The Grand Weaver

   “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. (Psalms 139:13-16)

     Ravi Zacharias is man that has a wonderful testimony of God’s goodness. Born in India in a nominally Christian home he had many struggles as a youth and even contemplated suicide before being born again and dedicating his life to serving his Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ as an itinerant evangelist and apologist.  He is sometimes too intelligent for me to understand everything he says but he is a wonderful storyteller and filled with the Holy Spirit as he writes or speaks. One story he likes to tell in his books or in his speeches is about the father and son team that make saris in India. (The sari is the traditional apparel of women in that country.)

     It is in the city of Varanasi, India located on the Ganges River and is famous for the beautiful and breathtaking saris that every women in India wants to be married in. The colors are brilliant and the threads have real gold and silver in them to make them look like they came from the perfect mind and pair of hands. Ravi describes the shop he visited this way:

     “Essentially, a father son team makes each sari. The father sits on a raised platform with huge spools of brilliantly colored thread within his reach. The son sits on the floor in the lotus position. The team wears basic and simple clothing. Their fingers move nimbly, their hands never touching softening lotion. They hunch over their work, and their eyes focus on the pattern emerging with each move of the shuttle.

     Before my eyes, though it did not appear so at first, a grand design appears. The father gathers some threads in his hand, then nods, and the son moves the shuttle from one side to the other. A few more threads, another nod, and again the son responds by moving the shuttle. The process seems almost Sisyphus-like in its repetition, the silence broken only occasionally with a comment or by some visitor who interrupts to ask a question about the end design. The father smiles and tries in his broken English to explain the picture he has in his mind, but compared to the magnificence of the final product, it is a mere lisp. I know that if I were to come back  a few weeks later—in some instances a few months later—I would see spools of thread almost empty and six-yard-long sari, breathtaking in all of its splendor.

    Throughout the process, the son has had a much easier task. Most likely he has often felt bored. Perhaps his back has ached or his legs have gone to sleep. Perhaps he has wished for some other calling in life—something he might find more stimulating or fulfilling. He has but one task, namely, to move the shuttle as directed by the father’s nod, hoping to learn to think like his father so that he can carry on the business at the appropriate time.

    Yet the whole time, the design has remained in the mind of the father as he held the threads. In a few days, this sari will make its way to a shop in Delhi or Bombay or Calcutta. A lovely young lady with her mother will note the saris on display. This one will catch her eye and she will exclaim, ‘Bohut Badiya (how grand)! Khupsurat (what a beautiful face)!’ because a grand weaver has purposefully designed it. Before long, it will be draped around her, beautifying the lovely bride.

     Now if an ordinary weaver can take a collection of colored threads and create a garment to beautify the face, is it not possible that the Grand Weaver has a design in mind for you, a design that will adorn you as He uses your life to fashion you for His purpose, using all the threads within His reach?” (The Grand Weaver by Ravi Zacharias, pp. 15-16)

    What a magnificent story to illustrate the Grand Weaver weaving our life together in an intricate and beautiful design. It reminds us of the example Jeremiah used in chapter 18 of his book about God being the potter and us being the clay. He has a design in mind and as we read in Psalms 139, we know that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Are we content with how God has made us and are we seeking to use our lives to serve Him with the talents and gifts He has given to fulfill His magnificent and glorious plan?

Pray

1.     That God will open my eyes and allow me to see that He has such a wonderful plan for my life and to allow me to enjoy all that He has provided.

2.     That I will look for ways to serve Him everyday as I give my life as a “pleasing sacrifice” which is reasonable, considering all He has done for me.

3.     That I will praise Him with my whole heart, mind, soul, and strength today with joy and thankfulness in my heart for allowing me to be His son or daughter.

A word from Isaiah

“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait upon the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31)

  Anyone who has been in a Bible Study with me a time or two, knows that it is hard for me to talk about the Scriptures without somehow reading something from the book of Isaiah. There are many marvelous chapters that tell of the greatness of God and how much He loves us; His creations, and His adopted sons and daughters. One chapter that thrills me and helps me understand the God that loves me so much, is chapter 40. Let us look at just a few verses that point to the magnificence and glory of our God.

“The voice said, ‘Cry out!’ And he said,  ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All flesh is grass, And its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers and the flower fades. Because the breath of the LORD blows on it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.’” (vs. 6-8)

“Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, And with His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.” (vs. 10-11)

  “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth with a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?” (vs. 12-14)

   “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. All the nations before Him are as nothing, And they are accounted by Him as less than nothing and worthless. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?” (vs. 15,17-18)

  “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the world useless. “ (vs. 21-23)

  “’To whom will you liken Me, or to who shall I be equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And by the strength of His power; Not one is missing. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.” (vs. 25-26,28-29)

  Are you not moved? Are you not in awe of the Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, who loves you and pursued you until you accepted His free gift of salvation? Is it the same God that sent His Son to die on an old rugged cross for sins He did not commit, so that you and I could be forgiven and washed clean of our sins by his atoning blood? Yes, that is the God we are talking about. The King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Kinsman Redeemer, Savior, and Solid Rock! He is God! He is Jesus! He is the Holy Spirit! He is our all in all. Thank you Jesus! Thank you God! Thank you Holy Spirit! (Read all of chapter 40 if you have time!)

Pray:

1.     Thanking God for being the awesome loving God that He is. That He created you in His image and redeemed you from the sting of death and has adopted you as His precious child.

2.     Thanking Him for placing the sun in the morning sky and the stars in the night sky. For naming every star and numbering every hair on your head.

3.     Praising Him for His mercy and grace in redeeming you from the miry pit and placing your feet upon solid ground.

4.     Thanking Him for every beat of your heart and every breath you take that you might live your life for His glory and for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The devil made me do it

  Back in the 1970’s I remember a comedian named Flip Wilson who had a routine where he was impersonating a women who blamed the devil on every bad thing she did. Her constant excuse for bad choices was always “The devil made me do it.” It was pretty funny but not very realistic. Of course, there really is a devil. The Apostle Peter tells us:

       “Be sober, be vigilant; because you adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

     We also know that even Jesus had to put up with the devil (or Satan) when He was tempted of the devil after 40 days and nights of fasting in the desert prior to beginning His ministry. (Mathew 4:1-11) Jesus was able to fend off the devil with Scripture and that should be a hint to us that we need to know what the Scripture says and why. Jesus affirmed the existence of Satan in many other instances to include the night he was arrested in the Garden when He said:

      “Simon, Simon! Indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail: and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22:31-32)

    My first encounter with evil and someone who was, more than likely, demon possessed was in December 1972. I was a second lieutenant of Infantry in the U.S. Army stationed in West Berlin, Germany. My battalion, the 2d battalion, 6^th U.S. Infantry was responsible for guarding Spandau prison every December, which still held one of the Nazi criminals put there by the Nurenburg trials after World War II. My company, C company, had the last 2 weeks of December and I, and my 40 man platoon, had the week of Christmas. There were six guard towers to the prison and one overlooked the courtyard where the only prisoner still left incarcerated in this 200 person facility, Rudolph Hess, went for a walk everyday at 9AM an 3PM. As I was making my rounds that first day checking out each of the guard posts, I walked through the courtyard at the same time Mr. Hess was taking his morning stroll. I glanced at him briefly and was careful not to speak to him or acknowledge him in any way because that was our orders. The only people who had dealings with him were the 4 governors from each of the allied powers or the doctors. (also 4, one from each power)

       One look at him told me I did not want to talk to him. He had an aura of evil about him and if I were to draw a picture of what I thought Satan looked like, it would be my visual image of Rudolph Hess. Even though I wasn’t a Christian at the time I could clearly see and feel the evil that emanated from this man. In 1999 I had a similar encounter with evil in a completely different part of the world.

      

      Our church had taken a ten-person team to Madurai, India and were conducting pastors 

conferences and preaching in several outdoor venues in various towns and villages. In one of the towns, Sivakasi, our pastor was to preach after the rest of us had sung a couple of hymns. When he got up and started to speak, he could not utter a sound. He turned to the rest of us and in a very weak voice told us that there was some power restraining him from speaking out loud. He asked us to sing about the blood of Jesus and we stood and sang “There is power in the blood.”

       While we were singing I looked out over the crowd and saw a man in the back whose countenance was exactly like that of Rudolph Hess I had seen years earlier. Before we finished I saw the man turn and walk away and when the song was complete, our pastor was able to stand and deliver the message he had been given by God for the day.

       Although there is a devil or Satan, he has already been defeated at the cross! He has power only if you give him power by allowing sin into your life. He likes nothing better to use his demons to keep people, who don’t know Jesus as their Lord and Savior from knowing Him, and to keep Christians from being obedient and living their lives for Jesus.

    The apostle Paul also makes it very clear that we are to:

    

    “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:11-13)

   Verses 14-18 tell us how to put on each part of the armor and to do it daily if we are to be ready to withstand the wiles of the devil. But the best part is after we have put on the full set of armor we just have to stand! God does the rest! He fights the battle. He is our protector and champion!

    So what kind of assault are you under today? Put on the armor. Stand your ground and watch and see Jesus win the victory! He is your strong tower. He is your shield. He is your shelter from the storm and shade from the heat. He “will never leave you nor forsake you.” You are more than a conqueror because you are a child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

Pray

1.     Lord help me to start every day putting on the full armor of God. To spend time with you in your Word so that I will have the power of this “Sword” at my disposal.

2.     Lord thank You that I can depend upon you to be my shield and my strong tower and that you will fight my battle for me as long as I stand with You.

3.     Lord help to be faithful to pray against the powers of darkness that are seeking to destroy my family and my church on a daily basis

  

   

    

    

God is in charge

    "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the LORD. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.'" (Isaiah 55:8,9)

  Have you ever seen or been in a play where a supporting actor or actress seems quite insignificant and you were not really sure why that individual was in the play until you reached the climatic final scene and you see why that person had his or her small, but important, part?

   In February 2000 Miriam went on a short-term mission trip with a team from another church in our city as a translator for a medical/dental mission team going to the jungles of Ecuador. It was a dangerous and harrowing trip for her in many ways. She watched the driver of the bus put eye drops in his eyes as he drove the bus on a winding mountain road, with no guardrails, at midnight the first day in country. She watched a truck pull within one inch of her face as she stood at the edge of a river ferry with no railings that was preparing to cross a fast moving flooding river on the way to a village. (Her husband was prompted several times to pray for her while she was gone and when she returned, he found out why.)

    At the end of the week they packed up their belongings and headed to a small rural airstrip that would take the team to Quito for their flight home. They were in the jungle, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but one long building and the airstrip. As they were sitting in the small waiting room there was suddenly a cry for help, in English! A man and his wife from California had been vacationing by visiting the jungle and she had fallen down and broken her hip. He came rushing into the building and asked if there was a doctor anywhere around. Immediately 4 doctors responded and the man had more help than he could imagine. There was also a local Ecuadorian doctor and nurse in a small clinic that supported a platoon of soldiers stationed at the airfield.

    They all scrambled to meet the new emergency and soon the lady with the broken hip was in a bed and all five doctors were attempting to take care of the new patient. Miriam had been sitting exhausted from the previous weeks work and had no desire to get up and help until suddenly the call went out that they needed a translator. She entered the small room with one patient, 5 doctors, one nurse and one husband all talking and arguing at the same time. The local doctor was trying to administer a pain killer but the American doctors would not let him because the women was on a medication that would not allow her to take that medicine. Also the Ecuadorian doctor wanted to set the leg one way and the Americans said it had to be a different way. Finally, the Ecuadorian doctor got offended and stormed out of the room and the nurse, equally irate, went and posted two armed soldiers at the door and told them in Spanish: “Don’t let anyone out of this room unless I tell you.” The American doctors were oblivious to this action as two worked on the woman and two more proceeded to tell the husband and wife about Jesus.

    Miriam was in shock! How are we going to ever get out of here? Our plane will be here soon and they are not going to let us out of this room. They are angry, and they have the soldiers with rifles! A few minutes later the nurse returned and asked Miriam in Spanish. “Why are you with these people? You are not like them.” Miriam responded, “I am originally from Venezuela, but I married an American soldier many years ago and now I am an American citizen living in the United States.”

    The nurse replied, “Oh, the exact same thing happened to my best friend. There were some American Army Rangers training here last year and she married one of them and moved to the U.S. too. I miss her very much.” Miriam then asked her if she knew where her friend and her husband were stationed and she replied that she didn’t know. Then suddenly she said, “Wait, I have a letter she sent me in my pocket book. I will go get it and see what it says.” When she returned with the letter she said, “It says she is living in Fort Gordon, Georgia. Do you know where that is?” Miriam smiled. “Yes, I live about a 10 minute drive from Fort Gordon. Would you like to write a letter and have me deliver it to her?” 

“Would you do that for me?” she asked, as her entire countenance and attitude changed. “Yes, I will.” said Miriam and the nurse immediately got a pen and paper and started writing. She also turned to the armed soldiers and said, “Hey you guys can go now.” As she finished writing the letter, she sealed it up and handed it to Miriam.  Meanwhile, the two doctors who had been telling the patient and her husband about Jesus had both of them pray the sinners prayer and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior! 

     Just then, they could hear the wheels of the airplane landing to take them to Quito, and the nurse gave orders for all the soldiers to help the Americans load the patient and all the teams’ supplies on the airplane. Miriam breathed a sigh of relief and thankfulness as she boarded the plane and gave thanks for a personal God who would orchestrate all that he did just so these two American tourists could come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, and that God would allow her to play a small role in helping it to happen! (She delivered the letter to the best friend the next week.)

Pray:

1.     Lord help me to always look for opportunities to be used by You to point others to Christ and His redemptive love.

2.     Help me never to be discouraged in the light of difficult problems and trials because I know that you are in charge and You have a wonderful plan even in the midst of total chaos.

3.     Lord thank you that you are a loving God that is always pursuing us to be Yours.  Help us to live each day with expectation to see what You have planned for us next.

  

     

Our duty is to pray

     “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—The sure mercies of David. Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” (Isaiah 55:1,3,6)

     "Prayer is the battle, it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whatever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought—‘I am of no use where I am’; because you can be of no use where you are not……We have to labor along  the line of God’s direction, and He says pray.” (Oswald Chambers, Utmost for His Highest)

Read and meditate on these Scriptures:

    “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned everyone to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not his mouth; He was led as a lamb to slaughter, And as a sheep before his shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.” (Isaiah 53: 6-7)

   “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. (Hebrews 5:8,9)

   “knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:16,19-20)

    “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father.’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Galatians 3:6-7)

Pray for:

1.     God’s people to be salt and light, and that we will create an appetite for righteousness in the hearts of the unsaved.

2.     A God consciousness among the lost that will cause them to seek after Christ.

3.     Your lost friends, family members, and associates by name and keep praying for them until they repent and come to Christ.

4.     A right understanding of Scripture and the power of the Word of God to change our lives and the lives of those we come in contact with.

Forgiveness is the answer

     “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14)

    Corrie ten Boom was an awesome woman of God who traveled around the world teaching about the love of God and how God had sustained her during extremely difficult trails and called her to be His “Tramp for the Lord.” She was born in Harlem, Holland and during the beginning of World War II she and her family did their best to hide Jews in secret rooms in their home and family watch store. Eventually, someone informed on them to the Germans and the entire family, her parents and her sister were sent to concentration camps. Her parents died quickly but her sister and her were sent to Ravensbuck in Germany, and had to endure unbearable treatment in filthy, flea infested, unheated barracks for many years. Corrie watched her sister die there, but God was gracious, and allowed her to survive.

    After the war Corrie felt called of the Lord to travel and tell the world of how the Lord had sustained her and many others in those brutal conditions. She told the Lord that she would do anything and go anywhere for Him but would He please never send her back to Germany. Of course, He did send her back and she spoke before a large crowd in Munich on the subject of forgiveness. This is her account of what happened:

   “It was 1947. I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. And that is when I saw him, working his way forward against the others…It came back with a rush; the huge room with its harsh overhead lights; the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor; the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin.

    Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp.

    Now he was in front of me, hand stuck out: ‘A fine message Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!’ And I, who so glibly had spoken of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take his hand.

     

     ‘You mentioned Ravensbrook in your talk,’ he was saying. ‘I was a guard in there.’ No, he did not remember me. ‘But since that time,’ he went on, ‘I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well Fraulein,’ again the hand came out—‘will you forgive me?’

       And I stood there---I whose sins had every day to be forgiven—and I could not. Betsie had died in that place—could he erase her slow, terrible death simply for the asking? It could have not been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me, it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I ever had to do. For I had to do it—I knew that….

     And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

    Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ Himself had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile. I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth of charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer.

       ‘Jesus. I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.’

    As I took his hand, mechanically, woodenly, a most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

    And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.” (The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom)

   Who do you need to forgive today. It doesn’t matter that they have not asked for your forgiveness or that they don’t deserve your forgiveness because, in truth, none of us deserve the forgiveness of God, but He forgives us anyway, and commands us to do likewise! Forgive! Ask God to help you and He will!

   “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” (Matthew 5:43-44)

Pray:

1.     God please bring to my mind all the people I need to go to and ask for their forgiveness for something I have done or not done.

2.     Help me to forgive the most horrible people in my life so that I can be healed of the bitterness and hardness of my heart.

3.     Help me to be like Corrie ten Boom, and seek your power to forgive, knowing that if I do my part, even if I don’t feel like it, You will do the rest.

  

   

    

Revival in Judah

    

     What does it mean to experience revival? The book of Nehemiah describes a revival in the nation of Judah by the men and women who had returned from captivity in Babylon and Persia. Many had not heard the Word of God proclaimed all their lives and now they had a chance to hear it for the first time. The Scripture tells us:

     “So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the LORD, and the great God. Then all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen!’ while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:2-3, 5-6)

Do you notice any similarities between the way they worshiped 2,600 years ago and today?

  “So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, who was the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to the people,  ‘This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law.” Then he said to them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our LORD. Do not sorrow for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:8-10)

      When we talk about the Law, or the Book of the Law in the OT, the Hebrew authors were talking about the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy. They had to read the books in Hebrew and then translate it into Aramaic because the great majority did not know Hebrew, having lived in Babylon/Persia all their lives. Then, as verse 8 tells us, they were given the sense of the Scripture to help them understand what Moses had written in these books. We don’t know if Ezra did  this, all by himself, or whether other scribes moved among the crowd translating and explaining, but we do know that the people understood what the Scripture said, because they were profoundly moved and began to mourn and weep at all they commandments that God had given His people and they had not obeyed.

  Today, we gather again to hear God’s Word and to learn what the Scripture has to say to us. Will we feel repentant and sad because we have not been obedient to what God has told us to do in his Word? Things like: forgiving those who have done us wrong, loving our neighbor as our self, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, giving to the poor, visiting the prisoner, clothing the naked, telling others the Good News, bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse, loving our wives like Christ loves the Church, seeking first the kingdom of God, and a multitude of other things. Let today be the day we turn from our evil ways, and seek to be obedient to the One who loves us unconditionally, and died on a wooden cross for our sins!

   “When you know you should do a thing and you do it, immediately you will know more. I you revise where you are stodgy spiritually, you will find it goes back to the point where there was one thing you knew you should do, but did not do it ….and now you have no perception, no discernment. Instead of being spiritually self-possessed at the time of crisis, you are spiritually distracted. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to go on knowing.” (Oswald Chambers, As He Walked)

Pray:

1.     That today Christians will stop playing church and start serving God with passion and obedience.

2.     That the unsaved will admit that they are sinners, in need of a Savior, and start living their lives for Him, Jesus Christ.

4.     That we will never get over what Christ has done for us on the cross and that we will live every day sold out completely to Him until He calls us home, or He returns in glory and power.

    

You just have to go

     “So Samuel said: Has the LORD as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22)

    Nik Ripken in his book “The Insanity of God” tells many stories of persecution and God’s faithfulness to those being persecuted behind the “Iron Curtain” countries during communist rule in the former USSR, in China, and Southeast Asia. The following is a story that comes out of Russia and shows us many things about the God that we serve and His faithfulness.

    “One pastor was arrested and placed in prison, while his wife and children were sent to live (or die) in Siberia. One winter night in their remote, dilapidated wooden cabin which now served as their home, the three children divided their families last crust of bread, and drank the last cup of tea in the house before climbing into bed still hungry. Kneeling to say their prayers, they asked,  ‘Where are we going to get some more food, Mama? We’re hungry! Do you think Papa even knows where we live now?” Their mother assured them that their heavenly Father knew where they lived. For now, He was the one who would have to provide. The prayed and asked for God’s provision.

     Thirty kilometers away, in the middle of the night, God woke up the deacon of a church and instructed him, “Get out of bed. Harness your horse, hitch the horse to the sled, load up all the extra vegetables that the church has harvested, the meat, and the other food that the congregation collected, and take it to that pastor’s family living outside the village. They are hungry!”

    The deacon said. ‘But Lord, I can’t do that! It’s below zero outside. My horse might freeze and I might freeze!’

   The Holy Spirit told him, ‘You must go! The pastor’s family is in trouble!’

    The man argued. ‘Lord, you’ve got to know that there are wolves everywhere. They could eat my horse and if they do, they’ll then eat me and I’ll never make it back.’

    But the deacon said that the Holy Spirit told him, ‘You don’t have to come back. You just have to go.”

  So he did.

   When he knocked loudly on the door of that rickety cabin in the pre-dawn darkness the next morning, the banging must have terrified the mother and her children. But imagine their joy and amazement when they fearfully, hesitantly opened the cabin door to find one very small, very cold, member of the Body of Christ standing on their front step. His food-laden sled was behind him. He held a huge sack, and announced, ‘Our church collected this food for you. Be fed. When this runs out, I’ll bring more.’

    Long after I heard this story, I kept thinking about God’s final instructions to the deacon: ‘You just have to go.’

  You don’t have to come back. You just have to go.   

   As it turns out, he did come back. Even so, the instruction is so clear. You just have to go. You just have to go. Even if there is no clarity about your return, you just have to go.

   The memory of that deacon’s courageous obedience lives on in his story. The story has been told by his family for generations. And the story is also told by the extended family of those who were saved by his gift. The story celebrates one man’s obedience and God’s miraculous provision.” (The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken, pp 166-167)

   What has God told you to do? To love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself? To forgive those whom have wronged you just as Christ has forgiven you? To tell others about the Savior of the world and how He has saved you from sin and death? To let your yes be yes and your no be no? To love your enemies?

   Yes, all these and many more. Remember: ‘To obey is better than sacrifice.”

   “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” (John 15:14)

Pray:

1.     Lord help me today to be obedient to read and study your Word so that I will know what you require of me.

2.     Help me to be obedient to the “still small voice” that guides me to be more like you each day as I learn your ways and follow you and not the world around me.

3.     Fill me with your Spirit and help me to be quick to obey without arguing or making excuses why I don’t want to do something difficult that you have asked of me.