Elijah ” came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die.” However, Job spoke, “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.” And then “Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. “ In summary, we see a fearful man seeking the relief of death, a shattered man seeking the relief of non-existence, and a man experiencing the rude awakening of being disconnected from God. We may add also these: Jesus faced an agony preceding His death, Paul and Silas sang songs in a prison, Jeremiah cried many tears for…
Tag: <span>fear</span>
Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells us of a great problem, “It is nothing less than the problem of living the Christian life, the problem, if you like, of dealing with sin.” For this problem Lloyd Jones shares this verse from the epistle of Paul to the Romans: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Romans 8:15 God’s answer for the bondage that fear brings is simply adoption. Two spirits are revealed in the verse. one of bondage, one of adoption — these diametrically oppose one another, but, “The (Holy) Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” ESV Adoption is the antidote and Paul again speaks of the Adoption in his epistle to the Ephesians : “According as he hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of…
The song goes: When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be, When we all see Jesus, we will sing and shout the victory! However, the Supreme joy of that “eternal” future is treasured in a lingering and finite present day earthen vessel. In our current “body of death” we may become apprehensive, worrisome, even fearful of the future. Martyn Lloyd-Jones reminds us of a natural “temperament” which makes us all unique. He says: “The human person is very delicately and finely balanced. Fundamentally, we all have the same general characteristics, but the relative proportions vary tremendously from case to case.” “…we have our own particular characteristics: Our virtues, Our failures, Our weaknesses, Our blemishes. Lloyd-Jones goes on to say, “The fact that you have become a Christian, does not mean that you cease to have to live with yourself.” In keeping with these observations,…
The love of many will wax cold — iniquity will abound. Men’s hearts will fail them for fear. Chilling love, hearts expire. Interesting it is, how heart and love go together. A heart holds the issue of life for a person and possibly that “go” is goodness and kindness. A man believes and embraces these noble attributes and holds them firm in his value system. But can that value system sustain him in the time of testing? Is that value system changeable? In a book by Carl H. Stevens, “cosmic loneliness,” our Pastor quotes Rollo May: he defines Anxiety as “the reaction to the threat to values one identifies with his existence as a self, ” “a person can meet anxiety to the extent that his Values are stronger than the threat.” Again from May, “man defines maturity as the holding of values, with no importance placed on the truth…
When disappointments would come my mother would say, “its not the end of the world.” Since those days I have had many “end of the worlds.” Perhaps some of us are having a doomsday even as we write — a grand parent, mother or father, even a son or daughter have gone away. Friends, Jesus is the glory and the lifter of our heads. Psalm 3:3 Robert Nathan wrote his poetic cry: God of pity and love, return to this earth, Go not so far away, leaving us to evil, Darkness is loose upon the world, the Devil Walks in the land, and there is nothing worth. Death like a dog, runs howling from his lair; His bite has made men mad, they follow after All howling too, and their demoniac laughter Drowns like a sea our solitary prayer. Return, O Lord, return. Come with the day, Come with the…
“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” 2 Corinthians_8:9 ” For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 Again and again, the Bible tells me and you about an exchange. Christ’s death for my life, Christ’s death for your life. “One died for all — we’re all dead.” 2 Corinthians 5:14 “Planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” Romans 6:5 We also, while applying these truths to our hearts, must perform our own exchange by faith. We exchange our past — our history for God’s history, and allow His obedience to become our own. We “bring every thought…
Every day we: Have a new day to rejoice in, Have new mercies, are loaded with benefits, have daily bread take up a daily cross (in identification with His cross). are renewed in the Spirit of our minds. Every day we are counted as sheep for the slaughter as spoken of in Romans 8. But we are already dead, buried and resurrected in taking up our daily cross. We carry about in our body the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the life of Christ might be manifested in our mortal bodies. Death worketh in us that life might be worked in others. Though our outward man perishes, our inward man is renewed dad by day. Many have learned to live one day at a time. They take no thought for tomorrow; sufficient for today is the evil thereof. They forget what is past and press on…
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.” “So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone!”Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” Isaiah 6:1-5 “Then one of the seraphim flew to…
Steven Wright said, “ I plan to live forever, so far, so good.” Funny but true; we are stuck with the perception of life viewed through time. God loved Israel with an everlasting love and as far as we know, He’s keeping the promise. The Bible helps here because it refers to time yet future; it fast-forwards us at least 1000 years, and then jumps off of times’ diving board into eternity. Love and eternity go hand in hand, for God is Love. Let’s begin with the rule; From Ecclesiastes 3:14 and Deuteronomy 33:27, God exists Love, both what He does and who He is are forever. This helps to explain how perfect love casts out fear, in John’s epistle. What could “perfect love” be referring to? God’s love, yes, but the verse says that love is made perfect. That’s referring to us, me and you. If “perfect” means “mature,”…
“Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. Exodus 19:19-20 The place of austerity carried sacred implications; no man could look at God and live. Old Israel learned early to fear the voice of God as it resembled thunder. God’s people were forbidden approach to God’s mountain, and begged Moses that God not speak to them directly. Only through Moses did they dare receive communication from Yahweh. In the midst of fire and brimstone came the ten commandments through Moses. In…