1I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
3He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
4Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
7The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
8The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Outside attacks against God - Buses seem to be the trend
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,450445,00.html
As you may recall a few weeks ago, we discussed an atheist group launching a "anti-God" campaign on London passenger buses. Well, where is someone riding through the streets of America today saying, "The British are coming!" Because that same campaign has launched in Washington DC.
My favorite quote from this news report is:
Edwords said the purpose isn't to argue that God doesn't exist or change minds about a deity, although "we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people's minds."
Seems to me that these people are falling exactly into the Romans 1 mentality yet again.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
My prayer is that as someone reads those ads, a true Christian will use that to preach Christ and true repentance to someone.
As you may recall a few weeks ago, we discussed an atheist group launching a "anti-God" campaign on London passenger buses. Well, where is someone riding through the streets of America today saying, "The British are coming!" Because that same campaign has launched in Washington DC.
My favorite quote from this news report is:
Edwords said the purpose isn't to argue that God doesn't exist or change minds about a deity, although "we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people's minds."
Seems to me that these people are falling exactly into the Romans 1 mentality yet again.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
My prayer is that as someone reads those ads, a true Christian will use that to preach Christ and true repentance to someone.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
"Blessed be the name of the LORD."
Many times we as Christians overlook small details in Bible "stories" that hold profound truth about ourselves and, more importantly, about God.
Take, for instance, Job's children. The book of Job outlines the story of their demise:
Job 1:18 - 19 states:
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
We don't know much about Job's children other then these facts: they liked to party. Job 1:4 says, "His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them."
We also know that Job was a concerned Father. He worried that their lifestyle would lead them astray. Job 1:5 outlines Job's prayers and concerns with his kids: "And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually."
Note that Job did this "continually" - always worried about his children as any good parent should. He was terrified that God would punish his children for their "lifestyle" or even their "thoughts" so he offered prayers for their safety and for their hearts to be right before God.
Given that "back story"(as it were), one might believe that Job would be upset with the events around their death: Upset either with them, thinking they had sinned, or with God, for destroying them.
But he was neither. Job 1:20 - 22 relates how Job reacted:
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Note verse 22: "In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong."
Job responded in a very godly way. Knowing that this could happen, knowing that his kids were not living correctly, knowing that God is to be "feared" (Job 1:1), Job reacted strangely by worldly standards.
We know the rest of the story of Job, but did you catch the one little bit of glory from the life of Job's kids. Whether they were doing wrong or doing right, they were created for this purpose. God wanted to receive glory from their lives through their father's honoring of God as God. They were created to die this horrible death: Predestined as it were.
Even in the Old Testament story of Job, we see what the apostle Paul was telling the Roman believers in Romans 11:33 - 36:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Many people focus on Job through this book and rightly so. But don't miss out on the messages sent in just a few verses of God's Word: Everything is to God's Glory!
Take, for instance, Job's children. The book of Job outlines the story of their demise:
Job 1:18 - 19 states:
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
We don't know much about Job's children other then these facts: they liked to party. Job 1:4 says, "His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them."
We also know that Job was a concerned Father. He worried that their lifestyle would lead them astray. Job 1:5 outlines Job's prayers and concerns with his kids: "And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually."
Note that Job did this "continually" - always worried about his children as any good parent should. He was terrified that God would punish his children for their "lifestyle" or even their "thoughts" so he offered prayers for their safety and for their hearts to be right before God.
Given that "back story"(as it were), one might believe that Job would be upset with the events around their death: Upset either with them, thinking they had sinned, or with God, for destroying them.
But he was neither. Job 1:20 - 22 relates how Job reacted:
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Note verse 22: "In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong."
Job responded in a very godly way. Knowing that this could happen, knowing that his kids were not living correctly, knowing that God is to be "feared" (Job 1:1), Job reacted strangely by worldly standards.
We know the rest of the story of Job, but did you catch the one little bit of glory from the life of Job's kids. Whether they were doing wrong or doing right, they were created for this purpose. God wanted to receive glory from their lives through their father's honoring of God as God. They were created to die this horrible death: Predestined as it were.
Even in the Old Testament story of Job, we see what the apostle Paul was telling the Roman believers in Romans 11:33 - 36:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Many people focus on Job through this book and rightly so. But don't miss out on the messages sent in just a few verses of God's Word: Everything is to God's Glory!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)