We Will Bow Down

Psalm 22:27 (NIV)

27 All the ends of the earth
       will remember and turn to the LORD,
       and all the families of the nations
       will bow down before him,

The day will come as His Word declares.  We will see Him in His majesty and glory.  We will bow down before the beauty of His holiness. 

Invites Us To Believe

John 3:12 (NIV)

¹²I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?


Jesus taught with parables.  The heavens declare God’s glory.  Life here on earth gives us the opportunity to believe God. He speaks to us where we are and tells of a place beyond our imagination.  He invites us to join Him.  He invites us to believe.  

My Song

Exodus 15:2 (NIV)

2 The LORD is my strength and my song;
       he has become my salvation.
       He is my God, and I will praise him,
       my father's God, and I will exalt him.

Because of His salvation, His gift of love, I can stand in His strength.  His strength becomes mine.  There is room in my weakness for His strength to become my own.

His song becomes my song.  I join with the many and the heavenly host.  My song blends with the thundering chorus, yet He hears my voice and takes joy.

He is my God and Father.  All praise belongs to Him.

Showing The Way

A follower of Jesus is a leader among men.

We Are Planted

Exodus 15:17 (NETP)

You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance,in the place you made for your residence, O Lord,the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.

Our sanctuary is in the Lord.  The mountain is manifest in the heart of every believer who finds rest in Him.  He is our portion and refuge.  We are planted in His garden around the tree of life.  

The Race

The race we run is against time and to the Father.  The important thing  is to get there in time. 

Simple Enough

2 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJV)

3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

I read this morning that the more complicated we get with our religion, the further we drift from Christ.  It makes me think of the contrast between the Pharisee who followed a whole list of do’s and don’ts and the tax collector who stood off in the distance saying, “have mercy on me, a sinner”.

How simple is our rest in Jesus?  Is it working through a list or simply walking with Him?  Do we know Him or just about Him?  

The disciples lived with Him and were changed forever.  That is simple enough for me to remember.

Take Off Your Sandals

Acts 7:33 (NIV)

33"Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground.

It is not for us to seek or negotiate a “middle” ground for belief and worship.  That only applies if we are seeking our own way, building our own church.

God has clearly spoken on the matter.  He tells us how to approach Him.  “Take off your sandals”.  We do not come to him on our own merit or devisings.  To stand on Holy ground one must listen only to the Lord.

They Have A Theory

Experts go back and forth on whether coffee is good for you.
We can't cure the common cold.
We don't know what causes MS.
For a long time it was believed with certainty and confidence that the sun revolved around the earth.  It was plain to see.
Our understanding of how the brain works has recently transformed.  The idea of the brain having "plasticity" was dismissed and resisted for years despite evidence to the contrary.  It is now accepted and believed.
They say the universe started with "big bang" but can't explain why.
That same intellectual capacity and vision tells us that God is not real.  Not to worry though, they have a theory.  That doesn't sound reasonable or credible to me.

Light To The Path

2 Corinthians 10:18 (NIV)

18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

This applies to all of us.  Sometimes it obvious, but sometimes it is so subtle we don’t see it.  What we do seems so right, so satisfying that it must please the Lord just as much.  

Here we are reminded that the only commendation that counts comes from the Lord.  Remaining humbly in His Word will keep us on the right track.  Seeking Him in prayer strengthens our relationship with Him.  Listening to the Holy Spirit will give light to the path.

In The Dark With Nothing

Isaiah 8:20 (The Message)

^19-22When people tell you, "Try out the fortunetellers.

   Consult the spiritualists.
Why not tap into the spirit-world,
   get in touch with the dead?"
Tell them, "No, we're going to study the Scriptures."
   People who try the other ways get nowhere—a dead end!
Frustrated and famished,
   they try one thing after another.
When nothing works out they get angry,
   cursing first this god and then that one,
Looking this way and that,
   up, down, and sideways—and seeing nothing,
A blank wall, an empty hole.
   They end up in the dark with nothing.


Forsaking Scripture there is no light.

3D

The Holy Spirit expounds and expands the words of the Bible into the Word of God, from one dimension to the multiple dimensions of the testimony of Jesus.  There we come to the boundless Father, The I AM, unseen and unrecognized by the world.

Through

Through Moses,  our Father taught of sin and the impossibility of coming into His presence on our own power.

Through Jesus,  our Father provides the way to reconciliation.

Through the Holy Spirit,  the Father brings His life to every spirit.

Through you and I,  the light of truth shines before the world in a heart given to Jesus.

May you feel that the warmth of that gift.

Reason For Reason

The Case Of Reason Impartially Considered

By John Wesley

Sermon 70

(text from the 1872 edition - Thomas Jackson, editor)

---

Brethren, be not children in understanding: Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. 1 Corinthians 14:20
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/70/

The value and pitfall of man's reasoning.

Like A Child

One that is spiritually quickened might be likened to a child that learns to read.  What once was unintelligible and foreign begins to make sense.

Living By The Truth

John 3:21 (NIV)

21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

Living here implies an immersion in the life of Christ.  Coming into the light is instant and, at the same time, progressive.  We begin taking on His qualities, “putting on Christ”.  It is to the glory of God and by the glory of God that it is done.

Believing And Seeing

Believing is seeing, and seeing is believing.

Sleeping In The Devil's Arms

Awake, Thou That Sleepest

By John Wesley

Sermon 3

(text from the 1872 edition - Thomas Jackson, editor)

Preached on Sunday April 4, 1742, before the University of Oxford,
by the Rev. Charles Wesley, M.A. Student of Christ-Church.

8. Art thou a "partaker of the divine nature"? Knowest thou not, that "Christ is in thee, except thou be reprobate"? Knowest thou, that God "dwelleth in thee, and thou in God, by his Spirit, which he hath given thee"? Knowest thou not that "thy body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which thou hast of God"? Hast thou the witness in thyself? the earnest of thine inheritance? Hast thou "received the Holy Ghost"? Or dost thou start at the question, not knowing "whether there be any Holy Ghost"?

9. If it offends thee, be thou assured, that thou neither art a Christian, nor desirest to be one. Nay, thy very prayer is turned into sin; and thou hast solemnly mocked God this very day, by praying for the inspiration of his Holy Spirit, when thou didst not believe there was any such thing to be received.

10. Yet, on the authority of God's Word, and our own Church, I must repeat the question, "Hast thou received the Holy Ghost?" If thou hast not, thou art not yet a Christian. For a Christian is a man that is "anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power." Thou art not yet made a partaker of pure religion and undefiled. Dost thou know what religion is? --that it is a participation of the divine nature; the life of God in the soul of man; Christ formed in the heart; "Christ in thee, the hope of glory;" happiness and holiness; heaven begun upon earth; "a kingdom of God within thee; not meat and drink," no outward thing; "but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;" an everlasting kingdom brought into thy soul; a "peace of God that passeth all understanding;" a "joy unspeakable, and full of glory"?

An excerpt of a sermon from the founder of the Methodist church.  Elsewhere in the sermon he refers to those that sleep as sleeping in the Devil's arms.  Those that slumber are too deep in their dreamworld to hear the call to awake.

Right And True Christian Faith

From Wesley's sermon:

The Almost Christian

By John Wesley

Sermon 2

5. "The right and true Christian faith is" (to go on the words of our own Church), "not only to believe that Holy Scripture and the Articles of our Faith are true, but also to have a sure trust and confidence to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ. It is a sure trust and confidence which a man hath in God, that, by the merits of Christ, his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God; whereof doth follow a loving heart, to obey his commandments."

Love Response

From a devotional of Ray Stedman:

"Love requires a response."


Based on- READ: 2 Corinthians 6:11-13
Love wide and openly. We respond to God's love by loving, Him first, then each other.  How is this done?  It's in the Word.

If We Value Life

Luke 16:14-15 (NIV)

14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

Justifying one’s self before men is only making excuses, words blowing in the breeze.  It is God that justifies and He does so through His Son.  The heart is hidden from men, but not from God.

We are to find what God values if we value life.

Dead Wrong

Luke 16:31 (NIV)

31"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

Jesus said one sign would be given, the sign of Jonah.  That was not enough then for some them, and it is true today.  Jesus rose from the dead.  Those who believe will also be raised to life.  Those that don’t will be dead wrong.

Apostasy

Apostasy - the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief.  Does this sound familiar, in these last days? 

If I Tell You

Luke 22:67 (NASB)

67"If You are the Christ, tell us." But He said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe;

Jesus has been arrested.  Previously beaten and mocked, He is brought before the people and leadership council.  They ask a question for which they have no desire for the answer in truth.  They only search for confirmation of their own desires.  For them, truth is relative to their own beliefs, for what works for them.

The same spirit is at work today. 

“If I tell you, you will not believe” 

Words To Relationship

God gave us the law using His finger to write on stone.  He gives us Jesus using the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts.  From words to relationship, we enter eternal life.  

Chained

Without Truth we are chained.

Setting Forth The Truth Plainly

2 Corinthians 4:2 (NIV) 

2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 

Paul changed the world by plainly setting forth the truth of God.  The power of God that is revealed in the message of the gospel.  We can do the same by our words and actions, in simply living in the light and life of Jesus.  

Our Father’s joy and glory abounds when we do so.

Beyond

God is beyond our craft and imagination, but we are not beyond His love and grace.  

Tradition

Matthew 15:1-3 (NIV)

 1Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!" 3Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

They ask Jesus why He goes against their tradition.  Over time they have come to see their tradition as the command of God.  How easy it is for this to happen the further one gets from the Word of God.  Repetition turns into tradition. Tradition and truth mix, and it becomes hard to tell them apart.  

That is why renewing in the Word is so important.  Each day we need to drink from the well of living water, that our spirits would be refreshed and muddled thinking is washed away in the water of His truth.

The Son has arisen and it is our gift to look upon His light.  It is for His sake we live, not for the sake of the tradition of men.

Have Made Themselves

Exodus 32:7-8 (NIV) 

7 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.

8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

I used to marvel that the Israelites would so quickly bow to an idol having witnessed the glory of the Lord and received deliverance at His hand.  No longer.  Many denominations and many congregations today have done that very thing.  The teachings of Jesus have been abandoned.  Jesus has been removed from the throne in their worship.  Something hideous now sits there.

Moses came back from the mountain and destroyed the idol.  The people were punished for their unbelief and disobedience.  Jesus will come back and do the same. 

Music Themes

The theme music of the liberal church has become "We Are Family" by the Pointer Sisters.  It has replaced the old tired song "Amazing Grace", thought it continues to be sung by the Body of Christ.  

This I Know

Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. 

This is the Truth revealed in Scripture. No where else is it found. No where else can He be found.

Love and Peace.

For Love Of All

For love of all, Jesus came into the world; the religion of the day put Him to death.

Under Cover Of Darkness

John 3:1-2 (NIV)

 1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of darkness, but he also came from out of the darkness of a religion that had lost its way.  He was drawn by the light of the world Who is Jesus. He had to admit that Jesus came from God.  As the Magi followed the star of His birth, so Nicodemus sees a light in the distance and comes to see.

Good Enough

Resting in Jesus means coming to grips with the fact that we are good enough right this minute for Him to love us.

Appearance

Matthew 28:3 (NIV)

3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

The angel shown with an intense brightness, a fitting messenger for the light of the world. Lightning is as close at John could come to relay some sense of this incredible light.

Snow is a sign of purity of those things from heaven, it reflects the full light shown upon it, undimmed by earth.

We shall be like this son of God when we make our appearance in the kingdom of heaven. The angels will marvel at you and me.

Futility Of Their Thinking

Ephesians 4:17-18 (NIV)

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

This futility of thinking Paul speaks of continues to grow today as many in churches and as church leadership falls away from the Word of God. Jesus is no longer the reason for coming together or considered the head of the body, His body, which is the true church.

When you hear someone say, “I don’t get it, what is the problem?” when someone says there is more than one way to God, there is no truth, or that God blesses homosexuality; they truly don’t get it. Their heart is not open to the things of God because it is hardened. The absence of light has darkened their understanding.

It doesn’t matter how inclusive one is, or what good deeds are done, or how one measures themselves and finds it good. This futile thinking seems good to man, but the Word of God states otherwise. That is why the Authority of Scripture is rejected. It reveals the futility of man’s own thinking.

It only matters about a heart surrendered to Jesus. All good things flow from that relationship with Him.

His Pleasure Is In Life

Ezekiel 18:32 (NIV)

32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

Our Father wishes that everyone would live. Death entered creation through disobedience. The arch-angel Satan, due to his desire to be equal to God, has been judged. The penalty is death. The fate of those who follow is the same.

The choice is repent and live. It is not a command so much as it is a plea. Life comes from Him for He is the source. His pleasure is in life.

Become

We become like the thing we pursue.

Difference You Believe In

I read an article a while back saying Islam was different because it was a way of life, not a religion. Is that different than being a follower of Jesus? Be the difference you believe in!

Lift Up The Cup

Luke 22:20 (NIV)

20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

The Last Supper pictures the cross, the meeting place between the Old and New Covenants. They are actually part of the same story, the revelation of God’s love.

The Passover feast was given to remember God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. It is the occasion and setting which gives meaning for what is to happen.

Both remind us of what God has done and will do.

There is a feast to come, an everlasting supper with the Lord. He will again drink the fruit of the vine at His banquet table. Let us lift up the cup.

Son

Jesus called Himself Son of Man. Man called Him the Son of God. The Father said He was well pleased.

Truly Shaken

Matthew 28:2 (NKJV)

2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.

Behold is translated from the Greek word “idou” . It means listen to what follows because it is important, pay attention!

The earth moved as an angel came and moved the stone that sealed His tomb. Only the grave clothes remained, no longer needed. Death could not hold Jesus.

The angel sat on the stone. Remember Jesus is referred to as the cornerstone of the new temple, which is His body. The temple continues to enlarge with each new believer. Jesus is also the mercy seat pictured by the ark of the covenant. We rest on His sacrificial work on our behalf.

Another “movement of earth” had taken place. Jesus defeated death, for He is risen. The earthly body He had assumed in the incarnation had left the tomb, forever joined and transfigured with His Spirit and was soon to be sitting beside the Father in heaven.

On that day, “earth” was truly shaken.