Shalom

Psalm 122:1 A Song of Ascents. Of David. I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." 2 Our feet have been standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem! 3 Jerusalem is built As a city that is compact together, 4 Where the tribes go up, The tribes of the Lord, To the Testimony of Israel, To give thanks to the name of the Lord. 5 For thrones are set there for judgment, The thrones of the house of David. 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you. 7 Peace be within your walls, Prosperity within your palaces." 8 For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, "Peace be within you." 9 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good.

When you hear the word ‘peace,’ what happens in your mind?

I suggest a very pastoral setting comes to your imagination, perhaps a lush green pasture alongside a babbling brook. A gentle breeze tousles the hair, and the mind reflects upon not a care in this world. Ahhh…peace.

And every great once-in-a-while, such an imaginary setting is achieved, but even when it is…the next thought that follows is: How long can this last?

We know by experience peace is too good to be true for very long. The history of mankind on the face of the earth is strewn with war, broken up only by short periods of peace. In fact, you would have a difficult time finding a time period since the creation of the earth during which war was not going on somewhere. Presently, (according to wikipedia,) there are 27 organized conflicts going on in the world.

Peace is a very rare commodity. How can we have it? When?

The Bible teaches us when Messiah comes He will be called, “Wonderful counselor,” and, “Prince of peace.”

What a magnificent title Messiah has borne and will bear. He is the ruler of ALL that is peaceful, ALL that ever has been peaceful, and ALL that ever will be peaceful. If you ever want to know what it feels like to have the Holy Spirit speaking to you, or moving in your heart – ask yourself: When was the last time I had an overwhelming sense of peace in my body – or – When was the last time my mind and my heart were filled with peaceful thoughts?

Those would be the times, (for believer and non-believer alike,) that the Holy Spirit of God was influencing you, your thoughts and your actions. It may surprise some to know God influences those who do not believe in Him, but this is in fact one of the ways the Lord chooses to call those who don’t believe in Him. He shows them in a moment what the peace of God is truly like. Pray for that peace, for Jerusalem – and for yourself.

-  Pastor Bill

Understanding

Psalm 119:105Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. 106 I have sworn and confirmed That I will keep Your righteous judgments. 107 I am afflicted very much; Revive me, O Lord, according to Your word. 108 Accept, I pray, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, And teach me Your judgments. 109 My life is continually in my hand, Yet I do not forget Your law. 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, Yet I have not strayed from Your precepts. 111 Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, For they are the rejoicing of my heart. 112 I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes Forever, to the very end.

According to what God’s Word declares about itself, not only does the Word of God bring light, it also drives out darkness.

If you think of wisdom being represented by ‘light,’ (and it often is – even in worldly philosophy,) than what does darkness represent? And what is the importance of being ‘in the light?’

Of course if you were to think of the last time you awoke in the middle of the night and got up to get a drink of water, than you know that feeling of kind of stumbling your way along, not being able to see, and holding your hands out in front of you to feel for obstacles, walls, and doorways. Make a mistake and pain is involved.

Now, this takes place in an environment you are very familiar with. In reality, it is kind of amazing how well we can navigate in our own homes without light. We can anticipate where we are going because we remember the layout. We know about how far it is to the bathroom, and we know where the hallway begins and ends even if we can’t see them. In fact, about the only thing likely to really throw us off is if there is something unanticipated in our path, like a toy left out or something. Maybe a shoe left behind.

If you’ve ever stepped on something you didn’t know was there, than you know what I’m talking about. Even while gently feeling your way along, when you step on something unexpected it can totally throw you off.

But that’s in a familiar environment. Imagine trying to find your way along in complete darkness. That’s what the Word of God is designed for. Simply put: there is no way to navigate this world successfully apart from the Word of God, and the reason is because the world exists in total spiritual darkness and the ONLY source of Light that exists in this world is the Word of God.

Many people think there are many sources of light when there is only one. There is only one lamp to our feet. There is only one light for our path. All else is darkness by degree.

-  Pastor Bill

Undefeated

Psalm 116:5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. 6 The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. 7 Return to your rest, O my soul, For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, And my feet from falling. 9 I will walk before the Lord In the land of the living. 10 I believed, therefore I spoke, "I am greatly afflicted."11 I said in my haste, "All men are liars." 12 What shall I render to the Lord For all His benefits toward me? 13 I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the Lord. 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord Now in the presence of all His people. 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His saints. 16 O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call upon the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord Now in the presence of all His people, 19 In the courts of the Lord's house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

When I was about 14 years old or so, me and my dad were walking home from the high school down at the end of our street. Somehow, the subject of a race came up, and the next thing I know I was sprinting alongside my dad. He is thirty years older than me, so I sure thought I was finally mature enough to take him, especially since he was in his forties and I hadn’t seen him run in a long time; and I ran ALL the time, playing baseball and football and such.

He beat me. Flat out. He still had it. Imagine how humbling that was to me. I’m kinda glad to say that was the only time I ever raced him. It wasn’t one of those deals where I kept coming back year after year until I finally outran him due to his age. He beat me once, I was humbled, and that was it. I never tried that again.

My dad remains, therefore, undefeated. (By me, at least.)

That’s pretty cool if you think about it. (Having an undefeated father, that is.) I like that thought. It means something to me.

I’m really glad Jesus told us to call God, “our Father.” It helps me relate to what I don’t think could be imagined otherwise. As I speak to my Father, (or - as Jesus encouraged, my “Daddy,” or ‘Abba,”) I am now in a relatable, personal, position. I am a son. I know how to be a son. I know how to be humble before my father…

And, thanks to my father’s example, (and I am aware not everyone has this kind of loving relationship with their earthly father,) I know what it means that my Father, my God, is undefeated. Unlike my earthly father, that fact will NEVER change. My Father in Heaven is undefeated and ever shall be. And since He is, I KNOW nothing can or will separate me from Him.

-  Pastor Bill

A New Old Order

Psalm 110:1 A Psalm of David. The  Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." 2 The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! 3 Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth. 4 The Lord has sworn And will not relent, "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek." 5 The Lord is at Your right hand; He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath. 6 He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, He shall execute the heads of many countries. 7 He shall drink of the brook by the wayside; Therefore He shall lift up the head.

The history of the Jewish people is a very interesting thing to behold. The Jewish people themselves look to their own history as their reason d’etre, (their reason for being.)

How fascinating and rewarding it must be to be able to trace the lineage of their priesthood all the way back to ‘father’ Abraham, and to know that all of the priests who have ever served in the Temple have been direct descendants of the great patriarch of the faith. What a sense of the gravity of the faith that must provide, and of the roots of the system of their faith. It must, therefore, have been uncorrupted. Wouldn’t that be a logical assumption?

But there was a problem, and it came in this area: pride. There can be a sense of overwhelming pride established in those who have a strong sense of traditional heritage, as they have something no one else has. Simply put, you cannot be truly Jewish unless you are born into the faith – and you cannot be a priest unless you are born into a certain tribe and family within that faith. What a heritage, but also what a threat to understanding and the true faith God would seek to author in their hearts pertaining to The Messiah. God’s Anointed One.

And so along the way in His Word, God has dropped some hints to the Jewish people that they may not be blinded by their pride in whom they are and how they are superior to others by their religious practice and genealogical lineage.

One of those hints comes in Psalm 110, and it must be very puzzling to the Jews in regard to their heritage and genealogy to discover THEIR Messiah would be “According to the order of Melchizedek.” The question is: would they take the hint? And…what does it mean anyway? Melchizedek, only seen mysteriously in Genesis 14, is a contemporary of Abraham – and he is clearly not a Levite, because Levi, (Abraham’s son,) had not been born yet. Hmmm…what does it all mean?

Could it be Messiah, Our Great High Priest, could be of the tribe of Judah – and NOT of the order of the Levites? (Only if you are reading God’s Word, and seeing what it says along the way.) Oh yes, this is a VERY important Psalm!

-  Pastor Bill

Leanness

Psalm 106:10 He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11The waters covered their enemies; There was not one of them left. 12 Then they believed His words; They sang His praise. 13 They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, 14But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert. 15 And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.

This passage makes me very careful about asking God for what I ask for, and how I ask.

Attitude, as they say, is everything.

I have been in the checkout line on numerous occasions at some discount department store and witnessed a mom or dad dragging their young child by the hand up to the front of the store to join the check-out line. Invariably, the young child is screaming their head off, wailing away about having to have something their parent has made them leave behind at the back of the store, (probably in the toy department.) You just know it’s some cheap, junky thing they want but don’t need. A 5-minute attraction.

While I am sometimes amazed at how much some parents will endure from their children, who sometimes go as far as sprawling out on the floor in full-on tantrum mode, I am not amazed at the behavior of the child. I used to play that game.

Never worked for me. But I wonder what would have happened if it had? What if my dad had said, “Oh, all right, let’s just go back and get that Wham-O Air-Blaster Bazooka…”

What would I have learned in the process? To holler and scream for what I want? Always? To never respect the judgment of my parents about cheap junk? To always have immediate gratification, and never wait and save for anything? No discipline?

Sounds like the United States of America right now doesn’t it? We have an entire generation used to getting everything we want whenever we want it. We have a credit-crisis based entirely on a need for immediate gratification. We have a national government which refuses to make difficult decisions because they fear a very public tantrum. (Better to put off the tough decision until the next election season.) We desire fiscal responsibility nationally, but largesse locally.

There is something else this nation is experiencing: Leanness of the soul. Even to the extent that we don’t have one any more. What is our national identity? Have we begged and borrowed it away? Hold on a minute…I just saw something I want…

-  Pastor Bill