Jeremiah 10

"But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath." 

Jeremiah 10:10 (NIV) 

Eternal - always has been; always will be. Without beginning and without end.  

King - the highest authority among the highest forms of creation. The ultimate rule of all residing within His kingdom or territory. 

Eternal King - is a beautiful description of the God we worship, the God above all gods, the God who sits on a throne that is firmly established over all the earth and over all of the spiritual forces of heaven.

His throne is based on righteousness and justice (Ps. 89:14). He laughs at the most powerful humans on earth as they conspire against Him (Ps. 2:4). He looks down over humans and throws them into confusion as they seek to reach Him (Ge. 11:9). He oversees even the smallest creatures by caring for their needs and setting their point of death (Job 39:1; Matt. 10:29). The spiritual forces of evil, the mighty angels of darkness do his bidding (1 Kgs. 22:22; Lk. 8:28; Jude 9). The wind and the waves obey Him (Mk. 4:41), yet we as humans rebel; resist and seek our own way. What fools we were until one day, in His glorious grace, He turned His face toward us and called to us through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We heard the gospel; we believed and He sent His Spirit into us and we became children of the Eternal King. Children of the king, children of the King! (1 Jn. 3:1) 

"Child of the King", Skeeter Davis, via YouTube

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Ephesians 1:1-14

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you in power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." 

Ephesians 3:16, 17a (NIV)

Paul is praying for Christians. That is, he is praying for people who have already "asked Jesus into their heart". So many of us parents pray for the day that our children come to that place of praying and asking Jesus to come into their heart, and it is a glorious day, isn't it! But it isn't full glory. 

Paul is demonstrating through his prayer that the act of salvation (hearing/believing/receiving), is not the destination, it is only the first step. His prayer is not that Christ may be invited, but that Christ may dwell. To have Christ Jesus dwell, mean He lives and rules in every aspect of our lives, through His Spirit. He will only dwell where He is welcome and comfortable. Unless we as Christians purposefully surrender each area of our lives, He will not dwell with us. This takes faith. It takes hearing the Word and obeying the Word - one decision at a time, area after area in our lives. 

Faith requires God's power at work within us! So let's pray like Paul did. Let's ask the God of miracles to do miracles in our hearts and in our children's hearts! 

Change our hearts Oh Lord. 

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Matthew 19:16-30

"Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but the God all things are possible." 

Matthew 19:26 (NIV) 

The disciples believed that having money was a sign that God was pleased with you. They also believed that the more you obeyed the Law, the closer you were to God. So it blew them away when Jesus told the man to give away all his money as the "good" thing he needed to do to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

This is a wonderful passage that contains multifaceted teaching, yet if we approach it from the man's question, we realize that at the heart of the passage is the truth that there is no "good" thing we can do to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is impossible for any human to do anything that will bring them eternal life. How many millions - even billions - of people have not learned this lesson? How many people strive to find the good thing they should do in order to have eternal life with God?

Our Lord told us with God all things are possible, but there is one thing that is impossible for God. Hebrews 6:18 tells us that God cannot lie! Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." Oh friend, only God can save; only His grace, only His Spirit, only His Christ. He alone is mighty to save! 

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Mark 14:27-72

"While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." 

Luke 5:12 (NIV) 

Not if you can - NO - this man believed Jesus could; the question was: Are you willing? In this man's case, our Lord was willing and He made him clean. It seems that while our Lord walked this earth, He was willing to heal all who came to Him. Now, however in this age of grace as we see children of God succumb to sickness, accidents and death, the wise approach for us is the approach of the leper. It was the approach of the Lord in the garden. Mark records that He told God that He knew all things were possible for Him, including removing Jesus from the torturous death that awaited Him. Yet Jesus submitted to God's will - more than that - Jesus embraced God's will. 

Isaiah the prophet of old, looked forward to that moment in time and wrote, "it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer" (Isaiah 53). Peter wanted God's will for his life, and it caused the death of himself and his wife. Paul wanted God's good, pleasing and perfect will for his life and it let him to prison and death. 

The Israelites were led by God's will out of the luscious land of the Nile and into the desert of no water and no food. Where will God lead you and me? What is God's will for the dire situation before me? He is ABLE to deliver me from any circumstance, but is He WILLING? 

Oh Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 

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Mark 9:1-29

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9:23, 24 (NIV)

The father’s problem is identical to the problem the Israelites had when they looked over the promised land (Nu 14): a lack of belief! The father had enough belief to bring his son to be healed, but after seeing the disciples try and fail, he was no longer sure of that Jesus had the power to deliver his son. 

I have prayed this prayer before: “I do believe; help me to overcome my unbelief.” Without faith I can’t please God. Without faith I can’t enter the rest that God has prepared for me in Christ Jesus. Without faith I can’t move forward in my relationship with Christ Jesus. I am saved through faith; I am healed through faith and I gain victory through faith, because faith is the conduit of God’s grace and power into my life. 

This man’s unbelief was centered on the person of Christ. He was no longer sure that Jesus was able, because men had let him down. It is amazing how quick unbelief enters us when we look at the people around us instead of looking at the Lord Jesus and focusing our minds on Him. Doubts and random thoughts of unbelief are weapons our enemy uses against us. Our only defense is to pray this prayer: “I do believe; help me to overcome my unbelief.”

"Voice of Truth", Casting Crown, via YouTube 

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Daniel 3

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Daniel 3:17, 18 (NIV)

This is my most favorite story from Sunday School! Talk about confidence and faith. Here these men are, in a foreign land far from the Presence of God (the promised land and the temple) and yet they are sure that God sees them and that God is able to deliver them, and so they shake their fists at the king. However they aren’t sure that God wants to deliver them (that would be presumption). They aren’t sure that it is God’s good and pleasing will to deliver them from this horrible death, and so they tell the king this and then refuse to forsake their God. 

Now that I am older, I recognize the parallel for older Christians in this age of grace. We are quite confident that God has the ability to heal us and deliver us from all sorts of terrible illnesses and death, and yet we realize that God may not be willing to deliver us. I wish I could say that we are OK with this truth, though I know that even reading these words will expose the turmoil inside us over prayers that are answered with NO. Yet all around me, I witness Christians in these situations who refuse to stop worshiping God. (At Parkdale, Cecil Hinze comes to mind, and there are many others as well) Their confidence was not that God will allow them to escape death. Nope; their confidence was that their Lord will walk with them through the fire of death and that He will deliver them safely to the other side. Oh friend, may God give each one of us the measure of faith we need to face death like these three men.

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2 Kings 18

"The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?'"

2 Kings 18:19 (NIV)

The Assyrian didn't know where Hezekiah's confidence came from, but a person reading 2 Kings 18:5-7 can understand clearly where Hezekiah's confidence came from. "He trusted in the LORD. He held fast to the LORD. He kept the commands the LORD had given Moses, and the LORD was with him." 

Take these 3 verses from 1 Kings 18 and line them against our Lord's teaching in John 14 & 15. There is no doubt that Hezekiah is in spiritual union with the LORD, the God of Israel. Would you like to live in such a way that people wonder how you could have so much confidence in God? Trust Him. Abide in Him. Keep His commands and the Lord Jesus will abide with you. 

What a great external victory was won for God's people by the confidence their king had in the LORD. But before the external victory, there was the many internal victories, as king Hezekiah continually and systematically placed the LORD as king over his innermost being. Faith and confidence spring from submission to Christ Jesus and spiritual union with the Saviour of our souls. Friend, may each of us hold fast to our Saviour this day. 

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