Resource Manager Posted July 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 26 July 20142 Samuel 12Jeremiah 16Matthew 27“AND WE WILL BELIEVE …”What is the evidence that leads to belief? Well it depends what is the object of belief – the urgency of our minds in searching for evidence to convince us of belief! For some it is the opposite, the searching for evidence to convince our disbelief – this is seen in those who do not want to believe in a Creator. In God’s wisdom he has allowed for us to need a degree of faith, the need for us to put together the evidence – and then appreciate how it all dovetails together.Our meditation on this arose from today’s reading of chapter 27 in Matthew and the dreadful account of the unjust trial and crucifixion of Jesus. They had seen and heard of so much evidence of the remarkable God-given heavenly powers that Jesus could exercise, also, if they had really known the words of the prophets, they would have realized the clear evidence that Jesus was their expected Messiah. The climax of the determined scepticism came when “the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself … let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.” [Matthew 27:41-42]What does it take for us to believe? Just as important if not more so, do we possess such a conviction of belief that it makes a profound difference to our way of living? Our chapter in Jeremiah today [16] provides a very interesting piece of evidence to encourage the faith of Jeremiah. He is told, “the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt’, but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them, ‘For I will bring them back to their own land …” [Jeremiah 16:14-15]That this refers to more than the return from Babylon 70 years later is made even clearer in Jeremiah 16:17-18 “ … afterward I will send for many hunters and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill …” Then we read a wonderful prayer by Jeremiah in reaction to this vision of the future, ‘O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, for to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: ‘Our fathers have inherited lies, worthless things …” [Jeremiah 16:19]Let us echo Jeremiah’s prayer and say, “O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble” … we do believe in your Son O LORD, we wait to see the wonder of your revealing of yourself to Israel, we are increasingly sure the time is near when, as God’s words at the end of our chapter state, “… I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted July 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 27 July 20142 Samuel 13Jeremiah 17Matthew 28“WITH FEAR AND GREAT JOY”Fear seems to be incompatible with joy! Yet “fear” in the Bible often means a feeling of complete awe, being overwhelmed with feelings of astonishment at some event. Now, how can you experience this – and have joy at the same time? The answer is seen when you really put your minds to imagining the situation described in our Matthew reading (Chapter 28) today. “Toward the dawn … Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb (of Jesus)” [Matthew 28:1]They (and it seems from the other Gospels that there was at least one other woman) got up in the middle of the night; their object was to embalm the body of their Lord, [Mark 16:1] their last opportunity to do so before it began to decompose. They probably did not know that Nicodemus had brought “a mixture of myrrh and aloes” [John 19:39] when they put the body into the tomb.They get to the tomb and to their awe an angel is there and says to them, “Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead … so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy” [Matthew 28:5-8] Can we enter into their feelings at least a little?Jesus met them “and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.” [Matthew 28:9] The risen Lord is now their Lord in an even greater sense. The women were the first to really believe – they had been among the women watching the crucifixion from a distance [Matthew 27:55-56], they had been the ones willing to get up in the middle of the night, dress and with flickering burning “torches” wend their way to the garden in which was his tomb [John 19:41] and the dawn was just breaking as they arrived.Our world is in deep spiritual darkness, but the dawn must be near. Are we awake and ready for our time “of fear and great joy”? The inexpressible drama of the return of our Lord from heaven will totally confound the minds of everyone! They cannot even begin to comprehend the nature of the experience of the time of trouble about to come. It will be greater than anything ever seen on earth before! At that time God’s angels gather will his elect! [Matthew 24:31] Dare you not believe? What agonies of mind will all others experience. Let us read and meditate on God’s word as often as we can “encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” [Hebrews 10:25]-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted July 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2014 28 July 20142 Samuel 14Jeremiah 18Romans 1; 2“EVER SINCE THE CREATION … ”Today we started reading Paul’s letter to the Romans: it is a most meaningful letter for its 16 chapters cover the things that those who desire to truly believe in and follow Christ should understand. Paul is writing to those “called to be saints” [Romans 1:7] Do you feel – in your heart – that this includes you?Paul’s aim is that they (and you) “may be encouraged by each other’s faith ..” [Romans 1:12]. The foundation to this is their (and our) belief in God – and his creative power in bringing all things into being “for”, writes Paul, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who, by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them … his invisible attributes, namely his divine power … have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” [Romans 1:18-20].For at least the last 150 years more and more have been “claiming to be wise” [Romans 1:22] in theorising that there is no God and that all that exists sort of, invented itself! There is nothing really new in this – in Paul’s day philosophers had their theories so that they had no sense of responsibility to a Creator – and today many convince themselves – that there is not, nor ever has been, a Creator. The only ‘responsibility’ they have is between themselves – and what a mess they are making of that!The Jewish ‘world’ came to an ugly end about 500 years before Christ. Our chapter today in Jeremiah [18] tells us about the final decadent years of the kings descended from David, God declares to the distressed prophet, “I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity” [Jeremiah 18:17] Later, the Roman ‘world’ came to an ugly end as “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity … they exchanged the truth about God for a lie…” [Romans 1:24-25] In the 2nd chapter Paul tells all who have such an attitude, “you are storing up wrath for yourselves on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed.” [Romans 2:5] The ultimate “day of wrath” appears to be getting very close – let us get closer and closer to God that we may clearly see his “face” when the world faces a terrible “calamity”.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted July 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2014 29 July 20142 Samuel 15Jeremiah 19Romans 3; 4“IF I FIND FAVOUR”We are now reading of the more serious developments in the life of David: the full extent of the trouble that Nathan the prophet had said would come upon him as a result of his sins of adultery and murder. His son Absalom has a conspiracy to seize the throne and David flees from Jerusalem saying, “If I find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me back … but if he says, ‘I have no pleasure in you , behold here I am, let him do what seems good to him.” [2 Samuel 15:25-26]Then “David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went” [2 Samuel 15:30]. We note how the Mount of Olives also features in the life of David’s ‘greater son,’ Jesus, “it was his custom” to go there [Luke 22:39]. Jesus ascended to heaven from here and will return there [Acts 1:11-12] and cause it to split in two [Zechariah 14:4] and surely that last event will be a key factor in God’s physical judgements on our godless world! The vision in Revelation invites us to read it as a literal event, for together with the reference to “Armageddon” we read, “…there were flashes of lightning , rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.” [Revelation 16:18]The last verse in our chapter in Jeremiah [19] is also relevant to our thoughts, “Thus says in LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words” Today, God’s word is available to be read in every language, but how many “hear” by properly reading it? In God’s perception of humans today, nearly all are stiff-necked! Let us make sure we are not.Let us become like Abraham of whom we read today in Romans 4; “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead, Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 4:20-24] May no distrust, no disbelief make us waver – but instead may we “grow strong in faith” and so “find favour.”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted July 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2014 30 July 20142 Samuel 16Jeremiah 20Romans 5; 6“WE REJOICE IN HOPE”Our chapters in Romans [5 and 6] need to be read and digested slowly – like rich food! Paul proclaims that believers “having been justified by faith … have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ … have also obtained access by faith in to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” [Romans 5:1-2]This causes a wonderful peace of mind – the result of our faith in God’s word – like those who have lived before, such as Noah who “being warned by God concerning events yet unseen” acted “in reverent fear” [Hebrews 11:7] We rejoice because we are convinced that God is “a living God” ready to be involved in our lives so that “we feel sure of better things – things that belong to salvation” [Hebrews 6:9, note also Hebrews 6:11-12] Let us “rejoice in hope” sustained by this hope when times are difficult, but usually not as bad as they were at times for Paul. Note his words, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed” [2 Corinthians 4:8-9]There is a graphic account of this in our Jeremiah chapter [20] when “Pashur the priest … who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks …” [Jeremiah 20:1-2] Jeremiah then prophesies - “you Pashur and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity … and there you shall die” [Jeremiah 20:6]Then Jeremiah has anxious thoughts, comparable in some ways to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, he writes, “For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart a burning fire … I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” [Jeremiah 20:8-9] We pondered Jeremiah 20:12, “O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous. Who sees the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.”Do we desire to see God’s vengeance poured out on today’s Godless world? Well God will decide whether we live to see it or not – or whether there is a brief period of rest until we awake and, through his grace, rejoice to have a part in the endless wonder of his kingdom, the great and wonderful thing is that “we rejoice in hope.”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted August 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 31 July 20142 Samuel 17Jeremiah 21Romans 7; 8“IF GOD BE FOR US”Today we read two of the most meaningful chapters in the Bible for those who truly sense they are “called to be saints.” [Romans 1:7] They are a sequel to yesterday’s chapters – Romans 5 and 6 – that challenge believers that they, “having been set free from sin” must now be “slaves to righteousness.” [Romans 6:18] The sacrifice of Jesus brought an end to the law of Moses, a law which spelt out all the ways that humans become classified as sinners in God’s eyes. In its place we have, says Paul, “received the spirit of adoption, as sons (and daughters) by which we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ [Romans 8:15] Let us sense as fully as we can that we became the adopted children of God when put on the name of his Son in baptism; let us think positively of the wonder and privilege of this!It was a spirit which transformed the world of the first century – and there was a renewal of this spirit to a considerable degree in the wider world when the Bible was first printed and available for all to read.Romans 7; 8 today go together; we should ignore the chapter break. It is essential we develop a spiritual mind, in contrast to a fleshly mind – there is nothing in-between. Paul says, “those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit … the mind of the spirit is life and peace.” [Romans 8:5-6] This “set” of our minds, develops to greater and greater degrees the more we meditatively read God’s word and this letter of Paul is an outstanding and inspirational example. Paul says, “If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life … nor things to come … nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 8:31,35,37,38,39] God will certainly be “for us” – as long as we are for him and show we are trying our best to be “slaves to righteousness.”When we come to Romans 15, verse 13 will ‘jump out’ at us “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” This is not the power to do miracles, it is having a genuine spiritual mind in contrast to a fleshly mind: absorb the point Paul makes in what we read in Romans 8:5 ‘For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” And, O, the wonder then of God being “for us.”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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