Job 3:20-26

"Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death." 

Revelation 20:14 (NIV) 

Job 3:20-26

This headline caught my eye on the editorial page this morning: “This is the year we choose death over indignity.” I didn’t bother reading the article, because I was sure that I would read an article congratulating Canadians on being ‘progressive’ or ‘sophisticated’ enough to believe that every person should have the ‘right’ to end their own life. The headline was enough for me! My father died this June and his last days on earth were filled with pain and the desire to die that Job expressed. His last 48 hours in particular stripped any dignity from him that he had left.

I feel that I have a glimpse of understanding of the ability of pain and disease to strip away our dignity - a glimpse only - but for sure I have been very close to it, not only with my father, but with other family members and church family. I don’t want to argue using the strong case contained in the Word for submitting to God’s timetable for a person’s death - as a matter of fact - I don’t want to argue about it at all, I just want to point out to myself and whoever reads this post, that there is no dignity in death - in any death - in any type of death. Job voices that he thinks being stillborn is better than going through misery before death, yet talk to a mother about the death of her stillborn. We read of Moses death at 120 years, still strong and vital, wouldn’t that be a death with dignity? Moses didn’t think so, for he was being humbled before his people for his pride.

There is no dignity in death. It is a terrible terrible state of affairs that we live under, this sentence of death and we are powerless to stop it, or to somehow make it more dignified (really!) by cutting short the pain that our bodies suffer as we fight to live. This is one of the most amazing truth about God’s Only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that He willing surrendered to indignity for you and me! Not just the indignity of death, but also of suffering a humiliating shameful, painful death! He did this willingly for you and me, that we might have true Life in His Name, and that one Day - one glorious Day - we will stand at His side and watch Him destroy death forever!

Come Lord Jesus Come!

"Come Thou Long Expected Jesus", Chris Tomlin, via YouTube

Proverbs 31:10-31

"To the woman he said,...“Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16 (NIV)
Proverbs 31:10-31

A husband and wife living together in unity can be summarized with this exhortation: “Grab each other's hand and go through it together!”

Adam and Eve were one flesh; they were united in thought and deed. Some friends of mine give Adam a hard time. They think Adam should have told his wife not to eat the fruit, and yet I see the account in Genesis 3 as proof of their unity. Adam didn’t rule over Eve, but he was beside her. She decided to eat, so he ate. He decided to hide so they both hid. The curse God spoke to the man and his wife, is carried out in every marriage that has ever been! The curse is a curse of DISUNITY, the wife wants to rule the relationship, but the man rules with an iron fist.

I don’t enjoy reading this curse but I love to read the account of the Wife of Noble Character in Proverbs 31. What strikes me when I read this passage is the confidence and trust that the husband has in his wife and that the wife has in her husband. Nowhere in this passage do you get a hint that the husband is ruling the wife, nor do you get a hint that the wife is trying to rule the husband. You get a sense that they are in unity together, blessing each other’s efforts and filling their own God given roles. And it is beautiful. Marriage as it can be through the power of the LORD!

Proverbs tells us twice that it is, “better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.” (21:9 & 25:24), yet in the chapter 31 passage, her husband has full confidence in her and praises her. I heard a preacher say that this passage is impossible! He pointed out that the passage starts with: A wife of noble character who can find? and told us that women need to recognize that this is an ideal description not reality. I think his motives were good; he doesn’t want ladies reading this passage and operating under guilt - but I find that approach discouraging. What I would ask is this: Men, have you found the wife of noble character? That is, have you recognized the wife that the LORD brought to you is the woman of Proverbs 31? Do you see her with the eyes of God? Will you give her your confidence and stop ruling over her? Will you praise her and say out loud in her hearing: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all"?

Let us be those who grab our spouse’s hand and go through whatever it is that is facing us - TOGETHER - with full confidence in each other!

Proverbs 31:10-31

"The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." 

   Proverbs 14:1 (NIV) 

Proverbs 31:10-31

Feminists scoff at the idea of holding the position of being a wife in high regard, for they deliberately ignore that when God created humans, He created them male and female and He made them man and wife. Marriage, defined as a man and a woman in a life-long covenantal relationship, is the highest and holiest relationship known to humans. It is the primary relationship and all other relationships - even civil society - are built upon marriage.

The importance of marriage can be compared to the cells that make up all matter. These cells are made up of various members and yet they operate as a unit and together with other cells, they form complex organisms and structures. God brought the woman to the man and they became one flesh; perfectly united - two individual parts, but together they are one. All of humanity is based and built upon the relationship of marriage.

This verse in Proverbs teaches that in marriage the wife holds the power to the unity of the relationship: “she can build her house, or she can tear it down”. When a woman decides before God to be the woman that He wants, calls and empowers her to be, she builds her house. I don’t know if you have seen the sign, “Welcome to the nut house” but whenever I see it above a door of a house, I chuckle. The truth is that there is no such thing as a perfect house; every family has dysfunction. BUT there is such a thing as a WISE wife, a WISE mother and she has power that the husband and father doesn’t have. She has the power to either build or tear down her own house, with her own hands.

If you are a wife or a mother, may God bless you as you seek to build up your family in wisdom. If you are a husband or a child may you rise and call your wife or mother “blessed”. Not only do these ladies hold the power over their own families, how they build their families determines the strength of our society!

Isaiah 65:17-25

 "The wolf and the lamb will feed together, 

and the lion will eat straw like the ox, 

and dust will be the serpent's food. 

They will neither harm nor destroy

on my holy mountain, says the LORD." 

Isaiah 65:25 (NIV) 

Isaiah 65:17-25

Last week the newspapers shouted: “The pope teaches that dogs will be in heaven!” No matter if he is right or wrong or if the newspapers are making stuff up again to sell copies, it got me thinking about this passage in Isaiah which describes the new heaven and new earth, and feeling very SORRY for the lowly snake.

The similarities between Genesis 1 & 2 and Revelation 21 & 22 are marvelous and teach us the truth that God’s original design will be restored in the new earth, albeit with some changes. According to Isaiah 65 one of those changes will be the status of the lowly snake. POOR SNAKE! We are not told in the creation account what the snake looked like, nor how it moved, but part of God’s curse on this animal for being used by Satan was that it would crawl on its belly and eat dust! Things are better for the wolf, the lamb and the lion (dogs aren’t mentioned in this passage) on the new earth, but the POOR SNAKE is still eating dust! What a marvelous place the new earth will be – where death is no longer, where we who are His are holy in every way, and where God’s creatures who because of the curse became predators, are fulfilling once again the peaceful purposes for which He created them!

Come long expected Jesus, Come!

"Come Thou Long Expected Jesus", Chris Tomlin, via YouTube 

Psalm 55

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Romans 15:13 (NIV) 

This verses teaches that the benefit of trusting God is being filled with joy and peace, which causes us to overflow with hope.

It has been well said that the entire message of the Bible can be summed up as “Trust God”. If Eve had only trusted that God’s intentions were good (Gen. 3), she would have laughed at Satan! If Moses had only trusted God (Num. 20:12), he would have been able to set foot in the promised land! Our Lord Jesus set Himself apart from all other humans because He trusted in God (Heb. 2:13).

But what about us - do we trust God this day?

Trusting in God - in His provision for our sin and in His Holy Word, is a dominant theme of the Psalms, and David especially recorded fighting the spiritual battles of trust versus fear, trust versus anxiety, trust versus doubts. Am I filled with joy and peace today? Do I overflow with hope in my situation? If the answer is YES, then praise God for I trust in Him. If the answer is a flat NO, then friend decide right now to fight the spiritual battle that David records for us in Psalm 55. If the answer is PARTIALLY, then friend, consider this: do you want partial Peace? Partial Joy? Partial Hope? I don’t want partial peace and joy and hope, I want to be filled to overflowing with Joy and Peace and Hope in every area and every situation of my life. I want to TRUST God!

"Trust in Jesus", Third Day, via YouTube

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Psalm 128

"Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him." 

Psalm 128:1 (NIV) 

 

What a blessing it is to be a child of God! To enjoy the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the blessedness of being in Christ is the greatest blessing that any person could ever hope to receive for God during their life. May we always remember and give praise and thanks to God for the love He lavished on us that we are called His children. 

This psalm follows in correct order behind the psalm that taught us to place the LORD God in leadership over all our activities - especially our families. It spells out the benefits that God promises to those who place Him and His kingdom first. If I read this psalm and others like it every day and ignored many other sections of the Bible, I would in short order fall into the trap of becoming a prosperity preacher and yet I cannot ignore the rest of the Word. So when I read this psalm, my soul is filled with thankfulness, that God’s face does shine on His children from heaven, that God’s hands are busy in the wombs of godly women all around the world, throughout all ages, and He causes children to be a blessing to their parents, and more than that, He even prolongs the lives of His men and women so that they may see and bless their grandchildren. 

I will not use this psalm to demand from God, but I will use this psalm to give Him the thanks He deserves for all good things come from Him! What could be more good, than a man and a woman, joined in love, surrounded by their children and their grandchildren with their hearts filled with thankfulness to our great God who gave us each other, who gives us food, and strength and love, and life and happiness. Blessed! Blessed! Truly we are Blessed! Praise His Holy Name for the blessing of family!

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Psalm 127

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him." 

Psalm 127:3 (NIV) 

How much time do we spend with our families? How early do we get up? How late do we stay up? How much toil in our lives are related to our families? This psalm makes it clear that family life is the one activity where we are clearly God’s helper. It is God who decides who our mom and dads are. It is God who gives children to parents.

Many of us think that it is our job to raise our kids to be the spouse they should be, or the child they should be, or the sibling they should be, and that we need to persuade God to help us - YET - this psalm and all of Scripture, teach that God Himself brings us our spouses (Matt 19:6), that He gives us our children, which means that He chooses our parents, and that He places the lonely into families (Ps 68:6). This is God’s work and He expects us to help Him. We are called by God to be our brother’s keeper. It all started in the Garden of Eden where God brought Eve to Adam and it continues to this day all around the world.

Family is the building block of all human society - not by accident, but because God’s work, is family work. Humans strive to build villages, kingdoms and communities, but God builds families. He is building a family right now - a spiritual family where He is our Heavenly Father through his beloved Son, Jesus, and we are His children, reborn in His Spirit. He is also building millions of families all around the world, husbands and wives, children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters – FAMILIES.

Friend, if these things I have written are true - if our families are God’s work, and we are but helpers - then have we asked Him for guidance recently in our family life? Have we rested in Him in our toil and hours of work we pour into our family? Have we committed our family relationships to Him, and placed His wishes for our families above our own desires?

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Psalm 127

"In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat - for he grants sleep to those he loves." 

Psalm 127:2 (NIV) 

No one likes "make work" projects! My wife will chide me about things I get my kids to do around the yard or at the lake - she calls them “another one of your make work projects” - what she means is that the work I get them to do is meaningless and temporary. My kids pick up on that theme and complain that they only want to help me “on things that count”.

No one likes "make work" projects! No likes being a hamster in a wheel running and spinning until we drop dead. YET according to Psalm 127 unless the LORD builds the house - building is only a “make work project”, and unless the LORD watches the city – guard duty is only a “make work project”. The ramification of these verses is tremendous; just think of the pyramids, or the tower of Babel, and if we extrapolate the activities of building and guarding to all human activity (which Solomon does in Ecclesiastes) it becomes depressing as we realize that all human activity conducted separately from God is just a series of temporary “make work projects”. 

But we are not left in a state of despair, for verse 2 tells us: “he grants sleep to those he loves.” This wonderful statement – promise even - brings hope to our toil. There is rest in our toil, there is peace in our toil and there is purpose to our toil when the LORD is doing the work and we are the helper.

There is some debate as to whether or not Psalm 127 was written by King Solomon, or by King David, for his son Solomon, to instruct him on how to build the temple, because 2 Samuel 12:25 tells us that Solomon was one whom God loved. I don’t know for sure who wrote Psalm 127, but I do know that I am one whom God loves, because I am united with His beloved Son, through His Holy Spirit. AND I know from these two verses that there is sleep, and rest for me and for all who are in Christ, if we would be careful to only involve ourselves in God’s activities - becoming His helper in our work, our families, our evenings and our church.

The choice is ours - rest in the LORD and do work that lasts forever! OR Toil and sweat and run and weep, and have our work disappear like the mist.

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Jeremiah 9

"This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD."

Jeremiah 9:23,24 (NIV)

The book of Jeremiah can be a very depressing read, as the LORD describes what the future holds for His people who reject Him. Most of us try to forget the passages as soon as we read them - if we read them at all -  and YET Jeremiah contains some real gems! Verses that we should put on plaques on our walls, or put on our desktop background; verses to be chewed on over and over again.

These two verses in chapter 9 speak to our souls about who the LORD truly is. Do you know who the LORD is? Not in the midst of plenty, but in the midst of disaster, for chapter 9 describes disaster. Do you know who He is when “Death has climbed in through your window”, vs 21? When your food is bitter and your water poison, vs 15? People ask us (we even think it ourselves sometimes) how could a good God kill so many people? They say that they could never worship a God who allows a baby to die, and never worship a God who allows so much suffering, or who would create a place of eternal suffering called hell. Yet there is something about a Christian that causes us to worship God in the midst of disaster. There is something about a child of the Most High that draws us to Him even as everything we love is taken away. We have been given the understanding by the Spirit of God that enables us to know that God is a God who delights in and exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on this earth. So let us put this verse on our walls, and in our hearts while times are good. Let this verse teach us to boast in God and only in God (1 Cor 1:31). 

Did we boast this week about anything? Did we boast about our strength? Hey- did you hear my son made the Ontario u16 rugby team? Did we boast about our wisdom? Hey- did you hear about my other son’s good grades at engineering school? Did we boast about our riches? Hey- did you hear about my daughter’s great summer job at WSIB? Did we boast about being given the grace by God to know Him through his Son Jesus Christ - to be able to see Him as He truly is, to be able to recognize His character and to KNOW in my heart that He is good all the time?

A friend of mine says to me, “John – if you are going to tell me that God is good all the time - you will have to define good for me!” Very well then – good is defined in this verse as “exercising and delighting in kindness, justice and righteousness on earth” – this is who God is and what a wonderful good God He is!

Heavenly Father thank you! Thank you for opening my eyes! Thank you for revealing yourself to me! May I boast this day in You my Lord, and not in my wisdom, or strength or riches.

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Genesis 15

"God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them." 

Exodus 2:24,25 (NIV) 

Why did God need to hear their groaning before He would remember His covenant with Abraham? Or are we not allowed to ask that question? Didn’t God know that they were in trouble? Why would they have to call out to Him before He would become concerned and act?

You may think that it is just a bit of archaic language, but this is the first of four examples that we will examine together that demonstrate the role of prayer in bringing about the revealed will of God. God had told Abram, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” (vs 13,14) This is clearly the revealed will of God, spoken to Abram 400 years before the Israelites cried out before the Lord and He heard them and acted on their behalf. Their captivity, like Joseph’s captivity, was the result of evil intentions of men, being used for good (redemptive) purposes by God.

These verses clearly present God as waiting until a certain level or quantity of noise reached Him, and nowhere does God tell them: “Hey I told you I would redeem you, be quiet and wait until the time I have set.” We might tell our kids that when they keep asking us: “Are we there yet? How much longer?” etc, but God never tells us to be quiet. As a matter of fact, God tells us to pray continually (1 Thess 5:17), and He tells us to never give up on a request (Lk18:1-8). The Bible teaches from the book of Genesis through to the book of Revelation that God moves after we pray. He accomplishes His will on earth through people praying for Him to act, and to fulfill His promises.

Our Lord taught us to pray: Your kingdom come, your will be done. May we cry out to Him today, may our lips utter what our hearts desire.

"As It Is In Heaven", Matt Maher, via YouTube

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Luke 11:1-13

"You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

James 4:2b,3 (NIV) 

 

My daughter, Phoebe, is at that fun age where all she does is ask Wanda and I question after question - can I have this can, I have that, can so and so come over, can I go over there? She phones me on my cell as soon as she gets home from school and the questions start. I call it the fun age, because there will be an age where she won’t even talk to me (based on my experience with her older siblings). 

 

Our Lord tells us that we have a Heavenly Father and that we are little children to Him, and that we are to ask Him with shameless audacity (vs8) (now there’s a word that describes my Phoebe). What have we asked God for today? Have you asked Him for forgiveness, for peace, for faith? Have you asked Him for a miracle in your marriage or in your relationship with your parents or siblings? Have you asked Him to bring a loved one into the kingdom, or to deliver a loved one out of a life of sin? Oh friend have you asked for healing from pain, disease or injury? Have you asked for a job, for money, for safety? For food, for a spouse, for life itself? How about for the Holy Spirit? Have we asked Him to fill us with His Spirit, with the River of Life? Have we asked Him for a glimpse - no more than a glimpse - have we asked Him to show us the glory of His One and only Son?  

 

How did we become so “self-reliant”, so “grown up”, so removed from our loving Heavenly Father that we never talk to Him, let alone ask Him for anything? 

 

Oh Heavenly Father forgive us for our silence. Teach us to seek your face in the morning, to seek your face in the noon time, and to seek your face in the evening. Teach us to ask with “shameless audacity” and yet to ask with “pure motives”. Teach us to pray! Teach us to pray!

"Give Me Jesus", Fernando Ortega, via YouTube

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2 Kings 20; Isaiah 38

"And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." 

James 5:15,16 (NIV) 

I came to a personal decision several years ago while still an elder, that when a person asks me and the elders to pray for healing, that I would only pray for healing and NOT pray for God’s will. The other men can pray as the Spirit leads them but as for me, I will pray for healing and not pray for God’s will. It may seem strange to you; you may think to yourself: “Come on John, you want God’s will, not a person’s will! God knows the end from the beginning and He knows what is best! Trust Him and pray for His will.” Yet we have this example of Hezekiah before us to examine. He was told by Isaiah that God’s revealed will was that he die from his sickness - clearly the prophet Isaiah’s words are God’s Words! But Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, prayed and wept bitterly and God saw his tears, heard his prayer and turned Isaiah around and sent him back to Hezekiah with the message that he would be healed. Talk about changing God’s mind - talk about a righteous person’s powerful and effective prayer!

Now I hasten to add that Hezekiah’s previous prayers for a healing of his people (2 Chron 30:20) and for the deliverance of his people (2Kgs 19:15) had already been answered by God. This man had a track record with God; his heart trusted in God fully (2 Kgs 18:5) and he would pray prayers of faith, in line with God’s revealed will, interceding for those who were under his spiritual authority. This prayer for healing is different and because it is so obvious in the text that God changed His mind concerning Hezekiah’s date of death, I will pray as the sick person requests and trust God to sort out His inner workings.

What do you truly truly want? Do you want to be healed AND you want God’s will? Do you want God’s will more than you want healing? Do you want healing more than God’s will? Friend, Hezekiah wanted healing more than he wanted God’s will, and God answered his prayer.

Friend, will you accept some wisdom from me? Always pray in line with your heart, not in line with what you “think” God wants to hear. Trust God to work it out - He is quite capable of healing you and having His will done at the same time!

"Better Than A Hallelujah", Amy Grant, via YouTube

Click here to read 2 Kings 20; Isaiah 38

James 5:10-20

"Elisha died and was buried." 

2 Kings 13:20 (NIV)

Friend, death is so near to me, that tears fill my eyes as I typed in this verse. Oh we live under the shadow of death! (Ps 23:4) Oh we struggle under the bondage of our fear of death! (He 2:15) And oh what a blessed salvation we have in Our Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ! What a blessed hope we have in Him, for the grave could not hold Him, and therefore it will not hold us!

This passage in 2 Kings is precious to me for it not only gives us a glimpse of the glorious truth of resurrection, by describing an incident where a dead man came back to life after being thrown in on Elisha’s bones - but also for its declaration that a man of great faith died from an illness, and was buried in the ground. We seem to think based on the promise in James 5:15 that a person of great faith will always be healed from their sickness. We believe somehow that if only we had enough faith we could have persuaded God to heal and preserve the life of our loved ones. Oh friend, not many of us will have the faith that Elisha had! The disciples might have had faith as great as Elisha’s, but did these disciples of theirs, who are called elders in this passage, have that kind of faith? Yet Elisha died despite his great faith.

No, friend, there will be a day when our loved ones will lie on a bed suffering from the illness from which they will die. Will we still seek the LORD’s face in faith even when that day arrives? Friend, there will be a day when our loved ones go from that bed into their grave. Will we still seek the LORD’s face in faith even when that day arrives? I hope so friend, for there is a time to be born, and a time to die, and when that time to die arrives may we be found as completely dependent upon receiving the grace of God thru faith as Paul was when he heard His Lord and our Lord say in response to his pleas: “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

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2 Kings 13:10-25

"Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Joash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. "My father! My father!" he cried. "The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" 

2 Kings 13:14 (NIV) 

A man of great faith is lying on a bed dying, and a king of little faith comes to see him. The king is afraid of the enemy and his greeting reveals his distress, for Israel is about to lose the one man that could summon the chariots and horsemen of Israel. What is the king to do? Well, Elisha puts the bow in his hands, tells him to shoot an arrow (with Elisha’s hands over his) and then take the rest of the arrows in his own hands and strike the ground. Elisha then becomes angry with the king at his lack of faith, and tells him that his lack of faith means a partial victory not a full victory.

We read this story with amazement, looking back on a time and a period where God’s grace came upon His apostate nation; the breakaway tribes that refused to worship in Jerusalem and eventually became the hated Samaritans of our Lord’s time. It was grace, for these people deserved nothing but destruction. Instead of destruction, God granted them the prophet Elijah and then Elisha, and then other prophets after, and reserved among this group a large number (7,000 at the time of Elijah) of people who worshiped the LORD and not Baal.

Faith and grace are revealed in this account. The king is not a descendant of David, but the grandson of Jehu, and the people have turned away from God and are worshiping false gods. Yet God is willing to pour out His grace and power on their behalf in response to acts of faith by this king! How much more He is willing in this age of grace, where we have received grace upon grace through His Son, our Lord Jesus – how much more is He willing to pour out grace and power in our lives and our loved one’s lives in response to our acts and prayers of faith!

O friend may we be bold, may we pray bold prayers, may we intercede for our loved ones in faith and in boldness! May we never be rebuked for our timidity.

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Psalm 121

"In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians." 

2 Chronicles 16:12 (NIV) 

This verse tweaks me every time I read it! On whom do I rely for help? Have I asked God to help me in my situation? I get medicine, I go to emergency, I seek medical help - which is fine and wise and right! But have I sought God’s help?

The Bible contains a lengthy record of Asa who was the great grandson of king Solomon and the king of the Judah for 41 years. 2 Chronicles 15:17 says that “his heart was fully committed to the LORD all of his life”, and we understand the context of that statement to mean that he was a true worshiper of the LORD, the Great I Am. He refused to worship idols and false gods, and he even punished his grandmother for her public worship of idols. Chapter 14 tells us that he commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands; truly he was a worshiper of God in the lines of Joshua who said, “as for me and my house we will serve the LORD.” YET - Chapter 16 records that the LORD rebuked him for relying on a foreign government for help instead of relying on the LORD to help him against his enemies. Then it records that Asa relied on doctors to heal his disease and did not seek help (healing) for the LORD.

How can a true worshiper of God forget to seek God’s help? I can’t explain it; I suspect that it has to do with spiritual pride, for we see a real anger directed at the prophet and other innocents following the LORD’s rebuke. I can’t explain it, but I don’t want to spend 39 years of my life as a true worshiper of God and fall into the trap of not seeking His help in every situation. May the words of Psalm 121 be true in our lives, our entire lives!

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." 

 

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Luke 18:18-30

"Truly I tell you," Jesus said to them,"no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life." 

Luke 18:29, 30 (NIV) 

This is the third account by Luke of our Lord telling us that we must make decisions between our families and His kingdom. Whether we downplay this aspect of discipleship or not in our own lives, it is very clear that Luke wants Theophilus to know, with certainty, that a disciple of the Lord Jesus must make a choice between family and the Lord.

Many of us give up trying to understand this passage when we read the account of the rich ruler, especially when we hear the Lord say that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Yet the truth is that the man came looking for eternal life - he knew that he was lacking something and - when our Lord pointed out to him that what was keeping him from attaining eternal life was his wealth, he went away sad. His wealth had reduced the narrow door to the size of the eye of a needle!

According to Luke, a person who claims to be a Christian and who has never had to make a choice between financial security and the Lord, or between pleasing family versus pleasing God, lacks something. The ruler went away sad not angry, which gives us hope that he eventually found his way into the kingdom; that the Spirit made the kingdom so compelling to him, that the eye of the needle became a narrow door that he was able to enter.

There is hope for him and hope for all of us who know that there is something lacking in us. What wonderful promises the Lord gives to all who make these tough choices. The promise for this life gives us hope for our families and our finances right now today, and the promise of eternal life to come is the most precious promise of all!

The Bible contains only one over-arching message: TRUST GOD! This is surely the message of this text. Will I trust His Son for salvation? Will I trust His promise? Will I choose to follow Jesus over finances, over my dad’s family, and over my family, in the specific situation I find myself in today?

 "Trust in Jesus", Third Day, via YouTube

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1 Corinthians 7:1-15

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."" Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) 

As we concentrate on our Lord’s requirement to put kingdom ahead of family, it seems to me to be a most unbearable strain. Our Lord condemns those who place burdens on people’s backs without lifting a finger to help (Lk11:46), and He promises that if we come to Him, He will give us rest (Mt11:28) - and so I want to remind all of us that no matter what family situation we find ourselves in, His grace is available for us to help us in what really seems to be an impossible situation.

It is hard for us in in our gospel saturated society to really understand the culture that the Christians were in, to whom Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 7. The news stories from Sudan about the lady who converted from Islam to Christianity and married a Christian give us some insight into the culture 2,000 years ago. These disciples of Christ were in difficult situations and Paul was giving them wisdom to help them make decisions about following their Lord and their responsibilities in their family life.

We aren’t facing life and death in Canada, but many people in Canada, and actually in Parkdale, face severe opposition from their spouses, parents and friends, because of their commitment to our Lord and Saviour. They face family members who tell them that any decisions that they make placing discipleship above family, proves that they hate their family. The pressure is very acute and the burden is heavy. Friend, remember what the LORD taught the Israelites: He led them into need so that they could learn dependence upon Him and Him alone. Paul learned this lesson as well; 3 times he pleaded (Paul was a man of faith and apostolic power) and 3 times the Lord refused to change the situation, but instead promised His grace and His power so that Paul could endure and even thrive.

Oh friend - His grace is enough!

"Your Grace is Enough", Matt Maher, via YouTube

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Luke 14:15-35

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple." 

Luke 14:26 (NIV) 

Is our Lord using hyperbole/exaggeration here to make a point? Does anyone really believe that our Lord wants us to live a life of hate towards those who are closest to us? Surely our Lord wants His disciples to be the mothers, wives, dads, husbands, children and siblings that bring God glory. Surely love, which is greater than both hope and faith, is to be the chief characteristic of how we interact with our families. So what truth is our Lord teaching us with this statement about hate?

The context would tell us that He is speaking to us about regular every day decisions, for the story about the banquet is all about people deciding not to attend, but instead putting regular life ahead of the kingdom. Our Lord has already given us an example of what He means. Gary Chapman has identified 5 love languages or ways that love is received by us: gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical touch – and when you examine how the Lord treated His family as recorded in Luke 8, and put yourself in their shoes, you quickly realize that our Lord’s determination to continue with the mission communicated to His family that He didn’t love them. He had no time for them, He didn’t speak or touch them; He wouldn’t even listen to what they had to say. They would be thinking, and even saying to each other, “Well I guess we know where we stand with him.”

The truth that Jesus is teaching us is that regular life (especially family life) will come in conflict with the kingdom and we will have to make decisions between kingdom and family - which will come first? Unless we hate (chose kingdom over family) we aren’t His disciples. Do we consider ourselves disciples of Christ? When was the last time that we put kingdom ahead of family? Or do we use family as an excuse to not be involved in Christ’s mission? For years I have heard from church leaders that family is first - how about we listen to the Lord for at least 1 hour; family is important – but kingdom is #1 for a true disciple of Christ. If we truly want to bless our families, we will follow closely after our Lord.

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Deuteronomy 8

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." 

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NIV) 

I don’t like being in need! I have no desire to be in a situation where I have no food or water. Nor do I want to be in a situation where I have no money. We do everything we can to be sure that we don’t end up in need.

This text teaches us that God deliberately leads us (His children) into need. He brought them out of Egypt and put them in the desert, where there was no water, no food and no stores. They didn’t enjoy this aspect of being the children of God, and they actually say that it be better to be slaves in Egypt with food, than free with God and starve (Ex 16:3). The text tells us WHY by teaching us that God leads His children into need for the purpose of cutting us down to size.

The definition of humble (as a verb) is: to make someone understand that they are not as important or special as they thought. God is doing something in our lives constantly. He works and works away with us, bringing us, steering us, guiding us into the place of blessings, the place of safety, into true reliance on the Presence of the Most High God. At first glance it seems harsh, even mean, that God would deliberately humble us. Yet if we take a moment and consider the lesson that they (we) needed to learn, we begin to see the grace, mercy and love behind this humbling.

They needed to learn that humans don’t live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD! All creation is sustained by His mighty Word! (Heb 1:3) We think we can do it - we have the ability to make it happen - which changes to - we have to do it - we have to make it happen, and then God cuts us down to size. He puts us in an impossible situation, in a place where no matter what we do we can’t help ourselves. Then we call out on God and He provides; He moves and it causes us to realize that every aspect of our lives is dependent upon His grace (2 Cor 12:9) and provision. Moses even points out that we forget that God gives us the ability to produce wealth.

How quickly we forget that we NEED God, and then how quickly we realize our need when He leads us into an impossible situation. You know what - why don’t we resolve to sing this prayer to Him every morning, and then our hearts will be ready to say it to Him when all we have in our lives is NEED!

"Lord, I Need You", Matt Maher, via YouTube

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Psalm 23

"Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!" 

John 21:19 (NIV) 

Dad used to always talk about Aunt Betsy traveling with grandma; in many of his ‘historical’ stories, Aunt Betsy was beside his mom. She was my grandfather’s sister and became quite close to my grandmother in their old age. One of my cousins remarked at a funeral service this week about Aunt Betsy’s faith. He said that she didn’t say much about the Bible, but every now and then she would look into his eyes and say: “The Lord is my shepherd.” After the service another older lady approached me and said: “The Lord is my shepherd too.”

I wonder friend, “Is the Lord your shepherd?” In our churches these days, we don’t talk about this aspect of discipleship very much. We talk about mission – Proclaiming, Healing and Feeding - but don’t dwell on the wonderful aspect that a follower of Jesus Christ can say with certainty, that Jesus is my shepherd! This 23rd psalm is all about that wonderful aspect, and what a beautiful psalm it is.

Friend, can you say with David that the Lord is your shepherd? Can you testify that you have a personal connection to Him? Our Lord tells us that His sheep know His voice and they follow Him. (Jn10:4) Do you know His voice? Do you follow after His Words? Do you obey Him above all others? If the answer is yes, then friend Psalm 23 is your personal testimony!

The words of this psalm bring comfort; they bring hope and they bring peace into our souls. To stand by the death bed of a disciple of Christ and to speak the words: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” is to speak into them the truth, that at that very moment the Lord Jesus is about to take them from the jaws of defeat at the hands of our worse enemy called Death, and sit them with Him at a glorious table as He welcomes them home!

The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall not want!

O Lord keep me close, keep me close!

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Luke 10:25-37

"Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." 

Luke 9:23 (NIV) 

Luke is writing his gospel so that Theophilus may know the certainty of the things he had been taught. Luke not only wants Theophilus to know who Jesus is, he also wants him to know the pattern of disciple making that Jesus set during His ministry.

As we read Luke 9 we discover that Jesus made disciples who Proclaim, who Heal and who Feed - they perform His mission - they do the things Jesus did, and they are expected to pay the price that Jesus paid. A disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, knows that in order to do the mission of Jesus, they must take up their cross and follow Him.

The story of the good Samaritan appears only in Luke’s gospel and illustrates the principle of taking up your cross in order to Heal and Feed. Many of us give out of our excess; we give God our spare time, and we give God our spare money, and we think that we are fulfilling the mission of Christ and we call ourselves a disciple of Christ. However if we only give spare money and only give spare time, then we don’t know the certainty of the things Jesus taught. The good Samaritan is on Mission. He has pity on the human in need and he Heals him and Feeds him. He used his time and his money, his donkey, his purse, his oil, his wine, his bandages, and he told the innkeeper he would be back to pay any other expenses incurred. The Samaritan is the neighbour that God wanted Cain to be, that God wants every one of us to be.

We talk about being friendly and helping people as a witness to them as an evangelism strategy, and yet our Lord helped everyone, although some of them crucified Him later. He helped them without expecting them to become believers. He helped them because our Lord Jesus is a good human. He is the human Adam was meant to be and so we are to be the good human that He was as He lives in our hearts through faith. No expectation of conversion or an evangelism strategy - come on what is that all about anyway? Just pity or mercy. Just take our money, take our time and help those around us who need help.

People read this story and wonder where the Proclaim is in the story. Friend, if we would take our money and our time and help those around us – the Proclaim will happen and the gospel will have power! Let us be the good humans that God wants us to be!

"Go Light Your World", Kathy Troccoli, via YouTube

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Luke 10:25-37

"But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Luke 10:29 (NIV) 

This dialogue between the expert in the Law and our Lord reveals so much about the typical human heart (or at least my heart - surely not your heart!). I chuckle every time I see the NIV expression, “expert in the law”. The other English translations read “lawyer” but the NIV expression gives us the ability to see this man’s title as a pun, for by seeking to justify himself, he reveals to all of us that he is an “expert at getting around the law” which many present day lawyers seem to be good at as well. Not only that, but this human “expert” is “testing” the Eternal Word, the One who wrote the Law.

I’m telling you - this situation is hilarious. No doubt Luke wrote it this way on purpose to illustrate the absurdity of us seeking to make excuses for our hateful behaviour - no less absurd than Cain answering God’s question with a self-justifying question. Our Lord had answered his question with a question and then congratulated the “expert” on his correct response, but the man’s heart is exposed by his follow up question.

May I say that typical of a typical human - the follow up question is designed to make the man feel good about his own lack of obedience to what he clearly knows is the overriding commandment of all of Scripture - to care for the needs of the human beside you. Jesus’ answer tears the man’s pretense all away and places the responsibility back on us to help every human that God places in our way!

The Jew who was in trouble was not the Samaritan’s neighbour by any human definition. But the Samaritan became the Jew’s neighbour by acting in accordance with the Law and with the responsibility placed on Cain by God. The answer to the question: “Who is my neighbour?” is “Go and be a neighbour to anyone who needs help.”

I wonder today who needs my help? Who is it that I pass by without seeing? Who is it that is calling out that I am ignoring? My wife, Wanda, will describe the bad behaviour of children at school as a “cry for help”. She is much better at being a good human than I am; I would say that she has the gift of mercy! But that doesn’t take my responsibility away. NO - God asks me to care for those in need around me, and He asks you to do the same. But really He isn’t asking, He is commanding!

Oh Lord – forgive us for our callous behaviour.

Forgive us for our lack of love and care for those around us.

Please Lord give us your eyes and give us your heart today!

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Luke 10:25-37

"Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"" 

Genesis 4:9 (NIV)

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

LORD always means YWYH - it is the personal name of God. From the account at the burning bush, we understand it’s meaning to be “I AM who I AM” (Exodus 3:14). To place this verse in proper context we need to see it as the Person of God speaking to the human race after the fall.

Cain is the firstborn of Adam and Eve – Cain and Abel are the human race at this point in time. This question from God to Cain reveals for us the truth that the situation of other humans is our responsibility. The Person of God is placing on each of us the responsibility of knowing where (that is - the place and the situation) all humans are at. To put it very simply: God requires each human to care for the humans beside them. This defines the term a “good human” for us. What is a good human? One who pays their own way? One who is a great warrior? One who achieves prominence in their field of work? One who has statues built and their names written in history books? NO - a good human is someone who knows where the humans around them are at.

The other truth revealed by this verse is the ugly condition of the human heart. How quickly we degenerated into pride and hatred and murder! How quickly our lives turned into me above all everyone else. Me! Me! Me! God says to each one of us: “Your brother! Your sister! Your mother! Your father! Your neighbour!

I chose this verse to start our look at the story of the Samaritan to put this wonderful story by our Lord into the proper biblical context. The command of our Lord to “Go and do likewise” is a command to be a good human in a fallen world. Jesus came into this world from heaven to show us the way to God’s side. In response to a man’s question about getting to God’s side, He gave us the command to go and do likewise.

Where is your brother today? Where is your sister today? Are we thinking that someone else will care for them? Oh friend may we know this truth: God holds me responsible for their care! May our Lord who gave His all to help us, give us the grace and the unction to help those around us.

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Matthew 6:25-34

"Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." 

Matthew 6:29 (NIV) 

Phoebe and I made a shopping trip to Canadian Tire and had to stop and admire all of the flowers in the garden centre outside the door. Beautiful colours, different shapes, different sizes - flowers are amazing. If there is one thing that should bring doubt into the heart of an atheist and evolutionist, then BEAUTY is that one thing.

We all see some practical value to function, that is: a plant could adapt/evolve over time to become more functional - but BEAUTY? There is no reason that anything should adapt into BEAUTY. There is seemingly no purpose to BEAUTY and yet we recognize it and we enjoy it. BEAUTY proves the existence of a Creator, and it gives us a glimpse of His character. When we say that BEAUTY is in the eye of the beholder, we are scratching around on the surface of the greatest Truth there ever was, that BEAUTY was created by and for the enjoyment of the Creator, and that a Creator who enjoys BEAUTY is a wonderful God.

Our Lord tells us to look at the BEAUTY of the flowers, and reflect on the desire and ability of our God, to make the grass of the field BEAUTIFUL. He then makes the point that we can trust this God to look after our clothing needs. Our Lord doesn’t want us to make a mistake and fall into the trap of worrying about how we look, but rather to trust the God who created and appreciates BEAUTY. He is looking at you right now - you are the apple of His eye, and the object of His desire. He formed you in your mother’s womb, and He formed you for a second time by the work of His Holy Spirit as He brought your soul to life in His Son. He promises to care for you forever, and if He clothes the flowers in BEAUTY and has His eye on the sparrow, then friend - we of little faith - will He not much more care for us?

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Job 39

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care." 

Matthew 10:29 (NIV)

One of the wonderful things about spring in Canada is that the song birds come back. I was sitting on my deck early this morning and I could hear birds all over the backyard. As I started to wonder which sound belonged to which bird, and what they were doing, and I thought of this verse in Matthew 10, that has been so encouraging to me over the years. God knows each little bird. He knows what they are doing and He is intimately involved in their lives and deaths.

Job 39 speaks of His presence and His care over the wild animals; the concept of God caring for the doe hiding in a thicket giving birth in pain (the fall), is to me the most wonderful picture of all. He made all of these creatures; He cares for them and continues to care for them even in this broken world of sin. We look at nature and the terrible dog-eat-dog aspect of nature, and shudder. Yet do we realize that this terrible aspect of nature is a result of sin? That God’s design did not involve death, and that in His future kingdom on earth the lion will lay down with the lamb?

Even though this world is gripped with sin and death, God still cares for His creatures in a broken world. The Bible is full of examples of God hearing the cry of one of His humans and coming to their rescue. Hagar leaps to mind immediately! We hear a bird call and wonder what is going on. God hears the cry of every creature and cares for them! Our Lord’s point in Matthew 10 is that we can trust God because God cares more for us than a bird.

I was visiting my father in his nursing home the other night and as I turned the corner of the hall, I could hear him all the way down the hall, crying out for help. Who hears those cries? Well we hope that the nursing staff hear them, but we know that God hears them. What a wonderful God we worship; a God who hears our cries when no else does! A God who understands when no one else does! A God who comes alongside us in our pain when no one else does!

Oh friend He cares for you, and He cares for me. If His eye is on the sparrow, well then, I know He watches me!

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Galatians 3

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you all one in Christ Jesus." 

Galatians 3:28 (NIV) 

I will never understand how educated people – I should say super educated - I will never understand how the educated of North America believe and teach that the Bible puts women down! There is no reasonable explanation for their behaviour and teaching; only a spiritual explanation that involves Satan and his ability to deceive and lead people into destruction.

This verse in Galatians is the only verse that I am aware of, in any “holy” book of any tradition or religion, that teaches that men and women are equal in God’s eyes. Just a glimpse into the situation in Nigeria and the rest of North Africa, a glimpse into the Muslim world, the Hindu world, the Buddhist world, will surely inform us that these belief systems (opposed to the gospel) teach and practice subjugation of their females.

Stop for a moment and consider the countries of the world - not just in our age but in the ages past - and ask yourself this question: “Where are females the freest?” They are the freest in the countries where the gospel has had influence the longest! The gospel is that all who come to Christ Jesus in faith, both male and female, all humans who approach Christ Jesus in faith, believing that He is the Son of God, and asking Him to save them, they all become part of who He is.

When God sees a male who is “in Christ Jesus”, He sees Christ. When God sees a female who is “in Christ Jesus", He sees Christ. The gospel truth is that our Lord Jesus Christ died on a cross so that men and women could be equal before God in Him! There are no second tier Christians, we are all equal in Christ. In the kingdom of God, we are all equal before our King, because we are all in our King; we are joined to Him spiritually, and we are one in Him.

Christ will come in power and impose His Kingdom on this earth, but now as we wait for Him, He waits for us to obey His will concerning women. He waits for us to implement His kingdom on earth, to have God’s will done here now in our lives, and in our broken world. So it is that as men and women understand this truth by faith, we begin to voluntarily put into practice what our King desires to see in male and female relations in His kingdom. Then slowly over time as we obey the Word of God, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ influences us, our cultures change, and women get freer and freer.

You say: “Wait a minute John. My issue with the Bible is that it teaches that men are to be the leaders and women need to submit. I reject the notion that women are to be doormats for men!” Friend, men are the leaders and we are called to lead as Jesus leads the church. Our Lord has never made you do anything! He speaks and speaks, and guides, and blesses. He influences. This is the role men are called to – to honour - to bless - to lead. All other behaviours are not the fault of the Bible, they are the result of sin! In Christ and ONLY in Christ are we one!

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Matthew 25:14-25

"Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man." 

Galatians 2:22 (NIV) 

Are we allowed to think of females as gifts from our Creator God to males? Is that sexist for me to think that way, or to write those thoughts down? I can see my daughters rolling their eyes thinking the “old” man is revealing his male chauvinist self again. I won’t deny that I approach the topic of male female relationship through my own slightly warped view point - but to think of females as a gift from our Creator God to males is actually BIBLICAL thinking! Not only in the creation account, but also in Nathan’s rebuke of David for not being satisfied with whom God gave him.

To understand females as a gift from the Only True King to us, is to have a biblical view of the females in our lives, and puts the onus on us to honour our King by treating His gift to us properly. A society that denigrates their females by refusing them education and involvement in the workforce stops their society from advancing at every level. That society is the servant of the King who hid the King’s gift in the ground.

So it is with us personally – do we honour the gift the King gives us or do we bury them in a hole? A male who wants the King’s will done in their lives, treats his girlfriend with purity; he refuses to look at women as objects of his sexual desires, and instead treats them with a pure love. A male who wants the King’s will done in his life, honours his mother; he refuses to despise her as she grows old, and instead honours and cares for her. A male who wants the King’s will done in his life, treats the females around him at school, at work and in the neighbourhood, in the same way his King treated the females around Him. He respects them as individuals and helps them wherever he can. A male who wants the King’s will done in his life, treats his wife with respect and love. He loves her as Christ loves the church (he purposefully sets his life aside for her benefit). He leads her as Christ leads the church (gently whispering in her ear - never forcing her to do anything).

Females are a gift to males from God, and God is watching and waiting to see how we will receive and treat this most precious gift. Will we dig a hole and bury females in our society and our lives (Nigeria and Judges)? Or will we lift them up and place them on a pedestal (how about on a moon with the sun shining all around them - Rev 12:1)? Oh friend, if we as males would realize the biblical truth of viewing females as gifts of God to males, it should completely change the way we think and act towards them, and that would completely change our homes and societies.

Let us start by sincerely thanking God for them!

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Judges 1:9-15

 

"And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, "Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites, or not?" The LORD responded, "Go for tomorrow and I will give them into your hands." 

Judges 20:27,28 (NIV)

The book of Judges covers roughly 400 years of history, and many of us come to the conclusion as we read it through, that things got worse and worse as the years went on. We base this conclusion on the horrific treatment of women in the account of the last three chapters as compared to the great treatment of women in the first chapter. I don’t like to read the last 3 chapters, let alone study them and draw lessons out of them! The Levite who gave his concubine to the Benjamites to rape and kill was a coward who was willing to allow his wife to die for him, instead of being willing to die for her. The bull headed stubborn refusal to allow the wrongdoers to be punished, led to open warfare that cost 40,000 soldier’s lives, and eventually led to the brutal wiping out of the whole tribe of Benjamin except for 600 men. Then their terrible solution to the problem of having killed all the women of Benjamin was to wipe out a town who hadn’t come to help and enslave their teenage girls???

I do enjoy reading vs 9 through 15 of the first chapter; here we have a man who is willing to die (to risk his life to win the hand of a woman) and we have a woman whose father respects her enough to give her property. These verses are more like it - they are verses you can point your children to! We wonder at the reasons why society disintegrated over those 400 years - YET chapter 1 and the last 3 chapters happened in the same time period, in the same generation. Judges 20:28 tells us that Phineas (the same Phineas who stopped the plaque at Shittim before the Israelites crossed the Jordan) is the high priest of Israel.

The book of Judges doesn’t reveal the slow disintegration of a society, rather it reveals the need for society to be governed by a king! When people do what is right in their own eyes disaster befalls a nation. When people are ruled by a king whose decisions are based on justice and righteousness, the nation thrives. Out of this tribe of Benjamin would come Israel’s first king named Saul whose reign is linked to the town whose girls are stolen. Out of the tribe of Judah who had 22,000 men killed in this episode, would come king David, and then Solomon and then our King of kings and Lord of lords.

There is nothing we can do in Nigeria to help these girls, but there is something we can do to help the girls around us, right now. Submit your life to the King, obey His righteous rule in what you do, what you say and what you think, and submit to the governing authorities.

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Judges 19 thru 21

"They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan." 

Judges 21:12 (NIV)

The terrible reports that we are hearing from Nigeria regarding the 300 school girls taken captive, brings to mind this account in the last 3 chapters of Judges. We of course do not have the same amount of detail surrounding the Nigerian situation as we have about the details that led to the situation described in the last 3 chapters of Judges. However the similarity in the main stories is obvious - young teenage girls are kidnapped through the use of violence and will be forcibly given to strange men to become their wives. 

Once again in history, men act violently toward women, and the world is powerless to stop it! I read in a news account that the Nigerian parents are Christians and are praying to their heavenly Father to deliver these girls back to them safely. No doubt people will soon start pointing towards the plight of these girls as proof that God is either not in control or conversely, that He is not worthy of worship, because in their minds, a good God would never allow something like this to happen.

The last verse of Judges tells us the reason for these terrible things happening: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” The reason these things happen throughout all of history is because of a lack of civil government. God gave this world to humans to govern. He will help us with it. He will even intervene miraculously, but the responsibility to keep your family safe, your neighbours safe, and your citizens safe is the responsibility of the king. God instituted civil government as the protector of its citizens, actually as God’s agent here on earth (1 Pe 2:13,14). Paul reminds us to pray for those in authority, kings and government. Civil government - the rule of law, honest and strong police, impartial justice, and social welfare for those who can’t help themselves - is government that recognizes the authority of the Judge of all the earth, and works for the betterment of every citizen. Nigeria doesn’t have it, neither did Israel in the years following their entrance into the Promised Land. Canada has it, and may God be pleased to continue to bless our land with good civil government. May we always pray in our hearts as we sing with our mouths the chorus of our national anthem:

God keep our land, glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee;
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

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Revelation 12:10-12

"They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." 

Revelation 12:11 (NIV) 

This is a beautiful and amazing passage of Scripture!

We begin to feel small as the Lord reveals to us the cosmic spiritual nature of the warfare that is so huge in comparison to us. We look up into the heavens and are overwhelmed, and to hear that Satan comes out of the heavens and takes 1/3 of the stars with his tail, puts this evil spiritual creature into a proper perspective. We make cartoons of him, and we joke about him, yet he is no joking matter, for “even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 9). He has celestial power, he has tremendous power and he is our enemy - what are we to do? James tells us to submit to God and resist the devil. We need to do both and in that order; for without submission to God we stand against Satan in our own strength and will therefore be defeated.

Revelation 12 reveals for us the way of victory, the way to triumph over this huge spiritual beast.

The way of the blood of the Lamb: submit to God, come humbly before your Creator and be forgiven by the blood of His Son who is the Lamb of God. Not some of your sin, but all of your sin, be completely washed, be white as snow and Satan the accuser will have nothing to point to and shriek: “death to John!”

The way of our testimony: confess Jesus as Lord. (Is He my Lord?) Confess it. Testify to it, not only in words but in deeds, in everything may Jesus Christ be Lord!

The way of the cross: if the Lord Jesus had shrunk back from death, we would all have been lost forever, and so we are called to take up our cross and die. DIE - DIE - DIE. A Christian is called to death, and those who call Him Lord will follow Him into death. Those who are martyred come to mind, and yet all Christians are called to love the Lord more than their lives! More than wealth, more than fame, more than the world.

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Hebrews 3:1-6 & Proverbs 2:1-11

"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." 

Proverbs 24:3,4 (NIV) 

We need wisdom more than wealth; we need it more than anything.

We have to search for wisdom, because it doesn’t drop out of the sky on your head.

We have to pray for wisdom, because God is the One from whom all wisdom comes.

We had a great town hall meeting at Parkdale on Tuesday night, and one of the topics was the Preferred Building Plan. The architect that the deacons had hired did a wonderful job of explaining the principles and process behind the plan, and TJ did a great job of leading the congregation through a discussion of the dollars required. As I processed the meeting internally, I was reminded of these two verses in Proverbs, and I closed the meeting in prayer asking God to give us wisdom.

It is true that this saying is about us building our own homes; we pick the location, we make up the plan, we find the money, we build, we move in, we decorate, we add furniture and then we add children, and our house becomes a home, and it is established - it even gets its own reputation in the community. But this proverb, like all of the proverbs, has a spiritual meaning as well as a physical meaning. The spiritual meaning is revealed in Hebrews 3 and has to do with the Lord using His wisdom to build His spiritual house, and His wisdom in filling its rooms with rare and beautiful treasures, which are - believe it or not – US! Our Lord told us in John 14 that His Father’s house has many rooms, and that he has gone before us to prepare a place for us - which is a beautiful and comforting truth!

Many of us don’t like building projects at church. For some reason we get our backs up and think somehow that it is “unspiritual” to spend money on physical structures. Yet, only in a local church building is the physical and spiritual meaning of this proverb fully realized. We have and will again build rooms here at 514 Sidney Street. They will made of wood, cement and steel, and yet - the treasures that fill them as children come and go, as adults come and go, as the elderly come and go - the treasures that fill these earthly rooms are the same treasures that will fill God’s spiritual house!

Friends, we need wisdom. The deacons need wisdom, and the congregation needs wisdom, both to build rooms, and also to fill this church with rare and beautiful treasures. May God grant us the wisdom to build our addition, to establish His reputation, and to fill His rooms with rare and beautiful treasures! Please join me in praying in a regular consistent way for God to give us the wisdom we need, over these next months/years as we move ahead with this renovation.

Click here to read Hebrews 3:1-6 and Proverbs 2:1-11

Jeremiah 24

"The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days." 

Revelation 12:6 (NIV) 

The wilderness was a place of testing for God’s people; a place of thirst and hunger, an unfruitful land that could only be wandered through and YET - the wilderness was a place of safety for God’s people. It was the place where they were protected from their enemies long enough to build and train an army. It was also the place where the people learned to TRUST and OBEY. Through the daily gathering of manna, and the following of the pillar of fire, the people learned that God is faithful, and that all they need to do is TRUST and OBEY.

The wilderness was not a place of enjoyment, nor was it a place of rest - NO - they clearly understood that their rest and enjoyment would only happen for them as they entered and dwelled in the Promised Land. Seven hundred years later, they were devastated when God uprooted them from the Promised Land and placed them in captivity in Babylon. Psalm 137 describes their despair, and their struggle to praise God while being forced to live in the Babylonian “wilderness”. YET, Jeremiah 24 prophesied this forced captivity as God’s way of preserving their lives, and the lives of those who love God and are His true children. To use the common vernacular of 2014: “The wilderness sucks!”

Exodus 13, Revelation 12 and Jeremiah 24 teach that God uses the “wilderness” to keep His Old Testament people safe. Acts 8 teaches us that God uses the “wilderness” to keep His New Testament people safe! I don’t believe we are supposed to enjoy the wilderness; rather we are supposed to endure the wilderness. However enduring the wilderness can be easier to do when we reflect on the truth that the wilderness is a tool our Sovereign Lord prepares and uses to keep His people safe!

This simple children’s song has always blessed me when I realize I am in the wilderness!

"My God Knows The Way Through the Wilderness", via YouTube

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Exodus 19:1-8

"The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach." 

Revelation 12:14 (NIV) 

The year I became the pastor at Parkdale, two good friends of mine gave me a picture to hang in my study. The picture is of an eagle soaring above the forest with the verse from Isaiah 40: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles” stenciled over the picture. I don’t know how they knew, but the verse is one of my absolute favorite verses and it has always been a source of hope and encouragement to me.

SO when I read Revelation 12, verse 14 attracts my attention and I wonder what is meant by eagle wings that carry the woman into the wilderness. It is clear from the context that these wings carry her to safety; that they help her escape from Satan that ancient serpent. It appears from Revelation 12 that if God had not given her these two wings of an eagle, then she would have been destroyed, for it was God’s act of grace that saved the woman, not her own strength. I wonder what those eagle wings looked like.

In Exodus 19, the LORD tells His people that He carried them out of Egypt on eagle’s wings and it has tremendous parallels to the story of the woman, for God took the descendants of Jacob out of a lush land and put them squarely into the wilderness. Now we are told in the book of Exodus what those eagle wings looked like for the people of Israel:

those wings involved redemption (having your house covered with the blood of the Passover lamb)

those wings involved leaving the known for the unknown - as they left the only land they knew

those wings involved terror – as they realized that Pharaoh and his men had them trapped

those wings involved faith - as they had to walk through two walls of water in obedience

But over top of redemption, and departure, and terror, and faith - those eagle wings required WAITING on the LORD to act.

Oh friend, as a youngster I imagined that being given the wings of an eagle meant that I would soar above the fray, and not be touched by the pain and sorrow, and yet the Bible teaches in Exodus 19, Isaiah 40 and Revelation 12, that the wings of eagles come to us by realizing you can’t help yourself. Crying out to God and WAITING in an expectant HOPE for Him to move in power and grace, while experiencing pain and sorrow. No human journey better describes the eagle wing experience then the journey of a Christian through death. As we WAIT and HOPE and LOOK, as we go through that final valley and the evil one has us in his grip of death, oh friend, we are given the wings of an eagle and we soar above death’s grip into the Presence of the Lord.

May His precious Name be praised!

"Eagles Wings", Hillsong, via YouTube

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