“Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking (odor): so does a little folly that is in reputation for wisdom and honor.”
When I read this verse this morning, my imagination went into high gear. I thought about the yucky factor that the verse describes: dead flies in anything ruins it. So I began to think of some “dead flies” that I have experienced. You can probably identify with some of these “dead flies” that I will write about, either from other people or, if you are honest, from yourself. You might even recognize some of my pet themes in this. Here goes: Words can be “dead flies.” If you want to stink up a relationship just use some harsh and bitter words and you will succeed. Words can do a lot of good and they can do a lot of harm. I can remember some times in my life when words really hurt me. Whoever said the words might not have realized the power of their words on me, but they were powerful nevertheless. Unfortunately, I can also remember times when I have said things to people that served as “dead flies” for them. One valuable lesson I have learned is that if words come into my mind, they do not need to come out of my mouth. We can say things in the heat of the moment that we wish we could take back, but, of course, that is impossible. Be careful about these “dead flies” in your life and in your relationships. Hateful, or spiteful, actions can serve as “dead flies” in our lives. I don’t know if this is worse than unfortunate words, but it is close. One of the worst things that we can think is, “I will get you for that.” The Bible tells us not to try to get back at people for things that they do to us. One verse that comes to mind is Romans 12:19: “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay says the Lord.” Other verses that come to mind are from Proverbs 25:21-22: “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink: 22. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.” Paul quoted this verse in Romans 12:20 and added in verse 21, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 5:44: “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” What the Bible is telling us is that when we want to do something to spite someone, or to get even with then, do something good instead. You might be thinking, “Yeah right!” at this point, but repaying evil with good is a Christian act. Beware of this “dead fly” in your relationships. Sour and hateful attitudes can be “dead flies.” There are some people who are always negative. They never have anything good to say about anything or anybody. They have become so negative that negativity has become part of their personalities. These are the people that we really do not enjoy being around. We might not think that our attitudes make a difference to other people, but we are wrong about that. Even if you do not have a sour attitude all of the time, you need to be careful about it at all times. I know that we can’t be “sunny and happy” all of the time, but we certainly need to try to be. This is true in our homes as well as in all other places. This is probably especially true in the home. It is easier to be hateful and sour at home, because we are more likely to be forgiven there. But we need to be careful about that as well. As Christians, we need to reflect the attitude of Christ in all of our relations. I know that this is not always easy, but we do need to work on it. Don’t you agree? Well, I think that we have dealt with enough “dead flies.” You can probably think of others. The three “dead flies” that I have shared with you should give you enough to work on for a while. I know that I want to work on them in my life, and use the “biblical fly swatter” (I couldn’t help myself.) to rid myself of these “dead flies.” The "swatter" is also available to you! Bro. Joe
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"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."
To put it simply, to live righteously is to live a life that is in line with what God requires of us. What does it mean to "hunger and thirst after righteousness"? It means to desire to live as God wants us to live in spite of all of the temptations around us. We know what hunger and thirst is, because we experience both every day of our lives. As children of God, we need to be careful what we hunger and thirst after. The world gives us a lot to satisfy our appetites. John pointed this out in 1 John 1:16: "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." We need to ask ourselves what we have the greatest appetite for, what the world offers or what God offers? Understand, though, that it is not our righteousness that we hunger and thirst after, rather, it is the righteousness that is given to us by God. This righteousness is not only concerned with what we do not do, but with what we do as well. We have not done enough when we stop doing wrong things, we must also hunger and thirst to do right things. How can we live this kind of life in the midst of all of the temptations that we face? Well, there is a promise here that if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled. Filled with what? We will be filled with the Holy Spirit, Who will help us to not do the things that we should not do and to do the things that we should do. Jesus promised that when He ascended to the Father, He would send the Holy Spirit to indwell and fill His people. What will He fill us with? Galatians 5:22-24 tells us: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23. Meekness temperance (self-control): against such there is no law." When we hunger and thirst after God's righteousness, His Spirit fills us with the things listed above. We are not living righteously if we are not filled with His love, His joy, His peace, etc. Is this the kind of life that we hunger and thirst after? This righteousness will not only make us better Christians, it will make us better human beings! Our aim should not be to be self-righteous, but to be filled with God's righteousness as spelled out in Galatians 5:22-24. Consider what you are filled with and then you will know whether you are truly "hungering and thirsting after righteousness." Bro. Joe "Many are the afflictions (problems) of the righteous: but the Lord delivers (them) out of them all."
I remember reading this: "The question is not whether we will encounter problems; the real question is how we will choose to address them." There is no question that all people encounter problems. People whose lives are not exemplary encounter them, and people who live righteously encounter them. Somewhere along the line, we have come up with the idea that if we live righteously, we will not encounter problems. I don't know where that came from but it surely didn't come from the Bible. Could we really say that Moses never encountered problems? Read about Moses in Exodus through Deuteronomy and you will see that he had many problems. A lot of his problems arose from dealing with people chosen of God to be His people and to bring the Messiah into the world. We certainly could not say that David did not have any problems. He was called "a man after God's own heart," but he encountered problem after problem - some of them because of his own behavior. The point of this article is to point out that, though we will have problems in this life, it is important how we deal with them. We deal with our problems by taking them to the Lord. The Lord has promised that He will help us deal with them, and will "deliver (us) out of them all." Does this mean that when we take our problems to the Lord, He paves the way before us and our lives become easy and problem-free? This was not the experience of the godly people mentioned above, and it has not been true in my life, nor has it been true in anyone else's life that I know. We have to understand that God allows problems in our lives in order to teach us. For example, He uses problems in our lives to teach us patience. We might have to undergo a particular problem over an extended period of time. This does not mean that God has not dealt with the problem. It means that we have something to learn from the problem, and when we learn it, the problem will be solved. Why does God do things as He does? I don't know, but I do know that if God does something that it is for the best and that when He works it out, my life will be better and I will be a better person. Let's stop complaining about our problems and entrust them to God. (Preaching to myself also!) Bro. Joe “Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies; because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.”
Hosea was written to the northern kingdom of Israel as they approached their last days. It is mostly negative, because that’s what it had to be, however, God had not stopped loving them but He wanted them to repent. There is also a message here for us. “Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity.” This is another way of saying that you “reap what you sow.” Hosea also wrote in 8:5: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal; if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” Paul also dealt with this theme in Galatians 6:7-8: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Israel had sown idolatry and all that this lifestyle entailed and they were about to reap the judgment for what they had sown. This is also a warning to us. But let’s look on the bright side of this: If we reap good things in this life, we will sow good as well. Wouldn’t you really hate to come to the end of your life and all that you had sown was negative and bad. The Bible also teaches that if we sow love and friendliness that we will reap love and friendliness. Look, for example at Proverbs 18:24a: “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly…” It would be a good idea for us to heed the warning here and be careful that what we sow with our lives and deeds will enable us to reap good things. This doesn’t mean that we would never have to face the difficult things that life brings, but it sure would make life better for us and for all of those who know us. “Ye have eaten the fruit of lies…” The NIV translates this: “You have eaten the fruit of deception.” Jesus warned His disciples that people would tell lies about Him, and early Christian writers, especially Paul, warned that there would be people who would twist the Christian message into what they wanted it to be. You can be sure that there is plenty of deception today. We need to be careful what we listen to and stick to the biblical message about who Christ really is. The main test of falsehood is in what people teach about Jesus. If their message does not include that Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended to heaven after forty days, and is at the right hand of the Father today interceding for us and is coming again, don’t accept it. This is not all there is to it, but this is the fundamental truth of all that Christ did. “Because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of the mighty men…” When people take their eyes off of God and put them on things that they can see, and they trust in what they think instead of seeking God’s will they are headed for trouble. We should trust God above our own ideas and above worldly security. Proverbs 3:5-7 has a great word for us in this matter: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding. 6. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord and depart from evil.” There are things in this world that can help us feel secure, but we should not replace our trust in God for any of these things. Israel, referred to as “Ephraim” by Hosea, went their own way, ignoring the God who loved them and wanted to bless them. Instead of believing God, they believed lies and went their own way. Let’s be careful that this does not happen in our lives. Bro. Joe “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, the we should be called the sons of God; therefore, the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.”
The first thing that I want to do in this article is to establish the fact that God loves us. I know that this is a theme that I have written about time and time again, but it is a theme that we can’t get enough of. Some people are so hung up on the judgments of God in scripture that they cannot see the great love that He has for them. John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 1 John 4:8 says “God is love.” That is a statement of fact. It does not just say that God loves, but that God is love. The Bible depicts God’s love as being so great that it is His very nature. His love is so great that He will not let us off, and He will not let us get by with what is bad for us. It is called God’s discipline. Here is the proof text for it: “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as children, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, or faint when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? God’s love for us is complete." (Hebrews 12:5-7) The second thing I want to do is to establish that it is because of God’s love that we can be His children. (“Sons” can also be translated “children.”) The fact that we can become children of God is the fulfillment of God’s love. The great God of the universe loves us so much that He wants to establish a relationship with us. As we saw in John 3:16, God went to great lengths to give us a personal relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ. Romans 5:8 gives us another glimpse of the greatness of the love of God: “But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In His matchless love, God did not wait until all of us got better; He showed His love for us while we were still sinners. In the New Testament this is called grace. God’s grace tells us that He loves us and will save us in spite of our sinful selves. We need to grasp the reality of this. There are people who will not come to Jesus because they think they are too sinful. They just do not understand the matchless love of God. He is in the business of forgiving all sinners, and He does not measure how deep in sin they are. All He wants to do is to dig us out of the depths of sin. Every individual on this earth is a candidate to become a child of God. That is how far-reaching His matchless love is. The third thing I want to establish is that when we surrender to God’s love and receive Jesus as our Savior, our lives take on a new purpose. It becomes our responsibility, and our purpose, to share the love of God with other people. The text tells us that “the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.” In other words, the world does not determine our lifestyles or our theologies. Our task is to show Him to the world in order for them to become His children too. This is why at the end of each of the gospels, Christians are told to go out into the world and witness about the matchless love of God. Just because the world doesn’t know Him, or us, does not mean that the world cannot come to Him or join us. Our purpose is to share the matchless love of God with a world that is filled with envy and hate. It was love that compelled God to save and it is His love in us that compels us to share that love with others. Pause now and thank God for His matchless love, and ask Him to give you opportunities today to share His love with others. Bro. Joe “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.”
I don’t know how this verse has escaped me all of these years, but it recently caught my attention. When I read Psalm 116:5 I saw it as a great description of God, and I base this on my experience with Him and on what I read in the Bible. Actually, the verse was the result of the psalmists experience with God during a trying time in his life. In verses 3 and 4 he wrote: “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. 4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.” The result of that prayer was the text written above. How does it describe God? It tells us that the Lord is “gracious.” Of course the word “gracious” is similar to our word “grace,” which tells us a lot about God. Graciousness is defined as kind, beneficent and benevolent. That is certainly a good description of God. A lot of people put so much stress on the wrath of God and His punishment of sin, that they overlook God’s graciousness. I certainly don’t intend to minimize God’s wrath, but, at the same time, I do not want to minimize His graciousness. One of my favorite points that I make about God’s treatment of us is that He really and truly wants to bless us, but we really and truly need to live a life that brings on God’s blessings. Throughout the Bible we see the graciousness, kindness and benevolence of God at work, and throughout the Bible we see people doing everything that they can to run away from His blessings. This is greatly illustrated by the nation of Israel. No one in the Bible had greater treatment from God than Israel, yet they continually disobeyed and disappointed Him. They preferred gods made of wood and stone to Jehovah. All these false gods brought to Israel was heartache and destruction. The good news to us is that God is still gracious, kind and benevolent. He proved that through the sacrifice of His Son. Accept and claim the graciousness of God in your life, and don’t let the cares of this world turn you away from Him. It tells us that the Lord is “righteous.” This word means a lot of things, the greatest of which is that God is Holy. God is totally and completely holy and good. It means that He is always right and righteous in what He does. The great thing is that He offers to share this righteousness with us through faith. One main theme of the apostle Paul was that any righteousness that we have comes by faith. God knows that we are all sinners, and by His grace He has made us righteous through faith in Jesus. It is called “imputed righteousness.” This means that God gives us His righteousness to enable us to live the Christian life. It was said of Abraham, that because he believed the promise of God that God would bless him and make of him a nation that God “imputed it to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:22) It tells us that the Lord is “merciful.” This means that God is compassionate. He cares about what happens in our lives, and He cares about the quality of our lives. We shouldn’t take God’s mercy for granted, but we can be assured when we take a wrong turn in life, that when we see the error of our way, confess, repent and ask for His forgiveness, we will get it. It was God’s mercy that carried Israel through the Red Sea when they were exiting from Egypt. It was God’s mercy that carried Israel through the wilderness to the Promised Land. It was God’s mercy that brought Jesus into the world to save us from sin. It was God’s mercy that placed our sins upon His Son on the cross. Without God’s mercy, we would be in dire straits and it would be impossible to be saved. Do you see what I mean by “a great description of God?” These three great qualities are fundamental to our relationship with God, and we need to be reminded of them often. Bro. Joe “ And Saul was consenting unto his death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.”
“That day” referred to here is the stoning of Stephen. After Stephen’s death, the persecution of Christians really picked up. But something good came out of this persecution. People, who had been converted on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2-3, and after, were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Until that point all of the action of the church had taken place in Jerusalem, but now the witness was spreading. This fulfilled what Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8: “But you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.” I’m sure that when Jesus gave them tha charge that they did not know how it would be carried out. Here is what I really want us to see in this text: Persecution did not kill the church, rather it scattered it and began a movement that would be worldwide in a few short years. Let’s go back and look at something that happened as Stephen was stoned. They laid their robes at the feet of a man named Saul. Then we are told that he was “consenting unto (Stephen’s) death.” Who would have thought that in a short time this persecutor of the church would be a part of it and be one on the main characters in carrying out Acts 1:8? God does, indeed, work in mysterious ways. If we planned it out, it would not be like this. We would appoint committees and discuss being “witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth” to death. We would ask, “Exactly what did Jesus mean and how can we plan this thing out to everybody’s satisfaction?” This is not how God did it. He used the stoning of Stephen as the catalyst for scattering his church beyond Jerusalem, then, on the Damascus Road, converted Saul and turned him into “the Apostle Paul.” In order for the gospel to reach“the uttermost part of the earth” Gentiles would have to be converted. Again, if we had planned it out, we would have appointed committees, asked for resumes of good Gentile Christians, discussed it to death and come up with someone to witness to the Gentiles. This is not what God did. He found the meanest Jew that He could find, converted him on the Damascus Road, and sent him to witness to the Gentiles. Paul’s witness and the witness of Peter and other apostles enabled the gospel message to reach all the way to Rome and beyond, thus carrying out Jesus’ command. What lessons can we derive from this? First, we can understand that bad things that happen to us can turn out to be used of God for great purposes. Who knows but what some suffering that you have encountered has blessed someone else’s life in ways that you could not have planned out. Second, we can understand that when the Lord gives a command He means it, and He will see that it is carried out. If we didn’t send missionaries into the world, God would see that some were sent anyway. Perhaps, until the stoning of Stephen and the ensuing persecution, converted Jews were reluctant to leave Jerusalem. God had different plans and scattered them to other places. Third, God might want you to “scatter” from where you are in your life today and go and do what He wants you to do. (I’m not necessarily referring to location as much as I am referring to lifestyle.) At least give it some consideration. Bro. Joe “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound (overflow) in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
I don’t know how many hundreds of times I have read this verse throughout my years of Bible reading and Bible study, but today it really caught my attention. It is loaded with gospel truth. Paul had just dealt with the inclusion of the Gentiles as the people of God, which had been prophesied in the Old Testament. This verse serves as a kind of doxology on that truth. The hope of God is for Jews and gentiles alike. Through Jesus Christ the world is literally overflowing with hope. Paul, then, gives the substance of this overflowing hope. I’m going to begin at the bottom of the verse to point out the reason that we have this hope. Paul wrote that it was “through the power of the Holy Spirit.” In John’s gospel, the promise of the Holy Spirit was given, and at the end of the gospels and at the first of Acts we see the fulfillment of that promise. We have this great hope in the Lord because of the Holy Spirit that God has given to believers. The Holy Spirit who convicted us, confirmed us and entered into our lives brought this great overflowing hope into our lives. (Remember that hope as used in the New Testament does not mean “maybe so” as we use it today, it means that through the Holy Spirit we have certain hope.) The hope that we are given overflows with joy: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy…” In John 15:11, Jesus said, “My joy I give you that your joy might be full.” Jesus gives us His joy through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that we will always be happy, but it does mean that we will have the Joy of Christ no matter what is occuring our lives. It is up to us to claim this joy when we are going through difficult times. The Bible nowhere promises God’s people that their lives will be trouble free. All you have to do is read about all of the Bible’s prominent characters and see the troubles that they went through – all the way from Moses to Paul. But all believers have an overflowing hope that brings Christ’s joy into their lives. The hope that we are given overflows with peace: “Now the God of hope fill you with…peace in believing.” Just as Jesus promised us His joy, He also promised us His peace in John 16:33: “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation (trouble): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world…” Hundreds, maybe thousands, of books have been written advising people how they can find peace. Jesus promised us overflowing peace. The Holy Spirit brings peace into our lives. Like it is with joy, this promise of peace does not mean that we will not have anything negative happen in our lives to unsettle our peace. After all, Jesus said, “in this world you will have trouble.” He offers us overflowing peace in spite of the troubles that we meet with in life. I personally know this, for I have had to claim this peace many times. The hope of overflowing hope with joy and peace comes about by believing: “Now the God hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing…” “Believing” is an important word in the New Testament. The promise given throughout the New Testament is that we can have salvation through believing in Jesus Christ. This means more than believing about, or just believing Jesus. To believe in Jesus means to give your life to Him. Believe in Jesus and claim the overflowing hope, joy and peace that we can have only in Christ. If you have it today, claim it!!! Bro. Joe The Bible is filled with great truths. Actually, it is great truth. I want to share with you some great Biblical truths that are so profound that they stand out, and make a difference in the way we live and the way we look at God. I think that you will agree that these are four of the greatest truths in the Bible.
John 4:24: "God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him I spirit and truth." This is the greatest theological truth. It was Jesus’ answer to the “woman at the well” in John 4, pertaining to the correct place to worship. Jesus pointed out to her that, since God is Spirit, He can be worshipped anywhere. There are certainly places that are more conducive to worship than others, but God actually can be worshipped wherever we are. Of course, we worship Him in church, but we should also worship Him individually and as families. Wherever and whenever we worship God, it should be done in spirit and in truth. True worship is in keeping with God’s nature, which is spirit. It is also in keeping with truth as we know it in Jesus Christ. Keep in mind, however, that it is important that we “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together,” as we are reminded of in Hebrews 10:25. Matthew 7:12: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to them.”This is the greatest sociological truth. We call it the “Golden Rule.” It simply states that we should treat others as we want to be treated. We are to speak to others as we want to be spoken to. We could make many more applications of this great truth, but suffice it to say that this world would be a better place if we practiced this verse each day. In fact, churches would be better places if we Christians practiced this with each other. Imagine how much better our lives would be if we personally practiced this great sociological truth. Matthew 22:37-39: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind….and thy neighbor as thyself.” This is the greatest practical truth. First, we are to love God with all of our hearts. This means that we should love God/Jesus with all that is in us. Do we really love God this much? We know that we should, but do we really love Him emotionally, spiritually and mentally? Second, we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Jesus said, “the second is like unto it….” This means that it is ultimately important that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Do we really love other people that much? (Something to pray about, isn’t it?) John 3:16: “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.” This is the greatest evangelistic truth. John 3:16 has been called “the gospel in a nutshell.” It tells us everything that a person needs to know in order to be saved. It tells us that God loves us. We know this but we need to know that love is the catalyst for our salvation. It tells us that, in His love, God sent His Son to save us. Without Jesus, we would all be doomed to eternity without God. It tells us how to be saved. We are saved by believing in Jesus, i.e., that we trust our lives and our eternal salvation to Jesus. It tells us that if we believe in Jesus, we will not perish. What a great truth. These four great truths should challenge us to live for Jesus daily, and to be thankful for all that God has done for us. Bro. Joe “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? 4. The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men.”
David had the same concern that we who believe in God and in the values that are intrinsic to that belief have. We look around and see that the foundations of our country are being destroyed. The “foundations” that are not of God need to be destroyed. We just need to be sure that the foundations that we lament are those that pertain to God and His values. Foundations are always being destroyed, but there are some foundations that we destroy at our own peril. You know, of course, that I am thinking of Christian values, those values that honor God and make people better. It is for sure that atheism does not make people better. It is for sure that the “anything goes” philosophy does not make people better. At any rate, we look around and see foundations being destroyed and we wonder what can the righetous who believe in and love the Lord do? The answer to the question does not lie in our righteousness. The answer does not lie in our fretting and worrying about the situation. In ourselves we have no power to change anything. The answer does not lie in our ceasing to love the people for whom Christ died. We need to put away any thought of our own goodness or our own power. This does not mean that there is nothing that we can do, because we can live lives that will advertise the virtues of the moral foundations of the Bible. But the answer does not lie in our actions alone. David gave us the answer in verse 4. He reminded us that “God is in His holy temple.” What does this mean since we do not have a temple? In the Old Testament the temple, or the tabernacle, was where God came to be among His people in the holy of holies. What David means here is that God is present among His people. This is a teaching that we see throughout the Bible. When David fought Goliath, he believed that God was right there with him. We, too, need to be reminded that when our foundations are crumbling God is not absent. He is present and He knows what is going on. This is a great comfort to me and I hope that it is a comfort for you as well. God is not unaware of what is going on, and He will be with us as we live in the darkness of the world as His lights. He does not want us to throw our hands up and give up because things aren’t going our way. He wants us to remember that He is with us and, because of that, the situation is not hopeless. David also reminds us that “God’s throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men.” This means that God is watching all that is going on, and that He is aware of all of it. The history of mankind shows us that there are always those to whom biblical foundations mean nothing. But this does not mean that the foundations are not real, nor that they will ultimately be destroyed. We do not keep the foundation firm; rather, the foundation keeps us firm. We cannot let those who would destroy all that is holy and good make us judgmental and keep us from realizing that God is ultimately in control. We are alive at a certain time in history because God wills it so, and our task is to witness and minister to the world in which we live. We need to hold firmly to our faith in God, who is present with us, and seek to do His will for our lives. If we want to change society, we can live by the values that we preach and teach and depend on God to make the changes that need to be made. In other words, we do not blandly accept the destruction of the foundations, but we hold to the tenets and precepts of those foundations and trust that God will straighten it all out in His good time. Rejoice!!! God is alive and well and He will be with you and guide you through it all!!! Bro. Joe |
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