Month: November 2009

Hola!

¿Como estas? I hope everyone is ready for a yummy and grateful Thanksgiving celebration. Time sure is flying these days, huh? Before we know it, Christmas will be here… and then the New Year, 2010!

In the meantime, let us put on our Bible thinking caps and consider our faith in these busy days. For some time now, we have been looking at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In particular, I have been delighted to share with you some thoughts on the Beatitudes… the “Blessed are”’s.

The beatitude this week really gets down to brass tacks. Let’s concentrate on this:

Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

With all the wonderful benefits of being one of God’s children, perhaps one of the most exciting ones would be getting to see God in heaven. Can you imagine looking face to face with Almighty and Eternal YHWH?! The Great I AM, Who Was and Is and Is To Come? After a lifetime of serving Him, you would finally get to see your Holy and invisible Creator.

The One who knows you best is God. God knew you before you were even conceived! He is the One who gave you life, who allowed you to grow in your mother’s womb and to be born, and who knew everything you would say and do from eternity past! He is the One who allows everything to happen to you that has happened (and will happen) to you and the One who has preserved your life all your days, and the One who knows the day and manner of your death.

If you are born again, God is the One who drew you to Himself, the One who called you out of the miry muck of sinful living, to be set apart unto Him for His glory. He is the One who caused the light of truth to shine on your conscience, enabling you to comprehend the love of Christ. Oh what wonderful lovingkindness has been shown to those who name the name of Christ… and to intimately see the One who is responsible for all of it is almost too much to fathom!

Yet, hear this… seeing God is serious business!

Exodus 33:20
“But,” He (God) said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see Me and live.”

1^st Samuel 6:19
And He (God) struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy of men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow.

Isaiah 6:5
And I (Isaiah) said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips , and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Mark 5:6-7
And when he (a man with an unclean spirit) saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before Him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure You by God, do not torment me.”

Revelation 1:17-18
When I (Apostle John) saw Him (Jesus), I fell at His feet as though dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, and I am the first and last, and the living One. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

There is just something frightening about being exposed to our very core, that holy men and demon-possessed men alike tremble before Almighty God. That something is sin! The evilness of sin is most comfortable in dark hidden places… and to have the fiery eyes of the Lord look upon you and your sin in judgment would be (and is) terrifying indeed.

Most people don’t want anything to do with acknowledging their sin and consequent guilt before God. Many people try to run away (escape) from it… by drinking, drugs, rationalization, good deeds, willful ignorance, self-delusion, religious ritual, self-afflicting sacrifice…etc. etc… I was one of those people, self-deluded by my ritualistic observances.

Boy, I was on my way to heaven until the Lord enabled me to see my sin for what it really was. And when I did, I was terrified! I saw my soul dangling over the pit of Hell. My self-delusion covered the reality that I was on my way to eternal damnation. Friends, don’t be deluded like I was!

Those who don’t try to escape but face the terrifying reality, and who repent and plead for God’s mercy and forgiveness, find that God is not willing that any should perish. The realization sets in that you were deathly sick and had need of a Physician. The Lord Almighty operates rescued sinners, performing heart surgery…

Ezekiel 11:19-20
And I (God) will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My rules and obey them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

This new spirit is the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is why the Bible says that a believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1^st Corinthians 6:19). Wow! With God living inside of us, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says…

Hebrews 10:19-22
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

A heart (mind/ conscience) sprinkled clean from evil is a pure heart. And only the pure in heart will see the smiling face of God in His loving and intimate fellowship!

Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

Hi!

Well, I’m back in the saddle. For those of you who like to know such things, my wife and I had another child recently. Our 4^th child is Abigail. [Our] household is still making adjustments in everyday living so as to accommodate this new person committed to our care. I personally find it amazing to contrast caring for newborn #1 vs. newborn #4. We do feel like old pros at this…

And looking down at our helpless little bundle of joy, a word comes to mind that fits right nicely to this week’s discussion of godly things… that word is Mercy. (Abigail is completely and totally at her parent’s mercy.) 😉

Let us, then, look to the Good Word for the next Beatitude in our study…

Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Recall that we have been thinking about the process of true spiritual transformation that indicates one is on the path to the Eternal Kingdom of the King of Kings, Christ Jesus; Poor in spirit, mournful, meek, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness. And then comes merciful.

So what is mercy? Do you think of pestering your younger sibling, twisting their arm in unnatural ways and applying sustained pressure until you hear them beg for mercy? Or cry “Uncle”? I used to play a game called “Mercy”. It started out where my opponent and I interlocked our fingers and proceeded to twist and gain the leverage, so as to bend backwards the fingers/ hands/ arms of the other. The one who could not endure the pain any longer would cry out mercy!

Or when you think of mercy, do you think of the last time you were pulled over for speeding and received only a warning instead of a ticket? Maybe you think that was grace demonstrated to you… undeserved favor. Or would it be merciful to stop in the middle of the road to help a slow crawling turtle make it to the other side before getting squashed? Is this mercy? Maybe this is compassion instead? Or how about not striking back at someone who struck at you, but instead, letting it go and returning niceness to them? Is that mercy? Perhaps that would be forgiveness.

Think of mercy this way: Mercy is the alleviation of distress.

Letting go of my opponent’s fingers ends the pain, the Police letting us go, saves us money and points on our license, saving the turtle from becoming a pancake spares it from potential death, and forgiving a punch to the face removes a debt of vengeance. Pain, points, death and debt are distressing and mercy brings forth these various virtues to alleviate such distresses. Wow! Mercy really is a rich word.

 So from mercy come all these other wonderful things. Let’s look clear back to Moses and his encounter with Almighty God to see something….

Exodus 34:6
And the Lord passed before him (Moses) and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering , and abounding in goodness and truth…”

Did you notice the first attribute God proclaimed for Himself? Consequently, it is no wonder that the believer who is following the path to Christ-likeness is able to be merciful too by the power of the Holy Spirit within. (Remember who Jesus is?)

Now, if mercy motivates compassion and such, what do you suppose motivates mercy? Oooo this is fun, looking higher and higher in to the heavenlies…

Ephesians 2:4-5
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…

If you guessed love, you are correct! And God is a God of love, full of loving-kindness!

Okay, so the merciful shall obtain mercy. This seems pretty straightforward. But how does mercy from God to the believer play out in every day affairs? Just think back to what mercy is; alleviation of distress. Have you ever experienced God’s mercy demonstrated in answered prayer? When a burden weighs on our mind and God through His Providence renders that burden released/ resolved/ moot, oh how sweet such mercy is indeed! The Apostle Paul experienced God’s tender mercies too…

2^nd Corinthians 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

 God, the Father of Mercies J I also like to think that God withholds chastisement sometimes…

2^nd Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

It’s a good thing for us the Lord is longsuffering by nature. Who wouldn’t want to receive mercy from God? There are so many things we do wrong, so many things we do that are an offense to our Maker, that we would be fools to block the flow of God’s mercy to us. The Lord’s half-brother has a word for those who might entertain such thoughts…

James 2:13
For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Mercy is triumphant! And God is so merciful toward us. Let us strive walk in the Spirit, being merciful as well! I know I need to be more merciful and I’m sure I’m not the only one 😉 May love dominate our motivations!

In closing, I leave you with mercy’s motivator and it’s effect!

Proverbs 10:12b
…love covers all sins.

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim

Hi Everyone,   I have a super late and super short edition for you today… I will try to send it out before pumpkin time…

We’ve been discussing the Beatitudes, which are spiritual attitudes/ manifestations of a transformed heart, whereby a redeemed sinner is heaven-bound. We are looking at these beatitudes so as to to match them up to our own spiritual condition. This next beatitude can be a big indicator of the reality of your faith, (or absence thereof). I pray this beatitude reverberates in your brain.

Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Think about being really hungry and/ or really thirsty. What would you crave the most? Let’s say you’re starving and dying of thirst… what do you suppose you would want more than anything else in the world? You would most certainly want food and drink. In fact, you would need it so desperately so as to save you from dying. Isn’t it only some three days a person can go without water before dying?

This extreme need is not too hard to comprehend, right? (Anyone see Lawrence of Arabia?)

Now do this: Simply switch the image over to your spiritual side. What would save you from spiritually dying? In keeping with the words in the beatitude, let us say righteousness.

Do you really know what righteousness is? There are a lot of concepts built into the Biblical word righteous, but I think a very simple way to think of it is to be right with God.

If you recall, I’ve said on this group list a while ago that getting right with Almighty God should be every living person’s greatest pursuit. Why? Well, those people who are not right with God by the moment they die end up in hell.

Are you right with your Maker? Do you love the Lord Jesus? Is your life consumed with honoring and pleasing Him? Do you treasure His revealed word? Do you hunger and thirst to be right with Him?

These questions I ask are personal. Only you can answer them honestly. We speak of mountains and valleys, or being on fire for the Lord or drifting away from Him. Friends, you won’t want something unless you’re seriously hungry for it. The hunger of desperation must be satisfied… there is no drifting away… is it all consuming!

Mark 12:30  
...love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

You see? It is not some or most, but all! This hungering and thirsting for righteousness becomes the bent of a true believer’s life. A sinner who’s heart has been transformed longs for Christ… when previously they were content to think and do other things, ignoring or presuming upon Him all the while.

Okay then, what of being satisfied? True satisfaction is like an itch that has been perfectly scratched! Ha! The itch is taken completely away. The need is provided for, there is no wanting again! King David spoke of this satisfaction…

Psalm 17:15
But as for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake (after physically dying) I shall be satisfied with Your likeness.

David knew he was heaven-bound. Wow! I’m 30 minutes late. Sorry!

Let me wrap up and just simply say: Christian, pursue righteousness!

**Comments/ questions/ affirmations/ objections most encouraged!  

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim