know the price that I would have to pay for my own wickedness, and yet God saved me, He drank my cup that I would get to drink His. So now, I look at the injustice of the world. I see how it is that often the poor are oppressed, and justice often isn't fair, it's not equal. We shouldn't deny this, there are many examples of two people being charged with the same crime and yet receiving completely different sentencing. I'm not saying this is because of the color of someone's skin, though I'm sure at times it is, but there may also be other circumstances behind this. We see people who have access to money and power, get off in ways that people without never could. So do we look at that and feel hopeless? NO! Of course not, because we know the truth, those who are boastful and haughty, thinking they have worked the system and in some cases even gotten away with murder, they have not escaped anything. They will pay, and that shouldn't make us happy, in the same way that it shouldn't make us angry that they escaped earthly judgment. It should cause us to have pity. Because their punishment is what God has saved us from. Have you ever considered that, their getting away with it here, was Gods judgement? What I mean is that, discipline here on earth is meant to bring us to repentance, and when that isn't dealt, it's because God isn't looking to grant repentance. If God isn't looking to grant repentance it's only because God is going to judge them for their deeds. Brothers and sisters, God has granted you repentance, and there is no boasting in that because it's all of Him. So we can give thanks and sing His praises forever, because of His wondrous deeds of which you and I are apart. But we feel pity on those who don't know Him, we need to recognize the only thing that separates us is the grace of God, and so we pray for salvation, preach the gospel, and when we see injustice, we remain trusting in Him. We don't respond the way the world does, with anger, but we respond as a child of God. With pity, recognizing that but for the grace of God go we...
· Psalms 76 & 77 - Psalm 76 emphasizes the fear of the Lord, dwell on that, that God will arise to establish judgement and save all the humble of the earth. Have you recognized who you are in this world, read the notes on Psalm 75 again and let that humble you. We deserve death, judgement, but God saves. He is to be feared because He is Holy and powerful, but that He has allowed us to truly know Him means He has also given us access through His Son that we wouldn't have to fear His wrath having been forgiven. Psalm 77 - In the day of trouble, do you seek the Lord, do you remember all that He has done, or do you allow the troubles of this world to drown Him out? The purpose of this Psalm is to lay out the way to seek Him, we do so by being drawn to His wondrous deeds, all that the Lord has done. This starts by looking to what He has done in His word, but then we also consider all He has done in our lives. When we allow the day of trouble to bring despair it is because we have become very shortsighted. Throughout the Bible we see God reminding His people about who He is, why? Because they to would forget, so remember... This is one of the reasons I like to recommend journaling. Journaling is a way to write down things God has done in your life, and then every now and then, go back and read some of what God has done. Be reminded of how God has worked in your life. That you would remain strong in the day of trouble.
This week I've witnessed the Lord calling people out of their apathy, including me. I believe the Lord is working in His people and change is coming. Pray for this change to be shaped by personal holiness and obedience to His word. This is where true revival comes. Hopefully I finish the website updates tonight, and also I preached a message for North Shore Baptist Church that should be up today, if you get a chance, please check it out on their YouTube page. God bless you all and have a wonderful day!
Thursday, week 26!
Thoughts on Proverbs 7:
· Adultery... This is the focus of the passage, we've already seen the same subject pop up in proverbs, and the question might be, why does this keep coming up? It comes up because as a sin it is a sign of a divided heart, an unfaithful heart. The warning to all men, and in this case the writer is speaking specifically to men. Is to guard your heart and not to be a fool. The adulteress woman makes promises that she can't deliver, and instead the one who chases after her is like an animal being led to slaughter. In other words, the animal knows not what's happening, but yet continues along and only when it's to late, the axe cutting or spear piercing, does it have any recognition of what is taking place. It's not that these warnings shouldn't be heeded by women as well. Of course they should, but it is the man who is usually more likely to be carried off by his lust and natural desires. Again, this isn't every case so all of us need to beware of such seduction. The way in which we protect ourselves is by having a very close relationship with wisdom. That's what the opening verses tell us. Keep my commands and you will live, guard my teachings, bind them on your fingers. In all of this we are not just speaking of the book of proverbs, but rather all of the word of God. The more intimate of a relationship we have with the word, the better protected we will be from seduction and folly. Spiritually this is easy to see how it is presented in the scripture, but the spiritual reality has a very practical side to it. When physical temptation comes, where do we go? Do we flee it the way scripture tells us to? Or do we toy around with the idea? Do we allow it to linger, considering all the ways in which we can derive pleasure from it? The word of God says kill it, run away, don't entertain it. Here the command is to not let your heart turn to her ways... Many Christians know these spiritual truths, but we don't take them seriously in our own lives. I can't tell you how many times I personally have found myself considering things that are ungodly, unholy! But we have to take those thoughts captive, bring them under the Lordship of Jesus and turn away from them all, not allowing our hearts to even entertain the thoughts. There is no true satisfaction in sin, only temporary distraction, but what comes afterwards is always greater destruction.
I posted the sermon preached for North Shore Baptist Church, I pray you all get to listen to it as I think it is fitting for the time we find ourselves in. I am now going to turn to updating the website as well, hopefully I can finish this morning, and lastly here is the most recent blog I posted on the truthnlife website. Share your thoughts... God bless!
https://www.truthnlife.net/blog/where-our-loyalties-lie
Friday, week 26!
Thoughts on Ezekiel 13-18:
· I only have two points today because I am running late, though I've been up since 4 am! smh First is in chapter 13, notice the way the Lords speaks of false prophets, they will be held accountable. I would argue this applies to false teachers today, anyone who says peace, peace when there is no peace! Anyone who says, thus says the Lord, when the Lord didn't say. These are very serious charges, and we need to warn those who do such things. I'm not saying that everyone out there who teaches things incorrectly is a false teacher worthy of this kind of judgment. At times people can by sincerely convinced of something and so they share it because they mean the best. But other times, many times, it has more to do with getting a specific reaction from people, wanting to be accepted, liked, not pissing people off, avoiding confrontation, being afraid of man rather than having a fear of God. This is why it's so important for you to know your bible! This is how you are protected from such things, and don't end up leading others astray too. Read, study, have conversations, don't stop learning, listen to solid preaching, hopefully in your home church from a trusted pastor. False teachers are everywhere, and you'll only learn to discern the difference by hearing the real thing and knowing the word yourself. If you need help finding a solid church, please reach out!
· The second point comes out of chapter 18, and it's simple, only the one who sins pays for their own sin. A couple of weeks ago I spoke about legacy, and how what we do matters to future generations. This is 100% true we must work hard to leave a good legacy, what we do will have a future impact. But every generation will also answer for their own sin, their own wickedness. We've inherited somethings that were left to us in bad shape, perhaps in your family their was abuse, and sometimes that means the one growing up in that environment repeats it. That's always heartbreaking when that happens, but the one who repeats it doesn't get away with it because they themselves were abused, the second they behave in a sinful manner they cease becoming the victim and become the guilty party. On the day of judgement you don't get to say, but God it happened to me. In the same way, those who don't repeat the pattern, are not guilty of the sin of their fathers, of their parents. Even if those parents get away with it, even if they die in good standing in the community, they could have been the most wicked people to ever walk the earth, and no one knew it. All of a sudden the world finds out, we don't get to say, let's execute the children so that we can have justice. That is not justice... yet, this is exactly what we see happening today in our culture. Let's punish all white people today, because 100's of years ago, some white people owned slaves! NO! the Bible is completely clear here, that's not how this works. We hold the one who sins accountable for their sin. I don't have to even make excuses or seek forgiveness for the sins of my ancestors, their deeds don't transfer to my account! My dad could have been Jeffrey Dahmer, and it's as simple as, go blame him, I had nothing to do with it. Judge me on the content of MY character, hold me accountable for what I've done, and believe me there's enough there already to look at... You don't need to go digging into my families past to go find more! There's enough on my account that makes me guilty before God, enough there for me to repent of and cling to Jesus! Enough there to last a lifetime, so NO we don't get to transfer sins to anyone's account... Except Jesus, who bore our sins willingly on the cross! If He is carrying your sin today, then you stand completely new, completely forgiven, a new creation, hallelujah!
Tomorrow will be my last post here (FB... lol)... and though my pages will stay open, I won't be on anymore! it's taken a while to get things together but hopefully it'll be good. My wife will probably still be checking in now and then, and I'll have her post my articles and stuff as well. God bless and hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!
Saturday, week 26!
Thoughts on Luke 15 & 16:
· Chapter 15 is introduced by Luke as one parable, which is very interesting given it's usually shared as 3 separate ones. But for Jesus it was given as one, all meant to highlight one major theme. God seeks after sinners and rejoices over them when they repent. At the end of chapter 14 Jesus says, "he who has ears to hear, let him hear..." and then immediately it says in chapter 15, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to "HEAR" him... Then we have this parable focusing on the lost, the sinners being sought out by the shepherd, the woman, the father... In each of these, something was lost and that which seemed to be of greater value was left to seek that which was of lesser value, one sheep vs. ninety-nine, one coin vs nine, and then the sinful sin vs. the obedient one. The first two Jesus tells us that repentance is the key, in the last one we see repentance exemplified by the prodigal son. How does Jesus then seek after sinners today? Through you and I... We are called to go to sinners and preach the gospel of the Kingdom. We must take it to them, we must be willing, in Jesus name, to go seek out the lost sheep, to go seek out the lost coin, and even welcome in celebration the prodigal who returns home. But many Christians still behave like the obedient son, upset about the welcoming of sinners and focused on the question, "what about me?". God, where's my party? Where's my answer to prayer? what about my gifts? what about my family? There comes a time for every Christian where we have to grow up! Where we are no longer babies, and we go from the prodigal who was received in celebration, to a son who is taking part in someone else's celebration. The party isn't always about us, we were lost, and now we've been found, and our celebration came when we repented and trusted in Jesus. But there are many more celebrations for us to take part in, if we will just get out of our own comfort zones and do the work of the ministry by being the hands and feet of Jesus in seeking out what was lost. It is the Holy Spirit alone who regenerates and convicts, but we must preach and call out to the lost! last thing on this, it doesn't only happen on Sunday morning, but we should be celebrating every day of the week!
· Chapter 16 the parable of the dishonest manager is a difficult parable to wrap our heads around because it seems like Jesus is praising some shrewd behavior. To a certain extent, He is. He is pointing out the fact that those in the flesh are able to find ways of bending the rules without breaking the law in order to benefit themselves but those who are of the Kingdom of Heaven aren't even willing to that which is completely allowed in order to win the world to Christ. We should be willing to use everything we have for the purpose of the gospel. What have you been blessed with? Use it to further the kingdom, and not your own purpose, be shrewd in managing your own home for the furthering of the gospel, this is his point. The unrighteous do this all the time for selfish purposes, but we have righteous and unselfish purposes. This is faithfulness with our own possessions and finances, using them for Gods purposes. Notice this ends with the point that we cannot serve two masters, we can have money and serve God, which means we use money for His purpose, or we can be ruled by money which then puts God completely out of the picture. Pay attention to how you use your wealth!
Share the gospel with someone today, and consider how you can use all that you have for Gods purposes and glory. Today's Independence Day, and so I hope you also have the opportunity to celebrate that with friends and family, while taking time to pray for our nation and world. Pray for the church to live out what we've been called to, that we would seek out sinners and rejoice when the Lord welcomes them home. God bless you all and Happy 4th of July!