Category Archives: Bible

Early Worship

Posted on by
2

It’s interesting to realize how early in His life here on earth people began to worship Jesus.  Long before His death and resurrection, He was worshiped.  Before He ever preached a sermon or taught a crowd, He was worshiped.  Before He ever worked a miracle, He was worshiped.  In fact, before He ever did much of anything, He was worshiped.  He was worshiped before Mary and Joseph ever had the chance to leave Bethlehem.

The magi or “wise men” came to the land of Israel with one stated goal: to worship Jesus.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” – Matthew 2:1-2 (NKJV)

When they found Him, they wasted no time.  Worshiping Jesus was the first thing they did.  We can learn so much from their example!

And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. – Matthew 2:11 (NKJV)

Doing the Impossible

Posted on by
Reply

In John 5, Jesus heals a man who “had an infirmity thirty-eight years.” 

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. – John 5:8-9 (NKJV)

The man had to rise, take up his bed and walk.  If healing were the only issue, Jesus might just as well have healed him and left him on his bed.  This, however, is one of those cases where the Lord asks the healed individual to do something in response to the healing.  He did so with good reason.  Two things are accomplished by the man acting upon Jesus’ words.

     1.  The man’s faith is reinforced by his actions.

When we don’t act upon our faith our faith can more easily falter.  Action draws faith out of mere theory into reality.  A man walking, bed in hand, knows that he is healed.  He doesn’t just think that he is.  It’s very hard to doubt you can do something while you’re in the very act of doing it successfully.

     2.  The actions make it harder to go back to his previous condition.

Action puts some distance between us and our previous, weakened condition.  It’s important to burn all bridges between where we are now spiritually and anything that once held back our growth.  Otherwise we’ll be tempted to look back after putting our hand to the plow.  We may begin longing for the delicacies of Egypt and forget that when we lived there we were slaves.

God’s Selective Memory

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s a little encouragement from the book of Hebrews. 

On the one hand, the Lord remembers all of your faithful service:

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. ” – Hebrews 6:10 (NKJV)

On the other hand, He has decided to forget all of your sins:

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” – Hebrews 8:12 (NKJV)

And just in case you happen to forget that last fact after reading it once, the same truth (quoted from Jeremiah 31:34) gets repeated just two chapters later.

Then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'” – Hebrews 10:17 (NKJV)

Let’s give the Lord this day much in the way of ministry to remember and nothing in the way of sin to forget!

Every Trial Has Its Limits

Posted on by
Reply

This evening at Horizon Central in our series 66 Books, we’re looking at the book of Job.  Going through the book verse-by-verse can be a long, arduous process – almost a verbal version of Job’s actual trials.  It is also, however, a book with the happiest of all endings and that’s where the big lesson is.  James sums it up well for us in the New Testament:

Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord-that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” – James 5:11 (NKJV)

Every trial has its limits.  Every temptation has its way out.  Every difficulty has an “end intended by the Lord,” through which He will reveal His very compassionate and merciful character.

No temptation [trial, test] has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted [tested, tried] beyond what you are able, but with the temptation [trial, test] will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV)

Job also gives us an insight into the character and nature of Satan – which is just the opposite of God’s.  He was only interested in destroying Job.  His goal was to harm him, hurt him, make his life miserable, so that Job would give up, give in and ultimately reject God Himself.

This same cosmic struggle is played out each time we face a trial or temptation.  Every such moment is a moment of truth, in which we have the chance to succumb to the enemy’s wishes or trust God with all of our heart.  In submitting to the Lord’s will and waiting upon Him, we actually hand the devil one more crushing defeat.