“The Lord will guide you continually.”
This is another of those promises made to Israel by a prophet, in this case, the prophet Isaiah. In its broader context, the promise is to Israel that they have God’s guidance if they will be obedient to Him. But it is another biblical promise that fits into the context of any person’s life who wants to follow, and be obedient to the Lord. I take it as a personal promise to me that God will guide me until I meet Him in eternity. I want you to see it as a personal promise to you. I think you will agree that if we follow God’s guidance, our lives be richer, fuller, and more satisfying. God’s guidance today is through the Holy Spirit. Jesus made a promise to His disciples, and to us, that the Holy Spirit would guide us. This promise is in John 16:13: “However when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come.” If we want our path in life to be true, we need to seek the guidance of the One who will not lead us astray. I know that I could have avoided many of the pitfalls that I have met in my life, particularly in my younger years, if I had followed the Spirit’s guidance into God’s truth instead of going my own way. I imagine that you can say the same.. In fact, you may need to heed this admonition today. If you are on the wrong path, you have the promise of Jesus that you do not have to walk on that path. The Holy Spirit is available to you if you will trust your life to Jesus in a saving relationship. Seek His guidance today, for you can have it. That’s not my promise; it is the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, as I write this, I have just prayed for Jesus to help me listen more closely to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God will guide you into what is best for you. There are many stories in the Bible about how people did not have what was best for them because they did not follow the continual guidance of God. David comes to mind. After his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, David’s life was never the same. He was still referred to as “a man after God’s own heart,” but his life was not as victorious as it was when he followed the guidance of God. David’s experience also reminds us that if we have gotten off of the right path, we can get back on it. It is God’s desire to guide you into what is best for you, and His promise is that if you will follow, you will have what is best for you. You will learn over time that what God thinks is best for you, is not always what you think is best for you. You just have to trust His perfect guidance, and accept by faith that what God has for you is what is best for you. Perhaps the path that you are on today is not leading you into what is best for you. The Holy Spirit is ready and willing to accept your repentance and get you on the path that He knows is right for you. Following God’s guidance will make you a better person. Zacchaeus comes to mind. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. This would make him the most hated man in town, because his wealth came at the expense of his fellow citizens. When Jesus came to Jericho, Zacchaeus’ hometown, he encountered Jesus and Jesus changed his life. He “paid it forward” by giving back a lot of what he had taken over the years. Because he followed the right guidance, Zacchaeus became a better person. Get this down: There is always room for improvement in our lives. The great apostle Paul realized this when he wrote: “Not that I have already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” There is room for growth in your life today. You have not attained, or arrived. No one has reached a stage in life that they can’t be better people. Seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit today, that He might guide you into what is best for you and to help you become a better person. Do it! Bro. Joe
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“Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve you the Lord.”
I know that this verse is part of Joshua’s parting words to the Israelites as they settled into the Promised Land, and before he died, but this verse, like a lot of other seemingly obscure verses in the Old Testament, speaks to all generations. When I read the verse this morning, it spoke to me and I want to share my thoughts on it with you. I call what I found here “Three Undeniable Facts.” The first fact is that we are to fear God. This does not mean that we are to be afraid of God, but that we are to hold Him in great reverence. We need to recognize Him as the God of the universe. He is the creator of the universe. He created all of it from nothing, and, through Jesus, He holds it all together. That’s what Colossians 1:16-17 tells us: “For by Him (Jesus) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him. 17. And He is before all things, and by Him all things were created.” In this verse, Joshua is calling the Israelites to remember the God who parted the Red Sea for them, gave them water to drink and manna and quail to eat. Because of all of this, and many other things, they were to fear God, to hold Him in great reverence. None of this has changed. It is still a fact. God is sovereign and He is worthy of our worship and praise. The second fact is that we are to serve God. God called Israel to be His people among all of the people of the earth, and to serve Him. Joshua is reminding them of this fact in this verse, and it is a reminder to us as well. We have been saved to serve. Every Christian is a servant of God. It is a title that some are afraid to claim for many reasons, but it is nevertheless true. It is a title that should humble us. It is tremendous that the Sovereign God would call us to Himself through the Holy Spirit, and allow us to serve Him. It was in this spirit that the psalmist wrote: “Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing.” (Psalm 100:2) Serving God is not drudgery, but it brings us joy when we see that God is allowing us to serve Him. We are not doing God/Jesus any favors when we serve Him. He is giving us the favor by letting us serve Him. That is why we are to serve Him in “sincerity and in truth.” Joshua also reminds us that it is our responsibility to serve God in our time and in our circumstances. Joshua wrote in 24:15: “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house. We will serve the Lord.” This is the spirit that God wants us to have in our service to Him in our day. If everyone else ceases to serve God, we will continue to serve Him in “sincerity and in truth.” The third fact is that we are to serve God exclusively: …”and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve you the Lord.” What Joshua means by “the other side of the flood, and in Egypt” is that they are to forget about the past, put away the sins of the fathers, and worship and serve Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, exclusively. This advice was all important. It was advice that Israel forgot time and time again and paid the price for it over and over again. The whole story of this error, to put it mildly, takes up a lot of the Old Testament and culminates in the New Testament. We have been called to serve God in our day, and in our generation, and to serve Him “in sincerity and in truth.” These are the “Three Undeniable Facts” that I wanted to share with you. Meditate on them, because they refer to your life today. Believe it! Bro. Joe “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
Paul had been writing about the dealings of God with people, about His sovereignty and blessings on His people. In the final analysis, he concluded that God Himself, plus His wisdom and knowledge are past finding out. No one, not even the brightest among us, has God and His works with men all figured out. Let’s face it, even as believers, there are things that happen in our lives, indeed, in this world, that we cannot fathom. We just have to trust the sovereignty God and know that He ultimately knows best. We call that “faith.” But, according to the Bible, there are things that we can know for certain about God, and that is what I want to deal with in this article. We can know that God hates sin. Throughout the Bible, after the sin of Adam and Eve, we see that hatred that God has for sin. Indeed, the Bible teaches us that God hates sin. This is what all of the sacrifices in the Old Testament are about. We need to finally conclude that God also hates our sins. That is why the Bible constantly reminds us of our need for God’s forgiveness. So, we need to understand this about God: He does not think our sins are cute. It was sin, including our sins, that put Jesus Christ on the cross. Sin is serious business according to the word of God. We can know that God loves the sinner – namely us! John 3:16 put it in plain language: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God hates our sin, but He loves us. This is too hard for some people to grasp, but it is, nevertheless, true. You need to come to the conclusion that God loves you in spite of your sins. No matter what you have done, or thought, God loves you, and Jesus stands as a constant reminder of the love that God has for you. God does agree with our sins. God does not laugh at our sins. But He loves us enough to forgive us if we come to Him in the name of His Son – Jesus Christ. Repeat after me: God-loves-me. We can know that God disciplines us because of our sins. He disciplines us just as our parents disciplined us when we were children, and just as you disciplined your children. Let Hebrews 12:7-8 teach us about this: “If you endure chastening (discipline), God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father does not chasten? 8. But if you be without chastisement, whereof you are all partakers, (then you are not a child of God.) (I added the parentheses.) If God has chastised, or is chastising you, it is not because He hates you, but because He loves you. If you have not been disciplined by God, then you do not belong to Him. In that case, you need to confess your sins and invite Jesus into your life. Do not fight it, the Bible says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) That includes you. You need a Savior. You need Jesus Christ. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Do not be dismayed if you can’t figure God out, or understand why life is like it is, and why history is replete with the sins of man/womankind. Through the Bible, God has revealed enough about Himself that we can know that He loves us and saves us in spite of our sins. What we don’t know about God will not hurt us, but what we do know can delight us. Take the Bible seriously and believe that God, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, wants to work in your life. Believe it! Bro. Joe “The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness will get a sure reward. 19. Whoever sows righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die.” ESV
There is a lot to write about in these two verses, but as I read them this morning what stood out to me was “one who sows righteousness.” These words kind of kindled a fire in my imagination, and I think that it was from the Lord. What does it mean to sow righteousness, and if a person does it what will he or she “sow”? The person who sows righteousness will know for sure that he or she is not sowing his or her own righteousness. If the only righteousness we have to sow is our own, we have nothing to sow. The Bible tells us that we do not possess righteousness, but that it is imputed or given to us by the Holy Spirit. The hardest, and most negative message that Jesus gave was to the Pharisees, who thought that they were righteous. Today, we call this self-righteousness. If we want to “sow righteousness” we will have to realize that it is not our righteousness but the righteousness that was given to us by the Holy Spirit, Who enables us to live righteously. We cannot sow righteousness by bragging about our own righteousness. The person who sows righteousness sows the love that God has given us through His Son Jesus of Nazareth. With a lot of people this might not be one of the first things that they would think of, but in my mind the most important thing that we have to share is the love that God has for us, and the love that He has put into our hearts for our fellow man. I have to admit that it is not always easy to love, but if we want to sow God’s righteousness we will have to do it through love for people. This does not mean that we will always agree with people, nor does it mean that we will never have a negative message for them. Sometimes we disagree with people and remind them of Christian values, because this is also part of sowing righteousness. But we need to always share the message out of love, for this is what Jesus did when He died on the cross. This brings me to the next point about “sowing righteousness,” i.e., that we live the message of love and righteousness that we share. We know that we are never going to do this perfectly, for no one has done this perfectly but Jesus. As already mentioned, we know that we are not sowing our own righteousness, but we want to be careful that we live what we sow. This could mean a lot of things, but Paul brought it to a fine point in Romans 13:15-16: “Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantoness, not in strife and envying. 14. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lust thereof.” Think of this: If every Christian decided that they would be “sowers of righteousness,” we could make an indelible mark on the world. Indeed, if we would live what we have been taught by Jesus, we would make the world a better place. We pray for a revival of righteousness in the world, but the revival does not start in the world, but in the church. (What I mean by “church” is all of the people who profess Christ and who have made a public commitment to Him.) As long as we live like we want, and fight with each other, we are not going to make any mark on the world. As long as we huddle within the four walls of our church buildings and do not endeavor to share the message of love and righteousness that Jesus has given us, we will not “sow righteousness,” and we will not make an impression on the world. Let us decide, then, that we will be “sowers of righteousness,” and get about the business of doing it. Selah Bro. Joe “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. 19. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20. But you have not so learned Christ.”
Being alienated from the “life of God” is a sad thing. The opposite of life is death, and when a person is alienated from God, he. or she. is spiritually dead. That is a sad condition. It is described in verse 17 as “walking in the vanity of their mind.” This is also translated, “in the futility of their thinking.” Their thinking is futile because it is based solely on the wisdom and way of the world and not on the wisdom and way of God. This doesn’t mean that all of the wisdom of the world is bad, but it does mean that if that is the only wisdom that one has it is insufficient. Being “alienated from the life of God” also means to have one’s “understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God.” The righteous way is described as light, while the unrighteous way is described as darkness. This describes a life that is alienated from the life of God. John wrote about this in 1 John 1:5-6: “This is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. 6. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” The reason so many walk in darkness is that they prefer darkness to light. They do not see it as darkness, but in the eyes of God it is living in darkness, and He is the one who really counts in this matter. Being “alienated from the life of God” also means to live in ignorance of the things of God, and the way of God, “because of the blindness of their heart.” This is a matter of the heart. Many people have given their hearts to Satan and to the world. They do not see it this way, because their hearts are blind to the truth. People who live away from God, and ignore the sacrifice of Jesus, accuse us of self-righteousness and bigotry when we say that their hearts are blind. People who live alienated from the life of God are not considered our enemies, nor do we hate them. We don’t have some “phobia” that the world’s people accuse us of if we walk in the light. We are not as “phobic” about their lifestyle and they are about our lifestyle. I call this “Christophobia.” Being “alienated from the life of God” means to be “past feeling” and “giving themselves over to lasciviousness, uncleanness and greediness.” Wow! That covers a lot of territory. This does not just describe sexual sins, but it describes all kinds of sins that we will commit if we are “past feeling.” Not loving people and having their best interests at heart is an example of this unfeeling way of living. Paul reminded the Ephesians, and us, that we are not to live in darkness, spiritual ignorance and blindness of our hearts, because “we have not so learned Christ.” It is Christ who directs us into the light because He is the “light of the world.” (John 8:12) Do not live “alienated from the life of God.” It doesn’t lead to anything good. Bro. Joe "“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. 2. And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all (people) have not faith. 3. But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil.”
Paul’s ministry was always plagued by opposition. I do not mean that his opposition was from people who were just being ornery. They were really enemies of the Christian gospel. Paul actually made an understatement when he wrote: “for all (people) have not faith.” We have not had nearly the kind of opposition that Paul, and the early Christians had as they tried to present Jesus to the world. But I have seen a lot of changes in the public attitude during my years in the ministry. I am not trying to convince you that our opposition is as formidable as Paul’s, but it is powerful. Paul wanted the Thessalonians to pray that “the word of the Lord may have free course,” and that they “may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men.” Thank God that verses 1-2 are not the only verses, for verse 3 lets us know that God is aware of the opposition and will watch out for us. Paul wrote that “the Lord is faithful.” Paul knew this, because he had experienced the faithfulness of the Lord in his missionary journeys in Acts. We can recall that when Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi, they were delivered by an earthquake that obviously was of the Lord. We also see in that incident in Acts 16 that God was faithful and the Philippian jailor and his family were converted. We will also find the Lord faithful in our service for Him. I don’t mean that He will “grease the skids” for us, for we will have hardships along the way, but in every situation that we face in our service for Jesus, we will find that His faithfulness will come to the fore. It might be that He will have to do a work of grace in us to change our attitudes as well as the attitudes of those who oppose us. At least, I have found this to be true in my service. Next Paul wrote that “He will stablish you.” ("Stablish" is the King James word for "establish.") David wrote about this in Psalm 40:11-12: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” The Bible doesn’t record that Paul was aware of that passage, but I think that Paul had surely read it. David wrote that God: “Set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” When we put our faith in the Lord, He puts our feet on the Rock of Ages (Jesus) and we can go on serving Him in spite of the opposition we might have from the world. It is the nature of the world system, under Satan’s control, to oppose God’s work. The promise is given however, that God will establish us, but we must persevere as Paul did. Finally, Paul wrote that God will “Keep you from evil.” Jesus told us in the Lord’s prayer to pray that God would “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Through Jesus He has done just that. I think that this deliverance is from Satan himself. We cannot scare Satan, but he can be controlled by Jesus. The promise in this text is that God can “keep us from evil.” The problem is that we need to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit, or we will get ensnared by evil – either the evil of opposition or evil that we commit. The point is, that in spite of evil, the word of God does have free course, because God wills it so. Ask the people of China, who are forbidden to even have a Bible, but are being converted in spite of their great opposition. The promise of these verses is available to us. The world cannot stop the forward progress of the word of God, for He establishes us and keeps us from Evil. The way will not always be smooth, but God will be with us, and in the end, He will prevail. He has prevailed throughout history and will continue to do so. Praise Him! Bro. Joe 1 John 5:4-5: “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 5. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
1 Corinthians 15:57: “But thanks be to God. Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I have a lot of “favorite” hymns, but one of my very favorite hymns is “Victory in Jesus.” It is a triumphant song of praise and its lilting tune makes it exciting to sing. Look at these words from the chorus of this hymn: “O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever, He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood, He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.” What a triumphant theology this great hymn promotes. We do have victory in Jesus: but what does that mean? To begin with, Jesus won the victory for us in an unusual way. In most historical sagas, the hero wins the victory by great strength and bravado. This is not how Jesus won the victory. He won the victory when He: “humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8) What was the result of Jesus’ death on the cross? We learn the answer in Philippians 2:9-10: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. 10.That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” That is a great declaration of victory. The amazing thing about this victory is that Jesus willingly died on the cross to give us victory. Look at what John 10:17-18 tells us about the victory that Jesus bought for us with His own life: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 10. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received from my Father.” Then in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed: “Nevertheless not My will but Thy will be done.” Jesus surrendered to death and took our sins upon Himself in order to give us the victory. But notice that, while the victory over Satan and sin was won on the cross, the victory was sealed in Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus said: “I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it again.” This is a reference to His resurrection. Paul was referring to Christ’s resurrection when He wrote: “But thanks be unto God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” How do we claim this victory? Well, we can’t earn it. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” John wrote: “…and this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith.” John recorded in the first chapter of his gospel: “He came unto His own and His own received Him not. 12. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” Throughout the New Testament we are reminded that the victory that we have in Jesus is not really our victory but His. When we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we become partakers of His resurrection power. The New Testament also reminds us that we become servants of Christ in this world. We proclaim our victory in Jesus by sharing it with others so that they can also have victory in Him. We proclaim the victory that we have in Jesus, not just by telling others, but by living a Christian life before them and let them see the victory in our own lives. If you have victory in Jesus, rejoice and thank Him. If you don’t, you can claim it by faith today – right now. Bro. Joe “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. 8. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not yourself in any wise to do evil.”
I took my title from the first words in the text: “Rest in the Lord.” The NIV translates it: “Be still before the Lord.” We are anxious and restless people. Even Christians get caught up in the restlessness of the age, particularly during the political season. I actually told myself to “take a break” when I read this text this morning. I want to share with you what the text said to me. “Rest in the Lord,” or “be still in the Lord” tells us to stop what we are doing and concentrate upon the Lord that we say we believe in. If He is the God of the Bible, He is all-powerful and all-knowing, and we can depend on Him to work in our lives. If we do not believe this and practice this in our lives, then we do not really believe in the God of the Bible. I do not mean to be harsh here, but sometimes truth is harsh. The God that we know through Jesus Christ is interested in every aspect of our lives and is at work in every aspect of our lives, or He is not at work in our lives at all. We need to take a break from all of our concerns, and concentrate, or meditate, on the Lord. We need to take the time to remember who and what God is in our lives. Through Christ, He is our Savior, but He is also our sustainer. Stop and rest in Him. Meditate on the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto Me, and you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Wait patiently for Lord” tells us that God is work in our lives, but that He works in our lives on His own time table. In my own prayer life, I often have to remind myself that just because I want God to do something right now does not mean that God has to do it right now. God knows what is best in our lives, and He works in our lives based on what He knows is best. To make the understatement of the New Year, God is smarter than us…duh. He knows what we need and when we need it better than we do. He has an eternal perspective on things, while we have a limited earthly perspective at best. This is why we are told to wait patiently for Him. I stop and think sometimes about my wishes and prayers in my younger years. If God had given me my wishes and prayers then, I would have missed out on a lot in my life as I grew older. Take a break and let God be God in your life. You will be a better person for it. “Fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.” (The NIV translates it: “Do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”) This tells us that we are not to worry about other people’s success, even if it is by nefarious means. We just have to leave them to God and live our own lives. If we can help them, we should, but otherwise it is not our worry. The old saying, “Every tub will stand on its own bottom,” applies here. We have enough to deal with in our own lives to keep us busy repenting. We need to take a break and “sweep around our own back door.” (I’m full of old sayings, aren’t I?) “Fret not” means that we are not to worry about what we absolutely cannot control. Except for praying for people, and doing what we can to minister to them: “It ain’t none of our business.” Verse 8 puts the finishing touches on it: “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath: do not fret – it leads only to evil.” When we become angry because of other people’s success, and when we fret about it, “it leads only to evil.” In other words, we are sinning when we fret about such things, or when we fret at all. We just need to trust God. Do yourself a favor: Take a break! Bro. Joe “But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.”
Psalm 73 was written by Asaph. He was one of the song writers and music leaders in Israel, but he was also a man of faith. In this psalm, like David and other psalmists, Asaph was puzzled because of the wealth and ease of those who did evil. For example, in verse 12 he lamented: “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.” After he thought about the matter, and prayed about it, he concluded: “You have set them in slippery places: You cast them down to destruction.” In the concluding verse, verse 28, Asaph gives his answer to the dilemma: First, he concludes: “But it is good for me to draw near to God.” The word “but” shows that after considering the whole situation, regardless of the wealth of the wicked it was best for him to “draw near to God.” Being near to God is better than having all of the riches of the world. This is certainly not easy for us to understand, for we still envy the wealth of the wicked from time to time and wonder why they are doing so well when they are doing so wickedly. We do not need to envy them, for our nearness to God is better than having the things of the world. We need to take Asaph’s advice here and “draw near to God.” Regardless of our outer circumstances it is better to be near God, and to enjoy His presence in our lives. Perhaps this is one of those things that we will “understand better by and by,” but if we put our minds to it, why would we want to be anywhere but near to God – our creator and our redeemer? Second, Asaph gives the answer as to why he is satisfied with his nearness to God, i.e., “I have put my trust in the Lord God.” The acceptance of the circumstances of our lives, and the joy that we can find in all of the circumstances, good and bad, depends on our trust in God. Our trust is not in our possessions. Our trust is not in our position in the world. Our trust is not in whether we are ahead or behind. Rather, our trust is in the Lord God. He is ultimately dependable to meet all of the needs of our lives. We trust God’s Son in order to be saved and we trust Him in order to be sustained in this life. We do not understand the full meaning of this trust until we draw near to Him and let Him guide us in our daily lives. It is wonderful that we do not serve a God who is “way out there,” but One who meets us where we are and takes us to where we need to be. Our trust in Christ makes our lives richer and fuller than all of the wealth of the world could accomplish. Like Asaph, we need to ponder what it means to draw near to God and to trust Him. Like Asaph, we will conclude that this is best for us. Third, Asaph reveals what he will do because he has drawn near to God and put his trust in Him: “But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all your works. Asaph’s nearness to and trust in God qualified him to be a witness of God’s works to the world. Our nearness to God and our trust in Him helps us to know what to tell the world about the works of God. The main thing that we Christians can declare is how Jesus saved us and how He has blessed our lives since He saved us. Let me put it this way: We need to brag on Jesus and what He has done in our lives. We need to give Him the credit for our joy and peace in the midst of all of the circumstances of our lives. We also need to declare His works by the way we live as a demonstration of what it means to draw near to God and to trust in Him. Give some thought to these points as you live out this day and meet all of its challenges. Bro. Joe “And when he came to himself….”
If you are at all familiar with the New Testament, you know that this is a quote from the “prodigal son” in Luke 15, who took his early inheritance from his father’s estate and went on a wild partying spree, which came to an end when he ran out of money. Being penniless and a long way from home, this Jewish young man took whatever job he could find. He found a job on a hog farm and was so hungry that as he was feeding the hogs he was tempted to eat the husks that the hogs ate. That is when “he came to himself.” What made him “come to himself”? He realized how foolish he was to get away from his father. The father in this parable represents God, and the young man represents people who run away from Him. When he was at his father’s house, the prodigal son had plenty to eat and did not have to desire to eat hog food. The world offers plenty of good food and fun, but it has a way of eating all of this up and leaving us hungrier than we were before. This is not just true of food, it is true of all of the blessings that we have in a close relationship with our Heavenly Father. Perhaps, we do not realize the richness and fullness of His blessings until we get away from them. One of the blessings that we miss when we run away from God is the fellowship that we have with our fellow Christians. In my experience, one of the first things that a person running away from God gives up on is the church and the fellowship to be had there. I imagine that at home the prodigal son had all kinds of friends and he had servants to help meet his every need. In the “far country,” as it is described in the parable, the young man had friends only as long as he had money. This is how the world system of Satan works. When you have plenty of the world’s goods, you have plenty of friends. I am told that people who win the lottery discover more relatives and friends than they knew they had. In true Christian fellowship, there is a richness of friendship and ministry that cannot be had outside of that fellowship. A blessing that the prodigal son missed was that when he was with the father he had plenty to eat, and all of the other things that go with abundance. In a spiritual sense, those who run away from God discover how good they had it when they were right with the Father. For one thing, those who run away from God get away from God’s word. They do not realize the richness of that word until they no longer read it and heed it. The advice of the “far country” is different from the advice of the word of God. The “far country,” which I call the “world system of Satan,” is “do unto others before they do unto you.” This is the world that the prodigal discovered, and it is the world that we will discover if we run away from the Father. With the Father, we have richness of mercy and grace which the world does not, and cannot, offer. There is much more that we miss when we run away from our Heavenly Father, but what I have written should suffice to help you understand the folly of running away from God. When the prodigal son “came to himself,” he said: “How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger.” Coming to himself helped the young man realize where his real life was. Just so, our real life is not in the “far country” of Satan’s world system. It is in good fellowship with God, reading His word, praising His name, praying in the name of Jesus and having good fellowship with fellow Christians. It is possible that you need to come to yourself at the present time, or that you needed this reminder about the dangers of running away from God. Whatever your present condition, heed the word of God and stay in close fellowship with your Heavenly Father. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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