Psalm 127

"Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain." 

Psalm 127:1 (NIV)

Oh, we need the Lord! It is true that each of us are builders, and that we daily make decisions; will we be wise and build? Or will we be foolish and tear down? YET, even if we are wise and decide to build, this Builder’s Psalm teaches us that without God’s blessing and grace, even our wise efforts will be wasted effort. Surely that is what VAIN means: wasted effort. If I make the wise decision to build, but do not have God’s help, I will have wasted my effort! If I make the wise decision to watch over my life and my family, and do not have God’s help, I will have wasted my effort! If I work and work and work, to provide for myself and my family, and do not have God’s help, I will have wasted my effort!

Oh friend, do we believe this psalm? Do we believe that we are completely dependent upon the Lord’s blessing? If we answer ABSOLUTELY, then the next questions are: Do we show our belief by prayer? Do we ask for His help? Do we seek His blessing? Do we commit our efforts unto Him?

As a father, I find the ending of this psalm to be very pointed. The psalm starts with building, moves to guarding and then to providing, but ends with children. The ending interprets the beginning and therefore this whole psalm is about family. The Hebrew word translated children is very similar to "builder" (banayikh (your children) and bonayikh (your builders)). God gave Wanda and I six children, and we build, and we guard and we toil (they will be the death of us yet!), but if we don’t seek His blessing, if we don’t ask for His help, if we don’t commit them to God, our efforts will have been wasted. We are then demonstrating that we don’t understand the truth of this psalm.

May each of us, whether we are building families, or our own single lives, may each of us grow in recognizing our complete dependence on the LORD! May we seek His blessing, His favour, His face! Then may we enjoy the sleep that He grants those who work hard while depending on Him!

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Luke 6:46-49

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

Proverbs 14:1 (NIV)   

My older sister can build a house. I used to work alongside her, with my father, who was a home builder. One of my memories of Ginny is nailing plywood with her on a roof one summer day in the Oak Hills alongside Hwy #14. My older sister is a wise lady and a good builder, yet this proverb is not about women building houses out of word or stone. This proverb is a metaphor that uses building construction to describe life construction. 

A life doesn’t just happen; you build it - starting as a child, than decision after decision, action after action, a life is constructed. Funeral services are now called “Celebration of Life” services because our culture has recognized the unique structure of each life. We may all be one colour, and speak one language and live in one county, but each of our lives is a unique structure of decisions and actions. 

This proverb makes the observation that we (both genders) are responsible for the structure of our life. We may want to blame circumstances, or other people and it seems in many cases that other people and circumstances play a huge role in how our lives are formed - yet ultimately we are the ones who decide to build, or decide to tear down. This happens in our lives as teenagers in our relationship to our parents or guardians. We ultimately make the decision: am I going to build this relationship or am I going to tear it down? This happens in our lives in terms of adult education and employment. The build or tear down decision is made daily. This especially happens in marriage. This build or tear down decision happens daily and sometimes hourly. This applies also to our relationship with God. Will I build or tear down my relationship with my heavenly Father? 

We can go through every aspect of our lives and recognize that this proverb absolutely applies. It is up to us. Will we build or tear down? May we be wise and be the builder that God wants us to be.

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1 Thessalonians 4:13 thru 5:4

^"Therefore encourage one another with these words."

1 Thessalonians 4:18 (NIV)

I find this passage very encouraging whenever I am thinking about death of a Christian friend. Death is a drag. It is a terrible thing. It is a rip off really; people live their whole lives – they work and struggle, and scrape and strive. They love and they laugh, they influence and they accomplish. They build - homes, businesses, families – but most of all they build a life. Death ends it all. Sure their influence stays for as long as family and friends are alive, and their home and business will last longer than them, but they are gone. 

This text tells us that a Christian, someone who is in Christ, though gone from this earth, is really only asleep in their Savior. I can’t think of anything more encouraging then to picture a loved one asleep, resting contently, full of the peace that passes understanding. Many times I have walked into the rooms of my children when they were young, and just stood and gazed at their faces as they sleep. All the troubles of the day are gone. No matter what happened during the day, they look like little angels sleeping peacefully. 

Our heavenly Father longs to give us rest; He calls us to His side and we find our rest. He has prepared a place for us. There is no rest for the wicked, but there is a place of rest for His children.  And alongside this encouraging truth, is the truth that one Day we all hear a heavenly trumpet and their bodies will rise out of the earth and we will rise to meet our Lord and to meet them. What a blessed Day that will be! What a blessed hope we have in Christ Jesus! I am looking forward to that Day. I am looking forward to hearing the trumpet call of God, of rising through the air to meet my Lord. O may He find me ready. May I be doing the Lord’s will when the trumpet sounds! May all of us be doing the Lord’s will when the trumpet sounds! Come Lord Jesus Come!

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Hebrews 12:14-29

"When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”"

Exodus 20:18,19 (NIV)

I wonder if you have ever trembled in fear. I have been afraid before and my hands tremble, but I never been so afraid that my body trembled. Our dog trembles when he is afraid, and I have heard of little children trembling, but I have never seen an adult tremble in fear. 

The entire nation of Israel trembled with fear because God was coming to earth! There was thunder and lightning, there was smoke, there was a voice speaking words they could not bear and there was a trumpet sounding louder and louder and louder. This trumpet was not a trumpet of celebration, nor was it a trumpet of battle, rather it was a trumpet that heralded the coming of the LORD to the earth, to take possession of His people. 

The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that we did not have the Israelites' experience, for when we met the LORD we came to a gentle Saviour; we came to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant. We came to angels, and righteous spirits. We came to God through the Son whom He loves, and through the blood that was shed for our sins. What a blessed position we have in Christ, and what a glorious gospel to proclaim! Yet there will be a Day; soon there will be a Day when the world hears a trumpet that proclaims the coming of the Lord. He will come for His people, and He will come to destroy His enemies. He will come as a conquering King and as a consuming fire. 

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

 "The King is Coming", Bill Gaither Trio, via YouTube

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Joshua 6

"The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the LORD and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets kept sounding."

Joshua 6:13 (NIV)

 

I love teaching this story to children. We taught this story to little Honduran children on a mission’s trip several years ago; they acted out the story and they loved it. The walls are standing and the Israelites are marching around the perimeter, looking pretty foolish, blowing their trumpets, carrying their golden ark, and then they stop marching and let out great big shout. The walls come tumbling down and the children (Israelites) charge in and completely destroy every living thing, including children and animals. 

Questions pop into our minds like: How could a shout bring down strong walls of stone? What role did the trumpets play in this great victory? Yet this story is about the LORD, about His power, about His ability to completely destroy the enemies of His people. It is about His people being tested to see if they really trust Him enough to obey Him, and wait for Him to move in power. 

I chose this passage for us to read this week because of the central role of the trumpets in this story. The trumpets are man-made trumpets, just simple ram’s horns, but there are seven of them. We know that there are seven trumpets revealed in the Book of Revelation that angels will sound and bring about the complete and utter destruction of the Lord’s enemies and the possession of the land. 

Men and women have mocked this story in Joshua for years, relegating it to a children’s story; calling it lies and propaganda, and calling us foolish and stupid for believing it. They point to the ‘fact’ that modern archeologists have not discovered the ruins of this city, as if this somehow proves that the Bible is not true. Let them laugh, let them mock us, let us look foolish in their eyes, YET, we will believe the Word of the Lord over the ‘wisdom’ of humans. We will wait for the Lord. We will trust Him and obey Him, and listen for the sound of His trumpet.

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Leviticus 25

 

"Then have the trumpets sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land." 

Leviticus 25:9 (NIV) 

We call the 50th wedding anniversary the Golden Jubilee, and it really is quite a milestone for a couple to celebrate. For us humans, who get 70 years plus a bit for our life span, 50 years together is a long time to be together.

Do we realize that the name Jubilee comes from the celebration laid out in the Law for Israel found in Leviticus 25? Scholars believe that this particular Jubilee celebration was never celebrated by ancient Israel. This part of the Law was never observed, never obeyed. The Law of the Jubilee has three components to it: FREEDOM for all the Hebrews slaves; the RETURN of all parcels of land to the original families that God granted it to, and the CESSATION of sowing and pruning.

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a society that observes the Jubilee? A person who has worked hard, saved their money and accumulated land would give all of their land acquisitions back to the family who originally lived on that parcel. In our minds that is going backwards! But this is God’s plan for possessing the land. A person who was so poor that they sold themselves as a slave, gets freedom (and possibly their property back). The land that has been worked and tamed, sits still and grows whatever it wants to.

This celebration is tied to the Day of Atonement, and begins with trumpets sounding throughout the land and voices “proclaiming liberty”.  Jubilee is about freedom; freedom from sin, freedom from captivity, freedom from the curse of toiling the soil, freedom from the trap of possessions, and freedom from the rat race. Those of us who have trouble taking time off, wonder what the 51st year would look like. We complain now about catching up after taking a week off (no wonder they never celebrated it). Friend, there will be a Day when the last trumpet sounds and liberty will be proclaimed by God and not by men. It will be the beginning of freedom from sin, captivity, toil, possessions and all forms of our human rat race. It will be the beginning of that glorious eternal earthly Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It will be the beginning of God’s Will and Plan being done on earth forever! Oh friend, are you ready to hear that trumpet? Are you looking forward to that Day when the trumpet sounds?

Come Lord Jesus. Come.

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John 16:1-24

"But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." 

John 16:7 (NIV) 

A person might mistakenly think of Jesus as a victim: framed by crooked lawyers, executed falsely;  just another victim of the power circle that exists in every society. Yet John 16 reveals the truth that God had planned our Lord’s departure from the very beginning. His plan to extend grace into the world is US, through the power and work of the Holy Spirit within us.

This verse sticks sideways in my head, for I can hardly believe that I have it better with my Lord in heaven and me on earth, than the disciples who had the Lord present with them in His physical body.  Yet, Jesus says that it is for their (and our) good that He was going to go to heaven. I cannot count the times that I have longed for Jesus to be my side, to experience His grace, His healing power and His uncompromising holiness.

I wonder if we will believe these Words of our Lord, spoken in John 16:7? Do we have ears to hear? Will we believe that we are better off with the Holy Spirit present in our lives, than with the physical Presence of the Lord beside us? What a blessed gift the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, because God Himself dwells inside each of His children. God is not far away, sitting in a village in Israel. God is with us, working with power in our innermost being, changing us little by little, working on our thoughts, working on our emotions, blessing us, sanctifying us, saving us. Truly it is for our good, that Jesus left this earth! Truly it is for our good that the Father sent His Spirit to each of us.

Oh friend, may we live in this precious gift. May we live in the Spirit, by the Spirit, filled to overflowing with the Spirit. May God give each of us abundant oil for our little lamp.

"Leave a Light On", Matt Maher, via YouTube

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Luke 6:11-45

"But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus." 

Luke 6:11 (NIV)

This is the first hint in Luke’s record of the ministry of Jesus, that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law would end up falsely accusing Jesus of crimes He didn’t commit, and then coercing Pilate into executing Jesus. The new cannot mix with the old, and they like the taste of the old wine so much, they were willing to throw out the new.

We may say that this is crazy - to remove the Grace of God from their midst! Yet would we have done any different? Do we not act as the Pharisees did in our own lives today? How many times have I chosen to “throw” Jesus out of an area of my life, when what I need desperately is His saving, healing Presence? I choose being “right” over grace. I choose self-pity over repentance. I choose the old over the new, because I like the taste of the old.

As we read on in Luke 6, we will realize that Jesus started immediately to implement the plan of God regarding His imminent departure, and that His plan is US! Jesus calls His disciples to Him and names them apostles. This is not a gifting of apostleship - this is the church office of apostle. The Lord’s plan is His church, and His church is based on the apostles and their teaching.

This passage makes it so clear that the church is the Lord Jesus’ church. He is the One who calls people into it. He is the One who appoints leaders. He is the One to whom all leaders will give an account. We see three distinct groups listed by Luke: the 12 apostles, the larger group of disciples (followers) and those who are called listeners.

Friend, I wonder which group you belong to.

Are you a leader in the church? Then remember your call and the truth that Jesus is your boss.

Are you a follower? A disciple of Jesus? Then imitate Him, and be the child of God you can be.

Are you a listener? Oh friend, it is true; we could be a leader and not a listener (Judas). We could be a disciple and not a listener (John 6:66).

Friend may we always listen to the words of our Lord, especially today.

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Luke 5:36 thru 6:26

"He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old."

Luke 5:36 (NIV) 

New versus old. 

Repentance versus righteousness. 

Love versus Law. 

Jesus came to show us and teach us that the new Way is a Way of repentance and love. Not the way of self-righteousness and Law. This section of Luke repeats this message over and over again, with the clearest contrast shown in the blessings and the woes. Blessed are the poor versus Woe to those who are rich. Blessed are those who hunger now versus Woe to those who are well-fed now. Blessed are those who weep now versus Woe to those who laugh now. Blessed are those hated and despised for Christ versus Woe to those who are praised by His enemies.

New versus Old.

Repentance versus Righteousness.

Love versus Law.

Poor versus Rich.

Hungry versus Well fed.

Weeping versus Laughing.

Persecuted versus Praised.

The Lord Jesus makes this list of contrasts into a list of progression for all of His followers: repentance leads to true righteousness, love fulfills the Law, the poor become rich, the hungry become full, the weeping is changed to laughter, and the persecuted are praised by their Lord. And the New Way is the true Old Way; the path that leads to the Ancient of Days. 

Oh friend, may we be found on the New Way, and only on that path. May we heed the warning of our Saviour and refuse to mix the New with the old.

"Road to Zion", Petra, via YouTube

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Galatians 5:13-26

"What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them." 

Matthew 15:11 (NIV) 

This passage in Galatians is a great tool for self-evaluation. The acts of the flesh are listed and the fruits of the Spirit are listed. These are not rules to follow but behaviours to observe.

How do we line up? If we see behaviours of the flesh exhibited in our lives over this past week and seek to turn them into fruits of the Spirit, then we are told to live by the Spirit. Seek Him. Live in repentance and rest on the Spirit of God within us.

Drunkenness is mentioned as an act of the flesh, but this list is dominated by other behaviors and attitudes such as hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy. These items are harder to identify and are easier to cover up than drunkenness. Our Lord helps us with identifying this fleshly behaviour when He points us to what comes out of our mouth. He is teaching us that what we drink isn’t our issue, but what we say is!
I spotted this in a Christian brother recently (it is always easier for us to see this in others). He was conversing with me about this and that, and then mentioned some sins that he “had heard” that another brother was involved in. I have been thinking about this since it happened. I wish it hadn’t been said, and I wish I hadn’t heard it.

What drives gossip? What is behind us running other people down; judging them and sentencing them with our mouths. As I type this I just realized that I had done this last night at the rink - no confrontation, no brawling, no anger, but words spoken in judgment, that lift my boy up by tearing others down. What drives this? Where does it come from? It comes from my flesh, and I would say that this is a bigger issue in our Christian circles then drunkenness ever will be. Paul seems to think this is a bigger issue for the Galatians, and our Lord obviously taught that what we say is way more important that what we drink. May we live (walk) by the Spirit this day!

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Ephesians 5:1-21

 

"He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate - bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts" 

Psalm 104:14, 15 (NIV) 

The LORD is the one who created the grape. Some people imagine that it was man’s evil imagination that produces alcohol, but these verses bring truth and reveal that God had a good purpose in mind when He created the grape. The purpose was gladness in our hearts.

Welch’s grape juice is good, but it doesn’t affect our emotional state - whereas alcohol does affect our emotional state. Alcohol is part of God’s good purpose for humans; it is one of the many blessings He bestows upon all humans. I just chuckled to myself as I imagined a Baptist choir singing, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one” and hearing someone shout out: “Thank you God for the glass of wine I had last night!” There would be turmoil in that church for sure.

There is good reason for so many Christians to teach abstinence. This blessing that God created for the good of our emotional state, has been turned to evil through drunkenness. Humans do it with bread as well; we eat too much! The Bible is full of verses that condemn drunkenness, and in Jeremiah 13:13 drunkenness is an act of judgment by God on a rebellious nation. Drinking to excess always leads to other sin, always brings pain and broken relationships and will ultimately bring disaster upon the families and nations of those who embrace it.

In Ephesians 5:18, Paul contrasts drunkenness with being filled with the Spirit and urges us to be filled with the Spirit. Now, there is a way to have your emotions changed for the good! Feeling down, maybe feeling like you need a shot of good cheer? Read the Word. Pray. Seek God’s face. Confess your sins. Sing a song. Listen to songs that lift God up. Get as close as you possibly can to the Creator and Lover of your soul and be filled His Holy Spirit. These lyrics from a song called “Turn Around” have been going around my mind as I have been writing this blog:`

Some turn to a bottle,
Some turn to a drug,
Some turn to another's arms,
But it seems like it's never enough,

May we consciously and deliberately put energy and effort into seeking God and having Him fill us with His Spirit this day. Only He will be enough.

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Proverbs 23:19-35; 31:1-9

"I have the right do anything," you say - but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything" - but not everything is constructive." 

1 Corinthians 10:23 (NIV) 

Oh friend, are you born again? Do you have the Holy Spirit living within you? Are you free from the burden of sin? Free from the clutches of the evil one? Friend, are you a child of the Most High God? Then friend, you have the right to do anything! You are free indeed! Free from sin! Free from the Law! Free to truly live!

Paul believes it; he wrote these things and yet he tells us that eating and drinking is not about freedom but about BENEFIT. Will your behaviour benefit you? Will it benefit your loved ones? Will it benefit your Christian brothers and sisters? The question of BENEFIT takes it from Law to Love, for Love BENEFITS all. You need wisdom to evaluate – to judge – between BENEFIT and right. No better book to go to than the book of Proverbs for wisdom. Wisdom is God’s truth applied to daily situations, and the two passages I have selected speak tremendous wisdom into our lives as children of the Most High God.

Proverbs 23 says “listen to your father”. In the area of drinking wine, it is wise to listen to your parents. Honour your parents in this matter. Don’t rub your freedom in their faces, for there is great danger and ruin for those who drink too much. This description of a person waking up from a drunk always brings a smile to my face, for I have friends that talk like this, and they have no idea they are quoting the Bible.

Proverbs 31 is the most powerful passage for me for it points me to my Heavenly Father who is the Eternal King. A mother is speaking - not a father, but she points Lemuel to his position in his father. It is not for kings, Lemuel. NO - drinking wine and beer is for those who are perishing and for those who are in anguish, but not for royalty.

Friend are you a child of the One True King? Are you a son or a daughter of the Eternal King? Oh friend, I hope you are! May we heed the voice of this wise woman of Proverbs 31, and behave like the royalty that we are! 

"Hello, My Name Is", Matthew West, via YouTube

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John 2

"On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples; a banquet of aged wine - the best of meats and the finest of wines." 

Isaiah 25:6 (NIV) 

I love the story of the miracle of the wine. On the negative side of my enjoyment of this story: as a teenager I enjoyed hearing Baptist teachers squirm around the steward congratulating our Lord on the quality of the wine that He had miraculously provided for those who had already drank too much to know or care what they were drinking. On the positive side of my enjoyment of this story: this miracle reminds me that Jesus of Nazareth is the LORD Almighty and He is the best wine Maker that ever made wine!

I am planning on being on that mountain on which death is destroyed; I hope you are there as well! I am planning on sitting at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb; I hope you are there as well! I am planning on drinking wine with my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for He told us that He would not drink of the fruit of the vine again, until the kingdom of God comes (Lk 22:18).

Friend, make no mistake - Isaiah 25 is describing the future kingdom of God, not the “invisible” kingdom that we are a part of now, but the physical kingdom of God on the new earth, with all sin, all pain, all wickedness, all death gone forever! Oh friend, I look forward to that blessed Day. The miracle of the wine at the feast in Cana, was a fore ‘taste’ of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. May I point out to you that drinking wine in the kingdom - where sin is gone, and we have new bodies, where there is no alcoholism or drunkenness – drinking there will be a lot different than drinking here in this fallen world. The lists are long of the cases where drinking on earth brought disgrace and tears to those who drank to excess, or to those who love them. But in the kingdom there will be no more disgrace and no more tears.

Come Lord Jesus Come.

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

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Jeremiah 35

"It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall." 

Romans 14:21 (NIV) 

I find Jeremiah chapter 35 very intriguing, for on the surface it seems to be in opposite to the spirit of Romans 14. These people don’t drink wine or build houses or plant anything, because their forefather told them not to, yet Jeremiah brings them to the temple compound, gives them wine and tells them to drink it. Talk about trying to cause your brother and sister to fall; the man of God pours free wine into a cup at church and tells you to drink it! They won’t do it, because they are staying true to their way of life dictated by their founding father.

Now this story is very similar to my story - not in the nomadic sense, but in the sense that I was taught to avoid alcohol by my father. He told me that alcohol was dangerous because none of us know whether or not we are an alcoholic until we started to drink, and if we are, it would be too late! He was speaking from a life of experience, and so I listened to him.

Any person who has seen what alcoholism does in a family situation and to the person gripped by alcoholism, warns their children and loved ones to stay away from alcohol. Paul, in Romans 14, is addressing Christians who come from various and diverse backgrounds; not only do some drink alcohol and some abstain from alcohol, but some eat meat, and others only eat vegetables. Paul’s approach is Spirit focused. He doesn’t make it a matter of Law but a matter of Love. He places the responsibility on the stronger party to refrain from judging (vs 1 thru 13) and he tells us that our behaviour should be constrained by concern for others spiritual welfare.

Those of us who have been Christians a long time, and hopefully we have been growing in the Lord and His grace over that period of time, should listen to Paul’s words. We should be careful about eating meat (if we eat meat) in front of vegetarians and we should be careful about drinking (if we drink) in front of people who abstain. We should also be careful about judging those who behave differently in these two areas from us: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit..." (Romans 14:17)

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1 John 1

"Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge." 

Psalm 51:4 (NIV)  

I was blessed right down to my socks when little Sierra quoted part of this verse these past Sunday, as part of our Awana feature. May she remember this verse and may it not just be a matter of her mind and her tongue, but a matter of her heart and soul.

David is a child of God; he is not referring in this verse to sin that he committed before he trusted in the LORD - no, he is referring here to sin that he committed as a “Christian”. Some will object to me calling King David a “Christian”, but they have no grounds, for David saw Christ clearly; he wrote about His sacrifice and His reign and wrote about his salvation through Him. But surely we are comfortable with calling the apostle John a Christian, and yet in his first paragraph of his church letter, he tells us that he commits sin that requires confession and cleansing. Is John a saint who sins OR a sinner who is a saint?

If you would like to measure the closeness of your relationship to God, ask yourself what was the last sin that you confessed, and when did that confession take place? If you can’t remember that last time you confessed sin, you have drifted away from God. David was the closest to God when he penned the words of Psalm 51. He penned beautiful worship psalms; he spoke words of great faith, and he performed many acts of faith, yet he was the closest to God when he repented of his sin. David knew that what is required of a true worshiper is a broken and contrite spirit (Ps  51:17) and John knew the same thing.

Friend, when we get close to God (true worship) and when we see Him for who He is, we see ourselves, and then we see our sin and then we humble ourselves and seek forgiveness from the One who we sinned against. This is the life we are called to, for Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. May we sinners, who are saints, practice true repentance today!

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Revelation 7

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 (NIV)

Who can stand before God?

The peoples of the earth call out: “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”  (Rev 6:16,17). If the kings and princes can’t stand, then God is no respecter of noble blood. If the generals can’t stand, then God is no respecter of human military command. If the rich can’t stand, then God is no respecter of money and possessions. If the slave can’t stand, then God is no respecter of the terrible life experiences that people endure. If the free can’t stand, then God is no respecter of the independent humans who place high value on individuals. 

Whom then will God respect? Who will He allow to stand in His presence? It is a large multitude - so large we can’t count all the people. They are from “every nation, tribe, people and language” with special mention of the tribe of Jacob. God is therefore no respecter of language, no respecter of geography, and no respecter of skin colour. 

Friend, will you be in that multitude? Will you be one of those standing in front of the throne, serving your God day and night? 

Whom does God respect? Only His Son, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ! Only those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”! Only those who have done something; they have put their faith and trust in the finished work of the Lamb of God. Those are the ones, and only those, who will be able to stand. They are the only ones who receive encouragement from the words of Paul recorded in 1 Thessalonians 5. 

We have been appointed. We have been called. We have been sealed. We have been chosen. The Bible describes God’s actions towards us in different ways using a variety of words, but it all means the same thing: GRACE! God’s AMAZING GRACE!

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