July 31, 2019 - Suggested Reading Psalm 97 for the August 4th message on Amos 5 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”

Psalm 97:1 (NIV) 

Does the LORD reign on earth or only in heaven?

Is He sovereign from afar like the Queen of England is sovereign over her ‘subjects’ in Canada? Or is He sovereign in the sense that He is on earth with us dispensing justice and doing righteousness?

According to the Words contained in Psalm 97, our God dispenses justice and does righteousness here on the earth. For where else does fire consume, and where are His foes except on the earth? The world is lit up by His lightning and the mountains melt. The false worshipers are put to shame here on earth, and the people can see His righteousness in the heavens. By the way how can Zion hear and the people rejoice if His judgments aren’t visible on the earth?

He is the Most High over all the earth!

Not a god who doesn’t care who lives away up there - but a God who loves us and is with us and who is actively working righteousness and justice all around us.

Friend does His light shine on you?

Do I have His joy in my heart?

Let us be those who hate evil and who rejoice in the LORD and who praise His holy name.

Let us be righteous!

July 30, 2019 - Suggested Reading 1 Samuel 11 and Judges 20 for the August 4th message on Amos 5 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“So all the people went to Gilgal and made Saul king in the presence of the LORD. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the LORD, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration.”

1 Samuel 11:15 (NIV)

In the presence of the LORD and before the LORD are very significant OT phrases, for they mean that the people of God assembled together on the same place on earth that the Ark of the Covenant sat, for the purpose of hearing from Him and receiving His blessing. God promised to meet with His people and give them all His commands, above the cover of the ark between the two cherubim (Ex 25:22). Eventually, King David brought the Ark into Jerusalem, and King Solomon built a temple for the Ark to rest in, and Jerusalem became Mount Zion - the mountain of the LORD’s temple - the place where you gather before the LORD. Up until the time of David, the Ark moved from place to place- first in the desert for forty years and then it appears to have moved from Gilgal, to Mizpah and then to Bethel. Samuel’s ministry rotated between Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah, no doubt because each of these places had a history of being places where the people gathered before the LORD, and because God spoke through Samuel, Samuel rotated through those places.

From what we read in Amos 4:4 and 5:5 it seems as if the people of the northern kingdom thought that these locations were still somehow sacred locations without the Ark. They continued to go there to observe their religious practices, pretending to be in the presence of the LORD. Amos’s point in chapter 5 is that the people are in for a bad time when God really shows up. What about us- we say we want God to show up in power, are we pretending or are we ready?

 I remember a speaker from my days as a teenage saying don’t do anything you wouldn’t do if our Lord Jesus was standing next to you. To my shame I can think of many times when I have been involved in something I would never have done if my Lord was standing beside me. The truth is He is beside me, He is inside me, and all I think, say and do should reflect that truth.

May we practice His Presence!

July 29, 2019 - Suggested Reading Genesis 21 and 26 for the August 4th message on Amos 5 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.”

Genesis 21:33 (NIV) 

As we prepare to receive the message of Amos 5 this coming Sunday, we notice in verse 5 that they are told not to journey to Beersheba, which brings to my mind this question - “Why would the Israelites want to journey to Beersheba?” Beersheba was located to the south of the southern kingdom of Judah, whereas Bethel and Gilgal were in the southern part of the northern kingdom of Israel. To go to Beersheba was a significant journey, and according to Amos 8:14 it was a place of false worship. Although we have no information about the details of the type of worship at Beersheba - it is a reminder to all of us how easily people who “seek” a right relationship with the only true God, can end up with a system of worship that is a perversion of true worship and results in our destruction rather than our salvation. It happens so quickly when the form and place of worship becomes more important than the One we worship. Genesis 21 details for us how Abraham worshipped God at Beersheba, by planting a tree at the site of his well and calling on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God. Genesis 26 details for us how Isaac returned to this site under similar conditions that his father endured, and that God met Isaac there and promised His protection, His Presence and His blessing. Perhaps the people of the northern kingdom so longed for God’s protection and God’s blessing, that they thought this place was the place to be. Unfortunately for them, Amos makes it clear that they had forgotten to seek His Presence. Seek God, don’t go to Beersheba! Put your trust in God, not in a place, nor a system. 

What about us friend - do we seek His face or do we seek His hand? 

Do we cling to superstition about certain places being better places to meet with God than other places?

Friend God will meet us wherever we seek Him - as long as it is Him we seek.

July 27, 2019 - Suggested Reading 2 Corinthians 5 for July 28th message on Amos 3:3 thru 4:12 in our worship service at 10:00 am

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV)

If we truly believe that we are going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ when we leave this body, our goal in this life will be to please Christ.

The way the pronouns we and us and you are used in chapters 4 and 5 reveal that Paul is explaining his ministry and the motivation behind his ministry to a group of Christians who have benefited from that ministry. There are differences between what an apostle or an apostle’s companion experience in life, and what a Christian experiences in ‘normal’ church and work life. Yet Paul uses the phrase “we must all” when talking about appearing before the judgment seat of Christ. The judgement seat is not just for apostles, pastors, missionaries, or full-time ministry workers, but also for every single Christian no matter how obscure we might be in the kingdom. To confess Christ as Lord is to call yourself His servant, and places you under His judgment. This verse tells us that what we do in our bodies as a Christian is very important- some like to pretend that what we do in our bodies doesn’t matter at all for we are forgiven through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore we have a permission slip or a get out of judgment slip - to believe that you would have to ignore this verse and many of the parables that our Lord told. A far better plan of action would be to memorize this verse and then meditate on it, and begin to live our lives in light of the truth that we live our lives on a stage and the only Person in the audience is our Lord. To have this mindset coupled with the belief that He could jump up at any moment and end our play will make us ready to meet our God.

Come Lord Jesus Come!

July 26, 2019 - Suggested Reading Matthew 24 for July 28th message on Amos 3:3 thru 4:12 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Matthew 24:44 (NIV) 

Am I ready for the Son of Man to come?

He will come when I don’t expect it, and if I am mistreating His people when He comes, I can expect only punishment. A faithful and wise servant will give God’s people their food at the proper time, whereas a wicked servant will doubt that God is coming and will mistreat God’s people.

I take this warning by our Lord as directed to teaching pastors like myself. Will I be found giving God’s people His Words, or will I mistreat them, manipulating them for my own gain, so that I can eat and drink with drunkards? If I believe that my Lord will come any minute of any hour of any day of any week of any year, then I will serve God in His church at Parkdale by caring for His people, through the proper ministry of God’s Word to their minds and hearts.

But this passage has application beyond pastors who are responsible for opening God’s Word in churches. For it is teaching all of us how to prepare to meet your God. We are to live in expectation that our Lord will come back at any moment. If we start to say – ah - I have lots of time to get ready for Him, I will do what I want for a little while, and get right with Him before He comes, we are making a big mistake. This is a way of life, an attitude of life, which needs to be cultivated. I grew up in the 70s and 80s when predicting when our Lord would come back was all the rage, and so I am a little jaded when it comes to believing what men say about the current signs of the times. Perhaps you share my jadedness? We need to be careful that our jadedness does not cause us to stop living in expectation that the Lord might come back today.

We used to sing this little song; Maybe morning, maybe noon, maybe evening and maybe soon. Coming again, coming again - Oh what a wonderful day it will be – Jesus is coming again.

Unfortunately, it will only be wonderful for those who are ready.

July 25, 2019 - Suggested Reading Psalm 69 for July 28th message on Amos 3:3 thru 4:12 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”

Psalm 69:12 (NIV) 

There is no question that David while writing of his experience in part in this psalm, is also prophesying about our Lord’s experience on the cross.

Yes David has the guilt of verse 5, but our Lord took the guilt of us all upon His shoulders.

Yes David prayed to have God punish those who persecuted him in verse 21 thru 28, but our Lord prayed that His Father would forgive them.

There is both David and our Lord in this psalm.

Now when it comes to which is most important - “putting our house in order” or “being rich towards God” we might think that this psalm teaches that “being rich before God” is more important. I wouldn’t argue with that understanding, for many righteous people have died with their family cursing them for their faith, and if it comes down to it I would say “being rich towards God” is more important than “putting your house in order”. God first, family second seems to be part of what verse 9 declares when it says that “zeal for your house consumes me”.

However this psalm ends with a declaration of what our Lord’s death brought for all of us, and what Christ Jesus did by being “rich towards God” in His death, is a “putting of His house in order”! It was by His righteous death that the house of God was formed. Without the sacrifice of our Lord no one would be right before God, and there would be no one able to stand in the house of the Lord.

35 for God will save Zion

    and rebuild the cities of Judah.

Then people will settle there and possess it;

36 the children of his servants will inherit it,

    and those who love his name will dwell there.

It took our Saviour’s righteous life, death and resurrection to put His house in order. His death accomplished what no other death could.

Praise His holy Name!    

July 24, 2019 - Suggested Reading Luke 12 for July 28th message on Amos 3:3 thru 4:12 in our worship service at 10:00AM

““But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”

Luke 12:20 (NIV) 

This powerful story contained in Luke 20:13-21 came from our Lord in response to a plea from someone to help settle an estate. Apparently, siblings fell out 2,000 years ago over how parents arranged wills - do siblings still fight today over the distribution of their parent’s wealth?

No mention in the story about tips for writing out a will so that your kids won’t fight, nor take advantage of each other after you die, for the story is focused not on the preparations a man made for his children’s well being, but on a man’s preparations for his own well being. This man was focused on his life here on earth to the detriment of his final destination. This man truly needed to heed the message of Amos 4:12 “prepare to meet your God”, for he made no preparation at all. A description of his actions after reaping an abundance harvest seems wise, for I have noticed in the Quinte West area that many large silos are being built for the bumper crops that have been harvested over these last years. It seems like simple wisdom until you hear God say “You fool!”, and you realize that wisdom about life on earth is foolishness if you have made no preparation at all to meet your God. If you store things up for yourself on earth and have made no effort to store up treasure in heaven- you are a fool. This story is as scary as the account of Hezekiah is encouraging. Hezekiah was given time to put his house in order, he was even given time to pray for healing, whereas this man was snatched in the middle of the night- no doubt people would say “before his time”, but it is God who sets our times, it is God who decides when we die. So - is my house in order? -am I rich towards God? If the answer to those two questions is yes, then friend you are ready to meet your God, and He will not call you fool.

July 23, 2019 - Suggested Reading 2 Kings 20 for July 28th message on Amos 3:3 thru 4:12 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.””

2 Kings 20:1 (NIV) 

This chapter is one of the places where Christians go to be encouraged to pray effective fervent prayers requesting healing to our great God. It is an amazing testimony about the love God has for His righteous servants, that when His servants seek His face with tears, God “changes His mind.” Depending on your theological framework - you may reject the whole concept of God “changing His mind”, but no one can read this chapter without realizing that this chapter teaches us that prayer changes our future and the future of our loved ones. Prayer is effective, especially – only! - when it  comes from the heart.

As we prepare to consider the exhortation in Amos 4:12 to “prepare to meet our God” I thought we should think for a moment on God’s instruction to Hezekiah to prepare for our departure by “putting our house in order”. There are 2 sides to a death - we are leaving our loved ones and then meeting our God. God wants us to have our house in order when we leave our loved ones. In Hezekiah’s life, this would mean making arrangements for a son to become king, and setting things in order for a successful transition of power as David did in 1 Kings 1&2, and it also likely meant saying goodbye to his loved ones, blessing them for 1 last time as Jacob did in Genesis 49. In our simpler, more common lives, we still need to heed the Words of God to Hezekiah. We should if we have time, find a way to bless our loved ones, and we should have proper legal wills drawn up, as well as arranging all that we possibly can to protect our spouse or family member. I hope my house is in order when I die, I hope I am able to bless my children, I hope that I am in right relationship with all those I have interacted with,  and I hope that all of my building projects are completed and Wanda doesn’t have a mess to clean up.

My son Matt sent me this link today to an obituary of a man whose house was not in order when he died. https://www.good.is/articles/mean-obituary-daughter I have no idea if it is fake news or real news, but I know this is the opposite of having your house in order.

July 20, 2019 - Suggested Reading Hebrews 12 for July 21st message on Amos 1 thru 3:2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?”

Hebrews 12:7 (NIV) 

I need great faith to receive the truth of this text, in light of the many hardships that I see the children of God who attend Parkdale experiencing. 

Notice first of all what the verse is NOT saying - it is NOT saying that all hardships are discipline. The verse is saying that we should treat all hardship as discipline.

It seems to me that most of us understand that discipline is hardship with a purpose. When I was a child my rear end experienced hardship when ever my father decided I needed a change in my behaviour or attitude. Hardship without purpose is punishment, but hardship with a purpose is discipline.

Verse 4 tells us that we are in a struggle against sin, and that because we are in this struggle with sin we should expect hardship. Verse 7 tells us that we should endure all hardships as if they have been given to us by God to change our attitude or behaviour for the good. Verse 10 tells that we should submit in our hardship to our Father who loves us, for He desires us to share in His holiness, and He will use this hardship to accomplish this purpose.

We are to struggle against sin …

We are to endure hardship as if…

We are to submit to our Father in our hardship…

We are to strengthen our …

We are to repair our paths …

Overall we are to fix our eyes on Jesus who endured hardship and received His reward.

This passage is very important in my own spiritual life- hardship is proof of God’s love for me! It seems counter intuitive but it is the gospel truth. I can’t count the number of times things have happened in my life that I thought were terrible, and they turned out to be good. How many times have things happened I thought were good that turned out to be bad? Better for me to trust the God who is above all the things that happen to me, who loves me with an unfailing love, then to weep and wail about what is happening- which is my natural inclination.

July 19, 2019 - Suggested Reading 1 Corinthians 11 for July 21st message on Amos 1 thru 3:2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.”

1 Corinthians 11:32 (NIV) 

This passage contains a sobering warning for every Christian who observes communion in an assembly of Christians. Paul reminds us that an assembly of Christians at the communion table is really an assembly around the Person and Work of Christ. When we participate in communion without discerning that He suffered judgment at the cross in order that we might find grace, then we eat and drink judgment on ourselves. Instead of us receiving life through our spiritual union with His body and blood, we receive judgment and death. This not a magical situation with magical bread - rather Christ is present with us in a special way as we together remember Him through the eating of bread and drinking of the cup, and Christ Himself is the One who judges us. It is a tendency of prideful humans to forget that Christ was put to death in our place, because of our sin - and for Christians who fall into the habit of living in sin while still ritually observing a remembrance of the death of God’s Son for our sin - that tendency is deadly. Yet even in the act of judgment on believers, grace is being exercised for this judgment is our deliverance.

I appreciated what our Elder Mark Baxter shared this past communion service at Parkdale - that as we together in community participate in the bread and the cup, each of us has a personal and private encounter with Christ, and that if we use that personal and private encounter with Christ to confess our sins and receive forgiveness  for those sins, we glorify our Lord who died for those sins.

May we glorify our Lord not only at communion services but each and every day as we dwell in spiritual union with our Lord.

July 18, 2019 - Suggested Reading Matthew 4 for July 21st message on Amos 1 thru 3:2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Matthew 4:10 (NIV) 

We serve whom we worship, we worship whom we serve.

The Lord knew this - and He used that knowledge to escape Satan’s trap - do we grasp this?

We read in Amos 2:4 that the destruction that will come upon Judah is the result of Judah rejecting God’s Way as laid out in His laws and decrees, because they are being led astray by false gods. They didn’t grasp what the Lord Jesus knew - whom we serve is whom we worship, whom we worship is whom we serve. The people of Israel thought that how they lived didn’t need to line up with God’s Way, they felt as long as they went to the temple and gave God what God 'wanted', they could live however they wanted to. What a mistake they made- for whom you serve is who you worship.

If you serve yourself, constantly- everything you do is with yourself in mind - well then you are a self worshiper not a God worshiper.

If you serve money, constantly- everything you do is with money in mind - well then you are a money worshiper not a God worshiper.

This is how Satan works, for his demons, and his world system are all working to point us towards our self-gratification and self-protection, knowing that God’s people are easily deceived into thinking they can worship God while serving themselves. We can justify anything, we give ourselves reasons as to why we don’t have to follow the clear directions we have been given by our Lord and His apostles. Whom are we serving as we engage in behaviour that is contrary to God’s revealed Way?

It is written - Worship the LORD your God, and serve Him only!

July 17, 2019 - Suggested Reading Jeremiah 33 for July 21st message on Amos 1 thru 3:2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms he chose’? So they despise my people and no longer regard them as a nation.”

Jeremiah 33:24 (NIV) 

Jeremiah’s message to the southern kingdom of Judah is the same message that Amos brought to the northern kingdom of Israel – “God is going to destroy your nation”. In our organizational division of the bible we put Jeremiah in the “Major Prophets” and Amos in the “Minor Prophets”, not because of the nature of the message but because of the length of the writing. Mixed into Jeremiah’s message of impending destruction is the message of future restoration, and for the ‘weeping prophet’ Jeremiah as he mourned over the impending destruction of his nation, these Words of hope must have been a wonderful solace to his soul. In this chapter as Jeremiah sits in prison for speaking God’s Words, God speaks to him about the future beyond the future. Yes the immediate future holds destruction, but what does the future beyond the future hold? Just read verses 8 through 13 again - what a wonderful promise, not only for the southern kingdom of Judah but also for the northern kingdom of Israel. Verses 14 through 18 give us God’s method for this restoration, He will bring forth Christ Jesus, our King and our Priest, to deliver his people and bring restoration to both nations. Verses 19 through 21 speak of the inability of anyone to stop or thwart God’s purposes for His people through His covenant with Christ Jesus, and then verse 22 reiterates the promise of God that a huge host of people will be in Christ Jesus through faith. God’s work will be misunderstood- people will say that the LORD has rejected Israel and Judah- people say that even today, and they have been saying it for thousands of years. Friend the future is destruction, but do not misunderstand God’s work, for the future beyond the future is a glorious restoration!

There is a wonderful personal application in this truth if we wish to receive it - my future will be pain and death, but because of Christ Jesus and His work and His life within me, my future beyond the future will be glorious restoration! Praise His holy Name! 

July 16, 2019 - Suggested Reading Psalm 33 for July 21st message on Amos 1 thru 3:2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance”

Psalm 33:12 (NIV) 

 I chose this psalm as part of our suggested readings this week because verse 12 speaks of the blessing of being chosen by God. Notice that we are not chosen in singularity but as a nation and as a people. This psalm is a delight to read more than once in a sitting. Read it over and over again and you begin to sense a flow, and then you see the seamless movement from one theme to the other all the while holding to the main theme of God’s faithfulness expressed through His unfailing love.

The Psalm starts with encouragement to use our words to sing praises to the LORD accompanied by skilled instrumentalists. It then moves to the LORD’s Words, the right and true Words that come from a heart that loves righteousness and justice and practices unfailing love. Those right and true Words formed the heavens, the stars and all that is, came into being from the Words of His mouth. The One who spoke those Words is so large that the sea is small compared to Him, and He is so large and capable that His purposes and plans overcome all of combined resistance of all the nations and all the peoples of the earth. His purpose and His plans are to bless the nation and the people whom He chose. His eyes look down over all the earth and see us all, and only those who use their eyes to look to Him are delivered. So we wait, and we look to Him, and we rejoice and trust in His faithfulness, and in His unfailing love!

Truly the people He chose for His inheritance are a blessed people.

Do you see His unfailing love in your life today?

Are my eyes on Him this day? O Father fill my vision today, may I look to You and not to myself or anything other than You.

July 15, 2019 - Suggested Reading Deuteronomy 7 for July 21st message on Amos 1 thru 3:2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”

Deuteronomy 7:6 (NIV) 

Do we chose God, or does God chose us?

The answer to this question has divided Protestants for centuries and will divide us long into the future. I am not trying to solve anything in this little article, nor am I trying to divide us further.

I am however trying to gain some light from other Scripture into why Amos 3:2 lists God choosing Israel as a reason for God to punish them. 

In Deuteronomy 7 we find some clarification as to what chosen by God means. He chooses whom He loves, for according to vs 7 He sets His affection on you through His act of choosing, and vs 8 teaches it was because the LORD loved you, that He redeemed you, and vs 9 teaches that the LORD keeps His covenant of love. And the LORD expects love from those He chooses.

This choosing of 1 family in the earth over all the other families, to receive blessings from God that others won’t get - seems out of sync with our modern Canadian sense of fairness - and that perhaps explains some of our resistance to the plain meaning of these and other Scriptures that teach God chooses His people.

Do we ever stop to consider that with the great privilege of being chosen by God, by being set apart from all the people of the earth, comes the great responsibility of following his decrees and laws, and changing our behaviour to reflect the character of the great God who chose us.

To whom much has been given – much is expected.

We have been given the great great love of the LORD Almighty, He expects more from us than our unsaved neighbour, unsaved family member, or unsaved work mate.

The wonderful news is that His great love provides us with what we need to reflect our LORD’s wonderful character - including punishment.

God’s love and God’s choice are joined together.    

July 11, 2019 - Suggested Reading Genesis 2 for July 14th's message on Amos 4:13 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)

Part of Amos’s description of the LORD God Almighty is the statement that He
“reveals his thoughts to mankind”.

He who forms the mountains,

    who creates the wind,

    and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,

who turns dawn to darkness,

    and treads on the heights of the earth—

    the LORD God Almighty is his name.

One of the better habits that my wife and I developed while we were dating was the habit of responding with our true thoughts, whenever the other asked “whatcha thinking?” As we get older we have realized that there is some danger in letting our thoughts become common knowledge between the 2 of us, but in our married life the danger has been outweighed by the good. It has been helpful for us to know what each other is thinking, for sure it helps us extend grace when actions and words don’t line up with how we know the other person thinks. I felt honoured that Wanda would confess her thoughts to me, for it revealed her trust in me, and a willingness to take a risk by exposing her inner thought life.

How much more honoured should we be that the LORD Almighty reveals His thoughts to mankind. We can’t comprehend His thoughts, but He gives them to us in simple bite-sized pieces. Genesis 2 contains His thoughts for mankind, He wants us to live, not die, and so His first revelation is permission to eat from what He has provided, and a warning to abstain from one food that will harm us. He revealed His thoughts throughout history to mankind through many different spokesmen, and in these last days, He speaks to us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins. His thoughts towards us are thoughts of love, and desire, presenting His Son to each of us, giving us the opportunity to confess Christ as Lord and live.

For those who confess Christ as Lord, believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, God puts His Spirit within us and now as we surrender to His Spirit – His thoughts become our thoughts, to the point that Paul says we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:16)

Praise you, Lord God Almighty, for you have revealed your thoughts to little children like us!

July 10, 2019 - Suggested Reading Jeremiah 10 for July 14th's message on Amos 4:13 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,

    for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the people of his inheritance—

    the LORD Almighty is his name.”

Jeremiah 10:16 (NIV)

It seems clear from the overall message of Jeremiah 10, which is a comparison of the false gods of nations with the True God of Israel, that when Jeremiah calls God the LORD Almighty, He is referring not to God’s authority and power over the hosts of God’s people, nor over the hosts of angels, but over the hosts of nations. I have no understanding of how many people are alive on the face of the earth today. If I google it, I get the answer 7.7 billion, which is useless to me because I don’t know what a billion of anything looks like, let alone a billion people. However, it is safe to assume that 7.7 billion people constitute many hosts, and according to Jeremiah 10, it is biblical to declare that no matter how many people are alive, there is no one who is outside of God’s authority and power. Jeremiah asks; Who should not fear you, King of the nations? Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance from Assyria through angelic intervention declares this truth as well for Hezekiah says; you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. The LORD God Almighty, is God over the hosts of His people, and God over the hosts of angels and God over the hosts of peoples who hate Him and hate His people. This sets God apart from the ‘gods’ of a nation, or the ‘gods’ of a household, puts Him above all ‘gods’ and not only gives Him the right to destroy any nation He desires, it also gives Him the ability to save any person from any nation whenever He decides to do it. The gospel is not for 1 nation, the gospel is for all nations, and all peoples.

How can it be that the good news that Christ Jesus died for our sins, is able to save people from every people group and every tongue?

It is only possible because the LORD Almighty is the Maker of all things and is the King of all nations. He alone is God, all by Himself with no need of any help, nor any constraint on His power to save anyone on whom His favour rests.

It is the fact that God is the LORD Almighty that gives the gospel its power.

Praise His holy Name!

July 9, 2019 - Suggested Reading Isaiah 37 for July 14th's message on Amos 4:13 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.”

Isaiah 37:16 (NIV) 

As we seek to have the view of God that Amos had and that David had - we read in Isaiah 37 that Hezekiah shares this view. With the enemy all around him, camped outside the city gates, their fingers on his neck - he takes their letter into the temple and spreads it open before the LORD and prays to the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. Isaiah knew God’s personal Name and knew that He was God over a host of angels as well as God over Israel. When Hezekiah called God enthroned between the cherubim, he was referring to God’s presence in the temple, in the Holy of Holies, above the Atonement Cover that rested on the Ark of the Covenant. This Atonement Cover had a golden cherub on each end of the cover with wings stretched towards the other, and God promised that He would meet His people there. (Ex 25:17-22). Yet this man-made cover is a shadow of the reality in heaven, for whenever a vision of God in His heavenly sanctuary was revealed to a prophet, that prophet would see God surrounded by angels. He is the God of angel armies, He has a host of angels, thousands upon thousands, ten thousand upon ten thousand. Hezekiah’s prayer was not that God would give him and his people strength to defeat the enemy surrounding them (his hope was different than David’s). Hezekiah’s hope was that God’s angels would defeat the enemy, and that is exactly what the bible says happened; vs 36 - Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! The LORD Almighty sits among the cherubim, He is the LORD of hosts, the LORD of angel hosts! Be encouraged today by these Words found in Hebrews 1:14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Who are we that He is mindful of us?

July 8, 2019 - Suggested Reading 1 Samuel 17 for July 14th's message on Amos 4:13 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel,
whom you have defied.”

1 Samuel 17:45 (NIV) 

On July 14 we will begin our time in the book of Amos, and I thought it would be wise for us to seek to have the same view of the LORD that Amos has, before we try to digest his message of destruction upon Israel and the nations around Israel.

What gives God the right to destroy any nation?

According to Amos 4:13 He possesses that right within Himself,

for He is the LORD (YHWH) God (elohim) Almighty (tsaba).

As we break this verse down, most of us understand that YHWH is the personal name of God, and that elohim is one Hebrew word for a divine being, but what does the Bible mean by Almighty (tsaba)? Only the NIV translates tsaba as Almighty – most other English bibles translate tsaba as host - because it means host - not host as in a person who receives guests but hosts as in a large number of people, or things, in other words Almighty refers to God’s power and control over large numbers.

The Bible records that David’s response to Goliath’s taunt was; I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel. It is impossible to exaggerate the amount of faith that young David had when he approached Goliath. That faith was not blind faith for God had previously helped David kill a lion and a bear. His actions proved his faith for despite a real risk (likelihood in most people’s mind) that David would be killed, David went down into the valley to defeat Goliath and he went armed with the name of the LORD Almighty the God of the armies of Israel. This amazing passage reveals that David believed that God has power and control over large numbers of people (Israel’s army), and that David is coming to Goliath under the authority and with the power of the God of Israel’s army, and for David that is all he needs - well plus a sling and 5 stones. We sing a song at Parkdale occasionally called God of Angel Armies which speaks to the power of God and His hosts of angels, but I wonder if we remember that God has power and control over a whole host of humans also. I know Elijah forgot this - he thought he was the only one left, and God reminded him that there are 7,000 others who haven’t bowed their knee to Baal.

Friend be encouraged today by the truth that our God is the LORD God Almighty

 – the God who has a host of humans under His authority and full of His power.

May we be counted among them!

May we place ourselves under His authority and may we step out in faith in His Name, trusting Him for the victory we need today.