VIDEO Time and Wisdom

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. Psalm 139:16

 

The longest and most detailed illustration of a confused soul in the Bible is the story of Job. At the beginning of his story all was well. Then everything fell apart in his life—he lost it all. Then he spent 37 chapters dialoguing with friends about what had happened. Then at the end of his story he listened to the wisdom of God, and his eyes were opened (and his life restored). Two things made a difference: time and listening to God.

Who among us does not encounter and experience things we don’t understand? It happens often—sometimes daily. Waiting (time) doesn’t mean passivity; it means active faith in God’s purposes and plans. It means walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). The active part of waiting is seeking God for wisdom and understanding.

God knows our future even before we take the steps that lead us there. Indeed, “the Lord directs [our] steps” (Proverbs 16:9). If you experience confusion, patiently seek the Lord and trust that He is working out His plans for you.

God’s purposes always have God’s provision. John Blanchard

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The Unrivaled Power of God – Psalm 139:13-18 – Skip Heitzig

This Love Is Real

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

“I felt like the rug had been pulled from under me,” Jojie said. “The shock of the discovery was like a physical blow.” She’d found out that her fiancé was seeing someone else. Jojie’s previous relationship had ended similarly. So when she later heard about God’s love at a Bible study, she couldn’t help wondering: Is this another scam? Will I get hurt if I believe God when He says He loves me? 

Like Jojie, we may have experienced troubled relationships that left us feeling wary—or even afraid—of trusting someone’s promise of love. We may even feel this way about God’s love, wondering where the catch is. There is, however, no catch. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

“Eventually, I realized God had already proven His love,” Jojie says, “by dying for me.” My friend discovered that since our sinful state separated us from God, He reached out to us by giving Jesus to die on our behalf (Romans 5:10; 1 John 2:2). Because of this, our sins are forgiven, and we can look forward to eternity with Him (John 3:16). 

Whenever we wonder whether we can truly trust God’s love, let’s remember what Christ did for us on the cross. We can trust His promises of love, knowing that He’s faithful.

By:  Karen Huang

Reflect & Pray

When or why have you found it difficult to trust God’s love? How can knowing Jesus died for you change your response?

Dear Jesus, thank You for the great love You showed me by dying for me. Let Your love change me, heal me, and direct my relationships.

Hope: The Anchor of the Soul

If you are feeling battered by a storm in your life, remember God’s promises cannot fail Hebrews 6:9-20

God’s purposes and promises are unchangeable. That’s hard for us to imagine since we live in a world that’s constantly in flux. There doesn’t seem to be much that we can count on to steady our lives. Jobs can be lost, loved ones may die, plans must sometimes be altered, and dreams are often dashed. Yet our souls do have an anchor, which holds fast no matter how many storms we experience. 

A nautical anchor does its work of steadying a ship in the hidden depths of the waters. And that’s sometimes how God’s promises seem to us—blocked from our sight and far away. But as the waves of circumstances rage around us, our anchor of hope holds fast. We haven’t been promised an easy earthly life, free from trouble and suffering, but the eternal hope for our souls is steadfast and sure. 

The reason we have such a hard time remembering our anchor of hope is because our lives are above deck, where the storms rage. To regain our hope, we must regularly peer into the depths of God’s Word to be reminded of the eternal promises that cannot fail. 

Without Form and Void

“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.” (Jeremiah 4:23)

The language in this verse is clearly patterned after Genesis 1:2, the description of the primordial earth: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” That it is a metaphor, however, and not an actual reference to that primordial earth is evident from its context. The previous verse speaks of “my people” (that is, the people of Judah) and the following verse of “the mountains” (there were no mountains as yet at the time of Genesis 1:2).

Furthermore, the broader context makes it plain that the prophet is speaking of a coming judgment on the land of Judah because of the rebellion of its people against their God (verse 16 specifically mentions Judah, and verse 31 mentions Zion). The land is to be so devastated that the prophet compared its future appearance to the unformed and barren earth at its very beginning.

This ultimate fulfillment will be at Armageddon. The same Hebrew words (tohu for “without form,” and bohu for “void”) occur again in this context in an awesome scene of judgment described by Isaiah: “For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations” (34:2), gathered together in the former land of Edom to fight against Jerusalem when Christ returns, “and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion [i.e., tohu], and the stones of emptiness [i.e., bohu]” (34:11). Instead of the regular surveyor’s line and markers ordering the property boundaries, God’s judgment will bring such disorder and barrenness to the land that it almost will seem to revert back to its primeval state at the beginning of time. “Nevertheless we…look for new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:13), and that earth will be beautiful and bountiful with “no night there” (Revelation 22:5). HMM

“Thy Prayer Is Heard”

Luke 1:5-25

ZACHARIAS had prayed through long, lean years for a son. He and Elizabeth had many qualifications for a life of blessing: good ancestry, they “were righteous before the Lord,” not merely before men, they walked in all the commandments of the Lord blameless—not faultless, but living up to their light.

But there follows the sad statement: “And they had no child.” Have you sought to live the blameless life, yet your piety seems to have borne no progeny—you are barren? Remember Zacharias. It was now too late, from the natural viewpoint, to have a son, but Zacharias had not forgotten his altar and his duty. He kept offering incense, a symbol of thanksgiving, when there seemed so little to be thankful for. Do not forsake your incense, and the angel will yet appear! The herald from heaven announces a son. God often waits until it is too late with us; it is never too late with Him. Poor Zacharias is doubtful. And doubt leads to dumbness—it always does. When we do not trust, we have no testimony. But God fails not, though Zacharias does. The baby is born, and when neighbors would name him for his father, Zacharias puts God first and names him by the Divine direction. Do not name things after yourself; give God the glory. Then dumbness gives way to delight: Zacharias speaks and so will you!

John was to drink neither wine nor strong drink, but was to be filled with the Spirit. Three times the New Testament sets wine and the Spirit in contrast (Luke 1:15; Acts 2:13; Eph. 5:18). Wine changes face, walk, talk—stimulates; so does the Spirit.

God was fulfilling here the prophecy made in Malachi 4:5-6. How marvelously His plans work out exactly on schedule! Zacharias, filled with the Holy Ghost, breaks into prophecy of a Jewish cast setting forth the glory of the coming Christ: “God has visited His people to redeem them.” We must bear in mind here that Christ came first to Israel. Zacharias knows the Messiah is to be of the house of David, a testimony to His royal lineage. Prophecy is fulfilled, promises performed, the holy covenant remembered. Notice how complete is this redemption: freedom, “being delivered out of the hand of our enemies”; purpose, “that we might serve Him”; nature of this service, “without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him”; the duration, “all the days of our life.” Then Zacharias turns to his own son who is to be called the prophet of the Highest, to go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation, light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. This salvation is through God’s tender mercy, whereby the “dayspring from on high”—probably the Branch of Isaiah 11:1 and Zechariah 3:8—hath visited us.

John grows and waxes strong in the spirit in the desert solitude till the day of his appearing to Israel. There is some obvious difference between this and the closing verse of the next chapter, where Jesus, living a more social life, increases also in favor with man.

“We are not ignorant of Satan’s devices.”

Job 1:1-12

It is the general opinion that Job flourished at some time between the age of Abraham and the time of Moses. It is probable that Moses wrote the sacred poem which records the discussion between Job and his friends. We shall therefore, in this place, consider his history, and gather a few gems from the remarkable book which bears his name.

Job 1:1

he was but a plain “man” and not a noble, yet was he more noble than the nobles of his time.

His character is given him by infallible inspiration, and surely no man could win a better. His life was well balanced and displayed all the virtues, both towards God and towards man.

Job 1:2-3

So that a rich man may be a good man, and though “gold and the gospel seldom do agree,” yet it may happen that a man of substance may also have substance in heaven. Job was gracious in prosperity, and therefore was sustained in adversity.

Job 1:4

Probably they celebrated their birthdays in this happy and united manner. It is a great happiness to see brothers and sisters knit together in love.

Job 1:5

He did not forbid their festivals, for they were not in themselves sinful, but knowing how prone men are to forget their God, if not themselves, when in the house of feasting, he was anxious to remove any spot which might remain. It is to be feared that few parents are as careful as Job was in this matter.

Job 1:6

To do this he need not be in heaven. God’s assembly room includes all space. What impudence it was on Satan’s part to come before God! What equal impudence when hypocrites pretend to worship the Most High.

Job 1:7

He is a busy itinerant. He is never idle.

Job 1:8

Satan reflects carefully and acts craftily. He had “considered” Job, and watched him narrowly.

Job 1:10

And why not? If Job had been poor and wretched, Satan would have said that the Lord paid his servants wretched wages.

Job 1:11

A cruel insinuation, but Satan was measuring Job’s corn with his own bushel.

Job 1:12

The Lord intended to glorify himself, to further perfect the character of Job, and to furnish his church with a grand example. Hence his challenge to the arch-enemy. Satan went off upon his errand willingly enough, but he little dreamed of the defeat which awaited him.

Hast Thou protected me thus far,

To leave me in this dangerous hour?

Shall Satan be allow’d to mar

Thy work, or to resist Thy power?

Oh never wilt Thou leave the soul

That flies for refuge to Thy breast!

Thy love, which once hath made me whole,

Shall guide me to eternal rest.

Spiritual Excellence: Freedom in the Spirit

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17

The essence of true religion is spontaneity, the sovereign movings of the Holy Spirit upon and in the free spirit of redeemed men. This has through the years of human history been the hallmark of spiritual excellency, the evidence of reality in a world of unreality.

When religion loses its sovereign character and becomes mere form this spontaneity is lost also, and in its place come precedent, propriety, system—and the file-card mentality!

Back of the file-card mentality is the belief that spirituality can be organized. Then is introduced into religion those ideas which never belong there—numbers, statistics, the law of averages and other such natural and human things. And creeping death always follows!

Now a file card is a very harmless little tool and a very useful one for some purposes. Its danger comes from the well-known human tendency to depend upon external helps in dealing with internal things.

Here’s how the file card works when it gets into the Christian life and begins to create mental habits: it divides the Bible into sections fitted to the days of the year and compels the Christian to read according to rule. No matter what the Holy Spirit may be trying to say to a man, still he goes on reading where the card tells him, dutifully checking if off each day. This can be a deadly snare, and often liable to quench the spontaneous operation of the Spirit!