Guidelines to how I view the cosmos
Jesus is the most beautiful name of all.
Not the letters in the name or even the sound of the name itself. No, it is His character that is the most beautiful. The ideal image of a man as portrayed in movies by any hero strives to capture His character but never can fully. Only Jesus has that combination of absolute authority, compassion, vulnerability and humility that comes with being the Son of God and Son of Man.
No one else can compete with Him either imagined or real.
25 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26 How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? 27 They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. 28 Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
30 “Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. 31 Yes,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ 32 Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the Lord.
33 “When these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, ‘What is the message from the Lord?’ say to them, ‘What message? I will forsake you, declares the Lord.’ 34 If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ I will punish them and their household. 35 This is what each of you keeps saying to your friends and other Israelites: ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 36 But you must not mention ‘a message from the Lord’ again, because each one’s word becomes their own message. So you distort the words of the living God, the Lord Almighty, our God. 37 This is what you keep saying to a prophet: ‘What is the Lord’s answer to you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 38 Although you claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ this is what the Lord says: You used the words, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ even though I told you that you must not claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord.’ 39 Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your ancestors. 40 I will bring on you everlasting disgrace—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”
Jeremiah 23:25-40
The Lord makes a point about prophesying in the name of the Lord in Jeremiah 23:34-40. He says that that phrase: “Thus says the Lord” and others like it have been misused so much that they now bring dishonor to His name. People have used this kind of phrase to give authority to their own ideas and in so doing have turned the words of God on their head.
In Jeremiah 31:34 God says no one needs to teach those who know the Lord. You don’t need to say “Thus says the Lord” or anything like that to a listening ear. If it is the word of the Lord He can speak for Himself.
The Psalms have several recurrent themes. One of them is that God’s protection is around those who trust in Him (see for example Psalm 125:2).
I have found that trust is an active thing on my part – I have to actively trust God by committing things to Him, praying to Him, spending time with Him and, very importantly, obeying what I believe He is saying to me. I can’t just carry on my own way and then say that I am trusting God.
There are things I have to do deliberately to ensure that I am trusting Him. One of these is to discipline my time so that I have set aside times in the day and the week to spend time praying alone with Him and reading the Scriptures. Another is to obey the commands that I am not to worry or be afraid, that I am to rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything to give thanks (1 Thess. 5:17). These are not always easy commands to obey and work is required to carry them out.
We have just finished a series of studies of James at our local church, Open Arms. Works and faith go hand in hand.
Spirit Radio’s word for today was from Proverbs: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4:23.
I’m reading through the bible again and again there is this ongoing theme throughout about the first commandment: Love God above all and first of all.
Time and again (and again and again) the message comes through “Don’t worship false idols”. This is a matter of the heart’s direction. Take it from me, after 35 years I know what this means. My heart and its leanings have determined the course of my life. It is the same for everyone.
So what does it mean to “Guard your heart”? To me it seems obvious that it means to keep it focused on obeying those commandments that Jesus said sums up every commandment:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart……”
What direction are you going in?
There is a wonderful Hebrew word called אָמֵן, ‘ʾāmēn’ from which we get our word “amen“. According to Strong’s Concordance it means “Be established, firm”. But it can also mean “Believe” and shows the connection between stability and faith that James talks about in James 1:6-8:
“6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
There is a place for being absolutely dogged and firm when it comes to doing and thinking what we believe is right. Faith, in a deep sense, means to stand firm (cf. Ephesians 6).
Wouldn’t it be great if our wills and God’s were always perfectly aligned like Jesus’ will is?
Oh, wait, he did say “Not my will but yours be done” on one occasion (Matthew 26:39). I guess then that makes him more like us than would otherwise be the case.
“Not my will but yours be done” I’ve said to my Father about a thing I don’t want to do.
Just so you know, it doesn’t compare in any way with what Jesus had to go through, in fact if I told you what it was you would think, wow, can I do it instead if you don’t want to? In fact I am competing to do it. The only similarity is that I don’t want to do it but I believe my Father wants me to do it. Mind you that wouldn’t be the first time that happened sadly.
No one – except God – can really share your pain and neither can anyone really know your joy (Proverbs 14:10). We are all so different. But His love surrounds us when our thoughts wage war and all our emotions are like a volcano inside. He is the Prince of Peace.
Not my will but Yours be done!
Yesterday I posted an Old Testament command to not allow feelings of depression to overcome me. Or at least that is the way I interpreted Joshua 1:9 and, with some success but also some failure, put into practice yesterday. Being brave and not allowing myself to be discouraged certainly beats moping about all day (or even moping for an hour or any amount of time). This morning the Lord brought to my mind the New Testament command (by the Spirit through Paul in 1 Thess. 5:16-18) to:
Which is a step up on what I was putting into practice yesterday.
The Holy Spirit in us is our hope and one of the fruits of the Spirit is self control. If God is commanding this then it must be possible. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out.
This is God’s Word and it is either living and active to you or it is not. If this word is living and active to you then why not put it into practice? He wouldn’t have brought it to your attention unless He wanted to give you the strength to also do it.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9.
If God commands then it must be possible to do:
And the reason? The all powerful Holy Spirit will be with us wherever we go.
The eight beatitudes are nearly the first thing Jesus says in the Gospels. They reveal His heart.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the [a]earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:3-11
These are the types of people God has time for:
The poor in spirit. People with this attitude are the opposite to the pushy, showy type that are always in your face and who are full of self importance. We all know someone who is “poor in spirit” but filled with the Spirit. That’s because the Holy Spirit is, like Jesus, humble and gentle at heart (Matt. 11:29). These are the type of people that get into heaven.
Those who mourn. In this life there will always be mourners. At some stage we all are likely to mourn the loss of someone we love. Jesus knows that and says He will comfort us.
Those who are humble. I’m not sure what the difference between these are and the poor in spirit. Nor do I know why they inherit the earth specifically. Perhaps there isn’t supposed to be a difference. The lowly in heart get both heaven and the earth.
Those who hunger and thirst for justice. Jesus knew these guys would be satisfied. He also knew at what cost that would be to Him. There will be justice also for those who refuse to receive the grace of God and create injustice.
The merciful. This is something we should all do. We will all need mercy.
The pure in heart. These will see God.
The peacemakers. Peacemakers are not looking out for their own wants, but are involved in reconciling opposing parties. Everyone can see that they are children of the God of peace.
Those who do what is right. You don’t have to explicitly do something in the name of Christ for this to apply to you. Anyone who stands up for the oppressed or does what Jesus would do might be persecuted for it. These also are the types of courageous people God wants with Him in heaven.
Jesus’ followers. Be prepared to be mocked, persecuted and lied about. But be very happy about it when you are!
As the KJV of the bible quaintly puts it (in 1 Corinthians 13), when it comes to heavenly things “we see as in a glass darkly”. Or as the NLT puts it more clearly (pun intended): “we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror”.
I wonder, though, which unseen world we see more clearly, this physical one or the heavenly spiritual one?
The reason I ask is because scientists tell us that the world is mainly empty space.
Even the most solid of things contain more emptiness than substance. The main guy to find this out was Ernest Rutherford. We can probably trust him and the others who have observed and proved this for many years now
The bible says that God fills all in all.
So what are you seeing? The world as it is, filled with God’s Spirit and not much else?
Or just the really, really insubstantial physical things around you?
And what are you trusting in? The evidence of your eyes or the Truth?
Jesus said: “I am the Truth…” (John 14:6)
faithfulwon 