Melting Heaviness

My soul melts from heaviness;
Strengthen me according to Your word.
-- Psalm 119:28

These past few months have seemed rather long due to a thing going on that I won't name this morning. Whether you are pleased or disappointed at the projected result, turn to the word of the Lord and be strengthened. Rejoice or seek relief in the word of God as you read and study. Outside my window Nature either celebrates or covers its grief in a blanket of new snow. Up in Heaven, God's throne was neither built up nor tilted down by the result of that thing I won't mention for your sake. And God's planned day for the return of His glorious Son? That day is still coming at the appointed time no matter what our feelings are this grey morning. So, to those who are happy and those who are sad:

Great is the Word of our Lord God!

Bucky

Your Own Didn't Know You

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. John 1:10-11

Tomorrow we face another presidential election. For a moment, imagine that neither of the big party candidates win and you do. While your first thoughts are still running along the lines of "Eeek! No! No!" the electoral college meets and confirms that you are indeed the president-elect of the United States. In January there is a big ceremony and, finally calmed down a bit, you take the oath of office and move into the White House. One of the first things you must do is to bring the big armored car and a few of those folks in dark suits back to your hometown for a visit.

However, things are strange at home. No one seems to care, the police leave a parking ticket on the limo, and your principal and teachers cast doubt on your claim to be president. At church, the preacher says your election never happened, and names you a fraud in the strongest terms. Finally, before you can leave town the Secret Service is forced to arrest the police chief and all the town officers when they try to arrest you for impersonating the office you know that you now hold! What sort of delusion has a hold of your hometown?

We know of course that Jesus faced a similar dilemma. The One who came to save the world couldn't get a single 'Hallelujah!' in His hometown of Nazareth. The religious authorities refused to believe His divinity all over Judea, Galilee, and other Jewish places. And, even those precious twelve followers would fail to believe until after He died, rose again, and ascended in their sight back to His Father in Heaven. Even to this day it is easier for us Gentiles to believe in Him than His own people in Israel.

Praise God that we are allowed to believe in His Son!

Bucky

You Must Seek

But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. Deuteronomy 12:5

Seeking a place was put into the Law of Moses way back in the days when Israel had not possessed the promised land yet. A search, but why didn't the Lord just tell them where to go? You do know what happens when even a righteous authority tells us what to do, don't you? A journey of seeking though, that would give the Israelites a bit of that control the rebellious heart longs to hold. Jesus told Israel much the same thing years later when on the mount He said, "Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find..." As born sinners we do not like to be told what to do, but we do like searching for treasure or a nice place to live. We love to seek for treasures in the Lord's word, but tell us that we must read 5 chapters per day and the mind finds all sorts of excuses to avoid a good habit.

It's like the Lord God knows us.

Bucky

Doing The Impossible

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26 CSB

In Matthew 19 we are presented with the Master leading us through a series of impossible situations. Marriage and divorce, the relationship in a marriage, eunuchs - born, made, and for the kingdom of heaven, little children coming to Jesus, commandments, wealth and giving it all up to follow Jesus, and the business of those possessions. Near the end, we come to our verse for today, and it shows how among all those things of life we will run into something that prevents us from entering heaven on our own. Whether it is a commandment already violated, fear of being poor, or any of those others, we need the Savior to overcome our impossible.

God our Savior is overcoming the impossible in us!

Bucky

End The Annoyance With Finality?

The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him. John 14:21 CSB

So if good works and rules will not save anyone... hmm, works and rules, sounds like the basis for a religion there, what do you think? After writing that the rules will not save, inevitably I must take up the other side of the question. "So, no rules, then that means I get to do anything I want," says the old man of the flesh with some glee. There would come that temptation to become a law unto ourselves. It would likely go so far that the person who merely disagrees with us in an irritating fashion would face the wrath of our lawlessness. We might end the annoyance with finality.

Hold on a bit, end the annoyance with finality?!! That sounds like murder, surely that isn't what salvation brings? Jesus didn't save us to be a bunch of thugs, did He? Of course not, and as our friend Paul said, "May it never be so!" While rules, commandments, civil regulations, or even the Law of Moses won't save us, Jesus did give us those greatest commandments from the Old Testament. Both of these commandments tell us to love, and they just happen to fulfill the Law and the prophets too! That brings us to our verse for today.

Keep His commands and love!

Bucky

Making Us

I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.  Philippians 3:9 NLT

We have nothing to offer God, so He makes us something. It comes to us often that those who do not believe in Jesus often think they have much to offer God by way of righteousness. They are in their own estimation good people, righteous people, often and sometimes even Christian people. Here Paul the former Pharisee tells us that he does not count on his training in the law or deeds of self-righteousness but faith alone in Christ alone. I fear that for many of us too much rule preaching may cause us to go from faith in Christ back to counting on self righteousness. Let us not, I plead, trace Paul's journey in the wrong direction. 

Faith in Christ for our salvation!

Bucky

Seeking Signs

But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.” Mark 8:12

Lately I have been reading quite a few end times sort of novels, you might call them Christian adventure stories. One thing they have in common are big signs and miracles, just like the Pharisees wanted back in their day. By our Lord's deep sigh in His spirit this morning, I see that He would rather see faith from us. Faith does not require those big signs and miracles, but only the relatives of faith. Who could those relatives be? They are trust, confidence, belief, and assurance. You may even name a few more, it's a rich family. We began our faith by believing in Jesus, and continue by trusting in Him. We can even have a childlike faith with bold confidence! Jesus, after rising from the tomb, told Thomas that those who have not seen and yet have believed in Him enjoy are blessed.

Great is His faithfulness, and great too is our faith in Him!

Bucky