Month: March 2024

I’ve been meditating on Isaiah 53:7. “He was oppressed and He was afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.” Jesus was the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Jesus took our sins upon Himself and was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. This prophecy from Isaiah was written more than 700 years before it happened. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. No other would suffice. 1 Peter 1 states that we would not be redeemed from our empty way of life handed down by our forefathers, but only by the precious blood of the lamb. And Jesus was chosen to be the substitute for our sins “before the foundations of the world.” Before this world was, God saw there was but one way we could be redeemed…the horrible sacrifice of His only son. For God so loved the world. And yet we still don’t fully understand.

I’ve been quite bothered lately by examples being used of how certain peoples’ ordeals mirror that of what Jesus went through. Imagine Jesus’ answer to Judas when he asks the Lord to sign a few Torahs as they could probably get a couple denarius for each one. Probably He’d reiterate what He said in Matthew 6:24, “You cannot serve God and money.” Even Billy Graham said he wouldn’t sign people’s bibles when asked because he was not the author. Or maybe the Lord would overturn a few tables the money changers had set up in the temple and say, “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves.”(Matthew 21:13) Rather than telling people to go after those He felt harmed Him, Jesus might have said hit them, make fun of them. Here are the names of even their families so you can threaten them. But in Luke 22, when they came to arrest Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane and Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, Jesus heals his ear. On the cross Jesus asks His Father to forgive those who crucified Him. So, what are we missing here? Donald Trump has compared what he is going through to that which Christ went through. He stated that he’s going through his terrible trials the very week Jesus went through His. As if they and he are similar to our Savior. If Jesus had yelled out the names of those responsible for His scourging and crucifixion, all of mankind would have been named. We all must take an accounting of where we are with Him. Follow God or man.

Jesus said in Matthew 5 that we are to be the salt of the earth. Too many have lost this flavor. We are to be the light of the world that shines before men and glorifies our Father in heaven. We are falling short by our actions and our inaction. Saying nothing in the face of that which is contrary to His commands is being complicit. We must realize that He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. So why would we follow after wrong teaching that will only lead us astray? Why endure teachings that insult the spirit of grace? It is written that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. (Hebrews 10) But at some point, we may just see a re-enactment of Acts 13 where the people listened to King Herod and shouted, “The voice of a god and not of a man.” And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him and he was eaten by worms and died because he took the glory that was the Lord’s.

I pray we do our best to put things in proper perspective. Jesus gave His life for us. No one can relate to what the Lord did for us. No one! Read and ask what it means to be crucified with Christ. Hope you never hear who has bewitched you or worse…depart from me. Embrace Him. Love one another. He who does not walks in darkness. Meditate on what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Imitate me as I also imitate Christ.” It’s a good start. He is risen! Be blessed.

We live in a time of uncertainty and conflict. Swirling emotions. And we’re approaching a time of seeing this so increase that it will cause an unsteadiness that will rival the worst case of vertigo. Certain verses can work to alleviate uncertainty bordering on seasickness. Similar to how keeping one’s eyes on the horizon provides a stable point for our eyes to focus on, thereby avoiding seasickness. Rather than a dramamine, I start every day with certain verses. For me, it provides help and comfort. And it allows me to try to fulfill His commands. And I need all the help I can get to walk uprightly. The more we can stay tethered to Him the better we will stand when storms come and He said He would be there with us during these times.

The first verse I recite each day is Micah 6:8. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” There is so much required here and without trying to stay in His presence it is impossible to fulfill. So that leads me next to Nahum 1:7, “The Lord is good, He is a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those that trust in Him.” Man, I hope so because I have too many days where I feel alone and wondering if His phone is off the hook. I’m then in Psalm 121 reciting, “I will lift my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved.” I have to trust Him for that, for too many times I feel like I’m on a sandy incline slipping backwards two steps for every step I advance. But I trust in the closing of this Psalm when the Lord says He will preserve my going out and coming in from this time forth and even forever more. He said in Hebrews 13:5 that He would never leave us or forsake us. Hold onto that. So, can we do as Jesus commanded in Matthew 22:37-40? Can we love Him with all that’s within us and at the same time love our neighbor? Do you see that when you look at this world?

That leads me to Psalm 86:11, a verse I’ve been saying each day for quite a few years. “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.” I’m asking Him to reveal to me His ways, for I so often stumble or follow a path I’ve tried to clear in the wilderness. I ask for Him to unite my heart so I can walk circumspectly. To become one with Him. To revere Him. To want to spend time in His presence where there is fullness of joy and yet knowing that I’ll stumble.  But even as I do, I can rest assured that He will show me the path of life. His path for me. Yet I know what was stated in Jeremiah 17:9 is so true. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Sort of a conundrum. Yet through Christ we have hope. A new beginning. Life as He planned for us before the world began. Just as He promised in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.” I hold onto this, for to not have my heart united in Him is to be double minded and therefore unstable in all my ways (James 1:8).

We may feel like Peter in Matthew 14 where he sees Jesus walking on the water and is asked to step out on the water with Jesus. Jesus said “Come” and Peter did. He was united with the Lord. He was walking in truth and with the “Truth.” But then the waves and wind became boisterous and Peter had his faith tested. He took his eyes off the prize. Just like I do. Just like we all do. And then we do not walk in the truth that is Christ alone. Maybe we should recite the words to that old hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” The things that are swirling in this world and causing us to doubt and follow wrong doctrine will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory. We need to remember this when we hear strange doctrine purporting to be words of the Lord. Or when we see teachers, pastors, prophets and evangelists we may have once listened to now cause many to stumble or find themselves in the waves and no longer know how to swim. Be like the psalmist who said in Psalm 119, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” A heart united with Him. “May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the patience of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5) Blessings.