Micah 5 - Savior Out Of Bethlehem

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2 NIV)

The prophecy of the one who would be born in Bethlehem... The people of God looked for and waited for this savior to deliver them - to bring them peace. He is the one whose birth we celebrate on Christmas morning. The Christ child, Jesus, was born in a stable in Bethlehem as God, through Micah, promised. The savior has come. The bringer of peace is here. He came to bring His peace so that the people of God would be one with God and one with one another. The wall that separates would be destroyed as it has been for all who would live and abide in His name, through His death; His resurrection and His ascension.

During this Advent season, we remember how the people longed for this savior to be born. We remember and, as children of God, we prepare for Him to come again in full glory.

Remember always and prepare your hearts for He has come! He is Risen! And... He will come again!

God's Peace - Pr. J

Hosea 12 - A Reprieve From Violence, Please?

Ephraim and Judah are in a bit of trouble with the LORD for stirring up trouble with others. According to Hosea:

"Ephraim feeds on the wind;
    he pursues the east wind all day
    and multiplies lies and violence.
He makes a treaty with Assyria    and sends olive oil to Egypt." (Hosea 12:1 NIV)

Soap operas, drama queens, whatever, whoever... There are some, it seems, that just cannot live without stirring up trouble for others. For what reason, no one knows. Maybe they've watched too many soap operas and can't control the desire to create drama. They multiple lies and violence. They cause a lot of trouble for themselves as well as others. But, they don't seem to care. That's the way you play the game - hoping against hope that they will win the game - hoping against hope that they will come out looking like a star. How much life is wasted away contending with those who multiply lies (gossip) and violence rather than living life?

What does the prophet have to say about all of this?

"But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger;
    his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed    and will repay him for his contempt." (Hosea 12:14)

May God grant all who are wrongly gossiped about, to the detriment of the church on earth, a reprieve from these vicious attacks. 

God's Peace - Pr. J

Ezekiel 22 - Judah's Sins; Our Sins

Ezekiel outlines the sins of Judah. They are quite lengthy! The LORD promises that He will refine the people, as fire refines metal. They will be refined with fire, so that they might turn to glorify the LORD.

As I look at the list of Judah's sins, they don't look all that unfamiliar. Maybe, we fail to learn from history. Maybe, we're just hard-hearted and need a bit of refining ourselves. As I look at this list of sins, I am thankful that Jesus was willing to take our sins upon himself; that all who believe in Him might not perish; but, receive eternal life reconciled to God our Father through the blood of Jesus the Christ.

Thanks be to God for His mercy, for His grace, through Jesus Christ, our LORD. Amen!

God's Peace - Pr. J

Ezekiel 4 - What Would The LORD Have You Do?

Today, is the 16th Sunday after Pentecost. I will be preaching on "taking up our cross" - that is - being willing to do anything the LORD asks of us, following in the footsteps of Jesus, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

In our reading this morning, Ezekiel 4, the LORD calls Ezekiel to deliver a prophecy against Jerusalem to the people who are now living in Babylon. The people have not listened to the words of the prophets, maybe they will understand a visual better. Ezekiel, himself, being the main visual. He is to lie down beside a model of besieged Jerusalem that he erects. But, that's not the hard part. The hard part is that he is to lie there in front of the people for 430 days. For 390 days, he will lie on his left side to symbolically bear the sins of Israel. For 40 days, he will lie on his right side to symbolically bears the sins of Judah. He shall turn his face toward the model of the siege of Jerusalem that he has created and prophesy against her. Did I mention that in all this time, he will have a total of 20 shekels (about 8 ounces) of food to eat and a 6th of a hin (a little better than a pint) of water to drink. This is quite a fast!

Ezekiel was most faithful in being able to share this visual prophecy. But, I imagine the people probably didn't get the visual any better than they got the word. Besieged Jerusalem is to come under some extremely hard times. There will be an extreme shortage of food. Rationing will be great.

Look around! Listen! What is the LORD telling you? Where would He have you go? What would He have you do to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Jeremiah 22 - Have Compassion And Do Justice

Have compassion and do justice... and, you will live. You will live in peace. 

 

Sadly, the King of Judah lacks compassion. He does not do justice. He is too busy building up himself a kingdom. He is busy amassing wealth for himself. Because of his self-serving life, the king has led the people in a wrong way. He has led them to destruction. They are about to be kicked out of the kingdom.

 

Sadly, we have many kings today. So many of us thing we should all be able to live like kings. We have built up for ourselves tiny castles which we must protect and build up no matter what it costs us or others. You have probably heard the saying a "man's home is his castle." Think about how much you have put into that home and why. Think about how much the labor that has gone into making it the envy of your neighbor's eye may have cost you in relationships with family and friends. Think about how it may be costing you your relationship with the LORD. Think about how the time spent in making that home your own little castle has directed you away from living and enjoying a more fuller life that God intends for you to have. You want you own kingdom and refrain from entering the Kingdom of God. I am not saying that we should not have nice, comfortable homes. I am simply saying, how much is it really costing you? (See Luke 14:28) In the end, the compulsive desire and attempts to acquire great luxury will lead us down the path of destruction.

 

In the end, on that final day, the house will be gone. All acquisitions will go to someone else or maybe to the dump. On that final day, we will stand at the gate of the Kingdom and we will either be welcomed or sent away. Will we follow in the path of Jesus, living lives according to God's will, and ultimately enter through that gate that He has opened for us?

 

The choice to do justice or injustice is ours. The choice to live life to its fullest or spend our lives envying others and striving to have all that they have and more is ours. Heaven is not something just for the afterlife. It can be lived and experienced now. Even as we pray, "Thy kingdom come," it has come. We can live in God's presence even now. As I have often asked before, why would you desire to live in God's kingdom after you pass through the gateway that is death, if living in His Kingdom, His presence, isn't good enough for you today?

 

Even as our Lord Jesus had compassion on us, may God help us to have compassion on others and do justice that we might live in His presence together.

 

God's Peace - Pr. J

Isaiah 19 - Brother Betray Brother or Peace?

Assyria had been warned and so today it is time to read the warning the LORD gave to Egypt, as well. The LORD is coming to Egypt. "See, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear. 'I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian— brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.'" (Isa 19:1-2 NIV)

The Egyptians have turned their backs on God and against God's people. He, apparently, has determined to save some of them. Trouble is coming. Ultimately, five cities come to swear their allegiance to God, while others continue in their descent as they consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.

It is not uncommon that people who serve different gods come to have differences, even disputes. They will, even within families, betray one another in order to hide their own guilt, to justify worshipping their false gods. When Jesus entered the scene, was he not hated by the "religious" people of the day - the people who lifted the law and their own righteousness before God? Jesus' own people turned against him.

And... so it will be with those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death." (Matt 10:21) We will not be loved by all. We will, in fact, be hated by many. Our presence is a reminder that Jesus is LORD and not everyone is willing to accept that. They prefer to be their own gods, masters of their own destinies. There are many, even within our own families, who would betray us in order to try to hide or destroy the truth that Jesus Christ is our LORD and Saviour. He is the LORD of all the earth.

There is good news to be heard regarding the prophecy against Egypt. Egypt, Assyria and Judah, together will be blessesd.

"In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, 'Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.'" (Isa 19:23-25)

May the LORD bless and keep you all in the unity found in Jesus Christ, our LORD.

God's Peace - Pr. J 

P.S. Yes,things like unity and reconciliation with one another is a gift from God. It is not something that can be conjured up by man. That kind of peace will not last. No matter how hard we try our own attempts at peace seem to only bring more division and dissenion. We are only truly united through the blood of Christ, an everlasting covenant.

Isaiah 7 - Promise of Sign; Immanuel

Judah is in trouble. Ahaz, the king, is in trouble. Judah is about to be invaded. The LORD sends  Isaiah to him with a promise of hope. The LORD spoke to him, through Isaiah, the promise of a sign, who is Immanuel, in spite of the fact that Ahaz was worshipped other gods. Ahaz... "Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and also made idols for worshiping the Baals. He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.  (2 Chron 28:1b-4 NIV)

The LORD gives this promise of of a sign of hope to this wretched sinner. He has given us this sign. He has given us Immanuel, God with us, in Jesus Christ. It is interesting to note that even though God wanted to help Ahaz, Ahaz never gave up his false gods and turned to worship the one true God. Will we?

For those who aren't reading the Bible, please read it. There is so much that you will miss if you don't. But, for the benefit of those who will not, I'm including the verses that are most familiar from this chapter to so many...  "Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."  (Isa 7:13-14)

God's Peace - Pr. J

"If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." (Isa 7:9b)

Isaiah 3 - Judah, Jerusalem, & We Are Warned

Prior to being taken into captivity by the Babylonians, Isaiah warns the people of Jerusalem and Judah of their impending judgement. God will take away their supply and support. They will be hungry. They will be without home. Neighbor will rise up against neighbor. The haughty women who parade about flirting, as they flaunt their beads and bangles will lose it all. Their fine jewelry, their fancy clothes will be no more. There will be no honor anywhere.

"Jerusalem staggers,
Judah is falling;
their words and deeds are against the Lord,
defying his glorious presence.
The look on their faces testifies against them;
they parade their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to them!They have brought disaster upon themselves."  (Isaiah 3:8-9 NIV)

 

My son, John, is working on a set of photographs depicting the 7-deadly sins. He has completed wrath. ( http://johnarthurphoto.com/blog/ )  Yesterday, I was trying to imagine what he will come up with for gluttony. Someone stuffing their face? Then I read an interesting article this morning about gluttony being the desire for anything in excess. http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/practical-faith/socially-acceptable-sin Gluttony could, in effect, pertain to over-indulging in anything: money, fine jewelry, even cheap jewelry. It could pertain to the many compulsive behaviors and addictions that afflict the world. It appears to me that Jerusalem and Judah had become a bit gluttonous - OK - maybe a lot gluttonous. They were the favored people of God. They had it made and so they indulged in a lot of worldly things and began to forget who it was that had blessed them. If they were going to be over-indulgent, it probably would have been a good thing to indulge in loving and worshipping the God who had blessed them so and maybe they would have avoided captivity in Babylon. 

 

But, they did not. They became haughty, self-centered, helping no one but themselves. Each to their own, as they say. And, they suffered because of it. The children of God (including us today) have a really bad habit of forgetting God, of turning our backs on the one who has blessed us and then out in the wilderness, back into slavery, back aimlessly wandering through the wilderness (from whence the name of this blog comes). Sure enough, there is usually repentance for many of God's children once we've been cast out into the wilderness. We realize our sin and turn back to God receiving the blessings of His presence.  You see, that is a huge part of why we end up in trouble. We fail to recognize our sin when we're so busy enjoying it. Everyone does it so, it can't be a sin. Woe to the people when sin is no longer sin!

 

The circle doesn't seem to end, though. Once we repent and have received forgiveness and multitudes of blessings by this generous God of ours; we begin to overindulge, again, worshipping the gifts rather than the Giver, and then back out in the wilderness we go so that we can remember again who God is.

 

Isaiah's prophetic warning was for Judah and Jerusalem. It was fulfilled with the Babylonian captivity. It was again fulfilled when the Romans toppled Jerusalem. Isaiah's warning is for all God's children, even today. Do not allow your gluttonous desire for things of this world kill your desire to worship and serve the LORD your God, by doing His will among you.

 

What did Jesus ask Peter to do?  "Feed my sheep." It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about us being in relationship with one another, serving one another, so that God might be glorified.

 

God's Peace - Pr. J

1 Samuel 30 - Strategy

LOL... Now that's some kind of strategy. Not real well thought out strategy, but still interesting. While the Philistines and Israelites are busy fighting each other, the Amalekites are busy taking their property and then celebrating. Unfortunately for them, they hadn't counted on David not actively participating in the war.

After retrieving all of their property (wives and children included in that property) with interest, the spoil is shared. David insists that the booty be shared even with those who had been too sick or tired to go and get it with them. Not everyone is happy about this "share and share alike" attitude.

I think it's kind of interesting, as well, that even though David (just a chapter back) had been willing to go and fight alongside the Philistines, David is now sharing these latest spoils with his friends, the elders of Judah.

David definitely has a strategy all his own...