A Memorial Before The Lord

And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?” So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.  Acts 10:4

Cornelius was a man serving in the army of Rome as a centurion. The Lord God had a memorial before Him from the man's prayers and alms. That's powerful. We celebrate a memorial day too, and the sacrifice made by the men and women who are recognized on this day I believe comes up before God much like this one mentioned by the angel of the Lord. Jesus spoke of no one having a greater love than the person who lays down his or her life for their friends. Some might scoff at extending friendship to our nation by way of service in the Armed Forces, but I would disagree with those scoffers. On this day in which solemn ceremonies will mark and memorialize those who gave their last full measure of devotion for our nation, we pray for this nation and for those who seem to be forgetting the sacrifices that allow them to go their way. We also remember the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for us, His friends. 

In the love of Christ Jesus,

Bucky

That They May Know You

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  John 17:3 

As with 3:16 of the same gospel, this almost seems too simple: eternal life simply by knowing God? And yet, how well do you know those you grew up with? Did you see that boy growing up to do that thing he does for a living? Can you believe that girl moved so far away and became governor of that place? Even our friends right now may surprise us today in some opinion or action. But the spouse, yes the spouse you know so well. The many divorces taking place all around us say that even a marriage does not confer complete knowledge of a person. So how simple is it to know God again? 

Simple in that God loves us so much that He sent His Son to save us. Difficult in that after years of hugely expanding knowledge of His creation, we still do not know how many things work in it or why they do what they do. For God so loved the world, simple. Looking at the news of the world today, um, difficult. As so many things seen in the news are abominations to the Lord, He obviously does not love all the world does each day. Yet, this world was worth the life of His Son to save. Whether the person needs it simple or difficult, God is there for us to learn of and about through His word and His presence. 

Remembering the One who gave His life to save us all, Jesus our Lord.

Bucky

You Know Him

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  John 14:16-17

Now the Lord Jesus promises that the Spirit of truth will dwell with us and within us. The Spirit and our Lord must be one and the same as earlier in this very chapter of His word our Lord states that He is the truth (v6). This Spirit of truth could hardly have a more intimate relationship with us than to be in us. Even a spouse does not have such an intimate connection! And the Lord promises that we know Him already. The Lord does not promise that we will see the Spirit of truth, and this trips up those in the world who will not believe in Him. But if we get into this too much, we might fail to see how Jesus introduces us to 'another Helper'. Do we see the Spirit of truth as our helper? And did our Lord not say, "another"? Have we viewed our Lord Jesus as a helper? And wait, did Jesus say that He would abide with us forever? Forever means eternal life! What a powerful bunch of promises our Lord Jesus gives to us in just two little verses. 

Praise God for our Lord Jesus and the Spirit of truth!

Bucky

Former Record Of Sin

For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:23 (and a bit of v22).

As a former convicted sinner, I carry around with me this record. Now, I'm not supposed to carry this record anymore as my Lord Jesus paid the penalty for my sins at Calvary. However, that former record gets presented to me repeatedly by the enemies of our faith in Jesus. These enemies are helped along in their dreadful work by an all too human memory of my past deeds and thoughts, and a burned and scarred conscience. One wonders how anyone could go on with this sort of burden to bear! 

Last night, I finished reading a novel of gloom and doom. The characters are all antiheroes; no one is good, no not one, and all are killed or doomed or lose something precious to them. It was a bestseller of course, and they made it into a movie. I think the author must have written it during an election year after reading only the parts of the Bible about sin and abominations. There was no hope in that novel. 

Well, that is like reading the first parts of Paul's two great sentences on our Lord's work and leaving it there. The first you read in our verse for today, and it continues with our great hope: 

...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (vv. 24-26)

The remainder of Paul's statement tells a different story from that first part. In the same way, or because our Lord is the way, the former life of sin is gone and my hope is now in Jesus. I cannot present my former record without also sharing the good news of my current state and the hope it gives for eternity. 

What a glorious hope we are given by faith in Jesus!

Bucky

Mining The Heart Of Sin

“Surely there is a mine for silver,
And a place where gold is refined.  Job 28:1

The pastor mentioned the cleansing of the Holy Spirit in the heart of those who believe in Jesus yesterday. And it came to me how often I have thought of the Spirit of God in my heart in the manner of a house cleaner with a dust rag, perhaps grabbing a sponge for the occasional sticky mess, but surely nothing I couldn't do myself with a bit of effort, right? Perhaps a better analogy for the work of the Spirit though is one of a miner deep in the center of a mountain breaking up the rock-hard sin and mining it with a pick and ore cart. The cleansing of the heart of man is not one of light cleaning, but of back-breaking, difficult work in a deep, dark place. With this analogy in hand, we might find it easier to understand the lifetime it takes to remove every last trace of the sin born within us at conception. In with all of that rock-hard sin mined out by the Spirit come those veins of gold and silver. Often buried deep they are found, but with His holy energy and patience the Spirit of our Lord brings out the treasure from the dross and waste until one day each of us who believe in the Son are prepared to meet the Father. 

We are the work of the Spirit of God, not of ourselves.

Bucky

Married To The Word

“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”  Revelation 19:7

Does the time with your Bible sometimes suffer through no fault of its own? Is it like an emotionally abused spouse, sometimes left alone and forsaken? Did your Bible get up early this morning for some time spent well with you; only to find you tired, worn out, catching up on sleep, and late for your study? In order to make work on time, did your Bible time get shortened? I'm there with you brothers and sisters in Christ. This morning I thought that sometimes we treat our Bibles, the word of God, like poorly maintained friendships or an abused spouse. Oh sure, when times are tough and things aren't going well, we will run back to the word for comfort. But, watch the time spent in the word diminish when life is peachy. See the time in Bible meditation abandoned when a little seasonal depression sets in. Then we might even treat our Bible study as some sort of chore, a mountain too steep to climb, or worse, an annoyance taking up valuable daylight. 

Of course we know that when those times come, and come they will, we have a valuable resource in God's own Spirit and in prayer. Confess to the Lord the difficulties in meeting with His word, come to Him in prayer for strength to study the word, and soon we will again be rejoicing in the Word! 

Love in Christ to you,

Bucky

A Separation Within

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation...  Ephesians 2:14

Paul has some of the biggest sentences in all of scripture and this verse for today is one part of a three-verse sentence of his. The middle wall of separation has been broken down by the One who was Himself our peace. And like the reports in our own words back in the days of school, I just stated what Paul stated without making it a bit more clear. Yes, kind of like those school reports of yesteryear. In the rest of the story, Paul speaks of a middle wall separating the old person and our enmity toward the ordinances of the law. You know it and have felt it in what we call the flesh: that rebellion when someone quotes an ordinance to you and this enmity burbles up from the slime of our former selves. Paul claims here that Jesus broke down that wall between the old rebel and the new spirit of faith in Christ. 

And therefore now the new spirit of faith has full knowledge of what a sinful troll that old person of the flesh has been and still is. That doesn't sound very peaceful. Of course not! Paul clearly states that Christ is our peace, and not you or me. The middle wall is broken down, and now the old nature and the new spirit can go at it like two fighters caught up in hateful verbiage seeking to harm and kill the other. Wait, no. That does not sound very peaceful either. Put it more like this: the new spirit is constantly dragging the old flesh to the Lord Jesus in prayer to flee temptation, walk the way of love, and to live always in Christ. Closer maybe. Perhaps it is more like gaining a new brother or sister who always knows to do right and loves that other person very much who still likes the ways of the fallen world. 

It is a struggle against that old desire, take it to the Lord in prayer! 

Bucky

What Sign?

So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” John 2:18

We have read the gospels a few times, and by now we hardly need to be told that these are the Jews asking after a sign. Could it be that the actions of our Lord in clearing the temple was the sign? We will not convince those long ago skeptics by asking or arguing in this age. However, we will want to be wary lest we too become a people asking after a sign. Certain scriptures come up in study, such as Matthew 24, Revelation, Daniel, to name some eschatological ones, and immediately we are out scanning the news or skies for those signs. We will not want the ship of faith to become wrecked on the rocks of unbelief when no signs appear in the time or manner we want them to show up. Faith means ya may not get a sign. 

We also like the answers our Lord Jesus gave to those skeptics and their questions. Knock down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again! (v19) Not the only time the skeptics of His day would be left flummoxed and flabbergasted by our Lord's answers. Meh, we cannot laugh at them much. With faith and the New Testament in hand, we are like the person reading, Solutions to the 100 Most Vexing Riddles, while the other guy feels dumb for not knowing the answers. Faith and the Word give us answers the unbelieving ones cannot get. 

A grateful thanksgiving to our Lord Jesus for our faith,

Bucky

Undies On The Outside

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”  Luke 4:18-19

A few days ago, I walked downtown during the big fair and proclaimed that wearing undies on the outside of our britches would make us all superheroes. And then I started to prove it to them.  Today, I write to you from the Community Rest Home for the Goofy Minded. Yes, my plan to turn everyone into superheroes did not work out quite so well as I had hoped. 

Imagine for a moment someone actually doing something along those lines and you will have what the people in a certain synagogue thought of Jesus as He read the above verses from Isaiah 61:1-2, and then stated, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). It was as if our Lord had stood up in there with His undies on the outside. It was easier for them to believe in our Lord's blasphemy or insanity than to consider the alternative: He was (and is!) Messiah. That a man from Nazareth, whose father they assumed they knew, could be the promised Messiah was more than they wanted to believe. And they decided to not believe Him. 

Praise God we have decided to believe in Him! 

Bucky

Reaching Forward

 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:13-14

Reaching forward, the permission from Paul to imagine all those horrible anxious things the demon of the future holds out to us? That would go directly against our Lord's command against worry. Reaching forward to the promises of Christ the Lord then? Oh yes, that's much better and, unlike the dark phantoms of anxiety, these are things which will come true in their proper time. We can think on Heaven! Yes, to be with our Lord Jesus is our eternal home, though it will not always be in Heaven. We might also think of the new Earth our Lord will recreate as He makes all things new. We can reach forward to the days when we will once more be at peace with the beasts of the field. Of course we have the wisdom the Lord has given to us and know that we do not reach out for the wild animals just yet. 

Anxious ruminations about a dark future that will never come does not belong to those who follow Christ. Reaching forward to the hope of things our Lord has promised - those are some good things to consider in our meditation on the Word! 

Have a great Friday in Christ!

Bucky

Presenting Our Sorrows

So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.   Revelation 5:4

John the last disciple of the Twelve had been exiled to Patmos, and one day he is called up to Heaven. When the mighty angel asks for one worthy to open the scroll in the hand of the One on the throne, John is presented with the perfect opportunity to present his resume of good works. Jesus has died for all of John's sins. John has served the Lord for decades by this time. Surely we have a representative present there to stand for all humans and our new ability to present a good resume, right? No, none are found worthy anywhere - in Heaven, on the Earth, or under the Earth. And John our hero bursts into tears. 

So I wondered, is this what we will bring to the Lord when we arrive in His Heaven? That may well be the case, for it would agree with this verse: 

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.  Rev 21:4

Our sorrows may be the very first thing our Lord would have from us when we have passed the door of death and arrived in His Heaven. We might like in our fallen and saved state, you could say born and reborn, to present to Him a list of good works and hope for His reward. But, it appears that our sorrows may be what our Lord wants first. And as we think about it, we have quite the load of sorrows as we arrive there to meet the Holy One. It does not take long in this life to meet our first sorrow, whether it be from our first experience of pain or from the loss of a loved one. God our Father is going to dry every tear and make an end to the causes of those tears. 

So! Presenting our sorrows, dear Lord, they are Yours at the time You have set for each arrival in Your wonderful home. Amen.

Bucky

Worthy of Death, Witness of Life

For all my father’s household was only people worthy of death to my lord the king; yet you placed your servant among those who ate at your own table. So what right do I still have, that I should complain anymore to the king?” 2 Samuel 19:28

The born again one who follows our Lord Jesus often feels much like this one of ancient times who followed David, King of Israel. We have no feeling of being worthy to live in Christ, and yet He has given to us a life unmerited. We have a growing awareness of this new life, and yet we also feel the urge to groan and complain from the old life. In fact, the old life comes to the forefront at times due to old injuries, old age, and old habits. Yup, didn't spring out of bed so quickly today as I once did in the days of youth - got an urge to gripe to the Lord. What? No gratitude for the new life? Easily do we play the Pharisee toward ourselves; and sometimes that is a good thing, while at other times we should not grumble to ourselves in the depths of our thinking but go ahead and bring that complaint out to the Lord in prayer. After all, when it comes to things such as old age, you ain't going to solve that on your own! I tried this morning, but I failed to turn it around and make myself 19 again. Nope, didn't work, felt 58 just as I should. Each of us can be a witness to the new life in Christ, but we are also still worthy of that old death and will suffer it in the proper time. (Except for that Rapture thing, but do we dare hope for that? Absolutely! But we still may not get to do it before we go to that first death.)

Rejoice with the King of kings, and when it is needful bring your gripes to Him. The Word of God says that He is quite the healer!

Bucky

Rejoice In The Life You Hate?

 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  John 12:25

We have seen the life that seems to have it all: a fit body, a pretty face, a big house, sharp wits, good health, fame, fortune, and family. Who wouldn't love a life with all of those things in abundance?  Then comes our Lord's teaching in John and a pause to, perhaps, give thanks to God and rejoice in the life we hate. Mmm, hmm, yes, all of those things seem to be on the surface. There are those who are blessed with wealth, fame, and faith in Jesus. There are those who have a pretty face and sharp wits, and use them to serve the Lord. And in the opposite way there are those who have none of the things on that first list and who are also grumbly hateful to the nth degree. Why aren't they rejoicing? 

Jesus taught us to go below the surface and to look in the heart, mind and soul. What do we hate about this life? The separations are one thing that comes to mind more frequently as we grow older. We have felt it and seen it in each other, and yes we do hate the death that stalks the land separating us one from another for a time. Sin is another one, both the sin we commit and those  done by others that hurt our neighbors, friends, and family. A forest burned up, a field of crops washed away, a friend suffering a mental illness, injustice in the world, and many other curses of the age show us a life easy to hate. 

No, the word of the Lord is not to rejoice in a life we hate, but to rejoice in the One who saves us from this life so easy to hate.

Bucky

That Which Was Lost

That the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.”  John 18:9

And with this verse in the latter part of the gospel of John, the word lost has served its purpose and finished its journey in the New King James version of the Bible. We might gaze in wonder at the Savior all day for His fulfillment of that promise. Lost still plays a part in our lives today. How can it be done? In the same way that our Lord stated from the cross, "It is finished!" Salvation brings to an end our wanderings in the fields of doubt. We believe in Jesus, others reject Him, and the world waits for the final division to be made. It all seems so final, and yet here we live day by day. The time and timing of our Lord's word and work is a wonder and a delight to us. Easy to understand? Nope, we must learn to wait on the Lord, and do it patiently. Easy to do? Nope! It is like all the other things that are tough to learn and require a lifetime of practice. 

Praise and glory to the Shepherd who found us and leads us in His grace!

Bucky

National Day of Prayer

The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the God of my life.  Psalm 42:8

In 1952, President Harry Truman signed into law a bill establishing a national day of prayer. That means Congress sent the bill up to the president. Our congress? How extraordinary! The location on the calendar of the first Thursday in May comes from President Reagan in 1988. This year, today is that day, and we are glad to come before God in prayer for our nation and those in need all around us and across the world. 

A search on prayer will bring up 106 verses in the NKJV of the Bible, while the word pray will add another 139 verses. Praying is obviously of some concern throughout the word of God. And we believe that for God to listen to each of us as we pray to Him is a privilege we cannot deserve on our own. That God in His omnipotent righteousness should desire to listen to a ragtag bunch of sinners is indeed amazing to those who believe in His Son. But that is the love of our Lord. Each day the Lord listens to selfish prayers, prayers for one nation or group at the expense of another, prayers to lay a thumpin' on that fellow who hurt this other one, and many other prayers that might be just a little not loving of our neighbor. In between are the gems of prayers for salvation, healing, understanding, love, and wisdom that our Lord longs to hear from us. And of course, in His great love, our Lord just likes to hear from you and me! 

Have a prayerful day in the Lord's Christ!

Bucky

Not Even The Law

 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. Galatians 3:17 

I see the man, Paul, writing a letter to the church in Galatia, when suddenly, the thought comes upon him, the Law cannot annul the promise of God! Paul lays out his reasoning in the letter as he works out his faith in Christ. Paul has such a body of work in his letters (epistles) and ministry that we have this picture in mind sometimes that Jesus appeared on the road to Damascus and gave Paul a suitcase full of doctrinal-scriptural knowledge to disseminate to us at a later time. Paul did have his education in what we call the Old Testament, and he was a Pharisee, but when he met Jesus that day on the road, a new education awaited him. It took years for Paul to work out through study, prayer, and meditation on the word what we see in his letters. And Paul didn't start from zero as we did in our youth in Sunday School, Paul began in the negative numbers as one of those hardened-heart Israelites who opposed, hated, and stoned the Christians. While we lament that we have far to go in our study of God's word, Paul would tell us that he had to go further and to keep up the good work!

Study in the Word of God!

Bucky

Thinking Of Him

All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.  Psalm 22:27

We enjoyed rain yesterday and the pastor spoke on a Molly Hatchet song for his sermon; birthday Sundays don't get much better than that! Rock n Roll church, woohoo! In a similar vein, we might read the verse for today and anticipate the wonders of Psalm 22 that led David to this verse. What a great promise! But then, those who have studied the Bible think about Psalm 22 for a moment and we, uh, stop, and, isn't that the psalm of horrors where we read in graphic detail the prophecy of our Lord's execution and agony on the cross? Yes, it is. 

Horrible things happen in this world, and the Lord brings great turnings and returnings from them, just as He did in Psalm 22. Whether we write little devotionals or full Sunday sermons, we do sometimes use secular examples to make points about turning to God for salvation. We are thinking of our Lord often, but the world does not and tries to avoid it with some energy. So we at times reach out with a little example from a popular song or film to say, "Hey there! The Lord Jesus still loves you and wants to save you!" And one day, we hope and pray, that from the horrors of the start of Psalm 22 they will stay for the wonders of the finish of that great psalm, which is of course a story of redemption and salvation. 

Rejoice in the Lord this May!

Bucky