Psalm 139

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace." 

Luke 2:29 (NIV)

This verse should help clarify that Simeon believed that he had one foot in the grave. It clearly reveals a man who believed in a Sovereign God; not Sovereign like the Queen of England (who sits on a throne a long ways away from Canada and who has nothing to do with the personal lives of her "subjects"), but a God who is personally and intimately involved in the lives of each of His subjects. 

This God instructs us to call Him, Father, and He, Himself, not another, decides when to "dismiss" us. An older friend of mine, while talking with me about the death of a Christian brother, remarked, "God let him out of class early." That is "dismissal"; being released from the school of life on this broken earth. Who decides when you or I will be "dismissed"? The Sovereign Lord does! 

This children of older people struggle to answer the question of their parents as they ask, "Why am I still here?" Simeon knew that he was alive so that God's personal promise through His Spirit to Simeon, could be fulfilled. To be "dismissed in peace" is to be blessed. There will be grieving, for there is separation from loved ones, but to die in peace with God should be on ever human's bucket list! 

It is worth noting that Simeon's peace came after and through seeing the Messiah who is Jesus of Nazareth. I think of Stephen crying out: "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). Oh to see Him. To gaze upon His beauty. To see Him in His holiness! Simeon was dismissed in peace. Stephen was dismissed in peace. May each of us leave this world in peace; the peace that passes understanding. The peace that comes to us from God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

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Luke 2:22-39

"It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah." 

Luke 2:26 (NIV)

Not only was Simeon waiting for the consolation of Israel, he was also waiting to die. We have a saying: "that so and so has one foot in the grave", which we mean that they are close to death. It is a little silly, for none of us have any idea how close we are to death, yet Simeon was waiting to die. Just as he provided a good model for us in terms of waiting on the Lord, so he also provides a good model for those who have one foot in the grave. 

The first thing we notice, is Simeon's close relationship to the Spirit of God: "the Spirit was upon him, revealed to him by the Spirit, and moved by the Spirit."

He was righteous and devout. He continued strong, not only in his personal faith, but in the exercise of his religious practices in his larger faith community. 

His interest was to the nation. He was waiting for the nation's Messiah; instead of becoming completely self-focused on his own departure, he was interested in his nation's future. 

He was hopeful. Instead of bemoaning the terrible state of his country, he was actively waiting for his God to deliver them, and he was sure of what he hoped for. 

He recognized the value of the next generations. Not only did he recognize that a small boy child was the Messiah, but he took time to bless the father and the mother, and encourage their hearts. 

Oh to be in that close of a relationship to the Spirit of God; having His power at work within us, hearing His still small voice, recognizing His direction in our lives, having a hope that fills our souls and actively blessing and encouraging the generations that follow. May we emulate Simeon's behaviour this Christmas as we interact with family and friends. 

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Jeremiah 8

"Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him." 

Luke 2:25 (NIV)

Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel. He was waiting for the answer to Jeremiah's question: "Is there no balm in Gilead?" (Jer. 8:22) Here in this verse in Luke, is the biblical definition of waiting on the Sovereign Lord, for Simeon was righteous and devout; that is, Simeon was living his life by the Spirit. Waiting on the Lord is trusting Him to answer our prayers and to fulfill His promises in His time and then showing our trust by living according to His Spirit and His Word. 

We first see this balm from Gilead in Genesis 37:25, where it records that the caravan that Joseph was sold to, carried balm from Gilead. We see it again in Jeremiah 8, where Jeremiah is crying over the state of His people and is asking for a physician and for the healing balm from Gilead. 

Gilead is the area on the east side of the Jordan and it apparently produced medicine or salve of some kind that brought about healing. Healing is what Israel desperately needed; not a healing that comes from a salve, but the healing that comes from their great Healer, the Great I AM. 

Friend, do you need consoling today? Do you need comfort today? Do you need healing today? 

Give me Jesus, for He is my balm! Give me Jesus for He is my consolation! 

"Give Me Jesus", Fernando Ortega, via YouTube 

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2 Kings 11

 

"The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who "will rule all the nations with an iron scepter." And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne." 

Revelation 12:14b, 15 (NIV) 

God creates humans. He started with Adam, then Eve, and ever since then, in each mother, He works in their womb and forms the child to be born (Ps. 139:13). The devil is a murderer and a liar (Jn 8:44), and he does all he can to bring death to every child that God forms. Yet these verses in Revelation are speaking of a special child; a Son who will rule all the nations. Clearly this is the Lord Jesus Christ. What this text teaches us is that the devil is actively involved in trying to destroy the King of kings, before he has a chance to be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. 

2 Kings 11 tells the story of how close the devil came to destroying the line of David. It came down to a royal aunt and a nurse to hide little Joash and protect him from his grandmother, the murderess Athaliah. Isaiah declared, "the zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this" and our text says the same thing, "the child was snatched up to God." 

When you consider history and the amount of "royal" families who ended and disappeared, you start to understand how powerful God is and how powerful His promise to David was! He, by His own right arm, protected the royal blood line of David until the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ who is Jesus of Nazareth, was born to Mary 2,000 years ago. 

I look forward to meeting Eve, Sarah, Bathsheba, Jehosheba and the unnamed nurse, and thanking them for their role in bringing the Saviour of the world into Bethlehem so many years ago. I wonder if they knew the eternal consequences of what they were doing? 

 "Mary Did You Know", Reba McEntire, via YouTube

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2 Samuel 7

"Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this." 

Isaiah 9:7 (NIV)

The great prophet Isaiah, saw through the Spirit the promise of God to David being fulfilled. We make promises without knowing the future, BUT the LORD makes promises and establishes covenants, knowing the end from the beginning. As you read through the sins of David, of Solomon, of Rehoboam and of all the other kings that followed, you realize why the LORD told Isaiah that His zeal would accomplish this! David couldn't make this happen; no person could make this happen, but God can and God will and the descendant of David, who is the Son of God, the King of kinds and Lord of lords, and He sits on a throne that will never be removed. His kingdom is a great kingdom. A kingdom of peace, of justice and righteousness; a kingdom that will never pass away. 

As we think about a King and a kingdom, let us not forget that all this came about because the LORD, the Jehovah God made a promise to a human being named David. Friend, God is a Lover of persons. It is truth that He keeps His covenant of love to thousands and millions of people in His kingdom, but He loves individuals and works all things to the good of each individual in His kingdom. 

Friend, are you in His kingdom? Is this Lord the King of your life? Give Him your life today. Surrender every last part of who you are, what you have and what you want, to Him. 

"That's My King", Dr. S.M. Lockridge, via YouTube

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2 Samuel 12

"Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him; and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah (loved by the LORD). "

2 Samuel 12:24, 25 (NIV)

Solomon's parents did what parents have doing since the beginning of families: they named their child. No doubt they discussed it and the reason behind the name, but the LORD sent a prophet to tell them that He wanted a different name; a name that reflected how the LORD viewed their baby son. The LORD loved him! If  there is any passage in the Bible that reveals the grace of God, it is these two verses. 

Grace is unmerited favour. David and Bathsheba deserved death. They received mercy through forgiveness and punishment. In any court of justice, David, who was a murderer and an adulterer, would be dead. Even if he was shown mercy by the courts because of his position as king, surely God would not bless his union with Bathsheba. It was only right and just that their first son died; what were they thinking of, making another child? Do they have no shame? Do they have no conscience? Do they really think that God would bless such an action? But God is a God of grace; a God who not only forgives, but gives you good things on top. God not only allowed them to conceive, but He brought forth a healthy son, and then He loved the little boy. 

Make no mistake, this birth of Solomon, over 3,000 years ago, has eternal consequences, for a descendant of Solomon came up out of the water of the Jordon 1,000 years later and everyone present, heard God say: "You are my Son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased." (Lk. 3:22) The grace of God, only the grace of God! Passages like this give me hope in the midst of my broken world.

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Genesis 17

"Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him." 

Genesis 17:9 (NIV)

"YES, BUT". Only the God of all gods, can make "YES, BUT" happen. It must encourage your heart to realize that God's promise recorded in Genesis 15 was to the wife as well to the man. Abraham and Sarah didn't think so, for they contrived a means for Abraham to have a son through Hagar, BUT God was not willing to go along with their plan. "Yes Abraham, Ishmael will be a great nation", BUT the child of the promise, the child of the covenant, will come from Sarah. 

"YES, BUT"! YES, God is concerned with the world and will create His people, a nation under covenant, BUT these great covenant promises were made to an individual. They are personal promises from a Great God to a lowly human being, AND according to this passage, to his wife. 

How important was this lady named Sarah? Very important in God's eyes! God not only is concerned with Abraham being the father of this child, BUT He is also concerned that Sarah be the mother of this child. Sarah is the free woman (Gal. 4:23). Sarah is the one through whom the Messiah will come. 

Make no mistake, this birth of Isaac, over 4,000 years ago, has eternal consequences. YES, all of us are sinners, BUT all who believe that Jesus is the Christ, are forgiven and receive eternal life! 

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Genesis 3

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." 

Hebrews 2:14,15 (NIV)

The Creator speaks to the created about the consequences of their sin and rebellion. He speaks with authority. He speaks as the One who knows the end from the beginning and all His creatures would do well to listen! 

He starts the serpent, one of God's magnificent creatures, who instigated this dark day of sin and death. His punishment includes a humbling and a promise of further punishment to come; a final defeat at the hands of the child of the woman Satan so easily deceived. 

He moves then to Eve, who so foolishly believed Satan's lies about God's intentions for her. Her punishment is one of pain, but not purposeless pain, but pain associated with the defeat of Satan, for her pain has to do with child-birth; out of her pain will come the victor. 

Then finally, the Creator God addresses Adam, the man who is responsible for his wife, for himself and for the entire earth. His punishment affects the entire earth and involves his relationship to the earth. It will no longer cooperate with him; it will resist him, making his life hard and then swallowing him up in death. 

Many people scoff at the truth of the Son of God who is the son of Mary. What about you? Do you see the truth of the Son of God and son of woman, spoken by God in the garden of Eden? 

Who would have thought that God would become man and dwell among us? God thought it! God spoke it! God made it happen! Blessed be the Name of our Lord.

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Luke 8:1-15

"Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you."

Hosea 10:12 (NIV) 

Our Lord Jesus taught us that the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by preserving, produce a crop. How is our heart today? 

First of all, do we hear the Word? Have we read it today? Have we listened to it? Have we sung it? 

Secondly, have we retained what we heard? Can we remember the meaning of the Word we read or heard? What did it mean? What is the Lord saying to me about my life today? 

Thirdly, have I implemented it in my life? This will take perseverance. Implementation of God's Word in my life will take work and pain and stick to-it-ness. 

Good soil is soil that has been turned. It has had the hard plow break into it and turn it upside down. So Hosea tells the people of God to get busy and plow those areas of our lives that we have left untouched. A good way of beginning to break up the un-plowed soil in our hearts is to read the Sermon on the Mount. Just read it through and note where the Words hurt. Turn the soil upside down by confessing your revealed sin and asking God to do His work in your heart. Then go back to those verses that hurt; memorize them, cross reference them, study them - sink God's Word deep into your plowed life and wait for the fruit of unfailing love to spring forth! 

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2 Chronicles 34

"Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD." 

2 Chronicles 34:27 (NIV)

Our heart controls our actions; our heart is our will! Josiah heard the Word of God in its entirety, and his heart was responsive, which caused him to humble himself before God and tear his robes and weep over his own sin and the people's sin. Our Lord Jesus taught us that "blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted" and so this young king whose heart responded in humility to the Word of God was comforted by God Himself. 

This is our responsibility before God; when we hear the Word of God, will our hearts be responsive and cause us to weep and seek God's face? Or will we ignore the Word, harden our hearts and be ruined? Some of us weep and say the words of repentance, but when it comes time for us to act, we will not obey. Our hearts control our actions; our heart is our will. 

Josiah not only wept and humbled himself before God, but he got up from prayer and set about the very painful task of bringing his life and the life of his nation into line with the Word of God. Let us note that this revival started by the reading of God's Word. Not until they found the Scriptures, opened the Scriptures, then read the Scriptures, and not until their hearts responded to the Scriptures did revival occur.  May we be people of the Word this day!

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1 Kings 18

"Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again." 

1 Kings 18:37 (NIV) 

How many times have I longed to be like Elijah and see my prayers answered? "...A human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." (James 5:17) Yet I would not want to be Elijah in 1 Kings 18. Standing in front of a hostile crowd; the prophets of Baal who wanted to kill him and an indifferent, even hostile, group of Israelites who had suffered under famine for three years because of his prayer. Standing in front of a soaking wet stone alter, with wood, a dead bull and water in a trench, with his life and ministry completely dependent upon God answering his prayer to light the sacrifice at that moment, this is the most important prayer he will ever utter. 

The stakes are huge and a wise person pays attention to the words of this prayer. What does Elijah say that prevails with God, that causes the God of heaven and earth to respond with fire? It seems as if he is testing God in his prayer, but that can't be true for he is obeying God in this "test". Elijah prays not only that they would know that YHWH is God, but they would also know that the mission of this God is turn the hearts of the people back to Him. The root cause of their divided kingdom, their lack of water and food, their external enemies that threaten, and their social issues is there hearts. God wants to bless them and cause them to prosper, but their hearts must be turned first. This is an effectual prayer of a righteous person. 

Change my heart, O God. Make it ever true.

Change my heart, O God. May I be like you. 

You are the Potter, I am the clay. 

Mold me and make me

This is what I pray

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Deuteronomy 10:12 thru 11:32

"Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer."

Deuteronomy 10:16 (NIV) 

If normal circumcision is painful (if you doubt that, watch this clip from The Nativity Story from 3:46 and on...) then circumcision of the heart must be really painful! You may say, "This is figurative John. Moses isn't talking about your organ that pumps blood." And you are correct. God wasn't talking about the organ we call the heart in Genesis 8, nor in Deuteronomy 10, but there will be real pain. Even the people of Israel had a problem with the evil inclination of their hearts and they were commanded to cut the evil out of their hearts. 

This passage gives us the clearest definition of the spiritual meaning of the word, "heart". Our heart controls our actions, our heart is our will. We always find a way to do evil, for where there is a will, there is a way. To love God is to keep His requirements, His decrees, His laws and commands forever. It isn't just a warm feeling of adoration towards a God who loved us and chose us to be His! Love requires us to make the painful choice to bring justice for those who can't defend themselves and to give money and food to foreigners who live among us. Love requires us to cut away and kill the part of our heart that wants to fit in with the godless people who live all around us. It requires us to dare to worship and to wait for God to act on our behalf, instead of following the crowds and their belief and behaviour systems. 

What a gift God has given us in our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ! "In HIM you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands." (Col. 2:11) May we submit to the Spirit today as He cuts away at our heart, removing those evil inclinations. 

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Genesis 8

"The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done." 

Genesis 8:21 (NIV) 

This verse spells out the problem of every human that has ever been born on the face of the earth. This problem is common to all humans, no matter of our gender, or our skin colour or language, our size or intelligence; no matter whether we were born 4,000 years ago or 1 day ago. "...Every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood." 

Every parent knows this truth, well every parent that isn't in a state of denial knows it. We don't have to teach our children how to do wrong (that comes naturaly); we have to spend considerable effort to teach our children how to do good. Why do children have to be taught to share and to speak truth and to think of others? Because every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood! So called "child rearing experts" have fought this tooth and nail, seeking to persuade us that children are born morally neutral, and yet the evidence against this lie, is in every home, every playground, every classroom, and under every Christmas tree. 

I love to see a rainbow. It brings delight to my heart as I remember the promise of God that was sealed by the sign of the rainbow; a sign of His mercy and forbearance, a promise never to wipe us all out again. But I also love to see the cross, for it was on the cross that God dealt with the root cause of the flood; it was on the cross that the evil human heart was dealt a death blow, by a pure human heart dying in our place, so that all who believe, all who call on the Lord Jesus Christ's Name, would have their evil heart replaced with a heart of pure love - the heart of our Saviour! 

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Luke 1:39-55

"He has been mindful...the Mighty One has done great things for me...He has performed mighty deeds...He has brought down rulers...He has filled the hungry...He has helped his servant Israel." 

Luke 1:39-55 (NIV)

Mary's song is all past tense! It is true that she is already pregnant with our Lord (past tense), and yet  bringing down rulers and filling the hungry are deeds that still have not been completed on this earth in this time. This is the song of a faith-filled woman! 

A person with faith believes that God has heard them and the request has been granted. A person of faith knows that very Presence of our Lord Jesus makes everything right - although everything seems wrong. A person of faith takes God at His Word, believing that He has the power and will to make His promises come true. Every promise, every little Word, every jot of the pen is the proclamation of the Almighty God, who cannot lie, and who makes His promises come true! A person of faith realizes that if God has said it, it is as if it has already happened. A person of faith leaves the details, like timing, to their God. 

Mary will soon hear Simeon's words of warning and in too short of a time after that, will watch her son, who is God's Son also, be tortured and executed. Yet this young Jewish girl, inspired by the Spirit of God, utters words of faith. Absolute and utter conviction that the conception of this child means that every wrong will be righted and every promise come true. This conviction causes her to praise God as if these things yet to come, have already happened. 

I wonder if we will have the faith of this young Jewish girl and praise God for answered prayer, as we face what we will face today? 

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Luke 1:39-55

"He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors." 

Luke 1:54-55 (NIV) 

Promises! Promises! Promises! God remembers and keeps His promises! I have forgotten and/or broken so many promises to Wanda over the last 27 years, that I try really hard not to make any promises. I wonder if you would accept my reason/excuse that most of those broken promises weren't my fault, for events out of my control caused me to be unable to fulfill my promises. 

Praise God that He is not like me or any other human! What He says, He will do and He does. What He says will happen; He makes it happen. He promised Abraham. He promised Israel (Jacob). He promised David. Mary praises His Great Name for remembering His promises and bringing them to pass through this child who is in her womb. 

Here in these words we hear echoes of Isaiah 44:21-23: "Remember these things, Jacob, for you Israel, are my servant. I have made you, you are my servant; Israel, I will not forget you. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Sing for joy, you heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, you earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel." And we realize that Mary knows that her pregnancy is beginning of the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy, as she raises her voice in praise and joy over what God will do through Jesus. 

May we know the truth of this precious salvation. Join Mary in praising our Great God today. 

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Luke 1:39-55

"He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts." 

Luke 1:51 (NIV) 

One of the most refreshing things about young children is the way they verbalize whatever they are thinking. They say the most amazing things and it always blesses us, for a while, but then we teach them to cover their thoughts up. We call it politeness and it is true that we couldn't survive very long as adults without learning the skill of politeness, but it is also true that politeness leads to falseness, deception and even guile. 

Being proud in our innermost thoughts is the state of every human. It is especially easy to identify in our society where everything is about us and our personal satisfaction and fulfillment. Mary, could see it in her society where her life was worth nothing to her Roman rulers. This young lady had a spiritual maturity beyond her years and a depth of inside into her human nature and the nature of God comparable to the great prophets. Read our Lord's instructions to us in Luke 17:10: "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'' Do these words not echo the words and heart of His mother, Mary, as she responds to Gabriel's announcement? "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May your word to me be fulfilled."  (Luke 1:38) 

Oh friend, how are we with our innermost thoughts? If we find ourselves thinking thoughts like, "Why me?", "How dare he" or "I deserve better" we are on the way to being scattered by God. 

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Luke 1:39-55

"...For he had been mindful of the humble state of his servant." 

Luke 1:46

 I find it astounding that in this age of "so-called" gender equality, that so much ridicule is heaped upon this young Jewish lady. It could be a reaction to the false deification of Mary by the Roman Catholic Church, but I suspect it has more to do with the attempt of Satan and humans who will do anything to try to destroy our faith in the truth that Jesus of Nazareth was born of Mary but conceived through the Holy Spirit. 

There is much talk in these days of the "fable" of Mary's virginity. Although it is presented by these agents of Satan as a twisting of facts by "the church", they are actually attacking the young lady herself. They are attacking her morality and her verity. An offshoot of this attack is the claim that this beautiful psalm of praise could not have been written by a young Jewish girl, but must have been placed in her mouth by the writer of the gospel. I don't think Mary would have paid them much find, for she knew that the Eternal God, the Great I Am, was mindful of her and her humble state. When Elisabeth announces to Mary that Mary's baby is the Lord, this beautiful song of praise comes from her lips and no one else's! 

It is fitting that at the dawning of the age of grace where men and women and children are equal in Christ, through the Presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, that the Holy Spirit chooses a girl whom the world treats with contempt, to not only bear the Saviour of the world, but to utter one of the most beautiful songs of praise ever written to our Great God. 

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