What Comfort in Such Few Words

"....When I begin, I will also make an end." (1 Samuel 3:12, KJV)

The context is a declaration of judgment on the house of Eli.  Yet the concluding statement, which is our text, is fundamental Biblical Truth.

Our Father, Son Jesus, and Holy Spirit always, " make an end," of what He begins.  Biblical hermeneutics "experts" might object, but I have taken as our text only the last part of verse 12.  This is proper, because it reveals Biblical Theology.  What Jesus Christ, "The Alpha and the Omega," starts in our life, in the Kingdom journey throughout world history, "when I begin, I will also make an end."  Jesus is the God of the before and the after.  Too many forget the "before," and none of us knows fully the "after"----------------- but our Living Triune God, who cleared up all the confusion of man as to Who He is in Jesus Christ, Is Himself, "the beginning and the end," or, "I will also make an end."

Today I take such great comfort in Jesus Christ.  Seeing Jesus, we see Father, we see the Blessed Trinity in all His Majesty and Glory.  Can you not hear Him saying to you today, "When I begin, I will also make an end."

Father, in Jesus' Name and in Jesus Christ alone, I speak with Thee.  What comfort in such few Words.  But that is You.  Amen.
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Beware of Amnesty International!:   www.jerusalemberlinwashington.blogspot.com

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

"When I begin, I will also make an end.""

"When I begin, I will also make an end." Jesus

Too Old?--- Never

"O God, awe-inspiring, profoundly impressive and terrible are You out of Your holy places; the God of Israel Himself gives strength and fullness of might to His people.  Blessed be God!"  (Psalm 68:35, Amplified Bible)

A, "Who should go?" from a mission group web site:  "If any member is over the age of 65, a medical release from a doctor is required.  The maximum age to travel with (mission name) is 70 years."  Translation: "We're sorry, but you are too old and you cannot do this any more."  To which I would reply:  "I'm sorry, but as long as I have the strength/health to 'go,' I think I will."

Our text declares that, "the God of Israel Himself gives strength and fullness of might (power) to His people."  It is very similar to that which He refers in Psalm 27, "The Lord is my light and my salvation."  Biblical Theology teaches us that Jesus Christ does not primarily give to us; He Is to us.  "The Lord Jesus Christ is my light and my salvation."  Jesus Himself is, "strength and fullness of might to His people."  You know that the Hebrew and Greek words for, "salvation," mean, healing, preservation, deliverance, peace, rescue, preservation from harm, ruin, loss, risk, destruction."  In other words, The Godhead has you adequately, yes, totally covered.  I understand missions' concern about us older folk.  But I also understand that throughout the entirety of Scripture we read that God Himself, in Jesus Christ, the Christ Who dwells in those who believe and obey, is all the, "strength and fullness of might (power)," His people need------ for as long as they need------------- forever.

So on to whatever, wherever, whenever our Lord Jesus Christ calls and leads and empowers.  This is for you today, not just for some "mission trip," or "religious" activity, but, yes, even for the trip to the store, etc.  Jesus declared, "I am the Truth,..I am the Light,..I am the Resurrection and the Life."  In Jesus, the, "I Am," of the Bible, every Follower of Jesus today has His, "I Am," within us.  This, my friend, is what determines our life and decisions today.  So be encouraged and rise up anew today in Jesus Christ, "the God of Israel Himself," Who, "gives strength and fullness of might to His People."

Father, in Jesus' Name, help me and my friend to never forget it is not the pronouncements of mankind which direct and empower us, it is You, "The Lord God of Israel Himself."  Amen.
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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

"With A Song In My Heart"

"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips." (Psalm 63:5, KJV)

The Psalms are songs.  They were/are to be sung.  Can you not "hear" David singing?  There are a few Christian traditions whose hymn books are mostly Psalms put to music.  Modern Christendom is missing so much.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to his parents from Tegel Prison on May 15, 1943: "For years I've read the Psalter daily; there is no other book I know and love so well as this one.  I can no longer read Psalms 3, 47, 70 and others without hearing them in the music of Heinrich Schutz.  Knowing them in this way belongs to the greatest enrichments of my life."  Bonhoeffer wrote in another context, "Where the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian Church.  With its recovery will come unsuspected power."  Rereading and reading some works of Bonhoeffer which I had not read has been a great encouragement to me.  It has encouraged me with, "I knew I was on to something." 

I recently read in Bonhoeffer's, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, "Therefore, wherever we no longer pray the Psalms in our churches, we must take up the Psalter that much more in our daily morning and evening prayers, reading and praying together at least several Psalms every day so that we succeed in reading through this book a number of times each year getting into it deeper and deeper.  We also ought not to select Psalms at our own discretion, thinking that we know better what we ought to pray than does God Himself.  To do that is to dishonor the prayer-book of the Bible."  From time to time I sing the Psalms, just sing whatever tune comes to me.  Also, I haven't played my horn in years, but got it out the other day and played, "Oh, Come, O Come, Emmanuel."  It was a worship "experience."  As I read the Psalms, I realize that the singing and playing instruments "around" the Psalms was a norm for centuries in the Covenant Community, Old and New.

The Book of Psalms is a "hymnbook."  But you and I, through and in the power of the Holy Spirit, can begin to sing really any portion of the Bible, and you don't have to be a Pavarotti to do so.  Let a/the song arise in your heart today, whether in the midst of joy or sorrow.  Sing a Psalm, a portion from the prophets, and, "sing to the Lord a new song."  Make it your own, because if you are in Jesus Christ and He in you, it is your own.  That Psalm/Song is, "The Word of God," Jesus Christ, in the written Word of God.  Ah, come on, give it a try.  "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips....The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after...."
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You that because of You I can come to you as the song writer said, "With a song in my heart."  Amen.
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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

The, "Now You Shall See," of the Blessed Trinity

"Now you shall see...."  (Exodus 6:1b)

I preached yesterday from the text, Exodus 5:22-6:9.  I summed it up by saying that God was basically telling Moses to tell the people, "This is where we have been--This is where we are--This is where we are going."  He is the God of the Before, the Now, and the After.  In other words, He has us covered.  He reminded the people of His faithfulness in the past to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to His covenant, which he said He, "ratified," i.e., made it "officially valid."  He spoke to their present circumstances, in bondage.  But then we begins to speak to Moses of the future as though it were already here----------- because it was/is and ever shall be.  He is "The Eternal One."  We who limit ourselves to this time/space dimension, thinking, and enslavement too often cannot see Eternity.  Yet if we just realize than in Jesus Christ we are in Him who knows, "the end from the beginning," we would not be as the Hebrews who, "did not heed Moses, because of anguish ('despondency') of spirit and cruel bondage."  It can also be translated, "anguish and bondage of spirit."  Moses and Aaron and the people would not look beyond their circumstances.  On the contrary, their gaze was on their circumstances, not on the Word of God, or as the exhortation would later be, "Looking unto Jesus." 

My friend, today you and I can break out of such limited thinking, believing, acting.  God spoke to Moses of the future as though it were already accomplished and here, and if we are in Jesus Christ and He in us, we can live and speak the same way.  When even Moses was in doubt as to the outcome of the situation, God declared our text, "Now you shall see."  I once heard an old Pentecostal preacher say, "When you read God's, 'shall,' you can be sure He shall."  If you find yourself in, "anguish of spirit and cruel bondage--- bondage of spirit," today, take particular note of His "shalls."  They/He shall bring you out.

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You for all Your, "Now you shall see."  Amen.
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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