“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that
He may exalt you in due time. 7. Casting your care (anxieties) upon Him; for He cares for you.” These are times that breed anxiety. As I write this, Israel and Gaza are on the brink of war. That seems so far away, but the world is so small that it does affect us. We are facing a huge financial crisis, and the two political parties need to solve it, but I don’t really see a spirit of compromise from either party. Both are holding righteously to their positions. China is out there with a powerful army and a desire to rule the world. Putin has put Russia in about the same position that they were in the Cold War. Plus, from my perspective, we have lost our spiritual focus and almost anything goes. Have I made you anxious yet? But the Bible tells us not to be anxious. I know that I have used this text a lot, but it fits so well here that I must use it again: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known unto God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) Peter reminded us in the above text that we can cast our “care (anxiety) upon Him (God).” Why? We can do that “because He cares for us.” The point is that we need to be reminded that we live in a world that is under the care of God. I know that it doesn’t seem like it sometimes. In fact, we see this attitude in a lot of the psalms. It just seems sometimes that God is not present, is not listening, or does not care. One of the questions asked in Psalms is “How long?” Here is a prime example from Psalm13:1-2: “How long will you forget me, Lord? forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” David felt surrounded by his enemies and he felt that God had forgotten him. This is the same man, who as a youth, fought the nine foot tall Goliath, yet at this time he was anxious. You have probably felt “God-forsaken” at times because the anxieties of your life did not seem to be abated, even though you believed in God and asked for His help. In those times we need to remember two things about God: (1) He always hears us when we pray and (2) He answers in His own way and in His own time. We go to Him in faith, asking Him for His solution, but we want Him to answer us based on our solution. The fact is that when we pray, we need to trust God and surrender everything into His hands. He knows what we are anxious about, and He wants to answer us based on what He knows the real solution is. We need to learn that when we take our anxieties to God, He starts to answer immediately, though it does not seem so to us. This is what Peter meant when he wrote: “casting all your (anxieties) upon Him…” We are not casting our anxieties into space. We are casting our anxieties upon the creator, master and ruler of the universe. There is no more powerful source to which we can go. We just need to remember this. We also need to remember that we cast our anxieties on Him, “because He cares for us.” Our hope is not in seeing all of our anxieties disappear but in the God who loves us and on whom we can depend. Let me share with you the final two verses of Psalm 13:5-6: “But I have trusted in your mercy, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6. I will sing unto the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.” These two verses greatly differ from the first two verses where David accused God of forgetting him and “hiding His face” from him. He remembered who God was/is and just cast’ those cares upon Him, trusting Him to handle the situation for him. The world has always been an anxious place. We just have to put our faith in God and remember that He will take us over, around or through these anxieties. Believe it! Bro. Joe
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“And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 13. To keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?”
The Book of Deuteronomy is actually a sermon by Moses as the children of Israel waited to take “the Promised Land.” It is a summation of Israel’s travels and events from Egypt to that present time. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives some summary statements that serve as advice for God’s people as to how they should live. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 is one of those summary statements. It answers the question as to what basic requirements would be made of Israel as they entered Canaan. It is good advice for us as well. The first requirement was “to fear the Lord thy God.” This does not just mean to be afraid of God, but hold Him in deep reverence and awe. One of the problems that Israel faced and that we face today is that, “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” God, as we know Him in Jesus, is not just “the man upstairs.” He is the creator of the universe and the master of all that He created. We would do well to heed Moses’ advice on this. Do you really hold God in awe and reverence? The second requirement was “to walk in all His ways.” Moses wanted Israel to understand, as we are to understand, that there are two ways that we can walk – God’s way or our way. Moses knew from experience that Israel had a penchant for walking in their way as opposed to God’s way. God allows us to choose the way we will walk. If we walk in His way, the way might be rough sometimes, but it will be the rewarding way. If we walk in our way, we willeventually walk into disaster. I know what I’m writing about here, and you probably do too. God wants His people, including those of us who belong to Him through Jesus, to live right, to make right decisions instead of wrong-headed decisions. I think that the disastrous journey of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 is an example of what can happen when we take God’s resources and go our own way. He took a rough route until he came to his senses and sought out his father. The third requirement was “to love Him.” Jesus said that the first commandment is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” We should love God with all of the fiber of our being. If we will just think of all that He has done for us in Jesus, we should have no problem loving Him. When we love Him, we are returning the great love that He has for us. The fourth requirement was “to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord…”Notice that we are to serve God as we love Him – with every fiber of our being. We are to serve Him from our hearts. Everything that we do that really counts in our lives comes from our hearts. If He has our hearts, we will serve Him wholeheartedly. Our salvation from God begins in our hearts, and everything else in our lives should come from our hearts. We are to serve God with all of our souls. This means that our service should proceed from who and what we are in Him. The “soul” is who and what we are, and it should be defined by our devotion to God/Jesus. We are to serve Him with our minds. When Christ saved us, He did not kill our minds. God wants us to keep our transformed minds on Him, and to think when we serve Him. We should serve Him with “the mind of Christ.” How are you doing in these areas of your life? Do you hold God in deep reverence (fear)? Do you walk in all His ways? Do you really love Him? Do you serve Him from deep within yourself? Think about it. Bro. Joe “Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.”
Because of a famine in Jerusalem, churches from various areas pledged to send love offerings to the church there. In our text, Paul is urging the Corinthians to make good on their promise to take part in sending this offering. At first, they had been all for it, but as time passed their zeal for giving had flagged somewhat. Paul is reminding them in 2 Corinthians 9:5 to give and to give generously because of the reciprocal nature of giving. He used an agricultural metaphor to illustrate his point. If one plants a lot of seed, he or she can expect an abundant crop. If one plants sparingly, his or her crop will not be abundant. This is a principle that applies not just to crops but to all areas of life. As to the matter of giving money, we have discovered that we do not miss what we give, in fact the more we give, the more we prosper. People really get aggravated when we talk about money at church, but that is their problem, not the churches. The Bible is full of admonitions to be generous with what God has given us. This applies, not just to giving to the church, but to being a giving person in all of life. The principle also applies to more than giving money. (But this is not an excuse not to give money, as some see it.) It applies to our attitudes. If we give out grumpiness, we will receive grumpiness in return. I am tempted at times to try this out and greet people in different ways and watch their reactions. I haven’t done it because I know the answer already. I remember that when our daughters were much younger, we visited Disney World. Now there was a real jolly world, except for one character. As we walked along the street, we encountered “Grumpy.” He really lived up to his name. (That’s when I decided that Grumpy is a Baptist. Come on, it’s a joke.) Give out grumpiness and you get grumpiness back in spades. What about love? Unloving people wonder sometimes why people don’t seem to love them. The truth is that people pick up on how we relate to them. If they feel love from us, they will return it; if they don’t, they return that too. After I had been in the ministry a few years, I took a class at seminary called“clinical training.” In that class we learned how to relate to people. I had often wondered why people didn’t seek me out with their burdens. After getting a “personality reaming” in clinical training, I discovered why. People did not perceive that I cared. I was getting back what I was putting out –indifference. People know when we care and they know when we do not care. At that point, I became a better pastor. Proverbs 18:24 comes to mind: “A man (or woman) that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” Simple isn’t it? If you want friends, be a friend to other people. If you want enemies, just act like an enemy to other people and you will have more enemies than you can count. That is just the reciprocal nature of life: We get back what we give out. I will be glad when we learn this in churches. Churches that grow and prosper have learned this. If people attend a church and hardly anyone speaks to them, they will go down the street to another church. They don’t mean to be ugly, but they were just looking for fellowship and got grumpiness or indifference. This has become a cliche, but it is true "that no one cares how much we know until they know how much we care."Rememer 2 Corinthians 9:5 when the collection plate comes around in church. Better yet, remember when you are out in daily life mingling with other people. You will get back what you give out. Bro. Joe “Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy is everlasting.” (NKJV) Thanksgiving is not a seasonal thing for a Christian. As a matter of fact, it should be a lifestyle. The psalmist showed us why we should praise and give thanks to the Lord: “for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Thanksgiving should arise in our hearts because of God’s goodness to us. He shows His goodness to us by everything that happens in our lives. We might think that His goodness is not shown during the bad times of our lives, but those might be among the best times of our lives. I can look back over my life and see how good has always come out of the bad things that happened in my life. It is during those times that God has taught me and deepened my faith in Him. I have many testimonies from other Christians who say the same thing. That’s why Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:20:“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul was an expert in giving thanks for “everything.” Take 2 Corinthians 6:4-5: “But as God’s minister’s we commend ourselves in everything: by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardship, by difficulties, 5. by beatings, by imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times of hunger…” There is more, but these should suffice that Paul knew what he was writing about when he wrote that we give thanks “always for all things.” No difficult time seems good at the time, but when we look back we see that God was doing a great work in our lives for our good. But let’s not forget the good things that He does for us that are not difficult. Think about your own life for a moment. Do you have a family? Thank God. Do you have good friends? Thank God. Do you have a job? Thank God. Can you breathe? Thank God. You get the idea. There are many ways that God has been to us, but nothing compares to His giving His Son to die on the cross for our sins, and saving us when we put our faith in Him. If you will put your mind to it, you will be able to think of many, many things in your life that you can thank God for. If you can’t, you really need to get your priorities straight and focus on Him. Psalm 106:1 also reminds us that: “His mercy is everlasting.” This means that God will never run out of mercy. That is good news, because if He did we would really be in trouble. Think of living in a world where we only had God’s wrath to look forward to. It wouldn’t be pretty. Isn’t it great that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”? That is mercy. God treats us better than we treat each other, and for that we should be grateful. In His mercy, God wants the best for us. He doesn’t want us to wallow in sin. He doesn’t want us to live in misery. He doesn’t want us to go through life feeling guilty. He has arranged things so that we do not have go through these, and other, things. It amazes me that people do go through all of these things, even Christians, but the fact is that we do not have to. We should be thankful that His mercy helps us live better lives. I have counseled with people over the years, who were miserable and there didn’t seem to be anything that could take them out of their misery. There was a “Bible full” of answers to all of their dilemmas, but often they would not pay attention to that. It must break God’s heart when He offers great mercy and people choose not to take Him up on it. His mercy is available to all who will call on Him, and it is everlasting mercy. We should be thankful that God is the God mercy. Meditate on God and His part in your life, and see that He is good to you and that His mercy applies to you. Bro. Joe “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
Someone has said that Jesus is written on every page of the Bible. The name is not there but the reality of His coming is evident throughout the Old Testament and is positive in the New Testament. In Genesis 3:15, after Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord told Satan: “And I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” This is generally considered the first prophetic statement about the coming of a Savior into the world. Isaiah 9:6 declares: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of peace.” In Revelation 13:8, Jesus is referred to as “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” It was always in the heart of God to provide salvation for sinful humanity through the sacrifice of His Son. Now, I cannot tell you that I fully understand why that had to be. Figuring it out is not my responsibility, but accepting it as true is my responsibility. When the Bible is as plain on something as it is on this, our only choice is to accept it. John 3:16 plainly states: “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.” Notice that John 3:16 did not say“whosoever believes about Him.” There are people who think that it is enough to just believe in the existence of Jesus. That is not believing “in Him.” When we really believe in Him, we give our lives to Him. If we just believe about Him, we can hold Him at arm’s length and call on Him when we need Him. What He wants is to be part of our lives every minute of every day. That’s what Paul meant when he wrote: “that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” He comes into our lives and changes them for the better. The only hope that we have for righteousness is through Jesus. The central fact of the Bible is that if we want to be right with God, we have to be right with Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us this: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” I know that it is not popular today to say that Jesus is the only way to salvation. People will take offense because they think you are demeaning whatever their religious persuasion is. Well, for myself, I have to believe the Bible instead of the world. What is difficult to understand about what Jesus said in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me"? If I do not believe that, then I am calling Jesus a liar. I want to be real careful not to call Jesus a liar. Only Jesus became sin for us. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us…” When Jesus died on the cross, He took all of the sins of the world upon Himself. That’s quite a load. I know that just my sins would be a load. This fact is illustrated for us in Jesus’ cry from the cross: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” That was the profound moment that Jesus took your sins and mine upon Himself and died so that we could be saved. That was real sacrifice! For myself, I cannot look at that moment and laugh in the face of God by refusing to accept that sacrifice for myself. I hope that is true of you as well. Jesus is the central fact of the Bible and the reality that,“He was made to be sin for us. Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” should be the central fact of our lives. If it is not, then make it so now. Bro. Joe “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; 11.Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; 12. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; 13.Distributing to the necessity of the saints; given to hospitality.”
“Slothful” is not a word that we use every day. If we used it in public someone would likely say, “la-ti-da,” or “I don’t know what you mean.” It is an old word, but it is a word that we practice every day if we are not careful. The New Webster’s Dictionary defines it as: “lethargy, indolence, inactive, sluggish and lazy.” If you are like me, you might think that this could describe you on some days. Being slothful is bound to happen to us occasionally, but if it becomes a lifestyle it is tragic. From the Christian standpoint, a slothful person is one who is indifferent to what is going on around him, and could care less whether people are Christians or not. It is certain that a slothful person is not a dependable person. Even if they decide to do a Christian service, they do it so sluggishly that it does not get done. What is the alternative to slothfulness? Paul wrote that the alternative would be to be “fervent in spirit.” Let’s see what Webster’s says about fervent: “glowing, ardent, zealous, intensity of devotion, intense.” I know the picture that forms in most people’s minds when they hear of a fervent Christian is a negative one. They get the picture of a self-righteous, legalistic, unloving, Bible-quoting, hate spewing person. That might describe some people who think they are fervent Christians, but I don’t think that is the kind of person that Paul had in mind. Some even think that a conservative Christian who really believes the Bible is overly fervent. Well, if I was given the choice between being a slothful, indifferent Christian, and an overly fervent Christian, I would choose the latter. The only way that a Christian can be “overly fervent” is to try to push his will on people and consider that his personal opinions are straight out of heaven. That is a parody of a Christian. A fervent Christian is a loving Christian. Look what Paul wrote: “Be kindly affectioned to one another with brotherly love.” If we love the Lord fervently, we will love people fervently. We can’t love either one or the other, we must love both. 1John 4:20 relates to us: “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.” We are not allowed to hate people, but we are allowed to hate sin, because it has caused, and is causing, the ruin of humankind. If a fervent Christian speaks to you about sin, he is not telling you that he hates you but is concerned about you. Fervency in love is important. It is recorded in 1Peter 4:8: “And above all things have fervent charity (love) among yourselves:for charity (love) shall cover the multitude of sins.” A fervent Christian is a humble person. Notice the next line: “in honor preferring one another.” This means to put others first. A fervent Christian is a praying Christian:“continuing instant in prayer.” This means to always have a prayerful Christian. I don’t believe that a Christian could be fervent without prayer. A fervent Christian acts on his or her faith: “distributing to the necessity of the saints.” This means to look out for the physical needs of fellow Christians, and, for that matter, our fellowmen. A fervent Christian is “given to hospitality.” This means that fervent Christians welcome other people into their lives and into their fellowship. Someone once asked me who would I keep out of the church? My answer was that I would stand at the door and turn away everybody that Jesus would turn away. That kind of settles it – doesn’t it? Based on this text, are you a fervent Christian? It hasn’t dealt with everything that has to do with fervency, but it has given us enough to chew on – hasn’t it? Bro. Joe “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to His power that works in us. 21. Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, amen.”
We need to understand that when we serve the Lord, whatever that service is, we are not in it by ourselves. In our flesh we are limited as to what we can do. In His infinite wisdom, God has shown me what I can do in my flesh, and that is mainly to make a mess. Whatever your task is as a Christian, you cannot do it by yourself. You must live beyond yourself. I think that this is the crux of the problem in a lot of church work today. We go about church business as though it is simply our business, not realizing that it is not simply “our” business. Before Jesus was crucified and ascended, He promised His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to work within them. That promise was not just for the disciples, it is for us as well. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit living within you, and he is not in you just to give you some holy thrills. He is in you to enable you to do whatever it is that God wants you to do. He is in you to help you live the Christian life. We depend every day on that “power that works within us.” If we are not depending on Him, then we are not getting done for the Lord what He wants done. You might say, “Wait a minute, do you mean that when I keep the nursery at church that I need the power of the Holy Spirit to help me do it?" I will assure you that if my job at church was keeping the nursery, I would need every bit of the Holy Spirit to help me do it. Don’t you think that tending babies is a gift from God? Not everyone who tends babies is serving God, but if you are doing it in His kingdom work, it is a gift from God. That’s why we don’t need to take any task that we do in the church or the community lightly. God does not take anything that we do for Him lightly. Read this very carefully: What the church needs today is for all of its people, whatever their task, to depend on the Holy Spirit, Who can help them live beyond themselves. Of course, that doesn’t just apply to the things that we do at church. It also applies to the things that we do seven days a week. We need to depend on the Holy Spirit when we are at work. Don’t you think that God wants to use you on a daily basis? The problem is that you might feel surrounded and intimidated by those who work with you. We need to always be reminded about what is recorded in 1 John 4:4: “You are of God. Little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world.” There is no need to feel intimidated, because we are not in it by ourselves. If you want to live beyond yourself, remember that you belong to God and that He has empowered you with His Spirit. If God has something that He wants us to do, no matter how menial it may seem to us, it is important because God wants us to do it. Do not belittle your service to Him. Sometimes our service might be to just be quiet Christians, quietly living out our faith before the world. Just remember as you face life’s daily challenges, that God is working in you “according to His power that works in us.” God’s power is never menial, and it is never unimportant. Let’s just go out into the world, into the church, or wherever, and live beyond ourselves. Bro. Joe “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be
enough evidence to convict you?” Author unknown I saw the above quotation on a church bulletin board a few years ago, and it has stuck with me. I don’t know who wrote it, but it gets to the core of the problem of Christian witness and behavior. It reminds me of the advertisements on medicines these days on television. Truth in advertising laws demands that they tell the side effects of the medicine they are advertising. By the time they list all of the side effects, I usually end up asking myself why in the world would I take that medicine if it could all of that to me? But it is best that we know the truth about it, and would I not want them to tell me the truth? We need truth in advertising in our lives as well. It is easy for one to say that he or she is a Christian. The words come so easily: “I am a Christian.” What do we mean by that? Do we realize that when we say that, people will certainly expect us to be different? I know that it is difficult to be different in today’s society. This has always been true. Peter wrote about this issue in 1 Peter 4:4: “Where in they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.” People don’t like it when we are different. Sometimes it is because they do not realize what the Christian life is all about. Sometimes it is because our being different makes them feel guilty. But the demand is that we be different. Now, don’t go getting the idea that I am saying that we should be different in self-righteous and “snooty” attitudes. That is not called being different, it is called being a poor witness for Jesus Christ. Jesus certainly never looked down his nose at people, whether rich or poor. In fact, he was hardest on the Pharisees who were famous for their self-righteousness. Of course, we need to live clean lives, watching what we say and do. When people see us doing otherwise they are turned off. “You would never know that he or she is a Christian by the way he or she acts.” We need to pay attention to kingdom righteousness. Kingdom righteousness has to do with how live our lives in private or in front of people. It also has to do with how we relate to other people, and how we treat other people. Some of the poorest advertising that we do is how we sometimes treat each other in churches. After all, Jesus told us that the world would know we are Christians by our love for each other. There are certainly times when we should rise up in righteous indignation when our faith is belittled and smeared. But we should remember at the same time to let people know what we are for as much as what we are against. We are against sin but we are for loving the sinner. We are against what the Bible calls “riotous living,” but we are for helping people come out of those lifestyles. We want to stay away from sin, but, like Jesus, we need to witness and minister to people who are lost in sin. I ask again: “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Bro. Joe “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”(Matthew 28:20b) “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” (1John 1:9) “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16a)
The author of my current devotional book pointed out three things about God that we need to know: (1) “He is always available.” (2)” He is always ready to forgive.” (3) “He’s waiting to hear from you now.” In yesterday’s blog three things that we need to know about God were listed in the text from Psalm 16:11. For today’s three things that we need to know about God come from the three different texts listed above. We need to know that God is always available to us. Jesus promised in Matthew 28:20b just before He ascended: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Jesus talked to His disciples before His crucifixion about sending the "Comforter,” the Holy Spirit, to be with them who would guide them into all truth. In Psalm 121:3-4, we are given this promise:“He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth thee shall not slumber or sleep.” On and on we could go quoting scripture passages that promise God/Jesus will be with us in all of life. There is nowhere that you can go in life that He will not be there. If you are in a hospital bed in doubt about your health and in pain in your body, He is there in the room with you. If you are facing a tough decision that you have to make concerning you, or your family’s future, He will be with you while you make the decision. If you are having trouble in your personal life even as you read this, you are not in this trouble by yourself. You have the Almighty God available to you. He has promised that He will go through the “valley” with you. You know what is written in Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” God is always available to you. Jesus will always be with you. We need to know that God is always ready to forgive us. If you do not seek His forgiveness, it will not be His fault. He promised that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Jesus died on the cross in order to forgive us for our sins. He is not happy with us when we sin, but He is certainly happy when we come to Him in a spirit of repentance and ask for His forgiveness. Why would we go on day after day with the guilt of the past, when we have a Savior who is always ready to forgive us? He had rather forgive us than condemn us. He had rather forgive us than watch us walk through life burdened with needless guilt. We need to know that He is waiting to hear from us now. We are reminded that we can “come boldly to the throne of grace.” Why? “That we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. ”He has given us an open invitation to pray and we need to take advantage of that truth everyday of our lives and in every situation in our lives. God is not reluctant to hear us when we pray; why should we be reluctant to pray? There is nothing to keep you from the throne of grace. If you need to go there in order to become a Christian, He is waiting to hear from you. If you need to go there in order to forgive someone, or to be forgiven, He is waiting to hear from you. Whatever your need, He is waiting! All three of these important things that you need to know about God are true for your life. Go to Him now, and you will find Him waiting for you. Bro. Joe “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11
Often a verse of scripture will catch my attention and suggest some things to share with you. Psalm 16:11 is one of those verses. It suggests three things that everyone needs to know about God/Jesus. They are things that we are probably aware of, but just need to be reminded of from time to time. The first thing is: “Thou wilt show me the path of life.” One important teaching of the Bible is that we never walk alone. Sometimes we feel that we are walking the path of life alone, but there is One who is with us to show us the path of life. Can’t you look back on your life and see that some paths that you have taken were not really of your own choice? I look back over my life and I can see that there was an “unseen hand” guiding my footsteps along the way. I think that all of us would like to think that this was true of all of the paths we have taken. Some of the paths we have taken in life were based on our choices, and we paid the price for them. We allowed Satan to lead us astray. But I hope that you can join me in saying that in every meaningful and significant path of life that we have taken, the Lord has held our hands and carried us through. I look at the things that really count in my life and know that I had to be following the leadership of the Lord. I could make a long list for you, as you could for me, of these “paths.” It just suffices to say that we haven’t walked this path of life alone, and that we should be grateful for it. The second important thing is: “in thy presence if fullness of joy.”Notice that the psalmist wrote “in thy presence.” This means that when we are really in the presence of God, standing firmly in His will for our lives, there is fullness of joy. I guess that we have all taken steps in life where we did not consider the presence of God and at the end we did not find His joy. In fact, out of the consciousness of His presence, we found shame and regret. But that was our fault. If we do not have the joy that we should have it is not God’s fault. He has abundant joy for us at every turn in life, even those turns that might not seem joyful at the time. In John 15:11, John quoted Jesus: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Christian friends, Jesus has given us His joy. Think of that for a moment. We have the joy of Jesus within us as a gift from Him. We do not have to conjure up joy; we already have it in Jesus. This is what makes our joy "full." Remember: “In thy presence is fullness of joy.” The fullness of joy comes from our personal relationship with Jesus. In Jesus, we find joy in things that many people would not find joy in. That’s because they are looking to be“happy” in life instead of joyful. Happiness is fleeting, joy is eternal. If you don’t have that joy, you can claim it by faith in Jesus now. The third thing is: “At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” “At thy right hand” maintains that we are living close to Jesus, who gives us “pleasures forevermore.” We are a pleasure loving people in America and this should really appeal to us. However, we need to keep in mind that this closeness to Jesus helps us to redefine pleasure in our lives. To be sure, we enjoy the same pleasures that every human being enjoys, but these pleasures do not define our lives. Our lives are defined by the pleasures of worship and praise for the One who has saved us for all eternity. We have the pleasure of knowing that we are in right relationship with the God of all of the ages. We have the pleasure of knowing that we will live with Him forever in heaven. I think that you will agree that these are three important things that we need to know about God. Rejoice in them. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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