God Versus Global Alarmists - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 75:3-5,

"When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm. To the arrogant I say, 'Boast no more,' and to the wicked, 'Do not lift up your horns. Do not lift your horns against heaven; do not speak so defiantly.'"

With man-made global climate change, the human race only has ten years left or be wiped of the planet! This is the new word from one of many who seek the presidency in this next general election.

Sounds to me that some around us are quaking in their shoes. 

Fake science has determined that if we don't end free-market capitalism and establish socialism in hurry-up mode, if we don't give up our God-given freedoms and don't allow those who wish to control our lives and our wallets to run our lives for us, it is over for humanity! And, sadly, too many have not lived long enough to see this kind of scam perpetrated over and over. Consequently, with the aid of fake news, many have bought into this nonsense.

At seventy years of age, I have seen these crackpots tell us in the 60's that overpopulation would virtually eliminate mankind through mass starvation, disease and famine by the 80's. In the 70's the same crowd told us we would all die in an epic ice age because of the pollution created by our high standard of living. If we didn't embrace socialism and hand over our freedoms back then, we only had 20 years of survival left. In the 80's the destruction of the Amazon forest was going to bring mankind to an end. In the 90's and 2000's it was man-made global warming. When that scheme didn't work, it became "man-made global climate change". All along this history that I lived through (and many of you did as well) we were told over and over about the end of mankind. Mankind was going to disappear in the 70's, then again in the 80's, then again in the 90's, then again in the 2000's and last year we were told by an up and coming politician we only had 12 years left. Now, this week we only have 10 years left. My, how some quake in their boots!

One problem these short-sighted folks of late are going to have is that they will still be amongst us when none of this happens in 10 or 12 years, and it will be remembered. It seems very few remember the history of what the pop-culture, fake science, fake news, and political "leaders" produced in the last half of the twentieth century. They were a little smarter back in those days, at least they kept their predictions out to 20 or so years so most folks wouldn't remember. The scoundrels today apparently are so overcome with their shameful arrogance that they don't seem to care that their predictions and "computer models" won't produce a dystopian reality in a decade.

I don't care about all the warnings of the purveyors of fake science. Why should I? Nothing is going to happen to us that our Creator doesn't endorse. And, if he does endorse the end of mankind, we won't be able to do anything about it anyway.

We can believe and embrace what the Scriptures have to say or reject them. All of the denizens of fake science, fake news, fake media reject what God is telling us in Scripture. Here in Psalm 75 is but one of many places where the scriptures speak to the arrogance of those who assume God is not holding the pillars of our existence firm. As these charlatans claim to be able to fix the planet for us, that they have all the answers for the fear they have generated among naive people that "quake", the arrogance they display should choke a horse.

"When the earth and all its people quake", it is God who holds its pillars firm! Not some politician! However, given the collective arrogance of sinful man in his passion to dominate and control everybody and their wallets, I suspect this kind of thing will always be with us.

The writer of Hebrews tells us, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Hebrews 1:3a. This is where I hang my hat!

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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What Brings Riches and Honor and Life? - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 75:4-5,

"To the arrogant I [God] say, 'Boast no more,' and to the wicked, 'Do not lift up your horns. [Horn is a symbol of strength.] Do not lift your horns against heaven; do not speak so defiantly.'"

In this psalm Asaph quotes God as telling the arrogant and the wicked to humble themselves, quit trying to be defiant and intimidating. In other words, "humble yourselves!"

Humility holds a prominent position in the book of Proverbs. Here is a short listing of just a few verses in Proverbs that deal with humility, or its antithesis, pride/arrogance.

"He [God] mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed." 3:34.
"To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I [Wisdom] hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech." 8:13.
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." 11:2.
"Wisdom's instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor." 15:33.
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." 16:18.
"Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor." 18:12.
"Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life." 22:4.
"Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor." 29:33.

A great reminder to me of the importance of humility versus pride when it comes to my outlook in life. Look at what humility brings a person in Proverbs 22:4, "Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life."

As they say, "A word to the wise!"

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know.

Prophets Coming Our Way? - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 74:9,

"We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be."

Here is a comment we can relate to today. Unlike times we read of in the pages of Scripture when God moved and spoke to his people and others through prophets, in this psalm we see the remnant of Jews is in exile in Babylon sans prophets and no word from God.

Unlike us today, at the time this psalm was penned, there were prophets providing word from God just within a generation or so earlier. Jeremiah and others had been sent with word from God warning of this current plight these remaining Jews found themselves in, a warning unheeded by the nation. We, however, have had a prophetic drought for two millennia.

Like the Jews of the day of psalm 74, we, I believe, are entering into a time of difficulty for the church. Not at all to be compared to the difficulty the Jews in captivity in Babylon faced, we today, nevertheless ought to prepare for difficult times ahead as Christians. If you follow the news, the persecution of the church in many areas of the world is rising.

Paul warned of difficult times in the later days, a time when "the restrainer" will be removed, freeing lawless and sinful man to flourish, 2 Thessalonians 2. Paul also spoke of terrible times in the last days of this age, 2 Timothy 2 (which seems to me to comport with 2 Thessalonians 2).

Difficult times that Paul spoke of for Christians at this point? I don't have a clue. It seems that way. However, we do know that many a generation felt it existed at the time the Lord was coming back for his own during a time of difficulty.

Whether now or later, when things become very difficult for the church just prior to the Lord coming for his people, will there be attending prophecies that Asaph yearned for?

I suspect not, save for the two prophets we read of in Revelation 11. Outside of that, it seems we have all we need from the Lord in our Bibles. On the other hand, just as I don't have a clue about when the end of the age will dawn on us, I also don't have a clue about this either. It doesn't seem credible to me that anyone else might as well.

Just a few thoughts this morning...

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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Why God Caused the Temple's Destruction - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 74:1,

"O God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?"

In this psalm Asaph describes how the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, "Your foes roared in the place where you met with us; they set up their standards as signs. They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees. They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes and hatchets. They burned your sanctuary to the ground; they defiled the dwelling place of your Name. They said in their hearts, 'We will crush them completely!' They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land." Verses 4-8.

Asaph begins the psalm with the above question of why. Why did God reject them? From Asaph's perspective, it appears the Lord had rejected them "forever". In a sense Asaph's question is worded correctly - God had rejected his people "forever" from the standpoint of what they had made themselves into: a people who strayed from him and pursued the false idols of their neighbors. God would never accept them that way. He had his purposes for choosing a people for himself, and it was based on his covenant with them. They were to be the people of God, the people through whom he would provide redemption for all mankind, the people through whom he would bring his Son, Jesus Christ into the world to pay for all mankind's sins.

However, God had not rejected the Jews forever. He made some terrifying adjustments to the nation of Israel to bring her into line with his determined agenda. He decided to destroy the northern kingdom through the army of Assyria and destroy Judah, Jerusalem and the temple through the army of the Babylonians. A small remnant taken captive was all that remained in Babylon for seventy years before they were allowed to return. When they did so, and after an adjustment following their return, the nation no longer chased after false idols. God eradicated idol worship for good from Israel. This is how we find Israel (although not problem free) in the accounts of the gospels several centuries later. They still had their problems with God, but it was no longer idolatry. As Paul notes in Romans 10:2, "For I can testify about them [the Israelites] that they are zealous for God..."

So, the answer to Asaph's question as to why God allowed the temple to be destroyed by the Babylonians is that God was destroying Israel's proclivity to idolatry to help prepare the nation for her Messiah.

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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An Illusion of Well-Being - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 73:12,

"This is what the wicked are like— always free of care, they go on amassing wealth."

Asaph makes an observation about wicked people- they prosper in wealth and health in this life! How concerning to those of the "Health and Wealth Gospel" crowd of today! Were we to judge someone's status with our Creator based on how successful they might be, we would find ourselves in contradiction to both the Scriptures and what can be observed in this life.

Look at what Asaph observes about the wicked:

"They have no struggles;
    their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens;
    they are not plagued by human ills.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
    they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
    their evil imaginations have no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice;
    with arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
    and their tongues take possession of the earth.
Therefore their people turn to them
    and drink up waters in abundance.
They say, 'How would God know?
    Does the Most High know anything?'
This is what the wicked are like—
    always free of care, they go on amassing wealth." Verses 4-12.

Goodies in this life are short-termed. While many may enjoy the "good things" this life has to offer, this life is only a drop in a bucket compared to eternity! It is what is ours in eternity that is important. The wealth and health of sinful people in this life is an illusion that placates them as they slide right into God's judgment of a "fiery lake of burning sulfur", Revelation 21:8, for all eternity.

Unfortunately, many ill-informed Christians (of the Scriptures) shrug off what they may consider to be "blessings" for the wicked, and that surely prosperous wicked people must be suffering in some unseen area in their lives. It is that kind of thinking, when disproved,that causes some who have not built a foundation in the Scriptures to become disillusioned when they find out otherwise.

Wicked people (anyone who rejects Jesus Christ) can do very well in this life, just as Asaph observed. Judgment for our rejection of Jesus Christ takes place following this life as we read about in Revelation 20:11-15. It is the recognition of that judgment that brought about Asaph's victory over his envy of the wicked. "Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God." Verses 27-28a.

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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The Two Views of Asaph - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 73:3, 25,

"I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked... Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you."

Asaph expresses two views of life, two outlooks in this psalm. The first was his envy of the wicked because of their prosperity. The second view, a completely different view, was due to another direction Asaph looked, he found the consummation of his desires in Lord in his worship of him, despite the prosperity of others.

Rather than a simple temporal view of those around him and what this limited world has to offer, he gained an eternal view of God, his judgment of the wicked and his blessing of those who are his, "Those who are far from you [God] will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds." Verses 27, 28.

What intervened between his two views was his worship of God, "till I entered the sanctuary of God", verse 17. As he focused himself on the Lord in his worship of him, Asaph gained a much broader view of life that included an eternal perspective with the presence of God.

This second view of Asaph reminds me of the view of the great heroes of faith that the writer of Hebrews speaks of, "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." Hebrews 11:13-16.

Isn't it fascinating that when we enjoy ourselves in the Lord through our worship of him, that we gain a much broader and more grand view of our own life in him, as we find ourselves in the context of his love of us and his intentions toward us?

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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Righteousness and Prosperity - 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 heart and mind in Psalms 72:3,

"May the mountains bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness."

Prosperity is a theme in psalm 72. The word itself is used twice in the NIV translation, verses 3 and 7. In addition to the verse above, consider these others:

"May he [the king] be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth." (And thus providing a fruitful harvest), verse 6.
"In his days may the righteous flourish and prosperity abound till the moon is no more." Verse 7.
"May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores bring tribute to him. May the kings of Sheba and Seba present him gifts." Verses 10--11.
"May grain abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway. May the crops flourish like Lebanon and thrive like the grass of the field." Verses 16-17.
"Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given him." Verse 15.

The key to the prosperity presented in this psalm is brought by righteousness, "the fruit of righteousness", as we read in verse 3. It appears prosperity in this psalm flows from "righteousness."

I suspect many of us would just as soon experience prosperity, and if it be the "fruit" of righteousness, we might ask ourselves just what is righteousness? Merriam-Webster defines "righteousness" as "acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin", "morally right or justifiable."

That is a definition that brings more questions than it answers. What is "morally right"? How is that defined? What is ethical, good, honorable, moral, virtuous and right? How are these defined?

I think the answer is very simple: righteousness and all the above terms that might be used as synonyms, can be defined as that which is consistent with God's character and nature. As an example, God doesn't lie - therefore truthfulness is a righteous quality, deceitfulness is unrighteous. I think you get the idea. Stated another way, if God were the color blue, then the color blue would be "righteous". When we say God is "righteous", we are really saying God is simply consistent with his own character and nature.

It appears in this psalm that the prosperity of a people, of a nation, is connected to whether that nation lives its collective life consistent with God's character and nature. I wouldn't push this too far, however, as there are so many things going on with God, so many things he is accomplishing, so many things he is doing, that I don't think the Scriptures ever present an equation of "do right" and receive an automatic prosperity from God. God's grand agenda of the redemption of mankind is too invasive and involved to make that simple assumption. However, we might be able to think in terms of, all things being equal, a righteous people might expect those good things from God (prosperity) than an unrighteous people.

Just a few thoughts today... what do you think?

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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The Reign of King Jesus! - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 72:18-19,

"Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen."

This psalm of Solomon transitions from a request for God's blessing on his reign over Israel to a vision or an embrace of the messianic reign of Jesus Christ when he establishes his rule over all the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords following this age.

Some of the themes and specifics Solomon brings before God for the king:

Righteousness, verse 1.

Judging with justice, verse 2.

Prosperity for the people, with a harvest of righteousness, verse 3.

Defense for the afflicted and salvation of the children of the poor, verse 4.

A crushing of "the oppressor." Verse 4.

An eternal rule, verses 5, 17a.

Refreshing of the earth (like a rain shower), verse 6.

A flourishing of the righteous with endless prosperity, verse 7.

A universal rule over all, (with all under his rule), verses 8-11.

Deliverance of those who are needy and afflicted, verses 12-14.
Prosperity and fruitfulness, verse 16.

Blessedness for the people through him, verse 17b.

As we read about Jesus Christ and his coming rule in the next age, it is simply fascinating and breathtaking!

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know.

"The Lord Is Great" - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 70:4,

"But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, 'The Lord is great!'"

As David faced threats from his enemies he turned to the Lord for help. David had a number of these occasions in his life and he has provided his thoughts to us in many of his psalms as as they occurred.

As a man of deep faith, David often turned to the Lord. What he found in the Lord was that he was faithful and a help in time of need. This is why he penned is verse. All who seek the Lord will rejoice and be glad in him. All those who long for the Lord's saving help always say, "The Lord is great!"

God is faithful and we can count on him to see us through this life and into an eternal bliss with him in the next, "He [God] will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:8-9.

No wonder all who seek the Lord will be filled with joy and say "The Lord is great!"

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know.

The One to Flee To - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 70:1,

"Hasten, O God, to save me; come quickly, Lord, to help me."

One of the major themes presented us in the book of Psalms is that God is a deliverer from trouble, threats or dangers that we may face in life. He is our great Savior. This theme could not be clearer in Psalm 70. David speaks of those who "want to take my life", who desire his ruin, verse 2. In the midst of this plight he feels "poor and needy", verse 5a, and seeks the Lord's help, "You are my help and my deliverer; Lord, do not delay." Verse 5b.

The greatest threat we all need to appreciate is that of God's looming judgment of us for our sin. We have all sinned and God's horrific judgment awaits us all. We read in Revelation 20:11-15, "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."

Sinners names are not in God's book of life, with one huge exception: Jesus died on that miserable cross to pay the penalty for our sins and all who embrace him in faith have that payment credited to their account with God. Those of us who have placed our faith and trust in him do have our names written in the book of life. If yours isn't, embrace the Lord today!

It is my firm belief that the reason we see this meme of the Lord being the One to flee to in times of trouble throughout Psalms is that the Lord is teaching us to turn to him, particularly with the greatest threat that awaits us: his justice!

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know.

Being Treated As God's Children - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 69:1-3,

"Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God."

In this psalm David speaks of the dire circumstances the Lord has placed him in. Later, in verse 26, where he speaks of those who mock him due to the Lord's treatment of him, David makes clear it is the Lord who has caused David's plight, "For they persecute those you [God] wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt."

The desperation in David's language makes clear how effective and firm the Lord's treatment of him is, "I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched." We also see how effective God's careful and precision treatment of David is, as he gains David's attention, "My eyes fail, looking for my God."

We read in Proverbs 3:11-12, "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." We read the same thing in Jesus' letter to the church in Laodicea, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent." Revelation 3:19.

The writer of Hebrews helps us understand what it is the Lord is accomplishing in our lives when we find ourselves in this crucible of the Lord, "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:7-11.

Just as David, we who have embraced Jesus Christ as our Savior undergo this same experience as David three millennia ago. But... notice the desperation in David's language! There is pain involved! When the Lord works in our lives it is effective enough to bring about life changes. We must be prepared for those things that transcend what the faint of heart may be able to bear. But we need the confidence to know the Lord is right there with us at every point and will see us through it.

Those who portray our relationship with God as a total lovey-dovey affair do a real disservice to God's people. God does bless his people overwhelmingly, But, when God brings those life-altering hardships into our lives and we are unprepared or fail to understand the purpose of them we just may feel abandoned or rejected by God. Nothing could be further from the truth- God is treating us "as his children."

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know.

Our God Saves! - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 68:20,

"Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death."

It is understood that our God creates. He is our great Creator God as we find in the opening chapters of Genesis in our Bibles. All of existence that we know has been created by him. And, all that he creates is good. However, in that he created us with our own minds, an ability to emote, and our own freedom to choose, he provided us the opportunity to embrace him or reject him. Unfortunately for us all, our progenitors, Adam and Eve rebelled against our Creator and as the "federal" head of all mankind, this couple brought God's judgment not just on themselves, but on all mankind that would follow them.

This points to another characteristic of God. In addition to his creativity, he is also known as having a very strong and exacting passion for justice. Due to this passion for justice, we all are under his judgment for the sin of Adam and Eve that has led to the sin in our own lives, Romans 5:12-14. And, we have all sinned... each and every one of us. There is a looming judgment awaiting us all that we read about in Revelation 20:11-15.

This leads me to a third characteristic of God, our God is kind and loving. The breadth of this love of God is something I find unfathomable, but it has prompted God to reach out to his lost and fallen creation in its sinful rebellion to provide a way back into his loving arms. This is why the psalmist says "Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death."

God has sent his Son, Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our sins, that we might escape his judgment of us. "Very truly I [Jesus Christ] tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life." John 5:24. All he asks is that we believe in him!

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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Grace Unmerited! - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 67:1,

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us— so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations."

The psalmist calls out to God to be gracious and to bless "us". The term "grace" is defined by Merriam-Webster, among other things, as "unmerited divine assistance..." I think that is a great definition and comports well with the Scriptures. That assistance God provides would be deemed a blessing because it is an expression of good toward us from God- a blessing that we don't deserve.

Here is where the inscrutable love of God is such a fascinating, captivating and enchanting thing to ponder! On the one hand he is our God to be feared, but on the other, he loves us so much that it is within his pleasing will to bless us with what we do not deserve!

The greatest manifestation of this gracious love of God is the expression of it when Jesus Christ died on that miserable cross for us. Jesus willingly went to that cross to pay the penalty for our sins, "For the joy set before him he endured the cross..." Hebrews 12:2. When we were estranged from God ("we were God's enemies", Romans 5:10), he reached out to us to make a way that we might be restored to him as our Creator, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Ephesians 1:3. 

We didn't deserve it, but God has provided this to us if we embrace him in faith. This is grace!

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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A Remarkable Beauty In The Book Of Psalms - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 67:1-7,

"May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face shine on us—
 so that your ways may be known on earth,
    your salvation among all nations.

 May the peoples praise you, God;
    may all the peoples praise you.
 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you rule the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations of the earth.
 May the peoples praise you, God;
    may all the peoples praise you.

 The land yields its harvest;
    God, our God, blesses us.
 May God bless us still,
    so that all the ends of the earth will fear him."

Here is Psalm 67 in its short seven verse entirety. It is one of the most beautiful and pleasant pieces of literature to be found anywhere. It begins with an expression of desire for the Lord to bless his people and to be gracious to them. In turn the psalm anticipates that all people will express themselves out of the gladness and joy that God's blessing brings them. It observes the equity and guidance God brings nations and finishes with a view of God's wonderful bounty he provides peoples, such that it brings a felt sense of reverence for him, "all the ends of the earth will fear him."

I can't think of a better antidote to bring some relief to the hostility, hyperventilating and mean-spiritedness found in the public square today. The message of this psalm stands as an island of tranquility, peacefulness, joy and happiness in the sea of the ugliness of the collective sinful nature expressing itself so viciously these days.

Sadly, it is a piece of literature that gets passed over as mere "fluff". However, to me, it is within the confines of this psalm we believers need to rest ourselves, and to find our strength in God. It is such a wonderful picture of what the public square will be like in the next age.

This truly is a wonderful and beautiful expression in the book of Psalms.

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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!

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Does God Listen To Us? - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 66:18-19,

"If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer."

The psalmist of Psalm 66 asks us to listen to what God has done, verse 5 and 16, "Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind!... Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me." The first call is to listen what God has done for all mankind, particularly Israel. His second call is to listen how God answered the psalmist's prayer when he was in trouble.

An important question we might ask is, since the psalmist knows the Lord listened to him, precisely because he did not "cherish in my heart", how do we know the Lord listens to our prayers? We all struggle with sin, don't we?

Let me get one thing straight. I have heard it said, more than once, that God cannot even listen to a sinner because God is holy and righteous. This kind of an outlook betrays a lack of understanding of the Scriptures. God sees and hears everything we say and do! All of us, unsaved and saved alike! Not only that, he knows every thought every person has, every intention, every motivation of everyone's heart. And, obviously, it is the prayer, the cry, of an unsaved sinner that God listens to when he brings us into his family.

There is a clear difference between struggling with sin and cherishing it in our hearts. Homosexuality is a sin and today we have a presidential candidate for 2020 who claims as one of his bona fides he is an evangelical Christian. He is also proud of his lifestyle that he has embraced with his "husband". That, in my mind, constitutes cherishing sin in his heart. I suspect he should anticipate very little in response from God of anything he may call out to him for, save helping him leave his sin of homosexuality.

On the other hand, I am sure there are those who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith, and maybe even out of a lifestyle of homosexuality, who struggle with the sin of homosexuality. Clearly, this believer, who, through the work of the Holy Spirit will eventually gain victory over it, is not "cherishing" sin in his heart. Like the rest of us, he calls out to God to help him overcome the sin in his heart. This is one of the realities that identify us as believers. God is working in our lives.

We have all come into God's family as sinners in one form or another. These are those things we have had to set aside and reject as we turn to Jesus Christ. As we struggle with habits and attitudes we developed prior to coming to Jesus Christ, God does listen to our prayers, and mercifully helps us to gain victory over those sins. He listens to us as we struggle with those things the Holy Spirit reveals to us that we harbored in our lives before coming to Jesus Christ.

"Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. These are the ones God listens to as he did the psalmist.

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know.

Everybody is Going to Confess! - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 65:2,

"You who answer prayer, to you all people will come."

While David tells the Lord that praise awaits him in Zion, where vows people had made to him "will be fulfilled", he makes this statement in verse 2., "to you all people will come." David is speaking of those who gather in Jerusalem to praise the Lord and fulfill their vows. I note he says "all people" and he causes me to think of a future reality- that a day is coming when all people everywhere will bow the knee before God and acknowledge him.

In Romans 14 Paul quotes Isaiah 45:23, "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.'" Here is how Isaiah put it in the larger context, "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, 'In the Lord alone are deliverance and strength.' All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame." Isaiah 45:22-24.

Of course we live in a day when it seems very few confess God - the true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not some hodge-podge made up notion of what some make him out to be. Many others simply deny the existence of God altogether. However, that will all change one day when all, everyone who has ever lived, will confess God for who he is and bow before him.

Paul, when speaking of the supremacy of Jesus Christ, said, "Therefore God exalted him [Jesus Christ] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11

This confession of God will take place to fulfill in part something Paul wrote about to the church in Ephesus, "With all wisdom and understanding, he [God] made known to us [the Church] the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." Ephesians 1:8-10.

The world awaits that day and it is coming. I am reminded of Revelation 5:13, "Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!'"

Why be on the wrong side of this when your fate is unchangeable? Embrace the Lord and join the chorus of those today who bend the knee to our God and confess him!

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know..

Saved in the Midst of Our Sin - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 65:3,

"When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions."

Here is a theme that has always fascinated me about the Lord. He saved us, not because we were good, or we behaved ourselves for a while or we were busy doing good things, or whatever, but in the midst of our sinfulness.

Paul wrote to Titus, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:4-7.

Another way Paul expresses this sentiment is found in Romans 5:6-8, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." In the midst of our sinful, rebellious ways the Lord saves us if we reach out to him in faith! Paul further says, "For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" Romans 5:10.

God sent his Son, Jesus Christ to die on that miserable cross when we were his enemies! We are told that he did this out of his incomprehensible love for us, "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:9-10.

The more I think about it the more I am amazed about it.

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know..

God Listens to Us!! - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 64:1,

"Hear me, my God, as I voice my complaint; protect my life from the threat of the enemy."

David calls out to the Lord for help when threatened by his enemies. He begins by asking the Lord to listen to him, "Hear me..." I am reminded how astounding it is that we can talk to God. We can pray to him, call out to him,,, and he listens to us!

I suspect I find it astounding and astonishing that the Lord listens to us (as I am sure many of us do) because of the transcendent nature of God. After all, he is our Creator God who has fashioned the earth and everything it, the entire cosmos, after his design and maintains it according to his purposes, his intentions for it. All of the laws of physics that govern his creation, the intricate design of life, the vast array of the universe itself all speak to the transcendent nature of God. He is also the Creator of our very being, of our design!

Considering it brings to mind the several passages that contemplate the same thought:

"What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?" Job 7:17-18.

"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. We see this quoted by the writer of Hebrews, "But there is a place where someone has testified: 'What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.'" Hebrews 2:6-8a.

God is so big... and we are so little! Nonetheless, he loves us, he cares for us, he listens to us! He is so mindful of us in his tremendous love for us that he sent his Son to die a miserable death on that cross to pay for all of our sins. He has effected a redemption for us that we might share in eternal life with him, to live in his presence!

As I say, the fact that God cares for us and listens to us, as he did with David as he called out to God when facing his enemies, it is simply astounding and astonishing! And this, never to be taken for granted! This reality, this realization of things should always move us!

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know..

Without Fear, With Fear - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 64:4,

"They [evildoers] shoot from ambush at the innocent; they shoot suddenly, without fear."

In Psalm 64 David speaks of people who act "without fear", and then later in the psalm he speaks of all people fearing, "All people will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done." Verse 9. What intervenes between the two?

David tells us one of the marks of evildoers is to "ambush" the unexpecting, the innocent, those who don't deserve it. He characterizes it this way, "They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows. They shoot from ambush at the innocent; they shoot suddenly, without fear." Verses 3-4. He goes on to say, "They encourage each other in evil plans, they talk about hiding their snares; they say, 'Who will see it?' They plot injustice and say, 'We have devised a perfect plan!' Surely the human mind and heart are cunning." Verses 5-6.

I see this all about us today. I am sure you must as well, if you are paying attention to the things many people do. Of course politics (the vying for power in our nation and localities) comes to mind, but it certainly can be seen in the work place, various institutions, and from my experience, within churches (of all places!)

Getting back to the question of what intervenes between David's observation that the wicked do their thing without fear, and then a day when everyone is going to fear the Lord- is the judgment of God. God's judgment of mankind will eventuate into a timeless time when everyone will fear the Lord.

David observes God's judgment of the evildoers, "God will shoot them with his arrows; they will suddenly be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn." Verses 7-8. When God's judgment is executed on evildoers the result is, "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!"

Although the judgment of God is terrifying and horrific, and that I myself deserve to be a target of the very same, save for the payment Jesus Christ made on that cross for my sins, yet, it brings rejoicing as David says and results in us glorying in God as we "ponder what he has done."

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know..

Experiencing 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 heart and mind in Psalm 63:1,

"You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water."

David speaks of his "thirst" for God. He calls his environment a "dry and parched land where there is no water." In this context David is not speaking about being lost out in the desert. He is speaking of a reality we all know to be true. This world that we live in is lost and fallen with the desolation of God's absence from our ability to apprehend him, to see him. to feel him as we do those things that accompany our physical presence here on earth.

As we all know, although God is omnipresent throughout his creation and beyond, we lack the ability to enjoy his presence, a presence so unlike what we all experience in our daily lives, some have even recoiled at the sight of God when, in exception, they gained a vision of God. Consider Isaiah's reaction to seeing God on his throne. In horror he exclaimed, "'Woe to me!' I 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.'"

Like Isaiah, God has provided certain individuals access to himself such that they were able to apprehend him, probably always in some limited way to perceive him. Moses, the prophets, the patriarchs of Israel, those who accompanied Jesus Christ, and others all had glimpses or more of the Lord. Astonishment, enchantment, fear, amazement, awe and wonder are some of the things we read about in Scripture by those who had some contact with God.

David, as a man of deep faith and utilized by God for his purposes certainly had experienced encounters with God in one way or another. Those encounters affected him so much that, as in this psalm, David could say that his whole being longed for God between those events in his life.

Today, those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ as our Savior experience the Lord in differing ways and in differing degrees. Many of us share that hunger, that thirst, that David had felt such that we give ourselves in prayer and immerse ourselves in the Scriptures looking to fill the void created by an earlier experience with the Lord that we now miss. Experiencing God is that way. We hunger for more of him.

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know..

Is God My 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 heart and mind in Psalm 63:1,

"You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water."

This psalm, absolutely rich in beauty, expresses David's heart- completely given to God.

He begins by calling God his God. As I read through the psalm, I find David's bona fides in making this claim. As I do, I reflect on myself: can I call God my God? What indicates any of us have made God our God?

Here are some observations that would demonstrate David clearly embraced God as his God:

David earnestly sought the Lord, verse 1.

He thirsted for God, verse 1.

His whole body longed for the Lord, verse 1.

David went to the sanctuary (he made his pursuit, made the effort) and found what he sought: he beheld God's power and glory and found God's love, verses 2-3.

David kept his remembrance of the Lord fresh by thinking of him throughout the night, verse 6.

David sang his praises and proclaimed the glory of the Lord, verses 3, 4, 5, 7.

David clung to the Lord, verse 8.

All these reflect the deeply rooted faith of David in God and his desire and passion for him as well as his embrace of him. Truly he made God his God. David embraced God and it was manifested in his life.

So, again, I ask myself: can I call God my God?

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know..

Why Was God So Harsh With Israel? - 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 heart and mind in Psalm 60:1-3,

"You have rejected us, God, and burst upon us; you have been angry—now restore us! You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking. You have shown your people desperate times; you have given us wine that makes us stagger."

Here David speaks of a terrible time Israel experienced at the Lord's hand. David says the Lord rejected his people and "burst upon" them. He lays this at the feet of the Lord's anger at the nation. The Lord had "shaken the Land" and "torn it open". Desperate times for Israel at the Lord's doing!

Was God just being mean to his people? Why would the Lord bring hardship to his own? After all, they were God's chosen and covenant people. Wouldn't you think that our God of love would bring peace, prosperity, health and ease to his people if indeed he loved them?

Those who study the Scriptures know that God's people, as a representation of all mankind, had a bent to drift from God. David was a man of mighty faith, but that did not mean the whole nation was strong in faith. There were issues with God's people. On the surface we know that Israel prostituted themselves by chasing after foreign idols, they engaged in sinful practices and drifted away from the Lord. Through these things we recognize that corrupting sinful nature that dwells within had a way of expressing itself on a corporate level within the fabric of the nation.

I personally believe something else was going on at the time in the way God interacted with the nation, something beyond punishing Israel for her misdeeds. That "something else" was that God was preparing the nation for delivering his redemption of all mankind through his people Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was to come into the world through Abraham's offspring to offer himself as a sacrifice to to pay for mankind's sins. When Jesus died on that cross, he made the way for sinful mankind to be forgiven those sins and have access to join the kingdom of heaven through faith.

In preparation for bringing Jesus Christ into the world through the nation of Israel, we see God working in the nation as early as over a millennium earlier. That preparation included forcing course corrections to the nation to bring them to the place he wanted them to be when Jesus Christ arrived. At major issue was the nation was to recognize the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob as her God, and reject all of the false idols created by Israel's neighbors.

This took a long time to bring about, however, God very effectively accomplished it. Through the eventual destruction of the northern kingdom of divided Israel by the Assyrian empire, and the later slaughter and deportation of a remnant of the southern kingdom of Israel by Babylon, God finally effected their fidelity to himself.

Not to say that Israel had resolved their problems with God. Indeed, Jesus took the leaders of the Jews to task for their many failings and sins that we read about in the gospels. However, one thing the nation was not condemned for by Jesus was her recognition of God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had fully and finally become Israel's God shortly after Israel was allowed to return to their land following their deportation to Babylon, and certainly by the time Jesus had come into the world. This is one reason I believe why we see the animosity of the Jews toward their half-breed Samaritan neighbors.

Accomplishing that spelled a lot of trouble for Israel over time and exposes mankind's proclivity to turn from our Creator God. In passages such as Psalm 78:34 we learn why God dealt in such a way with Israel at times, "Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again." God was very effective at what he wanted to accomplish in the nation of Israel, and it wasn't going to be a quick fix. We see this played out over and over as we read Israel's history in books like Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, etc.

God wasn't just treating Israel harshly for punishment's sake, he was, among other things, preparing the nation for the coming of her Messiah.

A blog with my ruminations over the years can be found here: http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

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 reply and let me know..