THE GREATEST DECLARATION?

ISAIAH 43.1-10

 

1--

God created us.

God formed us.

 

He says

Do not fear

I have redeemed you

I have summoned you by name

You are Mine

 

Isaiah 43.1

 

 

7--

He called us

He created us

for His glory

He formed us

He made us

 

This call is to and for every person

This call is to believe our Creator and God is good

This call is to trust our Creator and God to be good to us

 

This call is to allow God to recreate our heart, soul, and body

 

This recreation will be determined by God's own choosing and design

 

8--

Until we accept His call to trust

His mercy, power, and wisdom      

By not accepting, we choose to not look

We are blind to the love that promises good

          By not accepting, we choose not to listen

We are deaf to the love that promises good

 

10-13--

By choosing to accept God's call
 

We will see

We will hear

We will understand

We will be servants to people for God

We will be witnesses to people of God

 

 

God has chosen us

To know

To believe

To understand

 

 

         I am God, the LORD.....

 

 

 

I, even I, am the LORD

 

 

There is no other God

There is no other Savior or Salvation.

 

He reveals

He saves

He proclaims 

 

You are My witnesses 

I am God

From ancient days, I am He

No one can deliver out of My hand 

  When I act, no on can reverse it. 

Isaiah 43.10, 13

PSALM 54.1-7--HOPE

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

4:58 AM

This Psalm is an example of how God 's grace works deliverance into our lives.

 

Psalm 54--

Vv.  1-3--David's enemy of the moment:  "Ziphites" were seeking to kill him.

Vv.  1-2--David faced these enemies with time in prayer with God. 

Vv.  4-5--David's prayer confidently asserted his expectation that God would

give victory over these enemies--

"Surely God is my help…in His faithfulness He will destroy them."

 

Vv.  6--David is able to praise God because he knew that God is Good.

"Your Name, Lord, is good."

 

Vv.  7--The Praise of v. 6 is based on the past experiences of God's goodness. 

"You have delivered me from all my troubles, and  my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes."

 

 

God had given victory over every preceding enemy attack.

David was confident that God would bring

deliverance and triumph over this enemy, too.

 

 

Romans 5.1-5 urges us to trust in God's providing grace for us
just like He did for David.
 

 

Like David,

Our access to God's grace is by Faith in Christ's faithfulness. Vv. 1-2

By Grace the Holy Spirit works in our every Tribulation,
            to develop Patience, Experience, Hope, and Love. Vv. 3-5

 

"Surely God is my help…in His faithfulness."

"Your Name, Lord, is good."

 

Like David, we must have faith in God's faithfulness to us.

 

"We have access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand."



Romans 5.2

 

"Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us

an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,

since what is seen is temporary,

but what is unseen is eternal."

2 Corinthians 4.17-18

 

The enemies of our lives today are defeated as we trust God's faithfulness just like David did in Psalm 54.

 

We need to spend time in prayer like David did.

"Save me.  Hear my prayer; listen to the words of my mouth."

 

We need to trust in God's faithfulness, just like David did.

"God is my help; the Lord is the One Who sustains me…in His faithfulness."

 

We need to believe in God's goodness, just like David did.

 "I will praise Your Name, Lord, for it is good."

 

We need to trust the Holy Spirit to work

Patience, Experience, Hope, and Love

into our hearts during our tribulations.

 

 

"You have delivered me from all my troubles,

and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes."

2 Corinthians 4.16

FAITH UNDER PRESURE

FAITH UNDER PRESURE

LUKE 8.50

 

Your daughter is dead.  Don't bother the teacher anymore.

Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus,

"Don't be afraid.

Just believe,

 and she will be healed."

Luke 8.50

I want some things that I believe are good and right.

 

I ask, thinking, "Whatever I ask in Jesus' Name He will do for me.

 

I believe, but it is not happening the way I want, not "right now."

 

I am to trust.

 

When what I want is not provided when I want it,
God has something extra special, better than what I asked.

 

Call to Me and I will answer you

and show you great and mighty things

...exceedingly, abundantly above all you can ask or think.

Jeremiah 33.3; Ephesians 3.20-21

 

On the way to Jairus' sick daughter, Jesus stopped to help a woman who had been sick for twelve years.
Jesus let her touch Himself.  
She was instantly healed, after all that time.

Jairus had to wait a short few minutes and then was told it was too late.  His daughter had died.

Jairus' brief time of waiting must have seemed like years.

Her 12 years.  Jairus, twenty minutes?

Long term endurance vs. brief agony.

Both required a long wait.

Jesus was not immediate, instantaneous in responding to either one.

Jesus never fixed anything for anyone without  requiring a greater degree of faith than the person they had before they came to Him. 

What ever problem we have when we come to Jesus, His response requires a greater degree of faith than we had before.

When we cry out to God for help, He always answers in a way that either develops or demonstrates our faith. 

The centurion had adequate faith for You to act in his behalf.

So did the bleeding woman.

Jairus was required to trust a very little time, but in the greatest of anguish.

The disciples were put into a storm and had to awaken Jesus, who  challenged their "little faith." 

A woman whose son died was given grace out of Your heart. 

She did not even know to ask.

A forgiven woman responded in a dramatic way to the love You extended to her with only a few words. 

Jesus helps us in a way that always increases our faith.

All the issues of life are opportunities to have our faith increased.

If we are wanting help, Jesus will open our eyes that we may see Himself more clearly and therefore have greater faith.

This is how we grow in grace and knowledge of Who He is.

 

Big question:  Do you believe Jesus can and will help you?

 Two blind men followed Him.

When He had gone indoors, the blind men came to Him, and He asked them,

"Do you believe that I am able do this?"

                                "Yes, Lord," they replied.

Then He touched their eyes and said,

"According to your faith let it be done to you."

Matthew 9.28-29

 

Jesus knows our needs. 

He knows the best way to help us.

He helps in a way that increases our understanding of Who He is.

His help increases our faith in His goodness, grace, greatness, and  glory.

"Don't be afraid; 

just

BELIEVE."

 

MOMENTS OF MEDITATION

PSALM 119.27

Sunday, August 11, 2013

6:27 AM

Our Creator, God, the I AM  of Eternity, the Author and the Finisher of Life, all Life, the Beginning and End, of and for all things, makes Himself known to us in 

 

moments of Meditations.

 

The Scripture calls for moments of meditation in many places, from the writings of Moses though the writings of John, Genesis-Revelation.

 

Abraham built altars for meditation everywhere he moved.

Moses writes of several ways he meditates, and he urges--insists!--on our doing so.

The Psalms insist on meditation from first to last.

David meditated in the Temple, as well as among the sheep.

Isaiah tells of meeting God with the angels in the Temple.

All the Prophets and Apostles met with God.

Jesus met with His Father in the "wee" hours of morning--

           a practice highly recommended in the Psalms.

 

Jesus called these meetings "Abiding."

John called them "Fellowship."

Most all other references simply say "meeting" or "met" with God.

 

Paul makes meditation  the vital part of Prayer, as if there is no effective prayer apart from meditation that brings us knowledge, understanding, and wisdom as the way God answers us.

 

Meditation seems to be the point of the Lord's Prayer.

The outline of prayer is given as "Ask-Seek-Knock." 

                "Seek" would be meditation. 

 

Jesus insists that meditation on Scripture is an essential part of "Abiding."

 

Meditation as the key to understanding Scripture and therefore to answered prayer. There are unlimited answers to prayer according to the promises of Scripture.

 

 

 

His divine power has given us everything we need

for a godly life through our knowledge of Him

Who called us by His own glory and goodness. 

2 Peter 1.3

 

 

This is my prayer:  that you love may abound more and more

 in knowledge and depth of insight,

so that you be able to discern what is best

and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ...

Philippians 1.9-10

 

 

 

His delight is in the law of the Lord,

and he meditates on His law day and night.

Psalm 1.2

 

 

THE FUTURE OF MY HOUSE

 2 SAMUEL 7.18-19

Thursday, August 1, 2013

3:08 PM

 

"Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family,

that you have brought me this far?

And as if this were not enough in Your sight, Sovereign Lord,

You have also spoken about the future of the house of Your servant

…a mere human."

2 Samuel 7.18-19

 

 

God gave David great mercy.

And great grace.

And great love.

 

God's mercy, grace, and love brought forth great humility and gratitude from David's heart and much, much more.

 

This was because God had found David to be the man Who sought God with all his heart.

 

 

The Lord God, the Almighty, developed David to be

"a man after His own heart

And appointed him ruler of His people."

1 Samuel 13.14

 

God testified concerning him:

"I have found David…a man after My own heart;

he will do everything I want him to do."

Acts 13.22

 

 

This all happened with and for David by one simple action:

 

King David went in and sat before the Lord.

2 Samuel 7.17 

 

David simply "sat before the Lord," and God gave him faith to believe and trust God's promises about the building of "the House of the Lord."

 

Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, has chosen the church as the people to build a Temple for the glory of His Name today and forever.

 

We need only come and sit before God, as did David.

God will come to us, meet with us, be with us, and speak to us,

as He did for David.

 

Jesus' calls this,

 

Abide in Me, and I will abide in you.

John 15.1-18

 

 

In this simple investment of time to abide, sitting before the Lord, the Holy Spirit, makes Jesus Name great to us.

 

Then, we make His Name great to all we know.

We become salt and light to the world.

 

We  bring great mercy, grace, and love from God

to our generation of our nation.

  

Greater than the greatest kings and rulers of the earth…

greater than any president of this nation….

is to be a doorman in the house of the Lord.

 

 

As doormen,

we bring others into

the House of the Lord Jesus.

 

 

TO BE A DOORMAN IN

 

THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

 

IS

 

GREAT.

A PURPOSEFUL AND DEDICATED LIFE

ROMANS 12.2

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

12:21 PM

Do not  conform to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--

His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12.2

 

The simple act of choosing to spend time in the presence of Jesus Christ will open the doors of His love to begin to direct and redirect our lives into the ways of peace, joy, and love, with wisdom, power, healing, growth and development in the ways of eternal life.

 

Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--

this is your true and proper worship.

Ro.12.1

 

In the place you choose, Jesus will show you the life He wants you to live in His eternal kingdom.

 

You will recognize His purposes as being good, pleasing, and perfectly satisfying in increasing ways for the coming ages.

 

Time with Jesus will give you two very clear, easy things:

 

1. A Goal for every time you are with Him.
2. The Method of reaching those goals.

 

With a goal and a method, He will give you the motivation, wisdom, and ability to reachHis eternal goals.

 

As you invest time and thought for God-related goals taking place, you will find your daily life, relationships and responsibilities taking on more and more satisfaction ("good, pleasing, and perfect,"  "goodness and  mercy every day"--Ps 23.6).

 

The Goal of Jesus in your time with Him is simple:  to show you how He sees your life developing and how He sees it could be from His point of view.

The short version is stated in the verse:

 

"renewing your mind and experiencing God's will

as good, pleasing , and perfect'

Romans 12.2
 

 

The Method by which this happens simply enough, too.

 

1. You tell Him honestly what you are thinking about any experience you are going through.
2. Read Scripture so the Holy Spirit can select verses that will help you see things from God's standpoint.

 

The evidence of the benefits of a high priority of seeking "the kingdom of God and His righteousness" is found in a list of numerous life-giving qualities later in this chapter--vv.9-21.

 

These qualities will be considered in a later blog.

 

Meanwhile, take some time to let the Holy Spirit make a positive difference in your body, soul, and spirit today.

 

"…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice…

to be transformed

by God's good, pleasing, and perfect will."

A GIFTED, GIVNG LIFE

ROMANS 12.1

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

10:45 AM

 

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,

 

in view of God's mercy,

to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and pleasing to God--

this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12.1

 

 

Could God give us a more direct appeal than through this man He called to represent Himself to His church, the members of the body of Christ Jesus, His only Son? 

I urge you…

God's mercy…

Your bodies…

A living sacrifice…

Holy…

Pleasing…

To God…

Your true and proper...

Worship… 

Our God, Creator, Ruler of the Universe, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Redeemer, Savior, Friend, Counselor…

Caring, merciful, kind, gentle, humble, forgiving, patient…

 

He loves us so much!

He "urges" through the heart of His apostle, Paul, to give our hearts to Him.

This apostle, having given every breath of his life to Jesus,

urges us with the compelling love of Christ,

to give our lives to Christ, as he was doing.

 

What is required of us?

Nothing but our lives.

      In the form of our time.

As much as we can.

As much as we will.

 

 

With the desire you have as you read these words,

take your time--and your body--to some place

where you can set your mind and heart on Christ Jesus

Who sits at the side of the Father.

 Jesus will love you for this time you give to Him. 

He will return your time and its value at 30, 60, or 100 times more than you gave up. 

Come.

Set your heart on mind of Jesus in prayer.

Set your heart and mind on Him by reading about Him

in the Scripture, the words, the Book He has given us--

the Book He has hidden Himself within.

He is ready to surprise all who seek Him in these pages.

You will find treasures worth more than silver, gold, and precious stones.

 

 Come.

The more we come, the more we receive.

 

WHAT IS REQUIRED OF US?

Nothing but our lives.

      In the form of our time.

As much as we can.

As much as we will.

 

COME.
 

FOLLOW ME.
 

I WILL GIVE YOU REST.
 

I WILL GIVE YOU A

MANSION IN MY
 

ETERNAL KINGDOM.
 

I WILL MAKE YOU

A FISHER OF MEN.

BECOMING THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

ROMANS 12.2

Monday, August 5, 2013

2:48 PM

This is how we become the light of the world:  

We are ambassadors

for Christ…
 

We implore you on

Christ's behalf: 
 

Be reconciled to God.

2 Cor. 5.18-20 

 

Jesus said the light of the world is seen in the goodness of God.

Matthew 5.16 

The apostle said the light of the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus. 

2 Cor. 4.6 

The apostle also said that in seeing light from our glorious God,

we are changed.

2 Cor. 3.18 

The change takes place within us is good. 

Ephesians 2.l0

This ever-changing goodness is recognized by all who know us. 

2 Cor. 4.2 

 

The goal is to make real contact with the real God and bring the effect of that contact into the lives of others. 

We meet with God and He infuses our lives with His realities. 

We meet with God through Christ.  We follow Christ into the glory of God. 

We bring this glory to others and lead them to follow Christ. 

This repeating cycle is the plan of God:  meeting with Him, following Him, leading others to meet and follow and lead others to meet, follow, and lead…..Until the end of this age of the world.

 

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And the things you have heard me say

In the presence of many witnesses

entrust to reliable people who will also be

qualified to teach others.

2 Timothy 2.1-2 

Jesus called this,

 "Abide, bear fruit, teach others to abide, bear fruit, and teach others…." 

One way He said this was,

"Go and make disciples, and teach them to obey all the commands I have taught you," or "Go with My commands, make disciples, and teach them My commands."

 

Or, "As I have loved you, so ought you to love one another,"

And, "As the Father has sent Me, so send I you."

 

 

The plan of God is quite simple:

 

1. Abide, which is to spend time with Jesus.
2. You will bear fruit from each meeting.
3. The fruit of your time with Jesus will lead them to come and abide with Him.

 

More simple than this?

 

 

COME. 
 

FOLLOW ME,
 

AND I WILL MAKE YOU


FISHERS OF MEN.

MATTHEW 4.19

 

GIFTS

 

Think of yourselves with sober judgment,

in accordance with the faith
God has distributed to each of you.

Romans 12.3

 

Romans 12.6b-8 helps us find our God-given areas of unique value and worth in the "body of Christ," the church.  

Romans 12.9-21is a remarkable list of good things God wants us to have and give to others. 

These good things make up the salt and light that Jesus says we are to provide for everyone we meet, the sweet incense of Jesus' presence in us. 

As we grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus, we become wiser, stronger, and better in more and more of these ways. 

As the Holy Spirit works His ways into our lives through the "beatitudes" (Matthew 5.1-12), we become

 "the salt of the earth"

and

"the light of the world." 

Matt 5.13-16

 

But notice--Jesus ends His introduction to the Sermon by saying,

Let your light shine before others,

that they may see your good deeds and

glorify your Father in Heaven.

v.16

 

It is good deeds like Romans 12.9ff that draw people to the light of the glory of our God.

As we draw near to our Lord, He draws near to us and we grow in grace whereby God provides the power of goodness to everyone we meet.

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart

and with the full assurance that faith bring.

Let us hold unswervingly

to the hope we profess,

for He who promised is faithful,

and let us consider how we may

spur one another on

toward love and good deeds…

encouraging one another

as we see the day approaching.

Hebrews 10.22-25