How Do We Treat The Poor?

Deuteronomy 15:7-11

I see them nearly every single day.  They are all over the big cities, and the suburbs.  They are out in rural areas, too, only probably not as noticeable.  What am I talking about?  I am referring to the poor and homeless asking for help.  We see them on the busier streets by the traffic lights.  When the lights are red, they will walk down between the lanes, often holding a sign saying they are homeless and hungry.  There are always one or two at a busy intersection several blocks from where I live.  I have lived here over twenty-five years, and there haven’t always been people on the street corners begging for help.  It’s only been in the last few years.  How do you feel when you see the poor and homeless in your area, as this is a world-wide concern?  Our Scripture today lets us know what the Lord God has to say about this.

This week’s Old Testament Scripture comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, the last book that Moses wrote.  Deuteronomy contains his final message to the people of Israel, right before they would cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land.  In these small handful of verses, Moses tells us the Lord’s instructions for how He wishes us to treat the poor.

The Lord wishes that His children have an attitude towards the poor that is one of warmth and generosity, giving what is necessary to meet their needs, whether they pay us back or not (vs. 8).  Right prior to our passage in this chapter of Deuteronomy Moses laid out the regulations for the “year of release”, where all debts were to be canceled every seven years (Deuteronomy 15:1-6).  That way people would not be weighed down with unending debt, especially if the lender tacked on heavy interest rates.  In today’s passage, the Lord added more about the “year of release” because He knew how hard-hearted some people might be to those who needed a helping hand.  He knew that a potential creditor might be unwilling to make a loan to a poor person because of the proximity of the year of release.  If it was the sixth year, and the next year was the year of release, that would essentially make the loan instead a gift, as little would be paid back.  So some hard-hearted and selfish people would refuse to make loans to the poor then.  The Lord explicitly condemned having such an attitude (vs. 9-10).

Why do people so often have a hard heart against the poor?  Many people conclude that people are poor through some fault of their own.  They feel that they are poor and/or homeless because they are alcoholics or drug addicts, or because they are lazy and don’t work hard enough.  This makes it easy in their minds to close their hearts and hands to the needy.  However, we are not to invent reasons for ignoring the poor.  The Lord tells us to respond to their needs, no matter who or what was responsible for their condition.  Plus, with the economy as bad as it is in the U.S. and in many other countries, we can no longer just assume that the poor and homeless are lazy drunks and drug addicts.  Unfortunate job lay-offs, ill health with sky-rocketing medical bills, an abusive spouse who takes off and leaves you with children to care for, any of these and more could be the reason that one needs to beg for a hand-out and help.

We also find some people who are so hard-hearted against the poor that they do not want them in their community because they think them unsightly, and that it gives the community a bad image.  They petition the police and city council to run them out of town.  They remove park benches so they won’t have a place to sit and rest, or put armrests in the middle of those park benches so they can’t lie down at night.  Then they turn around and go to church on Sunday and think they are a good, upstanding Christian.  Do we not remember what the Lord said He would do when He returns, how He will divide the people according to how they treat the poor?  (Matthew 25:31-46).  Jesus said that whatever we do to the least of our brothers, we do unto Him.  If we help them to the best of our ability, we are helping Him.  If we cast them off and ignore them, we are doing the same to Jesus.

Have we been blessed by the Lord with a roof over our head, enough food for each meal, and enough to pay our bills?  Most of us have that, and many have even much more.  The Lord does not want us to hoard what He has blessed us with.  He blesses us so that we might bless others.  If we want the blessings of the Lord to continue on us, we must obey Him, and work diligently to carry out His Word (vs. 10).  We are told here by Moses in our Scripture (vs. 11), and later with Jesus in Matthew 26:11, that the poor will always be among us.  Therefore we are always to remain generous.

A Disappointing Response

Mark 5:1-20

Our Gospel reading for this week tells the account that many of us should be familiar with, and that is the narrative of a man who was afflicted with many demons.  Thinking of demon possession is probably something that might strike some fear in folks, particularly if they were to be confronted by such a person.  How about if the person were suddenly set free from this demonic bondage?  Would that not bring happiness and rejoicing?  Or should that make people angry?  We would like to think that when someone finds healing and deliverance, people would be happy and grateful, however that is not what we find in our Scripture today.  Let’s take a look.

As our passage begins, Jesus and His disciples had crossed the Sea of Galilee, and landed on the eastern shore, in the country of the Gadarenes (vs. 1).  The place where they landed was not at any city or village, and was a rocky, wilderness, though not too far from a village.  From this wilderness a man with many demons came out, confronting them.  As we read, this man lived among the tombs in the wilderness, and though he had often been restrained with chains, the demons gave him incredible strength to break free from the iron chains and shackles.  The demons within this man caused him much mental torment, as he was often trying to physically harm himself (vs. 2-5).

When Jesus and His disciples arrived, the demon possessed man ran out, and the demons possessing him cried out, acknowledging exactly who Jesus was, and for Him not to torment them (vs. 6-8).   Jesus demanded that they tell Him their name, and the man said “Legion”, as there were many inside of him (vs. 9).  In the Roman military of the day, a legion was comprised of 6,000 infantry men, so there was an extremely large number of malevolent and militant evil spirits possessing him.  What caused so many demons to possess him?  We don’t know for sure, however demons cannot possess someone who is truly saved.  They can oppress them, but not actually possess them.  For demons to come in and possess someone, that person has to have opened the door in some area of their life for Satan to get a toehold in.  This can occur when someone dabbles in the occult with witchcraft, tarot cards, Ouija boards, palm readings, horoscopes, etc.  It can happen when someone gets involved in drugs, in sexual deviance, or idol worship.  Demon spirits are morally filthy, and cause much harm for those whom they possess.  When someone opens the door to Satan just a crack, he will kick that door fully open and storm in.

As mentioned, the demons knew Who Jesus was, and that He had all authority over them, as they flung themselves at Jesus’ feet in absolute, unconditional surrender (vs. 6-7).  As He was casting them out, the demons begged the Lord to remain in the same area where they had been exercising their evil powers (vs. 10).  Jesus granted that, and they went into a herd of swine, which then immediately jumped off of a cliff (vs. 11-13).  Jesus felt that this man’s deliverance was worth the loss of the many swine.  He was worth it.  We are worth it.  We were worth Jesus coming to earth and dying on the cross to redeem us.

The change in this man, from at one moment being possessed with thousands of demons to now being set free was instantaneous and drastic.  The man's restful condition was a strong contrast with his former restless, agitated state.  He was no longer under the control of the demons (vs. 15).  When the people of the nearby village saw this, they were not happy, they were not grateful.  Instead, they wanted Jesus to leave right away (vs. 15-17).  They preferred pigs and demon possession over the Lord and Savior.  And Jesus did leave.  He never goes where He is not invited.  It is a sad commentary when a society is more concerned about economic interests than seeing a person delivered and set free!  Those people would rather give up Jesus than lose their source of income and security.

This once demon possessed man was grateful to the Lord for what He had done, and wanted to join the disciples in following Him (vs. 18-20).  Jesus told him instead to go home and tell everyone what happened.  Jesus had greater plans for him.  He commissioned this man to be the first actual missionary.  This man did as Jesus asked, and apparently did a very good job, too, as later in Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus returned to the area, there was a large crowd who wished to hear His message.  It is very possible that many in that later crowd were there as a result of this man’s witness and testimony.

Jesus is still in the business of setting people free from what holds them in bondage and captivity.  He still has absolute power over the demon world, and they must bow to and obey His Word.  And Jesus still sends us out to tell others what He has done for us.  Jesus sent this man back to the very people who had sent Him away, those who we might feel hardly deserved His message any longer.  He still sends His message to those who are unworthy, and He uses people that we might feel very unlikely to be a witness, like a delivered demoniac, to bring it.

From A Caterpillar To A Butterfly

II Corinthians 5:14-21

We are all familiar with caterpillars, those little worm-like insects that crawl up and down plants eating the leaves and other plant matter.  Sometimes in grade school we would watch and study them as they made their cocoons or chrysalis, and later emerge as a beautiful butterfly or moth.  We wonder how, after a matter of a few weeks, the worm-like caterpillar can be transformed into something beautiful like a butterfly or moth.  There is an even more wonderful transformation that can happen, one which we will read about in our Scripture today.

The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to believers within the church in Corinth.  As our passage begins, he continues with the well-known truth that all people, all mankind, are dead in trespasses and sin, and that the Lord Jesus died for our sins, in our place (vs. 14-15).  Now, all those who have personally accepted His death as payment for their sins, belong to the Lord Jesus.

Since we belong to Him, it only makes sense that we should be doing His will in our lives.   The love that Jesus had for us by dying on the cross for us compelled Paul to live his life in service to Jesus, spreading the Gospel message.  Paul’s old self-centered life was over, and he had an all-out desire to live righteously.  Believers are not only dead to sin, but alive to live righteously.

How can we be both dead and alive at the same time?  As Paul teaches here, and in other Epistles of the New Testament, when one accepts Jesus as their Savior and are born-again, their sin nature has been crucified with Christ, and they receive a new nature, one alive in Him (vs. 17).  When a person is saved, their old value systems, priorities, beliefs, loves, and plans should all change.  A true believer will have a new spiritual perception of everything.  If we still desire to cling onto our old sinful attitudes, they will stifle the fruits of the Spirit.  We are not reformed, rehabilitated, or reeducated .  We are recreated, a new creation living in union with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

When we continue to live in our old nature, it is futile to say that this is just the way we are.  That person died with Christ, and we are now a new creation.  What would you think if you saw a butterfly emerge from his chrysalis, but continue to crawl along the plant just like he did when he was a caterpillar?  You would want to tell him to spread his wings and fly, that he is a butterfly, so fly and float from flower to flower!  We need to allow God to complete His work in us, and then we can see what fruit our life will then produce.

Before we were saved, while we lived in our old nature, we were enemies of the Lord.  However, now that we have been redeemed, we are no longer God’s enemies, strangers, or foreigners to Him.  The Lord Jesus made it possible to be reconciled to God (vs. 18-19).  We now have the privilege of encouraging others to do the same.  We are to proclaim the Gospel of reconciliation to others.

Paul states here that believers have the position, the job of being ambassadors for the Lord Jesus (vs. 20).  We are His messengers, representing the King of Heaven to the world with the Gospel.  We are to plead with the people of the world to be reconciled to God, who is their rightful King.

As we close, let's look at the final verse in our passage (vs. 21).  On the cross Jesus did not become a sinner, as some falsely believe that this verse is teaching.  Jesus remained as holy and sinless as ever.  However, Jesus was treated as if He were guilty of all the sins ever committed, though He committed none of them.  The wrath of God was poured out on Him, and now believers are treated as if they were righteous.  God offers to exchange His righteousness for our sins, something of immeasurable worth for something completely worthless.

Have you come to the Lord Jesus, asking forgiveness for your sins, and accepting Him as your Savior? Are you a new creature in the Lord Jesus, being transformed just like a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly?   And if so, do you continue to crawl around in your old nature like a caterpillar, or are you living for God in your new nature, like a butterfly?  Let’s all be butterflies!

He Hears Our Prayers

Psalm 107

When Christians come before the Lord in prayer, we can bring a wide variety of prayer requests to Him.  This is unlike the false pagan gods from various cultures.  Those gods tended to just be associated with one certain issue.  There was a god for rain, a god for war, a god for young people in love, for sunshine, good harvest, etc.  One had to find the correct god or goddess to pray to. What if you lost something important and didn’t know the correct god to go to, or if there was even a god for lost items.  You were out of luck, because the god of sunshine or of war couldn’t help you.  However, Yahweh, the only true God, is Someone we can come to with any need on our hearts.  Our psalm for this week speaks of about six or so different needs that the psalmist used as examples of problems that people have cried out to God in prayer about.  Let’s look into our Scripture.

As our psalm opens, the psalmist tells us to give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy is forever, and he encourages all believers to proclaim this (vs. 1-2).   He then gives us the first example of a group of people who cried out to the Lord in their distress, and He answered them (vs. 4-9).  Here we find people who are lost.  They are wandering around in the wilderness and have become hungry and thirsty.  People can be lost, both physically and spiritually.  Being lost, not knowing where you are or how to get back on the correct road can be aggravating, and if one remains lost, it can start to get frightening.  One starts to wander around in the hopes that they might somehow find the right road or path.  If one is lost long enough while hiking, they can run out of food and drink, plus not have a safe shelter.  We have no need to look up what pagan god or goddess helps the lost.  Believers can turn to the only true God, Yahweh, and cry out to Him for help.  As the psalmist says, He will deliver and lead us to the right way.  This is especially true if one is spiritually lost.  Jesus is the only way to the Father (John 14:6).

The second group are those who are in prison (vs. 10-16).  There are those who are in a literal prison because of something they did, and then also those who might be held in bondage because of addictions or other sins.  Whether someone is justly imprisoned, and especially if one is falsely so, the prisoner can turn to the Lord and cry out to Him in prayer.  Those whose sins have brought them into bondage can find forgiveness, help, and deliverance through Jesus, who will break their chains and set them free.

Next we look at those who are afflicted, sick, or near death (vs. 17-22).  Though certainly not always, sometimes sickness and afflictions come due to our own behavior and sin.  Whether that is the case, or these afflictions just came through no fault of our own, we can turn to the Lord in our distress, even and including when we are at the gates of death, and He will send the word and heal us.

Historically Psalm 107 has been a favorite for sailors and mariners, and our next section tells us why.  Here we see that those who are in danger when caught out in the open waters during a storm, can turn to the Lord in prayer (vs. 23-32).   As we know in life we can find ourselves in both a literal dangerous storm, or other storms, such as financial, relationship storms, and others.  Just as He did for His disciples, Jesus will calm the storm, and bring us into a calm harbor when we call upon Him (Mark 4:35-41).

Throughout history mankind has experienced severe droughts, which will then lead to famine or food shortages.  This was also an issue that our psalmist said we could come to the Lord in prayer for (vs. 33-38).  False pagan gods are useless in bringing help, but Yahweh can turn dry land into springs of water, and bring in a bountiful harvest when we turn to Him.

The Lord also brings relief to all those who are brought low through oppression, afflictions, and sorrows (vs. 39-42).  He will turn around rulers and political leaders who oppress people, and those who have no compassion for the poor.

No one is beyond God’s help or rescue.  He guides us out of the desert.  He breaks our chains, brings healing, and calms the stormy sea.  Jesus feeds the hungry and provides living water.  He releases people from chains of disability, rescues people from the grave, and calms all of our distresses.  No matter how extreme our calamity, Jesus is able to break through to help us.  He is loving and kind to those who are in any type of need.  All we need to do is cry out to Him in prayer.

Job And The Lord God

Job 38:1-11, 16-18

If your supervisor at your job comes in late to work one day, do you have the right to question him, to say “Hey!  Where were you?  Why are you late?”  Or if the owner of the company takes a day off, does he have to answer to the employees for it?  No, neither of them do.  However, an employee does have to answer to his supervisor or the boss.  In a proper and Biblically run family, the child will need to answer to his parents for his behavior, but the parent doesn’t answer to the young child.  It should be obvious, then, that God does not need to answer to anyone for anything He does, yet how many times do people, including some Christians, demand an answer or an explanation from Him?   Our Scripture for today is a response that the Lord gives to someone who kept wanting God to explain Himself and to answer him for things that had happened in his life.  Let’s look and see what the Lord had to say.

Our Old Testament Scripture for this week from the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer brings us to the Book of Job.  Many of you are familiar with the account of Job, but in case you aren’t, here is a quick recap.  Job was a godly believer in Yahweh, following and obeying Him to the best of his ability.   He was a wealthy man, primarily a rancher, with ten children (Job 1:1-3).  One day Satan appeared before God, and God pointed out what a good and righteous man Job was.  Satan responded that Job only followed God because He had abundantly blessed him, and that if the Lord took away His blessings, Job would curse Him (Job 1:6-2:10).  God put Job to the test, allowing Satan to take away his wealth, his children, and his health, yet Job did not curse God.

Job did not curse God, yet when several of his “friends” came, and in their discussions with him, they told Job that this must have happened to him because he had sinned, Job began to not only angrily answer his friends back, he began to question God, wanting an answer from Him.  Throughout the majority of the book, Job and his friends go back and forth between each other, like a ball in a game of tennis, his friends accusing, and Job defending himself, including to God.

Throughout this book, Job had repeatedly called on God to verify his innocence to his “friends”.  Now God finally appears, beginning in our Scripture passage, and for the remainder of the book.  He will vindicate Job to the others, but first He brings Job to a right understanding of Himself.  Job was not as sinful as his friends had stated, but he was rather presumptive in wanting to question God.  Now God silences him (vs. 3).  The Lord proceeds to describe and give examples from nature and creation to Job, asking him if he understands the how and why of everything.  If Job did not understand the workings of God’s physical creation, how could he possibly understand God’s mind and character.

God has planned and created the universe down to the finest detail.  The worlds are held up by the Word of God (Hebrews 11:3).   The oceans have boundaries, limits to how far they can go on land.  These limits are set by God Himself (vs. 8, 11).  If the oceans ever go past those limits, it will be at God’s command.

God never gave the reason why Job suffered.  He does not need to give an explanation!  God did, though, ask Job if he was as eternal, great, powerful, wise, and perfect as God.  If not, Job ought to be quiet and trust Him.

Between Job 38:1 and Job 41:34 God asks Job a total of 83 questions, none of which Job could answer.  Job must let God be God, the sovereign and omnipotent Creator, who answers to no one!  We all have questions that we would like to ask God, and it is good to be open and honest with Him.  However, we should never get presumptive with Him, demanding answers, and feeling that He needs to answer to us.  God is the sovereign God, not us.  

A Growing Mustard Seed

Mark 4:26-34

Sometimes something that starts out small can end up being quite large.  Microsoft had its beginnings with just two people and Apple with three, and now both are huge, multinational corporations.  The tallest trees in the world, the redwoods, all start out as small seeds.  Fungus organisms start as single cells, and can grow to millions and millions of times bigger.  In our Scripture passage from the Gospel of Mark, the Lord Jesus gives a couple of small parables about small beginnings.  Let’s look at what Jesus spoke of that started small and grew big.

The first small parable Jesus spoke in today’s Scripture was the Parable of the Growing Seed, and told of when a farmer or gardener plants seeds (vs. 26-29).  The farmers watch day and night for the plants to grow, and when the seeds sprout, they can’t really explain how that happens.  The crops grow and grow, and then are ready for harvest.  Like another parable that Jesus told, the parable of the sower, we know that good soil is important for seeds to grow in.  A farmer or gardener knows that, and will take the time to make sure they have good soil and rock-free fields to plant in.  Good soil, no weeds, water, sunshine, will help bring a good crop.

These parables of Jesus compared planting, seeds, and harvest of plants with that of the spiritual growth of believers when the Word of God, like a seed, is planted in a soul.  There can be good spiritual growth accomplished if there is good soil.  After the Gospel is presented, the Word of God works in the individual’s heart, sometimes slowly, until the time when God reaps the harvest in that individual and they are saved.  After salvation we don’t immediately become a “spiritual giant”, but instead spiritual growth is a continual and gradual process, just like the growth of a plant.

Jesus continued on with a second short parable, this one the Parable of the Mustard Seed (vs. 30-32).  The mustard seed that Jesus was most probably referring to was seeds from the black mustard plant.  This plant’s leaves are often eaten as a vegetable, and the seeds can be crushed to prepare the mustard condiment.  The crushed seeds have also been used to make mustard plasters which help soothe aches and pains from rheumatism, arthritis, and sore muscles.

Though the mustard seed is not the smallest seed in the world, it was the smallest of seeds that the Jewish people would regularly sow in Israel at that time.  The mustard shrub has been known to grow to 15’ or more, and have branches large enough for birds to nest in, like a tree.

Jesus compares the mustard seed with the Kingdom of God.  The mustard seed starts out as a very small seed, only about 1 - 2 millimeters in size, yet it grows into a shrub that can be 2 ½ times the height of the average man.  Although Christianity had a very small beginning, it has become a worldwide community of believers.  When Jesus first started His ministry, shortly after His baptism by John the Baptist, He first called one, then another, and another to come and follow Him, a very small beginning.  At the time when the Holy Spirit came down upon the Church on the day of Pentecost, there were only 120 people in that upper room (Acts 1:15).  Yet within not that many years, Christianity had spread throughout the Roman Empire without such modern technology as computers, social media, television, radio, or cell phones.  Today, most countries have at least some Christians, even though in some places they cannot openly practice their faith.  Like the mustard seed, the Kingdom of God began with a small influence, and then became worldwide in its scope.

The mustard seed grew to be a large shrub which provided shelter for the birds, where they could come, rest in the shade, and build their nest.  In like manner Christianity and the salvation in Jesus that it proclaimed, would provide spiritual shelter, protection, and benefits to mankind.  The first benefit, naturally, is that the message of Jesus brings salvation from sin.  Then there are the lesser recognized benefits to the world that the Christian faith brought.  At the time of Jesus, the world was a cruel and harsh place, especially to the poor, the weak, widows, orphans, and the sick.  For the most part, unless they were your immediate family, people didn’t care about these folks.  However, with the love of Jesus in their hearts, Christians did.  They were the first to start hospitals, orphanages, organizations to help the poor, etc.  Those in need could come and find “rest” and “shade” like the birds in the mustard shrub.  Are you and your church like the mustard plant, maybe starting small but growing and providing for those in your area?  Continue to plant seeds of faith wherever you go, and like the farmer, watch the seeds bring forth a harvest.

Moving Out Of The Tent

II Corinthians 5:1-10

Given a choice to live in a tent or to live in a house, most people would probably choose to live in the house.  A tent might be alright for a week or so, but not much longer.  When I was much, much younger, I went camping a few times.  Though I enjoyed being outdoors, cooking over a campfire, and seeing all the stars, I would have preferred a bed over a sleeping bag on the hard, bumpy ground, being indoors when it started to rain or get cold, and not having to deal with all sorts of bugs.  I would much rather have a house than a tent! A tent is faulty and temporary. A house is solid and permanent.  In our Scripture, the Apostle Paul brings a comparison of tents and houses with our spiritual life.  Let’s see what we can learn.

In the middle of his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul spoke of tents and buildings (vs. 1-5).  He was speaking in metaphors.  A tent or an earthly house was a metaphor for our physical body.  Just like a temporary tent, our earthly existence is fragile, insecure, and lowly.   Just like I did when camping, we want to exchange that tent for something better.  While here on earth, our life is filled with problems, with illness, and we are prone to injury.  We want something better, we long for the glorified body that the Lord Jesus has promised us.  Paul compares that to a building from God, our resurrected, glorified body, solid, secure, and permanent.

Paul had a deep desire to be with God in heaven.  This was nothing suicidal or morbid, but just a desire to be with God, and to have his new, perfect body.  Paul had physically suffered much throughout his life, having been beaten, stoned, and imprisoned because of his faith, so we can only imagine the aches and pains he went through each day.  It was only natural for him to want to leave this body behind and receive his glorified body.  Many of us also deal with physical and health issues.  Like Paul said, we groan and feel burdened with this old body.  Our old tent is barely hanging on!  While we are alive on earth we are away from the fullness of God (vs. 6-8).  Paul had a heavenly homesickness, a strong desire to be with God.

The Apostle knew that when this was to happen would be according to God’s sovereign purpose (vs. 5).  However, he was completely confident that it would one day.  God gave us the Holy Spirit as His guarantee.  The Holy Spirit is a token of His promise.  We can trust His promise that one day, all those who believe and put their faith and trust in Jesus will have both a new body and new home in heaven.

We don’t see our new glorified body, though, so how can we be sure?  We also have no solid proof that when we die we go straight to heaven.  After all, no one has come back to tell us about it.  Paul gives a key statement here that believers should follow in this, and in so many other areas, and that is that we walk by faith, and not by sight (vs. 7).  Life is a journey, and the Christian is traveling to another country.  It is faith that should be controlling us, not sight.  If we are going to walk in God’s plan for our life and live in victory, we are going to do it by faith.  Faith leans into God, and trusts Him.  Worry and trust cannot reside together.  A pilot sometimes cannot see where he’s going if thick clouds come.  It is then that they must trust their instruments.  So too, we must trust Jesus when we cannot see what lies ahead.

Paul continues on by reminding us that while we remain here on earth, our highest goal should be to be pleasing to God (vs. 9).  If we love the Lord, as we all claim to, we will make it our aim and our delight to please God by the way we live.

As our passage closes Paul reveals a Scriptural truth, one that should encourage believers to live that life pleasing to Jesus, and that is the Judgment Seat of Christ (vs. 10).  This is where the Lord will evaluate believers' lives for the purpose of giving them eternal rewards.  Every believer will be accountable to God.  Unbelievers, the lost and unsaved, will not be here.  They are judged at the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-15).  Believers will each stand before Jesus at His Judgment Seat and be judged according to what they have done, whether good or bad.  This is not referring to the sins we have committed, either before we were saved or afterwards.  The judgment of Christian’s sins took place at Calvary when Jesus died on the Cross.  Instead, this refers to activities which we do that have eternal value, versus all of our useless activities.

Do you look forward to the day when you will trade your earthly tent, your old, frail body for your new and glorified one?  Do you look forward to that new home the Lord is preparing for you?  Do your best to live a life well pleasing to the Lord, for at that time we will also stand before the Lord to give an account of what we did or didn’t do for Him.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Psalm 92:1-5, 12-15

There is one thing that most good parents teach their children as soon as they start speaking, and that is how to say thank you.  We want our children to not only learn to be polite, but also to learn to have an attitude of gratitude.  We don’t want them to have this false sense of entitlement that so many people today seem to have.  When we receive a gift or some good favor from another we ought to be grateful and say thank you to that person, and most importantly if it comes from God.  Today’s psalm speaks of this.  Let’s take a quick look.

Just as it is important to thank that friend or relative for the gift they give us, or thank that neighbor, store clerk, or waitress for helping us, it is even more important to thank the Lord God for His gifts and help each and every day (vs. 1-2).  We should regularly anticipate and recall God’s provisions.  There are some days, though, when this may seem harder than others, days when our troubles and trials are mounting.  When we feel we can’t, the Holy Spirit will provide the motivation and words.  He will teach us a gratitude habit.  When we focus on His work in our life, we will discover our spirits lifting and our courage strengthening.

What about when a prayer we have been praying about for so long has not been answered?  We need to thank and praise God in advance for all that we do not yet see of His faithful actions.  Whenever we become impatient about a lack of answer to prayer, start worshiping the Lord, as He is all-knowing and all-powerful.  Worship helps us recognize that God is greater than any of the things we are praying about.  It helps us to release the situation to Him, and trust Him for the outcome.  God is constantly at work behind the scenes.

God desires a moment by moment relationship with us, where we walk in His presence and enjoy His company all the day long (vs. 2).  Some very well-meaning Christians only come to God one time a day, whether that is right early in the morning, or perhaps others right before bed.  Some only once a week on Sundays.  Hopefully that is not any of us!  God wants fellowship with us both in the morning and at night, and in-between as well, and each and every day, too.  Here we are instructed to sing His praises upon waking, either with just our voices, or if we have the ability, with any kind of musical instrument (vs. 3).  Then at night we can tell everyone of His faithfulness.  We will triumph through all that He does (vs. 4).

The psalmist closes his psalm by comparing believers to both a palm tree and a cedar of Lebanon (vs. 12-14).  Is that something that you would want to be like?  Let’s see.  The palm tree is grown where there is sand, and the cedars of Lebanon are found on rugged mountains.  The palm has a tap root that goes down deep, getting its nourishment from beneath.  The cedar is refreshed by the rains that come to the mountains and hills.  God will bless Christians with blessings both from the earth and from heaven.

Palm trees are known for their long life.  To flourish like a palm tree is to stand tall and live long.  The cedars of Lebanon often grow to 120 feet tall and up to 30 inches in circumference.  They are solid, strong, and immovable.  They are both beautiful and strong.

When we walk with the Lord, obeying and living for Him, we can be morally upright, spiritually strong and fruitful, and unmoved by the winds of circumstance.  We should desire and pray to be like a fruitful palm tree or cedar of Lebanon, standing tall and strong as long as we live, so that we can proclaim God’s truth in all that we do.  When we do so, we will leave seeds of faith that produce fruit long after our earthly lives are over.

What Praise Can Do

II Chronicles 20:1-30

If asked to do something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, will you do it?  What if the situation is critical, life and death critical, will you still follow what you were asked to do, or would you stick with the way things have been done for ages?  Our Old Testament Scripture tells the account of the King of Judah and the surprising way he met some enemy nations that were coming against him, what God wanted him to do, and the amazing results when he obeyed.

During the reign of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, the kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms.  The northern kingdom retained the name of Israel, while the southern kingdom became the Kingdom of Judah.  Israel had no godly, believing kings, while Judah had some good and godly kings, and some who were not followers of the Lord.  Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah in our Scripture today, was a godly and believing king.

During the reign of Jehoshaphat, three neighboring nations decided to come against Judah, and gathered their armies together.  These nations were Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, also known as Edom (vs. 1).  Ammon was northeast of Judah, Moab directly east, and Edom south and southeast.  Ammon and Moab were descended from Lot’s incestuous relationship with his daughters, and Edom was descended from Ishmael.

This was three armies against one, three powerful nations with strong, well-trained armies, against one.  King Jehoshaphat was naturally worried, as they were marching down towards his nation.  What was he going to do?  Should he send some messengers with pleas of surrender, and for them to just take the country’s wealth and leave the people alive?  Or should he gather his army, much smaller than three armies, and give it their best try?  Jehoshaphat did neither!  What he did do was to call upon the people of his kingdom to join him in prayer and fasting, praying to the Lord for His help and deliverance (vs. 3-4).   The king did not throw up his hands in a panic, crying “Oh what am I going to do, God?”  He went to the Temple and prayed to the Lord, reminding Him of His promises and of His past deliverances (vs. 5-12).

God responded by the message of one of His prophets, Jahaziel, telling the king to bring his army to a certain position, but they were not to attack or fight, as the Lord would deliver them (vs. 14-17).  Jehoshaphat did as the Lord commanded.  He brought his army out, but instead of putting the strongest soldiers first, just in case, he put the Temple worship singers, basically the church choir, up in front to sing praises to the Lord!  (vs. 18-21).  What did God do in response to Jehoshaphat’s obedience and the songs of praise to Him?  He defeated the three armies, without Judah having to lift a sword or spear! (vs. 22-24)  All because of obedience and praise!

We all have various “armies” that come against us - illness, financial troubles, problems our children are going through, etc.  Are we trying to fight them on our own, or do we go to God first and foremost?  Are we crying in defeat or do we bring praise to the situation?  Satan and his demons do not like it when we praise the Lord!  And the more that we praise Him, the more they will take flight!  When we are in a really desperate situation, rather than crumble with worry and fear, instead start praising the Lord!

In closing, let me share an account of how praising the Lord saved a little boy’s life.  Back in 2014, in Atlanta, Georgia, little nine year old Willie Myrick was kidnapped from his yard by a stranger.  The kidnapper threw him into the back seat of his car and drove off.  Instead of crying or panicking, Willie just started singing over and over the worship song “Every Praise” by Hezekiah Walker.  (Every Praise)  Over and over the young boy sang that song, despite his kidnapper snarling at him to shut up.  Finally, after three hours, the kidnapper pulled over and made Willie get out of the car.  The demons in that situation could not stand the continual praise to God that the young boy kept giving!  When Willie Myrick started to praise God, He sent His angels to surround the boy and keep him safe.  Singing praises to God saved that boy’s life!

Will you praise the Lord when problems surround you, like King Jehoshaphat did, like Willie Myrick did?  “Every praise is to our God!”

Jesus' True Family

Mark 3:20-35

“You’re crazy!”  Every once in a while someone will say that to another.  Often it is said good naturedly, as perhaps the one said or did something preposterous and funny. At other times this could be said in all seriousness, as if the other person is thought to be actually mentally ill.  If that is the case, and one genuinely cares about the other’s well-being, that might be okay.  Sometimes, though, this accusation is leveled against another just because they don’t like the other person, and want to shut them up.  Not that long ago, someone could get a relative, often a spouse, parent, or child, wrongly locked up for years in a psychiatric hospital, by falsely accusing them of being “crazy”.   In our Scripture today we read of a time when Jesus was called crazy, including by some relatives.  Let’s take a look to see what brought that on, and how Jesus responded.

As Jesus’ ministry progressed, the crowds that sought Him grew to huge numbers.  People crowded to hear Him preach and teach, and they especially came bringing sick folk to Him for healing.  Day after day this happened, and Jesus had very little time to rest or even to grab a bite to eat (vs. 20).   As this continued on, where Jesus kept on teaching, preaching, and healing without much time for any breaks, or taking a few days away for a rest every now and then, word got back to His relatives.

Jesus had several relatives, most likely still living in Nazareth.  In addition to His mother, Mark 6:3 lists several “brothers” and “sisters”.  There are different views as to who exactly these were.  The Greek word used is “adelphos”, which means both a literal brother or also “brethren”, which could mean another close relative, such as cousins or step-brothers (if Joseph had been previously married and had children).   During the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry these “adelphos” did not believe in His being the Messiah.  However, fairly soon after His resurrection and ascension, at least two came to accept Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, James (author of the Book of James and an early Bishop of Jerusalem), and Jude (author of the Book of Jude).  At this time, though, Jesus’ relatives thought He was crazy, and came to take ahold of Him and bring Him home, even if it was by force (vs. 21).  Even those close to Him were slow to understand who He was and what He had come to do.

Jesus’ family thought He was insane because He took little or no time to eat or rest, so urgent was He with ministry.  The Pharisees thought He was demon possessed and in league with Satan (vs. 22).  They refused to believe that Jesus’ power was from God, because then they would have to accept Him as the Messiah.  The Pharisees had too much pride, so they instead said His power came from Satan.  After they made that proclamation, Jesus tried to use a bit of logic with them.  Why would someone in league with Satan want to cast Satan or his demons out? (vs. 23-27).  Satan is described as a “strong man” in verse 27.  However, one must be stronger than him to enter his domain and bind and plunder his house.  Only Jesus has such power.  Satan is ultimately doomed as head of the demonic world system.

The Lord then continued His teaching by proclaiming that there is an unpardonable sin (vs. 28-30).  This sin is committed when one deliberately and disrespectfully slanders the ministry of the Holy Spirit, in particular the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  When one does that, they completely cancel and forfeit any possibility of forgiveness of sins, because they have rejected the only basis of God’s salvation, Jesus’ saving death on the cross.   The Pharisees rejected the work of the Holy Spirit.  They did this by willfully choosing not to believe in Jesus as their Savior under any condition.  Because of their unbelief, they chose to remain without forgiveness.

Acknowledging the true origin of Jesus’ works is a matter of eternal importance.  It distinguishes His true family members from those who would be eternally condemned as blasphemous (vs. 31-35).  Any biological connection that the “adelphos” had was not important.  What was and is important is whether one accepts what Jesus did on the cross for themselves, and takes Him as their Savior.  They are His true family.  We know that the Virgin Mary did, of course, and that later both James and Jude did.  There is no record of whether any others did or not.  What about you?  Do you think that Jesus was possibly crazy, mentally ill, like His family did at first?  Or maybe you go so far as to think that He may have had a demon, like the Pharisees did.  If you have never asked the Lord Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior, please do so now, and become a member of His true family.

It Will Be Worth It All

II Corinthians 4:16-18

Would you go through a minute of bad pain if you knew that the rest of your life would be pain-free?  Many of us might go through a day or two of misery if we knew that afterwards, for the rest of our life, every need or wish we had would be met.  We go through several years of difficult study to get that university degree we desire, in order to have the career we want.  We get a painful shot, take nasty medicine, or have painful surgery in order to have better health in our future.  Why do we do that?  Because we know that the results are worth that momentary pain.  Not getting some diseases is worth the pain of a shot.  Laser surgery on your eyes is worth undergoing if it restores your vision.  The same with many other discomforts.  In our Scripture today, the Apostle Paul reminds us that for believers, the trials and tribulations we go through will be worth it when we consider what the Lord has prepared for us in heaven.

As our brief Scripture opens, Paul urges us to not lose heart, to not become discouraged when we go through something hard, difficult, or terrible (vs. 16).  We might be going through a catastrophic illness or injury, some deep financial trouble, or painful relationship problems.  It may feel like we are perishing, and perhaps we actually are.  Paul even says that our outward man, our physical body, may be perishing.  Our daily struggles wear down our physical body, and the more stress and problems we have, the more we physically break down.

Then Paul gives us some encouragement following that statement.  Our outward body may be perishing, but our inward body, our spiritual self, is renewed each day when we walk with the Lord, trusting in Him and His Word.  The dark moments of our life will last only so long as is necessary for the Lord to accomplish His purpose.  The Lord has a purpose for everything we go through, and even if He didn’t cause the catastrophe we might face, He allowed it, and can use it for our good if we allow Him.  We need to remember that nothing touches us that has not passed through the hands of our Heavenly Father.  Whatever occurs, God has sovereignly surveyed and approved.  Let God work His good purpose, and our inward man will be renewed.

There is a purpose in the trials that the Lord allows us to go through.  First, when we go through something difficult, that trial can remind us of all that Jesus suffered for us.  He didn’t have to, He could have said no, but He didn’t.  Jesus went through the worst suffering out of love for us, to redeem our souls from sin and hell.  Our suffering can also keep us from becoming too prideful, one of the worst of sins.  They can cause us to look beyond this brief life, at what the Lord has in store for us.  And when we go through trials in a patient and godly manner, the Lord has the opportunity to demonstrate His power through us.

God will amply reward what we suffer if we are obedient to Him (vs. 17).  Jesus will bless us for our faithfulness to Him (Mark 10:28-30).  We must never forsake our eternal reward because of the intensity of today’s pain.  Our very weakness allows the resurrection power of Christ to strengthen us moment by moment.

The problems we see are temporary, but the hope we have in Jesus, though unseen, is eternal (vs. 18).  The problems may seem like they’ll never end, just like when we go through a long, dark tunnel.  But don’t you see that speck of light far ahead, at the end?  When going through a difficult time, keep your eyes on Jesus, just like we keep our eyes on that speck of light at the end of the tunnel.

All the trials and tribulations we go through will be worth it when we get to heaven.  What is 70, 80, or 90 years compared to all of eternity?  It is like a millisecond to a lifetime!   Remember, this life is not all there is!

Deep In A Pit

Psalm 130

Hopefully you have never been trapped deep inside of something, like perhaps a well or a cave shaft.  Fortunately I never have.  However I do remember almost 37 years ago when a little girl, Jessica McClure, fell deep down a very narrow well in rural Texas in October of 1987, and was trapped for about 56 hours while all sorts of experts worked to safely rescue her.  Being only 18 months old, she probably could not consciously pray, but if we were trapped in some similar type condition, we would undoubtedly be crying out to the Lord to rescue us!  In our psalm for this week, the unknown psalmist also cried to God from the deep, and found rescue.  Let’s see what his deep problem might have been.

As our psalm opens, the psalmist relates an incident in his life where he was in some desperate trouble, and he called upon the Lord to rescue him (vs. 1-2).  We don’t know what the situation was, but whatever it was, he was deep into it.  Perhaps he had literally fallen down deep into something, such as a well like little Jessica McClure, or down a deep crevice.  Possibly the phrase “the depths” might be figurative, and the psalmist was deep in some other type of trouble, such as financial trouble, or problems unjustly brought against him by another.  This deep trouble caused him great distress, and he cried out to God.  He needed God to hear his voice, to listen and pay attention.

We’ve all been in some sort of trouble, possibly even very deep trouble, and we cry out to God.  If help doesn’t immediately come, we wonder if God heard us, or was even paying attention.  We want God to listen up and hear us!  Then we wonder if we are so deep into the pit, that our voice isn’t even reaching Him.  However, as the late Christian author and speaker Corrie ten Boom once said, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.”  The prophet Isaiah tells us that before we even cry out, God has heard us (Isaiah 65:24).

We don’t like to wait for God’s answer.  We want our rescue to be immediate.  Sometimes when we find ourselves in an extreme or dangerous situation we panic, and then we may try to solve the problem on our own.  Often that can make it worse.  Instead, we need to stay calm and wait upon the Lord to be attentive to our cries for mercy, and to put our hope in the Word of God, which shall never fail.  God, who knows the end from the beginning, knows that sometimes we do have to wait.  Little Jessica had to wait nearly 2 ½ days in that well to be rescued!

There is one situation that every one of us have been deep in, and that is deep in our sins, and our psalmist knew that (vs. 3-4).  Before we come to Jesus for salvation, our sins overwhelm us.  We are sunk deep, and we have no way of rescuing ourselves.  Our only hope is to call upon the Lord.  Some may feel that their sins are so bad and so numerous that God would turn them away.  The Lord reminds us here that when we come to Him, confessing our sins and repenting, He gives us never-ending forgiveness.

Continuing on in our psalm, the Lord reminds us that very often we have to wait for our deliverance or for answers to our prayers (vs. 5-6).  God does not spring into action on our timetable.  He waits until the very best moment to intervene.  I am sure that those 56 hours of waiting were quite difficult for Baby Jessica’s mother!  What if she hadn’t waited and trusted the experts to figure out the best way to rescue her little girl?  What if she had decided not to wait, and started digging on her own?  She wanted her baby, and she wanted her now!  Quite likely the ground might have collapsed in on little Jessica, and she would have died.  Waiting was important, and it meant that her child was rescued safely.  When we wait on the Lord our faith grows stronger, and we learn to trust Him.  His answer will be best in whatever trouble we are in.

In closing, let’s remember what our Psalmist learned.  When we find ourselves in some deep trouble or problem, call upon the Lord.  Confess your sins, and know that He will forgive you.  The Lord does hear you, and at the perfect time, He will rescue you.  God’s Word will never fail!

The Price Of A Sinful Choice

Genesis 3:1-21

We sometimes hear someone question out loud why this or that awful thing happened, why so many young people get murdered in the big cities, why dreadful diseases strike down so many, and why terrible wars bring countries to their knees.  Though there are often specific answers for each instance, overall the answer can be traced back to the very beginning, which is sin.  It is at this beginning, when sin entered the world and cast its evil shadow over all, that our Old Testament Scripture for this week is found.   Let’s take a quick look at this chapter in Genesis.

After God had created all, He placed man in the Garden of Eden, giving him one command, and that was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-17).  It was here in the garden that Satan lost no time in working his plan to tempt mankind and bring down God’s creation.  Satan is a fallen archangel, and thus a supernatural being.  He possessed the body of a serpent in its pre-fallen state, and in that form he struck up a conversation with Eve (vs. 1).  Immediately he put his plan into action by getting Eve to question God’s goodness and kindness, to make her doubt His Word and His care for her and Adam.  He did this by implying that God forbade them from enjoying good things (vs. 1).  Satan still deceives people into thinking that following God will end all enjoyment in life.

When Eve corrected the serpent by telling him the one command God had given, Satan then told her a direct lie (vs. 4-5).  Satan is called a liar and a murderer from the beginning, and here is the evidence (John 8:44).  His lies always promise great benefits, but they fail to deliver good.  He tempted Eve by telling her she’d be like God, and selfishness has reigned in the human heart ever since.

Satan tempted Eve with the fruit.  He still uses the same tactics as he did then.  He often uses this same plan, to make people crave some sort of physical gratification to the point that they become preoccupied with it (vs. 6).  He makes them want to acquire things to the point they bow down to the god of materialism and lust for more and more.  Satan showed Eve that the fruit was pleasing to the eye.  He tempted her by promising an increased awareness which would make her become more like God.  Eve saw that it was good for food - lust of the flesh, pleasant to the eyes - lust of the eyes, and would make one wise - pride of life (I John 2:16).  We need to be careful with what we are looking at.  Temptation often begins by simply seeing something we want.  The battle is often lost at the first look.

After both Adam and Eve ate the fruit, sin came upon all of creation.  They heard God coming to meet with them and they hid, as sin brought guilt and shame (vs. 8-10).  God was not ignorant of their location.  He wanted them to come out, talk with Him, and explain.  There is never a place we can hide from God (Psalm 139:1-12).  He always seeks out mankind. He doesn’t just sit and wait for people to come to Him.  He actively seeks us.

As we continue, we see that Adam refused to take full responsibility for his actions.  He tried to put the responsibility on God for giving him Eve (vs. 12).  Eve’s effort to put the blame on the serpent, which was partially true, did not absolve her of the responsibility for her distrust and disobedience to God (vs. 13).

Satan used a woman to bring down the human race.  God used a woman as an instrument to bring the Redeemer into the world who would save the human race (vs. 15).  This verse is prophetic of the struggle between “your seed” - Satan and unbelievers (called the devil’s children by Jesus in John 8:44), and “her Seed” - Jesus and those in Him.  The woman’s offspring is Jesus, who will one day defeat the Serpent.  Satan can only bruise Jesus’ heel, cause Him to suffer.  Jesus will bruise Satan’s head, destroy him with a fatal blow.

People today bemoan the terrible things that happen in the world, murder, sickness, wars, and question why God allows it.  He didn’t bring that into the world, mankind did when they followed Satan and turned away from God.  That is why there is a curse on the ground and human death (vs. 17-19).  Humans turned their back to the Voice of God.  The thorns (vs. 18) represent all of the consequences of our sinful choices.  Jesus took those thorns upon Himself, and wore them as a crown (Matthew 27:29).

God took an innocent animal (vs. 21), and killed it to cover man’s sin and shame.  That is a shadow of the reality that God would someday allow His innocent and sinless Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die as a substitute to redeem sinners.  Have you accepted Him as your Savior?  If not, come to Him today.

The Intent Of The Sabbath Laws

Mark 2:23-28

When I was a child, back in the 1960’s, just about everything was closed on Sundays.  All stores and offices were closed, most restaurants, and many gas stations, as well.  People also did not do unnecessary work around the house, either.  You wouldn’t hear the lawnmowers going on a Sunday.  Families relaxed.  They went to church in the morning, and then they might go for an afternoon drive, or play some games together.  Some parents wouldn’t even allow their children to do homework on a Sunday.  One had to get it done before then.  This was all across the country.  They honored the Lord’s Day.  However, that all started to change during the 1970s.  By the end of that decade, most stores would have Sunday hours.  Many offices would be open, and a boss could easily call a worker to come in on Sunday.

Today people don’t like restrictions on what they can and cannot do, certainly not because of what day of the week it is.  So who’s right?  Those who feel that no work should be done on Sundays, or those who want to shop, eat out, and carry on business as usual?  Jesus had something to say about the Sabbath in our Scripture today.  Let’s take a look.

As we read through all four Gospels, one thing that frequently sticks out is that the Pharisees were often at odds with Jesus because He would heal people on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees were devoutly religious.  They tried to strictly follow the Laws of Moses, and they wanted everyone else to, as well.  So when they saw Jesus doing something they felt He shouldn’t, they were quick to harshly criticize Him.  On this particular occasion, the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus and His disciples for what they felt was harvesting grain on the Sabbath.

As our Scripture opens, Jesus and His disciples were walking from one place to another, and the path went by some grain fields, and they took some to eat (vs. 23).  Now before anyone starts to think that they were stealing a farmer’s crop, we need to look at some laws given in the Old Testament.  In Leviticus 19:9-10 and Deuteronomy 23:25, it says that farmers were to leave the edges of their fields unharvested so that some of their crops could be picked by travelers and the poor.

The Pharisees immediately started to criticize and condemn them, saying they were working on the Sabbath, that they were harvesting grain, which was breaking Sabbath rules (vs. 24).  Over the centuries since the days of Moses, so many extra rules and regulations had been added to the Sabbath commandment, and here was an example.  God’s law said that crops should not be harvested on the Sabbath (Exodus 34:21).  This law prevented farmers from becoming greedy and ignoring God on the Sabbath.  It also protected laborers from being overworked.  However, Jesus and the disciples were not picking the grain for personal gain.  They were looking for something to eat.  The Pharisees were so focused on the words of the law that they missed its intent.

Jesus then gave an example from the life of one of the most revered people in Israel’s history, King David (vs. 25-26).  He reminded the Pharisees that David did something that was not allowed by the Law of Moses.  David was not a priest, so by the Law, he could not eat one of the special loaves of showbread in the Tabernacle, but he and his men did (I Samuel 21:1-6).  David wisely judged that the law forbidding the laity to eat this bread ought to yield to a law of necessity and of nature.

By the time of Jesus the Pharisees had turned the Sabbath into a big list of do’s and don’ts.  Jesus said that the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of the people, not the people meet the requirements of the Sabbath (vs. 27-28).  The Pharisees had made the Sabbath a burden, not the blessing it was intended to be.  God gave us the Sabbath as a gift for us, not to be a burden, and just one more rule and regulation to follow.  We live in a generation that works almost constantly, but God, in His compassion, knew that we need to rest.  It was to allow people to rest and allow God to refresh.

Right following this, Jesus would heal a man with a withered hand (Mark 3:1-6).  He implied that the Sabbath is a day to do good.  Sabbath rest doesn’t mean that we don’t lift a finger to help others.  The Sabbath should not become a time of selfish indulgence.  God derives no benefits from having us rest on the Sabbath.  We are restored physically and spiritually when we take the day to rest from our usual work.  The intent of God’s Law is to promote love for God and for others.

Knocked Down But Not Out

II Corinthians 4:5-12

When my adult son was little, preschool age, he used to have an inflatable punching toy.  If I remember correctly, it had the figure of a clown on it.  It was weighted with sand at the bottom, so that every time he hit it, it would bounce back upright.  No matter how many times he hit it, no matter how hard he hit it, boing!, that clown would bounce right back up! Wouldn’t it be nice if every time some problem would hit us, if every time some trouble attempted to knock us down, we would bounce right back up, that nothing could keep us down.  In our Scripture today from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church, he gave a similar description of what he and some other Christians who were actively serving the Lord went through.

As Paul traveled throughout Greece, Asia Minor, and on to Rome preaching the Gospel, he faced attacks from many enemies.  Some that attacked him were his own Jewish people who did not want him preaching that Jesus was the Messiah, and especially that he not only preached to Jews, but that he also reached out to Gentiles.  Paul also suffered attacks from Gentiles and pagans who did not like what he was preaching, either.  Then there were some who claimed to be followers of Jesus, but who were actually false preachers who brought heretical messages.  Paul was frequently arrested or ran out of town.  He was beaten, scourged, and even stoned.  Would you keep going if this was the response you continued to experience?

Our Scripture begins with Paul stating that the message he preached was not one about himself, or one that he made up to promote himself, but the message of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ (vs. 5).  False teachers had accused Paul of preaching for his own benefit.  They were actually the ones guilty of doing so.  Paul was humble, and never promoted himself.  He preached Christ Jesus as Lord.  The focus of Paul’s preaching was Jesus, not himself or the latest topic of the day, or even his own ideas and philosophies.  The same holds for today.  Preachers should not be spouting off their own ideas and philosophies, but instead what Jesus did on the cross.  Just as in Paul’s day, people today need to be introduced to Jesus.

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was planned as carefully as Creation was planned (vs 6).  God created physical light in the universe.  He also created spiritual light in the soul, and brings believers out of Satan’s kingdom of darkness and into His kingdom of light.  Jesus’ sacrifice upon the cross is as necessary to our eternal life as the sun is to the solar system.

The Apostle Paul did not view himself as anyone special, which often his enemies claimed he did.  Many preachers throughout history have looked at themselves as something special, someone that everyone should be holding in esteem.  Paul, though, saw himself as lowly, common, expendable, and replaceable, just as an earthen vessel (vs. 7).  However, a lowly container can contain something valuable.  The valuable message of salvation in Jesus has been entrusted to frail and fallible humans (earthen vessels).  God’s power dwells in us.  Though we are weak, God uses us to spread the Gospel, and He gives us His power to do so.  By using frail and expendable people, God makes it clear that salvation is the result of His power, and not any power that His messengers could generate. The power of God transcends the earthen vessel.  Our value and worth is not in ourselves.  It is in what we contain, the Holy Spirit, and the message we are to proclaim.

Then Paul states how, no matter how many attacks and assaults he may go through he does not stay down. He is not crushed, destroyed, in despair, and never forsaken by the Savior (vs. 8-12).  These problems did not cripple him.  Rather, through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, they strengthened him.  Paul’s suffering was the badge of his loyalty to Jesus, and the source of his power.  He faced death every day, yet he was willing to pay that price if it meant salvation for those to whom he preached the Gospel.  The Apostle’s suffering was actually a result of attacks against the Lord Jesus, not himself or other believers.  Those who hate Jesus frequently take out their vengeance on those who represent Him.

Like Paul, if we are faithful to the Great Commission, and stand true to God’s Word, the Bible, we will face trials and persecution.  However, like the Apostle, we don’t need to worry.  We have the victory through Jesus.  We may get knocked down, but we are never knocked out.  We can be confident of victory.  God will never abandon us.  All of our trials are opportunities for Jesus to demonstrate His power and presence in and through us.

Open Wide!

Psalm 81:1-10

Many of you might remember feeding a very young child their beginner meals of soft foods, foods like oatmeal, applesauce, and pureed vegetables.  As you would bring the spoon to their mouth, perhaps you said something like “Open up!”  Often that would work, and the little one would open their mouth.  However, we all know times when they wouldn’t open their mouth, and food might land anywhere.  As adults, we know that the food is good for them, but fussy little children often won’t cooperate.  Our Heavenly Father also asks us, His children to open up, so that He can provide good things to us.  We find that in our Psalm selection for this week from the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer.

Our psalm is listed as being one of the psalms of Asaph.  Asaph was from the tribe of Levi, and was one of the guild of musicians in the first Temple, beginning during the reign of King David, and continuing through the reign of King Solomon.  Over the years, other Temple singers and musicians came to be known as Asaphites.  Right at the start of this psalm, Asaph calls upon the people to sing and make a joyful shout to the Lord, to sing out songs while making pleasant music, all in praise of the Lord (vs. 1-2).  That would be natural for him, as after all, he was a lead Temple musician.

Just about everybody likes some type of music.  Good music can help lift our spirits when we listen to some of our favorite pieces.  Psychiatrists will sometimes recommend their patients to have music therapy, where music is worked into their therapy treatment to help lift depression and other mental illnesses.  In a similar manner, music helps lift a person’s thoughts and emotions to God.  Through music we can reflect on our needs and shortcomings, as well as celebrate God’s greatness.

What is one thing that we can sing to the Lord about?  Asaph reminds us that when we call to God in our troubles, He answers us, and delivers us from them (vs. 7).  The psalmist looked back at the history of God’s people, and recalled in a very subtle way a couple of specific times when they were in trouble and the Lord answered.  One was when He delivered them from the hands of the Egyptians when they crossed the Red Sea.  Shortly after that the Lord led them to Mt. Sinai where He came down to Moses in the midst of clouds, lightning, and thunder, that “secret place of thunder”.  A short time later the people of Israel tempted God, while complaining and whining about their provisions at His hands at a place called Meribah.  It was there that they drove Moses to sin by causing him to disobey the Lord’s commands.   The word “Meribah” means strife or contention.  Even when we fail God and fall into sin, when we repent and turn back to Him again, He will hear, answer, and deliver us.

There is another thing that the Lord reminds us of in this psalm, and that is that He will not tolerate the worship of any foreign or pagan deity (vs. 9).  Foreign or strange gods are actually representations of demon spirits.  Anything that is not “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” and that alone and exclusively (I Corinthians 2:2), is a foreign or strange god.

As we close our Scripture from Psalm 81, we get to the part where the Lord tells His children to “Open wide” (vs. 10).  God is not stingy!  He lavishly pours out grace upon us.  God desires to bless His people beyond their imagination.  We must be trusting and willing to receive what He has to offer, just like the little toddler needs to trust that his parents are giving him something good.  We do that by submitting ourselves to God.  We are filled only when we obey His instructions.

Instead of sampling just little meager bites and portions of God’s Word, we ought to devour whole “meals” every day.  “Open wide” so that we can “taste and see” that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).  Every need of ours will be fulfilled if only we believe and follow Him.