Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,humble and mounted on a donkey,on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
One way to find the truth is to look at what Satan and the world hates. They hate the humble. They hate and mock those that live in the right. They hate Christ.
So it shouldn't be any surprise that a savior coming humbly is mocked by the world. The world loves the arrogant. The world loves the proud. So the world puts them up above the rest of us.
And yet the world is still self hating. And with glee rips apart those they had lifted up and throws them broken upon the ground. Only to replace them with the next arrogant and proud man.
Christ came humbly to show us how to live. So reject the world's way and follow Christ's example.
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
I love the visualization of God melting down my soul, my very being.
Through the fire of hard times, His Word, and whatever He brings into my path I see Him working at the forge. Melting me down again and again. Slowing burning off the impurities until all that is left is what is best for His design.
My sins are cast far from me. He no longer holds them against me for Christ has born the punishment. But, I don't get keep those impurities within my soul. They must be removed for we must be forged for His purpose.
So again and again you will be melted down.
Praise the LORD.
When You Lie Down ... Revelation 20-22
Chapter 20 in mp3 Chapter 21 in mp3 Chapter 22 in mp3 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
"Do you do well to be angry?" I love this question.
We hate those that hate us. It burns in our stomachs and we pray, in a "good" way, for God to smack them down. For them to suffer as we have suffered. For them to feel the pain that we have felt. We spend so much time, and drag so much emotional baggage along, just focusing on them.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
From the weakest will come the greatest.
It is never a surprise when you see the great athlete win the game. It can only come from God when the weak destroy the strong.
We may focus on the strength and wealth men. On the things that men can do. But, know that through what you never expected ... God will work. For then it is obvious that it is His hand and not yours.
And it is within the hard times of life that you will see this.
When your bank account gets empty, the crops fail, your job is gone, you become ill ...
Looking around it will become obvious that your own hand can do nothing. When we are at our weakest ... God's hand is moving. And by His strength alone will we survive.
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
How much does it take to break you?
Just consider stealing. When would you break from your sin and confess to God?
When you walk away from the counter even though they gave you too much change?
When you write down too much money on your trip report for your job?
When your dad catches you taking money from his wallet?
When you kids catch you giving less to the church so you can buy something for yourself?
When you go to jail for stealing from your business' customers?
We all fall somewhere along the above path. Whether it is sexual sin, stealing, or worshiping the world; there will come a time when God's words in your heart become forceful. Listen to Him and act now. Not later. Because everything has a breaking point. Just break as soon as possible.
In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Tomorrow we die ...
Yes, we do die. Yet we should live, not for today, but for what comes after. Our death is not the end. It is the door to eternity. An eternity with God or suffering without God.
Our lives today are lives meant to prepare us for eternity. It not a call for selfishness, but goodness. It is not a call to fulfil the desires of your flesh, but to live as Christ lived.
“Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
Christ is my foundation. He is the cornerstone of my heart and life.
Now that God has given the base upon what I should build ... how have I done? You can build a terrible house on top of a good foundation. I suppose I could not put the roof on. Which would be rather stupid. But I've seen abandoned homes that ended at that point.
As we build upon Christ we need to remember to use justice as our measure. Righteousness to keep our paths straight. The Word to build our walls. And Love to cover our heads.
Help me to live as Christ. To sacrifice for my family. To love my wife as you did the Church ... giving your life. To seek out the lost. To give with love to those in need.
To look upon the cross and know that is how far my love must go.
I'm not exactly old yet nor wise. Though I do know that if all I strive for is from my own two hands ... it is worthless. My life can be taken from me by anyone who wishes it. All that I own can be taken as well. Family, children, money, possessions, everything WILL be lost in time. We may imagine that we could fight to keep it. But, it all will taken away from you.
In your life there is only one constant. God.
If He blesses you with a moment of happiness. Be happy in it. If you need to morn. Morn. Turn to God and deal with what is placed before you.
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
We may like to point out that today we can count the stars. We can measure the sands of the seas. We are so smart. And all the Bible stuff is just old stuff that came before man got really smart.
But, from the beginning of time until the end of everything, we will never know the way the spirit comes to the child within the mother. Never.
Remember when you knew everything there was to know? Back when you were young?
It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right. Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion.’
Yeah, I was like that. No wait ... I still am. Or else I wouldn't be typing this right now. Listen to me! Let me declare my opinion! That thump you just heard was my heading hitting my desktop.
There is a balance in what you know, or what you feel you are being led to say, versus preaching to hear your own voice. I never want to become the man standing in front of others who loves the sound of his voice. Who is certain their words are golden. Who others declare to be as eloquent as great men of old ... even before the speech has been given.
My biggest worry in what I type is that I become Elihu. The words may be smooth at times. They may be rough at times. They may form a speech that people can nod their heads to and agree with at times. "Yes that is so well said." Or not.
But, within the words there is no glory given to God. That is my worry in my life as well. That within the pages of my life I don't reflect who God wants me to be. That I become a wall ... rather than an open window.
LORD, humble me. Open me. Help me to pull back who I am and let you come through.
We all have an unjust accuser. It may be a family member, an enemy, or THE Enemy. But, the one I'm thinking of looks back at you from the mirror.
Elihu condemned Job and then wrapped himself with words about God. Don't you find yourself filling both roles in your life at times? You are hurting and you have that whisper in your ear reminding you about your sins. About what you have done wrong. How can a person so flawed NOT be punished by God?
Just remember what Christ said ... You are forgiven. Go and sin no more.
Yes we are flawed. Yes we are fallen. But, as you look in the mirror don't see with the eyes of an accuser. Eyes that are blinded and see only darkly. See with the eyes of Christ.
Who loved you so much as to be beaten beyond recognition for you. Who loved you so much that thorns were jammed upon his head. Who loved you so much that he willingly took nails being driven through his hands and feet. Who loves you so much He stood between you and the punishment.
Can you imagine the love that must be in His eyes as He looks upon you?
And with Christ's sacrifice is freedom from the Law. Of course that is actually somewhat harder on us. Because no longer is the Law a written thing on paper for us. It is the Law that God has written upon our hearts.
You can always try and justify breaking the laws on paper. You speed down the road well above the speed limit ... but you didn't hurt anyone. We can always change what is written or argue about the meaning of the word 'is'.
Upon our hearts means one-on-one with God. You know when you are wrong and when you are in the right. No cheating there.
