Salt & Light Blog

Romans 11 God Loves the Lost as Much as He Loves the Saved

5/16/2016

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:29

Romans 11
It is a privilege to be saved, but it is not a reason to be arrogant. We may boast, but we cannot boast in ourselves. We can only boast in Jesus Christ. He saved us, we didn’t. It was God’s great boundless grace which saved us, not our work but His.
Yet, I have seen and maybe I’ve felt it at sometimes, Christians who act as if the world is made up of fools and that as God’s children they are better than the world. I get weary of seeing the hateful messages from people who proclaim Christ yet elevate themselves and degrade the lost. It is not love to demean people and we are supposed to love (John 13:34-35). Some people who claim to be Christians use religion as an excuse for anti-Semitism and other bigotries. God is not an anti-Semite, He does not hate the Jewish people. He chose them. He calls them His treasured possession. Look what He says about Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

If we truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, then we will cherish what and who He cherishes. Some people claim God rejected Israel when they rejected Him. But that is a fallacy. It is a lie to keep our focus on honoring ourselves and dishonoring others instead of honoring The LORD. Paul says it like this in verses 1-6,
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

The Lord has always kept a remnant of Israel for Himself. From Elijah and the seven thousand to Paul, Peter, James, and John to people like me the Jewish believers who live today. God chooses and calls whom He will and He will show His grace and mercy on whom He chooses (Exodus 33:19). Salvation is His. The Lord has His reasons, His ways are not our ways; His thinking is much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). He has a plan. He is the beginning and the end and He knows the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13, Mark 13:32). Isaiah 46:9-11 reads,
  remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
    I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
    and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
    and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
    the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
    I have purposed, and I will do it.

It is wonderful to be saved, but we didn’t save ourselves. Our part in salvation was submitting to God. God did and does the rest. God called us and opened our eyes to the Jesus. Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead for us. The Father adopted us. The Holy Spirit indwells and transforms us. Do you know that even the people who rejected Christ, who couldn’t see the truth of who He is played a part in making the way for salvation open to you? Verses 7-16 read,
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
    eyes that would not see
    and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.”
9 And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
    a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
    and bend their backs forever.”
11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
God adores us and He chose us, but He loves the lost too. We are not more worthy than they are. We are not better. God allowed us to come to know Him and He wants them to come to know Him too. He is calling them. They are lost in unawareness of who The Lord is. Their eyes are closed and their hearts are hard, just like ours used to be. Was it hate and humiliation that brought you to God? Did someone argue about how right they were and wrong and stupid you were to tell you about the love of Jesus? Did name calling bring you to the point where you called on Jesus’ name? Of course not. It was love in action that broke your stone heart. It was the Word of God lived out that made the scales fall from your eyes.
We were not always adopted into God’s family. God transplanted us from the princedom of the world into the Kingdom of Heaven. He made us a part of Him. In John 14:18-21 Jesus described the unity with God like this,
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
The Son is in the Father, believers in the Son, and the Son in believers. It is a concept that is beyond our human thinking, one that hurts my head when I try to envision it. Paul used one of Jesus’ favorite illustrations to describe it, that of the branches and the vine (Matthew 21:33-46, John 15:1-11). Verses 17-24 say,
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

God grafted you in. He didn’t have to. He broke of some of the natural branches and put you in their place. Do you realize that He could have made salvation come by birth if He had chosen that way? He could have said all of Jacob’s descendants and no one else would be saved. But He gave the whole world the opportunity for salvation through Jesus Christ. It is God who made the way for you to know Him. It was not and is not us. Verses 25-27 read,
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
    he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
27 “and this will be my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins.”
If some of Israel had not rejected Jesus as Messiah, would the Gospel have ever made it to gentiles? If the Pharisees had not been so set on saving themselves through the law, would the apostles have spread the Word of God to the world? Verses 28-32 read,
As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

God chose Israel and called them His treasured possession; He has not changed His mind. God cherishes them. We are not better than anyone else. Our salvation has nothing to do with our own efforts. The Lord cherishes you as well. He has chosen to heap grace and mercy on you. He has called you a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9). He has called you friend (John15:15). He has called you sons and daughters (2 Corinthians 6:18). Do not forget that. God has not and will not change His mind! We may not understand why God does what He does, but we don’t have to understand it, we only need to trust Him. Verses 33-36 read,
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

You were made from God, through Him and for Him and so was Israel, every lost person, every single person on this earth. Give God the glory for who you are, not yourself.

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Romans 9 Sovereign God Chose You

5/14/2016

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Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you Matthew 7:7

Romans 9
Believer, you were chosen by God to be His very own. Not everyone will answer God’s call to faith, but you did. He chose you, He offered you the right to become His son or daughter, and you seized the opportunity. So many people don’t answer. So many choose to seek redemption through other roads, by erred philosophies, or don’t seek at all and choose ignorance. But you were selected and you answered the call. In Revelation 3:20-21 Jesus said,
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.  The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

If you are a believer, then you answered and you sit with God on His throne as His son or daughter. You were elected, you are preferred, desired, and cherry-picked to be the cherished child of God. Though He knocks, not many answer. Some cannot muster the faith to believe such a simple truth as the Gospel. Some cannot submit their own will to His and insist on finding their own way to salvation. They won’t hear Jesus tell them, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). I have loved ones who have rejected Christ. I have loved ones who will not give in and believe that He died and resurrected to give them life. And it breaks my heart. I would do absolutely anything if it could save them. But their salvation is not up to me. I can only tell them the truth and live out the truth in my life. It is up to the Lord to call and them to answer.
Paul described this using his fellow Jews. They had been offered the truth from the beginning but most of them chose death in the law over life in Christ. His heart broke for them but he couldn’t force them to choose faith. He could only move on to those who might listen and believe. Verses 1-5 read,
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Look at how passionate Paul was that the Jewish people believe. If he could have given up his own salvation for their sake, he would have. Do you love people that much? Really? Many of us are not even willing to give up a bit of comfort or pride in order to share the Gospel with someone. If we are not willing to endure a minute of awkwardness for someone I seriously doubt we would be willing to endure an eternity of torment for them. God loves the lost as much as He loves you and that love is immense. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul described God’s love like this as he prayed for them to understand it,
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21).

He loves you with a love so wide, high, deep, and long that you can only even begin to fathom it through the Holy Spirit. He loves that person God is prompting you to speak to just as much. He suffered the cross for you and for her, can you suffer a little discomfort to let her hear Jesus’ knock?
If there are so many people lost, if the Jewish people had the whole thing and still didn’t believe, if the people you speak to still reject Him, then is God’s word a failure? No. Verses 6-13 read,
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Esau had the same parents, the same choices, even more so than Jacob. Esau was favored by Isaac. But it was Jacob who was chosen by God to become Israel. It was Jacob who answered God’s call. Does it seem unfair? Does it seem like God just threw Esau away before he was even born? It was Esau who sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:29-34). He chose to give his calling away for the satisfaction of his stomach. God gave him freewill and he exercised it. Did the Lord know he would? Yes. Did the Lord want him to do it? Of course not! God doesn’t want a single one of us to choose death (Ezekiel 33:11, 1 Timothy 2:4). If Esau had chosen not to sell his birthright, Jacob still would have become Israel. God always sees to it, that those who follow Him in faith become the people we were created to become.
God is God! He created you. He created the universe. He chose your lineage. He chose you! He is Sovereign Almighty. Verses 14-18 read,
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

It may be very difficult to understand why God didn’t simply save everyone or why He gave us freewill. But there would be no relationship in that kind of salvation. We would be mindless lemmings. We all have the freedom to choose Jesus Christ. So many don’t. God knew from before our birth, before our grandparents’ birth, and at the creation of the world who we would be and if we would choose Him. He knows if Jenny from the block will bow down and proclaim Jesus as Lord. We do not. If He chooses to harden her heart it is not because He is rejecting her, it is for a good purpose for those who have loved him and answered the call to follow Him. He knows who will choose Him. He can harden hearts, soften hearts, make breakthroughs, and build barriers. He can remove stumbling blocks and place them. He is God.
It seems unfair. It seems like He’s playing favorites. It is not He who is playing favorites, it is us! He pursues, opens, and gives. It is up to us to seek, knock, and ask. In Matthew 7:7-11 Jesus said,
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Maybe you still find it unfair. But remember this; you are human and God is The LORD. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. He is God, His thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). Verses 19-29 read,
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
    and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
    we would have been like Sodom
    and become like Gomorrah.”

The Jewish people who rejected Jesus as Messiah, made it so that the Gospel of Christ would be preached to rest of the world. God knew from the beginning that most of the world would not receive Him, He made the way from the beginning for us to be His people, His children, and His beloved bride. God did not condemn the ones who rejected Him to death, they condemned themselves by refusing to answer the call. He, being All-knowing Loving God, used their stubbornness for our good. We are not better than them. We are chosen by God. Our salvation is not from any effort of our own. It is God. God can and will save whomever He chooses. Romans 11:17-20 says it like this,
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.

There is one difference between the saved and the lost and that is in how we answered God’s call. We either answered with faith to submit to His work, or pride and choose our own work. Verses 30-33 say,
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
    and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Believer, you can be called Believer, Beloved, and Chosen because of God. It is His work, His call, and His love which has saved you. You didn’t do it. You only answered the door and let Him come in. Relish that blessing. Celebrate your election! Don’t be arrogant and think you’re better than anyone else because you are chosen. Look at them and realize that God loves them deeply and vastly and be the instrument He uses to call them into that relationship with Him. Give up a few moments of discomfort so they can enjoy an eternity of abundant joyful life.

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Romans 8 Walking in the Freedom of the Love of God, United with The Spirit of God, Reflecting the Son of God.

5/13/2016

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For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6 on photo of Ponce de Leon Lighthouse in Ponce Inlet, Florida by Anna Bonet

Romans 8
We’ve been reading what the law is and what its purpose is. We’ve learned that the law cannot save us or transform us. It cannot make us righteous and it cannot give us life. The law reveals sin (Romans 7:7), it shows us the holiness of God and our inability to reach that holiness without God. The law brings death (Romans 7:10) but Jesus conquered death when He gave up His life on the cross and rose from the dead in the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:57-58). God loves us so much, He chose to give us a part of Himself, Jesus Christ the Son of God. Jesus said this about Himself in John 3:16-18,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

He took the consequences of sin, for anyone who chooses to believe that He is the Son of God and that He died and resurrected; He is the Christ, the Savior of mankind. Verses 1-4 read,
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Not only did the Lord God take the consequence of sin, which is death away from us, but He also gave us life. He disabled the law for us. It no longer has the power to make us sin and die. We are not focused on the law anymore. That attention and effort into keeping the law leads to temptation, sin, and failure. We are not subject to the law. We can’t break laws where laws do not exist (Romans 4:15). He gives us life, new life, new selves, and a new character through His Spirit. Verses 5-11 read,
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

The Holy Spirit isn’t set up in a tent within you, ready to leave at any moment. He is entrenched in you, deeply-rooted, and joined with you. He changes you in ways that the world cannot grasp. He loves us and frees us from the law, from our elemental desires for ourselves and from the constant moral war of the soul. He gives us peace with God, a relationship with Him which enables us to please Him. He gives us a new mind and heart and changes us from the lost sinner who cannot do good, even when she thinks she is, to the chosen child of God who delights the Lord and has become the image of her Father who is Righteous. Verses 12-17 say,
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Did you know it is not your good works that please God, but your relationship with Him that pleases Him? Hosea 6:6 reads,
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
As a parent, which delights you more, your child’s good grades or her hugs? Are you more pleased when she cleans her room or when she cuddles up next to you? Do you beam with pride when people recognize you in her? If she didn’t clean her room or came home with poor grades would you stop being her parent? Would you disown her because tripped up? I doubt you would. I think you might step in and teach her how and why to clean her room. You would sit by her side and figure out why she was unable to do well in school and help her do her best.
Those times of learning to become who we are meant to be are not always easy. It is a struggle to become who we are meant to be. Have you ever heard people warn you not to pray for patience? Why? Because the way to learn patience is by having to be patient. The way to grow faith is to exercise it. The way to learn kindness is to be kind when it is not natural. Strength doesn’t just happen. We become strong by struggling. We become conquerors by overcoming. Victory requires a battle. While eternity will not have tears, this present life is filled with suffering. Yet that suffering is infinitesimal when we compare it to the beauty of the person God is making us into, His glory, His very likeness, His sons. Verses 18-25 reads,
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Read verse 19 again, it does not read the Son of God who is Jesus Christ; it reads sons of God, us! At the end of our struggle, we will be revealed as the sons of God, the image of Jesus Christ. Our suffering, the toil and labor of this life is all leading to the Day of the Lord. Jesus will come, every eye will see Him (Revelation 1:7), every heart will recognize Him. Some hearts will melt with fear and the realization that they were wrong. Others will leap with joy at our salvation. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is LORD! (Philippians 2:10-11).Then believers both living and dead will be lifted up into the clouds with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:17), revealed as His and changed instantly, perfected and complete (1 Corinthians 15:52). Then the rest of the people, those who finally believed too late will face the wrath of God and experience the death they chose when they rejected Christ (Revelation 14:19-20).
They live that death now and we live that life now. We are learning and becoming more and more the image of Christ, taking His character of love and reflecting Jesus to the world by the fruit of The Spirit so that they can know Him too. But it is not always easy to become who we were made to be. It is sometimes very difficult. We survive it, because we know who we are becoming, where we are going, and who we are going to spend eternity with. We are not perfect yet. Sometimes the struggle can be overwhelmingly difficult but it never has to overwhelm us. We are not alone. The Holy Spirit, God Himself is living within us and in the beauty that is our One Triune God communes with Himself so we can commune with Him. He is on our side. He wants our righteousness so much that He prays for us when we can’t do it for ourselves. He does all that in order to bring out the best for us and make us into His image so we can be recognized as His precious children and bring more of those people He loves home to Him. Verses 26-30 read,
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

This life can be hard but the love of God is greater! The struggle can be agonizing but God’s love is ecstatic. His love is joy, and that joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). God’s Spirit is not just on you, He is not merely visiting you. He is indwelled in you, united to you and nothing and no one can rip Him out of you. He loves you profoundly and totally. His roots are too deep to ever get Him out entirely. He loves you too much to let you be captured, oppressed, and defeated by the world. Verses 31-39 say,

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Romans 7 Following Rules is not Following Christ

5/12/2016

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Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8

Romans 7
If you are a believer in Christ, you are not only not under the law, but you are free from it. It no longer has authority over you, it is not your master, and it has no right to influence you. Yet too many of us still live in relation to the law. We choose to give it power over us, and live by a set of rules. We say to ourselves and often to one another:

Do not listen to that music
Do not eat this or drink that
Do not dance
Do not say this list of words

Those rules and whatever rules you have made for yourself, seem good. The problem is that the laws you have made for yourself to make you a good Christian are not what makes you good. Those rules can and will bring more sin, or deviance from the righteousness of Christ into your life. We are supposed to follow Christ, not rules. We are supposed to let the Holy Spirit transform our minds and hearts, not trust the law will do it. Don’t we trust that Jesus death and resurrection holds the power He promised it does? Don’t we trust that we died to the law? Romans 6:1-5 says,
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
That means we are free from the law, delivered from its dominion over us. Romans 7 verses 1-6 uses the symbol of marriage to describe our present relationship to law and sin.
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

It is the law which accuses us of sin and calls us sinners. Believer, you are not a sinner any more. The Lord forgave all your sins, past, present, and future 1 Peter 3:18-19 says it this way,
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

Why do we keep resuscitating the law that Jesus put to death? Why do we feed the law and make it so strong in our lives, when we have God Himself ingrained into our souls to give us life and make us whole and righteous? We are released from the law; it does not have any power over us, except what we give it. We can trust God. He will not lead us to displease Him. Sin is a choice we make when we try and live by the law, the flesh (our basal desires) and the world’s standards. The law has its purposes but its purpose is not to rule you. Verses 7-12 read,
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

This passage might be a bit difficult to understand for some of us. I can try to elucidate by using a baby as an example. A baby has not learned any rules or morals. He can’t do something wrong. A father would not punish his six month old son for crying in anger. A six month doesn’t know what anger is or of any laws against anger, there is no law against anger for him. For a baby, sin does not exist, because the law doesn’t exist. As he grows, he will learn the laws, rules, and morals of the world. When he is a toddler, his father will teach him that temper tantrums are not permitted. When he has one at three or four years old after he has learned that they are not allowed, he will be subject to punishment for it.
Now imagine another scenario, a child is placed in a room filled with hundreds of wonderful toys. He goes into the room and he plays with whatever toys suit him and he is not doing anything wrong. Now imagine the same child, room, and toys but this time there is a rule. The child may not play with the train set in the corner, he can play with any of the other hundreds of toys, just not the train set. Two things will happen. The first is that the moment he touches the train set, he has sinned. Before the rule, he could touch the train and it wouldn’t have been a sin but with the rule, it is a sin. Second, try as he might, knowing he is not allowed to touch the train will make him think about the train and want to touch it. The rule for not touching the train will awaken a desire to touch it. The harder the child works to follow the rule, the more he thinks about it and wants to. Verses 13-20 say it this way,
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

The law is there to reveal God’s righteousness to the world. It is there to reveal our disparity with God’s holiness and show us our need of Him. When we keep trying to follow it after we have become believers, we are constantly presenting ourselves with temptation to satisfy our flesh rather than please the Lord follow His Spirit.
No matter how hard a person tries to be good apart from God, he cannot be because under the law, righteousness is impossible. There is no virtue in any of us without God because the law doesn’t bring righteousness it reveals sin. Philippians 3:7-11 reads,
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Following the law, leads to temptation and sin. There will be a constant war within us as we try to be good and please God through obedience to the law rather than obedience to God. Verses 21-25 read,
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Who will deliver us from the body of death? It is the Lord our God Jesus Christ! He delivered us when He laid down His life to destroy sin and resurrected to give us new life. Our flesh will tend toward trying to keep the law, but we have the mind of Christ, the Spirit of God, and a new heart. We do not follow the Law of Moses now, we follow the law of God. The law of God is not rules and rituals. The law of God is love, truth, and freedom. We are told to fulfill it by loving one another, caring about one another, and submitting to one another (John 15:12, Ephesians 5:21, Galatians 6:2). We fulfill it by living out the fruit of the Spirit as He makes us into the image of Jesus. 1 John 4:7-12 encourages us to live the law of God which is love.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

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Deuteronomy 33 Part Two: The Priests’ Blessing

4/6/2016

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The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Psalm 110:4

Deuteronomy 33 Verses 8-11
Today we continue reading Moses’ prophetic blessings to the tribes of Israel with the blessing to Levi. Verses 8 reads,
And of Levi he said,
“Give to Levi your Thummim,
    and your Urim to your godly one,
whom you tested at Massah,
    with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah;
The Urim and Thummin are mentioned in Exodus 28:30 to describe the garments Aaron as the high priest of Israel would wear.
And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron's heart, when he goes in before the Lord. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly.
But who is the godly one? Moses referred to the high priest, the one who would enter into the Holy of holies each year on behalf of Israel, but it also refers to Jesus, our high priest. Israel tested God with them at Massah and Meribah when they questioned if He was among them and Moses proved His presence and provision by having water spring from a rock (Exodus 17:1-7).
We are the priests and prophets now. The Lord has given us His Thummin as He gave it to Levi. The Thummin protected the high priest. It was placed over his heart and told Him the will of God as he entered into The Lord’s Presence. He has given us His Urim as He gave it to Aaron, Eleazar, and Jesus Christ. The Urim had a specific job described in Numbers 27:18-23
So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. 19 Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. 20 You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. 21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.”22 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, 23 and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.
The Thummim and Urim showed Israel God’s will. It is described in Jewish Literature as a stone or stick which was black on one side and white on the other Thummim on one side and Urim on the other. The priest would inquire of the Lord and toss the Urim like dice, casting lots and revealing the Lord’s answer (1 Samuel 14:40-42). Priests were not all prophets and without the Spirit, this was how God’s will was revealed. The Apostles cast lots to determine who would replace Judas before they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:26).
Believers have the Thummim and the Urim, the access to know God’s will because we have The Lord actually living within us! We do not have to question His presence, He is Emmanuel God with us.
Verse 9 reads,
who said of his father and mother,
    ‘I regard them not’;
he disowned his brothers
    and ignored his children.
For they observed your word
    and kept your covenant.
In the wilderness, the tribe of Israel sided with Moses and God over Israel when Israel worshipped the golden calf. They carried out God’s command and killed their fellow Israelites in love of The Lord (Exodus 32:25-29). Following Jesus can’t be done with half a heart. He requires our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. In Matthew 10:34-39 Jesus said,
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Levi proved they were worthy, they loved God more than they loved their relatives. They cared about the covenant they had made with the Lord and understood that loving God so fervently, even to the point of defending His Word with the sword was how Israel would be saved.
Following Jesus requires our entire being. We can’t be spilt. We are no longer part of the world concerned with worldly matters. We seek the Kingdom of God and trust God to be our provision (Matthew 6:33). We are not part of that world anymore. That is what Jesus meant when he answered people with excuses for not following him in Matthew 8:18-22.
Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
The Word of God is revealed to us, it is inscribed on our hearts and lived out in our lives. We are a royal priesthood and part of our service to God involves spreading the word, teaching it to people and thereby worshipping the Lord. Verse 10 reads,
They shall teach Jacob your rules
    and Israel your law;
they shall put incense before you
    and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
Verse 10 is a concise summary of the priestly duties to teach the law, to worship and minister to the Lord through maintaining the incense, showbread and lamps, and to offer the sacrifices for forgiveness of sin. The aroma of the incense and the burnt offerings was pleasing to God. Incense represents the prayers of the people rising to God. The duties have not really changed except that now we do not make burnt offerings; we worship in Spirit and truth, we pray and offer our sacrifices of praise. Every believer can and should teach God’s word because every one of has been made part of the priesthood (Hebrews 5:12). Hebrews 13:12-16 describes our priestly responsibility of sacrifice this way,
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Our works do not save us. They cannot earn us salvation. But our works do glorify the Lord, reveal Jesus to the world, and bring the good news of Christ to the lost. Jesus defeated the enemy forever when He rose from the dead and each time we share that, each time we love someone as Jesus loved us, and each time He is glorified it is a defeat for the devil and he loses another slave. Verse 11 says it this way,
Bless, O Lord, his substance,
    and accept the work of his hands;
crush the loins of his adversaries,
    of those who hate him, that they rise not again.

Believer, you are a priest, this blessing is for you! You live in God’s presence because He lives in you. He shares His will with you. He shares His word with you. He has made righteous. You are free to love Him zealously with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. The devil your adversary is defeated.

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Deuteronomy 26 Why Should You Give God the Tithe?

3/30/2016

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Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. Malachi 3:10

Deuteronomy 26
Do you know why you tithe, why you offer the firstfruits to The Lord? I think it is important to know the reason behind the actions we take. Blind worship leads to worshipping who you do not know. And I’ll be honest, up to now, the reason I have tithed has been because it is a commandment and I am showing my faith and obedience to God by trusting Him to be my God. But today, I realize that is not the main reason the Lord wants us to give Him our firstfruits. We are supposed to give to Him with a certain attitude. Verses 1-4 read,
When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. 3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ 4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.
The first part of our response to God is an acknowledgement that God has saved us and brought us into The Promised Land. We give to Him, because He gave to us. The Promised Land is the eternal life the Lord gave us, it is the new life in Christ. Whatever work we do from the point of salvation on is for Him, for the Kingdom of God. Our jobs, our family life, our church life, and our recreational life all take on new purposes to glorify God. The result of our work, the fruit is God’s. We acknowledge it is He who does the sowing, the reaping, the saving, the healing, the transforming, and everything else and that we are given the honor of being the vehicle of His hands. 1 Corinthians 10:31 reads,
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
The reason we give our firstfruits to God is in response of what He has given us and who He has made us to be. Verses 5-11 read,
And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6 And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 7 Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. 9 And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. 11 And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

Are you the same person you were when you were saved? I hope not. God took you and sanctified you, He set you apart like He set Abraham apart. He took you out of slavery, through suffering, and brought you to eternal life. He miraculously saved you. Each time we give, we respond to God and say, “You gave me all this, you saved me, you transformed me, so I am giving back to you the firstfruits of your harvest.” Tithing is a joyful experience. God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 reads,
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Sharing the fruits of labor with those who need it is a reason to feast with them. God did not give us our money and provision for us alone. He gave it to us, the Levite (who represents the church and clergy), and the sojourner, the wanderer who has not yet made it home. He gave us all He has so that we can be generous to the poor, the church, the lost, and so that we could enjoy it too. Verses 12-16 read,
When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, 13 then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. 14 I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. 15 Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

When we give, we are supposed to make sure we have already dealt with the sin in our lives. God doesn’t want the tithes of the lost. He doesn’t need their money. When they give it is out of self-veneration not worship to God. When we give, it is not to make us good. It is not a guilt offering. It is because God made us righteous, because we were cleansed by Jesus blood, and indwelled with the Holy Spirit. God does not forgive sins because we give; we give because He forgave our sins. And He tells us to ask for blessings when we give! Seriously! We don’t give because He will bless, but He does bless us when we give with the right attitude and reasons.
Giving our firstfruits is our response to The Lord for giving us His firstfruits. He gave His only begotten Son, so we could become His sons and daughters. He imbued us with His Nature. He made us new. He brought us out of slavery, through suffering in the wilderness, to eternal life. He gave us everything and we respond to Him by giving back the first and the best. We acknowledge it is not ours and not for us alone. It is His and for His glory, to make Him known. Yes, we do it because He commanded we do it, but we do it knowing the reason and purpose. Verses 16-19 read,
This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. 18 And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, 19 and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.

Believer, you are God’s treasured possession. He has made you holy as He is holy. You are meant to stand out in the world because of your love, devotion to the Lord, and your faith. Giving Him His tithe shows the world how great He is, how cherished you are and beloved they are.
The tithe is more than something we do each paycheck; it is a joyful response to the Lord for who He is and who He has made you to be. It provides for the poor and for the clergy. It shows your faith and proves you are adored by The Lord. It gives people a picture of salvation and makes The Lord known. Believer, I encourage you, the next time you put your check in the plate, or click “pay now” for your tithe to remember who God is and who He has made you. I encourage you to prayerfully acknowledge your gratitude and awareness of the miracle of salvation. I encourage you to remember your money and provision are not for you alone. It is for you, the church, the sojourner, the widow, the poor, and the orphan. It is for God’s work and He has given you the honor of participating in it. Let it be a celebration for God’s fame and glory.

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Deuteronomy 25 Humiliation is not Godly

3/29/2016

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For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 2 Corinthians 7:10

Deuteronomy 25
God is not into humiliating anyone. Punishments were not given to strip someone’s dignity, laws were not formed to shame a person. Punishments and laws are for teaching, building up, and discipline. Verses 1-3 read,
If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, 2 then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. 3 Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.
Very often today people feel punishment ought to include degradation, especially with social media being so widespread. I’ve seen photos of people having to wear the signs of their wrongdoing, so they wouldn’t repeat the sin, not because they were taught the reason but because humiliation would supposedly cause them to not to repeat the crime. Tearing them down that way causes bitterness and resentment, not love and discipline. God clearly does not want us to humiliate one another. The worst beating a man should receive was forty strikes of the whip. Later, to ensure that this law was not broken, people were whipped forty less one. But also lost was that each case was different, not every case deserved forty lashes. What was also lost was that the lashes were meant to be the entire punishment. The fact that dignity should not be stripped from the man was lost.
When Jesus was punished during and after His trial, they beat Him, derided Him, and put him to death (John 19). The law was broken in every step of His trial and crucifixion. He endured shame at every step of the crucifixion for us. Hebrews 12:2 reads,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Love does not humiliate, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not rejoice at wrong-doing. Yet even through all that hate, Jesus bore all our sins, He endured. In living out love, in walking in the Spirit, in becoming the image of Christ, we must exemplify love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a reads,
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.

If we love one another we don’t humiliate each other. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). We exemplify Christ, so others can see Him. Degrading people doesn’t let them see Jesus, it causes hate, and it kills the spirit. We do not break their hearts. The sinner (saved or not) must break his own heart.
Humiliation can come in many ways. Depriving someone of a need or a livelihood causes humiliation. Verse 4 reads,
You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.
Even a legacy should not be stolen from someone, dignity must be upheld even after death. Verses 5-10 read,
If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. 6 And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 7 And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.’ 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ 9 then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.’ 10 And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’
Pulling off a sandal was a symbol of shame which eventually became a symbol for passing property to another person. In the case. Making sure a brother had a legacy was important so his name should continue on. The brother who chose not to give his brother an heir was shaming his brother. To take the shame away from the dead brother, the wife would have to shame the brother in public and make it equal. This ceremonial degradation allowed the brother not to marry the woman without bringing and dishonor to her or to the brother. When a person is forced to marry against his will, the future may hold abuse, hate, and other indignity.
Even in a fight, there are lines we just do not cross. Verses 11-12 read,
When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, 12 then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.
To do something like that, to hurt a man in such a horrible way was not only unfair, but the injury humiliates the man immediately and can cause permanent damage that will continue to humiliate him in the future.
In order not to disgrace others, we have to not disgrace ourselves; we have to be fair. Verses 13-16 read,
You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. 14 You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. 15 A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God.

Having two different weights meant that you carried with you the ability to cheat others. You had a weight that looked heavier or lighter than it really was and so stole. Being a cheat beings dishonor to the people you deal with. Acting in fairness and honesty shows respect and brings honor.
It is up to God to get vengeance, it is up to Him to decide who is punished and who is not. If someone treats us unfairly, we do not have to worry about getting back, humiliating them, or anything else. God takes care of it. Our ability to refrain from shaming one another shows our faith in The Lord. Verses 17-19 read,
Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

It is natural to want to heap shame on people who hurt us. It is supernatural to love our enemies, to pray for them, and bless them. It will never be the humiliation and condemnation of another that brings them to Jesus. It will be His love manifested in us that reveals the truth. Conviction and shame are very different. Conviction leads to repentance and life. Shame turns the focus onto the self and leads to death.

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Deuteronomy 18:9-22 Live Supernaturally or Unnaturally

3/18/2016

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So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

Deuteronomy 18:9-22
The Kingdom of God is not like the world. We live supernaturally and though many in the world think they live supernaturally, they live unnaturally. We look to God as the giver of all good things, be it provision, wisdom, discernment, or gifts. But the people of the world look to themselves, and the devil is happy to answer them in unnatural ways to keep them from seeking God and the joy of knowing Him.
Even Christians can be pulled into the aberrant ways of the world seeking the supernatural way we should be living our lives and falling instead for what the world thinks is beyond the natural. Moses warned the Israelites not to practice any of the perverted practices of the nations they would dispossess. Verses 9-14 read,
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.”
The call of connecting to the “other side” is strong. People know there is more to life than life but they don’t know where to look. They look to death for the answers they seek. They want to know what the future holds and think the dead can help or that they need to “find themselves” to get the answers.
The devil will never give them the Truth; he is the father of lies. John 8:43-45 says it this way,
Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

If they would only look to God. Jesus holds the answers they seek. We are the vehicles Holy Spirit uses to tell them and show them. They can’t believe the truth and be free unless they hear the truth and see God’s immense power displayed through His inexhaustible love. As followers of Christ we look to God, we live in this world as Citizens of Heaven who see the invisible and eternal. Our power comes not from ourselves or the prince of the power of the air but from God who indwells us with His Holy Spirit, from the Grace of the Father who looks at us through the blood of Jesus Christ. He gives us each gifts and by these gifts and by the fruit of the Spirit’s transformative power that we lead others to live in Him above the natural world around us, walking in the supernatural way of Mighty God.
Moses told the Israelites they would not need to look to the unnatural for direction because God would speak to them through another prophet like him. They could not handle the power of God speaking directly to them, they needed an intermediary. Verses 15-19 read,
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.”
Today, believers can each speak directly to God and hear directly from Him. While we all have the ability to prophesy, some have the gift of prophecy. Whether it is your gift or not, you are called to speak God’s word to the nations. You are called to use whatever gifts you have to demonstrate the truth to the masses, build up the church, and minister to whosoever. But it is a great responsibility and it must be done, not by exalting ourselves as mouthpieces for God but exalting God as His servants.
When you show mercy, it is God’s mercy you reveal, not your own. When you heal, it is God’s healing you express, not yours. When you prophesy, it best be God’s word you speak and not your own. God commanded we obey His word and speaking your own word in God’s name will lead to death for the hearer and the speaker. Verses 20-22 read,
“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

The Lord gives us discernment. We know His word and voice if we follow Him. Israel did not have the Holy Spirit in them, but we do. They had to go by the external, we hear and discern Him by His Spirit. Jesus described Holy Spirit like this in John 16:12-15,
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

We can recognize the truth because, He is in us. If you have trouble discerning God’s voice ask yourself, “Did the word glorify God or man?” “Did it come to pass?” “Is it true, does it agree with Scripture?” If you prophesy, do not speak out of your own hubris, heart, or head. Speak the truth, demonstrate love, and free the captives.
Do not seek the answers in the world, the devil will be happy to feed you lies; look to the Lord your God and He will give you the truth, peace, and every answer you seek. He wants you to find the truth. Proverbs 25:2 reads,
It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out.

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2 Kings 23:31-37 Pharaoh Called Himself Sovereign but Yahweh is Sovereign LORD

2/17/2016

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In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.” Isaiah 54:14-17

2 Kings 23:31-37
When Josiah died, his son Jehoahaz became king in his place. Verses 31-32 read,
“Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.”
Why did he reign only three months? As soon as Pharaoh Neco knew Josiah was no longer king, he swept in to take Jerusalem for himself. Verses 33-34 tell us,
“And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.”
Jehoahaz was taken into captivity immediately. He died very quickly once in Egypt. But the pharaoh was not done with Jerusalem. He made Eliakim, Jehoahaz’s older brother the king in his stead and ordered Jerusalem to pay him a hefty tribute. Not only that but he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. Why would he do that?
He did it to show his power and authority over the kings and so over the people. He did it to say he was a god to be worshipped and that he was better and greater than The LORD. Eliakim means God raises up. It speaks of God’s sovereignty and honors The Lord as the one who causes us to stand and be who He ordains us to be. Neco changed his name to show his godhood over the king, to show it was him that raised him to be king. He changed his name to Jehoiakim, which means raised by Yahweh. He was exalting himself to The LORD’s place. He was saying he was Yahweh, the God of Israel.
But saying God is not The LORD doesn’t change the fact. Saying The Lord is not Sovereign doesn’t make it so. Saying he was a god, didn’t make him God. It is God who held Neco back until Josiah died per His promise to the king (2 Kings 22:19-20). The LORD is Yahweh. Daniel 2:20-22 puts it this way,
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
    to whom belong wisdom and might.
21 He changes times and seasons;
    he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
    and knowledge to those who have understanding;
22 he reveals deep and hidden things;
    he knows what is in the darkness,
    and the light dwells with him.”
Neco thought he was a god and he claimed to be God, but he was doing The Lord’s will in carrying out the prophecy of His wrath toward Judah recorded in 2 Kings 22:16-20. Jehoiakim may have thought he was raised up by Neco, but it was The Lord who set him up as king. He paid tribute to the pharaoh when he should have given praise and honor to The Lord. Verses 35-37 read,
“And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.”
Not only did Jehoiakim pay tribute to Neco and allow him to be his lord and god, but he put the burden for paying the tax on the people. Jehoiakim made the people give offerings to his false god.
Men may conspire against God and His people. They brashly claim there is no God and brazenly worship themselves as gods but in doing so, they only prove that there is One God and He is The LORD. Acts 4:23-31 puts it like this,
“When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servants said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
    and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers were gathered together,
    against the Lord and against his Anointed’--
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
The People of Israel, other nations, Herod, and Pilate all planned to bring Jesus down but in doing so fulfilled God’s plan and let Jesus lay His life down for us. There scheme made the crucifixion and Resurrection possible. Their plan was God’s plan. Because God is Sovereign, we can be bold. We can have the courage to do His work because we know that nothing can stand against God’s purposes. The Lord comforts us with this truth in Isaiah 54:16-17.
“Behold, I have created the smith
    who blows the fire of coals
    and produces a weapon for its purpose.
I have also created the ravager to destroy;
17     no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
    and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
    and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”
We can face anything in Jesus because we know He is The LORD. He is Yahweh. We can persevere through any trial, tribulation, and disaster because though God does not send the trouble (Isaiah 54:15), He will use for His great purpose and our good. Romans 8:28-30 reads,
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Believer, be encouraged The LORD, your God is Sovereign. He is Almighty, All-Sufficient, and All-Powerful. He was and is and is to come.

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2 Kings 17 Hoshea and Israel Rejected the LORD so He Made a Covenant with Other Nations

2/10/2016

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Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

2 Kings 17
Verses 1-5 read,
“In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.”
Hoshea’s evil against The Lord was not the same as his predecessors. Their evil had been to lead Israel to sin in Jeroboam’s twisted copy of worship. But Hoshea’s wickedness went further. He went against God and His people in a new way. When the king of Assyria came against him, instead of fighting for the Lord, the freedom of his people, or the protection of Israel, Hoshea made Shalmaneser his lord and paid him tribute, much like Ahaz had done for Shalmaneser’s father Tiglath-Pileser. But Hoshea didn’t keep his end of the contract. He sent to Egypt for help and did not pay his tribute to Assyria. He assumed that So would take care of him and fight Assyria. But that isn’t what happened. Assyria invaded Israel, threw Hoshea in prison and besieged Samaria for three years.
Israel had worshipped the Lord wrongly. They had idols, made with their own hands and worshipped them. But Hoshea gave his life and soul to a man, Shalmaneser instead of The Lord. He called a man lord and gave him offerings as if he were a god. He couldn’t even do that with any honesty. He treacherously lied to his lord and hoped So would come to his rescue. He looked to man after man instead of The Lord God Almighty.
How often do we do that? We look to the government to save us, to a lawyer to fight for us, to a pastor to lead us, or a colleague to battle for us. We give our honor and our allegiance to an earthly nation, king, celebrity, or religious leader. And how often is that allegiance false? How often is that loyalty only so that we can save ourselves? Are we ready to give our shaky fidelity to the next guy, who is more charming, stronger, or better? People’s loyalty to others seems to move with every wave of the storm.
But The Lord never waivers. He is steadfast. He is faithful to us regardless of our lack of faithfulness to Him. He fights for us. Why is our faith to Him so mobile? Why is our faith so tottering? He is The LORD! He is Able. He is Almighty. He is The Creator. The more we exercise our faith in Him, the more He will strengthen our faith until it is as unfaltering and persistent as Christ’s. 2 Thessalonians 3:2-5 puts it this way,
“and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 4 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
Hoshea’s sin led to Israel’s fall. Verse 6 reads,
“In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”
Shalmaneser didn’t leave any Israelites. Every last one of them was taken into captivity in foreign places, scattered far and wide. Their promised land was no longer their home. They rejected The Covenant God had made with them. God’s purpose was not hidden. His reasons were not unknown. Israel had ignored the Covenant. Verses 7-23 in The Message explain it.
“The exile came about because of sin: The children of Israel sinned against God, their God, who had delivered them from Egypt and the brutal oppression of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They took up with other gods, fell in with the ways of life of the pagan nations God had chased off, and went along with whatever their kings did. They did all kinds of things on the sly, things offensive to their God, then openly and shamelessly built local sex-and-religion shrines at every available site. They set up their sex-and-religion symbols at practically every crossroads. Everywhere you looked there was smoke from their pagan offerings to the deities—the identical offerings that had gotten the pagan nations off into exile. They had accumulated a long list of evil actions and God was fed up, fed up with their persistent worship of gods carved out of deadwood or shaped out of clay, even though God had plainly said, “Don’t do this—ever!”
13 God had taken a stand against Israel and Judah, speaking clearly through countless holy prophets and seers time and time again, “Turn away from your evil way of life. Do what I tell you and have been telling you in The Revelation I gave your ancestors and of which I’ve kept reminding you ever since through my servants the prophets.”
14-15 But they wouldn’t listen. If anything, they were even more bullheaded than their stubborn ancestors, if that’s possible. They were contemptuous of his instructions, the solemn and holy covenant he had made with their ancestors, and of his repeated reminders and warnings. They lived a “nothing” life and became “nothings”—just like the pagan peoples all around them. They were well-warned: God said, “Don’t!” but they did it anyway.
16-17 They threw out everything God, their God, had told them, and replaced him with two statue-gods shaped like bull-calves and then a phallic pole for the whore goddess Asherah. They worshiped cosmic forces—sky gods and goddesses—and frequented the sex-and-religion shrines of Baal. They even sank so low as to offer their own sons and daughters as sacrificial burnt offerings! They indulged in all the black arts of magic and sorcery. In short, they prostituted themselves to every kind of evil available to them. And God had had enough.
18-20 God was so thoroughly angry that he got rid of them, got them out of the country for good until only one tribe was left—Judah. (Judah, actually, wasn’t much better, for Judah also failed to keep God’s commands, falling into the same way of life that Israel had adopted.) God rejected everyone connected with Israel, made life hard for them, and permitted anyone with a mind to exploit them to do so. And then this final No as he threw them out of his sight.
21-23 Back at the time that God ripped Israel out of their place in the family of David, they had made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Jeroboam debauched Israel—turned them away from serving God and led them into a life of total sin. The children of Israel went along with all the sins that Jeroboam did, never murmured so much as a word of protest. In the end, God spoke a final No to Israel and turned his back on them. He had given them fair warning, and plenty of time, through the preaching of all his servants the prophets. Then he exiled Israel from her land to Assyria. And that’s where they are now.”
Verse 9 says, “And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right.” Who were they kidding that they thought The Lord didn’t know? Who are we kidding when we commit our secret sins and think because no one knows that somehow God doesn’t know? God sees what is done in secret, in the dark, and in the light. What we do in secret should honor God, what we do in public should show us as humble as Jesus (Matthew 6). Hebrews 4:10-14 puts it this way,
“for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
They scorned The Lord’s Covenant and so The Lord foreshadowed what would happen with the Gospel when they refused Christ and He did something extraordinary. Verses 24-33 read,
“And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear theLord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put themin the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvitesburned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 So they feared the Lordbut also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.”
The Lord spoke to the people in Samaria and the rest of what used to belong to Israel in a way they understood. He proclaimed himself to them and gave them a priest to teach them how to worship Him. Did they do any better than Israel? They included God among their gods. But The Lord remained faithful anyway. He did not only taught them how to fear Him, he made a covenant with them. They were not Israel, yet He chose them and offered them His covenant of salvation. Verses 34-41 read,
“To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lordcommanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.35 The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. 37 And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, 39 but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” 40 However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.”
Israel abandoned The Lord and so The Lord gave Himself to other nations. They were not holy (separate and called out from other nations) but they were given God’s word. They didn’t listen, they took The Lord and put him with their gods and idols. They worshipped Him alongside the plethora of gods they already had. God did it so that Israel and Judah would become jealous and realize they were not special. It was not them who chose God but God who chose them.
Believer, God chose you. He didn’t have to. He didn’t have to offer Himself to you but He did. You do not need to turn to anyone or anything else to save you or fight for you. “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14:14). When you are in trouble, turn to The Lord not men. When you are in need to The Lord. When you are happy turn to The Lord. Whether you are celebrating or suffering the LORD is your Faithful God. He is always with you. He will never forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6). Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you. Do what is right and stop dividing your loyalty between God and whichever man looks like he might rescue you this week. James 4:8 reads,
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

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Romans 11 God Loves the Lost as Much as He Loves the Saved

Romans 9 Sovereign God Chose You

Romans 8 Walking in the Freedom of the Love of God, United with The Spirit of God, Reflecting the Son of God.

Romans 7 Following Rules is not Following Christ

Deuteronomy 33 Part Two: The Priests’ Blessing

Deuteronomy 26 Why Should You Give God the Tithe?

Deuteronomy 25 Humiliation is not Godly

Deuteronomy 18:9-22 Live Supernaturally or Unnaturally

2 Kings 23:31-37 Pharaoh Called Himself Sovereign but Yahweh is Sovereign LORD

2 Kings 17 Hoshea and Israel Rejected the LORD so He Made a Covenant with Other Nations

Donna Campbell

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