August 12, 2022

Acts 1: 7 (NIV)

He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”

The finite cannot fully know the infinite.*

Let’s face it. We want answers but we don’t always get them. In this verse, we have Jesus’ response to the apostles who wanted him to do some fortune-telling: “It is not for you to know . . .” he said. Previously, he had told them that no one knows the day or hour of his return (Mark 13: 32); and John says that now we are children of God but what we will be has not been made known (I John 3: 2). And way back in the Old Testament, we were advised that the secret things belong to God (Deuteronomy 29: 29). 

But there is good news. The verse in Deuteronomy (29: 29) goes on to say, “But the revealed things belong to us.” With all the mysteries and the things we don’t know or can’t understand, there are some things that we can know. To name a few: 

· The truth. (John 8: 32) 

· The Father. (John 14: 7) 

· God works for the good of those who love him. (Romans 8: 28) 

· Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (I Corinthians 15: 58) 

· The one who raised Jesus from the dead will raise us. (II Corinthians 4: 14) 

· God’s grace. (II Timothy 1: 8-10) 

· What love is. (I John 3: 16) 

· That we are children of God. (I John 5: 19) 

Search out God’s word for yourself and see what he has revealed. We may not know everything – we aren’t even supposed to – but the Christian life is not lived in darkness. In II Peter 1: 3, we read: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” What else do we need to know?

What God has revealed he expects his children to study, meditate upon and obey.*

August 11, 2022

Habakkuk 2: 1 (NIV)

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give.

True prayer involves the expectancy of God’s answer, and of the worshipper’s earnestly watching to receive it.*

Habakkuk is ready to hear from God. He has announced his intentions to watch for God’s answer. What can we learn from Habakkuk about prayer? 

1. Specific prayer. He wasn’t waiting for God to reveal a random message to him. Chapter 1, verses 12-17, records his request – or, as some describe it, his complaint. 

2. Expectant prayer. Habakkuk knew from previous experience (chapter 1, verses 1-11), that God would answer him. 

3. Patient prayer. He was willing to wait for God’s answer. 

Someone has described this verse as “the spiritual preparation of the prophet's soul for hearing the word of God within.”* Prayer is like any other spiritual discipline – the more you do it, the better you do it. To prepare your soul for hearing the word of God, practice Habakkuk’s three-step procedure: 

1. Pray specifically. Developing this discipline will require you to zero in on what you really want. Often we are afraid to express our true desires. Maybe we think God won’t give us what we want because it’s a frivolous request – but ask anyway. Working through your fear and your shallowness is part of the discipline. 

2. Pray in faith. If God has spoken to you in the past, you are ready for this one. If this is new to you, include in your prayer a request for stronger faith. 

3. Wait. This is the hard part, but God has all the time in the world and he will use as much of it as he needs to arrange to work all things out for your good. 

Prayer is not really about getting things from God. Prayer is about building a relationship with the heavenly Father who loves you and longs to be with you. Spend some time with him and you will find yourself feeling the same way about him!

There is no way to learn to pray except by praying.*

August 10, 2022

II Kings 17: 27, 28 (NIV)

Then the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.” So one of the priests who had been exiled . . . came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.

It’s possible to believe in God and still think like a pagan.*

So what is happening here? The King of Assyria has taken the Israelites captive and is attempting to colonize their former land of Samaria with settlers from Babylon and other places. As the colonists were taking over and establishing their religions, God sent lions among them to terrorize them because they were not worshiping him. In an attempt to appease the god of the land, the Assyrian king assigned one of his priests to study up on the religion of the Israelites and then sent “missionaries” to teach the colonists how to worship God. And how do you think that worked out? As someone has observed: “It was not a very promising way for these peoples to discover the real truth about YHWH.”* Verse 33 sums up the sad outcome of this endeavor: “They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods . . .” 

As distasteful and as futile as it sounds for a heathen to teach someone about God, it is not so different from what we allow in our churches today. We listen to preachers and teachers without questioning the truth of their message. False teachers will answer for their actions, whether their intentions were malicious or they acted out of ignorance; but when it comes to matters of salvation, there is no loophole, no clause for those who listened to the wrong people. Not everyone who preaches and teaches is trying to lead you astray – but “trust, then verify” is a good policy. Your only protection against false teaching is to know the truth. 

Paul advises in I Corinthians 15: 2, “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” Examine the word of God and allow the Spirit to speak to you. Don’t believe in vain!

God alone ultimately judges who is and is not a Christian.*

August 9, 2022

Judges 2: 7, 10 (NIV)

The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. . . . After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.

Jesus doesn't ask us to follow others; he asks us to follow him.*

The Israelites served the Lord throughout the lifetime of their dynamic leader, Joshua, but they began to drift away after Joshua’s death. As long as there was a remnant who remembered Joshua and who had seen what the Lord had done for them, there was some semblance of faithfulness among the people, but as soon as that generation was gone, the next generation had no memory and no motivation. 

There is a scary prediction that the church is just one generation away from extinction. That could be true if the church weren’t the Lord’s church. History proves that no matter how depraved the world becomes, a remnant of God’s people has always managed to survive. From the six people on the ark to the underground churches in the oppressed nations today, God has never not had a people. 

It is beautiful to behold a body of believers that is thriving due to a dynamic leader, but what happens when that leader tires or retires? Many congregations can’t survive the loss of their chief visionary. There are four measures every church should consider: 

1. Pursue strategies to prevent hero worship. A charismatic preacher is influential - even magnetic - but he should not be the reason people join the church. 

2. Develop a replacement strategy well in advance of the minister’s resignation. Sometimes people leave us without notice but it is still good to plan for a smooth transition. 

3. Train future leaders. You may not find your next preacher from among your current membership but you can prepare people to be the next elders and teachers and ministry team leaders. 

4. Keep the memory alive. Never let the new generation forget what God has done in the life of the generation before them. 

If you are not counted among the leaders of your church, you are still a person of influence. Pray for your ministers and your elders. Be a friend or an accountability partner. Do your part to remind others of the great things the Lord has done.

Christ’s church was designed to endure.*

August 8, 2022

Exodus 30: 20, 21 (NIV)

“Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the Lord by fire, they shall wash their hands and feet so they will not die.”

Holiness is who he is and what he does.*

Whoever coined the phrase, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” must have been thinking about this priestly ritual. Although, it might be more appropriate to say that cleanliness comes before you can get next to godliness. The priests were heading into the presence of the most holy God but the Almighty was not concerned about the spreading of germs, and all that washing couldn’t really make anyone clean enough to approach God. God was concerned about what their physical hygiene represented: holiness.

We don’t need priests to stand in for us today. We are our own priests – each of us must be cleansed personally before we approach God. How do we meet the requirements for ceremonial cleanliness? In Hebrews 9: 14 we read that it is the blood of Christ that cleanses us. How do we apply the blood for cleansing purposes? In Acts 22: 16, Paul says that after his conversion experience, he was instructed by Ananias to get up, be baptized and wash his sins away. And Peter writes, in I Peter 3: 21, that the water of baptism saves us – not by removing dirt from the body but as a pledge of a good conscience toward God.

Unlike the priests, we don’t have to rewash every time we approach God. Jesus entered the Most Holy Place “once for all by his own blood” (Hebrews 9: 12). Instead of offering many sacrifices, year after year, Christ’s sacrifice is the only one we need for complete forgiveness.

Are you washed in the blood?

At our baptism, God empowers us with His Holy Spirit to serve with the attitudes and character of Christ.*

August 7, 2022

Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Everything else is up for grabs.*

I graduated from high school more than 40 years ago, but even though I live far away from my hometown, I am still in touch with many of my classmates. Besides our big class reunion every five years, we have mini-reunions throughout every year. I attend as many of those as I can because it’s such fun to catch up with old friends.

You expect people to be different after that many years. We gain weight, we lose hair, we brag about our grandkids more than about our own accomplishments; but with some people, there are changes in their very essence that make them almost unrecognizable. It is disconcerting to talk to someone who is nothing like the person you remember. I wonder, Have I changed that much? Am I still recognizable to my old friends?

Whether Jesus is your old friend or a new acquaintance, you can count on him to remain the same. He will always be available; he will never reject you because you aren’t one of the cool kids; he is always willing to forgive you. He won’t remind you of the stupid things you have done and he will never look at you and say, “Well, you’ve put on a few pounds.” He looks at us through eyes of love so he sees our essence instead of our imperfections. In a world that changes too fast for us to keep up with, we are secure in his never-changing character.

Yesterday – he has cleaned the slate for us. Today – he walks beside us. He never changes but our relationship with him will change us forever.

What a glorious paradox that He who never changes is also the one who is ever new!*

February 29, 2020

Exodus 28: 1 (NIV)

“Have Aaron your brother brought to you . . . along with his sons . . . so that they may serve me as priests.”

Ideally, each member of the body should follow the instructions of the head and function as a harmonious whole to accomplish God’s purposes.*

According to myjewishlearning.com, the Bible doesn’t say anything about Aaron’s birth, early life, or upbringing. I did a little more research and I can’t find any mention of him before Exodus chapter four. We don’t know when he first became involved in Moses’ life but we might infer that since Pharaoh’s daughter let Moses’ mother take him back home to nurse him, Moses probably maintained a relationship with his birth parents’ household.

Based on the facts we have, we might also surmise that the brothers were close. It may be reading too much into what the Bible doesn’t say but when Aaron is thrust into public service as Moses’ mouthpiece, he appears to have no objection. Aaron was Moses’ co-star for the next 40 years and except for an occasional family squabble (which often included sister Miriam), neither brother seems to harbor any jealousy and, in fact, they appear to be happy for one another.*

God chose Moses to be the deliverer of his people. But God chose Aaron for a special ministry as well.  Moses may have gotten most of the glory down through the ages but in order for God’s plan to work, he required both of them to be obedient, to be leaders, and to make personal sacrifices for the sake of their congregation.

Not everyone who serves the Lord with valor and success goes down in history by name but each of them counts. Don’t be discouraged if your efforts on behalf of the Kingdom get less attention than second-fiddle Aaron or even third-string Miriam. “We wrestle with our need to be appreciated, even applauded,”* but Jesus cautions us about performing our acts of righteousness in order to be seen (Matthew 6: 1). So serve the Lord with gladness and humility because your Father sees and will reward you (Matthew 6: 4 and 6).

“Don’t worry about the assignment I have given someone else. Your job is to follow me and feed my sheep.”*