My read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan has me in the Song of Solomon today. I was amused by the kinds of compliments Solomon gave the Shunamite woman. Like "I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots"; or "Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats, streaming down the hills of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young...Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of mighty men. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.' But as I was smirking my way through this, thinking I would not consider myself complimented by any of that, I came to chapter 4, verse 7: "You are altogether fair, my love; there is no flaw in you."
Wow!
Since this book can be considered (1) literal, dealing with the love of a man and a woman, (2) allegorical, relating to God's relationship with Israel, but also (3) typical, describing the love of Christ for His bride, us, the church, I felt I could take that compliment in verse 7 as something God is saying to us, His people. He does actually say that He sees no fault in us. Colossians 1:21-23: "And you, who were formerly alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and are not removed from the hope of the gospel..."
This word "gospel" was apparently a very rarely used word in the Greek until Paul adopted it. Since it means, more or less, "news so good it's almost too good to be true" there was probably not much call for it to be used. But then Paul received the revelation concerning what Jesus accomplished for all of us through His death and resurrection and this was truly almost too good to be true.
He defines it as "the gospel of peace" in Ephesians 6:15.Consider: God does not count or impute our sins against us or charge it to our account (2 Corinthians 5:19); He does not remember our sins and lawless deeds (Hebrews 10:17); He chooses to cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19) and remove them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). He says, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25).
The blood from the Old Testament animal sacrifices could only cover up the people's transgressions year by year, ("in those sacrifices there is an annual reminder of sins. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" Hebrews 10:3,4) but Jesus' perfect pure innocent blood washes them away completely."...He has appeared once at the end of the ages to put away sin by sacrificing Himself...For by one offering He has forever perfected those who are sanctified" (Hebrews 9:26 and 10:14).
That's how He can look at us and say, "You are altogether fair, my loved one, there is no flaw in you!" I've been trying to absorb that truth for years. It is so beautiful, it is almost, almost, almost too good to be true.
But since the Word of the everlasting Father says it is so, it is. Hallelujah!
Saturday, 29 August 2020
Saturday, 15 August 2020
Whopping great faith
When people used to come to us bemoaning their lack of faith, Eric always used to point out that when they got born again, they operated in a great amount of faith. I mean, believing that a virgin gave birth to a baby who was actually the Son of God...that takes faith. And to believe that this Son of God, Jesus, rose from the dead and that that affects my life today. That takes faith! So all of us who have believed in Jesus as the Son of God whose life, crucifixion, death and resurrection were all to give us new life have used faith more than we may think.
When I look at what evolutionists believe, though, their faith is really mind-boggling. They believe that out of absolutely nothing, a whole lot of gases mysteriously appeared. Not just any gases, but the right combination of gases to make a humongous explosion. Oh, and all the conditions for this explosion were somehow magically just right. Now we all know that explosions don't create anything, but only destroy. Not this explosion. This "Big Bang" created a whole universe of galaxies with trillions of stars and who knows how many planets. Preposterous!
On our particular planet, as billions of years passed, stuff began to develop. Somehow. And eventually life developed all on its own. First there was just the "simple" cell. Now I do remember from my anatomy and physiology course many years ago, that the "simple" cell is not at all simple. Google tells me "there are 13 main parts of an animal cell: cell membrane, nucleus, nucleolus, nuclear membrane, cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, ribosomes, mitochondria, centrioles, cytoskelton, vacuoles, and vesicles." If I went on to describe the function and makeup of all of the 13 main parts of the main cell, you would be sound asleep before I got anywhere close to finished. (You may already be nodding off. I can't tell.)
In the anatomy classes, I was particularly fascinated with the "differentiation" of cells, from the single-cell zygote at conception to the variety of cells that make up a body. There are nerve cells, blood cells, skin cells, cells that become heart muscle, eyes, hair, tonsils, etc., etc., etc. Absolutely miraculous! And somehow we are supposed to believe that these cells that first somehow developed on their own also learned to do this! From a single so-called simple cell to multi-celled plants and animals. You have to admit that's a stretch.
All I'm really saying here is that when people who believe in evolution want to mock us for believing in a Creator God and a virgin birth and a Saviour who took our sins and all the punishment for all our sins on Himself at His crucifixion, we can instead shake our heads at them for swallowing such a heap of baloney! I'm going to stick with my faith in a God who has proved Himself faithful in my life so often that there is no way to keep track.
When I look at what evolutionists believe, though, their faith is really mind-boggling. They believe that out of absolutely nothing, a whole lot of gases mysteriously appeared. Not just any gases, but the right combination of gases to make a humongous explosion. Oh, and all the conditions for this explosion were somehow magically just right. Now we all know that explosions don't create anything, but only destroy. Not this explosion. This "Big Bang" created a whole universe of galaxies with trillions of stars and who knows how many planets. Preposterous!
On our particular planet, as billions of years passed, stuff began to develop. Somehow. And eventually life developed all on its own. First there was just the "simple" cell. Now I do remember from my anatomy and physiology course many years ago, that the "simple" cell is not at all simple. Google tells me "there are 13 main parts of an animal cell: cell membrane, nucleus, nucleolus, nuclear membrane, cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, ribosomes, mitochondria, centrioles, cytoskelton, vacuoles, and vesicles." If I went on to describe the function and makeup of all of the 13 main parts of the main cell, you would be sound asleep before I got anywhere close to finished. (You may already be nodding off. I can't tell.)
In the anatomy classes, I was particularly fascinated with the "differentiation" of cells, from the single-cell zygote at conception to the variety of cells that make up a body. There are nerve cells, blood cells, skin cells, cells that become heart muscle, eyes, hair, tonsils, etc., etc., etc. Absolutely miraculous! And somehow we are supposed to believe that these cells that first somehow developed on their own also learned to do this! From a single so-called simple cell to multi-celled plants and animals. You have to admit that's a stretch.
All I'm really saying here is that when people who believe in evolution want to mock us for believing in a Creator God and a virgin birth and a Saviour who took our sins and all the punishment for all our sins on Himself at His crucifixion, we can instead shake our heads at them for swallowing such a heap of baloney! I'm going to stick with my faith in a God who has proved Himself faithful in my life so often that there is no way to keep track.
Brave? Not really.
I have had family and friends comment on how brave it was of me to fly to the U.S. to see my family. They may have meant foolhardy, but they said brave. I don't feel it was brave of me at all, because I had no fear. I have been standing on God's promises in Psalm 91 throughout this pandemic and will continue to do so.
Verse 1: "He (or, in my case, she) who dwells in the secret place of the Most High..." The word "dwells" here is "yashab" in the Hebrew which literally means "to sit in, or sit still." My position in Christ is that I am seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). So, simply because I am in Christ, I am seated in the secret place of the Most High, and I "shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Picture that, being in the shadow of the Almighty. How much more secure could we be?
Verse 2: "I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust." Our words have a lot of power in our lives. It is important to say what God says. Not what the media or even the finest medical minds say, but what God says. They are reporting on facts as they see them, but God sees from a higher perspective.
Verse 3: "Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence." If that's not a promise, how much more definite could He make it? "Surely" and "shall" are pretty strong words.
Verse 4: "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge." Wonderful picture of safety and security.
Verses 5,6: "You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday." That about covers it!
Verses 7,8: "A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked." I claimed verse 7 during my chemo treatments, that even if 11.000 people have major side effects from chemo, I wasn't going to. And I didn't. (In verse 8, I'm not suggesting that only the "wicked" will get the corona virus. Disease isn't selective. There is, though, the story in Numbers 13 of the 10 spies who returned from scouting out the land that God had promised He was giving them. They came back and said, "Oh, yes, God was right about it's being a land of milk and honey BUT we can never take it. Its inhabitants are too powerful for us." They believed what their eyes told them, and so discounted what God had promised over and over. The King James Bible says that was an "evil report". (So I might suggest that not agreeing with God's promises could be considered "wicked". It is certainly arrogant.)
Verses 9-12: "Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone." There we have us "dwelling" with Him again, as in verse 1. And I like to say, He gives His angels specific charge concerning me to keep and protect me in all ways.
Verse 13: "You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra. The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot." This lines up with what Jesus said to His followers in Luke 10:19: "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm you." That's a huge promise. We might be tempted like the 10 spies to discount this promise because we haven't seen it in our experience. But we must never exalt our experiences over the Word of God. (Ever notice that the devil when He was tempting Jesus quoted from Psalm 91 but stopped just before this verse?)
Verses 14-16: I'm going to personalize this, so it's not quoted exactly as written. "Because I have set my love upon Him, therefore He will deliver me; He will set me on high, because I have known His name; I shall call upon Him, and He will answer me; He will be with me in trouble; He will rescue me and honor me. With long lifeHe will satisfy me, and show me His salvation."
That is what I call my Psalm 91 immunity. So I can travel without concern. When you see me wearing a mask in public, it is not for my protection. It is for the peace of mind for all the people I meet who are afraid. Neither brave, nor foolhardy, I believe. Just resting in my Psalm 91 promises.
Verse 1: "He (or, in my case, she) who dwells in the secret place of the Most High..." The word "dwells" here is "yashab" in the Hebrew which literally means "to sit in, or sit still." My position in Christ is that I am seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). So, simply because I am in Christ, I am seated in the secret place of the Most High, and I "shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Picture that, being in the shadow of the Almighty. How much more secure could we be?
Verse 2: "I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust." Our words have a lot of power in our lives. It is important to say what God says. Not what the media or even the finest medical minds say, but what God says. They are reporting on facts as they see them, but God sees from a higher perspective.
Verse 3: "Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence." If that's not a promise, how much more definite could He make it? "Surely" and "shall" are pretty strong words.
Verse 4: "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge." Wonderful picture of safety and security.
Verses 5,6: "You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday." That about covers it!
Verses 7,8: "A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked." I claimed verse 7 during my chemo treatments, that even if 11.000 people have major side effects from chemo, I wasn't going to. And I didn't. (In verse 8, I'm not suggesting that only the "wicked" will get the corona virus. Disease isn't selective. There is, though, the story in Numbers 13 of the 10 spies who returned from scouting out the land that God had promised He was giving them. They came back and said, "Oh, yes, God was right about it's being a land of milk and honey BUT we can never take it. Its inhabitants are too powerful for us." They believed what their eyes told them, and so discounted what God had promised over and over. The King James Bible says that was an "evil report". (So I might suggest that not agreeing with God's promises could be considered "wicked". It is certainly arrogant.)
Verses 9-12: "Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone." There we have us "dwelling" with Him again, as in verse 1. And I like to say, He gives His angels specific charge concerning me to keep and protect me in all ways.
Verse 13: "You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra. The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot." This lines up with what Jesus said to His followers in Luke 10:19: "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm you." That's a huge promise. We might be tempted like the 10 spies to discount this promise because we haven't seen it in our experience. But we must never exalt our experiences over the Word of God. (Ever notice that the devil when He was tempting Jesus quoted from Psalm 91 but stopped just before this verse?)
Verses 14-16: I'm going to personalize this, so it's not quoted exactly as written. "Because I have set my love upon Him, therefore He will deliver me; He will set me on high, because I have known His name; I shall call upon Him, and He will answer me; He will be with me in trouble; He will rescue me and honor me. With long lifeHe will satisfy me, and show me His salvation."
That is what I call my Psalm 91 immunity. So I can travel without concern. When you see me wearing a mask in public, it is not for my protection. It is for the peace of mind for all the people I meet who are afraid. Neither brave, nor foolhardy, I believe. Just resting in my Psalm 91 promises.
Wednesday, 12 August 2020
Sowing and Reaping
I have often heard Luke 6:38 ("Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you") used as an offering text, and it is a good one for that. Another one commonly used for offerings is 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, 10-11: "But this I say: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work....Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God." Both point out that you reap according to how you sow.
Interesting too that God gives both sufficiency and abundance, likewise seed and bread. The sufficiency and the bread is provision for our needs, and the abundance and seed is "for every good work", so we can give and help others who have need, including individuals, our churches, other ministries, other places where we can do good and/or further the work of God's kingdom. We are "enriched for all liberality."
Paul starts a chapter earlier to talk about giving, and in the middle of that he writes this surprising verse (into which I am adding my parenthetical comments): "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich (before He came to the earth), yet for your sakes He became poor (He left all those heavenly riches behind for our sakes) that you through His poverty might become rich." There are those who would claim that this just means spiritual riches, but the context is about material giving. So it would appear that God is perfectly happy for us to be financially rich, as long as we have this giving heart, and are cheerful givers. In fact, if you look at the lists of blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28, poverty is mentioned over and over in the curses list, but certainly not in the blessings list.
In another letter, Paul says, "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good that he may have something to give him who has need" (Ephesians 4:28). We should work so that we have something to give! How freeing to have our focus on being able to be a blessing, and be able to rest in the knowledge that God is our source of supply, both bread and sufficiency as well as seed and abundance! It is usually the case that He does supply through our work, but let's trust Him for extra so we can enjoy the thrill of being a blessing to others.
But back to Luke 6:38. Its context is actually not about giving money or material things. Backing up to verse 35-37: "But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." And then we have our "Give, and it will be given to you" verse. There is mention of lending, hoping for nothing in return, so giving money is included. But it is even more about the giving of our forgiveness, giving mercy as we refrain from judging and from condemning and we will receive the same. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.
It is so easy to judge and condemn. But the truth is, we do not really know what is in the hearts of other people. We don't really know their motives. Consider, when you are at the receiving end of rudeness or unkind and unjust behaviour, that you don't know where those actions are coming from. Hurt people hurt people. We have no idea what they are dealing with on a daily basis or what kind of bad news they may just have received. Even with our family members, we need to give them the benefit of the doubt and not ascribe evil motives to them. Be ready to extend mercy and leniency. Your Father has been and continues to be merciful to you.
So let's be generous givers in the areas of finances as well as mercy and forgiveness. We have the promise that as we sow, we will also reap.
Interesting too that God gives both sufficiency and abundance, likewise seed and bread. The sufficiency and the bread is provision for our needs, and the abundance and seed is "for every good work", so we can give and help others who have need, including individuals, our churches, other ministries, other places where we can do good and/or further the work of God's kingdom. We are "enriched for all liberality."
Paul starts a chapter earlier to talk about giving, and in the middle of that he writes this surprising verse (into which I am adding my parenthetical comments): "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich (before He came to the earth), yet for your sakes He became poor (He left all those heavenly riches behind for our sakes) that you through His poverty might become rich." There are those who would claim that this just means spiritual riches, but the context is about material giving. So it would appear that God is perfectly happy for us to be financially rich, as long as we have this giving heart, and are cheerful givers. In fact, if you look at the lists of blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28, poverty is mentioned over and over in the curses list, but certainly not in the blessings list.
In another letter, Paul says, "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good that he may have something to give him who has need" (Ephesians 4:28). We should work so that we have something to give! How freeing to have our focus on being able to be a blessing, and be able to rest in the knowledge that God is our source of supply, both bread and sufficiency as well as seed and abundance! It is usually the case that He does supply through our work, but let's trust Him for extra so we can enjoy the thrill of being a blessing to others.
But back to Luke 6:38. Its context is actually not about giving money or material things. Backing up to verse 35-37: "But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." And then we have our "Give, and it will be given to you" verse. There is mention of lending, hoping for nothing in return, so giving money is included. But it is even more about the giving of our forgiveness, giving mercy as we refrain from judging and from condemning and we will receive the same. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.
It is so easy to judge and condemn. But the truth is, we do not really know what is in the hearts of other people. We don't really know their motives. Consider, when you are at the receiving end of rudeness or unkind and unjust behaviour, that you don't know where those actions are coming from. Hurt people hurt people. We have no idea what they are dealing with on a daily basis or what kind of bad news they may just have received. Even with our family members, we need to give them the benefit of the doubt and not ascribe evil motives to them. Be ready to extend mercy and leniency. Your Father has been and continues to be merciful to you.
So let's be generous givers in the areas of finances as well as mercy and forgiveness. We have the promise that as we sow, we will also reap.
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