"O My Lord, How Can I?..."

"So he said to him, 'O my Lord, how can I save Israel?  Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.'"  (Judges 6:15)

Gideon was just like you and me; yes, he was.  He had his doubts, his questions, and his fleece.

Leave the Sunday School class for a moment, that place where too many took away a "fairytale" aspect of the Bible and Jesus' dealings with humanity through the centuries.  There is no indication, for instance, that Samson was 6 foot 5, weighed 275 pounds and had a 70 inch chest.  His anointing was the Lord God, not his muscles.  Moreover, when Jesus called Moses from, "the bush," Moses did not have white hair and his face did not glow.  Moses, the mighty deliverer of Israel, began his "ministry" by telling God, "Please send someone else.'"  The response of the Godhead to Moses?  "What is that in your hand?"  

Away with the life of, "O, my Lord, how can I?...I am the least...."  That sounds humble, but it's really a desire to escape "the call."  A reason Gideon made the great "Hall of Fame" of faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ is that after the doubts, the fleece laying, and fears, he walked in the same obedience as the others.  Instead of, "O, my Lord, how can I?" or, "Please send someone else", what ruled in Gideon is what ruled in Saul of Tarsus in his response to Jesus, "Lord, What will You have me to do?"   

Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess that at times I have been like the "wrong" Gideon.  May I be the obedient one.  Amen.

"Let Us Go Out To Him"

"For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy Place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp.  Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own Blood, suffered outside the gate.  So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach."  (Hebrews 13:11-13, NASB)

Few paintings, few movies have ever come close to the bloody scene, the suffering of Calvary.  The hymn writer prayed, "Near the Cross!  O Lamb of God, bring its scene before me."  But none of us was there.  None can imagine.  

"The Word of God," tells us that Jesus was, "....despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."  This was largely His whole 33 year journey in The Land.  And that awful night of betrayal?  Luke 14:33 tells us that after the Passover Meal, that Great Love Feast, Jesus, "....took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed."  The Word for, "troubled," is translated elsewhere as, "affrighted, awe-struck," and the Word for, "distressed," is also translated as, "I feel fear, lack courage."  

But why do we even try?  Never, now, nor in the realm of Eternity will we even come close to grasping any of the sufferings of Jesus.  I can only say with Isaac Watts,  "Well might the Sun in darkness hide, and shut its glories in, when God, the Mighty Maker, died for His own creature's sin.  Thus might I hide my blushing face while His dear Cross appears; dissolve my heart in thankfulness, and melt mine eyes to tears.  But drops of tears can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe.  Here, Lord, I give myself away; 'tis all that I can do."

Father, in Jesus' Name, O, help me to walk in, "Let us go out to Him, bearing His reproach."  Amen.

"Yet One More I Shake...Heaven"

"See that you do not refuse Him Who speaks.  For if they did not escape who refused Him Who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him Who speaks from heaven, Whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.'"  (Hebrews 12:26)

With every glorious verse people love to underline comes those verses which they never underline.  Yesterday's verses were underline-able for most; today's, probably not so much.

Our text is a warning to not, "....refuse Him Who speaks," viz., the whole of the Bible.  And here we are warned that there is no escape from utter defeat, "if we turn away from Him...."  You may recall the glorious wonders and vastness of "outer space" which I have shared with you from time to time.  The shaking of the earth will be only the beginning (see Isaiah 24).  "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also," and here it is again, "the starry heaven."

 

The song asks, "Where You There When They Crucified My Lord?"  Contained within this song is, "sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble."  Today's text gives me a sobering, "tremble."  All which now comes to me is Jeremiah 32:18, "....the Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of host, is His name."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I tremble and rejoice in You!  Amen.

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Conference Prayer Call tonight: 21:00

It Has Come To This

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and the the Blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel."  (Hebrews 12:22-24)

Here I sit, a small "humanoid" on a small planet, traveling at nearly 67,000 mph around our Sun, which is moving in our solar system throughout our galaxy at about 448,000 mph, and at this speed, it would take about 230,000,000 years to travel "all the way around the Milky way."  As I thought of this and as I read of the description of what is right now going on in God's Economy in the heavenlies somewhere, and that in the Eternal Domain, the Words of David came to me, "What is man...?"

Yesterday I read in Hebrews 11 of those in, "the faith of Jesus," who walked this sojourn in obedience, but yet so many of them, "....having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us."  Can we begin to grasp this today?  The Godhead was waiting for you and me so that we might be a part of, "just men made perfect," to be included in all of the promises and provision of Biblical declarations.  This, my friend, is the Great Divine Inclusion.  King Jesus did not want you and me to miss Hebrews 12 and Revelation 4-22, and....

I pray that if this writing finds you discouraged, for whatever reason today, that you may find great comfort in knowing that the Living Triune God "held up" the final revelation of His Glories so that you and I could be among the folk of Hebrews 11.  Rejoice!  The Blessed Trinity was waiting for you!

Father, in Jesus' Name, I so thank You that You "waited" for me.  Amen.

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Conference Prayer Call February 12, 21:00

Beware The Privatization of The Christian Walk

"God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved/shaken; God shall help her at the turning of the morning....The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."  (Psalm 46)

"God is in the midst of..," what is referred to earlier as, "....the holy place of the tabernacle," or, "dwelling places of the Most High."  The fulfillment of this today is His Church, "the Household of Faith," and as 2 Corinthians 6:16 declares, "the Temple of the Living God.  As God has said: 'I will dwell in them and walk among them.'" !!

"God is in the midst of..," His Church.  Yes, the Living Triune God is now, just as Paul stated it, "Jesus Christ is in..," all who Follow Jesus Christ, right there, right here.  But today I want to point out the tremendous reality of the, "God is in the midst..," of the Community of the Redeemed, the Church.  When the Church gathers, "God is in the midst of Her...."  Of course, the Church "scattered," that is, Each Follower of Jesus, has, "God...in the midst of...."  But the Bible teaches us that when those Followers of Jesus Christ come together, there is a glorious blessing, a glorious witness, a glorious power which takes us to even greater "heights" in Jesus Christ.  The privatization of religion, in the last 50 years particularly, has robbed and weakened so many who have subscribed to it.

I cannot encourage you enough today to place the utmost value on, "God is in the midst of..," the Church.  Whether it is two Followers of Jesus at a work place, or a gathering of the, "two or three," or two or three thousand, Jesus Christ is, "....in the midst of..," the, "tabernacle/dwelling places of the Most High," His Church. 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess that I have yet to grasp the true power of this reality, but I so thank You for this.  Amen.

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* Read of a very disturbing trend at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY:  jhs58.blogspot.com

* Conference Prayer Call:  Wednesday, 2/12/2020, 21:00hrs

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.'"

Hebrews 12:2