Resurrection Day

John 11: 25-26

Jesus said to her, I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?

Today is Resurrection Day. Easter. The day we remember the very basis of our faith. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, there would be no Christianity at all. 

Jesus was telling Martha Who He was and what He would accomplish on our behalf. Martha did believe, but her understanding was not complete. She knew that her brother Lazarus would be resurrected in that Day the prophets foretold, but, until it happened, she didn't know that Jesus would die and come back to life again in just a few days. 

Today we have the advantage of looking back to know that this did actually happen, and our faith is more complete than hers was then.

Because Jesus conquered death by rising in victory over it with Resurrection Life, now we know that we, too, will rise with that same Resurrection Life that He gives all who have died with Him in allowing Him to die in our place, individually, on the Cross. That is what is meant when people say He is their "personal Savior." 

He fulfilled that first sacrifice given at the beginning of the Book of Leviticus, the personal, individual offering. Just as that animal took the person's place in death on the altar, and its blood was splattered on the sides of the altar to cover his sins; so Jesus as the Lamb of God individually took each of our place in death, His Precious Blood splattering on the sides of His altar the Cross, to not just cover but wash away all the sin.

And to prove that God accepted His Sacrifice on our behalf, God raised Him from the dead. There is more historical evidence of His Resurrection than there is for the existence of Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. It is a Truth we can confidently believe.

And if He had not risen from the dead, Peter would have gone back to fishing and there would have been no New Testament at all.

We would still be waiting for the Messiah, depending on animals' blood to gain forgiveness.

Thank God He sent His only Son to be our Savior! Thank God for His incredible Love for us, that He was willing to sacrifice Him in our place, so that He could give us His amazing Grace and Mercy. Thank God that Jesus was willing to go ahead and do it, and submit His will to the Father's. 

O my Father, thank You so much! O my Lord Jesus, my King, my Lover, thank You so much! O Holy Spirit, my Companion and Teacher and Strength, thank You! 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

God's Victory Through Jonah

Jonah 3 & 4

Now God again tells Jonah to preach in Nineveh, and this time he obeys. 

Nineveh is a huge city, so big that a visit would take three days to just hit the highlights. Jonah was no tourist, he entered the city gates and began to preach right off: Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned. 

I can imagine that Jonah's startling appearance among these middle-Easterners got their attention, so they all heard his street-evangelism. So the Ninevites believed God, they declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation: ...

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened. 

You would expect that a preacher whose message brought an entire city to its knees to be overjoyed. But Jonah became outraged and depressed. Why?

Jonah complains to the Lord that this is why he tried to run away. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God Who relents from sending calamity. 

But the Lord replied, Have you any right to be angry? 

Jonah didn't answer God's question, but just went out & sat down to just see what would happen to the city. 

So God causes a vine to grow up beside him to shade him in the bright sunlight, but takes it away the next day. Then he complains again.

So God said to Jonah, Do you have a right to be angry about the vine? 

And he answers this time, I do, I'm angry enough to just die! 

He's not really angry about the vine, he's mad at God! He wants these horrible people to be destroyed, as they deserve. He wants to see God's vengeance satisfied on them. They've been mean and cruel, and he wants them to pay. 

But God relented. God gained the victory, even though Jonah didn't want to recognize it. God will always relent, because He will do what He says He will do. Always. Destruction is voluntary. Even when we deserve trouble, pain, and death, if we will only turn around our thinking (repent) and confess and forsake our rebellious and unloving ways, God will always relent and instead forgive. 

That's our God. He will extend His vengeance upon those who refuse to repent, because He is just, and we all deserve punishment, we all owe God that eternal debt that we can never pay off. And He did destroy Nineveh, a couple of generations later, when they refused to repent.

That's why Jesus came. Even before He created anything, He knew that He would need to come and be with us, so that He could pay our debt and cleanse us, to make us able to be with Him where He is.

That's how much God loves us. Jesus refers to Jonah's "three days and three nights in the belly of the fish" as an historical event that really happened, and as an illustration of the three days Jesus will spend in the Tomb (Matthew 12:40). 

Today (Saturday) is the day we remember that Jesus is in the tomb. Actually, His body lay in the tomb, He is elsewhere. (See my blog for April 17, 2017 to find out where He was and what He was doing.) 

This book of Jonah ends with this question: Shall I not be concerned for this great city? Should we not be concerned for all the people who have never heard about our God? 

God's plan for this Earth was to put Mankind here, redeem him when he'd gone astray, and fit him to spend Eternity with his Maker and Creator. God loves what He made, and He wants all of us to realize how much He loves us. 

We who know Him are charged to "Go and make disciples of all Nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." But we don't have to do it alone, He promised, "I am with you always, to the very end of the age." He will be continually, uninterruptedly with each of us as we obey His Great Commission. (Matthew 28:19-20.)

O my Father, thank You so much for Your love for all Mankind! Even though we rebel against You and believe the enemy that we don't need You; You still reach out to each of us to grant us the faith to believe You instead of being deceived. Thank You for Your wisdom and strength and sovereignty to do whatever You want to do; and what You want to do is for our good, because You are good, and I can trust You to always have my best in mind, even when life is not going as I would want. 

I know that Your love for me is beyond anything I can imagine, and the hard times that press on me is just You making a diamond out of the dust that I am. Keep me, Father, securely in Your hand, send me out to those who have never heard Your Name. Let me be one of Your diamonds that show the World how much You care. Let Your fragrance emanate from Christ in me to draw others to Yourself. 

And continue to work out Your Grand Plan of the Ages, using each of us and all of us to further that Plan toward the realization of Your Kingdom in this World on this Earth.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Jonah's Perils

Jonah 1 & 2

This is the story of Jonah. God called Jonah to preach in Nineveh, a city whose people were notorious for being very cruel and heartless, and Israel had experienced some of this cruelty. So Jonah, knowing how kind and forgiving God is, didn't want these people to repent and be forgiven, he wanted God to destroy them, as they deserved. So he headed off in the opposite direction. 

So God caused a great storm on the sea to push Jonah back into obedience, and all the sailors prayed to their own gods to give them relief. Jonah admitted that the storm was his fault, because he was running from the Lord, and to throw him overboard. They didn't want to do that, but they finally relented, so they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.

When the Lord God Who made the sea and the land instantly calmed the raging sea, they realized that He was much greater than any of their gods. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 

Even Truth proclaimed in the confession of an angry and bitter servant can be used by God. He really is sovereign and will perform His will, in spite of our rebellion. 

But God wasn't finished with Jonah. He had a big fish (not a whale) swallow him so he wouldn't drown. I've seen pictures of other men who had been swallowed whole by big fish, and its digestive juices would have bleached both his skin and his hair into a deathly white. God even used the fish for His purposes. No wonder he had such a dramatic effect on the Ninevites; his appearance added to the message of his words would be needed to push these coarse and jaded people into repentance. 

Jonah thought this must be the end of him, and prayed to the Lord from inside the fish. 

Then God miraculously had the fish vomit him out onto dry land, instead of at the bottom of the sea. If I was a fish with an upset stomach, I would get sick where I'd be most comfortable, at the bottom of the sea. But not this fish. And Jonah took off running! 

I am amazed at how God will do with His servants, His children, to have them carry out what He wants done. I've realized that most of His blessings in this World have human fingerprints on them, and I look back and notice that my own fingerprints have been on some of His blessings to others. God wants us to obey Him willingly, but even if we turn our backs on Him and run in the opposite direction, He is still sovereign and will do what He wants with us. 

Sometimes He must do to us and then in us in order to work through us to others. Just as He did to Jonah in being eaten by a fish, then in him turning back to God and praying for deliverance from death; then He worked through him to show the Ninevites His power and greatness and mercy on even the most egregious of sinners. 

O my Father, I praise You for Your greatness and power to do whatever You want with what You have made. You use our choices, that we make freely within Your parameters, whether in obedience or disobedience, You use anyway to accomplish Your will. In Your Love and generosity, you have made it so that no matter what we choose, You will still do what You have determined ahead of time.

Help me, Father, to always obey You in my choices, always decide to follow Your guidelines in all my ways, so that You will work in and through me more than You do to me to turn me back around. I want Your blessings to flow through me to others unhindered. But more than Your gifts, I want to know You, I want to love You because You have loved me first. I want the Giver more than the gift, I want the Blessor more than the blessings.

I want the fragrance of Christ in me to draw others into that circle of Your family. I want Your presence in Me to be seen and known among those who are still of the World, to pull them out of that bondage and darkness into Your glorious freedom and light. 

Father, keep me firmly in Your hand, to think Your thoughts not my own, say Your words not my own, walk in Your ways not my own.

Draw me ever closer to Yourself, Father, so that You can use me to draw others closer to You also. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

A Dry And Thirsty Land

Psalm 63: 1

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah

O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; my soul thirsts for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

While David was running from King Saul, he found himself in some pretty rugged terrain. So he wrote about it. 

And he wrote how this "dry and weary land where there is no water" was like how he felt in his relationship with God. As his body was thirsting for water, his soul was thirsting for intimacy with his Lord. 

Isn't that the "happiness" that we are all looking for in this World? Our souls also thirst for the cool water of useful knowledge to satisfy our intellectual and emotional longings, and the relationships that meet our deep soul needs. 

God designed Creation to run on the energy of His Love. That is the order we see in the Universe, and it is the way we are to order our World on this Earth.

He gave us the rules and regulations that express His Love for how to order our lives and raise our crops and administer the ecology of this Earth to produce all the wealth He put into it, for our benefit and His glory.

When we cooperate with how He made it all to work (obey His Law, Matthew 22:37-39), then we will experience the prosperity He wants for us all. But when we rebel against His authority and think we know better (disobey His Law), that's when things fall apart. 

That's when people are motivated by hatred instead of love, and we see the violence that destroys and maligns the innocent and the righteous. This is the program of our enemy, who only wants to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). 

So whatever is promoted in our Societies, we can recognize if it is of God or of our enemy by its outcome. 

If it results in discriminating against some other people group, or even in violence against innocents or godly people; or does not bring an increase of wealth, but only debt; then that would be of our enemy, deceiving us. It's not loving our neighbor.

If it produces bountiful, healthy crops and other riches, and good, loving relationships, then it's of God, and we are to give Him the credit.

But even if it produces wealth, but we experience with it discord in our relationships, or dis-ease in our bodies, then we're not giving God the glory, or we're doing something that is not in alignment with God's ways. 

Jesus told us that even if we gain the whole world, but miss out on the forever eternity He wants for us, then we haven't profited at all (Mark 8:36-37). Temporary results may not pan out in the long run, so we need to look at the big picture in our evaluations, to see if some immediate sacrifice may need to be made, or to have patience to wait out the final results of our enterprises. Instant gratification can result in a long-term loss. 

And we must always love God enough to always put Him first, pray only to Him, and seek after that intimate relationship with Him that He desires with us. To believe everything He has told us, and to trust Him to always do what He's said He would do. If it's a conditional promise--if you do, then I will--we need to make sure we're fulfilling our part of the bargain, not taking any shortcuts.

I don't want my pride to convince me that I can "have it all" without humbling myself before God. After all, He is God, I am not. And in my human flesh I can do nothing that can please Him, even the best, most compassionate things are polluted by the sin-nature I inherited from Adam (Isaiah 64:6). Only in the power of His Spirit living in my spirit can I do anything that He will accept and reward. 

This World is that "dry and thirsty land" that has no means to satisfy my deepest thirsts. Only through the Blood of Christ shed on Calvary as the Lamb of God, to wash my scarlet, crimson sin away and make me white as snow (Isaiah 1:18) can put me in the place of God's blessings, that bring no regret with them. That's the place of oneness with our Creator, that satisfies our every need and longing. That cannot happen if there is any barrier between us, any (missing the mark) sin. Only that perfect Blood can take away the sin that plagues us all. That's why Jesus came. That's how much He loves each one of us. 

O my Father, my dear, dear Father, Thank You so much for all Your Grace and Mercy to draw me to Yourself, teach me what I need to know, and show me the extent of Your great Love for me. Thank You for putting into my life Your Life, and thank You for showering upon me all the goodness and joy that You delight in lavishing on me. 

And I will enjoy praising You and worshiping You and sharing with everyone I can how wonderful You are and how much You love me, forever!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Thy Likeness When I Awake

Psalm 17: 15

As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake.

This is amazing. King David, the Sweet Psalmist of Israel, knew that he would be resurrected. He realized that he would have the Lord's likeness, he would look like the Lord, when he awoke from death in Resurrection. 

I did not learn this until I read the New Testament. Thank You, Father, for having me live in this time, after Jesus has come, to have this New Covenant with You, and to have the stories and letters recorded for my learning. 

Help me to understand accurately what You have taught Your children through the ages. You are such a Good, Good Father to us! You never leave us hanging for long, hungering after Your Truth. You satisfy our every longing. 

Thank You so much, Father, for teaching me so much of who You are, who I am, how You designed Your Creation to operate, and how to cooperate with You in all I do. 

Protect me and all of Your children from the attacks of the enemy and his minions, to recognize how he twists and mangles Your wonderful Truth into what is harmful and damaging, to destroy those You love. Give me Your words to express Your thoughts to those who are in danger of slipping into the enemy's trap, to rescue them from destruction and pull them out of the fire.

Then You will receive all the honor, all the glory, all the credit for what You have done. You planned it all out before time, and You have carried out all Your plans, using our choices to further Your purposes. And the culmination of all You have designed will be concluded soon. 

Your Son, our Lord God, will return as He promised, and will finish all Your will in this World, this Earth, this Universe.

Meantime, we will "occupy," doing those things that prepare for Your Kingdom. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Naaman's Leprosy

II Kings 5

This chapter tells us about Naaman, a commander in the army of the king of Aram. He had a skin rash that they called leprosy.

Naaman's wife had a captured Isralite girl as her servant who told her that Naaman could go to the prophet in Israel to heal his condition.

So Naaman asked the king if he could have a medical leave to take care of this, and the king sent a letter to his counterpart, the king in Israel. When the king of Israel read the letter, he misunderstood, thinking that he was being asked for healing (or maybe the king of Aram had the misunderstanding), and got upset. 

It was a serious thing for a king to tear his royal robe, and word spread rapidly throughout the region.

Then when Elisha heard, he sent him a message telling him to send the man to him for healing, as he was God's prophet.

So when Naaman came to Elisha, he expected a dramatic performance by this prophet, but all he did was send Gehazi out to tell him to wash seven times in the Jordan River, and Naaman felt disrespected. 

But his servants reminded him that this was a very simple thing, not hard to do, so he went and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, and he was healed! Then Naaman admitted that the Lord God in Israel was above all the other gods in all the other Nations (v. 15). This is God's purpose in choosing Israel, to show that God is God to the other Nations.

But Elisha wouldn't let him pay him for doing the Lord's work.

However, Gehazi saw all the riches Naaman was prepared to give away, so he chased him down, and lied to him to gain a profit for himself, and thought he could hide it from Elisha (even though God told him the secrets of kings and commanders!). 

Gehazi's greed blinded him to the realities he lived with, and caused him to lie to cover it up, knowing he was wrong. As the result, he ended up with the skin rash that had been on Naaman. 

O my Father, let me never try to gain a profit where I have no business dabbling. Please protect me from the greed that would tempt me to use any kind of "dirty money" to finance my life (and travels). 

I know that You have promised to always meet all my needs, and You have, You have even generously given me some of my wants. Help me to continue to look to You as the Provider of all I will need in my seeking to lift up Your Name among the Nations, and among my family and friends and acquaintances here where I am. 

May I always consider You, Your character and reputation, and trust You fully, as I seek to cooperate with You in how You designed this World to work. 

And You will get all the credit, all the glory, forever, for You have done it all. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Elijah And Elisha

II Kings 2: 9-10

Now it came about when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

And he said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”

A double inheritance was given to the first born in the family, and this is what Elisha is apparently asking for, but it was not Elijah’s to give. Only if the Lord allowed Elisha to see Elijah taken would he be given this “double portion.”

Vs. 11-13

Then it came about as they were going along and talking, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to Heaven. 

And Elisha saw it and cried out, “My Father, my Father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

He also took up the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and returned and stood by the bank of the Jordan.

So Elisha did see Elijah taken, and God granted him that “double portion.” I haven’t counted, but I’ve heard that Elisha performed twice as many miracles than Elijah had. 

Such a dramatic exit! I don’t think Hollywood will ever out-dramatize our God. 

O my Father, You are so magnificent! You do what no on else can ever do. You perform all Your will, and no one can say anything to you about it. You have all authority to do whatever You want, and what You want to do is always good, the best. 

Thank You so much for Who you are. You alone are God, no matter how many other gods men and angels choose to worship. You alone are worthy of all worship, all praise and honor and credit for everything You have made and accomplished. 

And You are Love. All You have done in Creation and in managing and ruling what You made comes from Love. Even when You must judge and extract vengeance, it all is because your Love is righteous and just. 

Thank You, Father, for chosing me, and allowing Your Son to take my place on that Altar of Atonement, the Cross at Calvary, to pay my sin-debt, and wash me as white as snow. And make me Your princess, to one Day rule with You on Your Throne in Your everlasting, eternal Kingdom.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!