What is your life built on? Is it built on your profession, your wealth, your pleasure? Is it built on the blessing of family or the wealth of friends, both good things? Consider carefully the foundation of your life. Whether the foundation of your life is built on what you consider good or evil, unless it is built on Christ, it will not survive.
Tag Archives: bible
Salvation Is He
Although not our text for today, I want us to begin thinking about the seventy-second psalm, which serves as a description of Israel’s ideal king. Likely written by Solomon, upon first reading the psalm sounds self-descriptive. He prays for God-given justice and righteousness and the ability to govern accordingly, all kingly blessings. He prays for prosperity from the land and protection for the people, all national blessings. From its beginning, the psalm sounds like the prayerful petitions of a king known for his wisdom.
Good News of Great Joy
We often think of the sudden, supernatural appearance of the heavenly host in relation to Jesus’ birth, and rightly so. But in a sense, their explosion of praise is but a commencement of our continued celebration. Paul said, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord,” and so we do, boasting in what God has done in sending his Son. Think about it: We have assembled on this Lord’s Day, the day of Christ’s resurrection, based on the full revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is only fitting that we join the heavenly host in crying out, “Glory to God in the highest!” For, our greatest joy comes in and through the good news of Jesus Christ.
Behold Your God!
This light has been shining in the darkness of spiritual depravity and blindness since Christ’s coming, advancing according to Christ’s commission. His unstoppable gospel will advance, disciples will be made, his church will assemble, and he shall be praised to the ends of the earth. And then, the end shall come, and the glory of God will be revealed in the second coming of his Son and the redemption of his people. The kingdom of God will conquer all kingdoms in a Word, and “nations shall come to [the] light, and kings to the brightness of [the] rising” (Isa. 60:3). Unbelievers will be judged and condemned to eternal damnation and believers will be found standing only in the righteousness of Christ. The world will be filled with reverence and awe, as a loud voice is heard saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3). And darkness will be no more, only the pure light of God’s radiance, and we will hear what our hearts’ desire: “Behold your God!” And so we shall, forever.
The Dwelling Place of God
Have you ever longed for something, with great anticipation, only to find that when that something arrived it fell far short of what you imagined? How often is our ideal contrary to reality? How often does this lead to frustration with our circumstances and discouragement in the moment? It is likely that all of us have experienced this to one degree or another. But what if your religion, family, home, nationality, your identity, were all connected and directed toward what was to come, and what if you had waited not three or four years but seventy? It sounds like a set-up for disappointment. Coming out of the Babylonian exile and returning to their homeland, the children of Israel were more than disappointed; they were despondent.
Post Tenebras Lux
Of Judah’s kings, there were the good, the bad, and the ugly. Perhaps there was a bit of ugly in all of them, but Hezekiah was one of the good ones. During his reign, he cleansed the temple of idols, restored right and regular worship, including reinstating Passover. He trusted the Lord for victory over the Assyrians and for personal healing of a life-threatening disease. But for the good reign he enjoyed, he personally did not finish well, falling prey to pride in his possessions and an ugly selfishness that characterized his last recorded words.
Who Made You Judge?
If there is an aphorism derived from Scripture best known and oft quoted in our day, surely it is, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”[2] Its use is typically meant to refute moral judgment on a particular sin, and its effect is typically the equivalent of “Mind your own business.” The source of the expression is our passage today, as well as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. And while I am all for encouraging quotes of Jesus in our culture, I’m not for taking Scripture out of context, for whatever reason. As we will see in our passage today, Jesus was no more dismissing sin than encouraging it, but he was confronting it, a sin that often hides comfortably in the church.
God So Loved
Connecting God’s love to our love, John goes on to say, “God is love,” John tells, “and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). Loving our enemies does not make us “sons of the Most High,” but it does reveal that we are. Doing good to those who hate us, blessing those who curse us, praying for those who mistreat us, expecting nothing in return, does not mean that they will love us in return, but God will reward us for it in conforming us more and more to the image of his Son, who in love laid down is life for us.
Blessings and Woes
In writing to the church, the Apostle John cautions, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:15-16).
Thy Kingdom Come
“In these days,” that is, when Jesus was still preaching and ministering throughout the Judean region, “he went out to the mountain to pray.” Luke’s succinct statement is easily read over, but its brevity does not negate its significance. This was one of those times when and one of those places where Jesus would get away to pray. But on this occasion, Luke tells us that “all night he continued in prayer to God.” Out of the four Gospels, Luke is the only one to record this detail, a glimpse into the devotional life of the Son of Man.
Planter, Pastor, Preacher 