"Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew His bow and made me the target of His arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from His quiver." (NIV)
These words are from Lamentations 3:10-13, written by Jeremiah. This reads like Jeremiah is put out with God. It was written when Babylon was tearing Jerusalem down bit-by-bit. Before I go further, have you wondered why God does what He does and why He allows what He allows? Be honest. You have probably never used words as harsh as Jeremiah's but you still wondered why? It appeared to you that God could have done something differently. We could be saying, "If God would listen to me, we could get this whole thing straightened out." The problem with this thinking, of which I have also been guilty, is that God is all-knowing and sovereign. Jeremiah was really down.as we often are. Think of watching your people being killed, houses burned, the wall torn down and the temple torn down. He was sad and hurt. But later when he thought about it, Jeremiah realized that he was looking at God out of darkness. In Lamentations 3:22-24, Jeremiah gave us a different, more realistic outlook: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him." This statement comes from realistic faith instead of from darkness. It does not kill God when we are negative about things. He simply wants us to accept His will. "All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) When you can't make sense of what God is doing, remember Romans 8:28. God knows best! Bro. Joe
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"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God."
What does "from everlasting to everlasting mean"? It means that with God it is impossible to put a date on a beginning or an end. He has existed from one end of eternity to the other. Then consider that there is no place in the universe where God is not present. It will almost blow your mind. To some people God is incomprehensible, so they just deny His existence. That's where the Bible comes in. If we didn't have God's revelation of Himself in scripture, we could could never understand Him. For example, Psalm 97:6 tells us that "the heavens declare His righteousness and all the people see His glory." We can look into the sky and see the evidence of God's existence. The Bible tells us that we can find Him in the heavens. Ancient people saw the stars and moon and worshipped them. Scripture tells us that He created it and that we are to worship Him, not His creation. Another text that makes God comprehensible is Hebrews 1:1-3: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholds all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." In the final analysis, Jesus makes God comprehensible to us. He tells us that not only is God real, but that He loves us and wants to be involved in our lives. The God who is "from everlasting to everlasting" enters into time with us and becomes a part of our lives. His presence and reality in our lives through the Holy Spirit brings Him alive in our lives. He is not just comprehensible; He is necessary. Bro. Joe “Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications. 7. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him; and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.”
In Psalm 28, David was in distress because of His enemies, and he reached out to God. Verses 6-7 give a summary of what David concluded, and he told us some things that we need to know about God in the midst of our own struggles. In verse 6, he reminds us that God hears our prayers. Indeed, He hears the cries of our hearts as we cry out to Him each day. We can absolutely be assured that God will hear “the voice of (our) supplications.” What is your need right now? He will hear your prayer. I can’t imagine not reaching out to Jesus in prayer. In verse 7a, David reminds us that the Lord is our strength and shield. Sometimes we forget that the greatest strength that we can have is spiritual strength, which will come to our rescue much more effectively than physical strength. We need to practice leaning on God’s strength. The shield that we have from God is the shield of faith. In describing the armor of God in Ephesians 6, Paul wrote: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Why would we not take our fears, needs and struggles to the Lord in prayer? Why would we not lean on His strength and take the shield of faith? All that the Lord has to offer is at our disposal. Why not take advantage of all that He offers for our lives? In the latter part of verse 7, David tells us what the result of God’s hearing our prayers and giving us His being our strength and shield should be. First, it should result in our hearts trusting in Him. We should trust Jesus from within the deepest part of ourselves. What strength this will bring into your life if you will just put your trust in Him. No one needs to teach you how to do this – just do it. Like David, you will find that you will be helped. Second, we will have cause to “greatly rejoice.” I do not know why we aren’t as joyful as we should be. I am amazed at myself sometimes, because I find not myself not rejoicing in all that the Lord has done, is doing and will do in my life. Let this be a reminder for both of us!!! Third, it should result in praise to His wonderful name. Because David was a musician, one of hiss greatest means of rejoicing was in song. The Lord should put a song in our hearts as well. Just cut loose today and praise Him in whatever way you can. Don’t you agree that these we are things that we need to know about God? Bro. Joe “Now if any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.” CSB
I have a lot of “favorite” texts in the Bible, and this text from James is one of them – at the top of the list. Why? Because it tells us something about God that we need to know: He is interested in us and wants to give generously to us. Perhaps you are one of those people, of whom there are many, who have given up on the God of the Bible. You might be asking, without realizing it, “What has He done for me lately?” It could be that you have been convinced by the world that He does not exist, and if He does exist, He doesn’t matter. It could be that you are a believer who is just jaded by the trials of life and just feel that God is distant from you. You can’t read James 1:5 and believe that God is indifferent about your life. The text made me think about some things about God/Jesus that I treasure. I want to share these thoughts with you in hopes that it will make you think differently about God. First, there is the fact that God loves us. John 3:16 tells us this: “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.” Look at the words that I underlined. “For God so loved the world means the people of the world. You probably remember the old chorus: “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” (He loves the adults of the world too.lol) This simple little chorus reminds us that God’s love reaches out to every person in the world. If you have not discovered His love, it is time that you did. Someone wrote: “When we lift our hearts to God, we open ourselves to a never-ending source of divine wisdom and infinite love.” I cannot convince you that God loves you, only God can do that. If you want to realize God’s love for you, lift your heart to Him and you will know His love. Second, is the fact that God is available to us. One of the most important things about the Yahweh of the Bible is that He is not remote from His creation. Throughout the Bible we see Him reaching out to people, making His great love and power available to them. Also, throughout the Bible we see people running away from God, not really believing in His availability. It is difficult for us to understand a God Who is everywhere at all times. He can bless someone in Japan at the same time that He is blessing someone in the USA. The wonderful fact is that God is always only a prayer away. He is available to enter your life to save you for all eternity. He is available to help you through all of the trials of life. Third, He will be our ultimate judge. No matter what people think of us, it is more important for us to consider what God thinks of us. The Bible says that, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) We are accountable to Him for how we live our lives. You can ignore God, but you cannot ignore the fact that He is interested in your life, and that He wants to be a part of your life. This is what Jesus is all about. Consider these things about God and give your life to the God who loves you, is available to you and to whom you are accountable. Bro. Joe “We love God because He first loved us.”
No one will argue with the suggestion in our title that God's love is great. The love that we are referring to is agape (ah-gah-pay) love, which is the Greek word translated as love in our text and in other texts like John 3:16. It is the Greek word always used in New Testament references to God's love. Love really is great, especially as it is revealed in the New Testament. This article will explain what I mean. God loves us We need to be careful not to say this too glibly or take it too lightly. It is amazing that the God of the whole universe loves us. Think of the misery if God had chosen to hate us instead of loving us. If you are like me, you do not want to think of the alternative. We would not have John 3:16 in the Bible about God loving the world so much that He gave “His only begotten Son” so that we could be saved. We would not have 1 John 4:8b in the Bible: “For God is love.” The Bible reveals that God is a jealous God and that He is a God of wrath, but it never tells us that “God is jealousy” or that “God is wrath.” The very essence of God is love, and we should be grateful for that. When we put love, grace and mercy together, we realize that we can be saved for eternity because of the great love of God. Rejoice today, not only that God loves the world, but that He loves you. We love God! Our text makes it clear that if God did not love us, we would not love Him. Through Jesus, God has shown us what love really is. He set the example. We need to ask ourselves, however, whether or not we really love God. It is easy to say, “I love God.” It is quite another to actually love Him. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments – we will obey Him. If we love God, we will want to serve Him in our churches and in our communities. We will share His love with the world through witness and ministry in the name of Jesus. Paul gave us a good example of what genuine love for God will do. He traveled extensively in obedience to his call to minister to Gentiles. Because he loved God, Paul was able to overcome his prejudices against Gentiles and preach the gospel to them. We should not simply say that we love God. We should prove it by our obedience to Him. What is the last thing that you did for someone because of your great love for God? We love each other!
Love’s greatness is revealed in the New Testament as threefold: God loves us, we love God and because of this, we love each other. Let’s practice New Testament love in our lives. Bro. Joe “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them in the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light to go by day and night. 22. He took not away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”
As Israel was preparing to leave Egypt, God did not leave them to wander blindly to Canaan, but He gave them the “pillar of cloud” by day and the “pillar of fire” by night. This was God’s way of leading Moses and His people through the journey that they were about to take. We can say that the cloud and fire are types of the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God is always willing to give us the wisdom of His leadership. It is when we fail to follow that leadership that we get into trouble – as Israel proved time and time again. There are reasons that God gives us spiritual leadership in our lives, and if we are wise we will follow His leadership? Why? We need to follow God’s leadership because He knows where the pitfalls are located. We serve a God who knows everything from one end of eternity to the other, and He alone knows where the dangers lie. When people go on safari in Africa, they do not just go to Africa and start their journey. They hire a guide who will be able to keep them away from the places that would be dangerous to them. Sometimes we step into the devil’s traps because we do not follow God’s leadership. The devil sets up traps all along the way of our lives, and we need God’s vision and God’s wisdom to stay out of those traps. I think we can all look back on our lives and say to ourselves: “What was I thinking? I should have seen it coming.” Then we remember that we were not following God’s leadership in our lives. God allows us to go off track sometimes, because He knows that we will learn better, or I should say that hopefully we will learn better. We need to follow God’s leadership because He knows where the challenges are. A good example of this was when the Israelites left Egypt; there was a more direct route to Canaan than the way they took. What was the reason that God led them around by the Red Sea instead of in the more direct route? One reason was because they would have to fight the Philistines if they went on the more direct route, and they were not ready for that. However, since God could have given them victory over the Philistines, I think that a more compelling reason was that if they defeated the Philistines, they could claim that they did it themselves. Sometimes God wants to challenge us to see Him do what only He can do. When they went by way of the Red Sea, the Israelites became upset when they realized that Pharaoh’s army was pursuing them, and they began to complain. But in the final analysis, when God divided the Red Sea for them, they could not claim that they did it themselves. When you are following God’s leadership in your life and you come upon what seems to be a pitfall, remember that it might be a challenge so that you can see what God can do. We need to follow God’s leadership, because if we are not careful we will lose the way and wander through the wilderness. Israel had to wander for forty years through the wilderness because they failed to follow God’s leadership. He offered a challenge to go into Canaan, and they refused to go out of fear. There are many Christians who have been derailed by the devil because they were afraid to follow God’s leadership. God did not create us to wander, but we will if we do not stay close to Him and follow His leadership. Whose leadership are you following today? If it’s not the Lord’s Holy Spirit, stop where you are and go in the direction that God would have you go. Bro. Joe “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him.”
You probably already know that the above text is about the young man that we call “the Prodigal Son.” The young man took his father’s inheritance and wasted it on what the KJV calls “riotous living.” In the parable, I think that the prodigal son represents Gentiles and the elder son represents the Jews, but the metaphor can go beyond that. For our purposes let’s just say that the prodigal son represents us. When he finally came to himself, the prodigal son realized what an idiot he had been. (I Beauchampized that a little.) Let’s say that in my life, particularly in my younger years, I was the same kind of idiot that he was. (Now, don’t you get self-righteous on me; you could probably say the same thing about yourself at some point in your life.) What I want to stress is that “while he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him. “ The father in the parable represents God, and the parable gives us a good portrait of Him, for God is the waiting Father. There is no doubt that the younger son broke his father’s heart when he took the money and ran off into the world. I think that we break God’s heart when we take what He has given us and run off into the world. But He does not give up on us. I think that God/Jesus just waits for us to return. Now, God will probably discipline us when we wander, but that is because He loves us and does not mean that He will not welcome us back into our fellowship with Him. I think that when David committed adultery with Bathsheba he was like the younger son. After all, David committed adultery, lied, had her husband killed, etc. Man, David really went on a tear of breaking commandments. God certainly disciplined David, but when he repented (see Psalm 51) God was waiting for his return and called him "a man after His own heart." Is it possible that God is waiting on you to return to your fellowship with Him that you inherited when you became a Christian? Maybe you have not gone off into “riotous living,” but you have drifted from your closeness to Him. It’s possible that at this point in your life you are out of fellowship with your church. You might need to find a new church, but not before you make up with the Christians in your present church. When we are out of fellowship with our fellow Christians, we are really out of fellowship with God until we make it right. Believe me, I know how difficult this can be. But understand that God is waiting for you with arms wide open to reestablish the closeness that you had with Him. It might be that you have developed some habit that is drawing you away from your closeness to God. He wants you to “come to your senses” like the younger son did, run to Him and you will find Him running to you to “hug your neck and kiss you” as the father did in the parable. Whatever has you feeling that you are in a far country from God, realize that He still loves you and is waiting for you. What Max Lucado wrote is true: “He’s waiting for you. God is standing on the porch of heaven, expectantly hoping, searching the horizon for a glimpse of His child. You’re the one God is seeking. God is the waiting Father, the caring shepherd in search of His lamb….He scales the cliffs and traverses the fields. He explores the caves. He cups His hands to His mouth and calls into the canyon…And the name He calls is yours.” (The italics are mine.) This is the God that has saved, or will save you, and He is waiting with arms outstretched. Run to Him and you will find him running to you. Praise Him!!!!! Bro. Joe “Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be a white as snow; thought they be like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
This text is written in the context of God’s concern for the wayward people of Judah. Inspired by the Spirit, Isaiah wrote to them by warning them of God’s judgment, and also giving them some words of encouragement. In this text, Isaiah gives the people of Judah an earnest entreaty from God to turn from their wicked ways. One of the problems dealt with here is that the Jews were still going through religious practices, such as burnt offerings and special holy days, but, as it is with us, God did not want their religious practices but He wanted them – their hearts. It is a heartfelt appeal from a loving and compassionate God. The verse begins: “Come now and let us reason together.” This is like one friend calling on another friend to reason over a problem in their relationship. The fact that God was willing to reason with this wayward people shows His great compassion and love. I think that the idea of calling the Jews to reason together with Him was that they might come to Him seriously and give Him their full attention. Like people today, the Jews were so busy doing what they wanted to do that they gave little time to do what God wanted them to do. It is possible for us to be so busy in church work that we do not take time to be alone with God and reason with Him. It is a call to fellowship and prayer. God knows that when we ignore Him and His ways, we are headed for trouble. Decide today to get alone with God and reason with Him. Give Him your full attention and pay attention to what He says to your heart, then go and do whatever it is that He wants you to do. There is a promise of forgiveness and cleansing in this text: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” This speaks primarily to cleansing, but before cleansing can take place God has to forgive sin. 1 John 1:9 reminds us: “If we confess our sins, He faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Keep in mind that this promise of forgiveness and cleansing was given to a people who had strayed far from the righteous path. This should teach us that we can’t get so far away from God and His will for our lives that He will not forgive us when we come to Him in confession and repentance. The notes in The Life Application Bible pertaining to this verse gives some good information on this promise: “Scarlet, or crimson was the color of a deep-red permanent dye, and its stain was virtually impossible to remove from clothing. The bloodstained hands of the murderers are probably in view here. The stain of sin seems equally permanent, but God can remove sin’s stains from our lives as He promised to do for the Israelites. We don’t have to go through life permanently soiled.” The good news for the Jews and for us is that though we have sinned, God will forgive and cleanse us. This invitation to Judah was given years and years ago, but it is as relevant today as it was when Isaiah wrote it. God forgives all sin!!! I don’t know what you have done in your life, or how far you have drifted from God and His church, but I know that you haven’t done anything that He can’t or won’t forgive. There are many people who have either just given up their lives to a lifestyle of sin and feel that they have gone too far to turn back from their wicked ways. This is not true. Our great, loving and compassionate God will meet us at the point of our greatest need and give us the forgiveness that we need. Why don’t you take advantage of this call to confession and repentance and be forgiven and cleansed? Bro. Joe (I brought this over from 2012. It reminded me of this reality, and I thought that you might also need this reminder.)
I am going to take this statement made by Daniel out of context: "But there is a God in heaven." Daniel actually made the statement to Nebuchadnezzar to explain how he could relate the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams. What I am going to do with it is to share what the statement related to me as I read it. First, when you are having health problems, whether they are serious or not, you can remember, "But there is a God in heaven." You can be assured that I thought about this over the last few years with the health problems that I have faced. Second, when you are having a difficult time at work because of bad relationships with certain people. Or it could be that you have an arrogant boss who never thinks that you do anything right. Either one of those situations would be a good time for you to say to yourself, "But there is a God in heaven." Third, when you are having family problems, and you and your spouse are having a difficult time, or those sweet children that you were so proud of have become teenagers. (You know what I mean.) Mark Twain once wrote that "when a child gets to be thirteen you should put him or her in a barrel and put a hole in it for them to breathe through. When he or she gets to be sixteen plug up the hole.(LOL)." They can really drive you to say: "But there is a God in heaven." More seriously, if there is a problem between you and your married children and you never get to see your grandchildren, you really need to remind yourself that "there is a God in heaven." I sure don't want to be alienated from my grandchildren. Fourth, when your church is having relationship problems, and you are caught between two sides you need to remember: "But there is a God in heaven." There is nothing more difficult to deal with than relationship problems in the church, because everybody on all sides think they are right and everybody else is wrong. That's when you call on the God in heaven and say, "We are all wrong because we are not listening to Jesus, and we all need to repent of our egotism and selfishness and get together on what Jesus wants." I haven't even scratched the surface of the situations that would remind us of Daniel's statement, but you know your situation. Pause right now and say, "But there is a God in heaven." AND THANK HIM THAT HE IS NOT JUST IN HEAVEN, BUT PRESENT THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT, AND THAT HE IS WILLING TO HELP YOU WITH WHATEVER SITUATION YOU ARE ENCOUNTERING ON EARTH.. Bro. Joe “Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be searched out.”
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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