Heb 4:13...And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Last night for me was another one of those sleepless nights. But I have come to learn one of the greatest comforts I have when things are pressing down upon my mind is to spend time in prayer and in the Word. These two are becoming to me my place of refuge. It is here where I find my comfort and my peace as though I were in the presence of the Lord, a safe haven if you will. Already earlier in the day I had a desire to delve into the book of Hebrews and so instantly I flipped to the beginning of this book and immersed myself into it. It was here as I came to the verse mentioned above that my mind began to drift away from the words on the page in front of me and my thoughts began to formulate.
This truth the writer of Hebrews was declaring of God was certainly not new. Psalm 139:2-4...You know my sitting down and my rising up, You understand my thought afar off (3) You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways (4) for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it all together...Eze 11:5...for I know the things that come into your mind, everyone of them...
Yet even though this truth has been known from the beginning of time, it intrigues me still, that saint an sinner alike often live as though this has little bearing upon us in the way we live out our belief in God. Cain murdered his brother and thought he could play sly with God ...am I my brothers keeper? Sarah laughed in unbelief when hearing that she should bear a child in her old age. Achan stole and hid gold after having been commanded by God to destroy it, and he too thought it could be hid even from the Almighty. King David went to great lengths to cover up his sin of adultery and murder only to have Nathan come and tell him...You are that man!
Not only does this intrigue me from saints and sinners of old, but what intrigues me yet more, is when I think of myself. Knowing this truth of God myself, knowing these historical accounts and seeing how God dealt with them, why is it then that I don't make more of my sins? No, I have not slain my brother, I have not laughed at God behind doors, stolen gold, nor have I committed adultery and murdered in the process, but my own sins beset me.
If I know and understand as we are told in Num 32:23...be sure your sins will find you out... Why then, knowing God knows all things, am I not more grieved over the hidden sins of my heart which are born out of the same root as all those who actually committed the sins mentioned earlier in this post? Is it because there is an element of unbelief within me? Is it possible I do not possess the fear of the Lord as I should? Is it because I actually make less of the sacrifice made by the Lord Jesus Christ then what I might claim? Many questions, many thoughts, but of this I am sure; my spirit indeed is willing, but my flesh is weak, and o how I need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just some food for thought.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Exalting God
Nehemiah 9:5...Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever! Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
Recently as I was reading through the book of Nehemiah I came upon this verse which left a certain impression upon me. Israel has spent a quarter of the day in the Law of the Lord their God, and spent another quarter of the day confessing and worshiping the Lord their God. As i see it, as we begin this chapter we start out with a distant view of what's going on but each verse zooms in closer so that we can see with greater detail what was going on. But as I came to verse 5 it was as though my mind slammed the breaks and gave a real closeup of the last part of that verse ...Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise!
This seemed to stun me for a while as I pondered this for the next several days. I thought about the way we bless the Lord our God in our modern day churches. Money spent in building massive organs, fine tuning guitars, rehearsing vocal harmonies - all in an effort to bless the Lord our God and to exalt his glorious name and to do it with excellence, to do it to do best of our abilities. Now please understand this is not a criticism of how we praise Him in our settings of worship, this is how it is done today, but the truth of the matter which is stated in this verse was what rocked me. His name is exalted above all blessing and praise.
God deserves all our praise, all our honor, and all our adoration for He alone is worthy. Rev 4:11...You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power...Rev 5:12...Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing...Rev 5:13...Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever... There is no doubting that God deserves and is worthy of all of these including our worship. Yet, our purest form of worship, our purist form of blessing and exaltation is not sufficient nor does it rise to the standard of God's holiness. Even if all created things, past present and future, heaven and earth, physical beings or angelic beings, all that is beneath, in, on or above the earth with one mind in one accord all at the same time blessed and praised God as He is worthy of, all this simultaneous praise, honor and glory would not be sufficient to bless Him as He rightly deserves. Why? Because He is above all blessing and honor. Yet even though we cannot sufficiently bless Him, He non the less receives our efforts when done in purity of heart. Now that friends is something to think about.
Recently as I was reading through the book of Nehemiah I came upon this verse which left a certain impression upon me. Israel has spent a quarter of the day in the Law of the Lord their God, and spent another quarter of the day confessing and worshiping the Lord their God. As i see it, as we begin this chapter we start out with a distant view of what's going on but each verse zooms in closer so that we can see with greater detail what was going on. But as I came to verse 5 it was as though my mind slammed the breaks and gave a real closeup of the last part of that verse ...Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise!
This seemed to stun me for a while as I pondered this for the next several days. I thought about the way we bless the Lord our God in our modern day churches. Money spent in building massive organs, fine tuning guitars, rehearsing vocal harmonies - all in an effort to bless the Lord our God and to exalt his glorious name and to do it with excellence, to do it to do best of our abilities. Now please understand this is not a criticism of how we praise Him in our settings of worship, this is how it is done today, but the truth of the matter which is stated in this verse was what rocked me. His name is exalted above all blessing and praise.
God deserves all our praise, all our honor, and all our adoration for He alone is worthy. Rev 4:11...You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power...Rev 5:12...Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing...Rev 5:13...Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever... There is no doubting that God deserves and is worthy of all of these including our worship. Yet, our purest form of worship, our purist form of blessing and exaltation is not sufficient nor does it rise to the standard of God's holiness. Even if all created things, past present and future, heaven and earth, physical beings or angelic beings, all that is beneath, in, on or above the earth with one mind in one accord all at the same time blessed and praised God as He is worthy of, all this simultaneous praise, honor and glory would not be sufficient to bless Him as He rightly deserves. Why? Because He is above all blessing and honor. Yet even though we cannot sufficiently bless Him, He non the less receives our efforts when done in purity of heart. Now that friends is something to think about.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
How Well Do We Know God?
Exodus 15:11...Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness. Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
As I sat and read this verse this morning in my meditations the thought came to me; How well do we know God? Granted seemingly we all have an element of knowledge when it comes to the character of God. Whether it is accurate knowledge is another question. But for many people much of the knowledge we possess was gained while growing up through the ranks of Sunday school, or some other sort of catechizing. But I guess for me the question that might need to be answered would be whether or not what we learned growing up is sufficient for the day or should we continue to increase in the depth of our understanding of this God who never changes? So with this thought in mind triggered by Ex 15:11 I thought that I might take some time and journey through the scriptures to gain more wisdom of the character of God.
Who is like You o Lord among the gods...is a very peculiar way of speaking to God when Paul declared in 1 Cor 8:4...that there is no other God but one. But let us recognize that the question asked in Exodus is actually not a question of who rivals against the God of the Bible as it is an acknowledgement that there simply is no one like him in all of creation or existence, even though man in his depravity would like to create other gods which to worship.
But this God - the One God - the only true God that exists, has since before the heavens existed, from before the earth and all that was formed in it, even before the existence of created angelic beings was then already - without anything else to compare Himself to, glorious in His holiness. This, beloved is something that I stumble over due to my limited reasoning. You see, God's character did not evolve as He put in place the heavens and the earth, His character did not become more loving or holier when He created angels or man for that matter. You see even when there was nothing - absolutely nothing at all in existence the glory of God shone forth into the deep cavities of nothingness declaring His perfect holiness. For you see this we can be sure of for we are reminded of the words of this great God in Malachi 3:6...For I am the Lord, I do not change. So does this give us great comfort or great fear?
As I sat and read this verse this morning in my meditations the thought came to me; How well do we know God? Granted seemingly we all have an element of knowledge when it comes to the character of God. Whether it is accurate knowledge is another question. But for many people much of the knowledge we possess was gained while growing up through the ranks of Sunday school, or some other sort of catechizing. But I guess for me the question that might need to be answered would be whether or not what we learned growing up is sufficient for the day or should we continue to increase in the depth of our understanding of this God who never changes? So with this thought in mind triggered by Ex 15:11 I thought that I might take some time and journey through the scriptures to gain more wisdom of the character of God.
Who is like You o Lord among the gods...is a very peculiar way of speaking to God when Paul declared in 1 Cor 8:4...that there is no other God but one. But let us recognize that the question asked in Exodus is actually not a question of who rivals against the God of the Bible as it is an acknowledgement that there simply is no one like him in all of creation or existence, even though man in his depravity would like to create other gods which to worship.
But this God - the One God - the only true God that exists, has since before the heavens existed, from before the earth and all that was formed in it, even before the existence of created angelic beings was then already - without anything else to compare Himself to, glorious in His holiness. This, beloved is something that I stumble over due to my limited reasoning. You see, God's character did not evolve as He put in place the heavens and the earth, His character did not become more loving or holier when He created angels or man for that matter. You see even when there was nothing - absolutely nothing at all in existence the glory of God shone forth into the deep cavities of nothingness declaring His perfect holiness. For you see this we can be sure of for we are reminded of the words of this great God in Malachi 3:6...For I am the Lord, I do not change. So does this give us great comfort or great fear?
Friday, December 3, 2010
The Effectual Relevance Of Christ
A while ago, before my email and blog were hacked I posted an article entitled 'The Power'fulness' of Christ. This article is a continuation of that article and may seem familiar to one that I posted before. But it is not a burden for me to remind us of how relevant Jesus is for today, as well as how truly He has an effect upon us and all that comes our way.
I have noticed a disturbing trend among the community of believers in that we proclaim Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, yet with an attitude that Christ is only sufficient for eternity, not the hear and now. That he is able to grant to me salvation for eternity, but insufficient to save me from the sin and wickedness that encompass us here and now.
Have we fallen into the trap where we believe that Christ isn't relevant for the problems Christians face today? Can this truly be? If this is the case friends, then the Bible is powerless, uninspired, and in error and Jesus is a liar. But on the other hand, if the Word of God is infallible – and it is, if it is good for doctrine, for correction, and training in righteousness – and it is, then that must mean that effectual working of Christ is not merely sufficient for salvation in eternity, but also for life and godliness here in the present. Thus being 'effectual'. With this in mind I have compiled a list of the offices the scriptures declare Jesus holds. This is by no means a comprehensive list. So beloved, Jesus is our...
Advocate (1 John 2:1).
Arm of the Lord (Isaiah 51:9; 53:1).
Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Blessed and only Potentate (1 Timothy 6:15).
Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48).
Bright and Morning Star (Revelation 22:16).
Captain of Salvation (Hebrews 2:10).
Captain of the Lord’s hosts (Joshua 5:14,15).
Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6).
Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4).
Commander (Isaiah 55:4).
Cornerstone (Matthew 21:42; Ephesians 2:20).
Counselor (Isaiah 9:6).
Creator (John 1:3).
Dayspring (Luke 1:78).
Deliverer (Romans 11:26).
Desire of all nations (Haggai 2:7).
Door (John 10:7).
Eternal life (1 John 1:2; 5:20).
Faithful and True (Revelation 19:11).
Faithful witness (Revelation 1:5; 3:14).
Fountain (Zechariah 13:1).
God (Isaiah 40:9; John 20:28).
Good Shepherd (John 10:14).
Governor (Matthew 2:6).
Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14).
Head of the Church (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18).
High Priest (Hebrews 4:14).
Horn of salvation (Luke 1:69).
Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).
Judge (Acts 10:42; 2 Timothy 4:8).
Just One (Acts 7:52; 22:14).
King (Zechariah 9:9, with Matthew 21:5).
King of Glory (Psalms 24:7-10).
King of Kings (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14).
King of peace (Hebrews 7:2).
King of righteousness (Hebrews 7:2).
King of Saints (Revelation 15:3).
Lawgiver (Isaiah 33:22).
Leader (Isaiah 55:4).
Life (John 14:6; Colossians 3:4; 1 John 1:2).
Light of the world (John 1:8; 8:12).
Living Bread (John 6:51).
Living Stone (1 Peter 2:4).
Lord and Savior (2 Peter 1:11; 3:18).
Lord Christ (Colossians 3:24).
Lord God Almighty (Revelation 15:3).
Lord of all (Acts 10:36).
Lord our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16).
Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5).
Messenger of the covenant (Malachi 3:1).
Messiah (Daniel 9:25; John 1:41).
Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6).
Potentate (1 Timothy 6:15).
Power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
Prince (Acts 5:31).
Prince of life (Acts 3:15).
Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6).
Prince of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5).
Prophet (Matthew 21:11; Luke 24:19; John 7:40).
Ransom (1 Timothy 2:6).
Redeemer (Job 19:25; Isaiah 59:20; Isaiah 60:16).
Resurrection and life (John 11:25).
Rock (1 Corinthians 10:4).
Savior (Luke 2:11; 2 Peter 2:20; 3:18).
Savior of the Body (Ephesians 5:23).
Sceptre (Numbers 24:17).
Shepherd (Mark 14:27).
Shepherd and Overseer of Souls (1 Peter 2:25).
Shiloh (Genesis 49:10).
Sure Foundation (Isaiah 28:16).
Surety (Hebrews 7:22).
Teacher (Matthew 23:8; John 3:2).
True Light (John 1:9).
True Vine (John 15:1).
Truth (John 14:6).
Way (John 14:6).
Wisdom (Proverbs 8:12).
Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
Arm of the Lord (Isaiah 51:9; 53:1).
Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Blessed and only Potentate (1 Timothy 6:15).
Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48).
Bright and Morning Star (Revelation 22:16).
Captain of Salvation (Hebrews 2:10).
Captain of the Lord’s hosts (Joshua 5:14,15).
Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6).
Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4).
Commander (Isaiah 55:4).
Cornerstone (Matthew 21:42; Ephesians 2:20).
Counselor (Isaiah 9:6).
Creator (John 1:3).
Dayspring (Luke 1:78).
Deliverer (Romans 11:26).
Desire of all nations (Haggai 2:7).
Door (John 10:7).
Eternal life (1 John 1:2; 5:20).
Faithful and True (Revelation 19:11).
Faithful witness (Revelation 1:5; 3:14).
Fountain (Zechariah 13:1).
God (Isaiah 40:9; John 20:28).
Good Shepherd (John 10:14).
Governor (Matthew 2:6).
Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14).
Head of the Church (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18).
High Priest (Hebrews 4:14).
Horn of salvation (Luke 1:69).
Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).
Judge (Acts 10:42; 2 Timothy 4:8).
Just One (Acts 7:52; 22:14).
King (Zechariah 9:9, with Matthew 21:5).
King of Glory (Psalms 24:7-10).
King of Kings (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14).
King of peace (Hebrews 7:2).
King of righteousness (Hebrews 7:2).
King of Saints (Revelation 15:3).
Lawgiver (Isaiah 33:22).
Leader (Isaiah 55:4).
Life (John 14:6; Colossians 3:4; 1 John 1:2).
Light of the world (John 1:8; 8:12).
Living Bread (John 6:51).
Living Stone (1 Peter 2:4).
Lord and Savior (2 Peter 1:11; 3:18).
Lord Christ (Colossians 3:24).
Lord God Almighty (Revelation 15:3).
Lord of all (Acts 10:36).
Lord our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16).
Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5).
Messenger of the covenant (Malachi 3:1).
Messiah (Daniel 9:25; John 1:41).
Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6).
Potentate (1 Timothy 6:15).
Power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
Prince (Acts 5:31).
Prince of life (Acts 3:15).
Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6).
Prince of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5).
Prophet (Matthew 21:11; Luke 24:19; John 7:40).
Ransom (1 Timothy 2:6).
Redeemer (Job 19:25; Isaiah 59:20; Isaiah 60:16).
Resurrection and life (John 11:25).
Rock (1 Corinthians 10:4).
Savior (Luke 2:11; 2 Peter 2:20; 3:18).
Savior of the Body (Ephesians 5:23).
Sceptre (Numbers 24:17).
Shepherd (Mark 14:27).
Shepherd and Overseer of Souls (1 Peter 2:25).
Shiloh (Genesis 49:10).
Sure Foundation (Isaiah 28:16).
Surety (Hebrews 7:22).
Teacher (Matthew 23:8; John 3:2).
True Light (John 1:9).
True Vine (John 15:1).
Truth (John 14:6).
Way (John 14:6).
Wisdom (Proverbs 8:12).
Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
May the effectual work of Christ be evident in those who name the name of Christ, because Jesus is all these things to us and for us now and forever more.
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