Threat or Promise

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16

I recently passed a billboard which said,  "When you die, you will face God."  Let me ask you a question.  How do you feel about that statement, that "When you die, you will face God"?  Do you consider it a threat or a promise?  Those who are threatened by it most likely have never trusted Jesus to be their Savior, so they are without His help, without hope for the future, and without God in their lives.  Their future prospects are worse than dismal, and the only resources they have are the ones they themselves can generate.

If, on the other hand, the promise of meeting God fills you with great anticipation at being face to face with your heavenly Father who created and adopted you; and with your Savior, who died so you could be forgiven and become a member of God family; and with the Holy Spirit who guides, comforts and empowers those who belong to God, you are greatly blessed.  Your life is infused with God's supernatural power and wisdom.  Regardless of your circumstances on earth, you have the hope of a glorious future.  The Baby of Bethlehem, whose birth we celebrate during the Christmas season, has brought help for the helpless, hope for the hopeless, and lives in the hearts of all who belong to God through Him.  And the invitation to come to Christ is open to all who want to do so and will put their faith in Him.

    

Father, today I pray for all those who do not know You through your Son.  May they realize that a threatening future can become the precious promise of God when they trust Jesus as Savior, and may they act on that knowledge.  Amen.

We Would Like to See Jesus

“…we would like to see Jesus.”  John 12:21

One year, several days before Christmas, I put a manger scene on the table in my entry hall.  Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus were placed inside the stable.  The wise men and some shepherds were gathered closely around the stable, worshipping the baby.  Some camels, a cow, some sheep, and a goat completed the grouping.

My granddaughter, Mary Frances, who was 3 years old, walked over to see the crèche.  She took one look and began rearranging the figures, pulling the animals, the shepherds, and the wise men back away from the manger.  When I asked her why she was doing that, her reply was God’s Christmas message to me.  She said, “So I can see Jesus.”

This was a reminder to me of how easy it is to allow other things to obscure my view of Jesus and how important it is to move aside anything that blocks my sight of Him.

Hebrews 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”

Lord Jesus, may I never allow anything to keep me from seeing you.  Amen.

Appreciation

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."  James 1:17

Everything we have and everything we are has come to us as gifts from God. Jesus reminded us of that in the last part of John 15:5, when He said, "Apart from me you can do nothing." Think about it. Apart from God we would never have been born. Apart from Him, our hearts would cease to beat and our lungs would stop breathing. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are completely dependent upon the God Who created us to sustain us.

I have seen this question two or three times lately,"If today you had only what you thanked God for yesterday, what would you have?" Just how appreciative are we of all that God has done for us and given us? A little chorus says, "God is so good," and then "God is so good to me!" If God has been good to us, He is certainly due our appreciation, our gratitude, our praise, and our worship. It is a good thing to set aside one day a year to give thanks to God as a nation, but surely we should thank Him everyday and often more than once a day, because He lavishes His blessings upon us, not only daily, but many times during the day. Lamentations 3:22-23 says,  "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Challenge: Try thanking God every night when you go to bed for five specific things He has given you or done for you that day.  Caution: this may be habit forming. I hope it is. Happy Thanksgiving!

Father, thank You for life and salvation and all of Your multitudinous blessings.  May we live in a constant attitude of appreciation and thankfulness for all You have done for us and all You have given us.  Amen.     

Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.”  Joshua 6:2

Joshua probably needed some extra encouragement when he heard God’s unusual battle plans for Jericho. Certainly no other city has ever been conquered that way.  Even so, Joshua obeyed God explicitly, and God honored his obedience by giving him victory over the city.

Jericho was a well guarded city.  It was built on a mound, which made it harder to attack.  It had two walls.  There was a six foot thick wall around the edge of the mound.  Twelve to fifteen feet inside the first wall was a second wall which was twelve feet thick and possibly as high as thirty to thirty five feet.  The city was crowded, so people built houses in the spaces between the two walls.  Rahab’s house may have been one of these.

God loves to use plans that seem foolish to the world.  Then God gets the credit for what He has done. We find the plan in Joshua 6:3-5, “March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

If you had been Joshua, what would you have thought of God’s plan?  Much to Joshua’s credit, he had the people do exactly what God had instructed.

James Montgomery Boice, “The thing that most honors God and that God most delights to honor is obedience...Not only is there no substitute for obedience to God, there is no substitute for obedience in all particulars--to the very end.  And when God does not act as quickly as we think He should or precisely in the way we are convinced He should act, we are still not justified in pulling back or adopting an alternative procedure.”

Joshua and the Israelites followed God’s instructions exactly.  Joshua 6:15-16, 20 tells us the result of their obedience, “On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times.The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!’...When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.”

Before the wall of Jericho collapsed, God had given some specific instructions.  He said that only Rahab and all who were in her house were to be spared.  Joshua sent the two men who had spied out the land to rescue Rahab and everyone who was in her house.  They kept their promise to Rahab and rescued Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her.  As God is faithful to us, He desires for us to be faithful to others.

Father, great is Your faithfulness to me.  May I be faithful to my family, my friends, and most of all to You.  Amen.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."  I John 4:10

The word that comes to my mind on Veteran's Day is sacrifice. One definition for the word "sacrifice" in Webster's Dictionary is: "the surrender or destruction of something valued for the sake of something else."  

    

Mothers sacrifice time, energy, and good nights of unbroken sleep for the sake of their children. Daddies sacrifice their time and energy and things they would like to do for themselves in order to provide financially for their families or toss a football or baseball with their kids. Soldiers, sailors, marines, and members of the Air Force sacrifice time at home with their families and put themselves in danger. They may be wounded or killed for our freedom.  

Of course, Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. Imagine leaving the glory and splendor of heaven where He was omniscient, all powerful, sovereign, worshiped by angels, and adored by all in the heavenly realm, and coming to this old earth as a helpless baby. Imagine rubbing elbows with sinful people all around. Imagine having no home, walking dusty roads, and being tired, hungry, and thirsty for the sake of others. Imagine being stripped of clothes, being whipped, mocked, and crowned with thorns. And imagine being nailed to a cross and being left there until death eased His intense pain and humiliation.  Imagine choosing to do this for all of us. That's what love does. It sacrifices.

Father, thank You for all the people who have sacrificed for us.  Thank You for Your sacrifice in giving Your Son.  Thank You, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth and dying for us.  May we be willing to sacrifice with love for others.  Amen.

(reposted from May 2014)

Rahab and the Spies

"Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim.  'Go, look over the land,' he said, 'especially Jericho.'"  Joshua 2:1a

It is good military strategy to know the enemy and what to expect before going into battle.  Joshua sent the spies out privately, and they reported to him privately.  He didn't want to run the risk of frightening the people with an unfavorable report.

The spies went to the house of a prostitute.  Two strange men could enter there without being particularly noticed.  It was a good place to get information and hide.  But there was a much more important reason why Rahab's house was chosen.  Both Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 indicate that Rahab had put her faith in God before the spies ever came to Jericho.

Rahab hid the spies and helped them escape from the city, but she asked that she and her family be spared when the Israelites attacked Jericho.  She gave words of confirmation which surely encouraged Joshua when she told the spies,  "I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.  We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.  When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you," [and here is Rahab's confession of faith] "for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below."  Joshua 2:9-11.

The spies promised to save Rahab and her family if she would gather her family into her house and tie a scarlet cord in the window  to identify it during the invasion.  Rahab met both conditions.  Rahab exercised faith in God and followed up that faith with actions that showed her belief.  James says true faith will be accompanied by works, by action.

The scarlet cord represents the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  It reminds us of the Passover when the Jews who had believed God and marked their door frames with lamb's blood were protected from the death angel.

Rahab's family could be saved only if they met the conditions of the spies by gathering in the house and hanging the scarlet cord in the window.  People can be saved spiritually only if they meet God's conditions by placing their faith in Christ and taking Him as Savior.  All who come to God by faith are accepted equally.  There is a saying,  "The ground is level at the foot of the cross."  This Canaanite prostitute appears in the genealogy of King David and of Jesus.

Thank You, Father, that You accept all people who come to You by faith in Your Son and take them into Your forever family.  Amen.

Complainers

"Do everything without complaining or arguing."  Philippians 2:14

Have you ever gotten tired of hearing someone's complaints?  Did you ever have a child who whined often?  Have you ever asked someone how they are, and they told you in great detail, giving you much more information than you wanted to hear and none of it good?

The Israelites were world class complainers.  And God grew weary of hearing them grumble the same old tired phrases.  Numbers 21:5,  "They spoke against God and against Moses, and said, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  There is no bread!  There is no water!  And we detest this miserable food!'"  Same song, umpteenth verse.

God had heard enough!  He sent poisonous snakes into their midst.  Many of the people were bitten, and some of them died.  The Israelites came to Moses and confessed that they had sinned.  Then they asked Moses to pray that God would take the snakes away.  God did an unusual thing in answer to Moses' prayer.  He instructed Moses to make a snake and fasten it to a pole.  Anyone who was bitten could look at the snake and live.  Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole as instructed.  Those who had been bitten lived if they looked up at the snake.  They had to believe what God had said, and look to prove their faith in His words, in order to be healed.

The bronze snake on the pole foreshadows Jesus on the cross.  The complaining of the Israelites represents our sins.  We are helpless to escape the consequences of our sins, but, just as God made a way for those who had been bitten to live, He made a way for sinners--and that means all of us--to be forgiven and have eternal life.  If we look to Jesus in faith, all our sins will be forgiven, and we will escape the punishment we are due.

Jesus recognized the connection between the bronze snake on the pole and the cross when He said,  "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him."  John 3:14-15

Father, thank You for providing a way for people to be forgiven and have eternal life through the death of Your Son on the cross.  Amen.