Good Morning! 2010.06.11 - Nehemiah 8:10 - The Lord is Your Strength

 

Good Morning!

 

Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink

 

the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is

 

prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye

 

sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.  (Nehemiah 8:10)

 

A remnant of Jews had come home from Babylon (Iraq) after 70 years of imprisonment. Their punishment as a nation was completed for their many years of ignoring of the law of God. A special day was called for coming together and listening to the law of God read publicly. With God's help they had rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem in 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15)against great opposition. The walls still existed at the low level and plenty of material lay on the ground from the former wall. There were at least 37 working parties with assigned areas of reconstruction.

 

Ezra the scribe stood upon a wooden pulpit that was made for just that purpose. This is the only time the word "pulpit" occurs in the Bible and Ezra stood on it, not behind it. He read from the law and several experts on the Word of God from the tribe of Levi stood beside him and explained the meaning of the words Ezra was reading. I grew up hearing sincere preachers begin their sermons by reminding the congregation that they (the preachers) were standing behind the sacred desk. I wondered if God really did somehow  inhabit the wood in the "sacred desk."  Well, they didn't get it out of the Bible. That's one of those made up things.

 

When the people began to understand the Word of God being read to them and how they had been heartless and sinful against God in violation of His word, they began to weep. They had greatly offended God and they were truly sorrow for their sins.That is the background to our verse for today. God wanted to put an end to the Babylonian 70 years of captivity and to put His relationship on a new footing. They were forgiven and God was no longer going to hold their sins against them; the sins that destroyed their nation.

 

Go your way. It must have been a sad scene to see the masses of people weeping and wailing over their sins. However, in God's sight, the weeping is unseasonable. It is at the wrong time. It seems to be the rule that when people, even today, come to grips with their offenses against God that they have a really hard time of getting through being sorry for their sins. They are grieved to the bone. So they confess and grieve and confess and grieve and confess and grieve—sometimes for years and sometimes for the rest of their lives.

 

Sometimes a prolonged grieving over past sins is so bad that it becomes a vicious struggle to believe that God could really forgive them. "I messed up!" So God forgives but they cannot forgive themselves. I had a college roommate who had lived a terrible life on the raw side. Many times in the middle of the night I would be awakened after midnight with his shaking the upper bunk and sobbing and pleading with God to forgive him for his awful sins. God had forgiven him but he could not forgive himself.

 

Ezra the scribe said to the people: Leave this meeting and celebrate what God is doing to reestablish Judah (the southern two tribes. The northern 10 tribes known as Israel,  had long ago been carried off by the Assyrians and dispersed until they virtually disappeared).

 

Eat the fat, and drink the sweet. Fat and sweet were not the normal diet for these people. The diet and lifestyle of the Hebrew culture from the time of Moses has been studied extensively.  It was low in animal products which were used mostly for celebration. "The fatted calf" was not a daily trip to McDonald's. The average American eats about 160 pounds of sugar a year. That's up from 10 pounds of sugar a year in 1900. Unused sugar in the blood is converted into fat and stored in the body, including the blood vessels which clog up from it.

 

I've been asked many times: "What about the Jewish diet? Didn't they eat animals?" Yes and the short answer to the obvious attempt to equate the American diet with the ancient Jewish diet is simple. If  we eat the same amount and kind of meat and fat from animals fed like the Jewish animals, we will be in good shape. And didn't the Jews eat salt? They ate a small amount of salt, mostly from the ocean and if we copy the amount and kind of salt the Jews ate we are going to get it about right.

 

Send portions to the poor. This appears to be based upon God's instructions to the Jews in Deuteronomy 16:11. The Feast of Weeks occurred seven weeks or 49 days after Passover. It occurred at the beginning of the harvest when there was plenty of fresh food to eat. God was always mindful of the poor. It was not a government program but a people program. People were to share food with people they knew or in a general area nearby that contained poor people.

 

The joy of the Lord is your strength. Paul said to believers, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13)  He had already said  Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice."

 

The secret is the Word of God and prayer. The Word of God should make you joyful. There is something wrong if your church service does not lift you up and make you joyful. Do you open the hymn book and sing or do you watch everybody else sing while you secretly wrestle with the coming week and how you are going to pay your bill?

This article can also be viewed at www.bibleliving.blogspot.com

 

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Good Morning! 2010.06.10 - 1Peter 4:10 - Ministering God's Gifts

Good Morning!

 

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to

 

another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.  (1Peter 4:10)

 

Before I was saved, I loved to hear good Bible preaching and made the rounds of summer revival meetings of the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Church of Christ, Nazarene, and Church of God. One exception was when I was eight and wandered into the back of a  Pentecostal tent and discovered that they were about to handle snakes. I didn't stay long.  I was already certified in snakes in Medlock Hollow and I didn't see the point. To this day I have not grown tired of hearing good Bible preaching.

 

I say "good preaching" because all preaching is not good Bible preaching.  Some preaching is boring and painful to endure and some preaching, even lofty preaching, is empty of Bible doctrine or Bible content. I think the reason for the latter is because there are many preachers who were never called by God to do what they are "trying" to do. They have no calling from God to preach and no gift for preaching.

 

No one could exhibit earnestness of soul like E.M. Smith; the old farmer who put on a suit on Sunday's and preached at Falling Springs Baptist Church in Overton County, Tennessee when I was six. He brought down his big black shoe on the wood floor and shook the house to make a point. He cried in his throat as well as in his eyes and showered the people on the first row. No one doubted that God had called him to preach and had given him the gift of preaching.

 

Until I was almost grown I had never heard a message on God giving spiritual gifts to people. I had heard a lot of preaching by then but no one had preached or taught on spiritual gifts in my presence. I certainly did not know that every born-again Christian is given a gift.

 

When I discovered this truth, it opened up a whole new world for me to think about. See: (1Corinthians 12:28-31;)  (Ephesians 4:7-13;). If you compare these two lists of gifts you will see that the lists are not identical. There is no conflict but rather they complement each other.  Some writers wonder if there may be some gifts that are not listed in either of these lists. The reason for believing this is that if you read either list, there are gifts beyond what is in either of the lists.

 

As every man hath received the gift. This means a particular spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit, not something learned. There are many gifts and they are not limited to preaching or teaching. In Christ's body, the Church, there are many members and many gifts. If you are a child of God, you have some gift that God intends for you to use for the benefit of other people. You may have more than one gift.

 

If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.  (1Peter 4:11)

 

The gifts of the Spirit are not the same as the fruit of the Spirit.

 

Minister the same one to another. The gifts are not for us to enjoy or entertain ourselves. We are not to use a gift from God so we can say "Look at me! Look at me!" I knew a pastor (dead now) who was secretly jealous of another church in his denomination. When it came time for him to build a new church building, he made sure that his new building was one foot bigger than the other church and that his office was one foot bigger than the office of his fellow pastor. Many times it goes against the grain when God does not give us all the same gifts. He does not make us all alike.

For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?  (1Corinthians 4:7)

 

Can you be glad when someone in your work place gets a raise or a new position and you do not? Can you be glad when someone in your church gets a new car and you do not?

 

I knew a pastor in North Carolina whose deacon appeared to love him better than anything. But one night the deacon went over to the pastor's house, called him and his wife out into the yard and shot them down. The next morning when the police came, there was frost on the ground and the couple's three-year-old was shivering beside her mommy trying to wake her up. The deacon was jealous of all the attention the pastor got from the people and he didn't get that much attention.

 

 

Good stewards. The church does not belong to us. Our bodies do not belong to us. Our money and house do not belong to us. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.  (1Corinthians 6:19-20)

 

Manifold grace of God. It simply means "many." Our God is a God of infinite variety. It should not surprise us that God makes so many different kinds of people with so many different kinds of gifts.

 

 

This article can also be viewed at www.bibleliving.blogspot.com

 

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Good Morning! 2010.06.09 - Matthew 14:23 - Jesus Prayed Alone

Good Morning!

 

And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into

 

a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come,

 

he was there alone.  (Matthew 14:23)

 

To get a better picture of this we have to go to the previous verse and read some in Mark and John.  To save space, we will use hyperlinks to open the texts up in BibleGateway.com. A hyperlink is indicated by blue letters underlined in blue. Put your cursor over it and click your mouse.

In the previous verse, Jesus had required that his disciples get into a boat and go to the other side. This is a good picture of how things are today. Jesus is up on the mountain in prayer and the disciples are down on the Sea of Galilee in a storm in the dark.  They picture us pretty well today, do they not?  Our Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us and we are down here in one storm after another.

 

Did Jesus not know He was sending His disciples into a storm? Of course He did! It is a red-letter day when Christians can realize that a part of their most effective ministry is when they are in a storm and go through it to tell how the Lord was with them. God can get to us through a nice poem or an uplifting hymn or a rousing sermon. But there is no substitute for going through a storm and finding that God is everything He said He is. You won't get that through standard channels of Christian experience. You won't be worth much and God will not be very real to you until He breaks you—not until you reach the place where you won't make it unless God comes through! A nice little ditty song or a nice little neat sermon is not going to establish the reality of God in you to the bone. When you get there, it will be a whole "nuther world for you.

 

It would be wonderful if we would meet with God like we're supposed to and we would experience first-hand the verse in Fanny Crosby's hymn: "Oh the pure delight of a single hour that before Thy throne I spend; When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend! I'm afraid it is unusual for Christians to know what that means. If Jesus needed to get alone and pray why do we think we do not need to do the same?

 

We are perfectly content to feast on the loaves and fishes and get the grease on our lips and fingers and smell the odor of fish on our fingers every once in a while.  If we can keep God limited to the level of Captain D's fish sandwich then we can manage Him and be in charge. Our biggest problem is almost always wanting to manage God. Self! Self must be in charge!

 

Let's look further at the record in Mark 6:45-56 and John 6:15-21. Jesus had fed a crowd of five thousand men plus several more thousands of women and children and then gathered up twelve baskets of food after everyone had been served. The shallow, fickle crowd was about to try to force Him to be their king, of course to drive the Romans out and to restore the kingdom of David. It reminds us that when God does stretch forth His hand to do mighty miracles, it won't be long until a committee will show up to try to manage it for their own advantage. Jesus knew what they were up to and that was not in His program at that time. So, He put the disciples on the boat, dispersed the crowd and He departed to a mountain to pray. That's a good thing to remember when we are being forced into a situation that's out of God's will for us. Pray!

 

Barnes comments on this: "…when human honors were offered to him and almost forced upon him - he retired for private prayer; an example for all who are tempted with human honors and applause. Nothing is better to keep the mind humble and unambitious than to seek some lonely place; to shut out the world with all its honors; to realize that the great God, before whom all creatures and all honors sink to nothing, is round about us; and to ask him to keep us from pride and vainglory." That about sums it up, don't you think?

 

This article can also be viewed at www.bibleliving.blogspot.com

 

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Good Morning! 2010.06.08 - Luke 6:12 - Jesus Prayed All Night

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12)

There are two focal points in this Bible text. If you read just this verse it is about Jesus praying all night. If you read the verses that follow, it is about Jesus choosing his twelve disciples. We need to look at both points.

The Jews had places prayer called "oratories." These were more than bare spots of earth. There was an abundance of rocks so they gathered rough stones and built an enclosure on a level spot of ground, big enough for a small number people; not necessarily with a roof. They were built outside their communities where they could get away from people and pray without interruption.

Consider Acts 16:13: And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. In Korea there are caves or grottos for prayer. Charles Finney in New York retired to the woods and would find a fallen tree or where two or three trees had fallen to make somewhat of a closure and would pray for many hours.

Almost all hospitals contain a prayer chapel and I have observed that they are used frequently. The rooms of patients are small and private and yet there is a universal need for a private place to pray. Even the NC Legislative Building has a chapel with a few nice pews in it and people did go in there to pray. Perhaps other legislative buildings have chapels including the Senate and House in Washington. I know less about those.

Many people in America say a few sentences of prayer in their cars on their way to work—not ideal but better than nothing. It's hard to concentrate on prayer while you're dodging traffic but some people are wired in such a way as to make their driving a time a private time with the Lord. Years ago I would at times drive a long time and pray. If I found a secluded spot by the road I would pull over and pray there. Sometimes prayer can be made in the living room after everyone has gone to bed or before the others get up. You can make a good chapel out of your car if it's parked in an out-of-the-way place.

Jesus gave a short but descriptive word about private prayer: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Matthew 6:6). This was in contrast of what some of the religious leaders did in parading their spirituality in public (Matthew 6:5).

Jesus appears to have simply found a lonely spot on a mountain away from houses and people and poured out His heart to the Father. He did not spend every night in prayer and neither was this an unusual thing for Him.

JESUS CHOOSES THE TWELVE

Jesus prayed all night to His Father, because He was going to choose twelve men to be His apostles. Even after praying all night, one of the apostles he appointed turned out to be a traitor. Another apostle denied Him but later repented. God's men were always chosen. There are many candidates but John 15:16 says: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."

Now here is an humbling ray of light for preachers who think they are a hot number. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence (1Co 1:27-29).

Sometimes preachers get too big for their britches and run Judas down just before they fall on their own faces. Preachers are made out of mud just like everyone else and if he gets too high and mighty, he may have a moral failure to match Peter who denied the Lord and even like Judas who betrayed him. It is summarized by the Apostle Paul: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (1Corinthians 10:12).

We are also reminded by Jesus' example that we would do well before choosing partners in business and marriage. How many marriages could have been avoided altogether if people would have prayer earnestly before launching a marriage? And how many troubled marriages could be saved if both partners would lay down their selfish wills and humble themselves before God, even all night in prayer asking for God's help? How many divorces do you think were preceded by an all—night prayer vigil by the husband and wife? I can't think of any.

It's harder to get two people to pray all night than for one to decide to pray all night. That's the problem. One can pray all night and the other one remains a devil. That's what happened when Jesus prayed all night and Judas decided to follow the devil. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (John 6:70) The Bible talks a lot about Jesus praying but never mentions that Judas prayed.

Good Morning! 2010.06.07 - Mark 1:35 - Jesus Prayed in the Morning

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, hewent out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed (Mark 1:35).

And in the morning. – At daybreak. Still too dark to see much but light appears slightly in the east.

On the farm and sawmill schedules, we seldom got up later than 5:00 a.m. Feeding, milking and breakfast had to be done to catch the 7:00 a.m. school bus. For several years before retiring, Barbara and I got up at 4:30 a.m. I know a lot of people who keep those hours for the same reasons we did. My internal clock still wakes me up early. It's a good time to say "Good morning, Lord! Search me and fix me for the day. You know who is going to cross my path today. What are we doing today?" If you are not an early riser, whatever time you get up is a good time to read your Bible and pray as a regular thing.

Rising up. The Bible doesn't say why Jesus got out of bed to pray. The Psalmist said: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches (Psalm 63:6). But Jesus chose to get out of bed to pray.

When I was in school we were urged constantly to meet with God. It seemed the right thing to do, the spiritual thing to do, so I set my alarm clock and went over to one of the little organ rooms upstairs in the chapel. I suppose it had been a resonating chamber when the big pipe organ was in use.

I got on my knees and began to pray. Suddenly I would find myself waking up. For several mornings I tried that and concluded that I could sleep better in bed. I felt guilty because I couldn't pull it off. When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, He was disappointed that his disciples went to sleep on Him, more than once. They were worn out and they didn't know what was happening.

I wish I had a nickel for every time I've gone to sleep on my knees. It's a good place to sleep—if you're tired and have a sleep deficit, which I did. After a few years of wrestling with the sleep problem in praying, it dawned on me that I was not going to succeed in morning prayers until I disciplined myself to go to bed at a decent hour so I could get the amount of sleep God requires of me. Sleep is God's idea as well as prayer. I'm a slow learner. I had not thought about sleep being God's idea.

Proverbs talks about sleep: How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man (Proverbs 6:9-11). There are people who do that but that verse does not claim to say everything that should be said about sleep.

You have to have enough sleep or you will run into a truck and kill yourself. And you have to have enough sleep to get on your knees in the morning and stay awake long enough to pray as Jesus did. When we got up at 4:00 a.m., we were in bed by 8:00 p.m.

Before day. At this time of day the birds begin to awaken and if are outside you can hear them begin to chatter at low-key. It's almost like they are having their morning prayers before beginning their day of hunting for food and feeding their young.

Solitary place. This is not a place for playing cards, but for being alone. Corporate prayers in the home and church should be done regularly, but so should prayer be done in a solitary place. A place of prayer. During my high school days, I sometimes went out behind the barn. That was a good place. It was also a good place to smoke a bit on one of my daddy's cigars I "borrowed" from him while he was asleep. Really mixed up, wasn't I? Jesus sought a place to pray away from the world and even away from His disciples. Would we not do well to establish a solitary place to pray?

There prayed. This is not a time to think of the grocery list on the side or thinking through some problems comin up during the day. A wandering mind during prayer time can be as troublesome as going to sleep.

Barnes had this to say in his commentary.

"If Jesus did it in the morning, how much more important is it for us, before the world gets possession of our thoughts; before Satan fills us with unholy feelings; when we rise fresh from beds of repose, and while the world around us is still! David also thus prayed, Psalm 5:3; Psalm 119:147. He that wishes to enjoy religion will seek a place of secret prayer in the morning. If that is omitted, all will go wrong, our piety will wither. The world will fill our thoughts. Temptations will be strong. Through the day, we shall find it impossible to raise our feelings to a state of proper devotion.

"It will be found to be true universally, "that the religious enjoyment through the day will be according to the state of the heart in the morning, and can therefore be measured by our faithfulness in early secret prayer." How different, too, was the conduct of the Saviour from those who spend the precious hours of the morning in sleep! He knew the value of the morning hours; he rose while the world was still; he saw the light as it spread abroad in the east with fresh tokens of his Father's presence, and joined with the universal creation in offering praise to the everywhere present God"