Friday, November 27, 2015

The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd

John 10: 1-11 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.  But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.  This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."

 
The Shepherd and his sheep is a beautiful picture taken from this world and applied many times to the relationship between God and his people, the shepherd and his flock of sheep.  Many passages come to mind, Psalm 23:1 "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."   God sometimes is pictured as a loving shepherd that feeds his flock, Isaiah 40:11 "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." We also know there are evil shepherds:  Jeremiah 23:1 "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD"  When sheep are forsaken they easily become pray to wild animals, and then of course there is the Good Shepherd, the Messiah, Ezekiel 34:23 "And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd."  Sheep need a shepherd.  When you look up the word sheep in the dictionary one of the things it says is that sheep wander, they are defenceless when they wander because they are helpless and weak.  They get into trouble when they wander.  They don't understand why they get into trouble and to get out of trouble they need to go back to the flock they have left, back to the place they departed and until they do that they will always be in trouble.  Sometimes the shepherd has to come and get them and lead them back.  The rod is for rescuing, the staff is for discipline because sheep have to stay close to the Shepherd. 


Are you a member of God's flock?  if you are, do you wander away? How far do you wander?  How many times has God had to bring  you back? What will he do if you keep wandering?  


Monday, November 23, 2015

A Warning to Moderate Comments Left on Your Blog..

Thank the Lord that Blogger has an option to moderate comments left on your blog.   In all the time this blog has been up I haven't received many comments but all of them have been positive.  However this morning that changed.  Yesterday I posted a piece called Message to Moderns and this morning in email there was a comment to be moderated which said that it was a good post and that I should keep writing.  Sounds positive, right?  However, included was a link to their web page which was not named but only had three letters in the link.  Before I approve any comment I always check out links and was not really surprised to find out that this was a link to a porno site.  So of course the comment was deleted, never to appear here.

I really wonder about the mentality of people like this with bad intentions who feel it is necessary to post their filth on a Christian site, but this isn't the first time, although it is the first time here.  I had a very bad experience years ago with people posting photographs on a children's bible site I used to have, before I learned the lesson of moderating all comments.  So from today, any who want to comment have to be registered with Google, and they have to do the word copy so as to eliminate automated comments.

I do really hope that whoever sent that comment took the time to read Message for Moderns, for it was meant for such as they.

vcg/November 2015

Saturday, November 21, 2015

A Message to Moderns

This is a very long sermon, but in this day of compromise in churches, sound-bite technology, a pleasure-seeking society and "my truth" it is a very important sermon.
 
Message to Moderns

Acts 17:22-32 "Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.  Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing  he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and not find him, though he be not far from every one of us....Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.  Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ).  And when they hard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter."

 
Here we have a sermon that gives us a very good outline of many of the things that must be preached by the church when addressing the unsaved.  It is fitting that we should look generally at this because what is the church's message?  Many think that the church must change to be relevant in this modern world when the church is going to declare the gospel to sound-bite people in a technology driven society.  What is the church's message to this society, this pleasure-seeking society, this society that doesn't really believe in any absolute truth?  What message is the church to bring that is gong to have an impact upon so-called modern people?  Many would say we need to not mention sin or judgment but that is nonsense.  The same old message that was preached by the old testament prophets and the new testament apostles is the same message that needs to be preached today in the exact same way.  It needs to be preached to a modern people who have the exact same needs as those who lived thousands of years ago, people who haven't changed one bit.  Modern life is not modern, modern life is very old, it's just the same as what life has always been.  To be a sound-bite based society means that people communicate less and in fragmented bits and technology makes no difference at all because its the same old problems.  Nothing has changed, people haven't changed.  The problem is called sin. "Hath God said?"  the serpent said to Eve questioning God's word.   Pride even in the unfallen world in the garden of Eden.  There are no different needs than any other human beings in history.


Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Job's Faith: Why So Strong?

This is a continuation of yesterday's post regarding Job, and why bad things happen to the child of God.

Job's Faith, Why So Strong

Job 2, Job 13:15, Job 19:21-26


Job was a spiritual man, a family man, a burdened man for his family, but the book of Job teaches us that there is another  unseen world, a spirit world.  A prime plane of God and angels which Satan has access to.  What happens in that spirit world affects what happens in the physical world, the two are not separate but intertwined and they affect one another.  In this spiritual world Satan gets permission from God to unleash misery and trouble upon Job's life and Job suffered terribly.  Job reacted in sadness but he worshipped God even in this terrible tragedy. Job 1:20-22 "Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."   He confesses that the LORD has a right to take away that which he has given, and he was going to love God anyway, even if God did not bless him.   The teaching is this, Job's faith overcame the troubles and woes that he was going through in his life because Job's faith was in God himself.  It was not dependant upon material blessings so therefore the material blessings could all be removed but Job's faith in God remained untouched.  Job did very well.  He lost his wealth, he lost all his children but he still kept his faith, but it wasn't over yet.


Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Why Do Bad Things Happen to the World and to the Child of God?

This post is further to yesterday's post entitled "Downhearted but why, and then an answer.  Lately I have read quite a few posts at Wordpress asking the question If God is a God of love, why does he allow bad things to happen?  I believe that these notes from the sermon by Paul Dowling provide the answer, why bad things happen to those in the world, and to the child of God.

Why do Bad Things Happen?

Job 1:1-12 


At some time in their life everyone has wondered,  "why do bad things happen to good people?"  Why was the missionary Amy Carmichael, who was doing her best to obey God, who did so much good work for the Lord, why was she confined to her bed in agony for the last 20 years of her life?  Why do bad things happen to good people.   Why is there so much suffering?


Some people in this world take the question further and they say "if God is the God of love why all the human misery".  Why..  For anyone who would ask that question, it is quite easy to answer although most people who ask that question do not want to know the answer.   If God is a God of love, the word if,  that is a sign of doubt and unbelief.  There is no doubt about it, the bible says that God is love, there is no "if" about it.  If there is doubt, there is no belief in the first place.  We need to remember that God is not a God of love only, love is not his only attribute. There is more to God than 1 John 4.


If you know your bibles you do know that God did not create the world the way it is now. Genesis 1:31 "And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good...."  The world is the way it is now with all its suffering and misery because of human free will.  In the garden of Eden, when there was free will that was not under bondage to sin,  Eve first, and then her husband Adam, used that free will to believe the serpent's lie and be disobedient to God's command and that is how sin entered into this world..  That caused the fall,  but God did not create the world the way it is now.  


Why are there starving people in the world?  Is it God's fault? No it's not, there are starving people in the world because of human greed.  There is more than enough food in this world to feed everybody but the problem is not in the amount of food.  Some countries are hoarding food and won't give it to those who are starving.  The problem is human greed.  It's not God's problem, it is human caused problem.


Why all the wars? That is easily answered because humans fight.  Why so much murder and killing? It's because of human aggression, this goes back to Cain murdering his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8 "And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.").   It's human's fault, not Gods.  Why do so many humans die from simply cured illnesses in the poorer countries of this world. Why do thousands of poor people die? It's because they can't have operations because there are no surgeons but we can have cosmetic surgery to improve our looks. That is how arrogant many people are in the western world, so don't blame God.


Why do triple heart by-pass patients have to wait such a long time for their operation which is life-threatening, but if you pay some money you can have the surgery in a matter of weeks? Because money talks louder than human need.  You can blame God but most of the human suffering in this world is caused by human greed.  So put the blame where it belongs.


If you don't believe in God how can you blame God?   A far more important and honest question is in the bible, in the book of Job.  That is, why do God's people sometimes suffer for no apparent reason.  


Friday, November 13, 2015

Do Not Follow the Majority


 Exodus 23:1-2 "Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.  Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment."


We are going to study  one of the devices or traps or snares that Satan sets to hinder Christians from doing their Christian duties, those being reading God's word, prayer, assembling with other believers, obeying what God's word says.  "thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil"  Satan has devices to keep Christians from doing these duties.  Practical things that the bible tells the believer to do.  When we do these things it leads to spiritual growth, holiness of life and maturity instead of immaturity as is seen in some people. 

As the spiritual temperature of the church plummets, it is evident that immaturity, lack of knowledge of scripture and neglect of duties has come to the fore.  Satan is using this trap to devastating effect to take Christian people from doing what God says they should do after they are saved according to the scriptures.

The snare of Satan is this.  "don't worry too much about reading your bible, don't worry too much about praying, don't worry too much about going to church, don't worry too much about obeying the bible"  Most people do not bother with those things, most people walk and live following the ways of their own heart.  They do what they want to do.  They say  "Just do what the rest do.  Stick with the majority, they must be right.  After all the majority couldn't be wrong.  Don't be different." For the church they say: "Don't worry about disciplining sin in your church, don't worry about using worldly methods and then calling it evangelism, don't look to the bible as your guide to faith and practice, just look at what the majority of churches do, they aren't guided by the scripture, anything goes.  Just follow the majority."


It's common to hear "but everybody's doing it".   Don't worry about obeying God, just do what everybody else does.  That is the snare of Satan.  God says "thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil"  do not follow the majority to do sin.   


Thursday, November 12, 2015

Improve Your Selfie

Improve your selfie.  That is the sign that was on the back of a bus seen yesterday afternoon.  Below that phrase to improve your selfie was an advertisement for botox, fillers and skin care with the name of a business that could do these things.  But I have to ask, would anyone really go to the extent of having botox or fillers to improve their selfie?   Probably the answer is yes, some people would do these things.  But why not just use Photoshop to wipe away those lines or wrinkles before uploading your photo.   After all, what is the chance that you will ever meet even 1% of the people who will see your selfie, not counting friends, acquaintances, or family members that already know the real you.

As for myself, I am aging and showing it.  There are very few photos of me online, one is from a distance and the other was taken 7 years ago.  No botox or fillers for me, I would be afraid of the side effects.

And besides that, what does the bible say about our appearance?

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”   What does the Lord see when he looks upon your heart? 

Proverbs 16:31 “The hoary (gray) head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.”

I would rather see the natural face of a Christian person, which is beautiful from the light which shines from within.

In closing, perhaps the sign on the back of the bus was meant in a joking way.  I sure hope so.

It's That Time Again

It’s that time again, the yearly salmon run.  We live close to the Cowichan River and as it was a lovely sunny day yesterday, we went for a walk on the path that borders the river, with little paths here and there that go down to the water.   The air is filled with the sound of the gulls that are flying all around, whether or not they are trying to get the fresh eggs, or are feeding on the dead salmon, I do not know, probably it’s both.  Some of the salmon are still jumping although they are in the minority, most are near the shore swimming very slowly, soon to join their dead fellow salmon.

Seeing these salmon up close, I always find the sight to be very sad and think about their lives.  Further down the river path there is a little pond where last year’s salmon babies are swimming around with not a care in the world.  At some point they will enter the river and go downstream to Cowichan Bay and then on to the ocean where, if they are lucky enough to escape being eaten by a predator or caught by a fisherman,  they will live until the point where they are driven to come back to the place of their birth where they struggle to go upstream, and finally die a slow death.  Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.  A time to be born, and a time to die:……”

I tried to look at this from my human point of view, and thought about being a Christian going through life, going through trials and tribulations along the way.  For a Christian, always that old devil is going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”  By the grace of God, as we trust him, he will bring us through these trials.   And then we reach our final years.  No longer strong, moving much more slowly.  And then in God’s time for us, we leave this earth, sometimes peacefully, sometimes plagued by illness and suffering. Psalm 116:15 “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” The Christian at death is absent from the body and present with the Lord, awaiting the resurrection.  2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

What about the person who goes through life, eventually reaching the end of their days and dying without ever having believed the gospel, choosing rather to  put salvation off or rejecting it outright, rather “I’ll do it my way”.    Unlike the salmon who dies and is gone, the unbeliever at death goes to a place of torment.   Luke 16:16-31 is the story of the rich man and a beggar named Lazarus.  When the beggar died he was “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom”, the place of rest but the rich man “also died and was buried.  And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom”.  The  rich man calls for mercy, and says that he is “tormented in this flame

And so, dear reader, what will happen on that day when you leave this earth?  You won’t be like the salmon, for you have a soul and that soul belongs to God, whether you be Christian or not.  Will you believe the gospel? will you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and then when you leave this earth you will be in the place of rest? or will you be in torments.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God“.
John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world though him might be saved.  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
1 Timothy 3:16 “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory”

Below is a photo of the Cowichan River at this time,  the sky above the river filled with seagulls looking for a meal.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Lamentations: The Church's Funeral Lament


In the book of Lamentations is the wee word "how".  How, says Jeremiah, has it come to this?  A question that he then proceeds to answer.  The occasion of the writing of Lamentations (a lament, a wailing) was the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah by the Babylonians in 588BC.  Lamentations is the churches funeral lament.  The destruction, or chastisement of the old covenant church.  The destruction that Jeremiah preached on during his 40 year ministry, it had repeatedly been his sole message for 40 years.  It happened.  The ruin that he predicted in the whole book of Jeremiah, the ruin he spoke on was mocked by the false prophets, it was not believed and was scorned by God's people.  Jerusalem has now fallen and Lamentations was written.  Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon ordered that Jerusalem should be razed to the ground.  The temple was entered into, defiled and burnt as was everything else.  The fire burned for 3 days. 


To understand the message of Lamentations we must sit in the smoking ruins of the old covenant church.  We must sit in the rubble of Jerusalem in the desolation of Judah.  We must smell the stench of the thousands upon thousands of the dead.  The funeral pyres were like mountains as they burned.  Mountains of God's covenant people.  And then we may say like Jeremiah "How has it come to this" even though he knew the answer.  He knew the answer even before he commenced his ministry because God told him that the people would not listen to him, they would not repent..  At one point God told Jeremiah to stop praying for them.  After 40 years of preaching and after 40 years of being hated by the church of his day, when the judgment comes he still weeps for the church because he cares for the church and he is one of the very few people who does care hence his utter grief at the destruction of the church in his day.


The instrument of God's judgment:  Lamentations 1:1-7 "How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!  She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.  Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.  The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.  Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.  And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.  Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths."

 
 God does not send fire down from heaven, but he uses as an instrument of judgment, the church's enemies.  He uses the heathen, he uses her adversaries.  And this we will find as a scriptural principle that God's favored instrument for chastening his people when they sin is the heathen whom he brings into their midst.  And what happens?  They desecrate the worship of the church.  The heathen come in not to worship but to plunder, to get something for themselves.  But note, its the churches pagan enemies.  There are only two types of people in the world, God's people and pagans.  Everything that is not true Christianity is paganism.  The church's enemies come in and God uses them to chasten and corrupt the church.  


Friday, November 6, 2015

The Days of Noah Part 7: What Does the Flood Teach Us?


1 Peter 3:18-20 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."


Matthew 24:36-39 "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood  came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."


This is the last in the series of the Days of Noah.  The most important thing is, what is the lesson?  What does the flood teach us.

 
God judges and punishes sin always:  In the book of Genesis 6 it says 6:5-7 "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."  It was all because of the wickedness of man, sin.  Both in mind, imagination, the thoughts of the heart, and the violence.  It all happened because of sin in thought and in deed.  God sees all sin, and all sin brings judgment and punishment. 


Thursday, November 5, 2015

The Days of Noah: After the Flood, a Changed World


Genesis 8:14-22


On the 20th of July in 1969 the Eagle lunar landing module touched down upon the moon.  The spacecraft landed on th Sea of Tranquility.  Neil Armstrong stepped out and said "that is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.  This environment was strange to him, never before were any humans there.  There was just an eerie silence.


When Noah stepped out of the ark, after a year of judgment upon this earth, it was a different earth than what he had known before.  Once it had teemed with wildlife and people, once it had been abundantly rich with trees and vegetation.  But now it was an hostile environment.  Deeper oceans, higher mountains, harsher climate, cooler and stronger winds.  High on the sides of Mt. Ararat, Noah and his family surveyed their new home, but God spoke to Noah.  He and his family were not alone. God said to go forth, spread out, you and the animals replenish the earth.  Noah disembarked and the first thing he did was:


A sacrifice.  The first thing that Noah did was to build an altar, a place where man can meet God on God's terms of course.  Noah's first purpose was to renew fellowship with God.  Noah is giving visible evidence that he is putting God first.  Isn't it always a question of priorities?  Do we put God first?   The Lord Jesus said you are to love the LORD your God with all your mind, with all your strength, your heart, your soul, and your neighbour as yourself.  Put God first.  God is the Number 1 priority in our life or should be.  Noah put God's altar first because that was important to him.  But it also showed his gratitude to God.  God by grace had saved him.


Noah had a God-centered life.  He really trusted in God.  The secret of a good home lies in putting the Lord first.  God must come first before anybody else.  Is the place where you meet God most important?  We also notice that Noah offered a burnt sacrifice on the altar.  It wasn't an altar for show, it was for real worship not for formality.  It was for real worship.  Noah offered burnt offerings of the clean animals.  7 of every kind of clean animal came on board the ark.  This is the first reference in scripture where we read of the building of an altar, and also the first sacrifice.  The animal was totally consumed.  It was an offering for sin.  Noah not only knew the difference between clean and unclean, but he knew that the fellowship between  holy God and sinful man was only possible  through a propitiating sacrifice.  Blood had to be shed for sinful humans to have fellowship with a holy God.  Abel knew this, so did Noah.  God's law has always existed from the beginning in the hearts of the people of God.    The only way for us to have fellowhip with God is through sacrifice.  All of the old testament sacrifice pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the only sacrifice that God requires. 


Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Are You Watching for Jesus? - An Airport Lesson

This post is something I wrote 6 years ago when my granddaughter was 5 years old.

Matthew 24:42 "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.".

1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

Recently my daughter-in-law went to Japan for a week. For the last three days she was away, I went to their house very early in the morning to babysit my 5 year old granddaughter.  It had been arranged in advance that my son would be home to look after her for the first four days, followed by myself.  I told my granddaughter that on the day that I came, it would be a very short time before her mother came home.   "two more sleeps, and mama will be home."

Needless to say, on the day before, my granddaughter got up pretty early and asked if mama would be home, so I told her one more sleep.  The next morning she was up at 6:30 am asking if it was time to go to the airport.  She was so excited,  she had a bath, washed her hair, brushed her teeth, picked out a pretty dress, and soon it was time to head for the airport.  On the way she saw a plane in the sky and remarked that we must be getting close to the airport.

As we entered the international arrival section, there was a large crowd of people gathered to meet loved ones.  Everyone arriving had to come through customs, which took at least a 1/2 hour after the plane touched down.  They had to pick up their baggage, and then they came through doors and down a narrow, enclosed passageway to the opening where finally, there were greetings with embraces, flowers, what have you.  A lot of people were looking at the monitors that had been set up so they could see their loved one entering through the doors that were quite a distance away.. 

We had arrived at the time the plane touched down, and we were first sitting in chairs, and then standing at the railing separating us from the passageway.  It seemed a very long time that we stood there, and my granddaughter was getting discouraged, asking "where is mama?" and I kept telling her that soon her mama would be there.  At first I was aware of all the people waiting, but as time passed, it was like they disappeared, and my granddaughter and I were the only ones there, so focused were we waiting for her mother.


Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The Days of Noah Part 6: The Aftermath of the Flood


Genesis 7:24 - 8:1-5


In the previous posts, we looked at the historicity of the flood, it was a real event, Noah was a real person, a man of God.  We have looked at Noah's world, a sinful, pleasure-seeking world.  We have looked at the ark and the heart of God that provided a way of salvation from judgment and we have looked at the world-wide catastrophic terrible reality of the flood.  Today we look at the aftermath.  


The Long Long Time.  7:12 "And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights."  V24 "And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days."  8:3 "And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated."  It was a very long time, 40 days of rain, a further 110 days of the water deepening, and then 150 days as the water receded.  It was over a year before Noah and his family got off the ark.  It was a long time.  During that whole year there was no further word from God.  God had not spoken to Noah since he closed the door (of the ark)  A year of silence from God.  Noah's family must have asked him every day "Is there any word from God? Is it nearly over?" and Noah didn't know because he had no word from God.  It was a long time.  


Many of the great men in scripture ask the question "has God forgotten me" and perhaps Noah asked the same thing, "has God forgotten me?"   And you don't know the answer.  But in Genesis 8:1 "And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged" God remembered Noah.  Remembered means Noah was in the mind of God, God hadn't forgotten Noah, and Noah was a man of faith and in that long time and those long dark days of judgment when there was no apparent communication from God, Noah had only one thing to cling to, the sheer faithfulness of God.  The integrity of God.  God had been faithful in instructing him thus far.  Trust in that.

Monday, November 2, 2015

The Days of Noah: The Ark and the Heart of God


Genesis 6:3,5-7,13-22


Noah and the flood were both historic, Noah was a real person, a man of faith, a preacher of righteousness, a family man.  His world was a real world, a sinful world that was characterized by certain things: an evil mind-set, the thoughts and imaginations were only evil continually.  It was a foul society, a violent society.  It was also characterized by perverted religion that had corrupted the true religion.  This society was characterized by materialism and pleasure.  Those are the conditions for calamity.  That is the type of lifestyle that brought the flood.  In the light of those things, it all led to something.

What did it lead to?
Gen 6:6 "And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."    grieved means to suffer pain in one's own heart.  It grieved God at his heart, that is what it led to, grief.  God is not sitting up there in heaven uncaring about the people he created, he is grieved at their behaviour and their lifestyle like you are when your little children grow up and they scorn and mock and throw off the standards that you have tried to teach them..  Don't think less of God, it grieved him at his heart.  It also led to judgment pronounced and carried out.  Gen 6:7,13 "And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."  There are consequences for sin and rebellion and the consequences taught in this passage teach a very important lesson, a lesson that is largely forgotten today even in churches where they have a view of a God that has just one attribute and that is love.  That is a heresy.  Sin leads to consequences.  This passage teaches us the consequences.  God is warning mankind of the limitation of his mercy and grace.  


This passage teaches that human beings through their willful sin and willful neglect of salvation can put themselves beyond grace.  Beyond God's mercy.  By gross willful rebellion you can put yourself in the place where God says, "it is now over for you, there is no possibility of recall.  Beyond grace, mercy and redemption forever.  Where the only thing is judgment.  Noah's world was in precisely that position.  120 years and that is it, God says "enough"  There is a limit to God's mercy and grace.  And how much grace has been poured on you week by week, unbeliever.  How many times has God spoken to you in grace and mercy.  But you have scorned his love, rejected his forgiveness.  The lesson this passage is teaching is very simple, you need to be aware that the grace of God is not everlasting.  If God's grace was everlasting the flood would not have come.  If you are not a Christian, one day, if you continue rejecting the gospel, one day you will be one day too late.


Sunday, November 1, 2015

Church Practice: What is Contributing Considered To Be?

Colossians 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

Matthew 4:18,21  “And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers….And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.”

Yesterday was quite a sorrowful day for us.  In my previous post I said that my husband and I were “taking a break” from our chapel, and yesterday my husband had a visit from one of the elders.  Before I state what happened at one point, let me say that my husband has a real problem speaking in front of a group of people, he has had this for all the almost 29 years that we have been married.  Rather he chooses to be a helper behind the scenes, whatsoever and wherever he is asked.

With this in mind, at one point the elder told my husband that he did not “contribute”.  And I am dumbfounded because according to the verses quoted above, what is contribution anyway?  “whatsoever ye do in word or deed”   Jesus saw Peter “casting a net”  and he saw James and John “mending their nets”..  I heard a wonderful sermon years ago which I have never forgotten because the speaker said that Peter was the outgoing one, the vocal one while John was the encourager, the quiet one.

And so I go back to the fact that the elder told my husband that he did not “contribute”..  well, that is true that my husband, at breaking of bread, did not read from his bible, nor pray by himself, but he did give out hymns on occasion.  But besides that he was always out the door very early in the morning in all kinds of weather all year round driving the 20 minute drive to another town to pick up some bible school students at the ferry.  He was always the first one at the chapel, putting out the emblems, the bread and the cups.  He took them into the kitchen afterwards.  On Saturday mornings he was out of the house before 6:00am to drive to the chapel to help get ready for the morning men’s prayer breakfast.  He helped take an old library apart and convert it into a beautiful new bathroom..  and many other things I have not mentioned here.  So again, it boggles my mind that this elder said that he did not “contribute”..  My goodness, by their fruits you shall know them.

So I say to you, dear reader,  if you are in a church, and you are not comfortable speaking in front of a group, be encouraged by Colossians 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”  And don’t be discouraged if you are accused of not “contributing” by someone who should know better.

As for us, we are looking forward to breaking bread tomorrow morning, just the two of us but there will really be three because the Lord Jesus promises in Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”