“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away and be at rest.”
I thought that I had written on this text but when I checked there was not a title listed under this text. So, there will be one now. Whenever I read this text I think: “Man, I really identify with David’s thinking on this text." Sometime we think that it would be nice to just “fly away and be a rest.” You and I are living in troubled times, just as David was when he wrote this text. But, like David, we can’t just “fly away.” I thought of two reasons why we can’t “fly away, and I want to share them with you. First, we are living in this time because we were born in this time. I know that you know this, but perhaps you need reminding: We cannot choose the time in which we live. I have the “Sunday Morning in Sleep Hollow” print on my den wall. The people in the seventeenth century look so relaxed and comfortable. It is peaceful to look at, but I can’t go back to that time, and if I did, there would still be trouble of some kind. I imagine that there were times when the people in that print would have liked to just “fly away and be at rest." At any rate, we need to remember that God willed that we should be born in this time. So, as they say, “We need to suck it up buttercup” and accept that we are here by God’s design. Second, we can’t just “fly away and be at rest” because God has us in this time for a purpose, or for purposes. There are things that need to be done that only we can do. That looks kind of scary doesn’t it? Most of us do not think that we are that significant, but we must be because we are here. What is it that the Lord Jesus wants with you in this time? I do not know what your spiritual gifts are, but you need to discover them and get about the business of serving the Lord in your time. I have been a preacher for fifty seven years and I never dreamed that this time in my life, the Lord wanted to use me to write. If you are reading this, you know that this is what I am trying to do. Frankly, I thought that I would preach until I was too old to do it anymore. But He still uses me in the pulpit from time to time, but my ministry is “CouchPotatoRedux.” This is one of the purposes of why I am here. What is your purpose(s)? I am writing this to remind myself that I am here for the purposes of God’s kingdom work. I also want to help you understand the same thing for yourself. I do not know your spiritual condition. It might be that you need to start at the beginning and ask Jesus to save you. Whatever the case, you cannot “fly away and be at rest” because the Lord Jesus Christ wants to use you. Turn loose and let Him do it.. Bro. Joe
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“And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
“Reconciled” is one of my favorite words in the New Testament. This article should demonstrate why this is true? Reconciliation is perhaps one of the most important words in the Bible. When we go back to the Garden of Eden, we discover that when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, there was a breach between God and people. Sin is the incurable disease confronted by the human race. It has to be dealt with, and the only way this can happen is for God to intercede for us. The text tells us that God “has reconciled us to Himself.” Reconciliation is not something that we can mathematically deal with in our own power. So we read that God reconciled us to Himself. Think of it! We have been reconciled to the God of the universe, because He wants to “reconcile us to Himself.” How did God reconcile us to Himself? The text tells us that God “reconciled to Himself by Jesus Christ.” It is only through Jesus Christ that we can be reconciled to God. Even the Old Testament system of sacrifices were pointing us toward Jesus Christ. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life, and no person comes to the Father except by me.” There are a lot of people who really have a problem with this declaration by Jesus, because there must be some other way that God will reconcile us to Himself. The only way that this could happen without Christ is for a person to live so perfectly that God would be indebted to them to reconcile them. The New Testament assures us that this is not possible. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Ephesians 2:5-6 tell us: “Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened (enlivened) us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved.) 6. And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Why did God reconcile us to Himself? He reconciled us to Himself so that we could be saved and not be lost in sin here or hereafter. But our text gives another reason for our reconciliation: Here it is: “God has reconciled us to Himself, by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” We have been reconciled to God in order to help others become reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Every believer in Jesus Christ has been given a “ministry of reconciliation.” We cannot reconcile people ourselves, but we can invite to them to find reconciliation the same way that we did – by faith in Jesus Christ. So let’s get about the business in introducing people to reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Bro. Joe “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. 4. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.”
These verses teach us the value of trusting in the Lord. One value of trusting in God is that he keeps the person who trusts Him in “perfect peace.” The word that struck me here was “keeps.” This means that when we trust in God He holds onto us, and He makes sure that we have perfect peace. (It is “perfect” peace because it is given by Him.) I am reminded of what Jesus said to His disciples about His peace in John 16:33: “These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Jesus did not promise, and He still does not promise, that we would be in peaceful circumstances all of the time, but He did promise that we will have peace in all circumstances if we put our trust in Him. Another value of trusting in God is that we can have this peace when our minds are “stayed” on Him. One thing that the devil does not want is for our minds to be “stayed” on God. David Jeremiah wrote: “We battle against principalities and powers that would seek to take our minds off of God who is our salvation. Anything the devil can do to make us doubt God’s love, Christ’s sufficiency and the power of the Holy Spirit, he will do. Peace is kept by staying focused on what is true, on what God says.” I can only add a hearty “amen” to that. I personally know, and you probably do to, that the devil will do anything to keep me away from the Bible, from prayer, from Christian fellowship and from good Christian literature, because when he does that my mind is not “stayed” on the Lord. This reminds us that we are completely dependent on God for peace in our hearts. This peace is promised to those whose minds are “stayed” on God and on those who trust in Him. The last value of trust that I see in this text is that our trust is in one who has “everlasting strength.” Strength is one thing, but “everlasting strength” is another thing. There are all kinds of strong people out there. There are people who can lift vast amounts of weight. But there is no man on this earth who has everlasting strength. We can trust our lives, and the well-being of our families to God because His strength is above anything in this world that we can lean on. In the Old Testament, Jewish kings got in trouble when they trusted in the powerful nations of their day to deliver them instead of leaning on the strength of God. I know that when things are not going well, we can be tempted to look to the world for the strength that we need. And, yes, God has people out there who can help us, but we need to be sure that our ultimate trust in is in our great Lord. He alone has the everlasting strength that we need to get us through. It is my prayer that these two short verses from Isaiah have given you a lift and new vision of what trusting in God can do for your life. Bro. Joe “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on the countenance (face), or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him: For the Lord sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
This verse is a reminder to Samuel when he went to Bethlehem looking for God’s choice of the person who would replace Saul as king of Israel. Samuel first looked at Jesse’s oldest son Eliab and all of his oldest sons, but the Lord told him that none of them would be his choice. Samuel found God’s choice in verse 11: “And Samuel said unto Jesse, are these all of your children? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he keeps the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down until he comes.” When David was brought in, Samuel could see that he had the right person. David was a nice looking fellow, but all doubt was gone when the Lord told Samuel: “Arise, anoint him for this is he.” The lesson here is that God sees beyond all that the world sees to the heart. This reminds us that the Lord looks beyond the physical to the spiritual. When Samuel looked at all of the sons of Jesse, he instinctively thought that the future king would be a grown man, but God knew better. The Lord had seen David at work with his father’s sheep and he noticed that David was a brave person, and that he was the only choice to become the king of Israel. Of course, what the Lord saw in David proved to be true. This was proved to be true when in the next chapter of First Samuel David challenged the gigantic Goliath. David’s concern was that this man was challenging the “armies of the living God.” (1 Samuel 17:26) God knew that this was how David thought, and it proved to be true of David throughout his career as king of Israel. As we know, David was not a perfect man, but he was a man who had the heart of a king. When we think about the men and women that God would use as His servants, we usually think it is someone who has been involved in church work all of his, or her, life. This is sometimes true, but is also true that God calls people who were not thought to be “missionary material.” The fact is that God looks on the heart, and knows what his servants are capable of doing even before they are aware of it. Who would have thought that Miss Lottie Moon who stood four feet eleven inches tall, would be called to serve in missions in China. But she was called to live the rugged life in China, and had the heart that it took to do the job. It is possible that God needs something done in your church or your community and He knows your heart and He knows that you can do what He wants of you. You might think that there is certainly someone better qualified than yourself, but God knows your heart. When you feel the tug of God to take the challenge – take it. He knows your heart. Bro. Joe "See to it that you do not refuse Him Who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven? 26. At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." 27.The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29. for our God is a consuming fire."
We are caught in the tension between "things," which we need, and eternal things which we need even more. If we are not careful, we will put too much emphasis on "things" instead of eternal things. We need to remember that there is nothing on this earth that is eternal, that is "created things." We are proud of our stately buildings and great institutions, but they will all vanish when God removes the "things that can be shaken." We are proud of our possessions, e.g., cars, houses, jewelry, etc., but they will vanish too. We think that there are things that we cannot do without, but that is not true. We are warned not to be possessed by our possessions. That was the problem with the "rich young ruler" in the New Testament. He wanted eternity, but he wanted to hold onto that which was not eternal. Jesus was trying to teach the young man, and us, that the greatest thing that we can do is to serve God, even if it costs everything that we have. There is nothing that we possess that can save our souls. There is nothing that we possess that can take us to heaven. It is only through the unseen God that we can be saved and go to heaven. I'm not saying that our possessions do not count. In fact, we are told to be good stewards of what we possess. We are not to keep them only to ourselves for our own aggrandizement, but to share them as best we can. What I am saying is that our possessions are not eternal, and will vanish. Let me use the example of trading cars. We get "trading fever" and that car seems to be the greatest thing in all of the world and we just have to have it. We buy it, drive it and smell it's newness. Before we know it, time has gone by and we relegate that treasured possession to the used car lot, or the junkyard. The joy that it brought was only temporary. Everything on this earth is only temporary. One day God will "shake" the heavens and the earth, and only what is eternal will remain. I want to hitch my star to that which will not fade away. I have done that by trusting Jesus as my Savior. I hope that you have too. Bro. Joe “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but you see me: because I live, you shall live also.”
There are a lot of important doctrines in the Christian faith, but one stands out above all of the others, and that is that Jesus is alive and at work in the world. Everything else hangs on that. If you are reading this, you probably agree with me that Jesus is alive and well, living in us and among us. Is Jesus alive in you? If He is, is He should be alive in all areas of your life? Is Jesus alive in your recreation? When you do things for fun, do you consider that Jesus is a part of it? We can’t compartmentalize Jesus and make Him a part of our religious life but not a part of our daily life. I’m afraid that a lot of people do this, and we all will if we are not careful. Sometimes we look at it like this: There is a time for Jesus and a time for fun. It all depends on what you count as fun. If Jesus can’t be a part of it, should we be doing it? The question is not whether Jesus is alive; the question is whether or not Jesus' is a living reality is present in fun times. Is Jesus alive in your family life? I don’t mean do you ask the blessing before meals, or even have family devotions. What I mean is does the living Savior figure into your plans for you and your family? For example, are you seeking to do His will in your life? When your children are talking to you about what they want to do in life, do you try to see that they know that the living Savior has something to do with what they want in life? I think that too many families, even Christian families, send their offspring off to college without grounding them in the faith and the reality of Christ in their lives. This is why we lose so many young people when they go off to school. They are not ready for what they are going to meet in classrooms and dormitories. Is Jesus alive in your church life? You are probably thinking that this is a no-brainer. “Of course, Jesus is alive in my church life – it is, after all church.” If this is true, why are there so many fellowship problems in churches? I’ve worked with churches for a long time, and I know that a lot of things that happen at church do not show the world that Jesus is alive and well. Ask yourself this question: If everyone in your church was like you, what kind of church would it be? Would people be devoted to serving the Lord in whatever capacity He wanted them to serve? Would people use their spiritual gifts to carry out the work of the church? Would people be involved in getting people to the living Savior and getting them into the fellowship of the church? Would people be willing to cooperate with the church’s decisions whether they agree with them or not? These, and lot of other questions, need to be asked of ourselves when we consider that Jesus is alive in our lives. I think by now that you have an idea of what I’m trying to communicate. I’m not just preaching down to you about this, for I have to deal with these things in my life just as you do. Jesus is alive and well and at work in the world. Are we joining Him in what He wants to do in the world through how we live our lives? Bro. Joe “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger. 18. I’ll get up and go to my father and say to him, Father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight….20. So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a great way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran threw his arms around his neck and kissed him.” HCSB
I assume that you are familiar with this parable that we call, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.” I choose to call it, “The Parable of the Loving Father.” It seems that this young man had decided that he was tired of living in his father’s house. He asked his father for his inheritance, which the father generously gave him. He took the money and ran, so to speak, and his life became a big party. A famine came in the land to which he had escaped and after only finding a job to feed pigs, and wanting to eat the food that the pigs ate, he saw the error of his way and went back to the father. On his return, the father welcomed him, hugged and kissed him, and gave him a party. That is a loving and forgiving father. The parable is given to reveal to us our loving and compassionate Heavenly Father. There is so much to learn from this parable. I want to share in the space remaining three important lessons that we need to derive from this parable. The first thing that I saw was that our loving Heavenly Father does not give up on us. You will notice that while the son was still “a great way off,” the father saw him. This means that the boy’s father had been looking for his return. I get the picture of the loving father going out each day to scan the horizon in order to see his rebellious son returning. He had not given up on the boy. Our loving Heavenly Father does not give up on us either. We call it grace, God’s unmerited favor. We don’t deserve this kind of love, but He gives it anyway. Your loving Heavenly Father knows where you are right now, and looks for your return if you have strayed from Him. The second thing that I saw was when we return to our loving Heavenly Father, He welcomes us with open arms. He has compassion for us and knows that we are not happy out there in the “far country” away from Him. He knows that the world welcomes us as long as we can afford it, but spits us out when we get to the end of our rope. In His great heart, our Loving Heavenly Father longs for us to return to Him and to love and serve Him instead of the thankless world. If you have never had a relationship with this loving Heavenly Father, He will welcome you. If you have strayed from the daily fellowship with Him to something different, He will welcome you. As the old hymn says, “Come home, come home, come home. Ye who are weary come home. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. Calling, oh sinner come home.” The third thing that I saw was when you come home to the arms of the loving Heavenly Father, He will rejoice, and “throw a party” for you. Your return will be a time of celebration! This is what the father in the parable did and this is what our loving Heavenly Father will do for us. When the son in the parable returned, the father ordered his servants to “kill the fatted calf” and prepare him for a feast. He put a ring on the returning son’s finger and robe on his shoulders – and they partied. Hey, come to the party. Bro. Joe “And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord to deliver thee.”
The Lord called Jeremiah to prophesy to the people of Judah just before they were went into captivity in Babylon. There are some things that we need to remember when the Lord calls us to serve Him in some capacity. The first thing that I noticed is the Jeremiah was warned that “they shall fight against thee.” If you have read the book of Jeremiah, you know that the Lord did not overstate. I recall that the same sort of promise was given to Paul when he was called to minister to the Gentiles. Here is what the Lord told Ananias: “But the Lord said unto (Ananias) Go your way for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” (Acts 9:15-16) I do not mean to discourage you, but if you haven’t found it out already, serving the Lord can get difficult at times. As with Jeremiah and Paul, the Lord would not call us to serve Him if He did not know that we could handle it. The second thing I noticed was that the Lord gave Jeremiah a word of encouragement that we can apply to our own calls to service: “but they shall not prevail against thee.” Jeremiah went about doing God’s will and saying to the people what the Lord gave him to say, and they did fight against him, but they did not stop him. We may not win every battle, but if we are doing God’s will in God’s way, we will prevail and negative people will not be able to stop us, or “prevail against” us. We can say the same about Paul. He did suffer in serving the Lord, but they did not stop him from doing what God called him to do. If you know that you are doing God’s will, keep on keeping on. The third thing that I noticed was a promise that the Lord gave Jeremiah: “For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.” The Lord has promised to be with us in every encounter in our service. When we do the Lord’s will, we will never be alone because He will always be with us. He was with Jeremiah, he was with Paul, indeed, with all of His servants and there is no reason for us not to take this promise as our own. It was always a comfort to me that the Lord was with me when I was doing His will. I did not always win, but I never stopped. This is what we need to do. The going will not always be easy, and sometimes we might want to get discouraged, but the Lord has promised to be with us and we will not be stopped in what He has called us to do. Bro. Joe “The things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal…”
There are people who say that they will not believe in anything that they cannot see. This means, according to our text, that they are putting their belief in that which is temporary. Things are not meant to exist forever. “Here today and gone tomorrow” is true of people and things. According to Paul we need to put our faith in that which is unseen, but not just anything that is unseen. Let me point out what I mean: Let’s begin at the top – God cannot be seen, yet He really exists, and has existed for eternity. The psalmists often referred to God as being “from everlasting to everlasting.” This is another way of saying that God has always existed, though He is unseen? Simon Peter understood the importance of this, when writing about people who were undergoing trials because of their faith in Christ in 1 Peter 1:8: “Whom having not seen, you love; in whom though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Paul addressed this in 1 Timothy 6:15-16: “Which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate (king), the King of kings and Lord of lords: 16. Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen” Another important aspect of the Christian faith that is unseen is faith. In Hebrews 11:6, the writer reminds us that: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This is another way of saying “believing is seeing.” There are a lot of things that we cannot see, yet we believe. Take the wind for example. We cannot see the wind, but we can certainly see the effects of the wind. Ask anyone who has ever lived through a hurricane. I’ve never heard anybody say that they didn’t believe in the wind because they could not see it. All they have ever seen is the effects of the wind. An unbeliever might argue that he or she has not seen the effects of God. This is only because he or she does not want to see the effects of God. The Bible points out in more than one place that nature reveals the effects of God. The orderliness of the universe speaks of His existence. But the greatest effect of God that we can see is what He has done in the lives of individuals. What does your life reveal about God? We who believe and see can take comfort in what Jesus said to “doubting Thomas” when Thomas saw Him: “Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.” This includes all of us – rejoice. Bro. Joe “For by grace are you saved through faith: and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
I feel led to return to the basic importance of faith in our lives. We should never underestimate the power of faith. It is by faith that we are saved. This is what the text printed above tells us: “For by grace through faith are you saved…” Because of God’s grace, His unmerited favor, we can be saved. The root Greek word for faith is “pistis.” The meaning of this word is to believe. It is not a casual belief in Jesus; rather it is a life-changing belief that makes a difference in all aspects of our lives. It is by faith that we are sustained through all of life. What I mean by this is that faith in Jesus keeps us from giving in to the worries and depressions of life. I don’t need to tell you that life in this world is sometimes very difficult. I have discovered in my life that I can face anything that life brings because of my faith in Jesus Christ. But I do not mean to use myself as the epitome of sustaining faith. I think that the apostle Paul is a better example. 2 Corinthians 11:24-26 gives us an example of what I mean: “Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one. 25. Three times was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep. 26. In journeying often, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.” Paul was sustained through life’s hardships by the same faith that we can put in Jesus as we face our hardships. Trust Jesus to carry you through the good and bad in life. Are you really moving out in faith in Jesus or are you holding back? I do not mean to make faith sound like a commodity, but faith is the resource that helps us to live what the Bible calls the victorious life. The old hymn says, “Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.” 1 John 5:4-5 states it this way: “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 who overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Faith in Jesus is not a magical formula. It is the releasing of our lives to Jesus and trust that He will get us through, over or around anything that we face in life. Place your faith in Christ and live by that faith in Him, and you can face anything that life brings. Just do it…….. Bro. Joe |
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