Everybody is Going to Confess! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today 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!

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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God Listens To Us! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today 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 called 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! He created 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 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 brought about a redemption for us that we might share in an eternity 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, is simply astounding and astonishing! This is something I should never take for granted! This reality, this realization of things should always move me!

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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Experiencing God - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today 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 and our inability 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. 

This is demonstrated in that some have even recoiled at the sight of God when, in amazing exceptions, 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.'" Isaiah 6:5.

As 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.

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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My Soul Finds Rest In God Alone! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Psalm 62:1, 5-6, 8,

"Truly my soul finds rest in God;
    my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken…

Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
    my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken…

Trust in him at all times, you people;
    pour out your hearts to him,
    for God is our refuge."

I don't need to send in a "faith-promise pledge" of a thousand dollars, I don't need "miracle manna bread". I don't need the green handkerchief or the miracle spring water or a tube of the blessed olive oil from the holy land. I don't need a rabbi, a priest or a rosary. I don't need a Joseph Smith, a Buddha, a Confucius or the Dalai Lama. I don't need a temple, a synagogue or a stadium worship center.

I don't need the latest book on improving myself. I don't need the seminar or the hot new gospel band. I don't need the ivy-league college degree, the most lucrative professional career, the happiest marriage or the most successful children. I don't need the best house in town, the hottest car, the big screen TV or the latest in digital gadgets.

What I do need is the Lord! The Lord who loves me and gave his life for me! The Lord who has taken my punishment for the sins I have committed on himself! The Lord who cleanses me from all sin and has provided me room at his table!

I need the Lord who will raise me up on resurrection day to life everlasting! This is the God I need! This is the God in whom alone my soul finds rest! My salvation comes from him! He alone is my rock and my fortress! It is in this God I find my refuge!

May my life manifest the gratefulness, the appreciation, the gratitude, the thankfulness, the acknowledgment of all my God is to me!

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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Our Great Need For A Refuge. - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Psalm 61:1-3,

"Hear my cry, O God;
    listen to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
    I call as my heart grows faint;
    lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For you have been my refuge,
    a strong tower against the foe."

David felt a vulnerability - a real threat from his foe. In his weak estate, in his need, "as my heart grows faint", he reached out to God. He had faith that God could provide him deliverance from his foe, God would be a refuge and a strong tower for him.

God has chosen for himself all who will place their faith and trust in him. Why should or why would anyone reach out to God? David clearly did in this psalm. His motivation for doing so was the danger he felt, the vulnerability he felt. He did not feel secure, he did not feel safe. He felt a need to reach out to God in his trust that God would deliver him.

I find this as a dynamic that God uses to draw us all to himself. If we have trust in him, if we have faith in him, if we feel we can count on him for deliverance, we will turn to him. But... we may never do that unless we feel a threat, a need for safety, a need to escape danger.

We often feel that Satan is our foe. And he is a foe. Peter calls him our enemy, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8.

However, we face an even greater foe. Peter tells us we can resist the devil, but this other foe we cannot. He can utterly destroy us. Jesus said, "I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." Luke 12:5.

Who is this? God himself! When we are born into this world, God in his justice is our greatest foe, our greatest enemy, our greatest threat. "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... Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:11-15. Paul calls us God's enemies, "while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son..." Romans 5:10.

God wants us to know this. He wants us to know of the grave danger his judgment represents to us. We are told that sinners will be cast into a fiery lake of burning sulfur at the end of the age, Revelation 21:8. He has told us of this ahead of time.

To demonstrate to us our sinful condition and the perilous predicament we are in, he provided us his law. Some feel God gave us the law that we might all become do-gooders to make him happy. However, we are told the law was given us to show us we are sinners, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." Romans 3:20.

Knowing we are sinners and knowing that all sinners will be cast into an eternal hell provides us the occasion of opportunity to feel what David did when he recognized his plight and was compelled to reach out to God in faith during his time of need for refuge and safety.

Without going into specifics (think of "global community", "safety nets", etc.) the world makes every effort in its attempt to thwart our felt need to reach out to God for help, to be saved, to provide a refuge. However, God, in his love, goes to great lengths to draw us to himself, so that we might not fall subject to his judgment at the end of the age.

I suspect there are many times in each of our lives, even after we are saved, that the Lord sends us reminders of how much in need we are of him, how he is our refuge and strong tower.

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 Was God So Harsh With Israel? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today 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 has 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. A 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 brought about their fidelity to himself. Paul points out in Romans 10:2 that the Jews of his day were zealous for God (a zeal, however, not based on "knowledge").

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 at the time.

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.

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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God Is Our Refuge! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Psalm 59:16-17,

"I will sing of your strength,
   in the morning I will sing of your love;
for you are my fortress,
   my refuge in times of trouble.
O my Strength, I sing praise to you;
   you, O God, are my fortress,
   my loving God."

Saul had sent men to David's house to watch for him and kill him. As David faced this circumstance he penned Psalm 59. "See how they lie in wait for me!" as he calls out to God. David had his enemies, he had his dangers that he faced in this life.

While we might not face such violent and significant danger ourselves, we nevertheless face them as well. We live in a corrupted world dominated by people with a collective sin nature that would seek to do anyone harm if advantage could come of it.

In addition, we face the dangers of all the evils the world would tempt us with. We also face an internal enemy, as well, with our own sinful nature that would destroy us in its own quest for the satisfaction of its lusts and desires.

If that were not enough, we always have the threat of the devil who would devour us if he could! Peter warns us, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." 1 Peter 5:8-9.

In the midst of these potential dangers, we can sing the same praise to God as David did! God was David's strength. God was David's fortress and God was David's refuge in times of trouble. David recognized the love God had for him and the deliverance that was his at God's loving hands!

As Paul says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39.

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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Not Rehabilitation But Regeneration - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Psalm 58:4-5,

"Their [the wicked] venom is like the venom of a snake,
   like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,
that will not heed the tune of the charmer,
   however skillful the enchanter may be."

As David observes "the wicked", verse 3, he speaks of the irreformable nature of their reprobation. Rehabilitation of the wicked is simply a fool's errand.

There is a certain arrogance among those who feel they can bring about the reformation of a wicked person. Do-gooders would do well to understand David here when he characterizes the wicked using the metaphor of a cobra that fails to respond to "the tune of the charmer." The wicked are like a cobra using ear plugs. It just may be that it isn't only that they won't listen, according to David, but they can't listen - they have shut off their ears to anyone around them that may attempt to get them straightened out.

Sin is a powerful force in anyone's life. Not only are we led astray by it, Paul tells us those who have not embraced Jesus Christ in faith are enslaved to it. See Romans 6 and 7.

David says the wicked, like a cobra with its ears stopped, will not heed the tune of the charmer "however skillful the enchanter may be." We can't rehabilitate sinful people. The only hope is they turn to the Savior and allow his work in their lives to bring change from within by the Holy Spirit.

The only hope for the wicked is that they be regenerated, reborn, become a new person in Jesus Christ. Sinners, the wicked, simply cannot be rehabilitated. They need the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit in their lives to bring about change.

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.