Week 28 (2 incomplete days)
The Lord's day, week 28!
Thoughts on Colossians 1-3:
· We were created by, through, and for Christ, we owe everything to Him. If we believe the scriptures then we have no option than to see Jesus as our Lord, to see our lives as belonging completely to Him and being expendable for His cause. The Bible give no other option when it comes to this. Colossians emphasizes the preeminence of Christ, He was before all things and He is over all things, the Christian should be one that has accepted this fact and submitted to it. Therefore we see our lives being lived for Him as our ultimate cause and there is no greater purpose than to live for our Lord and savior. He has the right, and the ability to call me home whenever He sits fit, and He is the only One who can do so. Live for Him.
Monday, week 28!
Thoughts on Leviticus 13-13:
· Uncleanness is the theme throughout these 3 chapters, and whether it's a diseased person or an object the point is what this uncleanness points to, death. As you look at these distinctions, it was the one who's disease or ailment was progressive, that remained unclean. To be unclean meant to be excluded from worship. Were there also medical reasons for these things? I think it's safe to say, yes, the Lord was probably also protecting His people from sickness. But everything with Israel serves a greater purpose, it's an object lesson for us today. That which is unclean cannot be in the presence of God. That which is unclean cannot partake in the worship of God and by nature is excluded from fellowship. All of us in our natural state are unclean. It is only through the blood of the lamb that we are made clean. Practically this must remind us of the separation between those who are not in Christ and those who are, that if we are His, it is only because of Christ. You and I are incapable of curing ourselves. We are incapable of making ourselves clean and yet He has done it for us. The state of those unclean was the same, they could do nothing to cleanse themselves, they could only wait, will my situation get worse, or will it get better, will it spread or will it go away, will the discharge end, or will I be healed, and so is our condition. But Jesus has saved us, He has made us clean, and though I know I can often still go roll around in the mud, His grace is completely sufficient, and my only hope is Him. I need Him not only to make me clean, but I need Him to stay clean and keep me from getting dirty.
I apologize for yesterday, we have a lot going on at home, and on Saturday morning I went out to preach and my back seized up on me. I was out of it in the morning and then the rest of the day I spent reflecting and praying and honestly, vegging out in front of the tv was a big part of it too... But I think i'm getting clarity on some things and so i'll be reaching out to some of you in the next few days with some updates. God bless you all and I hope you have a wonderful day.
Tuesday, week 29!
Thoughts on 2 Kings 6-10:
· Some of this was very hard to read... The woman who ate her child in chapter 6. Have you ever been so hungry that the thought of eating a human being, let alone your own child, crept into your head? I haven't. I'm a pretty picky eater, so much so that I rather often go without a meal rather than trying something new. Now, I have gotten better with age, but the fact is I'm still spoiled, we all are. We continue to see the kings of Israel perform wicked deeds, and face the judgement of God throughout these chapters along with Elisha's ministry, which ends at some point without any real mention of it, and yet we know He had a ministry that was blessed beyond that of Elijah's so we can only assume that the majority of his ministry isn't even recorded for us. Can you just imagine how many other great things the Lord did through him, all while the nation around him was crumbling. While people were resorting to eating their own children, the Lord was still working through His prophet, for the good of His people. A couple of things I have taken away from today's reading, first, no matter how bad things are going around us, God is still working in and through His children. It's tempting to look around and think that all is going to hell, but look, no one is eating their children, sure we are still sacrificing them which is still a wicked and evil thing. But we are still a prosperous nation overall, but we can't look at what's happening immediately around us to determine what God is doing. Through Elisha God was doing miraculous things, most that the rest of the world has never heard of, but God was still working things together according to His purpose. Sometimes we need to stop looking so much at the big picture, and scale things down to focus on what is happening within our own area's of influence. You know all the stuff that no one else will ever know, all the stuff that only God knows and those directly impacted know. I got sucked into all that was going on in the world to the point of neglecting my own family and worse... God has disciplined me, and graciously reminded me that the most important thing I can do is be faithful to Him in that which is directly impacted by me... We can and should pray for the world, the nation, our city, and those we may interact with on social media, but none of that matters if those who are directly impacted by you aren't coming into contact daily with a piece of Jesus. What a tragedy it would be if I died tomorrow and my own family had to look to something I wrote or preached to know what I believed rather than to how I lived. We don't know much about Elisha or his ministry, but I promise you, he could not care less... He is in the presence of his Lord, where he will be for eternity and I probably care more about the fact that he's not mentioned more in scripture than he does. There is a quote that I love from a German reformer, Count Vanzinzendorf, "Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten...." Every day I'm tempted to try to live in a way that I'm remembered, but the only one who I should be focused on is Jesus, and making sure that He is remembered. All this to say, I have completely abandoned social media, I will still be writing and posting on my website, but if you are getting this email, or text, it won't be going beyond this and the list will remain small. Eva and I have submitted to Pastoral counseling under Pastor Bill, I need to take accountability for my short comings, and failures as a husband and father and seek to have more of my life reflect Christ in deed and not just word. Continue to pray for us, and I hope to continue in fellowship with you all, and have you be a part of our lives.
· The second thing all of a sudden isn't as important... lol but it was the way the Lord used Jehu, and his sort of halfway repentance, as much good as he did, he still did evil in the sight of the Lord. It's not enough for us to assume because God used us to do something good, that we are good with God. It's only through Jesus, it's only if you have Him!
It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day today. I hope to take Gabby to the park for a bike ride and enjoy the weather and rejoice, for today is a day that the Lord has made! God bless!
Wednesday, week 28!
Thoughts on Psalms 81-83:
· Psalm 81 tells us who God is, "our strength", the our here being a reference to the nation of Israel. God is the one who held them up, sustained them, carried them through, and therefore worthy of being celebrated. Then the psalm moves on to tell us what God has done, He rescued the people of Israel. It was God who brought them out of slavery and into the promised land, it was God who established them as a nation, God who established His commandments among the people. The people were now to simply obey and honor God with their lives. But the last section, starting in verse 11 tells us how the people respond to who God is and what He has done, they did not obey... The story of Israel is the story of mankind. I don't mean that Israel is just an allegory, no, everything in the bible actually happened, it's history. But in history we also see these images, or typography. Israel is a picture of all of mankind. God gave us everything, He establishes the world and everything in it. Gives us life, and dominion and all we were supposed to do is honor Him and live life in a way that glorifies Him through our obedience and trust... But, we did not obey! God was good, and we were not, God is still good, and still, we are not! Israel was judged for their wickedness, they were given over to it and sent into exile. The same will happen to all of man, exiled from the love of God, remaining under the wrath of God for all eternity is where man will end up... Unless we listen to Him, unless we turn from our wickedness and trust in Jesus! It's only in the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit that we can begin to walk in His ways. We will never do it perfectly, but because what God has done, we don't have to. Jesus will satisfy us, Jesus has walked for us, Jesus will stand for us, but we must turn from our wickedness and towards His goodness, He was good in the beginning, remains good today. Repent and believe today!
· Psalms 82 and 83 deal with wickedness, first with wicked rulers or judges, and the hope here is to remember they will be judged righteously. God will punish all wicked rulers and judges, and we can trust Him to do so. Psalm 83 then is an imprecatory psalm, calling for judgement on ones enemies. I've spoken and taught on these before, and remember that the focus is on trusting God to enact judgement, and not taking vengeance into our own hands. There's no reason to believe that God will do things according to the way the psalmist requests, but He is trusting in God to do something, ultimately leaving it in His hands.
Thank you all for your prayers and continued support. I hope you all have a wonderful day today, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
Thursday, week 28!
Thoughts on Proverbs 10:
· Proverbs 10 starts another section of the book, and here each verse is a complete thought and gives a single short complete proverb without any necessary connection to the next verse, and it was done this way most likely for memorization. So I am only going to look at 1 or 2 verses that stick out to me... Verse 9, "He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out." Have you ever noticed that sin in your life brings chaos? Sin in your life brings insecurity and a always only leads to greater sin which leads to more chaos and greater insecurity. If you are married, it leads to insecurity in your marriage, but it also leads to insecurity in your relationship with God. In my own life this has proven to be true over and over again. Sin has brought strife between my wife and I and also led me to seek greater assurance in my walk, not realizing the reason I didn't have that assurance was my own doing! To walk with integrity is to walk honestly, and without anything hidden, it involves character, character that is being conformed to the image of Christ. Integrity doesn't mean without sin either, it means that you are honest when you do sin, that you allow an environment filled with grace. In this environment the peace of God reigns and security will always be found.
· Last thing, notice that often wisdom is synonymous with righteousness, and wickedness with sin or iniquity. When we started with Proverbs I defined wisdom as right knowledge, head knowledge, applied to life, or connecting to the heart, in other words, it is living according to what you believe. A truly wise person is a person who knows what the Word of God says, and then does what it says, that person is a righteous person, He is just before God, does that which is right before God, and a wicked person is one who breaks the commands of God, who is a worker of iniquity, sin. This is important because a person can know the word of God very well, and even know how to apply it, but still be wicked. If you belong to Christ, then this will be visible by how well you live according to His word, not to earn salvation, but because of the salvation you've been given from both the punishment of your sin and also the power of it. As we seek more of Christ, let us also seek to make Him clearer in all that we do, let us seek to show ourselves approved by loving Christ enough to obey Him. Showing ourselves to be wise, to have been made truly righteous by the blood of Christ.
For anyone interested, some of us have begun going out to Planned Parenthood to preach the gospel and we have begun to make plans to go preach at the beach as well during the week. If you'd like information on this, please let me know and I'll keep you in the loop to join us. God bless and have a wonderful day!
Friday, week 28!
Thoughts on Ezekiel 25-30:
· One way that the Lord makes Himself known is through judgement!
Saturday, week 28!
Thoughts on Luke 19 & 20:
· I want to focus on the parable in verses 11 - 27 because this is what stuck out to me most during the reading today, it hit me pretty hard. There are two types of people in the church, notice that's what the parable is saying. The nobleman gives to His servants, that means they were a part of His kingdom, I'm not going to make a comment on whether or not that is talking of salvation, because I don't think that's the focus here. But it's talking about two type of people in the church. There are those who serve their master faithfully, and they take the gifts given them and continue to invest it into the kingdom. As they do so, the Lord rewards them by continuing to expand their gifts and influence, giving them more opportunities. Then there are those who look at the world around them, in rebellion to the king, they see how hard it is, in verse 14 the citizens are saying they don't want this man to reign over them. That's the state of the world today, in rebellion to the reign of Jesus, they continue to resist. Out of fear of their Master, at least that is their claim, they do nothing with the gifts given to them. They just sit on them and waited for the master’s return. But the master is angry when He returns, and instead of rewarding them, He takes that which they had and gives it to the others. The reason for this is because though they knew who the master was, they did not do what they were supposed to do. Brothers and sisters, we have a job to do, invest and sow into the kingdom of God, preach the gospel and use the gifts God has given us to build up His church, to build up His body and show the world who Jesus is. God has gifted you, every one of us, and the only question is... What are you doing with those gifts? How are you investing them back into the kingdom? Or are you so scared that you are just sitting and waiting for Jesus to come home? There is so much of this in the church today... Only it's not a real fear of the Lord, it's a fear of man hidden as a love for God. It's the person that just sits around saying, "Jesus come quickly!!!" and then they do nothing because they say it's "the last days" or "the world is just going to get worse" or however else they try to justify it. But Jesus doesn't call us to sit and wait, He calls us to sow, to reap, to invest, and He promises reward for those who do, and punishment or perhaps judgement for those who don't. Jesus is returning, and the only question is which slave are you? The one who's spent all they've been given investing into Gods kingdom, or the one sitting on His gifts, trying to ride out the last days in safety? Let's be the former, let's give it all for Christ and His kingdom!
· The only other thing I want to point to here is the religious leaders and their fear of man, I think it's no coincidence that this parable is given here, and then we have these scenarios where we have the Pharisees and Sadducees kept from taking action against Jesus because of their fear of man. This shows us that they did not really know God, it was always because they were afraid of how the crowds would react that they did not take action. Now, their theology was obviously incorrect, but if ours is accurate, we should not be responding to the crowds the same way... Fear God, not man...
I am again sorry about yesterday, Eva and I were all over the place from 6am until 9pm last night, I did get to read, but not journal... I'll update the two mornings I didn't send out notes this week on the website post and if you are interested, you can check it out there. I hope you all have a wonderful day today, God bless!