First Things First

“I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me.”

Psalm 87:4

If you want to understand the mysteries of the invisible kingdom of God, you must get to know Jesus first.  As he said in the scripture above, he reveals those kind of things only “to those who know me.”

You do not need to know all the mysteries of the Bible; you need only come to know Jesus.  When you have done that, Jesus will add to you all the knowledge of prophecy and other hidden things that you need, when you need it.

A United Heart

“Unite my heart to fear your name.

I will praise you, O LORD my God, with all my heart.”

Psalm 86:11–12

You can praise God with all your heart only when nothing from another god is in it.  A divided heart is a heart that believes some of what God says and some of what another god says, too.

Most of God’s people believe things Jesus said, but their heart is divided by faith in what one of Christianity's gods says, too.  Whether it be a lie from the Baptist god, or from the Methodist god, or the Catholic god, or the Pentecostal god, or one of the many others, it divides the heart.  It divides one’s faith between the true God and another one.

A “united heart” is a heart that believes nothing but what God says.  Only those whose hearts have been purged by the truth from everything false can glorify God with their whole heart.  They may glorify God most of the time, but part of their hearts still belong to the god who taught them the lies they believe.

To pray for a united heart is to pray to know all the truth.  May God give each of us a united heart so that we will praise Him with all our hearts!

Lifting Up the Soul

“Unto you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”

Psalm 86:4

   You “lift up your soul” to whatever you pray to and trust in.  It is essential that when we pray and trust, we pray and trust in the living God instead of one of the gods that the religions of men offer.  To trust in and pray to those gods is to lift up your soul to nothing, and there is no hope of salvation in such gods:

   “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?  He who has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to vanity.” (Ps. 24:3–5).

Blessed by Death

“Yea, the sparrow has found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young, even your altars,

O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.”

Psalm 84:3

David thought that the animals were honored which were sacrificed on God's altar.  He was right.

In this covenant, we, not animals, are honored to die.  And this time, the death is death with Christ to this world and its ways.  Paul rejoiced in it:

“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live.  Yet, not I, but Christ is living in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

“But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).

And Paul exhorted us to follow him into the very great honor of this death to sin and self:

“I entreat you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1).

Only the sweet Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, could make death a blessing.  But in him, everything is good, and if we are in him, even dying is desirable.

Judging among the Gods

“God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.”

Psalm 82:1

“I have said, ‘You are gods,’ and all of you are children of the most High.”

Psalm 82:6

People in the world cannot judge God’s children any more than they can judge the cherubim in heaven.  If there arose a controversy between two cherubim, how foolish would it be for one of them to ask a human judge to decide which cherubim was in the right?  Humans know nothing of cherub life.  But it is even more foolish than that for God’s children to go to the world for judgment because the life they have from God is more foreign to this world than cherubim life is.

Only God can rightly judge among His people, and through the Spirit, His judgments are made known to them.  This is why Paul condemned certain believers in Corinth who had taken other believers to court: “I say this to your shame.  Is it really so, that there is not a single wise man among you, one who is able to judge between his brothers?  Instead, brother goes to court against brother, and that before unbelievers! Therefore, you have already suffered complete defeat because you are filing lawsuits against each other.  Why not rather be wronged?  Why not rather be cheated?” (1Cor. 6:5–7).

It is ungodly for a believer to sue another believer in a human court.  Jesus said the Assembly of believers is the final authority in settling disputes among God’s children (Mt. 18:17).  And the reason some believers despise the judgment of God’s Assembly and go to a court in this world instead is that they know that they are in the wrong, but they want the world to tell them they are right.

When Not To Pray

“Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.”

Isaiah 55:6

Prayer can be useless.

When Esau realized that he had played the fool when he sold his birthright to Jacob his brother, “he found no place of repentance, even though he earnestly sought it with tears” (Heb. 12:17).

Prayer can get you into a lot of trouble.

Balaam knew what God wanted him to do (Num. 22:12), but Balaam wanted to do something else.  So, he asked God again, and God gave him what he wanted, and Balaam lost his soul.

Prayer can cause you to be hurt by your enemies.

At the Red Sea, with the Egyptians on Israel’s heels, Moses paused to pray.  God said, “What are you talking to me for?  Tell my people to get up and get moving before the Egyptians get them!” (Ex. 14:15).

Prayer can be a substitute for action.

Joshua was stunned and afraid.  The army of Israel – God’s army! – had just suffered defeat at the hands of the Canaanites.  How could that have happened?  Joshua and the elders fell on their faces and cried out to God, totally distraught and full of dread for what might happen next to Israel.  But God rebuked Joshua, saying in effect, “Get up!  Why are you wallowing on the ground like that?  There is sin in the camp!  Now, get up and get it out!” (Josh. 7:10–11).

Prayer can be sin.

Every time a disobedient child of God prays, he is sinning.  The prayer of a stubborn person is an abomination to God (Prov. 28:9).  “The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous” (Prov. 15:29).

The only right time to pray is when God will hear it.  Prayers made at any other time are a waste of time, or worse.

If We Listen

“Listen, my people, and I will testify against you, O Israel!

If you were listening to me, there would be in you no strange god;

nor would you bow down to a foreign god.”

Psalm 81:8b–9

God’s people are freed from the influence of every evil spirit when they listen to God and do what He says.  Evil spirits cannot dwell with righteousness.

How many blessings are missed because of disobedience!  God was deeply grieved at the good things His children were missing out on because they would not obey Him:

“My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me.  So I gave them over to their own hearts’ lust, and they walked in their own counsels.  Oh, that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways!  I would soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. . . .  He also would have fed them with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied you” (Ps. 81:11–14, 16).

“Speaking against God”

“They spoke against God.  They said,

‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out,

and the streams overflowed.

Can He give bread also?  Can He provide meat for His people?’

Therefore, the LORD heard this, and was angry.”

Psalm 78:19–21a

Israel was traveling through the hot wilderness that lies between Egypt and the Promised Land, the land of Canaan.  They were hungry, and when they complained to Moses, Moses took their complaint to God, who then promised to provide them with more meat – there in that desolate wilderness! – than they would be able to eat.  That is when they “spoke against God”.

They spoke against God by saying, in effect, that He worked miracles in the past, but no longer did such things.  They remembered His miracle of providing water at Mount Sinai, but had no faith for today.

Have you ever heard people speak against God like that?  Have you ever heard people say that God spoke in tongues through the disciples, but He no longer does such things?  It does not glorify God to say He once did great things, but that He no longer does them.

It is very instructive to note that the Bible teaches that to say that God used to do miracles but that He no longer does them is to “speak against God”.

The Old Stories Were Parables

“I will open my mouth in a parable.  I will utter dark sayings of old,

which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.”

Psalm 78:2–3

This is the Son of God talking through the prophet, stating that he will do two things at the same time.  He will speak in parables, but with those parables, he will be repeating familiar stories that had been told in Israel for generations.  When Jesus spoke of Jonah being in the whale’s belly for three days, he was doing this.  The story of Jonah was a familiar story in Israel, but it was, at the same time, a parable of Jesus being in the “belly” of the earth for three days.

Jesus also spoke of Abraham, Moses, David, and others.  All those ancient stories were familiar to Israel, but they were also mysteries, parables if you will, which no one had ever understood – not even Abraham, Moses, or David.

Jesus came to show us the knowledge of God.  Part of that knowledge was that every ancient story had been designed by God as a parable of His hidden Son.  The Son was God’s “second Adam”; he was Abraham's Isaac, the beloved sacrifice; he was Moses’ “prophet like unto me”; and he was the son of David who would sit on the throne forever.  And he was the meaning behind countless other ancient stories as well.

From the foundation of the world, men of God had prophesied of the coming Son of God, but Jesus revealed that those men themselves were symbols of him.  Their lives, directed by God, also prophesied of him.  When Jesus told those ancient stories, it was the first time in history that they have been told the way they were intended by God to be understood.

Only in Judah; Only in the Spirit

“In Judah is God known. . . .

In Jerusalem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.”

Psalm 76:1a–2

These simple truths came as a revelation from God to David, and we assume that everyone in Israel believed them to be true.  But in David’s time, only a small percentage of Israelites did.

To be sure, the Israelites believed that God could be known in the tribe of Judah, but they did not believe what David meant by that statement; to wit, God had chosen Judah as the only place where He would make Himself known.  Nevertheless, it was true, for if an issue arose in Israel that no one could resolve, the people had to go to Jerusalem in Judah, the place where God’s high priest was, to learn God’s answer.

Likewise, when David said that God’s earthly dwelling place was Mount Zion in Jerusalem, he meant God’s only earthly dwelling place was in Jerusalem.  The false teachers of that time responded, “God is everywhere!” and most of Israel followed them.  David, of course, knew that God was everywhere, but it had been revealed to him that God had chosen Jerusalem as the one place on earth where He would dwell in a temple.

Because only a few in Israel believed David, it was easy for Absalom, and after him a man named Sheba, to persuade the vast majority of Israelites to rebel against David as their king.  And when David was dead, the tribes in the north rebelled and separated themselves permanently from Judah and Jerusalem.

Today, few among God’s people believe a different revelation, just as true and simple as the one God gave David.  This revelation says that God is known in the Spirit, instead of “God is known in Judah.”  God’s people today agree that God can be known in the Spirit, but as in David’s time, they cannot agree that the Spirit is the only way one knows God.  They have been persuaded to believe that souls also “come to know the Lord” by “getting saved”, without receiving, or being baptized with, the Spirit.

In David’s time, it was Judah and Jerusalem; now it is the body of Christ and the Spirit.  Israel’s downfall was the result of denying that God had chosen Jerusalem as the one place on earth where He would be known.  What will be the result of modern saints’ refusal to believe that only by the Spirit can one come to know God?

An Influence for Good

“Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD,

and that the foolish people have blasphemed your name. . . .

Rise up, O God!  Plead your own cause!

Remember how the foolish man reproaches you every day.

Forget not the voice of your enemies; the tumult of those

who rise up against you increases continually.”

Psalm 74:18, 22–23

I found myself praying these same things recently when I remembered seeing certain famous entertainers mock God, using vile language as they did so.  I called their names out to God, appealing to Him to show His power again so that His Son’s name would be honored again by men.

A body of Christ without miracle-working power, such as the body of Christ is at this time in history, is an invitation to the world to blaspheme the name of Jesus.  The body of Christ is supposed to act like salt, preserving society from going bad as quickly as it will without that salt.  But a body of Christ without power has no preserving influence on society.  When the world sees a body of Christ without the power of God, such as the body of Christ is at this time in history, it thinks there is no reason to fear our God.

The next time we hear a news report about how bad matters are among the nations, instead of just shaking our heads and criticizing the world, let’s get alone with God and ask for the power to be an influence for good.  We do not want God to see us as part of the reason the world is in as bad a condition as it is in.  We want Him to see us as “faultless and innocent, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation” (Phip. 2:15).

Judgments Produce Fear, and Godliness

“You caused judgment to be heard from heaven.  The earth feared,

and was still, when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth.”

Psalm 76:8–9

The fierce judgment of God alone can make this hedonistic world pause in its reckless pursuit of pleasure. “The fear of God is clean,” and even sinners, when they feel it, keep themselves cleaner than they would otherwise do.

Pray for God’s judgments to be revealed from heaven.  And pray to survive them when they are.

God Puts Down and Sets Up

“Promotion comes neither from the east,

nor from the west, nor from the south.

But God is the judge.  He puts down one, and sets up another.”

Psalm 75:6–7

Stay out of politics.  People vote, but God alone decides.  Daniel warned King Nebuchadnezzar that God was about to make him “know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will” (Dan. 4:25).

Leave this world’s politics to God, and concentrate on being a godly influence on your family, friends, and associates.  If you accomplish that, you will have fulfilled your purpose in this life.

The Enemies of the Lord

“Your enemies roar in the midst of your congregations. . . .”

Psalm 74:4

“And David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD!’

And Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD has put away your sin;

you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have given

great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme. . . .’ ”

2Samuel 12:13–14

The “enemies of the LORD” to which God, through Nathan the prophet, was referring were not foreign nations.  They were Israelites who refused to believe that God had chosen David to be king and that He had revealed to David that Jerusalem was the place where all Israel should come to worship.  David’s tragic sin with Bathsheba made those rebellious Israelites confident that they were right not to believe David and were right to speak evil of him and his “revelation”.  For committing this crime against God’s people, David and his family suffered for the rest of his life.

May God save us from ever committing a sin that would make God’s enemies, His stubborn and rebellious children, feel justified in refusing the truth that He has shown us.

“We See Not Our Signs”

“We see not our signs.  There is no more any prophet:

neither is there among us any that knows how long.

O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?

Shall the enemy blaspheme your name for ever?”

Psalm 74:9–10

In our time, the body of Christ and the world are both in poor condition.  The precious name of Jesus is greatly scorned by the world, and the miracles and gifts of the Spirit which should be the norm among God’s people are rarely seen.  “We do not see our signs.” as the prophet said of his day, the signs that Jesus said would be among those who believe:

Mark 16

17. These signs shall accompany those who believe: In my name, they’ll cast out demons; they’ll speak with new tongues;

18. they’ll take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it won’t hurt them; they’ll lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

A body of Christ without power is a joke to this world.  The world is emboldened to blaspheme the name of Jesus and scoff at the gospel when God’s children lose their power and start preaching a “word only” gospel.  “The kingdom of God”, Paul said, “is not in talk, but in power.”

The prophet who wrote Psalm 74 knew why his generation did not see their signs: God had withdrawn His power from His people, and the prophet desperately wanted God to bring it back: “O God, why have you cast us off for ever?  Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?” (Ps. 74:1).

Let us seek God for a restoration of His glory among His people so that the name of His Son Jesus will again be feared and respected by men, and so that we might be healed and be true witnesses for Jesus.  Without God’s miracle-working power, none of that can happen.

God’s Laws

“The day is yours, the night also is yours.  You made the light and the sun.

You set all the boundaries of the earth.  You made summer and winter.”

Psalm 74:16–17

The “law of Moses” was God’s law, not Moses’.  God gave it to Moses; Moses did not write a single line of it, and Israel was preserved in peace when they obeyed that law.  Likewise, the “laws of physics” and “laws of the universe” are God’s laws.  God created this universe and the laws that are in it; the universe did not make its own laws.  And it is held together by the laws He instituted for it.

The Greatest Gift

“O bless our God, you people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard

who holds our soul in life, and suffers not our feet to be moved.”

Psalm 66:8–9

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.

He that believes in me shall live even if he dies,

and everyone who is living and believing in me will never, ever die.

Do you believe this?’ ”

John 11:25–26

The most desired, and desirable, object in all creation is life itself.  Every creature in every realm loves it.  However, “nobody can keep his own soul alive” (Ps. 22:29).  And so, to keep forever the most precious gift in all creation, we must ask mercy from the One who gave us life to begin with.  And He has told us how to keep it forever: believe in His Son and walk in His Spirit.  “For if you live after the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13).

What a precious promise!  The gift of life – forever – if we will but walk in the righteousness, peace, and joy of God’s sweet Spirit!  Nobody but a fool would turn down such an offer.

“Never Thirst Again?”

From a sermon by Pastor John

June 30, 2016

“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everybody who drinks this water

will get thirsty again, but if anyone drinks the water that I’ll give him,

he’ll never thirst again.  No, the water that I’ll give him will become

within him fountain of water, springing up into eternal life.’ ”

Jesus, in John 4:13–14

I used to think that the above words from Jesus meant that those who drank the water he gives would never again feel any thirst at all.  And I wondered what was wrong with me, for I was constantly “thirsting” for more of his water.  But thankfully, he let me know that the water that he gives doesn’t quench your thirst for him and his water of life; rather, it quenches your thirst for anything else.  Jesus’ water creates thirst for more of what Jesus is handing out, and removes from our hearts the thirst for anything else!

God Is at War with Death

From a sermon by Pastor John

June 30, 2016

God is at perpetual war with death.  Death is an enemy, Paul said.  “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1Cor. 15:26).  And do you know how God fights death?  It’s not by railing against it, or shooting guns.  Every time the Spirit moves on you, God is fighting with death.  The life of the Spirit is the victory over death!  Every time you feel the Spirit, God is conquering the death that is in your flesh.

God doesn’t fight like people fight.  Peace is His weapon; joy is His weapon; truth is His weapon.  Every time God heals somebody, He is overcoming death; He’s fighting, and He’s winning.  It is no wonder Jesus said, “He that believes in me shall never die.”  Even if you “fall asleep in Jesus”, you will rise again.  “He that is alive and believes in me shall never die.”  People may say you’re dead, but you will not be dead.  

We feel it when God is fighting.  We are blessed when the battle is raging.  It’s “joy unspeakable” for us when God is overcoming death.  Every time God speaks to you, He’s fighting against death, and He’s winning in you.  That’s where God’s warfare is, in the Spirit, and when you feel His joy and peace, the Spirit is winning.  If you stay in the Spirit, you win with it.  Solomon said, “In the pathway of righteousness there is no death” – none.  Stay on that pathway!  There is no death in the holy Ghost; “the Spirit is life, because of righteousness.”

Let’s praise God and cheer Him on!  Win, God, Win!  Let Him win in you!

“Like Those Who Dream”

“O God, you have cast us off; you have scattered us;

you have been displeased; O turn yourself to us again.

You have made the earth to tremble;

you have broken it. Heal the breaches thereof, for it is shaking.”

Psalm 60:1–2

Believers have divided themselves today, and have done so for a long time, by joining different sects offered to them by Christianity.  They are “the earth” that God has broken into pieces.  Christianity is His curse for the rebellion of their fathers against His Son and His Spirit.

If and when they repent of their rebellion against the Spirit, God will heal the breaches He has made.  And the healing will happen like this: God will open His people’s eyes to see the beauty of life in the Spirit, and He will cause their hearts to desire it so much that they realize they will have to leave Christianity and its division behind in order to have it.

When God does this, when He restores His kind of love to His people, they will love one another too much to tolerate any divisions; they will “remember Zion” and long for it.  They will at last recognize the voice of their Shepherd lovingly pleading for them to “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not participate in her sins, so that you do not receive of her plagues.”  And when they obey that voice and come out of Christianity, they will come together, and be so amazed and happy that they “will be like them that dream” (Ps. 126:1).  In other words, their dreams will have at long last come true.

A Friend

“It was not an enemy that reproached me;

then, I could have borne it.

Neither was it one who hated me that puffed himself up against me;

in that case, I would have hidden myself from him. 

But it was you, a man my own equal, my guide, and my acquaintance.

We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company.”

Psalm 55:12–14

The cruelest blow Jesus ever received was delivered by a friend.  The greatest crime ever committed against him was committed by someone who did not hate him.

Be careful what decisions you make.

Abraham’s Blessing

“God is my helper.  The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.

He shall reward evil to my enemies.”

Psalm 54:4–5a

It is a precious thing to inherit the blessing of Abraham: “I will bless them who bless you, and him who curses you, I will curse” (Gen. 12:3).  Israel inherited it, and the Bible is full of stories of God blessing those who did good to Israel and cursing those who did them wrong.  But in this covenant, Christ Jesus is the foretold “seed of Abraham” (Gal. 3:16), and in God’s eyes, the children of Abraham are those who have the kind of faith Abraham had.

Be of good cheer, you who are in Christ.  God is your Father and your near-kinsman!

Atheism

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ”

Psalm 53:1a

From a conversation with Preacher Clark in the late 1970’s.

Only God can judge a heart.  After He gave the Spirit to a group of Gentiles, Peter told the Jews, “God, who knows the heart, bore them witness, giving them the holy Spirit just as He gave it to us” (Acts 15:8).

But what if God does not give someone the holy Spirit?  How has He judged that person’s heart?  Preacher Clark pointed out to me that David said, “The fool has said in his heart,” not “The fool has said.”  Many a soul, including some who bear the title of “minister”, are not given the holy Spirit because God has judged them on the basis of what is in their heart, not by what comes out of their mouth.

Recently, a young man told a friend of mine that he was an atheist.  When I heard that, the thought came to me, “Everyone on earth is an atheist who does not have the holy Spirit.”  That is the truth that my father was pointing out to me.  Many fools say that they believe in God.  But if God has not given them His Spirit, He is saying that in their heart, they do not.   Whom, then, are we to believe?

For Your Name’s Sake

“For your name’s sake, O LORD , pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”

Psalm 25:11

“For you are my rock and my fortress; therefore,

for your name’s sake lead me, and guide me.”

Psalm 31:3

“Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name,

and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for your name’s sake.”

Psalm 79:9

“Give me life, O LORD , for your name’s sake!

For your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.”

Psalm 143:11

Some people in the Bible, such as David, loved God so much that the best reason they could think of for asking God for mercy and help is so that His name would be glorified more.

Jesus was like that.  He thought that the best reason for us to live right is so that people around us would speak well of his Father: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).  And so did Peter: “Keep your conduct honorable among the Gentiles so that, although they speak against you as evildoers, they will, having seen your good works, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1Pet. 2:12).

Let’s give our heavenly Father a blessing today.  Let’s live so that somebody around us will say something good about Him.

Remember These Promises

“Blessed is he who considers the poor.

The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

The LORD will preserve him, and give him life,

and he shall be blessed upon the earth.

And you will not turn him over to the will of his enemies.

The LORD will strengthen him on his sickbed.

Whenever he is bedridden, you will turn away his sickness.”
Psalm 41:1–3

According to the Psalmist, then, if we consider the plight of the poor among God’s people, God has promised the following blessings:

1) He will deliver us when we find ourselves in trouble.

2) He will save our lives and protect us.

3) He will make our lives in this world blessed.

4) He will not let evil people do what they would like to do to us.

5) He will use even times of sickness and suffering to make us stronger.

God cares about His people, especially those whose lives on earth are not easy.  And when we help them, God has promised to help us.

Being Honest with Yourself

“Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.”

Psalm 51:6

“LORD, who shall abide in your tabernacle?

Who shall dwell in your holy hill?

He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness,

and speaks the truth in his heart.”

Psalm 15:1–2

The most important person for you to tell the truth to is yourself.  You cannot be truthful with others if you are refusing to admit the truth to yourself.  All honesty starts with personal integrity.

Men Will Praise You

“Men will praise you, when you do well to yourself.”

Psalm 49:18b

“He who speaks on his own is seeking his own glory.”

John 7:18a

One of the chief ways that men do well to themselves in this world, and receive praise for it, is to devise religions with deep-sounding doctrines and impressive ceremonies.  Jesus said that those who come up with their own doctrines are looking for worldly praise, and history shows that such men often find it.

Let’s look for ways to bring glory to God instead of ourselves.  The only praise we really need is the praise our heavenly Father will give us in the end, if we are faithful to Him in this life.

1Corinthians 4:5

5. So, judge nothing before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and expose the intentions of hearts, and then from God will praise be given to each one.

Who Is Your Family?

“Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear;

forget also your own people, and your father’s house. 

So shall the king greatly desire your beauty.”

Psalm 45:10–11a

When Jesus said that those who obey God were His real family (Mt. 12:48–50; Mk.3:33–35), He was showing us how to “forget your own family, and your father’s house.”  When Paul said that a born-again person is “a new creature” (2Cor. 5:17), He assumed we would understand that as new creatures, we belonged to a new family – the family who obeys God.

If we follow Jesus’ example in just this one thing, if we truly embrace God’s family as our real one, the world will hate us and cast us out of their company, just as worldly-minded people hated and cast out Jesus.

If your family is Jesus’ family, if your family is those who obey God, and only them, then you are beautiful in the eyes of the King, Jesus, and he will someday come and take you to meet his Father.

    Who is your family?

He Felt Sinful

“Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,

which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”

Psalm 41:9

Jesus revealed that he himself was the one speaking those words through the prophet David, foretelling, a thousand years before it happened, that one of his disciples would betray him:

John 13

10. Jesus said to him, “He who has been washed needs only to wash his feet, but he is entirely clean.

11. (He knew who would betray him; this is why he said, “You are not all clean.”)

12. Then, when he had washed their feet, he put his garments back on, reclining again at the table, and said to them,

. . .

18. I know the ones I’ve chosen, but so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, it must be that ‘he who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.’

When the Son of God in heaven made that statement through David, it was only part of what he said.  Here is his statement, in context:

Psalm 41

4. I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against you. 

5. Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?

. . .

8. “An evil disease”, say they, “cleaves fast unto him, and now that he lieth he shall rise up    no more.”

9. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

As a man, the Son of God felt sinful.  He never sinned, but he felt the guilt and the shame of the sinful nature of the body of flesh he had come and taken on.  Everyone in a fleshly body feels its sinfulness.  Whenever you feel it, just follow the Son’s example and tell the Father about it.  He will lift up your head and will see to it that you are not discouraged, just as He did Jesus.  And afterward, you will glorify God again, just as Jesus did God:

Psalm 41

11. By this I know that you favor me, because mine enemy does not triumph over me.

12.   And as for me, you uphold me in mine integrity, and set me before your face for ever.

13. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.

Who Wants Life?

“What man is he who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?

Keep your tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.”

Psalm 34:12–14

This is so simple!  If you want eternal life, just do these things: tell the truth and be honest, do good instead of evil, and strive for peace with everyone.

God is not hard.  We can do these things, and if we do them, God will guide us into eternal life.

While He May Be Found

“To you, I acknowledged my sin, and my iniquity have I not hid.

I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD’,

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.  For this,

every one that is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found.”

Psalm 32:5–6a

An invitation from God to confess and be forgiven is a precious opportunity, and when God offers it, the wise take advantage of it.  The Bible contains a number of stories of people who missed their chance to be forgiven, such as Esau who “found no place of repentance, even though he earnestly sought it with tears” (Heb. 12:17).  It doesn’t matter how much you cry and pray when God is not offering forgiveness.

“Seek the LORD while He may be found,” said Isaiah, “call upon Him while He is near!” (Isa. 55:6).  Wise counsel.  May we all do that.  For the day is coming when God will again close the door to mercy, and on that day, “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  May God grant us grace to be among those who will be rejoicing instead!