I will be off line from April 30 to May 6 – see you on the 7th! Have a great week, pray, grow closer to the LORD, listen for His voice. God bless you abundantly!
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Cameras are everywhere. Practically every person you see has a phone with a built-in camera. You find cameras in stores, businesses, parking garages and lots. About the only place you don’t find them are in public restrooms or dressing rooms in stores … and to be honest I’m not sure about that.
Attached to many of the cameras are people hoping to catch something that will give them 15 minutes of fame. They want their pictures or videos to go viral, hoping they’ll be picked up by the national news and broadcast for the world to see.
The insidious problem with that is that a video that runs a few seconds or minutes often takes things out of context; it doesn’t allow for what came before that might explain what is happening. Nor does it show what comes after. It’s an isolated bite of time which can be and often is misinterpreted. It can also damage a reputation or ruin a life.
The news media is on the hunt for just such things and will run stories without getting facts. The goal to report the news is often tainted by the demand for ratings higher than their competitors.
Fame. Ratings. This is what drives the media. It is not, however, what is to drive God’s beloved. When God looked out on the nation of Israel at the height of their idolatry, he gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for the nation. “Therefore, say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.’” [7:28]
That message could very well be for our nation, our church, our time – truth has perished. Beloved, let’s be careful in everything we read and see that we seek the truth before we respond, share, or pass anything on to someone else. It is imperative that we find the truth and speak the truth.
One last though from Titus (at least I think it is one last thought). One of the most beautiful sentences ever written is found in Titus 3:4-5: “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”
At a district council when I received my license to preach in Idaho, I heard a song for the very first time. It was “Mighty to Save.” It was written by Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan and part of the repertoire of Hillsong Church. The rights to the song are registered for Hillsong Publishing. The Chorus says, “My Savior, He can move the mountains, My God is Mighty to Save, He is Mighty to save.”
The rights to the song “Mighty to Save” may be owned by Hillsong Publishing, but that wonderful title of God, “Mighty to Save,” comes from the book of Isaiah and is owned by God! He said, “I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” [63:1 NKJV]
Some translations have a second occurrence of “Mighty to Save” in Zephaniah 3:17: “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.” [NIV]
The Hebrew word for mighty is different in both translations (rab in Isaiah, gibbowr in Zephaniah) but both definitions mean strong, champion, chief, powerful, abundant, etc.
God’s kindness and love prompted our salvation—not because we deserved salvation but because our God is merciful. But behind His kindness, love and mercy, is both the power to save us and the power keep us—He is “Mighty to Save.” Praise His Holy Name!
My heart is heavy and yet it is light. My heart sorrows and yet is full of joy. How can that be? I see so much need, so many hurts, so many lonely and struggling. And then I see the manger and the Christ Child … I see Jesus and my heart grows light with joy.
I see the manger and the Magi and the shepherds and hear in my imagination the angelic hosts proclaiming and I am filled with pleasure. Then I remember the cross, the crown of thorns, the whipping and mocking and spitting and I mourn for a world that rejected their Savior.
The cross gives way to the empty tomb. I see the surprise on the faces of the disciples, I see the delight in a mother who embraces a son that she thought was forever gone from her. I rejoice in a life that death cannot conquer.
And I see a world that still does not know its salvation, a world that abides in turmoil and struggles. I see the homeless man leaning on his cane outside the Dollar Store, fearful even to make eye contact with me as I went by. I see the children who have nothing and expect nothing even during this time of year. And my heart breaks.
But deep inside I hear the prophet remind me. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.” [Isa 9:6]
The government—the rule—is on His Shoulders, not mine. I can allow my heart to break with the things that break His and rejoice in the things that give Him delight. My Savior, my LORD, loves me. And He loves you. Today, that is enough.
If there is anything that being blessed should do in us, it is to cause us to become people of joy and praise, people who exalt in who God is and what God does.
“Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD. They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness.” [Ps 89:15-16]
“Acclaim” in the original language indicates a roar of joy or a battle-cry (KJV joyful noise) – both fit the Christian walk. I love to hear the saints of God worship and praise their Savior. I love to see hands in the air, hear the clapping and shouts, singing and joy. There is something that ministers deeply in us when we rejoice.
The psalmist reminds us that we are to rejoice in the Name of the LORD all day long! It is not just a Sunday-Morning-Go-To-Meeting rejoicing. We exult God in every situation and setting.
When I drive to and from work each day I pray for a safe trip, that I might be a good Christian witness and that I might go in the strength of the LORD through my day. Then I rejoice. And when I rejoice, I sense God’s presence with me. My car becomes filled with the praises of God, those “How Happy!” (blessed) shouts of joy.
Thank you, LORD, I am blessed to praise You and rejoice in You. Amen.
Want to hear something crazy. Peter wrote it in his second letter to those who had received from God a faith as precious as his. He proclaimed that “[God’s] 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.”
That’s not the crazy part. That comes in verse 5. “Now make every effort to add to your faith ….” Huh?
If we have everything we need in the precious faith given to us by God through Christ Jesus, why do we have to add anything? Ever thought about that?
Sitting on my desk right now is a blue bag. Inside that bag is an instruction book with a picture of a baby blanket done in stripes and fringe. Also inside that bag is a Size G crochet hook, scissors, and six skeins of yarn in three beautiful colors. I have everything I need to make a beautiful baby blanket for a friend’s nephew arriving in December. Everything. And if I let that blue bag sit on my desk untouched, when December arrives, I will still have everything I need for that beautiful baby blanket, I just won’t have a finished product.
God has given us, via faith, everything we need to come out a finished product, looking like His Son Jesus. But if we don’t make every to add the virtues Peter will go on to list in his letter, we will have wasted the here and now. We will gain heaven, because that is purely by faith alone, but we will not influence or change our world as Christ did and commanded us to do.
You have it all … now add.
I was standing high on a mountain in the northwest, so high, in fact, that as I looked to the southeast I could see across the country with the outline of Florida straight ahead and Texas on the right. The sky above was dark and foreboding over our nation. As I stood there I watched as golden notes rose from all over the country and gathered with other notes up against the dark sky. As more and more notes rose, the sky became lighter, almost transparent. Somehow, I knew that those notes were the praises of God’s people, crying out in worship, desperate for Revival. They were coming from every part of the country, across the north, south, east and west.
That was what I saw when I was praying last Tuesday for Revival. I know that one day the final note will sound, and the sky will break open with a mighty crack and the rains of Revival will pour upon us.
I think I am becoming consumed with Revival. I am expecting it at any moment. I am praying desperately for God’s presence. Even in the middle of the night I awaken and hear songs playing in my mind, songs anticipating the coming Revival.
I am trying to hear what the Spirit is saying to our church in our generation. I’ve seen and I’ve read about Revival in other places, but I’ve never been in the waters myself. I’ve only been on the edges or heard the experience from others. I want to experience it firsthand; I want to experience it now!
Yes, I think I am being consumed with Revival. But that’s okay, because the more I “Pursue the Presence of Jesus Christ” in prayer, the more healing I am finding in my own heart. I’m different, already. And that’s a good thing.
“Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!”