Do Not Forsake Me In My Old Age

 Psalm 71

Younger people don’t tend to think of old age too often.  Though they hope to reach a ripe old age, they don’t want to think of being old.  In addition to waning strength and frequently poorer health, old age can often bring loneliness.  As we get older, our parents, and then our siblings and friends start to die off.   Children might not come around or call that often, as they are busy with their own lives.  And poor health can keep one housebound.  Alone, poor health, mounting problems that one can’t handle due to age and infirmity, one can fear that even God has abandoned them.  Our psalmist today was older, and had many problems surrounding him.  His psalm is a prayer that God would not abandon or forget him in his old age.

Though now an older man, probably in his senior years, our unknown psalmist had been a believer and follower of the Lord God since his youth (vs. 5-6).  He believed that the Lord had been with him ever since he was born, so many years earlier, and praised Him for His care all throughout his life.  From his mother’s womb the Lord drew the psalmist into the light of day.  From his youth up, Yahweh was his trust.  Now he is an older man of faith, who reacts to his troubles with implicit trust in God.  Here in his old age, he has one last request - please do not forsake me, Lord! (vs. 9, 18).

As we get older, are approaching or are in our senior years, we recognize that God has been our constant help in the past.  This is what our psalmist recognized and remembered.  Whenever he had a trial in his life, the Lord was there to help him through.  Remembering this, he knew that he could rely on God to help him through his remaining days.

Psalm 71 is abounding with expressions of trust and communion with God.  Because we know that God has helped us in the past, we know we can trust Him.  Especially with those who have known the Lord as Savior since childhood, they can surely recount countless times of His care.  Now, with the problems that we face today, we know that we can have hope that He will be with us today (vs. 5-6).  God is our strong refuge, and is worthy of our praise and honor (vs. 7-8).

As the psalmist discovered we can either hope in God, putting our faith and trust in Him, or we can trust and hope in other men.  We cannot place faith, trust and hope in both.  By the time we reach old age, we can undoubtedly recall many times when other people have failed us, even turned against us when we needed their help.  However, that is never the case with the Lord.  As we look back, we see that God has been our constant help from childhood to old age.  We can turn to Him at any time for anything.  He is always there for us.  We can trust Him, as God has continually been faithful.

Remembering God’s lifetime of blessings will help us see the consistency of His grace throughout the years.  It will show us that we have all good reason to trust Him for the future.  As our strength and physical abilities wane over the years, we need God even more.  As more gray hairs come, we can know that He will be our constant help.

As believers, our lives are a testimony of what God has done for us.  We should seek to leave a Christian legacy.  Just as our psalmist was, we can be known to others as one who continually trusted in the Lord, in good days and in bad, from the beginning to the end of our life.  We can leave one last plea to God - Dear Lord, forsake me not in my old age!  Let my legacy be that I trusted You until my very last breath.

The Lord's Call of Jeremiah

 Jeremiah 1:4-10

There are occasions when we’ve been given a task or an assignment, and we just don’t feel qualified, or feel that we have the skills or experience to sufficiently complete that task.  Several people in the Bible did not feel they were qualified or had the experience to do the task that the Lord gave to them.  The great Old Testament prophet Jeremiah was one who felt that way when the Lord commissioned him to bring His message to the people of Judah.  Jeremiah knew that this assignment from the Lord was a great  and vitally important one, and he felt unqualified and not fit to carry it through.  In our Old Testament Scripture passage for this week we will read the Lord’s response to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was a prophet of Yahweh, who began his ministry during the middle of the reign of King Josiah of Judah (around 626 BC), and preached on until following the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 587 BC.  He later accompanied a small group of Jewish people who fled into Egypt, where he later died.  When the Lord first called Jeremiah into His service, he was a young man.  Rather than feeling proud and bursting with ego that he had a big preaching assignment from God, as some young people might feel, Jeremiah felt he was unworthy to bring God’s message to the people, particularly to the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

God responded to Jeremiah protests.  He told the prophet that He knew him, and the sovereign plans He had for him before he was even conceived (vs. 5).  The Apostle Paul had a similar realization, that God had called him to be His servant and bring His message even before he was born (Galatians 1:15-16).  There were others in the Bible who God had plans to use in special ways, even before they were born.  Samson was one, (Judges 13:3-5), and John the Baptist was another (Luke 1:13-17).

God has a plan for our lives.  We are not accidents, or exist by chance.  The Lord formed us long before we took our first breath.  He knows us by name.  He will work in and through us in a powerful way when we obey Him.  When we feel discouraged or inadequate, remember that God has always thought of us as valuable, and that He has a purpose in mind for us.

Jeremiah responded by saying that he could not go and preach God’s message, as he was too young and inexperienced.  He wasn’t a child, but a young man.  Still, he did not feel able to go into Jerusalem, both the political and religious capital of the nation, and confront the political and religious leaders for their sins and failings before God.  However, God promised to be with him.  If God gives us a job to do, He will provide all that we need to do it (vs. 7-8).  When we surrender to Him, the Lord will provide us with the strength and wisdom to carry out His tasks, along with providing any financial or material backing that we need.

Knowing the religious leaders, and how they had attacked, both verbally and sometimes physically the prophets of the past, Jeremiah feared the same treatment.  Yet Yahweh promised to rescue and deliver him from trouble (vs. 8).  He did not promise Jeremiah that there would be no trouble, as attacks would come, but promised He would be there with him if he fully obeyed.  Jeremiah went through jailing because of the messages he preached.  He was physically assaulted, went hungry, and suffered all sorts of insults and abuse because of preaching God’s Word, yet God never abandoned him.  He told Jeremiah, “I am with you.”  God does not keep us from encountering life’s storms, but He will see us through them.

The message that Jeremiah brought to the people was not just something he pulled out of his own mind, but was instead God’s message, God’s Words (vs. 9).  God appointed Jeremiah to bring His Word to nations and kingdoms, (vs. 10), warning about His judgment on sin.

God’s plan for us is perfect, not subject to the whims of man and uncertainties of the world.  Whatever our circumstances are, God calls us to stand on the Solid Rock of His Word, and take shelter in His promises.

Bringing The Year Of Jubilee

 Luke 4:14-21

To have a prophecy fulfilled in your sight would be a rather exciting thing, I would think.  Very early in the ministry of Jesus, many prophecies were starting to be fulfilled.  As we look into our Gospel Scripture passage for this week, we see where Jesus proclaims that He has fulfilled a certain, specific prophecy from the Book of Isaiah.  Let’s take a look.

As our Scripture opens, Jesus had recently been baptized by John the Baptist, and then had gone into the wilderness where He fasted and prayed for 40 days, and also withstood temptations from Satan.  Now He has returned to the region of Galilee, specifically to His hometown of Nazareth (vs. 14-16).   When the Sabbath day came around, Jesus went to the local synagogue in Nazareth “as His custom was” (vs. 16).  Jesus made it a point to always attend the weekly synagogue service, where He would worship the Father, read, and study the Bible.  That is a good practice to get in the habit of doing, attending your church’s worship service every week, if at all possible.  If it was important to Jesus, the Son of God, then it should be important to us, as well.

One custom that many of the synagogues in the days of Jesus followed was to let visitors or guests read and comment on a Scripture passage.  We see that often in the Book of Acts when Paul traveled around the Mediterranean, visiting local synagogues.  This Sabbath day, when Jesus came to worship, He was invited to read from the Bible and then give a teaching or commentary on what was read.  Jesus chose the Prophet Isaiah 61:1-2 as His passage to read.  When He concluded reading, He told the congregation that this passage was fulfilled, right then, in their hearing (vs. 21).  This must have amazed the congregation, and shocked many, too.

How did Jesus fulfill this prophecy?  All throughout His ministry, Jesus brought the gospel message of salvation to everyone.  The word “gospel” means good news.  His message certainly was good news to those who would accept it.  Mankind had been trying to achieve redemption from their sins by their own good works and by animal sacrifices for centuries, but the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin (Hebrews 10:4).  The good news of the Gospel was that Jesus, the Son of God, would redeem mankind.  He brought this message to the poor, both the spiritually poor, who have no means to redeem themselves, which is all of us, and also to the physically poor, those who were down and out, and the castaways of society.

Jesus also brought His peace and comfort to those who were brokenhearted.  We saw that when He comforted His friends Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus died (John 11:1-44).  He also brought comfort to Jairus when his daughter died (Mark 5:22-23, 35-43), and also to the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-16), raising each of their loved ones.  Jesus proclaimed liberty to the captives, all those who are captive to their sins, and set at liberty those who are oppressed.  When we accept Jesus as our Savior, giving our life to Him, He sets us free from our sins, bringing us deliverance from all that oppresses us.  And as we see all throughout each of the four Gospels, Jesus brought physical healing to so many people, including restoring sight.

The final verse of the passage that Jesus quoted spoke of proclaiming the “acceptable year of the Lord” (vs. 19).  The acceptable year of the Lord is the Year of Jubilee.  The Year of Jubilee was to be celebrated by the Jewish people every 50 years.  During that year, the ground wasn’t harvested, allowing it to rest.  Slaves were to be set free, and all debts were cancelled.  When Jesus said those words, He was setting us free, just like slaves were set free.  He was declaring our freedom (John 8:36).  The Blood of Calvary declares our freedom from sin and death.

The release from the Babylonian Captivity that the Jewish people had been in for 70 years had not brought the fulfillment of this prophecy that the people had expected.  They endured further oppression after then from the Greek Empire, and then following that, the Roman Empire.  They were still a conquered and oppressed people.  Isaiah was referring to the Messiah, and Jesus proclaimed Himself as the One who would bring this good news to pass.

In closing, there are some who say that Jesus never Himself said that He was the promised Messiah.  That is not true.  As we see here in this passage, at the very outset of His ministry, Jesus announced that He is the Savior and Redeemer that Israel and the world had been waiting for.  Have you accepted Him as your own personal Savior yet?  If not, let this be the day you ask Jesus into your heart!

Little Ear Rocks

I Corinthians 12:12-27

One day, a number of years ago, I woke up with severe dizziness.  As I sat up, the room was spinning, making me feel nauseous.  Later, I found out that the cause of this dizziness was because my “ear rocks”, or otoconia, had gotten out of position.  I had never heard of ear rocks before, and perhaps you haven’t either.  I learned all about them, tiny crystals of calcium carbonate in the canals of the ear, and the maneuvers you can do to get them back where they belong.  Tiny little parts of the human body that most people don’t even know they have, but when they aren’t functioning properly, the body sure lets you know.  In our Scripture for today, the Apostle Paul speaks about how the Church is like a body, when all of its parts are functioning properly.  Let’s take a look at what the Lord has to say in His Word.

The Christian church in the city of Corinth was a large one, and could do much work for the Lord in that busy pagan metropolis.  However, this local church often had to deal with problems among its members.  One problem that Paul needed to confront was how many of the believers in Corinth thought that their spiritual gifts and abilities were superior to those of others.  They felt that they were more important, and looked down on other members of the congregation.  This spiritual snobbery was getting to the point where it was causing major problems among the Corinthians.

As the Apostle Paul opens this passage, he compares the Christian believers, who are part of the Body of Christ, to a human body.  Each part of the body has a specific function that is necessary to the body as a whole.  The parts are different for a purpose, yet they are to work together.  In order to function at its optimum level, the body needs each of its parts.  Often we only think about certain body parts, those whose function is most noticeable, such as our hands, heart, stomach, eyes, etc.  That doesn’t mean that the other parts are not necessary.  When something goes wrong with a less noticeable part, though, we find out, just as I did when my otoconia were not in their correct position.

Paul wanted to correct the behavior of some of the Corinthian believers, those who thought that their spiritual gifts were better, more important, and more valuable than others.  They thought they were the hands, the eyes, or the head, something that people notice and use every day.  But, as Paul showed, just as one part of the body, such as the hands, does not say to the feet that they don’t need them, so too one believer is not to say to someone else that they do not need them in the church.

The Church is composed of many types of people from a variety of backgrounds, with a multitude of gifts and abilities.  We may have different interests and gifts, but we have one common faith and goal.  Though we may have different backgrounds, gifts, and personalities, we are each filled with the same Spirit, and belong to the same Body of Christ.  There should never be anyone in the church who looks down on those who may seem to them to be unimportant.  In the same token, we should also never be jealous of others who have what seems to be more impressive gifts.

All parts of the body, whether our human body or the Church play an important part, without which there would be serious repercussions.  God has designed visible, public gifts to have a crucial place, but equally designed and just as equally vital to life are the hidden gifts.  All are essential to the Body of Christ.  Every Christian plays an important role, and each of us is necessary.

Just as you wouldn’t want a part of your body cut off or yanked out, so too you should not look down on a fellow Christian, deeming them unnecessary for your fellowship.  Some church members are out in the open with their gifts, and are like the eyes, the hair, the arms.  Some of us, though, are more hidden, like the otoconia.  As I could attest to that one morning, when the otoconia was not working right, I sure noticed!  Let’s be sure that we care for each member of the Body of Christ equally.

 

Seated With Princes

Psalm 113

What if you were to be given a special invitation to dine with Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, or with Charles, the Prince of Wales?  That would be a great honor, one that a poor, humble person like myself would find amazing.  Why, I wouldn’t even likely get to meet my village’s mayor, let alone dine with royalty!  For most of us, to find ourselves seated next to a royal figure is unlikely because we are plain folks and they are royalty.  In our psalm today, we will read of how God can do something like that for us.

As our psalm for this week begins, the unknown psalmist calls upon us to praise the Lord, which is what all believers should do each and every day (vs. 1).  The psalmist calls us servants, a person in a humble and lowly position, there to wait upon someone greater.  We, the redeemed, are God’s servants, who should serve the Lord with all obedience.

Praise is often the theme of many of the psalms, and Psalm 113 is one of them.  Praise shouldn’t be just a one time event, not just once a week on Sundays in church, or even just once a day, maybe as we get our day started.  No, God’s Word here tells us to praise the Lord from morning to night (vs. 3).  All throughout the day a believer should be praising God.  Praise Him when we wake up, for keeping us safe through the night.  Praise Him for our meals.  When we walk out of our door, praise Him for the sunshine or the rain, for the flowers, trees, or even the snow-covered ground.  All throughout our day we should praise the Lord until our head hits the pillow.  Even though we might not feel like praise, we need to commit ourselves to doing so.  One way is to schedule praise breaks throughout the day (Psalm 119:164).

As our psalm continues, the writer describes how God is high and exalted, above all creation here on earth, including us (vs. 4-6).  Yet, though He is the mighty God, dwelling in heaven above all, He is willing to humble Himself because of His love for us.  This was especially shown when God sent His Son for our redemption.

Who are the ones that God loves and cares for?  Who did He send His incarnate Son to die for?  If God went by the values that society has set, it would only be for the wealthy, the powerful, the prestigious elite.  It would only be for the “beautiful people” society values so highly.  Fortunately that is not the case with the Lord God, as not too many of us fall into those categories.  In God’s eyes, a person’s value has no relationship to their wealth or position on the social ladder.  Though the world may be, the Lord is certainly not interested in whether someone’s name is listed in the Social Register.  Many people whom the Lord has used for His purposes have come from humble beginnings or a lowly background, people who the world would never have considered (vs. 7-8).  God overrides the social orders of the world.

Throughout the Bible we see God exalting the humble, and humbling the proud.  Jesus said the first will be last, and the last first (Matthew 20:16).  Imagine, as I stated at the start, being invited to associate with royalty.  There would need to be someone who would come and buy me elegant clothing, fashion my hair just right, and give me a complete makeover so that I am suitable for that company of people.  To be set with princes is a high privilege.  That is a place of select society, yet God places us there.  As the psalmist says, God raises us out of the dust and ash heap, and sets us with royalty.  He has made us a royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9).  Princes are immediately admitted to the king, while others must stand far off, hat in hand.  If we have taken the Lord Jesus as our Savior, God raises us out of the dust heap, clothes us with His Son’s righteousness, and we become His child.  As such, we are now princes, and we can draw near to His Throne of Grace (Hebrews 4:16).  As princes, children of God, we have His wealth untold.

The Lord delights to help the poor, the hurting, and the suffering, if they will only trust Him.  If we trust in the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He will lift us up, up out of the refuse that the world and society has seen fit to toss us, and give us the blessings of His heavenly kingdom.

Returning To The Lord

 Nehemiah 8:2-10

When a person has turned away from wrong or destructive behavior in their life, they need to make some changes in their life and habits, or else they will likely fall right back into their old, harmful, and detrimental ways.  They need to develop good habits and lifestyle changes, and get back on the right path.  In our Scripture today from the Old Testament Book of Nehemiah, we will read of two godly men who sought to help the nation get back on that right path with God, and make the changes necessary in their life, so as not to fall back into the ways of the past.

As we read throughout the whole Old Testament, we see how the people of Israel and Judah repeatedly turned away from faithful worship of Yahweh, and followed after the false gods of the surrounding nations.  Despite faithful prophets preaching the Word of God to the people, they forsook the Lord, and turned to pagan idols.  As a result, after many years of enduring their faithlessness, God punished the people by sending them into captivity in Babylon.  There they remained for 70 years.  After that time, their captors slowly allowed them to return.

As our Scripture opens, both Nehemiah, the governor of Judah under the Persian king’s authority, and Ezra, a priest and scribe, both very godly men, sought to help bring the people back to truly worshiping and following Yahweh so that they would not repeat the sins of their ancestors.  For true revival to take place in the people’s hearts, these men knew that they needed to hear and obey the Word of God.  That was the only way that they would avoid falling back into the sins of their fathers.  Good intentions and promises will not keep us from repeating the sins we seek to forsake.  It is only by getting into God’s Word, the Bible, that we will truly make a change in our life, and bring revival to our hearts.

Ezra and Nehemiah gathered the people together, and publicly read the Word of God to them, and taught them what the Scriptures meant (vs. 1-8).  Throughout the day the Word of God was read aloud, and then Ezra, along with several of his faithful companions, instructed and explained the Bible (vs. 8).   As the religious leaders read from the Scriptures, the people who were gathered together to hear, showed proper respect to God’s Word (vs. 6).  They bowed low, with their face to the ground.  Such a posture reminds us that God is the King, and we are His subjects, His servants.  He is sovereign.  We are not.

They also listened intently to the Bible being read.  How many times has it happened, when we are in church listening to the message that the pastor brings, that our mind wanders off to thinking of any number of things?  Or perhaps when we are reading the Bible, we get to the end of the page, and realize that though our eyes were reading the words, our mind was off a thousand miles away.  When we listen to God’s Word being taught, we need to be actively listening, actually hearing what is said, and not letting our mind wander.  The same is true when we read the Bible.

After hearing and learning God’s Word, the people were convicted of their sins, and the sins of their forefathers, how they had strayed so far away from Yahweh, and they wept (vs. 9).  They recognized how deeply they had sinned against God.  His Word had awoken their conscience.  For a true revival to occur, we must realize our sinfulness and God’s holiness and righteousness.  Then we will be able to turn to Him in repentance and come back to His path.

When the people who had returned from captivity determined to obey and follow God, they could rejoice because God forgives sin, and will bless obedience (vs. 10).  When we repent and turn to Him, the Lord will forgive us.  When we receive that forgiveness, there is no more need to be sorry.  Ezra and Nehemiah encouraged the people to now rejoice.

The Lord’s delight is in forgiving and saving us.  He finds joy in showing love to all who believe in Him.  When we feel weak and helpless, we need to remember that God loves to deliver us.  We can trust God with our needs.  We can choose joy over giving in to despair, and find our delight in Him.  We need to rejoice and refill our tank with joy, the Lord’s joy, not a cheap imitation from the world (vs. 10).  The best way to do that is to spend time in the presence of God by prayer and reading His Word daily, getting to intimately know Him. God’s heart is filled with joy when we obey Him.  When we do, we will find that His joy is our strength.

Do Whatever He Says

 John 2:1-11

Weddings are generally very happy and also important occasions for a family.  Often many months of careful planning go into hosting such an event, and no one wants some mishap to occur.  This was also the case back in the days of the Bible.  Though the ceremony was different, and the garments that the bride and groom wore looked nothing like what we are familiar with today, everyone wanted things to run smoothly for the couple and their families.  Today in our Scripture from the Gospel of John, we will look in on a wedding, see a disaster unfold, but when they turned to Jesus, the day was saved.

As our Scripture passage opens, Jesus, several of His disciples, and His mother were invited to a wedding in the village of Cana (vs. 1-2).  Cana was on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, north of the village of Nazareth, where Jesus had grown up.  Cana was also the hometown of Nathaniel, one of His disciples (John 21:2).  Weddings in the days of the Bible were week-long festivals.  There were many guests, sometimes the whole village, and often out-of-town guests, such as in this case.  Thus, careful planning was needed.  To run out of food or beverage was a terrible thing, and was quite embarrassing.  Even more so, it broke the unwritten law of hospitality.  It was a disaster!

As we read, such a thing happened to the host of this wedding.  They ran out of wine, and there were probably several days left with the wedding festival.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a close friend or possibly a relative of the bride or groom’s family, and as such, was privy to this terrible predicament.  The many wedding guests did not know this, but the immediate families of the couple did, and they were frantic.  What would they do?  Mary, their close friend or relative, knew what she was going to do, though.  She would take the problem to Jesus (vs. 3).

What do we do when we have problems in our life?  Problems even much more serious than running out of beverages at a wedding?  At that time, and for this family, they were facing a terrible need.  Sometimes in our life we run up against terrible crises.  Perhaps a horrible illness, a job loss, or a financial ruin.  Like the Virgin Mary did for this family, we need to take these problems to the Lord.  It doesn’t matter what our need may be, even if it might seem a bit odd like this problem was, we need to go to Jesus with it.  We may have no idea how to fix the problem.  We may not even know what to exactly pray for.  It doesn’t matter.  We can leave it in Jesus’s hands, knowing that He will do whatever is best.

When Mary brought the problem of no wine to her Son, she didn’t know what He was going to do.  That didn’t matter, though.  She had faith that Jesus would take care of the matter in the best possible way, whatever that way would be.  After bringing the problem to Jesus, Mary told the servants to do whatever He would tell them to do (vs. 5).  Mary submitted to Jesus and how He would answer her request.  Like her, we should submit, and allow Him to deal with our needs as He sees fit.

Jesus instructed the servants to fill the large water pots with water, and then bring them to the master of the feast (vs. 6-8).  These water pots were quite large.  Each one would have held between 18-27 gallons, depending on the size.  There were six of these, so that would have been a total of between 108-162 gallons.  When the servants obeyed, and brought it to the master of the feast, it had turned to wine, the best of wine (vs. 9-10).

Like the stone water pots, God wants to fill us with His anointing.  First, though, we must be empty of everything of the world.  We must give to God everything we have, and He will transform us into a vessel full of His anointing.

In closing, just as our Scripture says, we need to do whatever God tells us to do.  God knows how to take us out of our mess, and into wherever He wants us to be.  Sometimes the instructions God gives us may not make sense to anyone, just like at this wedding, but we must do whatever He tells us to do.  Noah probably wondered why God wanted him to build an ark.  Abraham wondered why God wanted him to leave his homeland.  They obeyed, remained faithful, and reaped God’s blessings.  When we take our problems to God in prayer, be ready to obey what He says, and then be prepared for His blessings to pour out.