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Friday, February 27, 2009

"Whether It Is Pleasing Or Displeasing"

"....Pray for us to the LORD your God..., that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do....Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God." (From Jeremiah 42:2-6)
 
Sound like any prayer requests you've heard lately?  Jeremiah 42 reveals a people who were as all of us today.  They wanted life to "be well with us."  Who doesn't?  They, as so many today, were in desperate straits and needed a word from "the LORD our God...."  Yet they already had a "word."  It was their word.  They asked the prophet to pray for the "word of the Lord," but all they really wanted was a word which agreed with theirs.
 
I have a cure.  Commit to choose the Word of God, Jesus Christ, Who is revealed in the Words of God, the Bible------------ "whether it is pleasing or displeasing."  This is the defining mark of Biblical prophets and the Covenant people.  After all, His Word is His Will,  and praying His Will brings His Will.  I often receive prayer requests which tell me what to pray.  I do.  Then I submit those requests and my prayer to the prayers of His Word.  This is, "Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done," praying.      
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to be a "whether it be pleasing or displeasing" disciple.  Amen.
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

"He Inclined To Me....He...Brought Me Up Out Of A Horrible Pit"

"I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.  I was locked out of life and imprisoned in the land of the dead.  But you, O LORD my God, have snatched me from the yawning jaws of death!" (Jonah 2:6-- NLT)
 
The summer of 1970 was the darkest night of my soul.  We had just buried our little boy, and my life was disintegrating.  I had never before, nor since known such heartache and helplessness.  There are so many prayers of the Bible which I experienced that summer.  The prayers of Psalm 119 below are some of the best descriptions of how the Word of God, Jesus Christ, saved, and is still saving, me.  If you ever feel overwhelmed by life, if you are ever experiencing the fear and despair of Jonah, I cannot urge you too strongly to pray the following prayers.  But do not be as Jonah who waited until he "sank beneath the waves...."  Pray these prayers now! 
 
"My soul cleaves to the dust; Revive me according to Thy word (25)....My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according to Thy word (28)....Remember the word to Thy servant, in which Thou hast made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that Thy word has revived me (49, 50)....
May Thy compassion come to me that I may live, for Thy law is my delight (77)....Though I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget Thy statutes (83)....If Thy law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction.  I will never forget Thy precepts, for by them Thou hast revived me (92, 93)....I am exceedingly afflicted; revive me, O LORD, according to Thy word (107)....My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget Thy law (109)....Thou art my hiding place and my shield; I wait for Thy word (114)....Sustain me according to Thy word, that I may live; and do not let me be ashamed of my hope (116)....Trouble and anguish have come upon me; yet Thy commandments are my delight (143)....Plead my cause and redeem me; revive me according to Thy word (154)....Let my supplication come before Thee; deliver me according to Thy word.  Let my lips utter praise, for Thou dost teach me Thy statutes.  Let my tongue sing of Thy word, for all Thy commandments are righteousness.  Let Thy hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Thy precepts (170-173)....Let my soul live that it may praise Thee, and let Thine ordinances help me (175)...."
 
As our Lord Jesus once said to a lonely, seeking soul, "Do this and thou shalt live."
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, ------------------------- Amen.
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

"I Can Forgive, But I Can't Forget"-- Jesus Christ Does Both

"He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities.  You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."  (Micah 7:19)
 
In some traditions, priests absolve people of their sins.  They can't do that.  Only the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, can do that.  Priests and other Believers can refer us to the Scriptures and remind us of the assurance of forgiveness which comes through repentance and embracing the Blood of Jesus Christ.  But only the Blood of Jesus can absolve me of sin.  The hymn writer had it right-- "What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the Blood of Jesus."
 
You are familiar with the phrase, "I can forgive, but I can't forget."  This is a destructive factor in humanity.  Don't let anyone tell you that they have completely forgotten a painful wrong against them.  Even the worst memories have an uncanny ability to recall.  But there is a remarkable "forgetfulness" in the Godhead.  Hezekiah prayed, "For You have cast all my sins behind Your back."  Psalm 103 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgression from us;" and, our text tells us that God has "cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."  The power of "forgetfulness" is in the Blessed Trinity alone, and it is only in Jesus Christ that I can get relief from the condemnation which remembrance of sin brings.  The "God-Breathed" Word tells us that "the Blood of Jesus Christ...cleanses us from all sin"------------------- past, present, future.  The absolution of man just cannot do that.
 
The psalmist said, "My sin is ever before me."  Part of the reason for this is that we easily slip into sin.  Jesus Christ calls us to an ongoing walk in His Righteousness, and we should not accept any other life style.  Here is His command and provision---- "My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous"--- the Cleanser, the Forgetter. 
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, I say with the psalmist, "my sin is ever before me."  You say it is not "before" You.  I want what You "have."  Amen. 
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

"Wow, Was That Deep" Should Be Replaced With Just, "Wow"

"For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." Acts 17:21)
 
Early on, "some new thing," began to drive the Charismatic renewal.  Exactly when that began, no one can say for sure, but childlike hunger for the things of Jesus Christ began to gave way to one meeting attempting to "top" the next.  And as the meetings could not keep up the hype, the "renewal" became the, "same old."  Mega churches replaced home meetings; time driven "order" replaced a Spirit-filled spontaneity; the big names replaced the no names; and hunger for one-ups-man-ship superceded hunger for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.  I saw the first temple.  The second is less glorious.
 
I am not interested in the "new thing" culture."  The Bible tells us, "there is nothing new under the sun," anyway.  An inordinate desire "to hear some new thing," a desire for "deeper revelation" has presided over the death of many a renewal and revival.  I often heard in those early days, "Wow, was that deep."  Search the Bible, and you will find that the Kingdom of God does not belong to the, "Wow that was deep."  It belongs to the--------- "Wow."
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, renew my sense of, "Wow."  Amen.
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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Monday, February 23, 2009

Is The Word About To Break Through?

 "How lonely sits the city that was full of people!  How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations!  The princess among the provinces has become a slave!"  (Lamentations 1:1)
 
Jeremiah had prophesied not only the restoration of Jerusalem, but also the return of the Jews from the Diaspora.  But the opening verses of the Book of Lamentations reveal a desolate landscape, the Temple gone, the city, a "lonely...widow," a "slave" among the nations.  I see the Church in America is a similar state.  The Church has taken a severe beating in recent months, in spite of all the bravado in the prophetic prayer "movements."  What is going to be our response? 
 
The last verses of the book reveal a prayer of Jeremiah-- "Why do You forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time?  Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored; renew our days as of old, unless You have utterly rejected us, and are very angry with us!"  The prophet had not given up, but he knows the sin of humanity.  He realizes that without repentance, there is no salvation, the prophesies "for good" will not come to pass.  "Turn us back to You...and we will be restored---------------------------- unless."
 
At the close of our service yesterday, I saw something at work which I have not seen in years.  People coming to the altar, some deeply touched in the Holy Spirit.  I was thinking, is our local church on the verge of a breakthrough?  Are we ready to not only repent of our personal sins, but the sins of the community, the nation?  Are we ready for another "visitation?!?"  Could the Lord Jesus Christ have found a people who are ready to "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord?"  I am not discouraged to the point of giving up on America, nor the Church in America, nor myself!  I see desolation all around, but I also see our Lord Jesus "coming in...great power and glory."  I eagerly await the next chapter.
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray that you find a willing servant in me, one ready to walk in repentance, one ready for total obedience, one ready to wait on You.  Amen.
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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