"And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain (torn in two) from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake and the rocks rent."
At the moment Jesus died, "the veil of the temple was torn in two." It is a simple statement that is loaded with meaning. In the Old Testament tabernacle and temple a veil, or a curtain, shut off the Holy Place where God dwelt among His people from the view of everyone but the high priest, and he could only go in there once a year on the Day of Atonement. At the moment Jesus died, this curtain was ripped open, signifying that through Jesus we have direct access to God. Hebrews 4:15-16 illustrates the importance of this rent veil: "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." "Boldly" does not mean "brashly." It means to approach the "throne of grace" with confidence that when we approach it, we will be heard and God will answer. The torn veil means that we have access to God twenty-four hours a day every day. He never sleeps, and He is always available. It is a great comfort to me that when I wake up at odd hours of the night, and have difficulty going back to sleep, I can take that as an opportunity to pray. This is when a lot of my intercessory prayers (prayers for others) take place. This is why we do not have an excuse for prayerlessness. I will admit that it is easier to pray at some times than at others, but if I open myself up to God, even in those times, prayer comes easily. You do not have to be in certain posture to pray. You do not have to fold your hands under your chin. You do not have to change your voice to holy tones. Just talk to God and be honest with Him. Nothing in your life is hidden from God; therefore, you can talk to Him about your innermost problems. God will welcome your confession and will forgive you and help you to deal with whatever problem you might have.. Take advantage of the opportunity that the torn veil offers you! Bro. Joe
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"Lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck. 6. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7. But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another."
There is a trite old joke that has been around for years about the man who told his friends: "I run things at my house....like the vacuum cleaner, the dishwasher, the washing machine, etc., etc." There is always a question about who is in charge? If you take the Bible seriously, you do not have any doubts about Who is in charge - God. "But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another..." The NIV translates verses 2-3: "You say, 'I choose the appointed times; it is I who judge uprightly.' 3. When the earth and all its people quake; it is I who hold its pillars firm." We think that we are in control. History tells us that we think we are in control. For example: Napoleon strutted across the stage of history in his time, thinking that he was in control, that is, until he came to Waterloo. Adolph Hitler strode across the stage of history, thinking that he was in control. But like all egomaniacs who have ruled on this earth Hitler met his "Waterloo" as well. To bring it home, we live our lives as though we are in control. James warns us about this in 4:14-15: "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that." God has not made us automatons that we should have no will of our own, but part of the discipline of the Christian's life is to mesh our will with God's will. We do not do it perfectly, but we soon learn that we are better off in God's will than out of it. When God is in control of our lives, we will not walk down a path of roses, but we will be victorious in the end. The concluding fact is that God is in control of our destiny, whether we do His will or not. He is also in control of the destiny of our country and our world. Human authority comes and goes, but God's authority lasts through eternity. When everything comes to an end, it will be God/Jesus Who will reign. We shouldn't forget that as we walk through the trials and tribulations of this life. Bro. Joe "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He shall show to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. 14. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace (or be still)."
The Israelites escaped from Egypt and had gotten as far as the Red Sea, when they saw Pharaoh's army pursuing them. They began to grumble and complain to Moses and Aaron because they were afraid of the Egyptian army. Let's not be too hard on them, for our initial reaction would probably have been fear. But Moses gave them a word of encouragement in the text printed above. "Faith" is not an Old Testament word, but these verses are an Old Testament call to faith. In this crisis, they were to stand still and see what God could do, for He would be fighting for them. Then he told them to "hold their peace." One way of looking at this is that Moses told them "shut your mouths and believe." Another translation of this is "and you shall be still." On the one hand, when we are going through trials, we should just keep our mouths shut, quit complaining and believe. (From my own personal experience, I could probably write a book on this.) On the other hand, we are to "stand still" or "be still." This reminds me of Psalm 46:10: "Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." When we fret and worry about what is coming, we are not utilizing our faith. We need to heed Moses and the psalmist and be still, shut up, and wait to see what God will do. God is working on my heart about this business of "standing still and shutting up and see what He can do." I am taking it to heart and God is at work in me and I am excited about what it coming. If we will be still and wait on God, He will do things that we cannot imagine. Who would have thought that the Red Sea could be divided - but it was. They saw what only God could do. We do not see what God can do because we worry and fret and try to work it out for ourselves. That is sad, for we can only do what we can do. You will pardon my grammar here, but that ain't much. We need to learn to depend on God and let Him do what He can do, then we will see great things. We need to do as Moses and the psalmist suggested and just be still, stand firm and let God be God. I don't know what you are going through right now, but I do know that whatever it is, the Lord will be with you and fight for you. Believe it! Bro. Joe "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."
I got a new take on this verse of scripture this morning as I read Psalm 71-72. If you will check in your Bible, you will see that these two Psalms are rather long. There are so many psalms that it is difficult to remember them. One of my frustrations this morning was that I read every word of both psalms carefully, but much of what I read was not in my memory. If you have a photograpic memory, you do not know what I am writing about, but if you are like me, and do not have a photographic memory, it is difficult to remember long portions of scripture, or long portions of anything else. I think that God gave me some insight into this dilemma this morning. He called my mind over to Psalm 119:11- one verse that is stuck in my memory: "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." The Lord seemed to be saying to me: "You have read these two psalms carefully and prayerfully. You might not remember every word that you read, but I don't deal mainly with your memory, I deal mainly with your heart, and if you have hidden these words in your heart, they will be a tremendous help to you, even if you can't quote verses from them from memory." This was a great deal of comfort to me, and I am sharing this epiphany with you, so that you might receive some comfort from it. I think that the important lesson for us here is that we remember that God always deals with us through our hearts. He saves us from within, and He indwells us from within, and He does things within us that we cannot explain. This does not make what He does in our hearts less real, in fact it makes God's mysteries real to us. I have Psalms 71-72 hidden away in my heart and God is doing His work in my heart, so that these two psalms might bless me today and in all of life. Wow! What a reality check. I hope that my sharing my dilemma has helped you. Bro. Joe "Judge not, that ye be not judged...."
People, who otherwise do not care anything about the Bible, are aware of this one verse in the Bible. Every time Christians make a stand for Biblical righteousness, we get this verse thrown at us. To these people, this seems to be the only verse in the Bible. But before I get too carried away here, let me admit that sometimes they are right. Some of us can be downright self-righteous about the stands that we take for Jesus. There are those of us who look down our noses at people and act judgmental towards them, as though we are not "sinners saved by grace." Jesus detested the self-righteousness of the Pharisees and condemned them for it. Therefore, let's be careful that we are not, or do not appear to be, self-righteous. On the other hand, this verse does not mean that we are not to take a stand for Biblical righteousness. If the Bible condemns something, we cannot accept it because it has gained acceptance in the world at large, and might even be ahead in the sacred polls. (By the way, I'm not just referring to homosexuality.) When we oppose sin, we are doing what the Old Testament prophets did, what Jesus did and what the apostles, including Paul, did. We are especially to take a stand within the church against unrighteousness, for judgment begins "at the house of God." We are also not to accept unrighteousness outside of the church as normal behavior. We are certainly not to judge those people, but we are to remind them of Biblical righteousness. If we approach them as though we have never sinned, we will not be effective with them, but if we approach them in love and concern for their souls, they might listen to us. Every time I witness, or preach from the pulpit, I am aware of my own shortcomings. This reminds me to be loving instead of judgmental. But we can't allow the fact that we have sinned to make cowards of us and just give in to whatever the polls say. The solution is that we approach people as Jesus did, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in our activities, and we will be more effective. Take a stand but do it humbly. Bro. Joe "Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases, 17. for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him. 18. Though while he lived he counted himself blessed - and men praise you when you prosper- 19. he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of life."
When I read this passage this morning, almost every joke that I have heard on this theme came to my mind. Here are a three examples: (1) Two men were talking about a very wealthy man who had died. One of the men was a close friend of the deceased. His friend asked him: "How much did he leave.?" His answer was, "All of it." (2) No one has ever seen a Uhaul trailer behind a hearse. (3) A wealthy oil man in Texas requested to be buried in his Cadillac. When he died his request was granted. They put his corpse behind the steering wheel of the Cadillac. As he was being lowered into the ground, someone was heard to say: "Man that's living." Guess what? It wasn't living it was dying. The man didn't take the Cadillac with him. Which reminds me of a line in an old song from my youth: "You can't go to heaven in limousine, cause the Lord don't allow no gasoline...." (Pardon that last one. I just couldn't help it.) Seriously, we really and truly cannot take anything with us when we go. All of our possessions stay right where they are to be meted out by our families. When a person dies, it does not make any difference what he is buried in, whether a suit or overalls. It doesn't make any difference whether he makes a "good looking corpse" or not. It doesn't make any difference how much property he owned, or how much money he had in the bank. The only thing that makes a difference is whether he knew Jesus Christ as his Savior!!! I really think that enough has been written on this subject. Think about it. Bro, Joe "And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave His commandment."
1 John was written partly to combat false teachers, who were calling people away from the basic doctrines about Jesus. In verse 23, John gave two essential Christian commandments. First, to "believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ." This is where our salvation begins. In the Gospel of John in chapter 6, a group of people asked Jesus in verse 28: "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" Jesus answered in verse 29: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom he hath sent." Until one believes in, or on, Jesus, nothing else matters. It is not enougb to believe about Jesus, i.e., that He exists. It is not even enough to believe Jesus, i.e., the words of Jesus in the gospels. To believe on Jesus is to take Him into your life and receive His Holy Spirit. After this, the service begins. But the service does not save us. We are saved by faith (believing) in Jesus. We are not saved by works, but to work. (Read Ephesians 2:8-10.) This is a gospel fact, and if one tries to tell you otherwise, he or she, is trying to lead you astray. Second, we are to "love one another, as He gave His commandment." In the Gospel of John, verse 17, Jesus said: "These things I command you, that ye love one another." Somehow we have concluded that loving people is an option. We even seem to think that loving our fellow Christians is an option. When something is given as a command, it is not a suggestion. In his first letter, John mentions love a lot. One great example is in 1 John 4:20-21: "If a man (or woman) say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen. 21. And this commandment we have from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." We are not saved by loving people, we are saved to love people, and if we do not love people, especially our Christian brothers and sisters, we are not good examples. In the Gospel of John 13:35, Jesus said: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." When we fail to love, we cover up the fact that we are Christians. If you are out of sorts with, for example, someone at your church and you do not love them, I strongly suggest that you go to them and get it straightened out. Here we are commanded to believe and love. If you believe, then love. "I'm just sayin'." Bro. Joe "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all of the words of this law."
I was reading in Deuteronomy this morning and this verse excited my imagination. Does it surprise you that God has secrets? We cannot know everything that God knows. Maybe when we get to heaven those secrets will be revealed, but as long as we live in the flesh, we will not know God's secrets. God is infinite and we are finite; therefore, His thoughts are far above ours. In Isaiah 55:8-9, God plainly stated this through His prophet: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." He kind of puts us in our intellectual place here. A lot of people have given up on God because His ways and thoughts are so far above them. They cannot understand the concept of an all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present God, so they dismiss Him. But the Psalmist does not let us off the hook. We cannot use our ignorance of God as an excuse not to follow and obey Him. Why? Because God has revealed enough of Himself to us that we can understand. He has revealed Himself through nature. Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (skies) shows His handywork." Romans 1:20: "For the invisible things of HIm from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." We have the Bible, God's written word, that reveals enough about God that we can understand that He loves us and wants to be involved in our lives. Here again, people dismiss the Bible out of hand, either because they do not understand it, or just do not want to live like it tells us to. Above all, God has revealed Himself to us through His Son - Jesus. Hebrews 1:1-3: "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times, and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven." It is amazing that a God who is so far above us came to live among us in order to save us from sin and self. On this side of glory, we will never know all that God knows, but He has revealed enough that we can know Him. Don't worry about God's secrets, just embrace what He has revealed. Bro. Joe "As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, O God. 2. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3. My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" (NIV)
Whether the Psalmist was in exile, or just felt that God was remote to him at that time, his agony is real. It is an awful thing to feel that God is remote from us. This question, "Where is your God?" is being asked more and more in our secular society. We are living in a time when the atheistic point seems to be winning the day, at least in the law, if not in the hearts of the American people. So we get the question that intimates that God does not exist, or is so remote that we cannot reach Him. This idea resonates with people who hope that there is no God to whom they will have to answer. What should be our reaction to this question? First, we should not take it seriously, because we know, through faith, that our God exists, and that He is not remote from us. Second, what we should take seriously is that we are living our lives so that people can see God/Christ at work in us. Maybe we need to have the attitude of the Psalmist in verses 1-2: "As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God..." We should feel such a deep need for the presence of God that we seek Him in prayer everyday. When we are busy seeking everything but God, people cannot see Him at work in us. We are living just like everyone else. Third, we should practice our faith in Jesus as we move about in society. We can reflect the love of Jesus by really loving people and not seeing them as enemies, or as hopeless cases. We can reflect the righteousness of Jesus by living above reproach before people. People cannot see Him in us if we do not project His image to them by the way we live. If you know me, you know that I do not mean that we should live self-righteously and be condemnatory in our dealings with people. We need to remember that, after all, we are sinners saved by grace. What I mean is that we should take people seriously and have a genuine interest in their lives and in their souls. After all, we are not calling people to accept a religion, rather we are calling them to accept a person. When we live so that people can see God/Christ in us, it could be that the answer to the question, "Where is your God?" is answered by us. If someone should ask you where your God is, you can answer that He is right here with us at this very moment. As Christians, we know that God is present everywhere all of the time. Let's just really believe that, and beliveing it, let's live it. Bro. Joe 1 Peter 3:8-9 - "Finally, be ye all of one mind (in harmony), having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful (compassionate), be courteous: 9. Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; know that you thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing."
The text concludes with: "that ye should inherit a blessing." Everybody wants to be blessed, I know I do, but if you want to be blessed, you should be a blessing. This is a principle of the Christian life. One of my main prayers is that I will be a blessing to the people that I encounter. I have to remind myself of this when I encounter recalcitrant (difficult) people. We are to be blessings even when we are in negative circumstances. How can we do this? We can seek to live in harmony with other people, or as the KJV says, "be all of one mind." This should certainly be true in Christian fellowship, otherwise known as church. It is not always easy to be in harmony with others, but it will be easier if we "have compassion one of another (and) love as brothers." It will not be a sure thing even then, but it will be more likely. If we look at other people, especially Christian brothers and sisters, with compassion, we will see beyond disagreement to real fellowship. It will also help if we "love as brothers." I have two brothers, one five years older and one five years younger. (That's right I'm the middle child. Explains a lot doesn't it?) You can be sure that we do not always agree on things, be it religion, politics or whatever, but they are my brothers and I love them, and they love me. Hey, we are "blood." There is no disagreement that could make me stop loving them. We are brothers and sisters in Christ; therefore, we are "blood." We are welded together by the blood of Christ; therefore, there should be nothing that could cause us to break fellowship. But what about people who are not Christians? The Bible does not make any distinction between how we should treat people. We should be compassionate and loving toward all people. There is more: "Do not repay evil for evil, or insult with insult, but with blessing." If we want to be blessings and to be blessed we will stay away from meaningless arguments. (You will have to agree that most arguments are meaningless.) The game of "payback" never ends, it just keeps going on and on. Quit arguing and start blessing. Go out into the world and live a blessed life. Bro. Joe |
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