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

Soul Food

Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. 

I’m not exactly sure where the term, ‘soul food’ came from, but I do understand the association being made about the type of food we are talking about when we talk about it.

I first heard the term back in the ‘60’s, and it may have been associated with the civil-rights movement. It probably goes back even further than that, but I’m not sure. What I am sure of is ‘soul food’ refers to the good stuff, the real deal, the genuine article that feeds the body in a way that touches the soul as well - and thus the name.

‘Soul food,’ at least as far as the world is concerned, really has to do with making the best out of what could be a bad situation. It is producing nutrient-rich and delicious food at a very low cost – and maybe even free - since many of the ingredients are home-grown, (such as collard greens, black-eyed peas, and the like,) or low-cost cuts of meats prepared in a way to make them wonderfully succulent and appetizing.

I wonder why the world has for so long failed to see the Word of God in the same way it sees and values the soul food consumed as literal food. While physical ‘soul food’ is often sought out and admired, the Spiritual ‘soul food’ available to us freely is often avoided like the plague.

The truth is Spiritual soul food far exceeds the capability of physical soul food when it comes to providing the nutrients we so desperately require. Just as there is a linkage from the body to the soul through the consumption of this ethnically-inspired physical food, there is also a linkage to the soul provided by the entry of the Word of God through the Spirit. While the food we eat is corrupt, (no matter how good it is,) the Spiritual food we consume is eternal, and has everlasting value. The Word of God remains forever, even though earth and heaven are passing away.

And, just like physical ‘soul food,’ Spiritual soul food costs us little beyond the effort it takes to consume it. David is encouraging his own soul to feed itself by “blessing the Lord,” with all that is within himself, with everything he has to give. What an encouragement it is for me to do likewise.

Praising God is nutrient-rich in eternal value for the soul.

-  Pastor Bill

Nearer to God

Psalm 92:12 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, 15 To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Every now and then, when strolling through someone’s garden, I have seen a little metal sign poked in the ground which read, “You are never nearer to God than when you are in the garden.”

My grandmother had one of those signs.

Of course, the intent is to have you recognize the joy of gardening, and the experience we have when we are surrounded by the beauty of His creation, especially as we are working alongside to promote the growth and beauty of the plants.

God planted His first two people in His garden, and very much the way we presently share with God in the raising of plants, the Lord instructed Adam to “tend and keep it.” (Gen 2:15.)

Very much like church, I think.

“Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God.” This is not to say there is no other way to flourish in the courts of God than to be planted in the house of God – but what it IS saying is being planted in the house of God is a guarantee.

I like the idea of heaven, don’t you? The whole concept of it, the closeness to God, the beauty, the joy, the eternal nature of it, the peace, the love, the lack of sickness, the end of death. I’m just a huge fan of the whole idea God presents us with. All free to me.

Not to sound casual about it, but hell doesn’t come close. In fact, the contrast between heaven and hell is as sharp and pointed as any contrast known to man…And yet, man looks the other way and disregards the eternal nature of all that lies beyond physical death.

Not me. When I see the Lord offering a guarantee about flourishing in His courts, I’m going to take it. If that guarantee states I must be planted in His house, than that is exactly where you will find me. Front and center. Every chance I get. The way I read it, there is no better place for me to be – ever.

-  Pastor Bill

Over and Back

Psalm 85:1 Lord, You have been favorable to Your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob. 2 You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin. Selah 3 You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger. 4 Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your anger toward us to cease. 5 Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations? 6 Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You? 7 Show us Your mercy, Lord, And grant us Your salvation. 8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak, For He will speak peace To His people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly. 9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land. 10 Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed. 11 Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven. 12 Yes, the Lord will give what is good; And our land will yield its increase. 13 Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps our pathway.

In elementary school, we used to play a game called ‘Red Rover.’ (I never liked that game very much.) Two parallel lines would form as the class was equally divided. Then one side, (whose turn it was,) would call out, “Red rover, red rover, send Bill right over!”

And then, upon hearing your name, you would run across the open space between the lines and attempt to bust through the line which was now holding hands with all their might. If I remember correctly, you got a point if you broke through the line, and you had to stay on their side if you didn’t.

Israel had returned from exile. They had been away from the Promised Land for 70 years, exactly as the Lord had declared they would be – as a result of not keeping the Sabbath years for the land. Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had come and completely decimated the land, killed hundreds of thousands, and hauled the rest away into exile in Babylon. This was an extremely cruel season in the life of the nation, and to be honest it took a miracle for Israel, (nee Judah,) to survive this.

They had come back to the land now, by God’s direction, but they couldn’t quite break through. It was going to take a Spiritual as well as a physical revolution…

You have recently come back to the Lord. You sensed the calling in your heart. Yet you are finding it hard to make that break-through you desire. There is a lot of rubble in your life to get rid of, and it just seems so overwhelming. Impossible, really. All that was happening in your heart seems so difficult to live out. And so you begin to look back. The line of the world is constraining you.

Now you need the power of the Holy Spirit to empower you to break through, to keep your eyes on the prize of the upward call of Christ Jesus, to keep your eyes forward and never looking back…Call on His power today.

-  Pastor Bill

Home School

Psalm 78:1 Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; 6 That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, 7 That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments; 8 And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The difference between right and wrong is the most important distinction in life.

Right now it is really cool to be “open-minded.” In fact, “It’s the coolest!” It’s the most important moral value in the world today, (being open-minded that is…)

But what does it really mean to be open-minded? To some, and probably most, it is closely akin to being un-prejudiced, as in, “I will remain open-minded about that person, and I will not judge them by the color of their skin, or their apparent ethnicity or economic standing.” Sounds good to be open-minded, doesn’t it? Admirable, in fact.

And that’s why so many of our young people value open-mindedness above all else. That’s what the schools are teaching these days. Let’s be open-minded about history and science, and let’s be open-minded about sexuality, and let’s be open-minded about politics. Close-mindedness is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong…

But if open-mindedness is righty, right, right, and closed-mindedness is wrongy, wrong, wrong, isn’t that still making a clear distinction between right and wrong – all the while appearing to be very open-minded? Do you see the logical problem? And, what if you are wrong about the things you allow in your life whilst being ‘open-minded?’ Can you be open-minded about gravity, or inertia, or hunger? Can we get a clue?

The home is where we are to learn the difference between right and wrong, and I shudder to think what happens when we don’t. We are seeing it all around us. The home is no place to learn to be open-minded, the home is the place to learn to be right about things, and to be close-minded - I’m sorry – even to the death - about what is right. From the first day of life, this is mom’s primary responsibility. Nothing is as important as teaching our children the DIFFERENCE between right and wrong. It is the difference between heaven and hell.

-  Pastor Bill