Then Along Came Jesus

The Holy One call to me this morning.  He wakes me up with a sweet peace and the sense of His Presence.  Since a recent day was spent confronting the demon of fear and finding yet again, in a deeply personal way, that the Holy One never left me, today I can look back and rejoice for another testimony of His grace and mercy.

His wisdom comes as He tells me, "The end of your testimony is fixed.  I Am He Who will never leave you nor forsake you, but each person's testimony is a unique pathway to that end."

I need to settle into the word I have just heard.  It is a hope-filled word since it speaks of a fixed end that the Lord is in control of.  God's Word and His promises are like that.  His thoughts and His ways are so much higher than mine (Isaiah 55:9) which means I may not always understand what He has arranged for me outside my comprehension of the circumstances that touch my life.    However, I can trust that I will end with a good testimony of His unfailing love.

God's Word is truth and while we can read the historical accounts of His intervention into this world He created for His beloved humanity, I see how society and not His Holy principles change over time.

I realize in an odd way the trust that God placed in His people and know He is asking us to trust Him as  well.  From the prophets of Old Testament days, God trusted men to deliver His word and exhortations as they lived lives that were different and even more difficult than those they were commissioned to deliver the Lord's messages to.

The ultimate trust in humanity was on display when God wrapped Himself in flesh and came to the earth through a very special woman called Mary.  Jesus came to earth and entered into the human arena of His creation to bring the truth about God as a loving Father.

Old Testament history recorded His Sovereign authority and Holiness, but Jesus came to convey His love and desire for relationship with every person ever born.  Jesus took the image of God out of the ethereal and gave us a flesh representation we can humanly relate to. The mercy of that action is mind blowing to say the least.  But it proves beyond any and all doubt that God wants us all in a personal relationship and was willing to wrap Himself in flesh to accomplish that end.

What more could He do to reach out from His Heavenly place than to appear to humanity in a way and a form whereby from man's end a true relationship could take place?  The disciples experienced Him.  They walked with Him.  They talked with Him.  They struggled past the rejection of thought that questioned His Deity and came to accept the insane idea that God would actually walk among men.

Before Jesus came, the Law and the Prophets established His Sovereignty and authority but in a very distant way.  Abraham and Isaac and Jacob along with a few others each experienced God personally in their own way. We interpret the accounts of God's interaction in the Old Testament more like the burning bush of Moses and the epic event of the Red Sea parting in supernatural displays of His power. 

Then came Jesus.

I wonder if the Scribes and Pharisees became resentful because Jesus was so personal.  He knocked them off their long held religious axis. They thought it preposterous that God would become flesh even though the Holy Scriptures they studied and embraced promised such a coming.

Our relationship with Him is now personal.  His life, death and resurrection changed everything relative to man's understanding of God.  The Holy Spirit is the bridge Who now connects us with the Trinity.  He is the Counselor Jesus declared He would send when He returned to the Throne of all power and authority. 

Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are connected with the person of Jesus and never have to live in the fear of God or in the doubt of His unconditional love ever again.  Once rescued from the sin nature and penalty that we were born with, life in our God ordained purpose carries us along forming testimonies as we go.

There is nothing new under the sun as they say.  Our trials on earth are basically the same as for any other human but the Lord has a unique way to bring about His purpose in those struggles.  His purpose and His will is not to destroy us.

The Lord reminds me again today that He is about the strengthening of His people. He is about giving us testimonies of His Presence in our lives that we can in turn share with others.   The Lord draws us out of the places of our "victimization" in life and provides us with testimonies of His good will.

There was a man born blind back in the days when God walked in flesh among His created.  When the disciples inquired as to the cause and nature of the man's blindness, Jesus made His glorious point in John 9:1-4, "As he went long he saw a man blind from birth.   His disciples  asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents?"  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned", said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in His life.  As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him Who sent Me.  Night is coming when no one can work.  While I am in the world I am the light of the world." 

The "Light" is truth.  Jesus is Truth.  He told the crowds who were following Him in Matt 5:14 as they listened to Him speak and accepted His word, that they too were the light of the world.   We who follow Him provide the testimony of His Light to the world.

This passage is loaded with Truth and confirms His personal word to me today.  This man born blind was in a place with a condition that facilitated a testimony of God's love and power and intervention.  The fixed end is a personal encounter with a personal God who brings a personal resolution to a personal problem.  The pathway of the blind man's life was unique to him.  How he came to be set up for that encounter took time and circumstances uniquely his own.  But just like in the life of this blind man, Jesus through our trials is providing personal testimonies for us to share. 

Testimonies of God's personal intervention are being written each and every day.  There are many life trials that we have had to face and even more yet to come so long as we have our feet on planet earth. The only question is about the unique pathway the trials will take us on to find the fixed end, and therein lies our testimony to the world.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

      

                

Encouragement In Repentence **

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Processing takes time and this post began on the National Day of Prayer. He has a "catch" phrase for me to act so when He tells me to "run like the wind with the Truth", I gather up what I have been processing and take it to the place of sharing what He has spoken to me.   Today I heard that directive.

As I prepared to join with others in interceding for our land, I heard Him speak a caution that was actually an encouragement to my heart " Do not be like those in Malachi's day who said it is futile to serve Me". 

I realize it is a temptation with all the evil we see that is escalating around the world, to become discouraged and even question where the Lord is in all of this?  Malachi is the last prophetic voice to speak for the Lord from out of the Old Testament, before the first coming of Christ the Messiah.  In these times before His second coming, the conditions on earth are eerily similar among His people. 

Back then God's people were discouraged having been made to wait for the glorious establishment of God's promised kingdom on earth.  The discouragement led God's people to doubt His covenant love and consequently lose their hope.  They acted out their hopelessness like so many of us do, by going on "auto-pilot" in the demonstrations of their faith.  As their doubts gave way to questions, their hearts drifted into rebellion, and they began to charge God with injustice.

The people were persistent in their faithless rebellion, so God through the Prophet Malachi brought forth His indictment.  It seems as though the people (God's chosen people) were finding more ways to get around the Law of God than faithfully living in obedience to it. They never quite made the correlation between their disobedience and what unfolded as the consequences of their rebellion.  They chose to blame God for their circumstances and complain of their lot rather than repent for their accountability in the rebellion that brought the "judgment" they were experiencing.

To be clear, God does judge His people.  But the ultimate purpose in the indictment and subsequent penalty in God's judgment is to bring about a change of heart and actions that represented defiance of the authority of the One True God over His people.  As I follow the lead of the Holy Spirit and re-read the charges God had against His people in the day of Malachi, I find some of those charges could be accurately levelled against me today as well.

Some might say, "But for the believers in Jesus, there is no guilt nor condemnation".  While that is true the behaviors, we commit are a grief to the Lord and require repentance for the relationship to grow in trust and intimacy.  In a human relationship when offenses are committed, we cannot just say "well I am entitled to grace and forgiveness" and walk away without dealing with what grief those offenses caused.

The indictment starts with the issue of blemished sacrifices.  We do not offer sacrifices on an altar to atone for our sin since the blood of Jesus and His death paid the price we could not muster. But there is still the issues of the sacrifice of our self-life.  Could it be that giving the Lord the "left-overs" of our time, energy, and gifting are like unto the blemished sacrifices offered in the days of Malachi?  The Lord deserves our best and He notices when we do not give it.

The priests were mentioned next and warned about violating their sacred trust and covenant calling as messengers of God.  His charge to them was that they turned away from true instruction and by their foul teaching caused many to stumble.  They were indicted for not following God's ways but were bending the law to show partiality in matters of the law.  Judgment within the Body of Christ gives one person a pass in mercy for what another person must pay to the last farthing for in having committed the same offense.  We look at motives for one and actions for another which speaks of partiality in judgment.    

Then comes the indictment over the people.  They intermarried women of the surrounding pagan nations in violation of the Lord's command against such inter marriage.  These marriages opened the door to the idolatry and worship of foreign gods that would corrupt the nation and break their covenant loyalty to the One True God.

The same can be said of us in the current day Body of Christ.  Against the command to not be unequally yoked, we choose to marry non-believers who have no relationship with our Jesus.  The resulting consequences are progressive and while we may or may not manage such a relationship well, we open the door to heartache trying to live in two different worlds.  

In Malachi, the issue of divorce and breaking the marriage covenant is provoking to the Lord who said, "I hate divorce". In today's society, divorce statistics are shockingly high and said to be much the same within the Church as among those in the world around us.

His warning is as vital to us today as to those who lived in the days of Malachi, "So guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth", for the Lord is seeking godly offspring: children raised in the admonition of the Lord.

The indictment continues and speaks of His desire and will for men who will bring offerings in righteousness.   The Lord did not mince words when He said that His judgment will and must begin with His own people. We are the ones who represent Him and our increasing apathy for Holiness in the lives we live in the world of today has netted us the consequences just like it did for the nation of Israel under the indictment spoken by Malachi.

Judgment was coming against "sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, against those who defraud   laborers of their wages, who oppress widows, and the fatherless and deprive aliens of justice" but do not fear the Lord. 

The word of the Lord reminded them then and us now, "I, the Lord do not change" so we who are His people are not nor will we ever be destroyed, but our life of rebellion must stop.  "Return to Me and I will return to you", says the Lord Almighty".  Malachi 3:7

Then He lays out the road by which the nation can return.  In today's terms:

Stop robbing God because it is through the resources that He has given to us that the Gospel is spread around the world.

Stop saying things the Lord deems as harsh against Him.  "You have said it is futile to serve God.  What did we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty?  But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly, evil doers prosper and even those who challenge God escape." 

I have a great appreciation for the Old Testament.  I actually appreciate such clear warnings and I have found that for every spoken penalty for rebellion, there comes an encouraging promise in repentance and a blessing for obedience.  Vs 16, "Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other and the Lord listened and heard. " How gracious and merciful is our Creator God and Lord.  "A scroll of remembrance was written in His Presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored His Name."

God has promised that He will show us to be His possession and we "will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked between those who serve God and those who do not".

Waiting is the hard part, and it is in the waiting that discouragement hits and we are tempted to give up and give in.  The Lord's counsel today is my caution against that temptation.  I choose to take it to heart and let the waiting have its perfect result: A detection of weakness that needs to be strengthened in my faith walk with the Lord.

The National Day of Prayer needs to start with confession and repentance of the corporate sin since all of us may be accountable for having betrayed our Lord's directives.  While we understand that we have escaped the ultimate judgment of Holiness, the age of Grace is not an excuse to let depravity rule our lives.

Repentance is still required in our love relationship with the Holy One.  Today I realize the encouragement in repentance.  I need to ask His forgiveness for the doubts that may not make it past my lips but yet still represent what causes Him grief within my heart.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?