God’s Merciful Justice - Habakkuk 3:2

O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk 3:2
                                       

The death toll continues to climb as Islamic Jihadists take one life after another. And like Habakkuk we cry out, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” Habakkuk 1:2. And just as in Habakkuk’s day our nation is as foul and sinful as was Judah. When we wonder how much worse things can become we find a greater threat on the horizon: Islamic terror. We often think of Russia as being our greatest national security threat just as in the prophet’s day when Assyria seemed to be the threat of the moment. Yet God’s plan involved bringing Babylon to the forefront. It seems that perhaps God has also seen fit to bring radical Islam to the forefront in our time.
What we must remember is God’s infinite mercy. No matter how terrible the events that take place in our time. No matter how harsh the apparent wrath of God may be for us. We must remember three things. (1) We, as a nation, have abandoned God; it is not the other way around. (2) The world around us has always been the purview of Satan and his demons, and (3) it is incumbent upon us to return to God. “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” - 2 Chronicles 7:14.
The NY Daily News published it’s headline on December 3rd, 2015 - “God Isn’t Fixing This.” The paper’s point was that prayer is useless in the fight against violence. Prayer is never useless; we have become useless without prayer. Look at our schools, our culture, our government, and our place in the world. Prayer is not the problem; not praying enough is! Despite the News’s headline God is indeed fixing this, although not in the way they would expect . . . and perhaps not in the way we would either. If God is using the modern Babylonians to punish us for abandoning Him then nothing we will ever do will stop the onslaught. We must return to Him. This is His command to us. And we must pray! Then and only then He will be quick to forgive us and heal our land.

A Thanksgiving Prayer- Matthew 26:11

“For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.” - Matthew 26:11

Our sovereign Lord, Jesus Christ had long ago declared that we will have the poor with us forever. No charitable man-contrived effort will ever undo the will of God Almighty. (For more on how man-contrived efforts work out against the will of God see Genesis 11:1-8) Speaking of the Old Testament we see that here too God has informed us that we will indeed have the poor with us always. “For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’” - Deuteronomy 15:11. So the poor are with us forever. And therein lies the Christian’s commission to the needy: we are to open our hands to them!
It is easy to rest beside the security and fat of our own hearths on Thanksgiving Day but are we fulfilling our duty to the needy from the comfort of our tables? What have we done for them?
 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” - Matthew 25:40. Have we indeed said to ourselves, “I will do whatever I can for these people during the rest of the year but on this day . . . I will not?” Shall we now say, “On any other day but this one?”
Honoring our God and risen Savior is paramount in the life of a Christian and we honor Him when we follow His simple but often times perplexing command, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” - 1 John 4:11.
Today, as we celebrate the provisions of common grace that God has granted all of us, let us also share our abundance with those less fortunate. Write a check; send a bag of groceries; open your doors; set another plate at your table; volunteer at a food bank or local church serving the homeless, but most of all - open your hearts to those in need. Yes, we will have the poor with us forever but they need not go without a gesture of true Christian kindness on a day that we will be giving thanks to God.

The Prayer Life - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 
 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We do many things in the course of a day that we must do. We do many that we want to do. We do many that we need to do, but how often do we do the things we should do? As I thought about my prayer life a while ago I sat down in a quiet place away from all the usual daily distractions and pondered the question: Do I pray as often as I should? In the Book of Daniel we are told, “ . . . he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” - Daniel 6:10. Psalm 55:17 states, “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.” Is three times a day truly the standard by which we should be judging the fervency of our prayer life?
In our title verse Paul seems to put forth a greater standard for prayer, one that certainly trumps the Old Testament standard. Paul’s submission is that we continually keep the name of God on our lips. I believer the apostle had good reason for his stand on prayer.
When coming to God with our words we must do so in a reverent and proper manner. “I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your word.” - Psalm 119:58. God Himself commands us to come to Him in this most holy way. “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” - Jeremiah 29:13.
But how often? Again, Paul answers us in the most exacting way - “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God . . .” - Philippians 4:6. Paul tells us that we are to rejoice and pray to God in everything . . . and with thanksgiving! Each and every day we must come to our heavenly Father with our concerns, our needs, our hopes, our joys and our gratitude. We must be prayerful all day and everyday. There is the standard by which our prayer life can be judged. May we constantly come to God in prayer as desert sojourners come to the well which brims with eternal life and let us ever be thankful to the God who gives and sustains our lives.

Anathema Maranatha - 1 Corinthians 16:22

 If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!
 - 1 Corinthians 16:22

Those of you who regularly read my posts will notice that the tone of this missive has changed. I have had to approach the meat of this letter in its raw state simply because the message of God’s grace is all too often rejected by those with whom we would share the good news of Jesus Christ. We are without doubt facing the greatest threat and practice of persecution Christians in America have ever had to stand up to. Our prayers are being squelched in the public sector. Our worship is being questioned by the secular powers as to its legality according to “political correctness.” Our symbols of faith are being torn down, removed, and desecrated by those who would see Christianity become a relic of history. How long will it be before crosses are ripped from the ground and forbidden in National Cemeteries? And their barbarous atheist behavior is protected by the “separation of church and state clause.” Yes, that which once protected worship in God is now being used to accuse and condemn us! We, who believe in the one triune God are now cast as villains. Yes, we are being vilified by our own governing authorities! Just to be a Christian has now become “anathema” to the world. In an article from “The Atlantic” (August 22, 2015) Hillary Clinton is quoted, “I don’t believe you change hearts,” Clinton told Julius Jones in an candid moment backstage after a campaign event. “I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You’re not going to change every heart. You’re not. But at the end of the day, we can do a whole lot to change some hearts, and change some systems, and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them.”  They get it; all of them get it: no one, not anyone, is going to change the Christian heart! It is not merely our “evangelical exercises among the unsaved” that are coming under fire; our Christian hearts have now become the bull’s eye and center of fire for the secular world’s hatred.
As Christians we have always been told that we will face both hatred and persecution. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”  John 15:18-20.
 But no where in the Bible are we commanded to become victims of our faith! We may become victims “for” our faith and because of it. But no where in the Bible are we commanded to lay our heads on the chopping blocks! No where are we called to martyrdom! If we must give our lives for our faith in Jesus Christ, then so be it. We will be in Paradise with Him on that day. But within the holy scriptures we have been told that we do indeed have not only the right to life and liberty but the duty to protect and sustain that right!  “Then He said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.” - Luke 22:36   Jesus Christ Himself said to us that we may indeed need the sword! Never to be used in aggression, but to defend life . . . defend life!
Our heavenly award awaits us but in the mean time we must continue to preach the word of God to all. We must continue to recognize and worship Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior! And IF IT IS WITHIN OUR POWER, we are not to allow those who would persecute us to have their day. We will not be like sheep being led to the slaughter no matter what our persecutors say. As Christ’s sheep we are to spread His holy word. And we are to be wise in doing so.  “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” - Matthew 10:16. We believe in the word of Christ Jesus. It will enliven us. It will quicken us. And it will sustain us through the persecution awaiting us. And should we survive the day, then all praise and glory be to God Almighty for it is He who brings us through the Valley of Death, and He alone! And to the one who by his hostility and hatred of God would choose the prince of the world over the Prince of Peace, let them be accursed. Lord come quickly!

This Is Why! -1 Corinthians 15:30

 And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? - 1 Corinthians 15:30

    Paul is nearing the end of one of the greatest apologetic soliloquies for the resurrection of Jesus Christ ever written. He has broken down every conceivable objection to the idea of life after death that could be imagined. And during his articulate destruction of the opposition’s arguments he uttered one simple but gloriously powerful sentence as living proof of our faith. Why, indeed? Why would we as Christians place ourselves in jeopardy every hour.
    “Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” - 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 Yes. Paul is boasting here but he is boasting in Christ because now Paul proudly recalls the many times and instances when he faced persecution and death because he preached the resurrection of the elect, with Jesus Christ being the first fruit of that resurrection!
    In this day and age when we Christians truly are being persecuted for our faith in Christ. Christians are being stood up, asked of our faith, and summarily executed for being believers in Christ. Yes, yes! Why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? Why do we stand before our critics? Why do we stand before our accusers? Why do we stand before our persecutors? We do so because of the empty tomb of Christ Jesus, our Savior. We do so because we have the assurance of our Holy Father in heaven that we will share in that resurrection when the time comes. We do so because the Holy Spirit indwells us and gives us both hope and strength. We stand upon the rock of God’s assurance and if our blood should be spilled upon that rock we can look our critics, our accusers, and our persecutors in the eyes and say to them, “This is why!
    May our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and all the saints assure that our tribulations, our suffering, even our deaths will never be in vain.   

Perfect Assurance - John 10:10

 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. - John 10:10
               
    When I was young man, many, many, many years ago I was a boxer. Each Tuesday night I would go to the Miami Beach Auditorium, check in with my trainers and proceed to prepare for the night’s bout. And each night, before I walked out to the ring, my lead trainer would grab my wrists, hold my fists up in front of my face and growl at me, “It’s yours to win, kid!” I would nod stoically and go forth to meet my opponent in the ring. Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose, but as my trainer so aptly put it, as far as it was up to me, the responsibility to win, to persevere, was mine. It was quite a frightening supposition. At 18 years old I was given the task of securing the outcome of the fight. Quite a tall order, no matter how good you are.
    As an older man now (notice I said, “older,” not “old”) I am secure in my knowledge of my own salvation and I thank my God that the task of securing that outcome is not left up to me!
“Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”- Romans 8:33-35 In a word, no one. No one and nothing can separate me from the love of God and therefore nothing can take away my assurance of salvation. I certainly can not earn it on my own nor can I lose it on my own! That is perfect assurance.
    Such assurance has been promised to us by our Savior, Jesus Christ. By His very words we are assured - “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” - John 10:28. This is Jesus talking. It doesn’t come with greater assurance than that! He said we shall never perish. Never means never! In this case we can say, “never.” My gratefulness is extended to God on two fronts: one, that I can never lose my salvation; and two, that it’s not incumbent upon me to keep it secure. To quote Dr. John MacArthur - “If I could lose my salvation, I would.” God preserves me and God preserves you. God preserves us all who are truly saved. And what of those who genuinely have lost their faith? “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” - 1 John 2:19. Truly, those who are genuinely saved will persevere through the love of Christ. Let us give thanks to God for our salvation and the perseverance of the saints.

Called To Judgement - John 7:24

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. - John 7:24

    It is not a sin to make a judgment call. All too often Christians are accused of “judging others.” And in most cases this is probably true. The mantra for unbelievers and believers of the liberal vein has probably seen more use than a coffee cup. “Judge not, that you be not judged.” - Matthew 7:1. This is the most powerful weapon in their armories. “It’s in the Bible; it’s in the Bible!’ They scream with near hysterical conviction, as though these were the only words Jesus ever uttered. But we know that contention to be false. We need to remember the circumstances under which Jesus made the comment to judge with righteous judgment.  It was during the Feast of Tabernacles that He “secretly” arrived in Judea amidst the people who were strongly divided as to whether He was “good” or whether He should be killed. Remember that there had already been talk of killing him among the pharisees. Still He stood among them, teaching as He had before. Ultimately He would remove Himself from the scene as they once again attempted to take Him before His time had come.  Christ was referring to Himself when He called for the crowd to judge with righteousness. “You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.” - John 8:15. Jesus was simply declaring that mankind, by its very nature, judges according to what it sees. The inference then is that we tend to judge others by an arbitrary standard that we put in place according to our specific “moral or ethical whims.” This we cannot do. We are told to judge with righteousness! From where does this righteousness come? “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21 Yes, from Jesus Christ! Jesus is righteousness in the flesh. Our judgments need to be tempered by the righteousness that IS God. Therefore our judgments must follow the righteousness prescribed by God’s holy word. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” - 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Given by God, for righteousness, that a man may be equipped for every good work! The terminology is clear; the message is clear. When we judge, our judgments must be based upon the righteousness of God as given to us in the Bible. And when we judge, the measure that we judge others by will indeed be used to judge us, but we will have nothing to fear if we are living testaments to Jesus Christ, or Lord and Savior!
We are called to judge. We are called to be discerning in our lives. And discerning means making righteous choices, decisions, and judgments about others as we are guided by God’s word on the matter. Christ, Himself, calls us to make righteous judgments and there is no sin or danger of judgment if we do so according to His command. May we always remember that it is not what we see, hear, or perceive that calls us to judge but the word of God that demands a righteous judgment.