Do we know what God is up 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 Matthew 16:23,

"Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns."

Jesus spoke these words to Peter. It just follows the account of when Peter acknowledged Jesus as being the Messiah, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Matthew 16:16. With this acknowledgement Jesus told Peter he was blessed, and told him he would give him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now, three short verses later, Jesus rebukes Peter.

Why was it that Jesus rebuked Peter? It was Peter's response to Jesus when Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he would be put to death, (and then raised to life.) Peter responded with "Never, Lord!"

It is apparent that Peter did not want to see Jesus suffer and die. I'm sure he wanted the best for Jesus, and responded in a way that reflected his lack of understanding all Jesus came to do. He was limited in his understanding of the things of God, the agenda of God and the intentions of God.

I have to ask myself today, do I understand the things of God? Do I understand his agenda and his intentions? If I don't, I may find myself doing a disservice to the advancement of the kingdom of God, the very thing Jesus came to engage in when he first came to planet Earth, the very thing Peter began to oppose, unknowingly I suspect.

How many people today really understand what God is doing in the world today? How many understand God's intentions and his agenda? Based on what we see coming out of a lot of churches these days, I suspect very few.

May we all study our Bibles and become knowledgeable of the things of God, of his agenda, of what he is doing today in the world - we don't want to find ourselves working against those things as Peter found himself doing in Matthew' account.

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 Lord versus religious leaders - 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 Matthew 12:13-14,

"Then he [Jesus] said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus."

Here is a shocking scenario holding a comparison that could not be more black and white, or should I say black versus white? Jesus is busy healing the infirm, but the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, are busy trying to find a way to kill him - because he healed a man when they thought he shouldn't. The Son of God healing, the religious leaders killing.

Leave it up to religious leaders to assume the position and the notion that they are the authoritative ones that should be consulted... on just about anything.

God is seeking to heal, to restore. The religious often seek to destroy. Why is that? Religious leaders have always enjoyed a standing in the community. They have usually assumed respectability and power, and have often profited financially from the perch they assume. Nothing could be more of a threat than to have someone come along and challenge all that - even when it might be the Son of God.

Today we have "religious leaders" who covet the success of other churches in drawing in the community. Monstrous edifices (stadiums, etc.) have been procured or built to establish the kind of one-up-man-ship that brings a supposed mark of success "in ministry". Woe to the young believer in a congregation who might suggest hearts are not in the right place as many are exploited and used to maintain the status and influence these religious leaders might seek to retain - their trophies of massive congregations, massive programs, massive facilities, doing massive things "for the Lord."

It was the very same thing back in Jesus' day. The religious leaders felt threatened by his displays of love, mercy and kindness. They felt threatened by his authoritative teaching that conflicted with their own personal lives and jeopardized their positions in the community. Jesus' acts and his teaching made them look small. It placed them in a position where their sinful natures began to betray them as they felt threatened.

How wonderful God invites us to his family, not through religious leaders, but through none other than his one and only Son, Jesus Christ. I have little use of religious leaders (not that there are not many wonderful ones, because I do feel there are many), but I do have a whole lot of use for Jesus Christ. He is the One I want. He is the One I need. He is the One that died for me. He is the One who has made a way for me into God's family. He is the One I worship and I 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

Only a few make it into 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 heart and mind in Matthew 7:13-14,

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Here is an astonishing reality: most people will find themselves in hell for an eternity. Only just a few will enter into blissful eternal life! Why is that?

It is not because God does not love everyone and wants everyone to join his family, "he [the Lord] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9b. Also, "This [prayer] is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3.

Why is it only a few will make it into God's family? It is not because Jesus did not die on the cross to pay for their sins, "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2:2. Jesus has made a way for everyone and anyone to be welcomed into God's family.

Why then only a few? Perhaps the best answer to that is the one Jesus provided to Nicodemus in their nocturnal meeting, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God." John 3:19-21.

After declaring to Nicodemus that "God so loved the world" and the he "gave his one and only Son" and that we enter into his family by simply placing our faith in him, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.", he told Nicodemus that many simply choose to cling to their sin rather than turn to God through Jesus Christ.

Most love their sin and prefer to cling to it. Only a few are willing to turn from their sin to embrace Jesus Christ in faith. It is a choice each and every one of us must make for ourselves. 

Eternity hangs in the balance!

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

Throwing myself at the feet of God's mercy - 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 Matthew 5:48,

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Here is a command from Jesus to his disciples as he taught them in his "sermon on the mount." 

"Be perfect. therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Where does that leave me?

I am not now perfect, I have never known myself to be perfect for more than a period of a few minutes, and I honestly don't see perfection in the near term for me here in this life. It is not that I don't want to be perfect, but I have a sinful nature within me that still abides, and, as a result, I can't claim perfection.

I look forward to a time when I will hopefully reach a degree of perfection in the resurrection of life, where my old sin nature will have been left behind. Until then I am a man who struggles at times. Because of this, I am wholly and entirely dependent upon the mercy of God. I need the salvation God provides because I simply cannot achieve that state of perfection on my own. Instead of receiving acknowledgment and reward for being a perfect person, I can only look to God for his forgiveness, his mercy, his kindness and his love, a love that I do not deserve.

I am convinced the reason Jesus told his followers to be as perfect as God in heaven, was to help them recognize their shortcomings, their need of God's mercy, their need of God's provision for their sins in his courtroom. After all, why would a person reach out for a savior if they have no felt sense of need for being saved? We need to know we have need of God's forgiveness of our sins through the gospel before we seek that forgiveness. When we realize our sinful condition we can but only cry out to God for his forgiveness, his mercy.

When it comes to God's commands, I am reminded of what Paul had to say, "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. 

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

Amazing prophecies of the coming Messiah - 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 Matthew 2:4-5,

"When he [King Herod] had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 'In Bethlehem in Judea,' they replied, 'for this is what the prophet has written...'"

A great number of prophecies were fulfilled when the Son of God appeared two millenia ago. A great number of prophecies, likewise, await their fulfillment as we look to the future event of his second coming to establish his kingdom, his family, here on earth.

Here in Matthew 2:4-5, we are introduced to Micah's prophecy of the location where the Son of God was to come from, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." 

The Son of God was born to Joseph and Mary as Jesus the Christ, exactly as foretold in Micah's prophecy - as well as in many other prophecies God had given about him in earlier times.

Other prophecies in this second chapter of Matthew's gospel include Hosea 11:1, in reference to the flight to Egypt to escape King Herod that Joseph made with Mary and Jesus. Also, Jeremiah 31:15, regarding the slaughter of male boys by Herod in his insane effort to eliminate the baby Jesus as a threat to his throne. Another reference is made to "the prophets" that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. 

These are all prophecies that were announced hundreds of years before Mary gave birth to Jesus. Where some find faith hard to come by, it is astonishing to me the failure of so many to heed the clues God has left us embedded within the writings of his prophets.

In the desperate effort of many who prefer to cling to their sin rather than embrace Jesus Christ in faith, prophetic references and the fulfillment of them have been under assault for years. So called scholars, professors, teachers and preachers have plied their academic skills to discredit these prophecies. Yet, nevertheless, here they stand as the Word of God, and will continue to stand long after these "experts" have all fallen.

How wonderful to have God's authenticating prophecies! How wonderful to be on the winning team!

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

Our "interactive" 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 Jonah 3:10,

"When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them [the Ninevites] the destruction he had threatened."

God had decided to have Nineveh overthrown. "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." 3:4. We read in Jonah 1:2 that the city had become consumed with wickedness and now God had decided to destroy it. He first sent his prophet, Jonah, to tell them. However, the people of Nineveh embrace the word of the Lord in faith, "The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth." Jonah 3:5. Thus, the Lord changed his mind and did not destroy the city, "he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened."

I am reminded of another passage in Jeremiah 18:7-10, "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." Surely, Nineveh is a parade-ground real-life example of this very thing.

God is interactive. He responds to the things we think, do and say, both on a national level as well as on a personal level. Our whole concept of praying, interceding with God, asking him for the various things we do, asking for his forgiveness, is all predicated upon the reality that what we think, do and say can prompt the Lord to do what he might otherwise not.

Fascinating that our Creator God reacts and responds to us, isn't it?!

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

Never beyond his reach - 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 Jonah 2:2,

"In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry."

Jonah had run from the Lord. The Lord had given him an assignment, as a prophet, to go and preach to the Gentile city of Nineveh. Instead of going, he ran from the Lord. He boarded a ship and en route to Tarshish he was thrown overboard by the sailors when a storm hit the boat. While in the sea, a huge fish swallowed him up and there he was stuck for three days.

I can't think of a way to feel further from the Lord. Rejecting the Lord and running from him, thrown overboard, swallowed by a fish and stuck for three days! That is finding yourself about as far removed from the Lord in this life as it can possibly feel.

And yet from this dark removed place Jonah prayed. Jonah acknowledged his prayer would rise to the Lord in his holy temple, 2:7. We are told the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah onto the dry ground, which it did.

I am reminded that we can never find ourselves beyond the reach of the Lord. No matter where it is we go, or what we have done, we are never in a place we cannot call out to God.

Along with David, any of us can call out to the Lord, "This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles." Psalm 34:6. 

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