QT 28 Apr 15, Heb 13:1-3, Pity parties rarely provide the comfort we need

Heb 13:1-3 (ESV) Let brotherly love continue. 2  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3  Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

NOTE: I think part of the problem with suffering is that many people develop an inward focus--it is a variation of a pity party--things are hard, therefore everyone should understand why I am focusing on self. While the argument seems to have merit, from a spiritual point of view it is the opposite tactic to good spiritual health. Remembering others and those who have so much less helps us to see how much more we do have. It changes our focus from bitterness to thankfulness. We can't give up on the basics just because of our circumstances. We don't get excuses to ignore our faith, our family, friends, or our relationship with God. Because those are the things which will pull us out of the pit. Feeling sorry for myself will never change my circumstances, but getting the focus off of myself can change my perception of life.

QT 23 Apr 15, Isa 40:25-26, God is far beyond our imaginations of Him

Isa 40:25-26 (ESV)

25  To whom then will you compare me,

that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

 He who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name,

by the greatness of his might,

and because he is strong in power

not one is missing.

NOTE: My problem is that I put God on a human scale, just much greater, but that is a fallacy. God cannot be compared to anyone, or really any imagined one, because our imagination would fall so far short of his glory, holiness, immensity, wisdom, and power--and I think I left quite a few attributes off that I also could not find a comparison. I can't comprehend how he thinks. I can't out-think him or out-argue him (although many seem to think that if God does exist, they will engage him at death in verbal arguments for which he will have no answer -- how very foolish!). So what can I do? I can obey. I can trust Him. I can believe him at his word. Actually, anything less than those three really is foolishness (if God exists). But I believe, I know in my heart that he does exist. I have experiencedthe life changing presence of the Holy Spirit, and the change which Jesus wrought in my heart when I first put my faith in him. I know him experiential-ly in an extremely small way, but what I know overwhelms me.

QT 20 Apr 15, Heb 12:3-4, Remember Jesus

Heb 12:3-4 (ESV) Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

NOTE: The Christian life will be a struggle at times, and maybe our entire life. None of us desire that life and so there is a struggle within our souls about the conditions of life. Jesus struggled and endured much from sinners, but that was primarily at the end of his life. I think for most people the struggle is not life-long but episodic, and in those cases we need to look to Jesus and his struggle for our salvation. This world is not our reward. It does not have to have every moment as painful. But on the other hand, we are not promised a life free from pain or heartache. Heb 11 tells us that our reward is a future city, a future people, a future place. Life will be hard--don't give up. God loves you and he knows what he is doing in your life. He is a rewarder to those who seek him (Heb 11:6). It is that faith that pleases him, not artificial rules.

QT 16 Apr 15, Prov 4:7-9, Nothing changes until we CHOOSE to start

Prov 4:7-9 (ESV)

7  The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,

and whatever you get, get insight.

8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;

she will honor you if you embrace her.

9 She will place on your head a graceful garland;

she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."

NOTE: So, there is a line of thinking today in the church that teaches that God does everything and you do not need to do anything. Which makes you wonder why so many Christians live less than Christian lives since they clearly are not doing anything. "Let go and let God" is the mantra. The problem with that thinking is that it is a corruption of truth. Yes, we can't change ourselves, only God can renew us and make us new. But we have a responsibility, and it is very simply this--we have to take the first step. It won't happen until we take the first step. Until we CHOOSE to obey; until we CHOOSE to repent; until we choose, nothing will happen--God will not force anything upon us. We must take action and then trust him to work out his will through us. In this verse, the author states very simply an eternal principle--the beginning of wisdom starts with the pursuit of wisdom. God does not provide it by osmosis. We have to CHOOSE to seek it. We need to STUDY. We need to APPLY. We need to GET IN THE WORD. It WON'T happen any other way. And I am firmly convinced that to suggest otherwise is to propagate a lie among the body.

QT 15 Apr 15, Ps 22:1, The despair of God for our souls

Ps 22:1 (ESV)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

NOTE: These were Jesus' words as he hung on the cross, when he felt the pain of a whole world of sins, and where for the first time in eternity, the father turned his face from the son. I like Spurgeon's comment on this verse. Many of us will experience the sense of God's turning his back on us, at least the feeling of it. But the reality of our deep and dark experience is that God never forsakes us. He never turns his back on his children. And so, as dark as our experience might be, it can never compare to what Jesus endured upon the cross for us. The depth of his despair and the actual, real separation from the heavenly Father is a blackness we can never imagine. And he did it because of his great love for us, the depth of which we will never understand.

QT 13 Apr 15, Heb 11:7, Pleasing God is acting on what God reveals to our heart

Heb 11:7 (ESV) By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

NOTE: The more I think about this chapter, the more I realize that the actions displaying faith have a few common characteristics. Very few have anything to do with the 613 OT commandments (maybe one out of the 30 odd examples). Almost all the exercises of faith are accompanied by action--action that follows through on what God laid on the individual's heart. So faith is responding to the voice of God in a our life. And so also, it can be different for different people as evidenced by chapter eleven of Hebrews. None of the ancients pleased God out of religiosity but rather from the heart. Even if you use Abel as an example since he gave an offering, you have to recognize that Cain did as well, but God accepted Abel's offering and not Cain's. Some might try to argue that one was a blood offering and the other was not. But scripture is not completely clear, nor is there any command in scripture at that point that requires a blood offering. So one would need to read in something to make a point that the text does not support. But the text does support a difference in the heart or attitude, as God warns Abel about sin crouching at the door.

So what is God speaking to my heart? Where am I required to walk by faith? What do I need to do?

QT 9 Apr 15, Heb 11:1-2, The hope is in a return to Eden

Heb 11:1-2 (ESV)  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation.

NOTE: I think the most difficult part of this verse is determining what the author meant by "things hoped for." Far from being a blank check to exercise faith in any wish list item, I think it is more limited. First of all, if it is anything, it would have to be limited to God's will because that is what Jesus taught about prayer to the disciples. Secondly, it would have to be for our good, or otherwise prayer and faith would harm us. So, for those reasons, I don't think it has anything to with things in the earthly sense. In fact, later in the book, it tells us that none of the ancients received what they hoped for, they only welcomed it from afar. What is the thing they hoped for and did not see? A heavenly home, a city whose foundations are built by God. They hoped for Eden--a return to the original plan. Man failed to obey God in the garden, but is given one more chance in this life to seek God, so that he can obtain the real life that God had planned for him from the beginning. A life of purpose, meaning, relationships, eternality, and without the evils of this world. That is the promise, that is what we need to hope for.

QT 8 Apr 15, Luke 23:28-31, A great judgment is coming

Luke 23:28-31 (ESV) But turning to them Jesus said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.  29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!'  30  Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.'  31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

NOTE: Matching the phraseology of verse 31 "Mountains … fall on us and hide us," places this event in the first half of the tribulation (Rev 6:16). It is the sixth of the seven seal judgments. A lot of people have died in the war, famine, pestilence, and earthquake that precedes the sixth seal. Jesus says that the trees were green 'now' but soon would be dry. Literally it could mean that the trees at that time will be ready to burn as well. Metaphorically, it could mean things are not yet near as bad as they soon would be. We have no idea how bad things will really get. We can't imagine pain so great that we want to die. A coming judgment is near at hand--yes, that has been said for almost 2000 years--but, God's word will be accomplished. It may be in the next 20 years, it may be sooner. What are we doing to warn people of the coming wrath? Are we bold with our testimony or do we shrink back? Lord, help me not to shrink back. Give me courage.

QT 7 Apr 15, Ps 4:2, We choose the narrative--what we want to believe--over God's word

Ps 4:2 (ESV) O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?

How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?

NOTE: This is our culture today, where the narrative (what we want to believe) is more important than the facts. We have raised a self-generated dogma to the status of absolute truth while at the same time denying the existence of absolute truth. We have chosen to believe what we want to believe because we like it, not because it is necessarily true (which it can't be anyway since we say there is no absolute truth). We rebelled against God in the garden because we did not want his rules nor him to rule over us. That rebellion continues today. And yet when disasters happen--the consequences of a world where God does not rule--we scream at God and say that this proves that a loving, all-powerful God can't exist. The disasters and evil that we see should remind us that we chose a world without God, and God in his mercy gave us what we wanted in the hope that we might see the ugliness and futility of it all. Disaster, pain, injustice, evil, etc, are megaphones that all scream the same thing--we rebelled and we need to repent. If God stepped into our rebellious world and fixed every bad thing that ever happened, I seriously doubt we would all worship him or believe in him. And so he does the best thing that he can do, he gives us the consequences of our rebellion. But he did step into our world as well, and showed us his great love for us through many miracles, the most important being the resurrection. We deny it all, because we don't want God's solution -- we like being gods.

QT 2 Apr 15, Matt 27:11-14, The resurrection is the single most important event in history

Matt 27:11-14 (ESV)  Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You have said so."  12  But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?" 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

NOTE: He had nothing to prove. He stood above everyone in the room. None could match him in authority and power, and yet, everyone thought of themselves as more important. He did not have to argue for his life, he had already struggled with that option and chosen death out of a love for humanity. Everything now was just a formality, except the pain and the separation from the father. Pilate was perplexed, his wife trouble, the Pharisees angry, the crowd lost, his disciples scared, and we, about to receive the greatest gift of all time. He was perfect. He never sinned. His love was greater than any love the world had ever seen. The miracles, though denied by generations today, validated his claim. The empty grave is a historical fact and is conveniently ignored by most people today. But the resurrection is the single most important event in humanity. Satan has done all he can to obfuscate the facts. Men don't want to investigate the claims, because men love their sin. They choose rebellion to God instead of walking with God. And consequently, men are lost because walking without God is aimless, pointless, and fruitless. Lord have mercy on our arrogance.