02/11/2019

Hebrews 12: 2

¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,

"Endure the cross, despising the shame". These words tell us as much about the cross-experience of Jesus as any we may read. What do they mean?

To "endure" is to bear up under whatever causes the pain, discomfort, or agonizing. This “endure" is further explained by “the shame" which is "despised." So there are two elements introduced. One is that totality of pain which Jesus suffered. Second is the “shame” ""which was introduced upon him.

He whose life was spotlessly perfect is punished with suffering beyond that which any other has ever suffered, without a single complaint. His cry to God was not a complaint or desperation but one of the deepest experiences of loss any human has ever suffered.

The shame was at least twofold. First was the public humiliation of the display of His person as a trouble-maker, a traitor to Israel, and a criminal. Secondly was the evil He bore. God accounted Him, laid a charge upon Him, and punished Him for the evil of His people. Please read II Cor. 5:21. Think upon the words who knew no sin!

2/09/2019

I have taken do a little today to political wandering. So bear with me. If there was such a thing as a global ice age--and I have never met a liberal who would deny that--then it has had to be global warming. So global warming being a fact, who can say when it ended?  

When abortion supporters were warned of the slippery slope that would come with it, they were dismissive of even the possibility. The example of Nazi Germany was comedic to them. But we have a number of baby butcheries, partial birth abortion, and now full term death as a legislative adventure. The slope looks both steep and slippery.

For some years the rage against fossil fuels has been both loud and shrill. It is for me a fact that industry will take all the rope they can get and never hang themselves. Let me give you two illustrations. As you head north on Texas 259 past Longview you come to a city named Lone Star for the Lone Star steel mill which is just South of it on Texas 259. You would have had no problem knowing you were within 25 miles of the city because the whole landscape was covered with red dust from the steel mill.

I have another illustration equally graphic. Going east on I-10, as you enter the city of Lake Charles, on the west side of who city were a number of chemical plants. Before federal regulations demanded cleanup for miles you could see a yellow smoke blowing from their smoke stacks. And on both sides of the interstate all grass and trees were dead. That smoke was acidic.

These illustrations notwithstanding, there has been cleanup and the pollution was unnecessary. To even imagine the removal of all fossil fuels is to imagine an environment empty of what we live with and take for granted, like shoes and eyeglasses. Be aware that practically speaking all man-made fibers have a carbon base. All fuels that we depend on have a carbon base. No  air conditioning with carbon based ingredients.

Finally to think of farming without pesticides and fertilizer is to deny that earth's inhabitation are better fed, healthier, and live longer than any time in modern history. How tall are you buddy?

2/08/2019

Esther 4:14c

¹⁴ For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

A fit statement for all believers to remember.  This is our time.  In the Providence of God, and for whatever it is worth, there is no one else but us to do with our day what needs to be done. We cannot wish this day and the problems of it away. We cannot wish for someone else to solve them.  This is our day with its trials and victories.

This we know.  Christ has been raised and exalted to the position of all power in heaven and in the earth.  And on His behalf we must protect the poor, defend the weak, save the lost, and profess the name of Christ no matter the price.

In this day, 2019, there are two great wonders.  One is the blindness of mankind in its wickedness.  Witness the willingness to practice infanticide.  Secondly is the foolishness of going back 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years to find some fault in someone’s behavior.  Let’s apply Romans 3:23.  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

2/07/2019

Lamentations 3:19-24

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
²⁰ My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

25-33

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
²⁹ let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope;
³⁰ let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever,
³² but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion  according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³ for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

Very early as a believer I found these verses, and when the dark times of doubt would hover around me, this and John 17 were dear hiding places for me.  And I have always loved the hymn written with verses 22 and 23.

Lamentations 3 seemed to have been written for me.  The seeming abandonment, the confession, the repentance, and above all the steadfast love of God for men were my hope and my stay in those dark times! I had lost my academic achievements, I had been put out of the church I attended, my friends deserted me, and I was thrust upon God in His Word.  What could I find to console me?  In verses 25-33 there was hope.  What I experienced was not unique.  It was even to be expected.

But then I considered and thought upon verses 34-36.  If my cause was just, God would vindicate me.  I did not have to either wallow in guilt or defend myself.  My part was to allow verses 28-30 to work themselves out and to rest upon verses 31-33.  For it is certain, “Great is thy faithfulness unto me.”

2/06/2019

John 15:26-27

²⁶ “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. ²⁷ And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Note:  “Because you have been with me from the beginning”.  In a determinative way the words emphasized from John 15:27 clarify any application made in this context about the coming and work of the Holy Spirit.  This context is limited to those who were with Jesus from the beginning.  This is a historical marker.

There is a certain way in which that activity immediately described is limited to this boundary description.  It does not apply to those who were prior to Jesus.  No prophet, priest, or king qualifies.  It does not apply to those who came after Jesus with one exception, the Apostle Paul.  And he is very careful to describe the fact that he was an exception.

Then it becomes apparent that for some to apply this activity of the Holy Spirit, which follows in this context is a mistaken understanding and an unfulfilled claim.

This is easier and clearer here, but there are other places where claims are as erroneous and even more mischievous.  A caution…read with discernment.

2/05/2019

John 1:31

³¹ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

John was asked by the Jewish leaders three questions:

1.      Who are you?

2.      What are your claims for yourself?

3.      Why are you baptizing?

These were neither bad questions nor was it wrong for them to ask.  Moses had given the responsibility to the religious leadership to prove the orthodoxy of all who claimed to preach a revelation from God whether it be true or false.

John’s answers reveal these truths about his ministry to Israel.  He was sent from God by prophecy, 1:23.  Secondly he was a very humble man who knew his place and his value, 1:27.  Thirdly he identified the single overriding reason for his appearance and ministry 1:31.

If a person does not believe Jesus and His claims with the claims the New Testament writers make about Him, he does not believe any of this narrative about John the Baptizer.  The disbelief of history from the fact that you do not agree with it leaves you in a drab and lifeless world.

God’s Word has somethings that require faith, but this is God’s Word.

1/30/2019

I Samuel 16:11-12

¹¹ Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.”

¹² And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

Note—Beautiful eyes

This passage, with no fanfare, introduces David the son of Jesse, the son of Israel, the son of Abraham.  And with no fanfare.  If it were not with what follows other than appearance we would pay no attention to him. But this is undoubtedly the most important, the most gifted, and the most spiritually devoted man of the Old Testament.  He has no peers in any field in which he was employed.

David was a poet without equal.  Only one illustration is needed, the 23^rd Psalm is a classic, and probably one of the best known poems in literature.  He built musical instruments and played them at the highest level.  He was, in II Samuel 23:1, called the sweet Psalmist or singer of Israel. And there is every reason to refer this to his ability to sing accompanied by a stringed instrument.

He was a military general without peer.  He was a masterful governmental organizer.  He set up the order of Temple worship, and was the architect who designed the Temple.  And he was one of the bravest men ever.

Is he not a fit father for our King?