When the Foundations are Shaken - Day 258 Through the Bible

The Bakersville Creekwalk Festival is this weekend - Saturday, September 21 from 10-5 - near Mt. Celo Church

My Lessons and Applications from Today's Readings

(Ellipses are mine and are used for contemplation.)

Earth Destroyed / Mercy on a Remnant - Isaiah 23 and 24 - (What It Says - Summarized) - Tyre, Sidon, Tarshish, Cyprus - the whole earth - "will be emptied...laid waste...mourn...fade away...will be defiled...broken down...destroyed...the foundations of the earth are shaken...violently broken...split open...shaken exceedingly... it will fall, and not rise again" BECAUSE "they have transgressed the laws...changed the ordinance...broken the everlasting covenant.  THEREFORE the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate.  Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left...the LORD of hosts has purposed it, to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth."  But the promised remnant..."They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing; for the majesty of the LORD they shall cry aloud from the sea.  Therefore glorify the LORD in the dawning light, the name of the LORD God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.  From the ends of the earth we have heard songs: 'Glory to the righteous!"'

When the Foundations are Shaken - Psalm 107:10-22 - (What It Says - Summarized) - "Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons - BECAUSE...they rebelled against the words of God...and despised the counsel of the Most High...THEREFORE...He brought down their heart with labor...they fell down, and there was none to help. THEN...they cried out to the LORD in their trouble...And HE saved them out of their distresses...HE brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death...and broke their chains in pieces.  Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for HIS goodness...and for HIS wonderful works to the children of men! Fools, because of their transgressions...their iniquities...were afflicted...drew near to death...THEN...they cried out to the LORD in their trouble...and HE saved them out of their distresses...HE sent HIS word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.  Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for HIS goodness...and for HIS wonderful works to the children of men!"

The Grace of God / To the Glory of God - 2 Corinthians 8 - (What It Says - Summarized) Through the grace of God...first giving themselves to the Lord...then to us by the will of God...the poor and afflicted of the Macedonian church "willingly, imploringly, with much urgency" persuaded Paul and Titus to take "their gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints" in need in Judea.  Paul wanted Titus to "minister the grace of God...complete this grace of God...see that the Corinthians abound in this grace also as they abound in everything...in faith...in speech...in knowledge...in all diligence...in their love for Paul and Titus."  Their pattern of this grace - of emptying oneself for others - was to be, of course, Jesus.  "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."  The Corinthians are advised by the Apostle to..."complete what you began...with diligence...with a willing mind...according to what one has...not according to what one does not have...to the glory of the Lord Himself."

My Lessons and Applications - We are almost 3/4 finished with our reading of the Bible in a year.  I pray we will each complete what we began with diligence- this grace of God in spending time alone with Him in meditation on and instruction from His Word.  What are the patterns of behavior I have seen throughout these readings thus far?  What pattern should have been followed that was not?  In the OT readings, we have seen clearly the rebellion of the people against the law of God, against His covenant, the failure to remember past and present blessings from God and to praise Him for them, the pattern of forgetting God, the deifying of self.  In the NT readings, Jesus Christ is our pattern, our New Covenant written in His sacrificial blood and sealed with His Holy Spirit within us.  We are called...to give His gospel to the world...to empty ourselves for others - especially within the household of faith - all for His glory.  We are to call on Him, walk moment-by-moment with Him through the leading of His Spirit within us, thank and praise him continually, both in times of blessing and in the midst of affliction and sorrow.  I am reminded that discipleship is not easy.  Christ warned us of this.  I am more aware that we, as believers, are different from the world.  We are pilgrims.  This is not our home.  We are sheep among wolves.  We cannot do this alone.  Christ warned us of this.  I have learned the incomparable joy...peace...comfort...of time spent alone with Jesus...of the deep, unmistakable stirring of my soul by the Holy Spirit on some point of conviction or direction...of a previously withheld or veiled revelation that God illumined for me in my mind...the reviving of my soul by just sitting here awhile...alone with God and His Word.  I pray you have received these gifts as well and that, in some way, God will use us and His work within us to His glory and praise and to the furthering of His kingdom work.

For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness.  Psalm 107:9

Some needs are universal.  1) The first is a sense of belonging...the need to fit in somewhere. 2) Another is a sense of worth...to be able to say, "I matter."  3) A third is a sense of competence...to know for certain that we can accomplish what God puts before us through His power and provision in our lives.

God responded to every one of these universal needs at the cross.  WE BELONG because our heavenly Father called us into His holy family.  WE HAVE WORTH because Jesus paid such a great price for our salvation.  And WE ARE COMPETENT because God has sent His Holy Spirit to indwell and empower us.  Are you struggling with any of these universal needs?  If so, lay them before the Lord today.  Then, trust HIM to make you the complete person HE created you to be.

Dr. Charles Stanley, Life Principles Daily Study Bible, pg. 1116