Isaiah 46

 "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please."

{Isaiah 46:10}  (NIV1984) 

The Sovereign LORD! The One who was and is and is to come. The God who holds time in His hand. He spoke and everything that is was formed out of nothing. He speaks and history unfolds. He alone is the Ruler of heaven and earth. There is no power, no authority, nothing that can thwart His purpose. The LORD has a purpose in all that happens. He works all things for His purpose and pleasure. The LORD is God, the only true God. 

This passage is one of the most beautiful descriptions of our Sovereign LORD. He makes known the end from the beginning, in the sense that He thinks it and speaks it and so it happens. But also in the most gracious of all acts of our God, He makes it known to us. In the Word of God we have the revelation of the beginning to the end. We have the revelation from ancient times to what is still to come. He is not a God who will not share His plans and purpose. No! The LORD is a God who graciously reveals for us the truth of the purpose and history of this earth, angels, humans and animals. These things are revealed to us, so that we might believe that He is the only true God. 

Friend, praise His Name this day. Worship Him and Him alone. Serve Him and Him alone for He alone is worthy!

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Song of Solomon 5:2 thru 6:3

My lover has gone down to his garden,

    to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies.

{Song of Solomon 6:2} (NIV1984) 

The Song of Solomon is a beautiful book. The older I get, the more appreciation I have for it. This little book seems like a book about gardening, but it isn't. No - this book is full of metaphors of the love and the physical desire between a man and a woman. Yet the New Testament teaches us that the love and physical desire between a man and a woman is a metaphor of the Lord Jesus and us, His church (Eph 5:32). This passage describes the hunger the woman has for her husband, the hunger that we have for our Lord. It describes her searching for her husband, and not finding him, until she realizes that he is in the garden with his lilies. 

I will leave you the enjoyment of figuring out all the metaphors in this passage, but the point that I would like us to remember is that she was hurt by others while she searched for him. She searched the streets and the city, when she should have gone to the garden first! 

Friend, know this truth. The Lord Jesus loves His church! He loves the individuals that make up each local church! It is true that He loves the world, but He loves His bride more! If we truly are hungry for the Lord Jesus, if we are truly and earnestly seeking His presence, then we will go to our local church and enter into the worship service. Parkdale is the Lord's garden, we are His lilies. He promises that when we gather He will be there in a special way (Mt 18). The manifest presence of the Lover of our soul! Friend, I will see you at church on Sunday, and we will enjoy our Lord together!

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2 Chronicles 15

 "All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side."

{2 Chronicles 15:15}  (NIV1984)

God never changes! He is a constant. Everything else changes but God stays the same. The God of the Old Testament is the same God in the New Testament, and the God of the New Testament is the same God we serve today. This means that we can learn from the examples given to us in the Old Testament. 

Here in this chapter of Israel’s history, we have a record of a time a king and a people decided to earnestly seek God, and a record of God’s reward in their time and geography. They heard the words of our Lord Jesus, spoken through the prophet Azariah, “if you seek Him, He will be found by you”. So they sought Him. They presented sacrifices of animals for the forgiveness of their sins. They tore down their sites and alters where they worshiped other Gods. They made a vow that they would serve God ONLY, and that they would discipline each other so that nobody in their group would turn away from the LORD. 

Friend, may we learn from these servants of God. May we daily meet God at the cross and seek forgiveness for our sins. May we rip out of our lives those things that encourage us to serve other gods. May we then offer our bodies as living sacrifices to our Lord, to serve Him only. May we help each other with this matter of whom we serve. May God bless us, our families and our church as we seek Him today!

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Psalm 63

 "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

{Psalm 63:1} (NIV1984)

As David suffered from physical thirst in the Desert of Judah, his mind turned to his spiritual state. He suffered a thirst for God; his soul thirsted and his body longed. Have we ever been in a state like this? When we need fellowship with God, and we can’t get it? When we are in a “dry and weary land”, a place where the Spirit of the Living God seems absent? Perhaps we are in this place today. 

May we learn from David’s example in this psalm. As he lay on his bed, he remembered that God has helped him. He sings to God and his soul clings to Him. He remembers seeing God’s power and glory as he worshiped in the tabernacle, and he tells God that he will worship Him again with his lips and his hands. He tells God that God's love for him is of greater value than life. Yet He is confident that he will live to worship again, and he is confident that his thirsty soul will be satisfied again with God. He is confident that God will strike his enemies down, and that God will uphold his life. 

Friend, this is real faith; the faith of Hebrews 11:6. This is a text for those dry and weary places we find ourselves in. This is a text and a man that we should emulate.   

Spirit of the Living God fall fresh on me. 

{'Spirit of the Living God', Daniel Iverson (1926) & Michael Baughen (1982)} 

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2 Kings 5:1-19

 "Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”

{2 Kings 5:13} (NIV1984)

Naaman needed healing. He had gone to great lengths to seek out a person who could heal him. He had listened to one of his slaves, gotten permission from his king, brought large sums of money and had come to his enemies to seek healing from leprosy. He had gone to the door of Elisha’s house and had listened to what Elisha’s servant told him, and now he was in a rage! We see this as simple pride, and yet, Naaman had shown humility in listening to the slave and approaching his enemies for help. The unreasonableness of Naaman’s rage shows that there was a spirit trying to stop him from being healed. It took his servants asking him this question to help him enter into healing. 

I wonder my friend, about us. We mourn over sin, we seek God’s face, we humble ourselves, and then when a simple, basic step of action is required for healing we balk. Why won’t we do the simple thing? We want healing - don’t we? We want to be rid of this sin - don’t we? Then why won’t we do the simple thing asked of us? Friend, Naaman had to enter the river, to experience the healing, he had to listen to reason, overcome his internal resistance, and then go and do the thing he was told. 

May our personal story this day have the happy, blessed ending, that Naaman’s story had! May we enter into God’s healing today!

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