Thorns And Snares

Judges 2: 12-13, 20-21, 3

They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, Who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, Because this Nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the Nations Joshua left when he died. 
I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their forefathers did. 

...They will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.

God gave His people every advantage. He wanted them to know how powerful He is and how much He loved them, and wanted the very best for them. 

But they didn't drive out all the people who were already there, as God told them to; instead they let them stay and work for them, to be their slaves.

God wouldn't drive them out if the people wouldn't cooperate, so they became "thorns in their sides" and their idols became "snares" to trap them. 

And that's what happened. When that whole generation died, the new generation didn't even know their history, of how God brought them out of Egypt, gave them His Law, and brought them to this good land. And they were caught in the snare of these gods, worshiping and serving them instead of their own Lord God (verses 10 & 11). 

It only takes one generation to forget our history of where we came from and how we got here. To know who we are we need to be acquainted with what went before us. If we forget that, then we become a people without identity. 

This has been deliberately planned and carried out by our enemy, in taking out of our schools the important history they need to be taught, and the culture into which they've been born and should be a part of. 

We now have a generation who have no identity, so they grasp whatever the World is holding out to them, causing division, hatred, and violence. Exactly the opposite of what our loving Father wants for us. 

We need to know who we are. We need to learn what our forefathers learned, and build on it. We really need to go back to our foundations, the concepts that enabled us to have such great prosperity in the past.

Just like Israel, we need to turn back to the Source of all of our well-being--our finances, our relationships, our physical and mental and psychological health; and God will see to our environmental health with the weather and the "acts of God" as He did for Israel when they followed Him in His ways of thinking and living. 

When they obeyed His Law, the fields yielded abundant crops (the source of their wealth), and they had peace with the Nations around them. Life was good. 

It was when they forgot God that they were ensnared in the traps of the gods (demons) of the peoples among them, and the weather destroyed the crops, and neighboring Nations rose up and conquered them. 

We see this recorded in Judges, the cycle repeated over and over. You'd think that they (we) would learn to follow God. 

But, no, Israel asked for a king they could see, instead of their King who took care of them. He made them special, but they preferred to be like the other Nations of the World instead. 

God honored Jacob's family in giving only them His Law. He wanted for them to display to the World how wonderful God is--how He elevates His own people above all the other people who don't revere Him. So they will see, and want to also follow this God Who is so good and generous and fair and just (I Kings 8:41-43). 

Today God is calling to Himself people from every Nation, every region, every language, every tribe, every family, all over the World. Christ's church, His bride, is a new kind of Nation, that the World has never seen before. We are called out of darkness into His marvelous light, to be a nation of holy priests, belonging to Him as His own possession; so that we will proclaim His excellencies (I Peter 2:9). 

It is up to us to teach our children and grandchildren. We cannot afford to let them forget who they are, who God is, and how much He loves all of us so much. It's so important, both for now and for eternity. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Prosperity And Success

Joshua 1: 8-9

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. 
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

God made this Earth for us, then made us of it. He put into this World everything that we need because He loves us and He wants us to love Him back and enjoy all His provision. So He gave His rules for cooperating with how He designed this World to function. 

He told Joshua here that if he would study His Word, and immerse his consciousness in how all the stipulations work together, thinking about it day and night; then he will understand how God is our Source, and he will be able to have the abundance this World will provide and enjoy prosperity. 

We would be well advised to also follow this direction God gave Joshua. 

When we read the Bible, and think about how all 66 books together give the whole story of this Earth from beginning to end, and it's all His story (History); then we will be able to put it all together to cooperate with our Lord in honoring Him and loving our neighbor, doing all the good we can for one another, operating our businesses with integrity, and enjoying wholesome leisure with one another. This is the prescription for a good, healthy, productive and satisfactory life (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20). 

Jesus told us to ask, seek, and knock (Matthew 7:7 and Luke 11:9). 

To ask, we need to know what to ask for; what is it we need? What has the Bible told us to ask for? When we know God, then we'll know the kinds of things He wants to give us. Then we'll ask Him and He will give them to us to enjoy. 

To seek is to go after whatever it is we're wanting, not just sit around waiting for it to come. Do we want it enough to put the effort into seeking it? Is it our passion? 

To knock is to actually do what needs to be done. To be active and energetic in making it happen. We don't do it on our own, we're not alone in accomplishing this, but if we're lazy in waiting for someone (or Someone) else to do it, then we're not doing our part. 

Then when we ask, and we seek, and we knock; and we know that God hears us and sees that we are serious, then He will move Heaven and Earth to make our desires come true for us (I John 5:14-15). 

Then He will smile on us as a father enjoys his children. He is our Father, and He wants us to have everything we want. But He won't spoil us, and He won't give us anything that would harm us. 

Sometimes what He allows hurts. But in the end, it is all for our good (Romans 8:28). 

And He will get all the glory for what He has accomplished in us and through us, in His Kingdom that will last forever!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Me And My House

Joshua 24: 15

If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. 

This is at the end of Joshua's life, after he had led the Hebrew armies to conquer all the peoples who had previously settled in the land of Canaan and they took over their cities. They were in "a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant" (24:13). 

The houses they were living in were filled with the shrines and altars to these idols that were the reason God had the Israelites destroy them. God called these gods "detestable" because they demanded rites that were degrading and disgusting. 

But since the land was filled with them, and some of the people remained who worshiped them, they were a snare to the Hebrews. The next chapter starts the book of Judges, that records several cycles of God blessing the people, then they get complacent, then they forget God and start giving their allegiance to these idols, then they're overcome by an enemy, then they call out to God, and He sends a rescuer (a Judge) to deliver them, and they turn back to God, who prospers them again. Over and over. 

Joshua told them that they would not be able to consistently obey God (24:19). But he had determined that he would ignore all these idols and worship only the Lord. 

I have also determined that the Lord God, Jesus Christ, alone will be Lord in my home. And He has been. 

Whatever house becomes my home will have the blessing of my Father and my Lord Jesus upon it. And I trust as I leave one home to go to another, that my Lord will still be Lord in the home I am leaving, with the new occupants uplifting His Name as I have. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Spirit Of The Lord

I Samuel 16: 13-14

Samuel anointed him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.

--But--

The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.

When Saul disobeyed God, resulting in God rejecting him as king, God had Samuel anoint David to be the next king, even while Saul was still reigning.

So God took His Spirit away from Saul and gave Him to David, and allowed an evil spirit to torment Saul instead. This resulted in mental illness bordering on madness. 

David saw God take His Spirit away from Saul, and later prayed that God not take His Spirit away from him as well when he sinned (see Psalm 51:11). 

We don't need to have this worry today. Since Jesus has come, has died and risen and ascended to Heaven to send His Spirit at Pentecost; now we can trust His promise to be with us until the end of this whole Age, no matter what (Matthew 28:20). 

If we leave Him and turn to our own way, He will only let us go so far then draw us back to Himself again. If we continue in our self-will, and God does not turn us around, then we should question whether we really are His child, or if we just professed a religion. Religion cannot save. 

Jesus saves, by taking our place in death, individually, because we all deserve death. When we repent, admitting that we deserve death and believe that Jesus died our death on the Cross; then God accepts His payment for sin on our behalf and gives us His own Holy Spirit in our spirit. 

That is being "born again," or "born from above." We gain spiritual life, comparable to how we got physical life from our mother. (see John 3:1-18.) Then we don't have "religion," we have the relationship with God that makes Him our Father--we are His children. 

And God will never cause us to be "unborn" from His family, He will stay with us permanently. 

Praise God for all He is! For His wisdom, for His goodness, for His love, for His mercy and grace, for His wonderful Plan of the Ages, for His giving us His Word and protecting it through all the times of Man. 

Praise Him for His greatness, His majesty, His immensity. Praise Him for being our Source of everything that exists. 

Praise Him for executing His Plan through the choices of Men, to unfailingly bring the culmination to our World that He planned from before the beginning. 

Praise Him for calling His own out of the darkness and dispair of this World from every age, every Nation, every tribe and language, into His glorious Light, to transform us into His creatures of light. 

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

To Obey

I Samuel 15: 22

And Samuel said, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams."

Samuel is talking to King Saul, Israel's first king. God had told him to destroy all the people and all their possessions, including all the animals; but Saul had listened to his soldiers who wanted to keep some of the animals to sacrifice to the Lord. So Saul had disobeyed the Lord by only doing part of what he was told to do. 

This has a lesson for us, also. When we know what God wants us to do, but we do something else that seems like we're doing a favor for God; that is disobedience. God doesn't need favors from us, and He is the One Who sees the big picture. When He speaks, He says what He means and means what He says. 

God may have seen disease in these animals, as a result of the depraved and twisted kinds of worship these people gave to their idols. I don't know why else God would have commanded the complete destruction of one town, then told them they could have the cattle of another town. That's what would make sense to me, but that's my opinion. God knows why he says what He does, He doesn't answer to me, or any other person. He is God, we are not. We are simply to trust Him. Even if it doesn't make "sense" to us. 

Saul didn't have the trust in the Lord that God commanded, he listened to his men instead of valuing what God had clearly told him to do. So God rejected him as king over His people. 

This is very serious. Am I listening to what my Father is saying to me in His Word, or am I putting my own spin on it to be more palatable to my understanding? 

I want to have a clear understanding of what it is God wants of me as His child, so that I can obey Him confidently and cheerfully. I don't want to leave anything out of what is mine to do, and I don't want to add to it, either. 

O my Father, please help me to never fudge on what I know You want of me. Help me always to actually do what I know You want me to do, and be aware of anytime I may tend to add anything to Your will for me. 

Thank You so much, Father, for always meeting all my needs, and even some of my wants. Thank You that Your generosity comes from all Your riches in glory, and You delight in lavishing Your love upon me in so many ways. Teach me to be a channel, to pass on these blessings to others in need, to be a blessing to them, to draw them to You, the Source of everything. 

And I will praise Your Name forever! 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Outward Appearance Versus The Heart

I Samuel 16: 7

But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as Man sees, for Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

God has sent Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem in order to anoint one of his sons to be the next king over Israel. When he saw Jesse's oldest son, Eliab, he was so impressive, Samuel thought this must surely be the one. But God told him otherwise, in this verse. 

And we can see a very basic principle here about people that is important to know and consider in our own lives: people make first impressions based on how they look, but what is in their hearts will determine if they are the kind of people we want to associate with. 

So often people with golden hearts are discounted by the World because their looks don't measure up to the World's standards. Maybe they're misshapen, or they're not as bright as the norm, or in some way they're different from the crowd. These are the ones who tend to slip through the cracks from being famous or honored. These are the ones who are more precious to the Lord.

And if we are going to be like our Father, doing life according to His ways, then we will befriend the ones who are not accepted by society. We will give them the respect every person deserves as being made in God's image, and loved by Him. (See James 2:1-13.)

And in doing this, we may experience the same side-lining by society, being judged by them by our associations. But if we're concerned with what our neighbors think, rather than how God sees, then we need to reorder our priorities by getting into the Word to learn to align our thinking processes with how God thinks. 

O my Father, please teach us how to see with Your eyes, how to think Your thoughts. Help us to see others' true character, to make friends with those who have made You their friend, and to have compassion on those who have not known Your ways yet. 

Keep us faithful to You, Father, according to Your Word and Your ways. And may our lives shine forth into the World with Your light, to draw the victims of our enemy out of the darkness that enslaves them. 

Help us to make Your other children our nearest friends, who will hold us accountable, and walk with us as we seek Your face. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Fully Accomplished

II Timothy 4: 17-18

But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth. 
And the Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly Kingdom. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 

Paul wrote this to Timothy from prison in Rome. 

His testimony was that God was protecting and delivering him, so that he could finish the task God had given to him: to preach Jesus to all the Gentiles in the whole known world of the time. Paul knew that his life would soon be over, and that he had finished that work (see vs. 6-8). 

Jesus had said that the Gospel of the Kingdom would be preached throughout the whole world, then the end would come (Matthew 24:14). So when Paul finished his course, and the Gospel was preached to the whole world, then why did Jesus not come then? 

God wanted Jesus as His Son to have "many brothers" (Romans 8:29); so I think that He wanted so many more brothers and sisters for His Son that He continued to let the World carry on, generation after generation, gathering more and more children into His Family from every tribe, every Nation, through all this time. 

Now that all the signs for the end of the World are present in this time right now, I think that when all people in all the Nations have heard, of whom many have not, then it really will be the end of this age of mankind, and Jesus will return in our lifetimes. 

But Paul also thought Christ's return would be in his lifetime. So I am in good company. But will God still delay the culmination of this World in order to grow His Family even larger? How many is "many"? 

Or maybe "all" the signs aren't present, and I missed some. Then God will continue to work His Plan for this World through our indvidual personal lives, and we must continue to carry on. 

Like Paul, the Lord will also stand with us to strengthen us, and deliver us from every evil attack, to bring us safely to His heavenly Kingdom. 

And He will receive all the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!