Tag: salvation

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Consequences VI

The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left . . . From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One,” But I say, “Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me! The treacherous deal treacherously, And the treacherous deal very treacherously!” . . . Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.  (Isaiah 24:5-6,16, 23, NASB) 

Isaiah prophesied against the Kingdom of Judah.  Above are excerpts from one of his messages.  He begins by indicting the people of the earth for polluting God’s creation.  Carbon emissions are not to blame.  Nor is cow flatulence.  No, the problem is sin.  People have forever broken God’s laws.  The consequence:  “A curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.”  I think that the sins of people today are more of a problem than global warming! 

Next, Isaiah decries the hypocrisy of men.  While men sing “Glory to the Righteous One,” Isaiah cries out, “Woe!” because he knows that they don’t mean it.  Isaiah’s commentary:  “The treacherous deal treacherously, And the treacherous deal very treacherouly!”  People have always paid lip service to our God.  We have to get serious in our worship! 

Fresco of the prophet Isaiah painted by Michelangelo and his assistants for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 to 1512.  Found at Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah.

Finally, in a nod to the end of time, when there is a New Heaven and a New Earth, “The LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.”  The Apostle John, in his Revelation, mentions the New Jerusalem, where followers of Jesus will spend eternity with Him.  He also tells of the 24 elders, who never cease to bow down before the throne of God in worship to Him.  What a glorious time that will be! 

Worship:  “All the Earth,” by Parachute Band
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Psalm 121

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth . . .  The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.  (Psalm 121:1-2, 7-8, NASB)

Psalm 121 is “The LORD the Keeper of Israel.”  It’s one of my favorite psalms.  The Bible passage above has the highlights from my e-Bible.  

I happened to be in Colorado Springs one day.  I was doing Bible study in my motel room.  My habit was to read a psalm each day during my quiet time.  The psalm for that day was Psalm 121.  “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come?”  Wow!  I opened the curtain, I saw Pike’s Peak and the Rampart Range right in front of me!  I kept reading:  “My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.”  Hereafter, whenever I saw a mountain, or a picture of a mountain, I think of this passage.

Psalm 121:1-2 image.  Found at Home Is Where the Heart Is, https://theresnoplacelikehome05.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/i-lift-my-eyes-up-to-the-mountains/. 

These same two verses are on a stained glass window in the Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy.  If you look through this window, you can see the Rampart Range, the foothills to the Rocky Mountains.  There is great hope to take in this scene!  (Side note:  The Cadet Chapel is closed for several years for renovation, to repair leaks in the structure.  The Chapel is surrounded by a huge, box-like shroud while the renovation takes place.  Many cadets will graduate having never seen the Chapel!)

This psalm ends with great hope:  “The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.”  Sign me up! 

Worship:  “He Will Keep You (Psalm 121),” by Sovereign Grace Music 
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Psalm 107

Oh give thanks to the LORD , for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary . . . Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good . . . Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses . . . He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions . . . Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things, And consider the lovingkindnesses of the LORD.  (Psalm 107:1-2, 8-9,13, 20, 43, NASB)

Above are my highlights from Psalm 107.  

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”  This line is repeated many times in the psalms, and elsewhere in the Old Testament.  We should always give thanks to the Lord, for His goodness and for His love, which endures forever and ever!  “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”  God’s redeemed people are commanded to repeat this truth.  For those of us who are saved by the blood of Jesus, we should always thanks to God for His love, by which He sent Jesus for our salvation! 

The title of Psalm 107 is “The Lord Delivers Men from Manifold Troubles.”  Indeed He does!  What are the troubles listed in this psalm?  God delivers us “from the hand of the adversary”; “[saves us] from [our] distresses”; He heals us; and “[delivers us] from [our] destructions.”  

Psalm 107:1 image.  Found at Truth for Life with Alistair Begg, https://www.facebook.com/truthforlife/photos/a.80595482261/10151501035127262/?type=3.

Why should we “give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men”?  Because “He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.”  

And finally, the psalmist gives us a sort of a definition of a wise person:  Men and women who give “heed to these things, And consider the lovingkindnesses of the Lord.”  

The Lord is indeed loving to us, and we should always praise Him for Who He is.  Because of our sins, He wants no part of us.  But God wants to have fellowship with us, and He has a plan of salvation:  God sent His Son Jesus to the earth to be sin for us.  Jesus took the punishment we deserve, and was executed in our place.  God has promised that if we believe in Jesus, we will spend eternity with Him in heaven!  And WE get to make that decision!  What have you decided? 

Worship:  “Psalm 107–Give Thanks to the Lord (His Love is Everlasting),” by Francesca LaRosa
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Consequences V

“For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”  (2 Chronicles 30:9, NASB)

I love to study the kings of Israel and Judah.  Their actions before God have consequences, both on a personal level and a national level.  While the Northern Kingdom of Israel had no good kings, the Kingdom of Judah had some good kings and some bad kings.  Since the kings of Judah were in the line of Messiah, this means that there were some bad apples in Jesus’ ancestry. 

2 Chronicles 30:9 image.  Found at Bible Hub, https://biblepic.com/2_chronicles/30-9.htm.

King Hezekiah was good in the eyes of the Lord.  A partial quotation is in the passage above. Hezekiah tried and largely succeeded in turning Judah back to the Lord.  At the time, Israel had been conquered by Assyria and sent into exile.  Hezekiah thought that if Judah were to repent that their brothers and sisters might be restored to their land.  “For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

This is important on a personal level as well.  We are all sinners.  But there is no sin too great to turn us away from God’s love.  He will forgive.  All we need to do is to ask for His forgiveness, and turn our lives over to Jesus.  It’s why God sent His Son to the earth! 

Worship:  “God Is In This Story,” by Katy Nichole & Big Daddy Weave
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Consequences II

At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.” Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.  (2 Chronicles 16:7-10, NASB)

God wants us to rely on Him.  When we don’t, there are consequences, like King Asa faced. 
In the Bible passage above, King Asa, king of Judah, has an encounter with Hanani, a prophet of God.  Prior to this, King Asa, who was the grandson of King Solomon, relied on God when the Ethiopian army came to do battle with Judah.  The Ethiopians greatly outnumbered the army of Judah.  Yet because Asa humbled himself and asked God for His favor, God gave the Ethiopian army into Judah’s hands. 

But in the situation described above, Asa was feeling heat from the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Instead of calling on God for help, Asa emptied the treasury of the House of God, and instead paid the king of Aram to fight against Israel.  God was angry.  Hence Hanani’s sermon to King Asa.  As a result of Asa’s lack of faith, Hanani told him, “Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.”  The king then shot the messenger.

2 Chronicles 16:9 image.  Found at Knowing Jesus, https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/2-Chronicles/16/9.

God wants us to rely on Him.  He wants to be involved in all of our decisions.  God loves us.  There are consequences when we don’t include Him in our decision-making.  They may be financial or personal in nature, but we will see consequences.  He loves us, and He wants to be in our lives.  For me it’s comforting to know He’s watching out for me.  “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

Worship:  “Magnificent, Marvelous, Matchless Love,” by Keith & Kristyn Getty

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Consequences

Now when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “You must not go up and fight against your relatives the sons of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing has come from Me.” ’ ” So they listened to the word of the Lord, and returned and went their way according to the word of the Lord  (1 Kings 12:21-24, NASB)

Going against God’s commands has consequences.  King Rehoboam was in a pickle because of his father’s actions.  His dad, King Solomon, didn’t follow God’s law, which said to not have any idols, but to follow Him only.  Solomon had many foreign wives, which was a problem, because late in his life he drifted away from the Lord his God, and honored the idols of his wives.  Because of this, God said that He would rip the Kingdom of Israel apart, and that Solomon’s son would see the consequences. 

King Rehoboam indeed saw the kingdom torn apart.  While he ruled the Kingdom of Judah, which included the sons of Benjamin, the other ten tribes formed the northern Kingdom of Israel.  Rehoboam wanted to go to war, and force reunification, but as we see from the passage above, God tells him not to attack Israel, because “this thing has come from Me.”  For once, they listened to the counsel of the Lord, and Judah stood down! 

2 Chronicles 11:4 image.  Found at Bible Hub, 
https://biblepic.com/2_chronicles/11-4.htm.

Even today, there are consequences for not following God.  He wants us to be reconciled to Him, to spend eternity with Him.  But the problem is that we’re all sinners, and God can’t tolerate sin to be in His presence.  But He has a plan of salvation.  God sent His Son Jesus to take away our sins.  Jesus became sin for us and took our place on the execution rack, a Roman cross.  He took the punishment we deserve, and died in our place so that we will have eternal life with Him in heaven.  The choice is ours:  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved!

Worship:  “Holy Holy Holy,” by Paul Wilbur 
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Work

Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.  (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20, NASB)

Work.  Many of us (me included) consider work, or labor to be drudgery.  But that’s not what God intended it to be.  Adam and Eve were put in the Garden of Eden to attend to all the plants God had put there.  But when they sinned, God expelled them from the garden, and told them that they would have to do laborious work in order to plant and harvest their crops.  THAT’S when work became difficult.  But what does the wisest man who ever lived say about our work?  It’s there in the Bible passage above. 

In short, King Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, says that one should “enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him.”  Yikes!  And why should we enjoy ourselves?  “For this is [our] reward.”  Later, the Apostle Paul wrote that in our labor, we should work as to the Lord.  The Lord is indeed our Boss.  (Old bumper sticker:  “My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter.”)  

Ecclesiastes 5:20 image.  Found at Biblical Foundations for Freedom, https://bffbible.org/parenting/view/gladness-ecc-5-20.

So God wants us to appreciate everything He’s given to us, including our labor.  When I pray for someone, I pray that God will bless him or her in their work.  That means that God will make them happy in their labor.  I’m at the age where many of my contemporaries are retired from their professions.  But our labor isn’t about just a paying job.  It’s any kind of toil.  If we drag a trash can to the curb; if we clean our house; if we cut the grass, that’s the labor in which we’re to revel.  Many of my friends from Sunday School are in hospital.  Their work is to recover and rehab. 

The wisest man who ever lived says that our work is “the gift of God.”  Through our labors, “God keeps [us] occupied with the gladness of [our hearts].”  Work, or labor, is one of God’s gifts to us.  We’re to appreciate all of our work, to treat it as a blessing.  We will be working in heaven.  Life for us who believe in Jesus is just a dress rehearsal for eternity! 

Worship:  “Burn In Me,” by Paul Wilbur
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Holy Spirit in Us

Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.  (Acts 1:4-8, NASB)

Tomorrow, 28 May, is Pentecost Sunday.  We remember this day the appearance by the Holy Spirit into the lives of Jesus’ disciples.  After the Spirit came upon them, they were preaching about Jesus, Who was crucified, buried, risen from the dead, and had ascended into heaven.  Jesus had told His disciples that He would speak to His Father, Who would then send His Spirit to them.  I’m sure they didn’t understand just what this meant.  They also spoke in various tongues so foreigners would understand them.  The people who witnessed this display thought His disciples were drunk.  You can read this account in Chapter 2 of Acts. 

Acts 1:8 image.  Found at The Living… , 
https://wiirocku.tumblr.com/post/182178219570/acts-18-nkjv-but-you-shall-receive-power-when. 

The passage above is Dr. Luke’s account of Jesus talking with His disciples prior to His Ascension into heaven.  Jesus tells them not to leave Jerusalem, “but to wait for what the Father had promised,” that is, the Holy Spirit.  Jesus then tells them that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Do you know that you are Jesus’ witnesses?  If you know Jesus, from the moment you believed in Him, the same Holy Spirit moved into your heart.  We Jesus-followers have the very same power within us as Jesus’ disciples displayed in Acts 2!  We must unleash the power of the Holy Spirit within so we can be His witnesses to the ends of the earth! 

Worship:  “Yield My Heart,” by Kim Walker-Smith

On this Memorial Day I’d like to remember loved ones and friends who have served our Nation, and have passed on.   

My Father-in-Law, Bob Brower, who served in the European Theater during World War II.  He crewed in B-17s as a radio operator and waist gunner. 

Neighbors:  Andy La Mar (Hedly), an F-15E Strike Eagle Weapons Systems Operator. 

Friends from our Germany assignment: John Davis, an F-4 Weapons Systems Operator.

Squadron/Classmates:  Kosta Asselanis, who flew C-141s; and Rod Williams, who was a B-52 navigator. 

Dads of USAFA Squadron/Classmates:  General Jack Catton, Sr., who flew bombers during World War II, and commanded Air Force Major Commands; and Colonel Cliff Birchman, who flew fighters in Vietnam. I got to meet both of these gentlemen when I was a Cadet.  They’re heroes of mine. 

Friends and squadron mates who were killed in training accidents:  Dave Mayer, USAFA classmate, A-7D accident in Turkey; Kyle Perdue, A-10A mishap in Kentucky; Joe Rayhill, A-10A accident in Arizona; Ross Mulhare, F-117A mishap in California; Mike Stewart, F-117A accident in Nevada;  Ralph Gardner, USAFA classmate, F-16C accident in Republic of Korea. 

Sunday School class:  Don Seymore, USMC, two Purple Hearts in Vietnam; Gene Cole, Army Special Operations (a Snake-Eater!), served in Vietnam;  Brigadier General Dick Abel, USAF, one of my mentors; Ed Blanks, U.S. Coast Guard; Rudy Davis, U.S. Army, Infantry. 

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Rest in Peace, Rudy Davis

A gentleman from my Sunday School class has just passed away, and was greeted by Jesus in heaven!  Rudy Davis has reported to heaven.  Prayers for his wife Barbara and their family.  Comfort, hope, and strength to them.  In Jesus’ precious name. 

Worship:  “Homeward Bound,” by Kristene DiMarco
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Praise God in All the Earth!

God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah. That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations.  Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.  (Psalm 67, NASB)

Psalm 67 is so interesting to me that I highlighted the entire psalm.  It’s titled “The Nations Exhorted to Praise God.”  The author is not known, and it’s meant to be a song.  

What stands out most for me in this psalm is the desire to make known to the world of God’s salvation, and that the whole earth should sing His praises.  

No photo description available.
Psalm 67:3-4 image.  Found at Bible Answer Man, https://www.facebook.com/BibleAnswerManBroadcast/posts/let-the-nations-be-glad-and-sing-for-joy-psalm-673-4/10154992120677852/.

In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded His disciples to go out to the world and spread His gospel.  We’re taught that Jesus will not return to His earth to gather His elect until all people groups hear the message of salvation.  This psalm is prescient to me in explaining these things. 

Worship:  “Psalm 67–O God, Let All the Nations Praise You,” by Francesca LaRosa