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

Wasted Time

Psalm 73:11 And they say, "How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?" 12 Behold, these are the ungodly, Who are always at ease; They increase in riches. 13Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all day long I have been plagued, And chastened every morning. 15 If I had said, "I will speak thus," Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children. 16 When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me-- 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end. 18 Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. 19 Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. 20 As a dream when one awakes, So, Lord, when You awake, You shall despise their image. 

Verse 13 of Psalm 73 is the epitome of what the enemy would seek to achieve in my life. Essentially, that seeking after the Lord is a, “waste of my time.” Vain, in fact. He really doesn’t need to accomplish much more to make me turn away from the Lord.

If Satan can get me thinking this way, the rest of what he would seek to do in my life comes relatively easy. It begins with his incessant desire to have me think temporally, as if this life is all there is; as if there was no such thing as eternity or judgment or heaven or hell…

For evidence this is the case, all I need to do is look around. Who even believes in Satan, for instance? Even with all the evil present in the world today, let alone across the pages of history, most people regard Satan as a fantasy of the human imagination. (It is therefore a waste of time to be concerned about Satan.)

And then there’s the problem of facing what other people have compared to what I have. This is a constant in life, and it turns our brains into launching pads of lust and jealousy and covetousness. “Why am I not blessed like the folks on Gulfshore Drive? After all, they don’t even go to church. How can God continue to bless them this way…Is there a God?”

You see how this works? (A very effective slight-of-hand designed to take my eyes off God and put them on this world and this life.) There is such a patent unfairness to this life it just makes me angry and tired and miserable, and it can make me feel like giving my life to God was simply a waste of time. A product of my imagination… But really, really, what is the truth?

This I can only find out in the sanctuary of God, (see verse 17,) away from the lures and appeal of the world. The truth is the world is vain, and time is short, and that judgment is real. The truth is eternity is a really, really long time, and the things I bear in this world are light afflictions compared to the time I will spend with a God Who loves me in heaven.

The truth is what takes place OUTSIDE the sanctuary of God is a waste of time.

-  Pastor Bill

Cause and Effect

Psalm 69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, Hear me in the truth of Your salvation. 14 Deliver me out of the mire, And let me not sink; Let me be delivered from those who hate me, And out of the deep waters. 15 Let not the floodwater overflow me, Nor let the deep swallow me up; And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.16 Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. 17 And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in trouble; Hear me speedily. 18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it; Deliver me because of my enemies.

When it comes time to evaluate your life, what will you have to say for yourself?

I know people like to avoid these kinds of thoughts, but isn’t it sort-of inevitable there must be some kind of account we make for the content of our lives and our actions? Doesn’t our conscience drag us into these sorts of self-conflicting moments of really-rational thought?

Phew! If you’re like me, well, that’s enough of that kind of thinking! Just thinking about the process of evaluation is hard enough, and that’s as far as I want to take it. We’ll just leave it right there, okay?

Well, no, not really. It avoids truth, and truth is all that matters. There is truth in the process of evaluation, or else there would be no concern. Absolute truth. Truth that cannot be avoided. “Oh, what have I done?!”

That’s a very common expression for all who encounter truth. The truth is we are all pretty rotten deep down inside. We cover it up very nicely – and that’s why we’d really rather NOT talk about any kind of evaluation process based on our actions, because there is much which has gone unseen by our current associates which cannot stand the light of day without a great degree of shame. “Who knew I was capable of that? I’d really rather no one knew...”

But it’s too late for that because God knows - and God Himself is truth. There’s no getting around it. What we are dealing with is the cause and effect of sin. The cause is us, (me,) and the real effect is: death.

I don’t want to die, do you? Yet, truth teaches me sin causes death, and I am daily committing sin which leads to death. How could I be so stupid? The truth is I agree with God I deserve eternal damnation for the grandiose multitude of sins I have committed in my life. And the truth is I must have a Savior, or else my sin will be judged for exactly what it is. That is the truth of Jesus’ saving grace.

-  Pastor Bill

A Cup of Trembling

Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Given the nature of the founding of the nation of Israel, it is no wonder the prime focus of the entire world has been and remains upon this tiny little land approximately the size of New Jersey. No (yet discovered) oil, no vast wealth or resources, no great population, no present threat to their neighbors – and yet…here we constantly watch little Israel, founded by God, (and now re-founded by God.)

Israel remains a petulant thorn in the side of those who are ignorant (blatantly unobservant) of God’s role in history. It is thought rational in the world these days to discount God’s wishes and to deny the existence of Satan, but that does not make it true, (any more than disbelieving gravity will help you when you jump out of a tenth-story window.)

Here’s the truth: You cannot change God one iota by what you think of Him. He is, in fact, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

And God has certainly said that all those who bless Israel will be blessed, and all those who curse Israel will be cursed. It really doesn’t matter how men strive to achieve a political end with a “two-state” solution, attempting to coerce Israel into a division of their rapidly-dwindling land in order to appease an enemy, (Satan, really,) who will never be appeased. God has profoundly warned any one who would seek to divide God’s Land. (The Land of Israel is God’s Land.)

Joel 3:1 "For behold, in those days and at that time, When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will also gather all nations, And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; And I will enter into judgment with them there On account of My people, My heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; They have also divided up My land.

And so, here we are, (the U.S.,) Israel’s sole remaining ally in the world today, and we are placing ourselves in judgment. How will we respond? Will we be led by God’s Word - or will we seek to find our own way? God’s way brings a blessing. Our own way promises to bring a curse. Has not God said it?

Isaiah 51:21 Therefore please hear this, you afflicted, And drunk but not with wine. 22 Thus says your Lord, The Lord and your God, Who pleads the cause of His people: "See, I have taken out of your hand The cup of trembling, The dregs of the cup of My fury; You shall no longer drink it. 23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, Who have said to you, 'Lie down, that we may walk over you.' And you have laid your body like the ground, And as the street, for those who walk over." 

-  Pastor Bill