Prayer And Powerful Faith

Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

A frustration we feel in this current age comes from the reports of injustices that are shown to us that we can do nothing about, or so the world would have us think. Paul wrote letters to churches because he could not be there all the time. In these letters are the actions the apostle took when he was not writing. Paul and his companions prayed. Prayer, a work of faith with power. Let us join with our brothers and sisters in Christ and do it.

We could spend many hours unpacking the wonders of these two verses, as you can well read above. Thank You, dear God, for the writing of our brother Paul.

Bucky

Praise To God

Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Psalm 37:3

David's verse speaks of a peaceful land, we tend to think, but his land was far from peace for much of his life. Which makes that first step, trust in the Lord, a big one. This land we are to dwell in and do good may not be so peaceful at the first. Perhaps the fields, roads, ditches, and other things needed to raise crops are not established yet in this land. Now we must dwell there and feed on the faithfulness of our Lord. With anyone else such as governments, corporations, or even religions, this might indeed be alarming. However, we are called to trust in God, the Almighty One. Dwelling, trusting, feeding, and doing good all have their root in God our Father.

Praise to the Holy One of Israel, our God and Redeemer!

Bucky

Fulfill My Joy, He Says

Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Philippians 2:2

We see the church group gathered during a time of plenty in a town of people of similar backgrounds with similar jobs. Not an unusual circumstance in the world in times past. The minister is happy and his messages cause no heartburn with the elders and congregation. Even the song leader chooses hymns of cheerful music each week. Ah, such harmony in the service, such good times in the church, God is good for sure! 

Then, place a stress on the group. And you know one will come if we wait long enough. The company of similar jobs is sold and the new owners bring in new employees or transfer jobs to a distant place. Gas prices double in a few months due to world politics. These examples might sound familiar. The church cash flow slows to a cash drip, with a few prayer requests in the offering plate where only checks were before. Church groups have faced this many times in history, not all have survived. The real test of being like-minded, having the same love, and being of one accord, one mind comes when the stress on the church group is great. Money is an easy example in our time, but the stress may come in other ways and by other means. Does the group still worship with one accord or does it fall apart in bitter tongue lashings? 

Fulfill my joy, he says. It seems easy in the easy times. We need Jesus to be the center of worship all the time, or the first test will sweep the sand out from under the base of the house. 

In Christ our Lord,

Bucky

Searching The Anxious Warrior

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties.  Psalm 139:23

David was a man after God's own heart. How do we know this? Well, God said so for one thing through Samuel His prophet. We also know through verses such as this one from David's psalm. David invites God in to search him and know his heart and his anxieties. Does it get more personal and intimate than that? 

There are times when, like David, each of us tries to take stock of the forces we bring to the Lord's cause. We turn to review the troops, and there they are... battalions of fears, dreads, doubts, and worries all led by their commanding anxieties. Like David, invite God in to review the troops, have Him banish all those not needed for His cause. What? Nothing will be left to offer up to His cause? No problem, it is you and me He wants in any case. The anxious companies we keep, the worries dragging us down, and the fears preventing the march, are all dismissed by our Lord. Let us not keep them behind His back! 

So, why are the fears, worries, dreads, and doubts still around? Like their father the Devil, they are disobedient. In our Lord Jesus, we no longer have to listen to them. Let us turn our eyes and ears to the Risen Savior!

Bucky

The Tears of a Treacherous Heart

And this is the second thing you do:
You cover the altar of the LORD with tears,
With weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore,
Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.  Malachi 2:13

It seems there's this man going about my house singing nonsense verses like, "Colds are the epitome of miserability." I think he is losing his mind, but someone is also emptying the Kleenex boxes at a prodigious rate. Yes, there are signs that a virus has invaded the home. 

Today's verse is one of those backward starts wherein we read something in the Bible that appears to be exactly what the Lord desires of us, but yet He is upset over it. The Lord does not leave us or those long ago Israelites wondering, as the next verse explains that He cannot regard the tears of a treacherous heart. Jesus also told of the equal importance of that second greatest of commandments, love your neighbor as yourself. No tearful sacrifice is great enough to overcome a treacherous heart, especially if the neighbor in question is your spouse! 

Deal honestly with all of your neighbors, then the Lord can regard any sacrifice you make.

Bucky

Pay Taxes, Worm!

“There shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom; but within a few days he shall be destroyed, but not in anger or in battle.  Daniel 11:20

From 1 Samuel to the letter to the Romans, tax or taxes is the subject many times in the Bible. And the things we see in taxes today, we also see in the word of God. Political patronage, national duty, how to avoid them, consequences if a person does that, and so on, all appear for our education through the years of the Bible. And entering into this epic journey is the despised tax collector. Yes, that one who in his zeal for the governing authority takes a bit too much in the opinion of the taxed population. Way back in Daniel, during the Exile, another tax collector was promised to Israel, the glorious kingdom, but this one will only last a few days. 

A few days? Why bother to mention him at all then? 

There is this word - imposes - that speaks of a political power over the imposed-upon person or nation. We wouldn't like this word in that context and neither did Israel, as we can easily see by the tax collectors in our Lord's gospel. These shameless characters were known as the worst of the lot, traitors to their people and stooges of the hated Roman conquerors. 

"Pay taxes, worm!" They shouted out from their little boxes of highway robbery. (Might be a bit of literary license going on there.) 

Imposes, we don't like that word much and this goes all the way back to when God imposed one little rule on a certain naked couple: Don't eat of this one tree in the Garden. Hmm, yes, serious consequences came from that bit of disobedience. One might even blame the invention of tax collectors on that fall. Whether we obey the imposition or rebel, obey under duress, or obey gladly, probably says much about what we think of the authority issuing the imposition. The disobedience of eating the forbidden fruit said a few ugly things from the created first couple to their Lord God. Things such as, we don't need You, we want to do what we want, and others of a separating nature. 

So, as I am about to launch into a review of the Bible in this not-so-short message, perhaps you can tell that I have a cold. And this sickness has imposed a few things on me that none of us like. A response to those things is a certain literary loquaciousness on my part, plus I no longer know how to spell 'loquaciousness' the thing tells me. 

Trust in God, even when the imposition seems overdone, and He will see us through the storm.

Bucky

Seeking Me?

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  John 4:23

A true worshipper? Yes, I want to be that! Surely then the Lord will have my name in that book of His. Easily do we lock on to our part in this verse and may miss what the Lord God is doing here: Seeking. Seeking me? Oh wait, I see it now. The Lord is only seeking true worshippers. I'm done for. It will be those holier than thou folks over there in that building that get chosen. And yet when the Lord Jesus met those we might judge as true worshippers, the Pharisees, He came down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks. So who is God seeking? Seeking me? Well, unlike the Pharisees, my outward behavior certainly does not qualify at a great many times in this life as a true worshipper, so there is that. And then there are those two persons of the Trinity that sound a lot like how God is seeking worship. One is the Spirit of our Lord given to us by Jesus; that can't be a coincidence. Then there is the One giving the Spirit who introduces Himself in John 14:6 as the truth. That must not be by happenstance either. So if the Spirit is the spirit of worship, and Jesus is the Truth of worship, then just maybe God is seeking those who do not have a monstrous rule book and a fearsome resume to present to Him at the judgment, and is seeking those who need the Spirit and the Truth for salvation! 

Rejoice! There's good news in them there pages of the Bible!

Bucky

New Life In Christ

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

Now it seems a strange thing to us that the world should continue as before and we still feel the urges of the flesh, for Paul to tell us to walk in newness of life. Everyone who has believed in our Lord Jesus has faced this same day after the Resurrection sort of feeling. The disciples likely felt it too as the risen Christ was not with them at every moment in those forty days. Yes it is the Monday after Easter and each of us may not feel redeemed as we get ready for another in a string of work days going back many years. "It just doesn't always feel different!" we lament. And thus we know why feelings are not good guides for us to follow in this spiritual journey. There is the big test for us and all who will believe in Christ - faith takes the Lord at His word, as Paul is doing with this verse, while feelings float about on the stormy seas of the world wondering what is going on. 

We may not feel resurrected with Christ today, but in faith we live in the Christ each day. 

Rejoice in the Resurrection!

Bucky

P.S. I asked Mr. Spock what it feels like to be logical, and he gave me a Vulcan nerve pinch.

Easter, and What We Think We Know

Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”  John 20:2

Like Thomas and Peter as doubter and denier, Mary Magdalene stands in for us as we come to the empty tomb with the burden of what we think we know. Yes, there was a bigger crowd outside that tomb than you thought! Mary and us thought we knew how death worked, even though not long before we stood with Martha outside another tomb and warned our Lord of the stench of death around poor Lazarus. Mary Magdalene, Martha, and we too seem to be remarkably slow learners at times. That burden of what we know just trips us up again and again. And there is Mary just a bit later demanding from the gardener where they have laid the body of the living Lord Jesus standing in front of her. It takes a powerful and persistent presence to remove from us the huge block of what we think we know about death. It's a good thing the Lord has provided that in His Holy Spirit! 

Rejoice in the risen Lord Jesus this Easter weekend!

Bucky

Springtime Depression Fix?

And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Ecclesiastes 12:12

On the surface it would appear that perhaps avoiding Bible study for a bit during a seasonal depression might be the ticket. After all, do we not have this verse to learn from? My experience has shown me that no depression, anxiety, fear, funk, or even slightly down feeling can be improved by avoiding the Word of God. That experience does not stand against the wisdom Solomon discovered. And it is interesting to note that Solomon wrote this down about 1,500 years before the printing press, followed by electrical transmission and machinery would show us just how many books can be printed! There does come a time to rest from study, and that time is a great time to just meditate and pray on the verses studied in the Bible. But that temptation: I feel a little down, better avoid the Bible? Nope, doesn't work for me. 

Have a joyous day with Jesus! 

Bucky

Grandma's Influence

When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. 2 Timothy 1:5

Wow, it's a little chilly this morning for about mid-April! We have enjoyed a long run of grandma's influence in our culture. Most of us can recall at least one grandmother who was there for some years during our youth and even into adulthood. In the Bible we have grandmother mentioned just twice, and the other one back in 1 Kings 15 is not so nice. Grandmothers, it would seem, improved with time and the saving grace of our Lord Jesus. And it continues on to us today.

If your family had faith, there does appear to be a likelihood that you also will grow up in the faith or, at least in many cases, return to the faith. I have known several who were raised in the church, but then took a wander away for a time to see the world. I took such a journey and it will not surprise you that those were the years in which I thought myself smartest, but wasn't, and thought myself goodest, but did some of the worst things that I regret. Indeed I proved well in experience that to move further from God in my heart is to move closer to that adversary in behavior, hopelessness, futility, vanity, selfishness, and of course, pride. Grandma, as we well know, would not have had it that way and neither would her Lord and mine, Jesus!

Have a great day with our Lord Jesus, and if Grandma is still around, give her a call!

Bucky

The Return

“Thus says the LORD:
‘I will return to Zion,
And dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth,
The Mountain of the LORD of hosts,
The Holy Mountain.'  Zechariah 8:3

We're back! Some might wonder where we went, but it was the Internet in our area that got snuffed out like the proverbial candle in the wind. The outage was about 36-40 hours depending upon the location in our little town. When the wind came up again yesterday I was going with the uh-oh face, but so far no further outage at my house at least. I am glad and praise God because it is Easter week!

Promises had been made such as this promising verse for today. But when? When Jesus came to Jerusalem early in that final week, the week that turned out to be not so final, He was greeted as the conquering Messiah. His plan though was to save the world by His act of greatest love. The promises we see of Jerusalem from the prophet were not done at that time in Judea under the Roman occupation. In fact, we know that Jerusalem would be destroyed, again, in A.D. 70 by those same Romans. So, it would seem that another return and fulfillment remains out there somewhere.

Jesus began a great conquest by dying on the cross and rising again in a time that was to us so very long ago. His promise to return has not gone away though. We may see Him at any moment!

Love to you this Easter week!

Bucky

The Good Times Never Last?

Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. 1 Kings 4:20

We are warned often in the word of God to watch the times and to be ready for the ending. During times of war and distress we think that we are more ready, and indeed suffering does loosen our grip on this worldly life a bit. Times do not always seem so close to that 'soon' our Lord says will happen near the end. Judah and Israel were, in our verse for today, at the peak of the good times when a nation is fat and happy. David had reigned and conquered most of the promised land, and his heir Solomon reaped the blessings of the Lord God with the wisdom given to him. The people entered a time of great rejoicing. We may know from experience that this sort of thing leads to times of great temptation.

We look around, things are going great, obviously we must be living right, right? A little gratitude to the Provider of the feast is forgotten in the rejoicing of the moment and the downward trend begins. Pride comes as God's place in our plenty doesn't gain the attention from us our Lord deserves, and so on down, down we go. It has happened to many a kingdom and nation; are we so different?

Let those who believe in our Lord Jesus remain faithful to the Father and give Him our gratitude. Amen.

Bucky

Baffling John, The Revelator

No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 1 John 4:12

Here is a verse for us today to test our faith. I'm going after that first sentence there and the man who wrote it to a group he called his little children and to us by way of the Bible. John, the one who wrote down, or would write down the Revelation from Patmos and saw the One seated on the throne. But wait, what about this statement from our Lord Jesus in John 14:9, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father"? Did we get our apostles and disciples confused somehow? John, the Revelator as he is sometimes known, wrote all of these scriptures, did he not? Yes, the scholars of the Word believe John did this. So, contradiction at last? Maybe not so fast there.

John wrote in this letter of testing the spirits. It would seem that those to whom John wrote were under attack by spirits claiming to be God, and even showing themselves so as to deceive by way of false prophets. Perhaps a different translation from the context of what John wrote might be, "Not one of you is seeing God in these visions you tell me about." And John would be the one to know having seen Jesus as his rabbi for about three years, glorified on the mountain, risen from the dead, and was of course present when Jesus made the statement to Philip about seeing the Father.

John may seem a bit baffling to us in between his writings, but God always has it all under His control.

Have a glorious day in Jesus!

Bucky

Who Are You, Kid?

So he went to his father and said, “My father.”
And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” Genesis 27:18

A man grows up desiring the recognition of his father. It would be the bottom of a valley for sure to have your father say something like, "Who are you, kid?" Of course we know from the rest of this particular story that this kid was trying to be recognized as the other kid, and trickery does not deserve the same sympathy as the child his father does not recognize due to age or infirmity. There is then the Father we all want to have recognize each of us as His own, and that would be the Father of our Savior, Jesus Christ. That Father cannot be tricked and those who sneak into the wedding from over the wall will be recognized for what they are and thrown out. We don't want that sort of recognition! We want to be seen through Christ and known by God as one of His Son's sheep.

Have a happy day in Christ our Lord!

Bucky

Snow Day 2022

Have you entered the storehouse of the snow, or seen the armory of the hail,
which I reserve for the time of trouble, for the day of war and battle? Job 38:22-23

Whooee! Looks like no work at work today as we clear out the 36" of windblown snow from our steps and driveways. If the boss can get to his skid steer, he will be helping others get their front doors open pretty much all day today. It's not going to work for even a moment, is it? The Internet has made those April Fools weather pranks a thing of the past. We can easily find the truth about the weather all over the world in a few moments. You may even have other reminders about what day this is before my message goes out. The devotional messages I get each day did not have anything about pranks for this day, though Turning Point did mention that day we expect/don't expect. Yes, April Fool's or All Fools Day would be a great day for bunches of folks to disappear, including some dead ones, but there would be no shout of "April fools!" to take the edge off. If the Rapture occurred today, those taken up by our Lord would still be gone on April 2nd. Being left behind is no joke...

For those who believe, have a great March 32nd!

Bucky