"If the Foundations Are Destroyed, What Can (even) the Righteous Do?"

"If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3)

 

"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."  This is not just some "Foundation Series" of a local church or of the Christian Faith.  This is the Foundation of life in the Universe.  And our text asks a most sobering question, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"  The thought occurred to me today, "What can (even) the righteous do?"    

 

The Hebrew word for, "foundations," in our text refers to "a support system" of individuals and nations, which includes moral and political systems.  Take this away, and "what can the righteous do?"  Examples:  Babylonian, Media-Persian, Grecian, Roman, Ottoman Empires, Germany in the 1920s and 30s, and post war Eastern Europe, China, Mexico, Africa.  "What can the righteous do?"  Now, "the righteous," continue in the attempt to, "do," something.  Yet, "If the foundations are destroyed," those foundations to which the Bible refers as, "the age-old foundations," go ahead, build bigger church buildings, bigger ministries, but really, "What can the righteous do?" 

 

The American church has by in large de-emphasized, "foundations," not so much those of the Christian Faith, but the foundations of the society in which it finds itself.  The Church in America sits in the midst of a nation which outlawed the Prayer of Jesus and the Bible in its state school system, legalized the murder of the unborn, rejected the Word of God on homosexuality, marriage, and increasingly infringing on the Biblical rights of the entrepreneur, just to name a few.  Yet what have, "the righteous," been able to do?  There is no victory or even peace for an individual or nation whose, "foundations are destroyed."  Worship won't change it; prayer won't change it; preaching won't change it; all of the nervous religious activity in the universe won't change it.  Obedience will change it. 

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, do this in me, in Your Church-- "And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell."  Amen.

 

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"Of His Body, Of His Flesh and of His Bones"

"For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones."  (Ephesians 5:30)

 

Many Christians say this albeit without words, "What can I do?  I'm just one person."  Well, alone, in the grand scheme of things in earth life, relatively little.  But you are not alone, "one person."  You and I are a part of the Church, the Body of Christ, "of His body, of His flesh and of His bones."  This means that everywhere and anywhere the Church is, i.e., the visible Presence of Jesus Christ in the earth, you and I are.  Everywhere the Church is at work winning souls, feeding the poor, shaping the destiny and course of nations, there are you and I.

 

I have seen many Second War news reels over the years, but there is one which has always gotten to me in a sobering way.  It is a film taken of the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach.  It's a gray, rainy, wind swept scene which captures about four men coming ashore, one falls, obviously hit by some sort of small arms fire, but it is one of another man which is most disturbing to me.  He just drops, no stumbling, no reaching to hold a wound, nothing like so many Hollywood films----------------- just a dead drop.  He was one young man, what, maybe 18, 19, 20?  The war, life, family, everything ended for him in that split second.  Now, some might say that he contributed nothing to the victory which was later to come, but I don't.  I say that he and the hundreds of others just like him, dying in varying ways, all part of the victorious Allied effort against tyranny around the world, are represented in that one young, lonely man in the chaos of that day, on that beach of Normandy, so far from family and friends.  Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You for him.  May he have found mercy on his soul.

 

Whether or not you prayed for us yesterday as we prayed just outside the White House where the leaders of five nations were meeting, and later at the Capitol Building and Supreme Court, you were there, possibly in a passive mode if you did nothing, but in a very active mode if you prayed for us.  Multiply this by millions and millions of examples throughout Church History, and we can see just how powerful, "is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."  Tithes, offerings, "supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks," all are just some of the active participations in the work of Jesus Christ around the globe.  Where the Church is, there is Jesus Christ, and, there are you and I. 

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You today for showing me just exactly what and Whom I am a part of.  Amen.

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New Articles @:    www.apf327.blogspot.com

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

Heading to Washington, DC

We are heading out to Washington, DC shortly.  If you are a regular devotional reader, perhaps you could take that time to pray what the Holy Spirit might give you.  We will be in the city the time the devotional is usually sent.  You are a part of our lives, and we thank you for your interest.  Thanks.

Woody

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2

Both "Jerusalems" Are on His Heart

"....The present city of Jerusalem...is in slavery with her children.  But the Jerusalem that is above is free...." (Galatians 4:25, 26) 

 

The Holy Spirit here is contrasting a salvation by self energized works and the Salvation which is in obedience to Jesus Christ.  "The present city of Jerusalem," in our text refers to the Jews who have rejected Messiah Jesus.  "The Jerusalem above," represents the Church, the People of the Redeemed in Jesus Christ. 

 

As I thought of our text this morning, however, I realized that Jesus loves both.  He has not given up on, "the present city of Jerusalem," and all it represents in our text.  His cry, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!", is still ringing in the corridors of The Throne Room of Heaven, "where He always lives to make intercession for them" (and us).  This is the Savior's love manifested, His love for the Jews and His, "City of the Great King."  This, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem," also reflects the constant intercession of Jesus for all humanity.  What joy, what comfort for you and me that our Lord Jesus Christ is right now in the Heavenly Throne Room interceding for you, for me, for His Church, and the global community. 

 

Make no mistake; much of the Church today is also, "in slavery with her children."  But Jesus just continues His Work, "where He always lives to make intercession for them."  Frankly, without Christ's intercession, I have no hope.  With Christ's intercession, I have nothing but hope.

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray for both "Jerusalems".  Amen

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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"So It Will Be"!

"So it will be at the end of the age." (Matthew 13:49)

 

There are so many, "so it will be at the end of the age," in Scripture.  Four times in the NKJV of Matthew's Gospel alone our Lord Jesus speaks the words of our text, "the end of the age."  It is coming as sure as anything in the universe.  All of the Bible Prophets gave encouragements and warnings of the time to which all of history is headed.  Some people spend great money and time preparing for their retirement, but so very little in preparing for, "the end of the age."  Churches too spend much money and staff nerves preparing for their particular kingdom's future, but how much in the preparation of their people for, "the end of the age"?!?  Some  "spiritual" people will say, "But no one knows when that will be."   Precisely. 

 

At, "the end of the age," the reality of, "For whoever desires to save (literally, "protect") his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it," will manifest more intensely.  Today in America there is the so-called Right and Left.  The Left just hates the America they were handed and is fighting to change the cultural base.  The Right, on the other hand is fighting to preserve "the American way of life."  And many in the Right "camp," which includes many sitting in church buildings all across America every Sunday, are those who are no more interested in the Kingdom of Heaven than those of the Left.  For Followers of Jesus Christ in any culture, however, it is going to be increasingly a choice between, "desires to save his [own] life," i.e., comforts, security, and, "the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." 

 

Bonhoeffer faced precisely this choice in 1933 when he wrote to his grandmother referring to the gathering storm in Germany.  It is prophetic particularly for the American Church today.

        It has become ever more evident to me that we are to be given

        a great popular national Church, whose nature cannot be reconciled

        with Christianity, and that we must prepare our minds for the entirely

        new paths which we shall then have to follow.  The question is really:

        Christianity or Germanism?  And the sooner the conflict is revealed

        in the clear light of day the better."

Later when Bonhoeffer was asked why he did not work within this "popular national Church" for the survival of the Church in Germany, he said,

        "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in

        the opposite direction."

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray in these days that I will not "board the wrong train."  Amen.

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Read a Main Reason For the 9/1 DC Mission:    www.apf327.blogspot.com 

      

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2