Religion can't, but the view can! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 3:5, 

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature..."

The completion of this exhortation is to put on the "new self", verse 10. Take off the old sinful nature and put in the new nature the Lord desires for us and has made available to us. It is Paul's answer to those who resort to religion in an effort to restrain the impulse of sin in their lives. He says, "Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence." Colossians 2:23.

Paul's answer is to set our hearts and minds on things above "where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." The view affords the opportunity for us to be swept off our feet as we marvel at the many perfections of Jesus Christ. It is a view that transforms, that motivates, that changes us from within.

A part of that view must necessarily include the wondrous future that lay ahead for believers. Renewed bodies, elimination of death, sickness, disease and infirmity, eradication of the old sinful nature, neighbors we don't have to think about locking our doors from. "'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4. On the contrary, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." Verse 3. This is beyond exciting to contemplate. And, contemplate it we should! Our "hope", which is what the Scriptures call this future we look forward to, is a part of the view we take in as we set our hearts and minds on our Lord in heaven.

The above quote in Revelation 21:4 is found in Isaiah 25:6-8. Listen to the wonder of what is said there, "On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken." On that day, you and I, all believers will say, as we are quoted in Isaiah 25:9, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

I am reminded of what John had to say as he considered the impact of this wonderful hope we have in Jesus Christ, the hope that is engendered as we take in the view of setting our hearts and minds on things above. "All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." 1 John 3:3. Here we find accomplished what religion cannot: it enables us to take off the old and put on the new.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Standing in the will of God - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 4:12b,

"He [Epaphras] is always wrestling in prayer for you [the Colossian believers], that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured."

What does it mean to "stand firm in all the will of God"? We know that maturity and full assurance accompany it, as Paul says. I've listened to many prayers over the years that make appeal to knowing and understanding God's will in this or that. How can we find what God's will is?

I suspect the most obvious observation is that the Scriptures contain the will of God. We call the Scriptures revelation. God reveals himself within its pages. Penned by human authors, the source is God himself, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:20-21. God's desires, what God looks for in the choices people make are often clearly defined in the Scriptures. Even when it comes to things of a personal nature, in our relationships, etc. 

As an example, consider what Paul had to say in the previous chapter, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:12-14. This covers probably most of what anyone needs to know regarding God's will in our relationships with others.

We, on the other hand, only want to bear with and forgive those who haven't really wronged us, not in a meaningful way, anyway. Those who have do not really deserve it and so we fashion ourselves some accommodation of one form or another. So, lets just disregard this-- and if we can't, maybe we can bear with and forgive someone who only slightly offended us to help us feel better about disregarding God's will about the bigger and more painful offenses. (If I've offended you here, I apologize, as I offer you an opportunity to put Colossians 3:12-14 into practice.)

How else can we determine God's will in a matter? I am reminded of Romans 12:2, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Here we find there needs to be some transformation within us that requires effort on our part if we seek to "test and approve what God's will is." Retaining the aspects of our old, sinful nature, "the pattern of this world", will obscure our apprehension of God's will. If we participate in the renewing of our minds, clarity of God's will becomes evident.

How do we participate in the renewing of our minds? Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Again, back to the Scriptures, and, going back to Romans 12:2, doing what they say.

I'm fully convinced the prayerful reading and doing of the Scriptures is what opens our understanding of God's will in many things. Meditation, rumination of the Scriptures, memorizing them, holding them near and dear to our hearts is key to ascertaining God's will. After all, the Scriptures are what God wants us to know of himself!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Will anybody recognize me? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 3:9-10,

"Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."

Paul makes the point in Colossians 3 that, as believers, we need to take off our old sinful nature and put on a new nature, one that is in the image of our Creator. He says, "Put to death..." verse 5, "rid yourselves..." verse 8, "since you have taken off..." verse 9, all in reference to our old "earthly nature." In reference to a new nature, one that is in the image of our Lord, he says, "you... have put on..." verse 10, "clothe yourselves with..." verse 12, "and over all the virtues put on..." verse 14. Paul paints the picture of a person, now a believer, going into the changing closet, taking off the old and putting on the new. 

Some may find changing difficult, but I suspect that is often due to missing his exhortation in his introduction: setting our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ who is seated at the right hand of God, Colossians 3:1-4. Unfortunately, I suspect many hear on Sunday mornings the danger of sin in our lives and the need to turn from it without reference to the much needed prerequisite of focusing our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ.

In any event, the transformation the Lord has determined to work in our lives is to bring change from the sinful to that which reflects the Lord himself. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love are marks of our Lord. Anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire and greed are marks of the sinful, earthly nature - that nature from which we arrive in the family of God.

In Romans 8:29 we read, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Before time began, looking ahead to those he would choose for himself - all who will embrace him in faith - God determined he would conform them to the image of his Son.

The character and nature of Jesus Christ is of pristine perfection. The vast sum of the qualities that define his perfections can only be described as a many-splendored glory that projects his majestic and flawless presence that is inapproachable apart from sensing our own sinful condition. I'm reminded of some of the encounters we read of in the Scriptures, "'Woe to me!' I [Isaiah] cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'" Isaiah 6:5. Samson's father, "'We are doomed to die!' he said to his wife. 'We have seen God!'" Judges 13:22. The apostle John, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: 'Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.'" Revelation 1:17-18.

The change Paul speaks of in Colossians is significant, a change that we all will be engaged in by direction from the Lord's work in our lives. While we will never achieve the perfections of Jesus Christ in this life, God is busy moving us in the direction of his nature, culminating in our arrival in the resurrection absent a sinful nature and reflecting the Lord's nature.

I can hear the folks now... "Trevor! I hardly recognize you at all!" Yep, some of us, like me, have a lot of change ahead!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Little man shaking his little fists at God Almighty - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Psalm 93:3-4,

"The seas have lifted up, Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea— the Lord on high is mighty."

The "seas" here is a reference to mankind. Mankind is pictured as a sea caught up in a storm with breakers and pounding waves. It brings to mind Psalm 2:1-3, where we see the peoples of the world rising up against the Lord, "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, 'Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.'" Mankind in his lost and rebellious state rising against the Lord in tumultuous rebellion. In that psalm we read of the Lord laughing at mankind, scoffing, rebuking and eventually terrifying them in his wrath.

When it comes to a squaring off between rebellious mankind and the Lord in Psalm 93, the psalmist reminds us of the stature and transcendent power of The Almighty. He is "robed in majesty" in his reign over his creation, verse 1. In his majesty he is armed with strength, "The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure." He is eternal, not of the variety of "here today and gone tomorrow" that marks the existence of mankind on earth, "Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity." Verse 2. In summary the psalmist tells us the Lord is mightier than the "thunder of the great waters, mightier that the breakers of the sea-- the Lord on high is mighty." Mankind in all his corporate strength, power and zeal of rebellion against the Lord is simply no match for him.

Here is the reason I am not too exercised about the fruitless and empty efforts of those today who are driven to scrub every acknowledgment of the Lord's very existence from the public square. Once again, during the holiday season, we will be treated to the mindless and inane efforts of those who are in a stir to eliminate every reference, every vestige acknowledging the Lord in holiday events, in the schools, in the media, in politically correct conversation, in the parks and the city halls across our country as we see throughout the rest of the year. I picture mankind shaking their tiny little fists of rebellion in the face of our Lord Almighty. Only due to his great patience are they not crushed immediately. Unknown to them, the Lord, in his love, is busy converting from among their numbers "all who will", from their hostility, bringing them into his family through the wonderful good news-- the gospel.

Once the Lord has had his harvest, woe to those still shaking their little fists in the face of the Almighty One who will cast all who have spurned him into a fiery lake of burning sulfur, Revelation 21:8. The seas who have lifted up their voice, their "pounding waves" are no match for our terrifying and mighty Lord on high!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

What's in a name? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Proverbs 18:10,

"The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe."

We are told that the Lord's name is a fortified tower that provides safety. What does that mean?

Living in a hostile, rebellious world dominated by a collective sinful nature and the sin that dwells with the hearts of individuals provides plenty of opportunity for the need to find, even flee to protection, which is what a "fortified tower" provides. Couple that with our own sinful nature that renders us culpable to the horrific judgment of God, we all need a safe place to flee to! That place is found within the name of the Lord, our "fortified tower" that provides us safety.

We actually find variations of names of the Lord in Scripture that point to and help us understand the character and nature, as well as the activities of the Lord, his disposition and even something of his agenda. Here is a sample of the Lord's names from the Old Testament I swiped from blueletterbible.org. I don't know anything about this ministry but they have a great listing of the Lord's names that illustrate what I am saying:

El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty)

El Elyon (The Most High God)

Adonai (Lord, Master)

Yahweh (Lord, Jehovah)

Jehovah Nissi (The Lord My Banner)

Jehovah Raah (The Lord My Shepherd)

Jehovah Rapha (The Lord That Heals)

Jehovah Shammah (The Lord Is There)

Jehovah Tsidkenu (The Lord Our Righteousness)

Jehovah Mekoddishkem (The Lord Who Sanctifies You)

El Olam (The Everlasting God)

Elohim (God)

Qanna (Jealous)

Jehovah Jireh (The Lord Will Provide)

Jehovah Shalom (The Lord Is Peace)

Jehovah Sabaoth (The Lord of Hosts)

Within these names we find provision from the Lord of things we often have need of. Who has ever felt the need for supernatural provision? Let them call out to "Jehovah Jireh." Who has ever felt the need for peace in their life? Let them call out to "Jehovah Shalom." Who has ever sensed the sin in their lives and felt the need to find forgiveness and a right standing with the Lord our Judge? Let them call out to "Jehovah Tsidkenu." Who has ever felt the need for direction, protection and companionship? Let them call out to "Jehovah Raah." Who has ever felt the need for sensing the presence of the Lord in their lives? Let them call out to "Jehovah Shammah."

I don't subscribe to the notion that we actually have need to call a specific name of the Lord to ask for help with a specific need in our lives. Any of the names he has provided us will do. "Lord", "God", "Jesus Christ", "Savior", any name will do. Our God is One and the same God existing as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Any name we call will bring us access in our time of need.

I think it is important to note that the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob is God and there is no other. He offers us the opportunity to call out to him when we find a need in our lives. Without the Lord and his help there is no purpose in life. Without the Lord there is no meaning to life. Without the Lord there is no future beyond the grave for us to look forward to. Without the Lord we are nothing. Calling on him, calling on his name, provides us all we have need of.

Have you called on the name of the Lord?

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The eyes of the Lord - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Proverbs 15:3,

"The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good."

Here is a sobering thought: nothing escapes the Lord's observation! There is nothing he cannot and does not observe. A few verses later we read, "Death and Destruction lie open before the Lord— how much more do human hearts!" Verse 11. Even where it may be difficult for us to observe something, whether due to obfuscation, any attempt to hide or keep secret, the Lord sees it all and he knows it all. Everything we think, do, say and feel is open and observed by the Lord. Everything! Even what is done in the dark, "If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,' even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you." Psalm 139:11-12.

This is not just a passive activity of observation by the Lord. It is intentional, active and on-going, every second of every day. We read about how the Lord actively searches our hearts in Romans 8:27. We read in Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

The Lord is our judge when this life comes to an end. Here is the issue: we will have to give an account of ourselves, our lives, to the one that gave us life. We will have to give an account for everything we have thought, everything we have done, everything we have said and everything we have harbored in our hearts! What a sobering thought! We read of this judgment in Revelation 20 and 21. "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire." How terrifying is that?! Also, "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Revelation 21:8.

Where does that leave you and me? I don't know about you... but me, faced with this certainty, it is nothing short of horrifying! When speaking of being "saved", this is what is meant: being saved from God's wrath for our sins. It only takes one and I have a lifetime of things that I have thought, said, done and felt that earns me a place in this "fiery lake of burning sulfur."

This is why the the gospel is called the "good news!" There is a way out of this terrifying predicament. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life..." John 14:6. Jesus Christ has made a way, not only to escape God's wrath for our sins, but has even made it possible for us to join God's family, become the objects of his love, inherit eternal life with "eternal pleasures" at his right hand, Psalm 16:11. How wonderful is that?!

Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins on that cross, satisfying God's judgment of us for those sins! All he asks of us is to trust in him, to embrace him in faith! How could anyone turn that down?

I have taken God's wonderful offer of forgiveness and eternal life. I have placed my trust and faith in him. Not doing so would have insured my certain place in that lake of fire. I am a sinner.

How about you?

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The pain of God's love - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Psalm 69:26,

"For they [David's enemies] persecute those you [the Lord] wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt."

We don't often think of the Lord wounding and hurting people. In Psalm 69, David speaks of just that. In this psalm, David calls for God's judgment on his enemies who persecute those the Lord has wounded and gossip about the pain the Lord has inflicted. The cause for Davids imprecation upon them is the manner in which they take advantage or celebrate when the Lord brings pain.

Why would the Lord bring pain to people? Why would he wound them? Isn't the Lord loving? We know that the wounding and pain David speaks of here is not focused on what the Lord brings on the wicked. It is the wicked who are celebrating and gossiping about what God has done to others. It is others - those other than the wicked - who the Lord is involved with that are the objects of his wounding and pain.

Here is one thought. I know there are other causes, but here is one that comes to my mind this morning.

I am reminded of Proverbs 3:11, "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." Also, Revelation 3:19, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent." Perhaps these are ones whom the Lord may "wound" and bring pain to. Why does the Lord rebuke and discipline? Since God is love, 1 John 4:8,16, can rebuke and discipline be an expression of God's love toward us?

We may interpret discipline as punishment, for punishment's sake, a reap-what-you-sow kind of justice. Misbehave and God will take a belt to your backside. However, we see the Lord's discipline even when no particular wrong-doing has been present. Consider the psalmist in Psalm 44:20-22, "If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." In the midst of "the taunts of those who reproach and revile me" verse 16, Israel experienced God's discipline and rebuke.

Paul quoted Psalm 44 when he explained how God uses pain and suffering to bring us to spiritual maturity, into the likeness of Jesus Christ. In Romans 8:28-39, Paul describes how God will use things like trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and the sword as examples of the "all things" God uses to conform us to the image of his Son.

The reality is that we all enter into God's family with all the blemishes, all the ugliness the sinful nature has wrought in our lives. When we become his children, he is not content to leave us steeped in our sinful shortcomings, but begins the work of conforming us into the beautiful character and nature of Jesus Christ.

This, in spite of the wounds and pain, the rebuke and discipline involved, is truly an act of love on God's part within our lives. 

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Are you a saint? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 1:2,

"To God's holy people [that is, "saints"] in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father."

Some religions have defined a saint as someone who might be considered a "super-Christian", one who holds a particular relationship with God, who manifests that through impeccable holy living, the performance of miracles and the like.

Many may be surprised to find in their Bibles that such a concept of saints is faulty. The Scriptures call all believers "saints" or "holy ones." This salutation from Paul to the church in Colossae is not addressed to only some among the believers with an alleged special title of "saint", but to all the believers in Ephesus, the true "saints", all the believers in that fellowship.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that all who Jesus calls as called brothers and sisters are made holy by him (the definition of what a "saint" is), "In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters." Hebrews 2:10-11. He goes on to address those who have "the heavenly calling", that is, all believers, as saints, "Therefore, holy brothers and sisters [that is, "saints"], who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest." Hebrews 3:1. He tells us in Hebrews 10:10, 14, "By that will, we [believers] have been made holy ["saints"] through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all... by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy ["saints"].

Peter tells us that all who come to Jesus Christ form a priesthood of saints, "As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy [saintly] priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:4-5.

Here is an amazing truth. When we embrace Jesus Christ in faith, we become on of his "holy ones", one of his saints! This is something God decided to do before time began, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." This is something God does, not us. We cannot make ourselves saints, we cannot earn or advance ourselves to some level of spiritual attainment called "sainthood". This is something only God can do, only God can bestow. No process of "canonization", no beatification performed by any ecclesiastical group on planet earth can make anyone a "saint". This is something only God himself does... and isn't it just like him to make all believers holy, all believers his "saints"! No prima donnas in God's family!

I am always reminded that it matters not a whit how I am esteemed by others compared to how I am esteemed by God. And he esteems all of us believers as saints, his holy ones! How wonderful is that?!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Dearly loved by God?? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 3:12,

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved..."

Paul identifies believers in three ways in this verse: "God's chosen people", "holy" and "dearly loved"

His phrase, "God's chosen people" refers to God's decision, his choice of all those who will embrace him in faith. God sends his message, the gospel, and all who respond to it inherit eternal life in his family. Paul says, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ." Romans 10:17. The result is what he says a few verses earlier, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." Romans 10:9-10.

Paul's second observation of believers, "holy" comes from another choice God has made. Before time began God determined he would build a human family for himself out of those who would embrace him in faith. When he did so, he also decided then that they be holy and blameless in his sight, in his court. In Ephesians 1:4 we read, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."

The phrase that catches my heart this morning is the last one, "dearly loved." Believers are dearly loved by God. As I consider what it means to be "dearly loved" I find it astonishing the heart of love the Lord has for us. How many things do you hold as "dearly loved"? I have the notion that of all things that are loved, "dearly loved" indicates those things closest to the heart, those things most greatly loved, most heartily loved, most earnestly loved. Whatever that object may be, if it is "dearly loved" indicates it has great importance in the heart.

For me, I tend to ask with the psalmist, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?" Psalm 8:3-4. Particularly me! 

And yet... as Paul observes, those who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith are "dearly loved" by him! I'm certain there are very, very few of whom I find myself as someone that is dearly loved by them. And, imagine! God is one of them!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Do aborted babies go to heaven? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Psalm 33:4-5,

"For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love."

If we take to heart what the psalmist says here, if we believe what this passage has to say, then we know some important things about our God. We read here that God's word (what we have in our Bibles), is "right and true." If we believe that, then we believe all that is said in our Bibles. We also read here that God is faithful in all he does. He will not do anything different than he says he will do. What he says he will do is a settled matter and won't change.

We read that the Lord loves righteousness and justice. We also read the earth is full of his unfailing love. Not just any kind of love... "his unfailing love." We see both on display in the cross of Jesus Christ. God's sense of justice is satisfied with the payment Jesus Christ made for our sins... and yet that very sacrifice of his one and only Son is the greatest expression of love the world has ever seen. The greater the cost, the greater expression of love. To make a way for us, for us to enter into eternal life, the cost was nothing less than the miserable, torturous death of the Son of God's love on our behalf on that cross.

These things being true, what is it we can expect from our Lord? In life, there are some things not spoken directly of that we may have question of. As an example, what does the Scripture have to say about aborted babies? Do they go to heaven? While we can deduce all kinds of things from Scripture, sometimes it is difficult to find a directly stated answer. In the absence of a direct answer, we make deductions from what it is the Scriptures do say. The dicey thing here is that we wind up relying on our own abilities of deduction. We may be spot on, and then again, we just might not. Where different groups disagree, somebody's ability to deduce an answer to an issue is faulty. 

An example that can be heart-rending to consider is what happens to aborted babies? One group believes that babies are not sinners, but are innocent of all until they hit some arbitrary "age of accountability." Therefore, since aborted babies are not sinners, they go to heaven. The conclusion is made out of a concern that if babies are born sinners, all aborted babies would be headed for hell since they did not have access to the gospel. The Scriptures don't actually speak to the issue so this deduction is offered. Allusions can be drawn, but a direct statement is not provided us in the Scriptures. One allusion might be David's son of Bathsheba that did not survive.

Following David's adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah, the prophet Nathan told David "the son born to you will die." 2 Samuel 12:14. Following the baby's death David said, "I will go to him, but he will not return to me." Verse 23. The thinking is that since we know David was heaven bound, his statement that he would go to the baby, in speaking of his own death, reveals the infant went to heaven. Therefore, we can extrapolate that babies and the unborn or still born go to heaven if they die - because they have not reached this age of accountability.

I can't buy into this line of thinking though. Not because I believe that the unborn and infants go to hell. On the contrary, I believe they do go to heaven - for another reason. But getting back to the line of thinking above, my problem with it is there is no such thing as an "age of accountability" or anything like it ever mentioned in the Scriptures. We also have David's admission himself of his sinfulness from the womb, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Psalm 51:5. Also in Psalm 58:3 he says, "Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies."

Rather than attempting to speak where the Scriptures do not, I find it best to rest in what the Scriptures do say. There is always the temptation for me to reason it out on my own and I constantly have to check myself. Sometimes I'm better than than at other times. For the issue of where aborted babies go following their deaths, I look to God and take great confidence in him being "right and true", his faithfulness, being just and loving as the psalmist says above. Since God himself is judge, there is nothing to worry about, nothing to be concerned about. I know that redemption is found in the cross of Jesus Christ, who atoned for the sins of all mankind, 1 John 2:2, that salvation depends upon our embrace of the gospel message, trusting in the Lord, and yet, I know that a just and righteous judge will provide for those without mental capacity, those who never had an opportunity to hear the gospel, the aborted, those with severe mental retardation, Cerebral Palsy and the like. A just judge is faithful in these things and our God reveals himself as nothing other than this. 

If we know our God, if we believe what the psalmist has to say above, we can find solace in knowing the loving and just nature of God. We can know that whatever an unknown answer is to our question, it will be righteous and just, there will be a righteous and just outcome, an outcome we will be entirely satisfied and happy with. It will be an answer and an outcome that is consistent with our Lord who is right and true, who is faithful, who loves righteousness and justice, who fills the earth with his unfailing love.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

God expressing himself - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 3:25,

"Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism."

Setting aside the fact that this verse comes in a section of Scripture where Paul speaks of Christian living, it causes me to think of the two chief character traits of God and how at the end of the age each will be expressed, one toward those who embrace him in faith, the other toward those who reject him.

The Lord has two qualities he wants all of us to be aware of: he is just and he is loving. Note what he said in Jeremiah 9:24, "Let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight." Here the Lord's love is represented in his kindness toward us. Jesus put God's love this way in his talk with Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." That is a whole lot of love by anyone's standards!

Equally, God's justice, his righteousness is on display in Revelation 21:8, "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." This is a horrifying picture of God's justice by anyone's standards! As Paul said, "Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism." God's justice will find its full expression at the white throne judgment, where the sinful will be repaid for their wrongs.

God is not only loving. God is just. God is not only just, God is loving. Both find extreme expression in the things God does. There is nothing temperate in the cross of Jesus Christ, and there is nothing temperate in the white throne judgment at the end of things. God is not moderate in the things he does. Both God's love as well as his judgment are manifest in unbridled ferocity. He is not to be painted in pastels. God is bold and should be pictured in bright bold colors. Put quite simply, God's love is not to be taken lightly and in his judgment, he is not to be trifled with. 

Those of us who have responded to God's love expressed in the gospel have our sins forgiven us and experience God's overwhelming love, paid for by Jesus Christ on that cross. Those of us who have not responded will face God's horrific judgment on that day, a day that is certainly coming.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The Transformation God brings! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Philippians 1:7-8,

"It is right for me [Paul] to feel this way about all of you [the Philippian believers], since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus."

Note the wonderful warm and loving heart Paul manifests here for others. However, he was not always this way. Here is the man who at one time was a violent man. His confession is, "I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man..", 1 Timothy 1:13. We see him in action, prior to his conversion in Acts 9:1-2, "Saul [Paul] was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem."

What a change in Paul! He treated the early believers mercilessly before he met Jesus Christ. Following his encounter with the risen Lord, he was now such that he held believers in his heart, "with the affection of Christ Jesus." He says he longed for these believers and that his feelings were appropriate since they shared in God's grace with him. How amazing the transformation the Lord can bring, even to the hardest of hearts!

The work the Lord does in our lives is astounding and reflects something of the Lord's own heart. Those who know the Lord are indwelt with his Holy Spirit who brings into our lives the very character and nature of Jesus Christ. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23. Look at those qualities the Holy Spirit works within us as we are transformed by him. The Lord also uses difficulties to shape and mold us into his image, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Romans 8:28-29. Those difficulties might include what Paul mentions in verse 35, "...trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword".

Other passages speak to the qualities the Lord works within us, manifesting his own wonderful character and nature, "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5. These are the kinds of things God works in our lives as he conforms us "to the image of his Son."

Peter also speaks of the things the Lord builds into our lives in 2 Peter 1:5-7, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love." The "effort" here is to allow the Holy Spirit to bring about these changes in our lives. The Lord has provided us everything we need to be transformed by him into his own image, "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." Verses 3-4. Our job is to make that choice to allow the Lord's work to be manifested in our lives.

The wonderful change we see in Paul's heart and the transformation the Lord desires to bring to all of our lives speak of his amazing character and nature. Wonderful in his many-splendored qualities, he manifests his own heart in the changes he brings to our cold and hard hearts! Just look at Paul!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

- Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 3:5,

"Put to death..."

Paul exhorts his readers to turn from what belongs to their "earthly nature", their sinful nature, a nature we all are born into this life with. He tells them to put those things to death. He then, in verse 12, tells us to clothe ourselves with those godly qualities that mark our new life in Christ, things like compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and the like.

Why should Paul exhort us in these things? Very simply and from what we all know to be true, we have choices to make. God created mankind with a will, with the ability to make choices. Confronted with the the same set of circumstances, some may chose this or some may chose that. With the volition the Lord has given us, he has provided the context in which we determine whether we will embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord in faith, whether we will follow him as our Lord in obedience, whether we choose to live our lives in a manner pleasing to him, whether we choose to participate in his agenda of building his kingdom in this life, and so forth.

Our ability to choose brings opportunities we often give no thought to, often taking them for granted. Choices reveal what is in our hearts and so provide us the ability to delight or disappoint our God and others. In another way, as an example, without the ability to choose, it is impossible, not just to express love, but have the ability to love at all. Without the ability to choose we are unable define ourselves by what we choose, what we define as character traits we would emulate, etc., how we might spend our lives the Lord has given us.

This ability to choose is so pervasive and understood within the pages of Scripture, it may be surprising to note how often the will our God has given us is called upon. Note these in just this third chapter of Colossians:

"Set your hearts on things above..."

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things..."

"Put to death..."

"But now you must rid..."

"Do not lie..."

"Clothe yourselves..."

"Bear with each other and forgive one another..."

"Put on love..."

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts..."

"Be thankful..."

"Let the message of Christ dwell among you..."

"Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ..."

Wives do this, husbands do that, children to this, fathers do that, slaves do this, masters do that... we are given many opportunities to make our choices and so express who we are, what we are, what we make of our lives.

Our liberty, our freedom to make our own choices comes from God our Creator himself, and no one else. As such, we will be held accountable by none other than him for how we use our ability to choose, the exercise of our wills, our volition which he has given us, what it is we elect to do with our lives he has likewise given us.

God has given each of us a life and he has likewise given each of us our own will with the personal freedom to exercise it. The reality is, we always do exercise it, even when we "decide" not to do something... everything in life is a choice when we react or respond.

What will you choose today that might delight the heart of God?

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Being thankful without "ginning it up" artifically. - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 3:15,

"And be thankful."

As Paul provides his readers with those dispositions of heart that should accompany their relationship with the Lord, he tells them to "be thankful." In the following verse he encourages them to sing "to God with gratitude in your hearts."

Thankfulness and gratitude are of those things that simply cannot be "ginned up" artificially in our hearts. While we can pray when we don't feel like it, while we can spend time in God's word when we may not feel like it, while we may share the gospel with someone when our heart may not be fully in it (for whatever reason), thankfulness and gratitude are matters of the heart that simply cannot be carried out by a felt duty to God to do so as other things might be. Thankfulness and gratitude can only be manifested by a genuine disposition of heart.

What is shocking is that any child of God might need the exhortation to be thankful and manifest a heart of gratitude. I have to be honest here, there are those days I don't give a thought to the disposition of my heart toward God relative to thankfulness and gratitude. It just doesn't register. However, other days, my heart is brimming with thankfulness and gratitude. I suspect you may experience the same - or, is it just me? 

How can it be that we have any day where our hearts are not full of thankfulness and gratitude toward the Lord? I am certain if we were to mull over, "ruminate", focus, meditate, ponder, just simply think on the wonderful things God has done, we would never need an exhortation to be thankful with gratitude in our hearts for the Lord.

Here are three verses from Psalms that speak of pondering the things of the Lord:

"All people will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done. The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him; all the upright in heart will glory in him!" Psalm 64:9-10

"The upright see and rejoice, but all the wicked shut their mouths. Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord." Psalm 107:42-43.

"I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate." Psalm 111:1-4.

In these passages we see that those who fear the Lord ponder the things he has done. The righteous and the upright are mentioned. The wise and those who delight in the great "works of the Lord" ponder on his "glorious and majestic" deeds. What deeds might you ponder on today? Here are just a few that come to my mind:

The Lord has sent his Holy Spirit to us, to dwell within us as a companion and counselor.

The Lord has freed us from the domination of the sinful nature in our lives.

The Lord has provided us wonderful and gifted brothers and sisters to encourage us and provide us what we need when we need it.

The Lord was "pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our inequities" that we be forgiven them.

The Lord has provided us a wonderful future in eternal life!

What would you add to this list? Are these things you may be interested in pondering on today or tomorrow? Surely there are many things we can ponder, meditate on, ruminate on that will bring genuine thankfulness and gratitude within our hearts. 

We are told the wise do so!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com