Good Morning! - 2010.06.25 - Romans 8:28-29 - God Works It For Good

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:28-29)

The book of Romans is held by many theologians and many ordinary Christians to be the greatest book in the Bible and also that chapter eight is the high-water mark. Then we come to verse 28 which is considered the pinnacle of the greatest book and the greatest chapter.

It is not merely our tears of repentance which guarantees the salvation of sinners, but God's purpose and persistence. When we say "salvation of sinners" we are not merely speaking of delivering people from the pit of an eternal hell, as good as that is. It goes far beyond that. Salvation of sinners includes God's plan to make them to be like His perfect Son as our text today declares.

If you are in the eternal salvation program of the living God, then you are also in his carpenter's shop and He is going to keep working on you until you bear the characteristics of His son.

That is God's purpose with you and you can count on His persistence to finish what He set out to do. The late Dr. Reuben A. Torrey called verse 28 "a soft pillow for a tired heart." We read that … the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now (Romans 8:22). McGee suggests that even the groanings work together for good.

Romans uses the phrase "We know" five times and the word "know" thirteen times. This knowledge is what the Holy Spirit makes real to us. The world, which knows nothing of the things of God understood by faith, has a hard time and little patience with Christians who say they know things about God. The Bible says For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Romans 8:14). If you take the stand in a court room or a school science lab and say the Spirit of God has led you in some activity you will likely be scorned and ridiculed.

If you say you know that all things work together for good to them that love God, some people are going to laugh you to scorn. The reason for this is: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1Corinthians 2:14)

All things. This is not a misprint. All things. I believe it takes as much or more faith to bury your child or your mate as it does to get God to heal you of cancer or a broken bone. I once held a man's leg while God knit the bones of his ankle back together and felt the heat of it through his pants. I saw God at work. I also saw God at work when I buried my wife at age 49. Barbara, my wife now for 24 years buried her son when he was 24.

God's ways and thoughts are above our ways and thoughts (Isaiah 55:8,9) and all those things we don't understand also work for good.God told His prophet Ezekiel:

Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded. (Ezekiel 24:16-18)

Are you angry with God because He took a loved one from you? All things work for good in order that we may become like Christ. Your greatest faith may not be to get somebody healed. Your greatest faith may be to agree with God when He does not heal someone you love. I have lived in hospitals and funeral homes for over 55 years looking at this huge flood of "all things."

Hebrews chapter eleven trumpets the great exploits of faith for 35 exciting verses and suddenly we counter verse 36: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: (Hebrews 11:36). If you have acquired the idea that faith always gets God to do things for you, then you need to study some more. Sometimes faith is accepting God's plan that does not include deliverance. The Hebrews about to be thrown into the fiery furnace told Nebuchadnezzar:

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (Daniel 3:17-18)

But our text today is limited to those "who are the called" ones, and it is "according to his purpose." McGee observes a great, unpopular truth: "This is something that is hard for a great many people to swallow. The called' are those who not only have received an invitation, they have accepted it. And they were born from above. They know experientially the love of God. To them the Cross was the dynamite of God unto salvation."

Good Morning! 2010.06.24 - Psalm 61:2,3 - The Rock That Is Higher Than I

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is

overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast

been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. (Psalm 61:2-3)

We would have to live in the eastern lands of wilderness to fully appreciate these verses. A rock that is "higher than I" is able to prevent the hot sun from bearing down directly upon a traveler caught in 110-120 degrees of heat. Away from the shadow of the rock, the sand will burn your feet.

In 1956 I traveled across Arizona and got out of the car to look at some cactus. I wondered how hot the sand was and pulled off my shoes. It was too hot to walk in. If you set the thermostat of your water heater above 108 degrees, it will be too hot for your hands. That's the temperature I have set the water heater since the days we had small children. If they are in the bathtub they won't get burned if the water is no higher than 108.

When Moses struck the rock the water came out as in our picture today. But our verses do not include water—just the shade. A rock that is "higher than I" can hide me from an enemy whose livelihood is killing and robbing. Christian hymnals include several songs about rocks. The Broadman Hymnal (©1940) that I grew up on has Rock of Ages and The Rock That is Higher Than I. Children love to sing the chorus: Jesus Is The Rock of My Salvation. Southern Gospel quartets do well on Why Don't You Lead Me That Rock?

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee -. The psalm was composed when David was driven from his home and his throne by Absalom, and was in exile beyond the Jordan, 2Samuel 17:22. Compare Psalm 42:1-11. Sometimes when you pray do you feel that God is a million miles away and you are left all alone? You work to bring God down or to move yourself closer in His direction. The Bible says: Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded (James 4:8).

See (James 4:8-10)

When my heart is overwhelmed - The word used here means to cover, as with a garment, Psalm 73:6; covered with grain - as a field, Psalm 65:13; then, with darkness or calamity, Isaiah 57:16. The meaning here is, that darkness or calamity seemed to have covered or enveloped his soul. He saw no light, he had no comfort. Compare Psalm 42:3, Psalm 42:6-7.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I -. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. (Psalm 18:2)

I need to be led to the Rock that is higher than I. The Word of God tells us that Jesus is our Rock. (1Corinthians 10:4), and He is a lot higher than I am! What a picture we have here of the Lord!

David is in the low lands of the Philistines and not in the high lands of Jerusalem and the hill of Zion. He is at the extreme and lowest parts of the land of the Philistines. Who would want to live there for long? We must set our eyes and our hearts on a higher plain than living in the lowlands (Isaiah 33:16).

The biggest rock I ever walked on is the Stone Mountain in Georgia. What a rock! It is now a tourist center. That rock has had the power to draw millions of people to come there and spend many millions of dollars in motels and restaurants and souvenir shops—to see the rock. We would do well to spend whatever time and effort necessary to come to and live in the shadow of the rock of our Salvation: the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a radical idea but the most rewarding idea you will ever have.

Good Morning! - 2010.06.23 - Psalm 66:18 - The Lord Will Not Hear Me

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: (Psalm 66:18)

Literally, "If I have seen iniquity in my heart." But in applying this to our lives we must acknowledge that no one can look into his own heart and not see that it is defiled by our own personal nature to sin.

It has more to do with our will and our identification with what is in our hearts. In the 1800's Hannah Whitall Smith wrote a book on The Secret of Christian Living. The book in summary was: "We must take sides with God against ourselves." Regardless of what is going on in our lives, just take sides with God.

Are there dark clouds hovering over your soul between you and God? Many Christians live like this and unknowingly keep a dark cloud of separation between them and the Lord all the time. They are saved, on their way to heaven but constantly live outside of fellowship with God.

"If I have cherished it in my soul; if I have gloated over past sins; if I am purposing to commit sin again; if I am not willing to abandon all sin, and to be holy the Lord will not hear me (Barnes).

The idea in the verse is that I must adopt a purpose in my heart to forsake all forms of sin. This is one the great foundational principles in regard to prayer and one of the most bothersome things to careless people who want to straddle the fence about obeying God.

Isaiah had this message from the Lord: Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2)

…God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1John 1:5). Then if we are going to be in fellowship with our Father we are going to have to be willing to pursue being like him. He plainly says: Be ye holy for I am holy (1Peter 1:16).

If you care to read further, you can follow the following links and get a deeper picture of what God says about iniquity in our hearts. This principle is affirmed or implied in Psalm 18:41; Psalm 34:15; Proverbs 1:28; Proverbs 15:29; Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 15:1-9; Jeremiah 11:11; Jeremiah 14:12; Zechariah 7:13; John 9:31. It is also especially stated in Isaiah 58:3-7.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:9)

Good Morning! 2010.06.22 - John 15:1,5 - The True Vine and Branches

Good Morning!

 

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

 

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in

 

him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can

 

do nothing.  (John 15:1,5)

 

The disciples who were listening to this lecture on grapes were governed by Jewish concepts. Their thinking was governed by the Old Testament writings.  A thing can be true as compared to that which is false. Or there may be a shadow of the real thing. God made the sun which is the great light source. He also made the moon which does not generate light but is an excellent reflector of light.

John the Baptist was a reflecting light but Jesus was the true light. As Christians, we are to reflect the light of Christ who is the light of the world. Moses gave bread/manna in the wilderness, but Jesus Christ is the true bread.  Here in this passage Jesus is saying that the nation of Israel is not the genuine vine but that Christ is the true vine. This is very important.

If they are to get it right, they must understand that their essential connection with God is not going to come from the Nation of Israel. Their connection must be with the Messiah/Christ of Israel.  Their relationship with the nation of Israel and the Jewish religion is not the important thing. Their relationship to the promised Messiah and Savior is the important thing.

We are to identify with Christ! We are baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit the moment we trust Christ as our Savior and are born again as a child of God.

In the Old Testament, God is the owner of the vineyard and has servants to take care of it. Here, He, himself is the keeper or farmer. Jesus is the Vine and the Father takes care of him. It was prophesied in the Old Testament that Jesus would grow up before the Father as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. The Father had to intervene often to save Jesus from the Devil who wanted to destroy him. The Father cared for the vine and also cared for the branches.

This passage is talking about fruit bearing. It is not talking about the salvation of the sinner and not talking about the security of the believer.  For the branches to bear fruit they must at all times be connected to the vine in a healthy manner so that sap can freely flow through the vine into the branches.

God made us with a free will and we can exercise that free will to break fellowship with God by allowing coldness and disobedience into our lives. When we do that, it is like turning off the hose faucet that sends water to plants in our garden.

It is a good thing to ask ourselves: "Am I connected to God through the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of my sins through the blood of Christ." It is also good to ask ourselves: "Can the life-giving sap of God's life flow into my life by the Holy Spirit?"

 

Nothing between my soul and the Savior,

Naught of this world's delusive dream;

I have renounced all sinful pleasure,

Jesus is mine there's nothing between.

(C.A. Tindley)

 

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

 

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Good Morning! - 2010.06.21 - Matthew 22:36-40 - The Great Commandment

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40)

I've been wanting to share these verses for a long time. I hope you will copy them on half of a 3x5 card (front and back) and carry them in your pocket until they will flow through your mind without effort and flow out of your mouth to share with many people.

I love to remember that President Abraham Lincoln practiced writing verses on scraps of paper and carrying them in his pocket while he was memorizing them. I carry one card in my shirt pocket all week and focus on it by quoting it as often as I think of it all day long—maybe 25 times. Seven days times 25 comes to 175 times.

It works! After a week, retire that verse into weekly review. You can do your reviewing early in the morning or sometime before you go to bed. I don't do much reviewing during the day. After you accumulate a lot of verses in your weekly review, retire some of them to your monthly review. You are going to be pleased with the results you are going to get by practicing this simple idea.

I got the idea from Abraham Lincoln and Ron Hood. I'm 75 and still working on memorizing. A teaspoon of cod liver oil every day and daily practice at memorizing is good for your brain. No kidding! It is good for you!

I send the Good Morning! verse(s) to four groups of people by cell phone text message. That's not for everybody but some like it. It's a quick on-the-go way of looking at one verse or two and looking at it throughout the day. If you would like to be put on the phone list, let me know (encourager@biblewalking.com) . In the subject line type: phone subscribe Give me your complete phone number and your URL(?) address (Verizon, or whoever). We'll start sending those from my computer soon. So far, it has been with my thumbs the old-fashioned way. Now then, let's get to the verses.

Jesus is not talking about how to be saved. No one has ever been saved by keeping the Law of Moses. The law was given to show people how to live on the earth and to show us we cannot attain righteousness and need the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. (Galatians3:24-25)

Paul explains further: Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Romans 4:6-8)

God says that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). So, our text today was not given to save our souls. We cannot be saved by keeping God's law and we cannot be saved by keeping our own made-up, home-made laws. How many self-righteous people are there who will tell you in a skinny minute: "Well, I'll tell you right now I wouldn't do some of the things some of those church members down there do. No siree!" They are self-righteous, above it all, a puffed-up toad. And they are probably right. They may know some sorry sot in the church who owes them money or drinks booze like a fish or cusses like a sailor. That's home-made righteousness.

The law was given like a mirror in the bathroom to let us know our face is dirty. But a bathroom mirror will not wash our face. It takes soap and water to clean up a greasy, dirty face. It takes the blood of Christ to wash your soul.

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

—William Cowper

The Law was given: … that every mouth might be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God (see Romans 3:19).

Father's Day...a bit of history and a few quotes...

Father's Day

By Steve Crain, 2010 (Copied by permission)

The first reported “Father’s Day” in the U.S. was observed on June 13, 1910, according to Wikipedia, which offers the following information:

Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington heard in 1909 a sermon about the newly recognized Mother’s Day while she sat in Spokane’s Central Methodist Episcopal Church. She felt fatherhood needed recognition, too, and wanted to honor fathers like her father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who raised his family alone on a rural farm in the state of Washington after his wife died giving birth to their sixth child.

Dodd enlisted Spokane Ministerial Association help in 1909 and arranged for the celebration of fatherhood in that city. On June 19, 1910, young members of the YMCA went to church wearing roses – a red rose to honor a living father and a white rose to honor a deceased father. Dodd traveled through the city in a horse-drawn carriage, carrying gifts to shut-in fathers.

In spite of support from the YWCA and churches, Father’s Day ran the risk of disappearing from the calendar. Mother’s Day was met with enthusiasm, but Father’s Day was often met with laughter. The holiday slowly gathered attention – but for the wrong reasons. It was the target of much satire, parody and derision, including jokes from the local Spokesman-Review newspaper. Many people saw it as the first step in filling the calendar with mindless promotions.

A bill to give national recognition to the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson traveled to Spokane to speak in a Father’s Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing it would become commercialized. President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the U.S. observe the day but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine’s Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers by designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. In 1972, President Richard Nixon made the day a permanent, legal and official national holiday.

Here are some quotes about fathers:

“A father is a fellow who has replaced the currency in his wallet with the snapshots of his kids,” someone said.

“My father was often angry when I was most like him,” said playwright Lillian Hellman.

American professional baseball player Harmon Killebrew said, “My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.” Dad would reply, “We’re not raising grass. We’re raising boys.”

“The Christian father is really an instrument in God's hand,” someone said.

“No father is perfect, except “our Father who art in heaven,” a writer noted.

While his children were still young, Robert E. Lee, a West Point graduate who later led the Confederate Army during the U.S. Civil War, reportedly went walking one morning. Snow had fallen the night before. As Lee walked, he heard faint, small footsteps behind him. Looking back, he found Custis, his little boy, walking in the tracks Lee made in the snow. The boy struggled to put his feet in the exact footprints left by his father.

“When I saw this,” Lee told a friend, “I said to myself, ‘It behooves me to walk very straight when this fellow is already following in my tracks.’”

Someone said a “Father’s Orders” are given in Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

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 www.stevecrain.blogspot.com  

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