In Ephesians 6: 10, 11, Paul tells us that we need to prepare for a battle. We are warriors in a battle, and we are to be strong. Paul says: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." In the amplified version it gives more detail: "In conclusion, be strong in the Lord (be empowered through your union with Him); draw your strength from Him (that strength which His boundless might provides). Put on God’s whole armor (the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies), that you may be able successfully to stand up against (all) the strategies and the deceits of the devil."
We are at war, a battle every day. Though it is unseen by our human sight, it is a very real battle. In verse 12 (again from the Amplified version) Paul says: "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood (contending only with physical opponents), but against the despotisms, against the powers, against (the master spirits who are) the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere."
If we are in such a great battle, how are we going to stand against the forces we cannot even see? As it said in verse 11, we are to put on God's whole armor, which He supplies us with. And then in verse 13 he tells us again: "Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day (of danger), and having done all (the crisis demands), to stand (firmly in your place)." We are given spiritual armor with which we can stand firm and fight against these evil powers that would like to destroy us. He has not left us helpless, but He has left us with a responsibility, and that is that we must pick up each piece of armor and make use of it. For the next few weeks I will go through each piece of this armor to help us know just how to use it and put it on.
My Prayer: David told Goliath: "…I come against you in the name of the Lord…" (I Samuel 17:45). Your name, Oh Lord, is above all names! Your Glory is above all the earth! Without You I am nothing, but with You I can do all things. With You, nothing is impossible! Satan may have his schemes and lies, but You have conquered Satan. You have crushed his head. Your armor will cover me. Psalm 27:1 states: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life…" I have confidence in You! I will wear Your armor! Amen
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
My Lord Is ...?
In Matthew 22:42 Jesus asked, "What do you think of Christ? In Matthew 16:15 He asked His disciples "Who do You say that I am?"
What does the Bible say about ‘who our Lord is?’ In Psalm 24 He is called the King of Glory. Verse 10 states "Who is (He then) this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of Glory, Selah…" When He returns to set up His kingdom on earth, His name is written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (Revelation 19:16).
II Samuel 22:2, 3 says "The Lord is our rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer…He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my Savior." According to Psalm 28:7 He is my strength, and my shield. Psalm 59:9, He is my defense. Psalm 23, a familiar Psalm to many, the Lord is called ‘my Shepherd’. Also in I Peter 2:25 He is referred to as our Shepherd as well as our Bishop. Hebrews 7 and 8 calls Him our High Priest. Hebrews 8:1 "We have such a High Priest, One who is seated at the right hand of the majestic (God) in heaven."
Some nights when I have difficulty going to sleep, instead of counting sheep, I go through the alphabet using names describing my Lord. Not only does it help me fall asleep, but when I wake up, He is the first on my mind.
My Prayer: Lord, I love saying names for You. Throughout Scripture there are so many different names to describe You. You are my beloved and the One Whom my soul loves. You are worthy to be praised! You are precious to me, my Chief Cornerstone. Worthy are You O Lord, to receive Power, and Glory. You are all things; You created all things, and yet Your desire is to me. You know my name!! You know my every thought!! O Lord, How Great You are! Amen
What does the Bible say about ‘who our Lord is?’ In Psalm 24 He is called the King of Glory. Verse 10 states "Who is (He then) this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of Glory, Selah…" When He returns to set up His kingdom on earth, His name is written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (Revelation 19:16).
II Samuel 22:2, 3 says "The Lord is our rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer…He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my Savior." According to Psalm 28:7 He is my strength, and my shield. Psalm 59:9, He is my defense. Psalm 23, a familiar Psalm to many, the Lord is called ‘my Shepherd’. Also in I Peter 2:25 He is referred to as our Shepherd as well as our Bishop. Hebrews 7 and 8 calls Him our High Priest. Hebrews 8:1 "We have such a High Priest, One who is seated at the right hand of the majestic (God) in heaven."
Some nights when I have difficulty going to sleep, instead of counting sheep, I go through the alphabet using names describing my Lord. Not only does it help me fall asleep, but when I wake up, He is the first on my mind.
My Prayer: Lord, I love saying names for You. Throughout Scripture there are so many different names to describe You. You are my beloved and the One Whom my soul loves. You are worthy to be praised! You are precious to me, my Chief Cornerstone. Worthy are You O Lord, to receive Power, and Glory. You are all things; You created all things, and yet Your desire is to me. You know my name!! You know my every thought!! O Lord, How Great You are! Amen
Monday, April 12, 2010
Jeremiah 33
Young people of today will not remember this, but when I was very young, telephone numbers had an exchange name, followed by the number. You are no doubt familiar with the song from the 1940’s entitled Pennsylvania 6-5000. This is a good example of what I am talking about. In small towns, one gave the phone number to a ‘telephone operator’ instead of dialing it. All this reminiscing is said in order to explain a quote we used to say about the Bible verse Jeremiah 33:3. We called this God’s telephone number; Jeremiah 3-3-3. Here’s why—it says "Call to me and I will answer you…" The Lord tells us to call on Him, and He promises to answer. He doesn’t say he will give us the answer we desire, every parent knows this is not wise; but He does promise to answer.
The previous verse, verse 2, states "Thus says the Lord Who made (the earth), the Lord Who formed it to establish it—the Lord is His name." Then he goes on to say "Call on me". To me this is a Wow! The maker of heaven and earth is telling us to just "call" on Him, just pick up the phone, just connect to Him, and He will answer.
There are other promises in this first part of Jeremiah 33 that have grabbed at my heart. I realize the Lord was speaking to the Israelites, but I feel these verses are given to us to show what a gracious God we have. We, too, have angered and saddened our Lord. In verse 5 he says "…I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness:" But then our gracious Lord says "Behold I will lay upon it health and healing, and I will cure them and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth." Our Lord will ‘heal’ us from our sins; He will cure us and give us peace.
Verse 8 states "I will cleanse them from all the guilt and iniquity…and I will forgive all their guilt and iniquities by which they have sinned and rebelled against Me." All we have to do is call upon Him and He will ‘forgive’.
Verse 11 sounds to me like our "Sacrifice of Praise". "…the voices of those who sing as they bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord. Give praise and thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good:"
Verses 15-17 talks about our Messiah, our Righteousness. Here are some excerpts…"at that time will I cause a righteous Branch (the Messiah) to grow up to David…" "The Lord is Our Righteousness (our Rightness, our Justice)."
To summarize the blessings I found in Jeremiah 33:1-17:
1. Just Call and God will answer
2. He will cure and give peace
3. He forgives our iniquities
4. We give our "Sacrifice of Praise"
5. The Messiah is our Righteousness
The previous verse, verse 2, states "Thus says the Lord Who made (the earth), the Lord Who formed it to establish it—the Lord is His name." Then he goes on to say "Call on me". To me this is a Wow! The maker of heaven and earth is telling us to just "call" on Him, just pick up the phone, just connect to Him, and He will answer.
There are other promises in this first part of Jeremiah 33 that have grabbed at my heart. I realize the Lord was speaking to the Israelites, but I feel these verses are given to us to show what a gracious God we have. We, too, have angered and saddened our Lord. In verse 5 he says "…I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness:" But then our gracious Lord says "Behold I will lay upon it health and healing, and I will cure them and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth." Our Lord will ‘heal’ us from our sins; He will cure us and give us peace.
Verse 8 states "I will cleanse them from all the guilt and iniquity…and I will forgive all their guilt and iniquities by which they have sinned and rebelled against Me." All we have to do is call upon Him and He will ‘forgive’.
Verse 11 sounds to me like our "Sacrifice of Praise". "…the voices of those who sing as they bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord. Give praise and thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good:"
Verses 15-17 talks about our Messiah, our Righteousness. Here are some excerpts…"at that time will I cause a righteous Branch (the Messiah) to grow up to David…" "The Lord is Our Righteousness (our Rightness, our Justice)."
To summarize the blessings I found in Jeremiah 33:1-17:
1. Just Call and God will answer
2. He will cure and give peace
3. He forgives our iniquities
4. We give our "Sacrifice of Praise"
5. The Messiah is our Righteousness
Sunday, April 4, 2010
What Happens to My Sin?
A couple of Sundays ago, we sang the song "At the Cross". The words are:
"At the Cross, at the Cross
Where I first saw the light
And the burden of my heart rolled away…"
In the book entitled "Pilgrim’s Progress’ by John Bunyan, is the story of Christian, leaving his home in the City of Destruction. On the back of Christian was his heavy load of sin and causing much grief. His journey was to find relief of his load on his way to the Celestial City. Eventually he came to a place where the road was fenced on either side with a wall, called ‘salvation’. Up this road he ran encumbered by the load on his back. He came to a place where there stood the Cross, and a little below in the bottom a Sepulchre. When Christian reached the Cross, his burden came loose and fell off his shoulders, tumbling till it came to the sepulchre where it fell in, and was seen no more. It was the sight of the Cross that eased his Burden. It is at the Cross where through repentance and trust in the one who paid our ransom, we receive life. Where does our sin go when we come to Christ’s Cross? How can we know it is really cast away?
Micah 7:19 states "…you will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea."
Psalm 103:12 tells us that "As far as the East is from the West so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
In Jeremiah 31:34 we are told "…for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
Also, in Isaiah 43:25 God says He is the one who blots out and cancels our transgressions. And in Isaiah 44:22 He says they are blotted out like a thick cloud.
In Peter’s message at Pentecost, he tells the crowd listening "So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return (to God) that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean…" (Acts 3:19 Amplified). These verses are only a few of the verses showing that our sins are gone. Some days when I am grousing about my past, and ask God again to forgive me, I can just imagine He is saying "What sin, my child? I have already forgotten!!."
Why did He do this! Go back to Isaiah 43:25b. He says "For my own sake…" Wow!! He wants us to be clean and pure…For His Own Sake! We are His children, so for His sake He forgets all about our past, all about our sins. What a gracious, merciful God!
"At the Cross, at the Cross
Where I first saw the light
And the burden of my heart rolled away…"
In the book entitled "Pilgrim’s Progress’ by John Bunyan, is the story of Christian, leaving his home in the City of Destruction. On the back of Christian was his heavy load of sin and causing much grief. His journey was to find relief of his load on his way to the Celestial City. Eventually he came to a place where the road was fenced on either side with a wall, called ‘salvation’. Up this road he ran encumbered by the load on his back. He came to a place where there stood the Cross, and a little below in the bottom a Sepulchre. When Christian reached the Cross, his burden came loose and fell off his shoulders, tumbling till it came to the sepulchre where it fell in, and was seen no more. It was the sight of the Cross that eased his Burden. It is at the Cross where through repentance and trust in the one who paid our ransom, we receive life. Where does our sin go when we come to Christ’s Cross? How can we know it is really cast away?
Micah 7:19 states "…you will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea."
Psalm 103:12 tells us that "As far as the East is from the West so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
In Jeremiah 31:34 we are told "…for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
Also, in Isaiah 43:25 God says He is the one who blots out and cancels our transgressions. And in Isaiah 44:22 He says they are blotted out like a thick cloud.
In Peter’s message at Pentecost, he tells the crowd listening "So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return (to God) that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean…" (Acts 3:19 Amplified). These verses are only a few of the verses showing that our sins are gone. Some days when I am grousing about my past, and ask God again to forgive me, I can just imagine He is saying "What sin, my child? I have already forgotten!!."
Why did He do this! Go back to Isaiah 43:25b. He says "For my own sake…" Wow!! He wants us to be clean and pure…For His Own Sake! We are His children, so for His sake He forgets all about our past, all about our sins. What a gracious, merciful God!
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