Object Lessons of Faith and Faithlessness - Day 286 Through the Bible

Gospel Song Fall Fest at the Amphitheater at High Pastures Christian Retreat – near Mt. Celo Church - Taking the gospel message from the family to the community - A grandfather watches his grandchildren prepare to sing songs they wrote about their faith walk at the fall gospel song fest. 

My Lessons and Applications from Today’s Readings

(Ellipses are mine and are used for contemplation.)

An Object Lesson for an Unrepentant People – Jeremiah 13 and 14 – (Facts: What It Says – Summarized)  God has warned His people through His covenant curses, His prophets, and His Word, but they persist in their sin…in their idolatry …trust in falsehood– have forgotten God. Now He uses an object lesson.  Jeremiah is told to tie a sash around his waist.  Some time later, the LORD tells Jeremiah to “take the sash and hide it under a hole in a rock.”  After many days, Jeremiah was told to go and get the sash which was hidden.  “It was ruined; it was profitable for nothing.”   Then the LORD said, “In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.  “This evil people who…refuse to hear My words…who follow the dictates of their own hearts…who walk after other gods to serve and worship them…they shall be just like this sash…which is profitable for nothing.  For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me…THAT…they may become My people…for renown…for praise...and for glory…but…they would not hear.”   God then declares His coming judgment on both houses.  Wine bottles will be filled…but for drunkenness.  He will “destroy them…have no pity…not spare...nor have mercy on them.”  He will bring droughts…that will cause them to mourn…languish…cry…be ashamed…confounded…to cover their heads.”  Then they will call on God in their desperation…plead with Him to not leave them…for HIM to remember the covenant.  They acknowledge their wickedness, but they don’t repent and don’t change.  For the third time, God tells Jeremiah to NOT pray for them.  “Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good.  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them.  But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”  Then the LORD pronounces doom on the false prophets from whom comes a false vision…divination…a worthless thing…the deceit of their heart…lies.  Principle:  God knows the true intent of our hearts and has little regard for lip service only or for sacrifices from a deceitful heart.  It is not words from us He seeks, but evidence of a transformed life living in obedience to His Word and will.

The Song of a Repentant, Saved Soul – Psalm 118: 15-20. (Facts: What It says – Summarized) - His testimony: “The LORD has chastened me severely, but He has not given me over to death.”  His present state: The psalmist now sees himself “in the tents of the righteous…with the voice of…rejoicing…and salvation” over his transformed life because of God’s mercy and grace.  His vow:  “to declare the works of the LORD.”  Principle:  Repented sin resulting in changed behavior, leads to salvation, rejoicing, and righteousness, but chastening (consequences) may still be borne as a result of the sin.  The outflow of a grateful heart for God’s salvation is to declare the works of the LORD to others.

New Believers as Object Lessons of Faith - 1 Thessalonians 1 – (Facts: What It Says – Summarized) How they were saved:  “By receiving the word…in much affliction…with joy of the Holy Spirit.  The outcome of their salvation: “their work of faith… their labor of love…their patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father…their election by God…not in word only…but also in…power…and in the Holy Spirit…and in much assurance…their example to others as followers of the Lord…their sounding forth the word of the LORD in every place…their faith toward God going out, so that the Apostle and his followers need not say anything” Their testimony to others:  “How they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…to wait for His Son from heaven…whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”  Principle:  The pattern of salvation is the same now as then: God elects, calls, saves, and transforms through His Word, His power, His Holy Spirit.  Our salvation is still evidenced by our faith, our labor of love and our patient hope in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our testimony and outcome are the same: Taken from a pit of despair to follow Christ, to go…take…teach the gospel to all nations for the salvation of souls to the glory of God.

My Lessons and Applications:  Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)  Jeremiah went on his prophetic teaching mission to the Elect Nations of Judah and Israel.  He was to take God’s word, speak and teach, but salvation was of God.  He was God’s messenger, witness.  It was the same mission for St. Paul and the other disciples and apostles to the Jewish remnant and the Gentile nations.  Many of the churches received condemnation – for sins and following false doctrine (much like the people to whom Jeremiah was sent) - but some – like Thessalonica – received commendations.  We are sent out with the same mission into all nations.  We take and teach/disciple; God saves or condemns.  Our work is enormously rewarding when we see evidence of faith and heart-rending when we don’t – just like it was with Jeremiah and Paul, but the mission must go forward until Jesus comes or God closes that door. It is startling to hear God tell Jeremiah for the 3^rd time thus far in our Jeremiah reading, to NOT pray any longer for the wicked people because He has condemned them to doom.  The NT also gives us indication of a time when God will close the door, “give them up to their uncleanness, vileness, debased mind” – Romans 1: 18-32  - among other passages.  “I tell you, NOW is the time of God’s favor.  NOW is time of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2).  “Harvest is passed; summer is ended; and we are not saved!” (Jeremiah 8:20)  Are we filled with, empowered by, anointed by Him for this work through His Holy Spirit – beginning with ourselves, then to our families, our churches, our places of work, our communities, our nation, the world (“out of every tongue, tribe and nation” – Daniel 3:4, 5:19, Revelation 5:9, 7:9), out of our own prejudices and proclivities, into His mandated world mission work?

We know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.  1 Thessalonians 1:4

Many people wish to know if they are among God’s elect before they ever look to Christ.  But we cannot learn of our election in this manner, for it can only be discovered by “fixing our eyes on Jesus.” (Hebrews 12:2) Look to Jesus and believe on Him, and you will find proof of your election immediately; for as soon as you believe, you are one of the elect.  If you give yourself completely to Christ and trust in Him, you are one of God’s chosen ones.  Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”and ”I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled him.” (John 6:44,65).  “Election is a doctrine that even many long-time Christians reject, although it is taught throughout the Scriptures.” Jim Reimann on Charles Spurgeon’s text above – in regard to any readers’ struggles with understanding election and sovereignty.

The First Martyr Gives Rise to the Great Apostle - Day 176 Through the Bible

The South Toe River near Mt. Celo Church

Today's Readings

Hearts Revealed In the Presence of God: Part II - The Return of the Ark to Jerusalem
1 Chronicles 15 and 16 - Yesterday's readings told of David's 1st attempt to return the ark to Jerusalem that ended in disaster and failure.  Uzza was struck dead by God for touching the ark, David was angry with God, then was afraid of God, then refused to move the ark further and left it in the house of Obed-Edom for 3 months, whom God blessed.  David has now defeated the Philistines through His request of, answers from, and exact obedience to the LORD.  The king builds houses for himself and prepares a place for the ark.  David has now gone back to the law to study and follow it carefully (Deut. 10:8).  Instead of 2 men to bring the ark on a cart, it will now be "the Levites, whom God has chosen to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever."  The Levites are told to..."sanctify yourselves...to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel...for because you did not do it the first time, the LORD our God broke out against us...because we did not...consult Him about...the proper order. So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.  And the children of the Levites...bore the ark of God on their shoulders,...by its poles,...as Moses had commanded...according the word of the LORD." (Ellipses are mine and are used as pauses for consideration.)  The singing, music, and dancing before the LORD with great joy continue as with the first attempt to move the ark.  Sacrifices for the LORD's help, burnt offerings, peace offerings, a blessing of the people by the king, and David's beautiful Psalm of Thanksgiving follow this.  It is not an event without opposition, though.  Michal, David's wife and Saul's daughter, despised her husband for his lack of kingly dignity in dancing before the people.

My Lessons and Applications - The ark represents the presence of God with His people. Our hearts and motives - not just our actions - are revealed when we are in His presence.  Michal, David's wife, was more concerned with the world and its traditions than with God and the heartfelt praise and joy of His people in worshipping Him.  Am I guilty of this?  What does this say about our attitudes of the heart during worship on Sunday? Our critical natures of how others express their love and joy in the LORD?
Am I guilty of the sin of the priests and Levites during the first move of the ark?  Do I sanctify myself before the LORD - consecrate, purify, cleanse myself (confession, repentance) - become more Christ-like?  Do I attempt to do the LORD's work in my own power, or through the power of the Holy Spirit? Am I making the mistake David and the Levites did?  Am I using worldly, expedient means to accomplish a spiritual task, or am I following the commands of God and resting and trusting in His power, following His commands?  Am I respecting and honoring the holiness of Almighty God out of godly fear and love?

The First Martyr Gives Rise to the Great Apostle - Acts 7:44-60 - Stephen, the disciple whose face shown like an angel, has reached a state of sanctification and holiness - Christ-likeness - that makes his final hours on earth resonate with even the words of Christ.  In boldness - like Christ - he accuses the religious council of being "stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!  You always resist the Holy Spirit. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?  You do as they did.  And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.  When they heard these things...they were cut to the heart,...and they gnashed at him with their teeth.  But he...being full of the Holy Spirit...gazed into heaven...saw the glory of God, and...Jesus standing...at the right hand of God, and said, 'Look!  I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man...standing...at the right hand of God."  As they stone Stephen to death, like Christ had called to God, he says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.  Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice (as Christ did), "Lord, do not charge them with this sin.  And when he said this, he fell asleep."

My Lessons, Applications, Contemplations -  One thing of note and caution here: when hard truth was presented to these people, they knew it - they were cut to the heart - and their way of dealing with that was murderous/destructive rage. I think a "Selah" might be appropriate here in considering this aspect of human nature.  On a more encouraging note, Charles Stanley reminds us that several Bible passages speak of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God after His ascension (Mark 16:19, Col. 3:1, Heb. 1,3, 10:12, 12:2)  "Yet to greet this first Christian martyr, the Lord stood!"  I recall the deaths of so many of the saints and Biblical characters - and especially Jesus' death on the cross - that we have studied as I read this account of Stephen's death. God's ways are not man's ways; nor are His ways our ways. (Is. 55:8)  One of the more salient truths I have learned in my study of the Bible is that God does not view death as we do.  Psalm 116:15: "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints." Yet, even more amazing, the murder of this saint is used by God to bring Saul to himself...to God.  I recall the Parable of the Prodigal Son when "he came to himself" and returned home to his father.  Saul, the great religious Pharisee, who for zeal of God persecuted the early Christian church, is watching and even has the clothes of the murderers laid at his feet. God will use this martyrdom to begin the transformation of Saul to Paul through the power of Holy Spirit - the great apostle to the Gentiles, the author of the majority of the Christian New Testament.  Who is watching me?  Do they see Christ in me?  Am I allowing God's Holy Spirit to transform me into the person He wants for His kingdom work?  Will He stand as I come home to Him or suffer greatly for Him?

Very beautiful is the picture of death which is given here: "He fell asleep." Sleep is death's new, sweet name! What a picture of peace the word suggests, right here in the heart and fury of the mob! In the midst of all the wild scene--Stephen fell asleep!

“Stephen the First Martyr" – J.R. Miller 1909

Opposition as We Walk in God's Will - Day 136 Through the Bible

Along the road to the cabin - Celo Mountain Lands - near Mt. Celo Church

God's Impact on My Life Through His Word:  My Lessons and Applications

Opposition as We Walk in God's Will ( 2 Sam 5 and 6; John 5)  We have learned through our months of study through the Bible that the walks of the saints, God's chosen leaders, the life of Jesus Christ and the apostles were anything but smooth.  We WILL have opposition as we live and walk in God's will.  In fact, when we are closer to His will, we will attract some of the fiercest opposition.  Of course, Christ's life was demonstrative of this.

Opposition to Jesus' Walk in God's Will - In John 5 Jesus is telling the Pharisees (the religious leaders of the time who were plotting His death, persecuting Him!), "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does, and He will show Him greater works that these, that you may marvel...He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."  But it was His following God, His healing on the Sabbath, His claiming God as His Father that these religious leaders found the most abhorrent. '"For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.  But Jesus answered them, 'My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.'  Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill Him because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God."'

Opposition in David's Walk in God's Will - In 2 Sam 5 and 6 we see opposition to David and his love of the LORD coming from his first wife, Michal, Saul's daughter - the wife of David's youth.  She is appalled by his lack of dignity (his humility before the ark of the LORD in dancing exuberantly in a linen ephod), that he was "uncovering" himself before the maids of his servants.  David answered her, "It was before the LORD (not you), who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel.  Therefore, I will play music before the LORD.  And I will be more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight.  But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor." (Emphases mine)

My Lessons and Applications: Both Jesus and David had focus on, determination, perseverance, loyalty - to God, for His purposes, for the people, but in opposition to the world's philosophy.  In both cases, it was exuberance, zeal for God, not for traditions of man or cultural expectations, but for God's honor, glory and purpose that caused the opposition.  Michal's wife was barren for life (with the Biblical implication that it was because of this opposition to David's zeal for the LORD).  The Jewish leaders were showing barrenness in their true understanding and love of God.  In both instances, the people were focused on themselves, on their image and perception, their status and power, within their worlds.  Humility before and love of God was not a consideration.  What about my life?  Am I more concerned with what others think?  My family?  My church?  A perceived status before others?  Is my focus where it should be - on following Christ in obedience, regardless of opposition?

Charles Stanley in his Life Lessons and Life Principles: "Do you long for God as David did in Psalm 63?  Your answer will determine the impact of your life...Christ wants to be our focus - the most important person in our lives, whom we adore.  We were created to love and worship God - that's our primary purpose.  Our service should be the overflow of a life of worship and love. (Luke 10:27) Life Principles Daily Bible - pgs. 595 and 596)

God's Call on our Lives - Day 134 Through the Bible

Ayles Creek that runs through Celo Mountain Lands, near Mt. Celo Church

God's Call - My Lessons, Applications and Contemplations From Today's Readings

Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth - (2 Sam 1 and 2 and John 4) - In John 4, Jesus is prophesying to the Samaritan woman at the well.  When she says that the Samaritan fathers worshipped on the mountain and the Jews in Jerusalem, Jesus says, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.  You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."  This was the strength of David.  He knew God intimately and worshipped Him - sang, praised, thanked, prayed, lived moment by moment making inquiry of the Lord, living according to the truth of the Law and Word he had been given.  In moments of triumph, in tragedy, in exile, in war, in peace, in the baseness of sin...David continually sought the Lord's advice, listened to it, followed it, and praised Him for it.  On the rare occasion David sinned, he humbled himself before God, confessed his sin, repented and changed the course of his life, loving God even more for the grace and mercy he was shown.  Luke 7:47 speaks of this grateful soul who is forgiven many sins, because of the spirit within that person that loved much.

My Lessons and Applications:  This is, I believe, what Samuel meant in 1 Sam 13:14 (and Paul in Acts 13:22) when Samuel told Saul that the kingdom was torn away from him, for the LORD has sought out (David), a man after His own heart." In essence, a man of unwavering, persevering faith in God - who believed in (and whose life exemplified) the Sovereignty and Providence of God, whose heart was humanly fallible to the point of murder covering the sin of adultery, but whose spirit soared above that groveling earthly level to paeans of praise, adoration, thanksgiving of the truth of God's mercy, grace, and love of this creature man...of Holy God deigning to intervene time after time to call us back to Himself in a heart-to-Heart relationship for all eternity.  There have been many times in my life when I felt God calling to me to pray all 150 Psalms aloud to Him, giving voice to what my own soul was aching to make known to Him.  This was not only worship of Him but was laying my life, soul, and spirit open to God - in all its beauty and ugliness - exposing to his searching Spirit all that He needed to reveal to me.  It is what deep meditation of the Word of God does for me as well - puts me on another plane - communing with God through my spirit and His Spirit about His revealed truth. 

Contemplation:  Do you remember Jack London's book, The Call of the Wild?   Buck, the dog, was answering to the base call of the uncivilized instinct within him - shades of Darwin, Nietzsche - for survival and mastery.  God calls us upward - to the heights of His Spirit within us, placed there, chosen, before the foundation of the world. Jesus said in John 10:27-30, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."  

"There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also.  The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit.  The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after.  The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree of God.  God is working out His purposes."  My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers 

Lessons from Ruth and Naomi - Day 118 Through the Bible

A local non-profit in our hometown of Burnsville, NC, that has been featured in the New York Times Wine and Food Section.   Women who find themselves in difficult circumstances are helped in getting back on track.  Their creations in this bakery have won numerous bake-off competitions.  To order and learn more, go to http://www.whowomen.com.

My Lessons and Applications from this Biblical Account

For those of us who have found ourselves in a hopeless Naomi life situation in this world: There is comfort and kindness...under His wings, with His people, clinging to His promises.  Just as He allowed the negative, God can turn our persevering faith in the midst of tragedy and extreme disappointment into an unbelievable miracle that will echo down through generations - through eternity.  He did it with the lives of Abraham, Joseph, Rahab, Christ, and He will do it with many others we will come to know in our year through the Bible.  It will not be a life without difficulties  - some disastrous.  But God...can use our lives of faithfulness for His glory and our good - temporally and eternally.

Ruth and Naomi - Negatives:

Naomi - widowed, both sons dead, no daughters, too old to produce another generation of children (in a time when those things were the sum of a woman's value), in a pagan land with pagan gods, in cultures where such women were outcasts, without hope.  Ruth - widowed, childless, married into a "foreign" family, outcast from both societies - hers and her mother-in-law's, without hope. 

Ruth and Naomi - Positives:

Faith in God; faith in God's promises, in His Sovereignty and Providence; love and service to others; obedience to God and willingness to take risks to follow in that obedience - even to death; returning to their spiritual inheritance - the Promised Land; removing themselves from the land of idolatry and pagan worship; putting themselves under the provisions of God's sovereignty and His providence - "being where they were supposed to be, doing what they were supposed to be doing." (Mike Black, "Ruth: The Providence of God"  

God's Sovereignty - Provision of the Promised Land and the blessings in it; provision of Kinsmen-Redeemers, the saving of a remnant of godly men and women; provision for the poor to work and glean fields after a harvest; a plan of redemption that He will see through to the end though all the powers of hell seek to come against it; a child, a son - the grandfather of a king and in the lineage of Christ, a home and family for those with neither - who went from nothing to great blessing as a result of persevering faith and who, in turn, blessed others.

God's Providence: A plentiful harvest and harvest time; a tribe of people within whom were God's elect; Boaz - a man of God, a man of material means, a man ready to take a wife who was a relative by marriage who was widowed, of child-bearing age, a man joyfully willing to fulfill God's role of "go'el"; employees who respected and were blessed by Boaz and who were treated kindly by him; bringing a daughter-in law into Naomi's life who became a greater blessing to her than 7 sons would have been to her; God multiplying her faith shared with her daughter-in-law by joining it with a man so godly he was seen as a type of Christ, making Naomi and Ruth, these 2 outcast, widowed, childless women, the grandmothers of Israel's greatest king and part of the lineage of the King - Jesus Christ.

Lessons and Applications:  God is still in the miracle business.  We have learned in our 4 months of daily Bible study together that this is rarely a momentary miracle.  It takes faith, obedience, perseverance to experience the amazing grace of God in its fullness.  It takes work - often in humble and even humiliating circumstances, risk in obeying His Word, in forsaking pagan idols and worldly philosophy, in returning to our spiritual promises.  It takes clinging to Christ, to His precepts, to His people - even when circumstances, when our culture, tell us there is no hope. 

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  (Ephesians 3:20-21)

More Lessons on Ruth:  Click on the 4 sermons in the Ruth series by Pastor Bill Dages to the right of the blog under "Ministry of the Word."