by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4 God wants His people to learn most of the important lessons of life vicariously. For this reason He narrates for us what happens to people when they insist on learning these lessons through personal experience. For example, He says, “And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the LORD, that He had wrought for Israel…and there arose another generation after them, that knew not the LORD, nor yet the work which He had wrought for Israel…And the children of Israel… forsook the LORD.”1 Too often, Israel insisted upon learning lessons the hard way. The Apostle Paul, after relating some of the many sins of Israel, wants his readers to know that Israel’s history with God clearly teaches that no one profits from sinning. “Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did.”2 Too often God’s people today fail to learn from observing the lives of others. The youngest child, with a number of siblings, can avoid a great deal of hurt by observing the experiences of his brothers and sisters. The price of learning these lessons through personal experience is simply too high. 1. Judges 2:7, 10-12 2. 1 Corinthians... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
Meditation What is the relationship between counsel, wisdom, and reason? How do you define these three words? I suggest the following definitions: – Counsel has to do with the advice you receive regarding a decision you must make. – Reason has to do with whether or not you agree with the counsel. – Wisdom has to do with your satisfaction with the outcome or consequences of your decision. Of these three words, the most nebulous and subjective is wisdom. No one can be certain of the future. In this sense, life is a crapshoot. You place your “poker-chips” on what you think will happen in the future and take your chances that you are correct. If you believe that nothing exists beyond the grave, then “your satisfaction with the outcome or consequences of your decision” will be revealed in the temporal. If you believe that in eternity God will judge you on the basis of your decisions, then you must wait for Judgment to determine whether or not you made a correct decision. For the followers of Christ, God’s counsel is found in Scripture. The problem is, most of His commandments appear unreasonable, and therefore you find little encouragement to obey them from the body of Christ. God asking Abraham to offer as a sacrifice his son Isaac is an extreme example of this. At this point you must decide whether you will follow the counsel of God or the counsel of fellow “Christians.” Do you honor depraved parents? Do you take a “brother” who cheated you before the civil courts? The list of such illustrations is legion. If the Bible is correct, then you must be very careful regarding the use of reason and counsel. – Never counsel... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
God commands His people, “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:9-10). Again He warns, “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour” (Leviticus 19:15). God creates people poor: “For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land” (Deut 15:11). Why did not God, when He established the Theocracy, also establish a system that ensured the elimination of poverty? Nations around the world seek to establish laws that mitigate the disparity between rich and poor. Why does it appear that this is more important to man than it is to God? Jesus said, “The poor you will have with you always” (Mark 14:7). Although Jesus ministered to the poor, He never rebuked government for allowing people to be poor; He never called man’s tolerance of inequality a blight on his ability to properly govern himself. Although any endeavor to answer this conundrum is conjecture, simply because God never addresses the question, we can nonetheless make this application: Life is intrinsically unjust, at least as we perceive reality. Even if man eliminates poverty by dividing the common good among the... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
“…and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10:28-29 If our salvation depends upon the hold we have on God, then our future is bleak indeed. For the storms of life cause the strongest of men to lose their grip. But if our salvation depends upon God’s grip on us, the storms of life cannot threaten us. When God wished to assure His people Israel, He said, “For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.”1 God likened His inviolable commitment to Israel to His promise to Noah; He will never again flood the earth. The Sovereign God who has authority to determine the course of nature vows to maintain His gracious covenant with His people. We may allow our grasp on Him to lose hold, but He will never let go of us. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
“And the Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death.” 2Kings 15:5 God considered Azariah, king of Judah, a good king – not as good as King David, but not wicked like the kings of Israel. God considered Ahaz, the grandson of Azariah, wicked, for “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.”1 Ahaz prospered as a wicked king for many years. The Bible does not say that Azariah “became ill” with leprosy; it was not the fickle finger of fate, but the hand of God that gave this good king leprosy. Although he reigned 52 years, we have no idea how many of them he spent as a leper. God “smote the king” for no apparent reason, at least no reason that He wishes to share with His people. His wicked grandson, Ahaz, reigned over Judah for a seemingly sixteen trouble-free years. Just as there is no necessary relationship between God blessing a person and His approving of that person, so also, there is no necessary relationship between God smiting a person and His disapproving of that person. When God brings circumstances into your life not to your liking (and you can be confident that He will), do not question His goodness. 1 2Kings... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
God has blessed our family with a lovely home and garden. Through the years I have battled the pernicious omnipresence of weeds; it matters not how hard I try eradicating them, they always seem to return. In my never-ending battle, I use a systemic weed killer called “Round-Up.” Once applied, the weeds appear normal, even though they are in the process of dying; they may reproduce, but they are dead. I suggest that this is analogous to life. All people are like weeds in God’s beautiful garden of life. The live and they die, but they always reproduce after their kind. Weeds reproduce weeds and sinners reproduce sinners. What the sinner does not realize, however, is that God judges sin with a systemic poison that always kills the sinner. Solomon, king of Israel, illustrates this truth. By God’s grace, He takes the son of an adulterous relationship and makes him the object of His favor. Realizing his inadequacies, Solomon asks God for wisdom to rule properly His people. God grants his request, and not only makes him the wisest of men, but also rich and powerful. As you know, these are the three measures of worldly success: wisdom, wealth, and power. Applying God’s wisdom, Solomon writes three of the OT books. Applying God’s wisdom, he also thought he could compromise the clear teachings of God. God said, do not marry foreign wives; Solomon had many pagan wives. God said, do not accrue many wives; Solomon had 1000 wives and concubines. God said, do not accumulate horses; Solomon violated this clear command. These were “wise” decisions on Solomon’s part. After... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
“For we…worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3 The events surrounding the Exodus give more information regarding Egypt than any other place in Scripture: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.” Fear of their presence caused Egypt’s oppression of the Hebrews. For this reason, Pharaoh sought to kill the potential warriors, and made slaves of the rest of the people. When Moses returned from Midian with God’s command to free the Hebrews, Pharaoh resisted, fearing that he would lose his slaves. Evidently, his fear of their joining Egypt’s enemy was tempered by his desire to use them as slaves. People often fear that which they want. Commitment without knowing produces fear. Men enjoy skydiving and other extreme sports, while fearing getting hurt. Other examples include promiscuous sex, using alcohol and drugs, and gambling. Every businessman takes risks with his assets, while at the same time fearing loss. Since we define faith as risk-taking, we cannot avoid this phenomenon. However, we can minimize the risks by obeying God’s commandments, and by expressing dependence upon Him for guidance. The only safe posture with God is surrender coupled with perpetual brokenness and... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
“But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’” Luke 13:14 God heals people. If God were displeased with a healing taking place on the Sabbath, it would not have happened. Evidently the miraculous works of Jesus had become so commonplace that people lost their sense of awe. With the passing of time two things can easily happen if you are not careful: 1) – The truly miraculous begins to appear mundane. 2) – Gratitude moves to indifference. You can easily see this in conversion. When a person becomes a Christian, he is filled with awe and a deep affection toward God for so great a salvation. Gratitude flows from every pour of his being. The longer he walks with Christ, if he is not careful, the less miraculous his conversion appears as he accommodates himself to the cares of the world. He loses his hunger for the Word of God, and in the process gets lost in the velocity of life. Cultivate a spirit of perpetual gratitude to God, and never lose your sense of wonder at what God has done for you. This will not “just happen.” You must make a conscious effort to take time from your busy schedule to spend time with the... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
“…he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.” Genesis 32:25 Genesis 32-33 records Jacob’s encounter with his brother Esau as Jacob returns to the Promised Land. Twenty years earlier, he fled from Esau, who, in a state of rage, wanted to kill Jacob for stealing the birthright. Note the strategy employed by Jacob as he anticipates meeting his brother: He sends a letter assuring Esau he has no need or intention of seeking part of Isaac’s inheritance (32: 4-6). Jacob divides his possessions in two and separates them (32: 8-9). He pleads his case before God, reminding Him of His promise to Abraham and Isaac (32:10-13). He then selects a generous gift for Esau and sends them ahead (32:14-22). Then Jacob separates his family from his possessions and divides them so as to best protect the wife of his choice (32:23-24; 33:1-2). He humbles himself before his brother when they meet (33:3-11). Finally, Jacob disassociates himself from Esau and his men lest Esau changes his mind and becomes angry once again with Jacob (33:12-17). In the midst of this ordeal, God comes to Jacob and makes him lame, after which He blesses him (32:25-33). It seems that God assisted Jacob as he laid out his strategy by ensuring that Jacob would approach his brother, a broken, crippled man (possibly one to be pitied). Proverbs 16:9 says, “A man’s mind plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.” Each of us, in a spirit of dependence upon God, must live by his wits. But the Lord takes... read more
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015
“In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 2Thessilonians 1:8-9 Note that hell is not created by Satan and his family, but for Satan by God; hell is God’s creation, as also affirmed by our Lord Jesus: “Then He will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'” Why does God tell us, not only that He has created hell, but has given such vivid descriptions of what it is like? I suggest that it is because He wants us to fear it – and Him. Edmund Burke observed that “it is impossible to look on anything as trifling, or contemptible, that may be dangerous.” God means for the horror of hell to sober us during those times when we are tempted to disobey or neglect His commands. No one is so secure with God that he can afford to be cavalier regarding His... read more
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