The Plan of God

In Sunday school this past week the teacher (Bobby Kunkle) was continuing our study in the book of Deuteronomy.  He made some really good points, but one stood out to me over the rest and had me thinking all day about it.  I thought it would be beneficial to share the passage with you and get us all thinking about it. 

Background:

Deuteronomy was written by Moses and is a “retelling” of the law to the new generation of Israelites that survived the 40 year wandering in the desert.  Because of Israel’s disobedience and not trusting the Lord they had to wait and wander for 40 years while an entire generation died out.  Then, with a whole new batch of Israelites God was going to use Joshua to lead the people on a conquest of Canaan, the land that they had been promised.  Moses was also forbidden from entering the land because of his transgressions, but before he died he had one final word…Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 4:25-31

²⁵ “When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹ But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.³⁰ When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

Things to think about:

·         God is talking to the people about the future, your “children’s children.”  He makes this conditional statement, “if” you act a certain way bad things will happen to you.  It is a warning that God cares about you, he cares what you do, he cares about how his people represent him to the rest of the world.  God cares.  Here is the question for us today…do you think God cares about us the same way?  Does he really care what I do?  Why would/should he care about my actions?

·         I like verse 26…”I call heaven and earth to witness against you…”  Wow!  Now that is a strong witness stand.  When all of heaven and earth stands to accuse you what defense could you possibly offer?  “I didn’t do it” and earth says, “yes you did, you were standing on me at the time and I saw the whole thing!” then heaven chimes in, “I saw you from a distance and witnessed the ripple effect of your actions and the harm you caused around the world and in people’s lives.”  What defense do we have against heaven and earth?

·         God had a plan for when the people rebelled.  He warned them in advance that he was going to scatter them as a people and almost utterly destroy them…almost. 

·         But, God also had a plan to bring them back!  He had a plan to be merciful.  He had a plan for forgiveness.  Isn’t it amazing that God has a plan for when we fail?  He has a plan to be compassionate and merciful in advance of our sin and rebellion.  In fact God had a plan for all of mankind’s rebellion and failing.   That plan was Jesus Christ!  It was no surprise to God that Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and it is no surprise to God when you break his commandments and sin against him every day.  But, God has a plan!  Jesus Christ came to this earth to take away your sins, to forgive you, to make you new, and to make you his forever!  His mercy is available to you.  Believe in Jesus and be saved from your sins.   When heaven and earth come to accuse us we will now have a truly unbreakable defense.

Romans 8:31-39

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Have a great day!

The Lord is God

As part of my Bible reading plan I have been reading through Isaiah lately and the past few days have contained a theme that I thought would be good to share with you today.  So, I have a bunch of shorter texts to read instead of one long section of scripture.  Let’s see if you can pick up on the theme that Isaiah and God are trying to communicate.

Isaiah 42:8

I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.

Isaiah 43:10-13

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
    “and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
    and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
    nor shall there be any after me.
¹¹ I, I am the Lord,
    and besides me there is no savior.
¹² I declared and saved and proclaimed,
    when there was no strange god among you;
    and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God.
¹³ Also henceforth I am he;
    there is none who can deliver from my hand;
    I work, and who can turn it back?”

Isaiah 44:6-8

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel
    and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last;
    besides me there is no god.
⁷ Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.
    Let him declare and set it before me,
since I appointed an ancient people.
    Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.
⁸ Fear not, nor be afraid;
    have I not told you from of old and declared it?
    And you are my witnesses!
Is there a God besides me?
    There is no Rock; I know not any.”

Isaiah 44:24

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
    who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
    who alone stretched out the heavens,
    who spread out the earth by myself,

Isaiah 45:5-7

I am the Lord, and there is no other,
    besides me there is no God;
    I equip you, though you do not know me,
⁶ that people may know, from the rising of the sun
    and from the west, that there is none besides me;
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷ I form light and create darkness,
    I make well-being and create calamity,
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Isaiah 45:21-23

Declare and present your case;
    let them take counsel together!
Who told this long ago?
    Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
    And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
    there is none besides me.

²² “Turn to me and be saved,
    all the ends of the earth!
    For I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn;
    from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
    a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
    every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

This last verse reminds me of another verse not in Isaiah, but one worth copying here as well.

Philippians 2:10-11

“…so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Things to think about:

·         Well, did you catch the theme?  According to God, how many gods are there?  According to God is there any power or force that he must answer to, or is God the final authority, final answer, and ultimate purpose giver? 

·         Who gets to decide what is right, what is good? God alone.

·         Who gets to make plans that span hundreds or thousands of years?  God alone.

·         Who gets to decide the outcome of how things should happen?  God alone.

·         Who gets to decide what is important and meaningful?  God alone.

·         Who decides how we are saved?  God alone.  (Let me stop with this one and say our culture doesn’t really like the idea that there can only be one way of salvation.  It is very popular to say, “what you believe is good for you, and what I believe works for me…” but what does that do?  It puts the means of salvation, the object of belief, the power of truth in our hands – where it does not belong and has not belonged since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden.  God makes sets the parameters!  God decides what needs to be done!  And, amazingly God is the one who has done it!  Praise the Lord and turn to him for the salvation that He provides.  One day we will all acknowledge and proclaim that Jesus Christ is King.  There is a major difference between those that are forced to say it and those that proudly proclaim it from the rooftops!

Have a great day and try not to forget who is in charge around here…J

The Salvation of the Lord

So, the other day I was reading Isaiah 12 and it is just a great chapter in Isaiah and in the whole Bible.  Instead of me saying too much on this one I want to let God speak for himself. 

Isaiah 12

You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
    for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
    that you might comfort me.

² “Behold, God is my salvation;
    I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
    and he has become my salvation.”

³ With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. ⁴ And you will say in that day:

“Give thanks to the Lord,
    call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
    proclaim that his name is exalted.

⁵ “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
    let this be made known in all the earth.
⁶ Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
    for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Things to think about:

·         What day is God talking about in verse 1?  “In that day…”  when is that?  What day?  In order to answer that question I encourage you to read chapter 11 of Isaiah, but let me summarize – That day is the day that Jesus Christ comes to make all things new and brings peace to the world, not just peace with other people, but peace with God!  “That day” is the day that Christ died for your sins.  “That day” is the day that you were made a new creation in Christ.  “That day” is the day of celebration when angels rejoice over even one sinner who repents.  “That day” is the day that God changed your life for eternity.  “That day” is the day to give thanks to the Lord and celebrate in joy!

·         What a profound statement right in verse 1…”you were angry with me and your anger turned away…”  talk about the greatest news that could ever be shared in all the world.  Because of Jesus GOD IS NOT MAD AT YOU ANYMORE!

·         In verse 2 what is required of us?  God does all this stuff and what does he ask us to do in return?  Trust Him.  Sounds simple, almost too easy, but I encourage you to look around your life and see how many areas you and I don’t really trust God.  If we can trust Him with our salvation, shouldn't we be able to trust him with our finances, our children, our jobs, our marriage, etc.?  Just a thought…

·         I love how Isaiah takes us through an emotional experience with this passage – start with what God has done, move to trusting in him, stop and give thanks for what he has done, then shout it out to make it known to the world, and finish by singing praise to God…almost a full circle of the emotions we should all go through when thinking about the greatness of God and the salvation that he offers.

·         Let verse 6 sit with you all day…”great in your midst is the Holy one of Israel…”  he is here in our midst as well.  He is there where you are reading this right now.  Stop and see the greatness of God in your midst and give him praise like He deserves…

Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitants of the earth…!

White as Snow

Last night our family had dinner with some friends from church.  We ate spaghetti with a red tomato meat sauce.  It was good, but the taste isn't what I want to focus on right now.  We ate this spaghetti with red sauce on white cloth placemats that in my opinion were pretty nice.   I looked at the sauce, looked at the white placemat, looked at my kids, and thought hmmm…our host assured us that it was no problem and don’t worry about getting sauce on the placemat because she has done it before and it always washes out.  Well, I will trust her with that and hope for the best.  (confession – I probably got my placemat more stained than any of my kidsJ)  With that on my mind this morning I was reading Isaiah chapter one and came across these verses.  Let’s read them together and think about what they mean for us today.

Isaiah 1:16-20

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
¹⁷     learn to do good;
seek justice,
    correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
    plead the widow's cause.

¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
    they shall become like wool.
¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,
    you shall eat the good of the land;
²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel,
    you shall be eaten by the sword;
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Things to think about:

·         God was speaking through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Judah (the southern kingdom after the split).  The people of Judah at times served the Lord and followed his commands.  They had some good kings that would lead the people to pursue God.  At other times they had wicked kings that brought in false gods and pursued evil. 

·         Earlier in chapter one of Isaiah God calls out the hypocrisy of the people.  They were worshiping multiple gods, doing whatever they wanted, practicing evil and not caring for the poor, widows, and orphans.  But, they would stop by the temple on occasion and make a sacrifice of an animal as an insurance plan.  It was like they were saying, “we will pray to everyone because then there are more chances we are praying to the real god, and we will give enough of a sacrifice to keep god away so he won’t be angry with me…”  they missed the whole point!  God wants to be near to them, not far away!  God wants more than just animal sacrifices and an occasional nod as a “just in case” he is real kind of attitude.

·         Here in verse 16 God tells them to stop doing evil and look to God for strength to do what is right!  God calls us to do the same thing.  Not that we somehow earn favor with him or buy our way into heaven with good works, but God is a righteous God so to be pursuing evil is to be running away from him and to be pursuing holiness is to be running toward him!

·         Read verse 18 again…wow!  Come now, let us reason together…love that line.  God is like, “think about it, look at the logic of your situation…”  God tells us we are sinners and if we stop and look at our lives we will see sins mounting up to the sky and we may feel overwhelmed that it is too late for us, that we are unforgivable, too dirty, too far down that road of sin that we can’t turn back.  God says – NO!  I can make you clean and not just a little clean, not just less dirty than you were before, but completely clean!  Totally free of that mountain of sin.  You are clean!  God has the power to remove our sin from us because he made a way for all of our sin to be placed on himself in Jesus Christ and he paid the penalty that we owed, he died in our place, he bore the wrath that was supposed to be on us…so God makes us clean!  No matter how much spaghetti sauce of sin you pour on a white placemat of your life Jesus can make it clean!

·         But, like the text says be clean and go and sin no more.  Not that you are perfect, but come on how evil are we if we want the forgiveness of God only to abuse it and live a life in rebellion to him?  What is amazing is that Jesus has the power to forgive even that sin, so run to him and be washed white as snow!