With the insults to Christ and his followers recently by men like Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens and Jack Black, I am reminded by those who insulted Him while He was here on earth. On his way to the cross Jesus was insulted, ridiculed, reviled and viscously attacked verbally. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying…save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God! In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him. Matthew 27: 39-43.
Every insult then and now was nailed to his cross and crucified with him there. There is forgiveness for all of us at his cross, even those who insult him. Jesus does not want revenge, he is not angry; he only wants us to be forgiven. On the cross he prayed “Father forgive them they do not know what they are doing.” Forgiveness can be found at the cross. A thief who was crucified beside him believing that Jesus was the Son of God simply asked him “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23: 42-43.
In tears the apostle Paul said that “many live as the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction…and their glory is in their shame.” Philippians 3: 18-19. When Jesus is insulted, our tears are not because of the insult, our tears are for the insulters.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Ride On
Ride on! ride on in majesty! Hark! all the tribes hosanna cry; O Savior meek, pursue thy road with palms and scattered garments strowed.
Ride on! ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; O Christ, thy triumphs now begin o’er captive death and conquered sin.
Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice.
Ride on! ride on in majesty! Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh; the Father on his sapphire throne expects his own anointed Son.
Ride on! ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; bow thy meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, thy power, and reign.
Henry Hart Milman 1791-1868
"HENRY HART MILMAN." Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hart_Milman
Ride on! ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; O Christ, thy triumphs now begin o’er captive death and conquered sin.
Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice.
Ride on! ride on in majesty! Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh; the Father on his sapphire throne expects his own anointed Son.
Ride on! ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; bow thy meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, thy power, and reign.
Henry Hart Milman 1791-1868
"HENRY HART MILMAN." Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hart_Milman
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
An Important Command
Love one another. God’s people should love one another. John the Apostle repeats over and over, love one another. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” 1 John 4: 7. “ Dear friends since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4: 11. “ God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4: 16. “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” 1 John 4: 19-21.
The Apostle Peter instructs the Church to love one another. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Peter 1: 22. Finally, all of you live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers. 1 Peter 3: 8. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4: 8.
Where do I begin in quoting the Apostle Paul writing about the Church loving one another? He wrote so much on the subject. Read chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians. Paul writes in Philippians to “make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love in spirit and purpose. Philippians 2:2”.
Our Sovereign Lord Jesus commanded us directly to love one another. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13: 34. Let me draw your attention to a couple of words, command and must.For a command to believers that is so repeated and stressed in scripture why are we doing such a poor job? We treat church quarrels as a natural occurrence. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. James 4: 1-2. In the meantime many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being wounded. They leave our churches never to return. Do we care about the damage we have done? Do we regret the pain the wounds we have caused? Do we really take our Lord’s command seriously?
Love one another. Be last of all. Be servant of all. Sit in the last chair.
The Apostle Peter instructs the Church to love one another. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Peter 1: 22. Finally, all of you live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers. 1 Peter 3: 8. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4: 8.
Where do I begin in quoting the Apostle Paul writing about the Church loving one another? He wrote so much on the subject. Read chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians. Paul writes in Philippians to “make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love in spirit and purpose. Philippians 2:2”.
Our Sovereign Lord Jesus commanded us directly to love one another. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13: 34. Let me draw your attention to a couple of words, command and must.For a command to believers that is so repeated and stressed in scripture why are we doing such a poor job? We treat church quarrels as a natural occurrence. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. James 4: 1-2. In the meantime many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being wounded. They leave our churches never to return. Do we care about the damage we have done? Do we regret the pain the wounds we have caused? Do we really take our Lord’s command seriously?
Love one another. Be last of all. Be servant of all. Sit in the last chair.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Monday, February 09, 2009
Enemies At The Table
“Love your enemies”. “Pray for those who curse you.” Turn the other cheek.” Forgive “seventy-seven times.” “Be last of all.” All things Jesus taught. Sometimes, we look at these teachings and think, they can’t be done. They can’t by us, but through Christ they can. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Jesus dwells in us and we in him. If we have close fellowship with him we can follow him in his teaching of non-resentment and non-retaliation. Part of the 23rd Psalm has always puzzled me. The phrase in verse 5, “Thou preperest a table for me in the presence of my enemies.” Why would God set a table for David so his enemies could look on? I believe that David is not to sit there and gloat. He is to invite them to dinner. They are to partake of the abundance that God has provided. The best way to destroy enemies is to make them friends. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven.” Matthew 5: 44, 45. We say we want to be like Jesus, to be the person he wants us to be. I have read that scripture uses the term “son of” as an adjective. So if someone calls you a “son of contentment” this means that you are a contented person. In the verse above we are “sons of the Father if we love our enemies. We are most like the Father and look most like him if we love our enemies. Do we really want to be like Jesus? Share your table. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5: 8. “He causes the sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5: 45.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
The Horror The Joy
I saw the Lord seated on a throne high and exalted…. “Woe is me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 6: 1&5.
Someone told me this week that one sin is as bad as another. He spoke the truth and that is the great horror. There is a strange mix of joy, and horror in a relationship with God. The joy of being close and growing closer is very real but so is the horror of the awareness of sin and ugliness in my life. The closer my relationship to Jesus, the more I become aware, like Isaiah, of sin in myself and sin in the world.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the alter. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Isaiah 6: 6-7.
Ouch!! Sounds painful and it is. Once sin is seen it must be repented of and cut out. I have found that sometimes God uses people who are just like me to do the cutting. He has used other Gary’s who are arrogant, prideful, selfish and hurtful to cut out the arrogance, pride, selfishness and hurtfulness in me. Sometimes sin is a one time occurrence that once revealed can be forgiven by saying I’m sorry and never doing it again. More than I would like to admit, it is deeper than that and can only be taken care of with pain.
“My son do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Hebrews 11: 5-6.
And there is joy! He loves us. He changes us. He helps us to become the human beings he always intended us to be. Oh what a mix!
“ If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with a rod, their iniquity with flogging; but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness…Psalm 89: 30-35. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;The whole earth if full of his
glory.” Isaiah 6: 3.
Someone told me this week that one sin is as bad as another. He spoke the truth and that is the great horror. There is a strange mix of joy, and horror in a relationship with God. The joy of being close and growing closer is very real but so is the horror of the awareness of sin and ugliness in my life. The closer my relationship to Jesus, the more I become aware, like Isaiah, of sin in myself and sin in the world.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the alter. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Isaiah 6: 6-7.
Ouch!! Sounds painful and it is. Once sin is seen it must be repented of and cut out. I have found that sometimes God uses people who are just like me to do the cutting. He has used other Gary’s who are arrogant, prideful, selfish and hurtful to cut out the arrogance, pride, selfishness and hurtfulness in me. Sometimes sin is a one time occurrence that once revealed can be forgiven by saying I’m sorry and never doing it again. More than I would like to admit, it is deeper than that and can only be taken care of with pain.
“My son do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Hebrews 11: 5-6.
And there is joy! He loves us. He changes us. He helps us to become the human beings he always intended us to be. Oh what a mix!
“ If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with a rod, their iniquity with flogging; but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness…Psalm 89: 30-35. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;The whole earth if full of his
glory.” Isaiah 6: 3.
Definition 4
Habit- Is a consistent pattern in my life that for better or for worse ends up shaping the person I become.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Boring Scripture
Have you ever been reading through the Bible and given up because of the endless genealogies, or instructions on building the tabernacle and procedures for sacrifices? It never ends. Maybe you have skipped over them and started reading where the story begins again. But then you can't say you read the whole Bible through. I've done both. I know that these are important, and that they are forshadowings of Christ and His crucifixion, but they still make for boring reading.
I'm reading the Bible through and and I am forcing myself to read every name, every instruction about every hook and crevice of the tabernacle. Tedious, tedious, tedious. I was reading instructions about the tabernacle in Exodus and realized that Moses was in the very presence of God when given these instructions! I'm sure they were not boring to him. Oh that God would be so specific with me. Maybe there's a reason He is not.
Exodus 27: 8 reads; " As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made."
When I am on the mountaintop and God tells me through my heart simple instructions like be nicer to your wife, do more housecleaning, call your mother more often, drop your anger to that person who offended you, etc.. etc.. etc.. and I continue on in my own habitual way of life, why should He tell me more? I need to do the first things before I can expect more instructions and more times on the mountain.
I'm reading the Bible through and and I am forcing myself to read every name, every instruction about every hook and crevice of the tabernacle. Tedious, tedious, tedious. I was reading instructions about the tabernacle in Exodus and realized that Moses was in the very presence of God when given these instructions! I'm sure they were not boring to him. Oh that God would be so specific with me. Maybe there's a reason He is not.
Exodus 27: 8 reads; " As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made."
When I am on the mountaintop and God tells me through my heart simple instructions like be nicer to your wife, do more housecleaning, call your mother more often, drop your anger to that person who offended you, etc.. etc.. etc.. and I continue on in my own habitual way of life, why should He tell me more? I need to do the first things before I can expect more instructions and more times on the mountain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
