Month: September 2023

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Listen Up!

Zechariah 1-7 Return and Be Blessed

The OT prophets have a recurring theme for the Jews: they must return to God and His ways in order for Him to bless them. They remind the Jews that way back in Moses’ time, God clearly told them how He would bless them, and here it is again by the prophet Zechariah. There is a saying: if you don’t learn from the past, you will have to repeat it, or in Bible terms, you will have to do another lap around the wilderness. But, again, as the other prophets have said, ‘The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has indeed done what he said he would do to us because of our sinful ways.”

Why are we so clueless to this simple command of God? The key is found in Zechariah chapter 7: “they refused to pay attention.” How like us! It boils down to the pride issue as it was in the beginning in the Garden of Eden.

So what shall we glean as an application for us today? We must be in the scripture, listen to the Holy Spirit, and do as John wrote: if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, willing to forgive and cleanse us. [1Jn 1:9] Have we done that today and every day? 

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Are you a quitter?

Haggai 1-2 Way back in the times of Moses, the large book of Deuteronomy lists the blessings and curses for obedience vs. disobedience. Fast forward to Haggai, and we see that the Israelites have yet to learn or recall what God had said, and now they are floundering. God graciously, [How often do we see that characteristic of His?] sends two prophets to them, Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai speaks with great emphasis to the people, and like in Malachi, Haggai uses questions to get the people thinking. First, he reminds them that God sent them back from Babylon to rebuild the temple, but it has been sixteen years since they first began with great flourish! But then this and that happened. The enemies began taunting them, and they quit.

How often do we begin with a great bang of excitement, but then something happens to derail us and send us into the pity party mode, or worse, we just quit. Our archenemy uses the many tactics, one of which is allowing others to distract us from what God has clearly told us to do. Haggai asks the Jews what voice are you listening to? Are you a quitter? God is asking us that same question.  

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Don’t be hoodwinked or Fooled

Ezra 4-6, Ps 137 Liars can feign truth through words and actions; therefore, we must be discerning. Ezra notes that the enemies came saying let us join you. Let “us” build the temple with you because we “are like you,” We seek your God, etc. Note “your” God, not their God but “your God.” Today, we have the same but very subtle saying, our Bible is the same as yours, but we have the enlightened edition with the words of our prophet or our teacher. We worship God just as you do. Beloved reader, these are false believers. They seem to say the right words, but like then, their intentions and actions proved otherwise. These were enemies that came to light when they filed an accusation with the king filled with lies and half-truths.

Just as then, our archenemy, Satan, is called the accuser of the brethren, and his words prove this truth: a half-truth is not truth at all. Remember this truth: There is one God, and His name is Yahweh!

God will move heaven and earth to shatter the lies of our archenemy. God is the God of truth, and His way is the right way. God will reveal His truth, and it will be the same as His word, for His Word is truth. 

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Are you prepared?

Ezra 1-3 One of the promises God gave his errant children is that after 70 yrs. they could return to Israel. Ezra believed that promise and prepared himself to not only go there but also to guide the people in this large company. Imagine being in this company of many, many people with large gifts from King Cyrus. It must have been a monumental undertaking and one that Ezra looked forward to for a long time.

We, too, will one day take a long journey, but it won’t take us months of preparation and include large numbers of people. Instead, God is calling each of us to prepare now for our future journey to heaven. We will prepare alone and journey alone, but when we arrive there, it will be much like Ezra chapter 3. We will sing and glorify the Lord “For He is good, and His loyal love endures forever.”

Are you preparing by making sure your heart is clean of sin? Romans 10:9 “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” That is how you prepare!

If God should call you this day to come “home” to heaven, are you ready?

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Persevere in Prayer

Daniel 10-12 We have been asking how patient we are, and these chapters show us Daniel patiently waits for answers about the vision he has received. He wants an answer, and we, too, want answers. Are we willing to wait for God to answer, or are we like many who start strong but then fall away? How diligently do we pray for the lost or for understanding of things we do not understand?

God has heard in heaven and sends an answer, but as so often is the case, the answer comes only after meeting an adversary who seeks to delay the answer. We, too, start praying, but then after much waiting, no answer has come. What we may not realize is that there is a battle going on behind the scenes between good and evil. Paul wrote to the Ephesians about this and told them to put on their spiritual armor and stand firm. Take a lesson from Daniel. We pray, God hears, but the adversary seeks to undermine and even circumvent that answer. Can God not intervene? Yes! God sends Michael, the mighty angelic being, to stop the adversary, and that may be true for us.

Trust God to send in his angelic forces to help us in our spiritual battles. Put on the spiritual armor and stand firm. 

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Watching and Waiting

Daniel 7-9 Do you find waiting hard? We want it now! Daniel lived and moved in time when life moved at a snail’s pace in comparison to today. He saw kingdoms rise and fall, and he had a front-row seat to it all. He may have wondered, as I often do, why God is delaying His return.

James, the Lord’s brother, understood the impatience of men and told the believers in the dispersion to be patient until the Lord’s return. He used the illustration of a farmer who must wait through the seasons for the fruit he can harvest. Daniel is an example of this kind of patient endurance, and so should we be.

Daniel watched, waited, and studied the prophet Jeremiah’s words. Then he turned his heart to prayer seeking the face of the Lord to understand. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, [Dan 9:19]

Do we spend time in prayer for the things we do not understand? Are we waiting as the farmer for the seasons of change? Is our ground tilled and ready for planting and then harvesting? 

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There is a cost…

Daniel 4-6 Choices…

Daniel has now been in the Babylonian capital for many, many years. His character and integrity have been proven over and over to three successive kings, and yet we see each come to a point where they, like us, must choose. Will they choose to follow and obey Daniel’s God, or will they continue to follow their idols of silver and gold? God raises up and puts down leaders, and He raises up and puts down people of every tongue and nation so that He might reveal their need for salvation. God’s creation [Rom 1:20] screams I am God! Follow Me! Yet, men are blinded to the glorious gospel lest they see the image of Christ and bow their knees. [2Cor 4:4] Times and seasons change, but men’s hearts remain the same; desperately wicked. [Jer 17:9]

King Nebuchadnezzar heard the voice of God, and he was humbled and, in the end, gave Him praise. His son, Belshazzar, knew the story of his father’s humbling, but he chose to ignore the lessons. God gave him, as he does others, a point to repent, but he ignored the warnings. In one night, he met his fate, and he and his kingdom came to an end. Darius was easily swayed by men’s praises and signed a decree that meant certain death for anyone worshiping anything or person other than himself. In all of this, Daniel did not sin! He lived and prayed as he had done for years. The cost was a night with the lions.

There is a cost to following God. Daniel, early on, chose not to defile himself [Daniel 1:8], and the last test proved he had not changed his life or mind. How about us?

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Children’s Decisions and God’s Protection

Daniel 1-3 Today, our children are bombarded with the enormity of decisions. As it is true today, it was in Daniel’s time. Our arch-enemy seeks their souls, but God’s ways are not our ways, they are higher and superior. [Is 55:8-9]

Century after century, God has sent His prophets and men to speak to His children about being obedient to Him and the Law. Yet, the Jews have continued to be disobedient to the Lord, and thus He has brought out what the prophets have said, You will go into exile. God raised up King Nebuchadnezzar, who, like many despots, wanted the riches his men had been shown by King Hezekiah, and he also wanted the brightest and most easy to sway intellectually and spiritually. What he was not aware of was the impact that the word of God had had on the minds and actions of four young men, as we shall see. We have no idea the teaching or examples they had had in Israel, but we do know this principle: We are to raise our children so that if confronted with the ways of our arch-enemy, they will choose God’s way. Prov 22:6 tells us to train our children in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not turn from it. Daniel and his three friends proved this principle when confronted with choosing the royal delicacies and wine.

Will our children make the right choices or not? Will we train our children for such a time as this? Will we pray for God to place a hedge of protection over them for when we are not with them?

Over and over, I pray Zechariah 2:5 over my grandchild: ‘I will be a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem and the source of glory in her midst.’” If God can do that for his most precious city, can He not do that for our children? 

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Climate Change?

Joel 1-3 Climate Change is the buzzword of the day. We hear about it and are reminded that the cause is humans and their thirst for fossil fuels. Yet, in the years 1930-1939, the USA experienced what has been termed the Dust Bowl. It was because the farmers in the Midwest over-plowed and removed the grasslands that had been there for centuries and, in times of extreme weather, could protect the land. It was 6 long years before the drought abated and the land would rest. Joel saw the devastation of the land not by wind or drought but by the invasion of locusts. History tells us that this lasted over three years. In that time, the seed saved from the previous year was eaten, the harvest of the current year and the seed to be used for the next year. Joel used that picture to show the Israelites the ravages of sin in their lives and how God would use the impending judgment of the Babylonians to get their attention.

What does God have to do to get ‘my’ attention? Does He have to use droughts, locusts, or another natural disaster to cause you and me to fall to our knees to repent? Here in Texas, we have gone over 55 days without a drop of rain and extreme temperatures, but are we seeking His face or just complaining like the people in Malachi did? How often do we behave like petulant children when God is seeking our return to Him? Joel reminded the people to wake up and seek His face for restoration. Sadly, they did not, and our nation seems to be on the same wavelength. Today may we seek the Lord and live! Seek the Lord while He may be found! 

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The Shedding of Blood

Ezek 45: The picture of the shed blood begins in Exodus as a picture of God’s overarching protection. Ezekiel is told that in the future, the priests will reinstitute that practice, and it mirrors that of Exodus 12, where the angel of death would see the shed blood and pass over the household on the night of the last plague where the death of the firstborn of Egypt would be taken. The Hebrews author reminds his audience that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. [Heb 9:22] Christ was the completed fulfillment of this when He shed His blood on the cross for the payment of our sins.

If Christ fulfilled this through the shedding of His blood, why then is it then reinstituted? Perhaps to remind us of our sinfulness and the price that had to be paid. Surely, this should stop us and remind us of the night in which He was betrayed. He then said: “this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink of it in remembrance of me.” [1Cor 11:25] Take heed, beloved, as you partake and seek cleansing of your sins and the price paid

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