Psalm 19: 14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Like David, I want my very thoughts and attitudes to align with all the good God has placed into this Earth; to know Him well enough to be able to think along His lines, and fill my heart with His ways, so that my words that overflow from my heart out of my mouth will be positive and encouraging, lovely and beautiful, thinking only the best of others and events and happenings (Philippians 4:8-9).
O my Father, You are good, and everything You do is good, because You are Love. Continue to instill in me, in my heart, Your Love for what you have made; to love you back and to love others as You love me. Help me always to remember who I am in You, and think and live according to Your graciousness and mercy. Let the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart be pleasing to You, Father, and cause You to smile upon me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
To Receive The Adoption
Galatians 4: 4-5
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Just at the right time (God is never early or late), Jesus was born into our human family. As He placed Himself under the Law, He fulfilled all of the letter of the Law, including all the sacrificial rites associated with it.
He became our Kinsman-Redeemer. He became our human Brother, our Kinsman, and His death in our place paid off our entire, eternal debt we owed to God for sin. That way, in taking our death upon Himself, He can give us His life (substitutionary atonement). He has saved us from the power sin has over us today, and He will complete our redemption in our very bodies when He returns (the Rapture) and our bodies are changed into the spiritual, radiant, resurrection bodies (I Corinthians 15, esp. vs 51-52). Then we will be "adopted" as God's adult sons and daughters, with all the rights and responsibilities of running His family business, the Kingdom.
We think of adoption today as a parent taking a child not born to them into their family as though born into it. This is appropriate, as we are all born into this family of humankind, defective spiritually with dead spirits.
That's why Jesus told Nicodemus of the necessity of being "born again," or "born from above." He then explained it to him as the first birth being physical, the water breaking and the baby being born; then the second birth being a spiritual event in receiving spiritual life (John 3:3-6): God's Holy Spirit entering into our dead spirit makes it alive, and able to communicate with God (Ephesians 2:3).
This Holy Spirit is also the Seal (Ephesians 1:13-14), that guarantees that we can never again be separated from God's Love (Romans 8:38-39), and that He will complete everything He started in us when He saved us (Philippians 1:6). We will, with no shadow of any doubt, eventually be fully redeemed. This hope is not a wish, but a secure anticipation of what God is doing in our future, which is all "now" in God's view.
O Father, thank You so much for sending Your own Son to be one of us and to save us and redeem us and make us Your own children, Your princes and princesses, to one day be kings and queens, ruling with our King Jesus in Your great Kingdom! This is who I am. Help me to remember who I am in all the turmoils and upsets and stresses in this life.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Just at the right time (God is never early or late), Jesus was born into our human family. As He placed Himself under the Law, He fulfilled all of the letter of the Law, including all the sacrificial rites associated with it.
He became our Kinsman-Redeemer. He became our human Brother, our Kinsman, and His death in our place paid off our entire, eternal debt we owed to God for sin. That way, in taking our death upon Himself, He can give us His life (substitutionary atonement). He has saved us from the power sin has over us today, and He will complete our redemption in our very bodies when He returns (the Rapture) and our bodies are changed into the spiritual, radiant, resurrection bodies (I Corinthians 15, esp. vs 51-52). Then we will be "adopted" as God's adult sons and daughters, with all the rights and responsibilities of running His family business, the Kingdom.
We think of adoption today as a parent taking a child not born to them into their family as though born into it. This is appropriate, as we are all born into this family of humankind, defective spiritually with dead spirits.
That's why Jesus told Nicodemus of the necessity of being "born again," or "born from above." He then explained it to him as the first birth being physical, the water breaking and the baby being born; then the second birth being a spiritual event in receiving spiritual life (John 3:3-6): God's Holy Spirit entering into our dead spirit makes it alive, and able to communicate with God (Ephesians 2:3).
This Holy Spirit is also the Seal (Ephesians 1:13-14), that guarantees that we can never again be separated from God's Love (Romans 8:38-39), and that He will complete everything He started in us when He saved us (Philippians 1:6). We will, with no shadow of any doubt, eventually be fully redeemed. This hope is not a wish, but a secure anticipation of what God is doing in our future, which is all "now" in God's view.
O Father, thank You so much for sending Your own Son to be one of us and to save us and redeem us and make us Your own children, Your princes and princesses, to one day be kings and queens, ruling with our King Jesus in Your great Kingdom! This is who I am. Help me to remember who I am in all the turmoils and upsets and stresses in this life.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, February 12, 2018
The Kinsman-Redeemer
Ruth 3: 14
"... Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor ..."
Boaz is an honorable man, with high personal standards, as we are told at his first introduction (in 2:1) and is proving it here in protecting Ruth's reputation. He is older than she is, probably of her father-in-law Elimelek's generation.
V. 18
"... The man will not rest until he has settled it today."
Boaz' concern and protection for Ruth shows that he will be responsive to her initiative in choosing him to perform the responsibility of levirate marriage to her.
Naomi has recognized this, and assures her that Boaz will not let any grass grow under his feet, but will take care of the matter immediately.
4: 10
"... In order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased may not be cut off from his brothers or from the court of his birth place; you are witnesses today."
Levirate marriage was to assign the first son as to be the son of the man who had died, here that would be Mahlon, who Ruth had married.
V. 21
... and Boaz begat Obed.
But the genealogical record shows the actual, biological father to the boy, which was Boaz, not Mahlon.
Boaz was willing to be Ruth's kinsman-redeemer, and fully intended to allow his son to be considered as Mahlon's son. God determined, however, that the actual bloodline be recorded, as this is the bloodline into which His own Son will be born, physically.
We are given Jesus' ancestry through His mother Mary, His actual bloodline, in Luke. Matthew gives us His legal lineage through Joseph, whose royal line gave Him the legal right and authority to claim David's throne.
Both Mary and Joseph are descended from King David, Obed's grandson.
And this foreign woman is named in Jesus's genealogy, as well as another foreign woman, Rahab, who was Boaz' grandmother.
The Israelites were warned not to marry foreign women, because these foreigners would draw them away from the Lord God to honor and worship the other gods who demand awful stuff.
But both of these women abandoned those shameful deities, recognizing how far superior our real God is over them, over any other. They assimilated into the culture and religion of Israel, and didn't try to bring their old cultures in. This is the only way God could accept them.
God wants everyone everywhere to recognize Him as the only God over the Universe; anything else that is worshiped or honored instead are false idols, and the only power they would have would be through demons.
O my Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to us. You want to be known. And You know me. You know every detail of who I am, down to the molecules and cells, and every hair counted.
As You know me, You also want me to know You, as much as possible. You are eternal, and I am temporal: in this state I am very limited in how much I am able to understand Who You are, Father, and what I know so far overwhelms me!
I am looking forward to being fully redeemed, to see You face-to-face, and to get to know you throughout all future eternity. I think I will never come to the end of knowing Who You are, my Lord and my God and my King.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
"... Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor ..."
Boaz is an honorable man, with high personal standards, as we are told at his first introduction (in 2:1) and is proving it here in protecting Ruth's reputation. He is older than she is, probably of her father-in-law Elimelek's generation.
V. 18
"... The man will not rest until he has settled it today."
Boaz' concern and protection for Ruth shows that he will be responsive to her initiative in choosing him to perform the responsibility of levirate marriage to her.
Naomi has recognized this, and assures her that Boaz will not let any grass grow under his feet, but will take care of the matter immediately.
4: 10
"... In order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased may not be cut off from his brothers or from the court of his birth place; you are witnesses today."
Levirate marriage was to assign the first son as to be the son of the man who had died, here that would be Mahlon, who Ruth had married.
V. 21
... and Boaz begat Obed.
But the genealogical record shows the actual, biological father to the boy, which was Boaz, not Mahlon.
Boaz was willing to be Ruth's kinsman-redeemer, and fully intended to allow his son to be considered as Mahlon's son. God determined, however, that the actual bloodline be recorded, as this is the bloodline into which His own Son will be born, physically.
We are given Jesus' ancestry through His mother Mary, His actual bloodline, in Luke. Matthew gives us His legal lineage through Joseph, whose royal line gave Him the legal right and authority to claim David's throne.
Both Mary and Joseph are descended from King David, Obed's grandson.
And this foreign woman is named in Jesus's genealogy, as well as another foreign woman, Rahab, who was Boaz' grandmother.
The Israelites were warned not to marry foreign women, because these foreigners would draw them away from the Lord God to honor and worship the other gods who demand awful stuff.
But both of these women abandoned those shameful deities, recognizing how far superior our real God is over them, over any other. They assimilated into the culture and religion of Israel, and didn't try to bring their old cultures in. This is the only way God could accept them.
God wants everyone everywhere to recognize Him as the only God over the Universe; anything else that is worshiped or honored instead are false idols, and the only power they would have would be through demons.
O my Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to us. You want to be known. And You know me. You know every detail of who I am, down to the molecules and cells, and every hair counted.
As You know me, You also want me to know You, as much as possible. You are eternal, and I am temporal: in this state I am very limited in how much I am able to understand Who You are, Father, and what I know so far overwhelms me!
I am looking forward to being fully redeemed, to see You face-to-face, and to get to know you throughout all future eternity. I think I will never come to the end of knowing Who You are, my Lord and my God and my King.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, February 11, 2018
The Wings Of The Lord God
Ruth 1: 16-17
And Ruth said, "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
"Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me."
This is Ruth's statement of commitment to her mother-in-law, which is used in many marriage ceremonies. Ruth is irrevocably leaving her family, her people, and her religion; everything she knew in Moab.
She had recognized the higher quality of life under Yahweh, the God of Israel, over Chemosh, the cold, cruel god of Moab. She is ready to give up all she knew for a whole new environment, a whole new attitude of life. This is immense!
2: 12
"May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under Whose wings you have come to seek refuge."
This is the first mention in Scripture of God's "wings" (also in Psalms and in Matthew 23:37). God's protection extends over us as a mother bird extends her wings over her brood to protect them.
Boaz has recognized that this foreign woman has more faith in God than many of the local girls, and he admires her for that. This is the start of a great romance!
God also protects me. I need to notice and avail myself of this "umbrella" of protection whenever I'm tempted to give in to some circumstance in life.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
And Ruth said, "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
"Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me."
This is Ruth's statement of commitment to her mother-in-law, which is used in many marriage ceremonies. Ruth is irrevocably leaving her family, her people, and her religion; everything she knew in Moab.
She had recognized the higher quality of life under Yahweh, the God of Israel, over Chemosh, the cold, cruel god of Moab. She is ready to give up all she knew for a whole new environment, a whole new attitude of life. This is immense!
2: 12
"May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under Whose wings you have come to seek refuge."
This is the first mention in Scripture of God's "wings" (also in Psalms and in Matthew 23:37). God's protection extends over us as a mother bird extends her wings over her brood to protect them.
Boaz has recognized that this foreign woman has more faith in God than many of the local girls, and he admires her for that. This is the start of a great romance!
God also protects me. I need to notice and avail myself of this "umbrella" of protection whenever I'm tempted to give in to some circumstance in life.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Is He Your King?
Judges 14:15
Lest we burn you and your father's house with fire.
The Philistines threatened Samson's wife to get her to betray him, so she did.
15: 6
So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
But then they turned around and burned her and her father anyway. These people were awful to their own, no wonder they were cruel to Israel.
16: 21
They gouged out his eyes ...
Samson really had "bad luck" with his women. He never learned to make good choices, and allowed himself to fall in love with women who betrayed him: his wife under threat, then Delilah for money.
17: 6, also 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
This is the theme of the Book of Judges. They had no king, because the Lord God wanted to be their King. Instead of seeking God and His rules, each man decided in his own understanding.
Well, don't we all do what is right for us in our own eyes?! That's how we get into trouble--we decide for ourselves instead of asking God what we should do.
That's how Satan deceived Eve, telling her that she would be able to make her own decisions instead of depending on God.
And his tactics have never changed. He is still telling us that we're smart, we're intelligent, we can decide what would benefit us; we don't need God.
God knows that His thoughts aren't our thoughts, and our ways aren't His ways. So He gave us His rules, the guidelines by which He made this Earth to operate on, so we could form our societies and make this World in righteousness and Truth. Then we would all prosper in every way.
But our propensity is to rely on our own understanding, just like the Israelites in the time of the Judges. And we also fall into problems and troubles and bondage to our own bad habits. It just isn't easy to follow Someone we can't see with our eyes.
So God has now put His Law into our hearts; the principle of Love. Because God loves us, He has provided for all we need. He has told us how to love one another by sending His own Son to be one of us, to show us how His love works out in life. Then He died for each of us, as the Sacrificial Lamb of God, fulfilling all the sacrifices they performed in the Old Covenant.
Now we have the New Covenant, where we no longer offer animals in sacrifice on an altar, because Jesus died once for all--all people and all time (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10). Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy Hebrews 10: 14.
This means that Jesus' death on the Cross was totally sufficient to save every person who ever, who is, or whoever will, live on this Earth. Not every person wants to come to God to receive this gift, however, because we naturally want to turn to our own ways, so we aren't open to God.
When a person comes to the end of his rope in life, that's when he or she will be open to what God wants to do for them. That's when they come to the crisis of faith, to trust God or not.
I came to that place several decades ago. I had been disillusioned by religion, and I was looking for Truth. When I thought that it must have something to do with God, that's when He showed me Jesus on His Cross, and I knew that He didn't deserve it, because I did. It was so obvious to me, I wasn't aware of any "decision" to make, because it was real. God is real. And that's how much He loves me, even when I'm living my life totally against what I know are His ways.
And He loves you, too, my dear reader. Jesus died for you, too. If you are open to receiving this gift of faith to believe that Jesus took your place in death, then God will also give you that new life He gave to me, powered by His Holy Spirit in your spirit, making your dead spirit alive, and able to commune with God.
Tell me how God drew you into His own Family; I love to hear the stories.
And I look forward to getting to know you through all Eternity in that New Jerusalem.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Lest we burn you and your father's house with fire.
The Philistines threatened Samson's wife to get her to betray him, so she did.
15: 6
So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
But then they turned around and burned her and her father anyway. These people were awful to their own, no wonder they were cruel to Israel.
16: 21
They gouged out his eyes ...
Samson really had "bad luck" with his women. He never learned to make good choices, and allowed himself to fall in love with women who betrayed him: his wife under threat, then Delilah for money.
17: 6, also 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
This is the theme of the Book of Judges. They had no king, because the Lord God wanted to be their King. Instead of seeking God and His rules, each man decided in his own understanding.
Well, don't we all do what is right for us in our own eyes?! That's how we get into trouble--we decide for ourselves instead of asking God what we should do.
That's how Satan deceived Eve, telling her that she would be able to make her own decisions instead of depending on God.
And his tactics have never changed. He is still telling us that we're smart, we're intelligent, we can decide what would benefit us; we don't need God.
God knows that His thoughts aren't our thoughts, and our ways aren't His ways. So He gave us His rules, the guidelines by which He made this Earth to operate on, so we could form our societies and make this World in righteousness and Truth. Then we would all prosper in every way.
But our propensity is to rely on our own understanding, just like the Israelites in the time of the Judges. And we also fall into problems and troubles and bondage to our own bad habits. It just isn't easy to follow Someone we can't see with our eyes.
So God has now put His Law into our hearts; the principle of Love. Because God loves us, He has provided for all we need. He has told us how to love one another by sending His own Son to be one of us, to show us how His love works out in life. Then He died for each of us, as the Sacrificial Lamb of God, fulfilling all the sacrifices they performed in the Old Covenant.
Now we have the New Covenant, where we no longer offer animals in sacrifice on an altar, because Jesus died once for all--all people and all time (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10). Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy Hebrews 10: 14.
This means that Jesus' death on the Cross was totally sufficient to save every person who ever, who is, or whoever will, live on this Earth. Not every person wants to come to God to receive this gift, however, because we naturally want to turn to our own ways, so we aren't open to God.
When a person comes to the end of his rope in life, that's when he or she will be open to what God wants to do for them. That's when they come to the crisis of faith, to trust God or not.
I came to that place several decades ago. I had been disillusioned by religion, and I was looking for Truth. When I thought that it must have something to do with God, that's when He showed me Jesus on His Cross, and I knew that He didn't deserve it, because I did. It was so obvious to me, I wasn't aware of any "decision" to make, because it was real. God is real. And that's how much He loves me, even when I'm living my life totally against what I know are His ways.
And He loves you, too, my dear reader. Jesus died for you, too. If you are open to receiving this gift of faith to believe that Jesus took your place in death, then God will also give you that new life He gave to me, powered by His Holy Spirit in your spirit, making your dead spirit alive, and able to commune with God.
Tell me how God drew you into His own Family; I love to hear the stories.
And I look forward to getting to know you through all Eternity in that New Jerusalem.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, February 9, 2018
What He Has Said, He Has Said
Judges 13: 13-14, 16
So the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, "Let the woman pay attention to all that I said.
"She should not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her observe all that I commanded."
The Angel had appeared to Manoah's wife to let her know that she would conceive and have a son, Samson, to be the next Judge (military commander) for Israel, and he was to be a Nazarite, one who has made a vow to God.
The Angel had already told her all this, but Manoah had asked Him how to raise this boy, and the reply was, in effect, Just do what I already said!
"...I will not eat your food ... offer it to the Lord..."
He would not eat a meal with this man. The Lord sat and ate with Abraham (Genesis 18:8), the Friend of God, but would not eat Manoah's food.
Jesus is my Friend; am I a friend to Him?
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
So the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, "Let the woman pay attention to all that I said.
"She should not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her observe all that I commanded."
The Angel had appeared to Manoah's wife to let her know that she would conceive and have a son, Samson, to be the next Judge (military commander) for Israel, and he was to be a Nazarite, one who has made a vow to God.
The Angel had already told her all this, but Manoah had asked Him how to raise this boy, and the reply was, in effect, Just do what I already said!
"...I will not eat your food ... offer it to the Lord..."
He would not eat a meal with this man. The Lord sat and ate with Abraham (Genesis 18:8), the Friend of God, but would not eat Manoah's food.
Jesus is my Friend; am I a friend to Him?
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, February 8, 2018
In This Your Strength
Judges 6: 14
And the Lord looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength . . ."
Gideon was to go, to start forth, in the strength he already had. He was to begin the task before receiving anything for it.
It's easier to steer a cart if it's already moving.
I need to begin today to do what I can with what I have already, moving in the direction God is leading me in. I must remain pliable in His hand, and allow Him to shape me into the person He wants me to be, going with His flow.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
And the Lord looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength . . ."
Gideon was to go, to start forth, in the strength he already had. He was to begin the task before receiving anything for it.
It's easier to steer a cart if it's already moving.
I need to begin today to do what I can with what I have already, moving in the direction God is leading me in. I must remain pliable in His hand, and allow Him to shape me into the person He wants me to be, going with His flow.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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