TRUST IN THE LORD

Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV) says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

These two verses give us advice on how to live our lives in God’s will. It tells us to do something and then tells us the result of doing it.

What is the thing we are to do? We are to place ourselves completely in God’s hands, submitted to his direction. Solomon says it three ways. First, trust in the Lord with all your heart. We place our trust in God. In other words, we place our faith in him to take care us. We have no reservations. We hold nothing back. Our whole heart is given over to him. We submit ourselves to him and his will, committed to go where he sends, do what he commands and even suffer what he ordains.

We can do this because we believe that God will do what is best for us. We believe what Romans 8:28 says, that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. We trust him. We trust him to give us eternal life, so surely we can trust him to do the best for us in this life. Romans 8:32 says “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” In other words, if he was willing to sacrifice his son for us, he will surely give us all the things we need.

Second, we do not lean on our own understanding. Sometimes, God tells us to do something we think is counter intuitive, or against human logic. We read a command in the Bible, for example, and think “I cannot do that. If I do that, I will go broke, or lose all my friends, or make people think I am a fanatic.” But this verse tells us to do what God says, trusting him to make it right.

I am not saying here that we are never to think. God gave us minds to think and gives us wisdom to discern the right thing to do. But, too often our thinking is selfish and not Biblical. It is worldly rather than spiritual. That is why Romans 12:2 tells us not to conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Your mind is renewed by the Holy Spirit, especially through the study of God’s word.

A few years ago, I began trying to read the Scripture without filters. It is hard to do. But it is necessary. I tried not to read the Bible as an American, a Republican, a Texan, an affluent Westerner or any of those things. I wanted to know what the Scripture said and what God meant. It was disturbing to see that many times I had thought and even been taught a spin on the Word, usually explaining why we did not need to do it as God said to do it. Don’t spin. Give in.

Third, “in all your ways acknowledge him”. In this context, it particularly means to acknowledge that God keeps us and directs us in his will. We do not steal his glory or presume upon his grace. Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar tried to steal God’s glory. He took credit for his accomplishments, claiming power, glory and majesty for himself. (Daniel 4:28-30). The Lord struck him with madness until he acknowledged God. He said “Then I praised the Most High; I honored him who lives forever.” (Daniel 4:34) Only then did God restore him.

James warns us not to presume upon God’s grace. He wrote “Now listen, you who say ‘today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow…instead, you out to say ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16) We prosper only as he allows in his grace. Acknowledge that. You really can say “God graciously allowed us to succeed and we are grateful” instead of “look at what I have done, I’m so great”.

If we do what God says to do, trust him with our lives, what will he do? He will make our paths straight. When you had to walk everywhere, having a straight path was a big deal. If I can walk to the next town “as the crow flies” and it is 5 miles, I am grateful I did not have to walk the long way around and walk 10 miles.

When we visited our daughter in West Virginia once, I found myself frustrated that we could not go directly where we wanted to go because the roads all went around the hills. I could see the place I wanted to go, but had to go a long way around to get there.

So, when God says he will make our paths straight, he means he will watch over us, direct us in the way we should go and make sure we get there. This is all conditioned on our placing our trust completely in him and not in ourselves.

Are you worried about where you are going to go, how you will get there or if you will get there “in one piece”? Place your trust in God, ask him to direct your paths. Then relax and walk with him in peace.

Godspeed.

GRACE IN JOHN 1

Jesus is full of grace and truth. From his fullness, Jesus gave us grace upon grace. Grace and truth came to us through Jesus. Grace is God's unmerited favor toward us. Jesus embodied the grace of the Father, sent to us for our salvation, for by grace we are saved. (Eph. 2:8-9) By his grace we are his children, loved and cared for. No wonder the angels cried out "glory to God in the highest" at the birth of Christ. They understood the magnificence of God's love and grace manifested in the birth of God's son. I pray this passage leads us today to revel in God's grace extended to us. Glory to God in the highest!

WALK WITH GOD

The book of Judges is the story of the Israelites before they had a king. It is a story of a people living in a repeating cycle. They worship idols, God brings distress upon them, they repent and call out to him for deliverance. God delivers them. They go back tot he worship of idols.

That might sound familiar to you. Many Christians live the same way. They ignore God and do their own thing. Things go bad. They repent and ask God to deliver them. He does. The go back to their self centered life.

God wants us to live in continual fellowship with him. That is why he reconciled himself to us in Christ. That is why he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. "If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit". Galatians 5:25. "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him." Colossians 2:6.

BLOOD MOONS & PREDICTIONS OF THE END

John Hagee evidently believes the so called "blood moons" that appear this year are signs of the end. Predicting the end, or predicting the return of Christ, has been an unfruitful past time for centuries. In 950 A.D., a guy named Adso wrote an essay on the coming of the Antichrist. This caused many to anticipate the end of the age to occur in 1,000. It is a nice round number after all.

When Haley's Comet appeared in 989, it, like the blood moons, set the speculation on fire. Hippolytus said the end would occur around 500. Julius Africanus also taught 500, but moved it to 800. Maybe he was an ancestor of Harold Camping. Joachim of Fiore said the end would come between 1200 and 1260. It was a good margi of error, but it did not happen. The Taborites said the end would come in 1420. That would mean no America and no Britney Spears, but alas, it did not happen.

Even Martin Luther thought then end would occur in less than 100 years, so early 1600s. The year 1666 was also a popular choice, as it joined 1,000 and 666. Even the Puritan Cotton Mather jumped into the game. He predicted 1697, then 1736. But, no. Of course, William Miller, forerunner of the Adventists, predicted march 1843, then March 1844. Still no. WWWI, then WWWII were big candidates.

Hal Lindsey, and other Dispensationalists, thought 1988 was a good year for it. Edgar Whisenant wrote 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. TABC was so freaked out by it that the pastor who may not be named had to preach a sermon on it. 1988 came and went with no end in sight. Jack Van Impe went with 2,000, helping to fuel the mania that went with Y2K. It turned out totally uneventful. And the darling of end times prediction, Harold Camping, went with 1994, then 2011. I remember a van parked outside my office saying the end was coming in May 2011. I guess they had to repaint the van. 2007 was a good year, since 1988 did not pan out. They moved from the re-establishment of Israel to the 6 day war in 1967 as the starting point, adding 40 years for "this generation". 2000 was also good because you could subtract 7 years from 2007 for the Tribulation. Ronald Weinland went with 2008.

What does God say? First, Jesus said no one knows the time. (Matthew 24:36). Is it not a bit arrogant to say Jesus did not know the time, but the Father let me figure it out? Second, God keeps some things secret, including this. Deuteronomy 29:29 says the secret things belong to God. He does not feel obligated to reveal everything to us. Third, spend your time on the job of bringing people to Christ rather than staring into heaven, or calculating the return of Christ, including wondering if the natural order of planets and stars have some meaning for the end time. We are not astrologists. (Acts 1:11)

So, enjoy the blood moons and the solar eclipse that is coming. They are awesome. They are results of the creation God set in motion. They are not mystical. They are natural. Christ will return at the right time. Be ready every day. But, seriously, quit stirring people up writing books based on nonsense.

EZEKIEL 9 THE 2ND VISION CONTINUES

In chapter 8, the Lord gave Ezekiel a vision of the temple. Everywhere Ezekiel looked, there was idolatry. The priests, the elders, and the women all worshipped idols right inside God’s temple. God called this worship an abomination. In chapter 9, God shows Ezekiel what he will do about it.

9:1-2
Summoning The Executioners

The Lord is speaking here, the one who had the appearance of a man in 8:2 and 1:26. He called out with a loud voice, just as their will be a shout when Jesus returns. (1 Thessalonians 4:16) He summoned seven men. Six were executioners with weapons of slaughter. One was a recorder, a man with a writing case. They will execute God’s judgment in this part of the vision. The beings have the appearance of men, but they act as agents of God. So, they may represent the Babylonians whom God sends to execute his judgment upon Jerusalem.

9:3
God’s Glory Begins to Depart

The glory and presence of God resided between the cherubim, on the mercy seat, in the Holiest Place in the temple. But this verse tells us the glory of God is moving out of the temple. In this verse, he has moved from his normal place to the threshold, or doorway. He is on his way out of the temple. Without the presence of the Lord, the temple is nothing but a fancy building.

9:3-4
Instructions to the Recorder

This verse shows that God would not execute any people in Jerusalem who still worshipped God. They would be the ones who sighed and groaned (or moaned and groaned) over the abominations. We have seen studying the Old Testament that God always spares the remnant that believe in him. Here, God tells the Recorder to go through the city and put a mark on the foreheads of those people. The Hebrew word for “mark” here is “taw”, the last letter of the old Hebrew alphabet. It looked like an “x” or a cross. We are not told whether he found any. In verse 11, he did return and state that he had done what the Lord told him to do.

9:5-7
Instructions To The Executioners

God told the Executioners to go into the city and kill everyone, beginning in the temple. They only ones they were not to strike were those bearing the mark. Normally, no killing would be done in the temple because it would defile it. But God is saying it is already defiled by pagan worship, so that is not an issue.

So now, we not only have the recurring theme of the Remnant, we have the theme of the mark.

God marked Cain so that no one would kill him. (Genesis 4:15) The Passover story contained a mark. Those who put blood on their door posts were saved from the angel of death. In Exodus 12, God struck all the first born of the Egyptians. In this vision, God strikes everyone that does not have the mark. In fact, the Hebrew word translated “pass through” in verse 5 is the same word used in Exodus 12:23, where the Lord said the angel would pass through and strike the firstborn. So, Israel is compared to Egypt in its wickedness and idolatry.

Revelation 7 shows an angel putting a seal on the foreheads of the servants of God to protect them from four destructive angels. John also picked up this imagery in Revelation 13. In that chapter, both those who followed the beast and those who followed Christ are said to have marks identifying them. The concept in both Ezekiel and Revelation is that God knows who worships him and protects them from his judgment and his wrath.

9:8
Ezekiel’s Plea

Ezekiel was overwhelmed at the sight of God’s judgment executed upon the temple and the people of the city. He cried out, asking if God would even destroy the remnant. That statement makes me wonder if the Recorder found any faithful in the city to mark.

A similar situation exists in a story told by Jesus in Luke 18:1-8. A persistent widow sought justice from a judge until she got it. Jesus said, in a similar way, God will give justice to his elect (those who are saved), but will Jesus find faith when he returns? A few years later, God did again send judgment on Jerusalem in the form of the Romans. The city, including the temple, was destroyed.

9:9-10
God’s Response

God responded to Ezekiel by saying the sin of Israel was great and he would not spare the wicked. As God used Israel to destroy the Canaanites because of their wickedness and idolatry, the Lord would now use the Babylonians to destroy the Israelites for theirs.

Notice that the Lord says they do evil and say the Lord does not see. Many people in our time either do not believe God exists or that he is not active in our world. yet the Bible tells us God sees everything and will call everyone to account for it. Only those whose sins have been atoned by Christ will be allowed eternal life. All others will face eternal judgment.

This vision continues through chapter 10 and into 11.

THE BLESSED DESCRIBED

Psalm 89:15-16 describes the blessed. It says:

Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face,
who exult in your name all the day
and in your righteousness are exalted.

Here are 4 things that describe those who know the Lord. First, they worship. The festal shout is given in worship. God called us to Christ because he sought worshippers. (John 4:23) Second, they walk with the Lord in constant fellowship. That is true of us especially as we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. (Romans 8) Third, they exult or rejoice in the fact that they know God (his name) all day, despite whatever trials may come. (Philippians 4:4) Fourth, their salvation comes not from their own works, but from Christ's righteousness. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Maybe you could get in a festal shout today.

BACK TO EZEKIEL NEXT SUNDAY

Next Sunday, I will resume the Ezekiel study with chapter 9.