Month: December 2014

Morning Dew

Key Passage: Psalm 45

Key Word: Jeremiah 31:3 –“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

Love. I am not sure we humans really truthfully understand this word. I often ponder the depth of this word and I am left with many unresolved questions. Love seems sometimes irrational, unfair, extravagant, ostentatious, wasteful and unpredictable, yet I know somehow that this is not true, especially of true love. If our world really understood this word and embraced it in its truest form, I am in no doubt that all wars will immediately cease and this world will become heaven on earth. This may sound so sweeping, but I have a strong basis for this postulation. I may attempt to plumb this depth sometime soon, but today I can only be superficial.

Love really is not an earthly concept. It does not have its foundations or its highest expression in humanity, though humanity has been the recipient of the ultimate act of love. I know it sounds contradictory, but please let me explain. Love is God and God is Love. He is love expressed and so to understand the depth of love is to understand the depth of God. This is practically impossible. No human being is capable of fully plumbing this. But we have in love’s most unique way, benefitted from the ultimate manifestation of God’s love, though we are not deserving and incapable of totally appreciating what it means to be loved by God.

The bible tells us in this the Love of God was manifested, in that whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is love not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His son as a propitiation for our sins. So to the uninitiated, this type of love may appear wasteful, extravagant, irrational and unfair, but this is the mystery of God’s love for us.

Now, having laid this foundation, I want to talk about another love of God. I hope you know that to love God, you simply need to love what He loves and hate what He hates. So let me hit you with it. God loves Israel. Yes, He absolutely loves Israel the nation, Israel the people and Israel the land. So I find that people who claim to love God hate Israel. This is irreconcilable. You can’t love God and hate Israel. It’s not possible. If you love God, He will lead you to a love for Israel.

Let the word of God speak to your heart……

Deuteronomy 7:7-8

⁷ The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; ⁸ but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

 Jeremiah 31:3 ³ 

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

 2 Chronicles 2:11 ¹¹ Then Hiram king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon: Because the Lord loves His people, He has made you king over them.

 Zechariah 2:8 – “For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.”

 

Jeremiah 31:35-37 –

Thus says the Lord,

Who gives the sun for a light by day,

The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,

Who disturbs the sea,

And its waves roar

(The Lord of hosts is His name):

“If those ordinances depart

From before Me, says the Lord,

Then the seed of Israel shall also cease

From being a nation before Me forever.”

Thus says the Lord:

“If heaven above can be measured,

And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,

I will also cast off all the seed of Israel

For all that they have done, says the Lord”

God’s love is not rational as far as human rationale goes. God’s love is not to the ones we feel should be deserving, as if we have the capacity to judge accurately like God. God’s love for Israel is a choice God made and He will never relent or repent. His love is Him. So much in the same way as He chose all believers in Jesus Christ in love, He has chosen Israel in His love. If God can stop loving Israel, then He can stop loving us His children. God’s love is eternal, so Israel is God’s love for eternity and God loves you and me who believe in Jesus forever.

Whatever your view of Israel as a nation is, please start with the right foundation. Start by acknowledging that God loves Israel and no one on earth can fully explain why. The more you examine God’s love affair with Israel, the more questions you will have, so do the wise thing, do what Psalm 2 recommends:

“Why do the nations rage,

And the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

And the rulers take counsel together,

Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,

“Let us break Their bonds in pieces

And cast away Their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

The Lord shall hold them in derision.

Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,

And distress them in His deep displeasure:

“Yet I have set My King

On My holy hill of Zion.”

“I will declare the decree:

The Lord has said to Me,

‘You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You.

Ask of Me, and I will give You

The nations for Your inheritance,

And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron;

You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel. ’”

Now therefore, be wise, O kings;

Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear,

And rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

And you perish in the way,

When His wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”

So today, dear lover of God, love what He loves. Love Israel. The Nation, The People, The Land.

Let’s Pray: Father once again, we see what you love in your word and we want to love what you love and hate what you hate. Father I ask you to give me your special love for Israel. Help me to love the people, the land and the nation. Help me to love the nation you love. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Morning Dew

Key Passage: Psalm 45

Key Word: Proverbs 6: 17

“These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren” – Proverbs 6 : 16-19

People often claim not to understand other people. They claim they are complex and unpredictable. Honestly, no one is that complex. Just that people don’t take the time to understand what makes the other person tick. Someone asked why two people who ‘appear’ madly in love initially can suddenly find themselves in a place where they can’t even stay in the same room. The answer is simple, though not easy to discern. The knowledge of the other person’s likes and dislikes is a good starting point. Once this is known you can then easily start to do what they like and avoid what they hate and voila! You have a happy person and a happy relationship.

Loving God is not rocket science. It takes just knowing what He likes and what He hates. To know what He likes and hates, you need to look into His word. His word reveals His heart.

On the list of God’s hates is a lying tongue or a liar. Why? I think this is simple to understand. God is light and in HIM IS NO VARIABLENESS. God is absolute truth and it is impossible for Him to lie. God sees lies as something completely alien to Him. It is not in His nature. It is not what He created. It is a perversion and contradiction to His very essence.

He created humans in love and truth. We were created to live in the truth and live by the truth, but the fall brought this evil perversion into us. Satan is the father of lies and He is the one who has injected the lying ability into the human race. So God hates lies and liars.

But lying and lies has become so prevalent and so acceptable, that we have lost the sense that it is one of God’s biggest hates. Everywhere you look, you see and hear lies. The media, the government, the church, the schools, the employers and employees alike, kids lie, adults lie; in actual fact our world is filled with lies and the truth has become rare. Isaiah 57:14 says “Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot enter.” Everyone lies. White lies, blue lies or blatant lies, polite and courteous lies, they are all lies and God hates it. Sometimes we feel it is kinder to lie than tell the truth about a situation. God help us. We risk displeasing God so that we can have the love and favour of men. We would not tell people the truth because we could fall out of favour with them. God help us.

When we lie, we are displaying to God the nature of His archenemy. We are reflecting Satan’s qualities. So no lie is a good lie, no matter how hard it is to speak the truth. I know we all lie. I know it feels right to lie sometimes, but God hates it and we need to not lie if we want to love God. I am not saying this to condemn anyone, because God’s friend Abraham lied in Egypt concerning his wife. But this does not make it right.

Truth is I lie a lot too. I hate it when I do, but I still lie. I am desperate for God’s help to remove this from me completely. Like Paul said in the book of Romans “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord”

I know God is no longer angry with you and me as His children. I also know He does not see us as sinful but righteous. I know the blood of Jesus washed away all our sins, past present and future. So I am not feeling condemned, but I desire to love my Father in heaven.

Today, let’s reconsider our lives and the lies we so easily lie. Let us recognize that God hates it. But let me also let you know that God can and will help us to stop lying if we ask Him for the help. David said God desires truth in the inward parts. So God can help us with this problem.

Lastly there is tremendous power in the Holy Spirit, to sanctify us and keep us holy and pure. We are not helpless and hopeless. We can live a life without lies.

Let us pray: Father God, naked I come before you today. I find myself doing what you do not like. I lie. I ask for your forgiveness and for your cleansing. I also ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in me to remove this sinfulness from me and give me your ability to speak the truth at all times in love. I believe for your grace in Jesus name. Amen.

Morning Dew

Key Passage: Psalm 45

Key Word – “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” James 4:4

Humility. The ability to be humble. This quality is easy to claim, but truly difficult to express. People often call themselves humble and they are quite far from humble. Imagine a professor who says I humbly submit my postulation of this matter for your consideration. Everything seems okay until you challenge his position, then you realise this so called humble submission is far from a humble one. It is in truth an imposition disguised as a humble submission. Such is the complexity of this word, that may so called humble are not humble at all.

True humility is comely. It is attractive. It is endearing and most of all it is love by God. God loves the humble. Those who have a low estimate of themselves. Actually, this quality is more of a recognition that one is totally dependent on God and that there is nothing we possess that we can boast about. That without the mercy, grace and benevolence of the Almighty God, we are nobody.

A friend of mine told me a story that shook my foundations many years ago. I was looking at this Pastor and noticed he had a lot of grace on his life. He prayed so little, yet God was with him so powerfully. So I asked him what his secret was. In answering my question, he took me through his family history. His great grandfather had been a drunk in the East end of London. His life was a mess. On a particular night he got so drunk, he fell into the gutter by the side of the road. He basically passed out there and a popular English preacher found him and rescued him form the gutter, rehabilitated him, preached the gospel to him and basically set him on the journey to recovery. He became a powerful preacher and pastor and his son and grand son also became pastors. He told me His grandfather always told them no to look down at anyone, because that person could easily be them, except they have received the grace of God. He said it in these words “there goes I, save the grace of God”. He went on to tell me that what I see in his life is not his own, it was passed down. But I was actually captivated by the lesson of His grandfather’s life.

Humble people know their dependence of God. They know and recognise their privileged estate. They walk with a limp, not a swagger. They have hearts that are bowed down to God. Hear these words from the bible.

For thus says the High and Lofty One, Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones” Isaiah 57:1

“The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, And the poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel” Isaiah 28:19

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” James 4:4

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up James 4:8

“Thus says the Lord “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the Lord.“But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word” – Isaiah 66:1-3

If God hates the proud, then he loves the humble. God always comes to the aid of the humble. God always hears the cry of the humble. God always gives more of His resources, power and grace to the humble. God comes to the humble. God dwells with the humble.
One irony though is that those you really expect to be humble are sometimes really not humble in God’s eyes. There are people who are obviously in need who should be crying out to God for help, who totally reject the help of God. This I find really strange.

Humility always brings God in. Let us learn from Jesus. In Philippians 2, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”

Jesus is God incarnate. He controlled the universe, yet He humbled Himself and obeyed His Father and because of this He was exalted to the highest place. He is the King of Kings, yet He was born in a stable. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, but chose to enter Jerusalem on a donkey.

God loves the Humble. Let’s all humble ourselves.

Let us Pray:
Dear Father, I want to love you more dearly. I want to love what you love and hate what you hate. Please give me more grace to humble myself and allow you to do the lifting up. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.