Hephzibah … God's Delight!

II Samuel 22:20 - "He also brought me forth into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me."

God did not send His Son to die for mankind because He felt sorry for us. He does not continue to pull us out of jams because He feels some type of responsibility as a Father. No, but He does it because he delights in us. The Lover of our souls is captivated by us and desires we continue to look to Him through the good and the bad. The gaze of our soul toward Him and His loveliness further impassions His great love for us. (See Isaiah 62:4 where God refers to His beloved as Hephzibah or “my delight is in her.”)

In our vilest, wickedest, moment God knew what we could be and delighted to give us redemption through His Son. Now, He delights when we turn back to Him from our stumbling. He takes great joy in continually transforming us into the image of His Son. Beloved of God, may we never let the enemy lie to us that God is shaking His head in disgust over us. He delights in us if we keep turning toward Him. The gaze of His soul towards ours results in rapturous love that will last for an eternity!

Giving Ourselves to Others

Matthew 14:16 - "But Jesus said to them, 'They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!'”

Jesus never spoke without purpose. In this case, he is making a simple declarative statement with a command. He gave clear direction with no possibility of misunderstanding. Yet, the disciples were initially dumbfounded on how to complete the task at hand. Sometimes God needs to startle us into the realization that we are totally incapable of fulfilling His commission.

If those whom we are in contact with either in our ministries or just in everyday life are going away from us hungry, then that is a problem. Not enriching others is the same as impoverishing them. Life is never neutral. Beloved of God, Jesus has called us all to be broken bread and poured out wine for mankind. The secret is not trying to break ourselves up in small pieces but instead allow the Lord to distribute us as He sees fit.

May the Bread of Life find willing hands with all of us to bring great nourishment to those famished for reality.

God’s Fiery Hammer of Love

Jeremiah 23:29 - “’Is not My word like fire?’” declares the LORD, “’and like a hammer which shatters a rock?’”

As God's missionaries to this earth, how do we handle the word of God? How do we send it out? Is it like fire in our bellies and unless we speak we will explode? If our souls are not on fire for God then it is impossible to ignite another. Do we then revert to our own efforts which the Bible refers to as “strange fire” that is not of God? (Leviticus 10:1) Or, is God’s word like a hammer in our hands? Sadly, for too many of us it is like a rubber mallet! The former will pulverize stony hearts, resulting in salvation. The latter tends to just stun or jar, but the hardness still remains.

Beloved of God, may we once again be entrusted with the true fire of God. This means obedience with no compromise to make our passion once again burn bright. Then, the hammer of God will once again find its mark on the rocky heart. These will only come through total surrender to Him. Once He can trust us with His word in power, we will then see God do extraordinary things we never thought possible!

The Exchanged Life

Matthew 16:26 - "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Jesus asks us these probing questions, allowing us to come to our own conclusions. There is nothing we can desire in this lifetime that will complete us other than Christ. No relationship, or house, or car, or no amount of money in the bank will ever equal a fair exchange for our soul. The devil gets us on the cheap if we settle for less than the Exchanged Life with Jesus Christ.

To forfeit is to give up or give in. It means surrendering and relinquishing responsibility. To merely turn our soul over to the devil when Jesus has paid the price for our freedom is high treason. May we not sell ourselves short regarding how much it cost the Lover of our soul. To do so would create horrendous loss through eternal separation from the One who redeemed us with His life. 

The Cost of Freedom

Galatians 5:1 - "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."

God made mankind to live free. We are hardwired with that desire. Those of us privileged to be born or who live in the United States often take these liberties for granted. What others have fought and died to preserve can lose their value when we forget what it cost. Our American Declaration of Independence states freedom of religion is our unalienable right. However, as the founding fathers stated, these "rights" are endowed by our Creator.

For God the Father, it cost Him dearly by giving us His Son. As citizens of heaven, we can likewise forget how much freedom and liberty cost. Our “unalienable right” as Christians entails submitting to God and Jesus Christ and then living in harmony with all men. As followers of Christ we never have to submit to a yoke of slavery. This was accomplished through the finished work of Jesus Christ. However, there will always be those men who don't desire to live "harmoniously." We must all do our part to live spiritually as well as socially active in a world that desires to consume Christian believers. May we resist with all the fortitude in which God gives us, for in only so doing, will we be truly free.

Guarding God's Treasure

II Timothy 1:14 - "Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you."

Thank God that Paul tells us to guard "the treasure" within through the help of the Holy Spirit. Too often, Christians believe they must concentrate more on the promises, or determine to not sin in a certain area. While these are notable exercises, they are pointless if we have not first turned to God through His Holy Spirit to help us. The best we can hope to do in our own power is to defend ourselves by greater effort. However, in order to offend the enemy and make him shrink from his assault is to first surrender to Jesus Christ in our thoughts. Paul tells us not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This is not mind over matter but instead regarding what matters most to our God.

When we seek to guard our minds and hearts, then we are merely making a positive thinking construct. In so doing, when we first seek the Lord and ask Him to help us rule our minds with His desires, then He fortifies our hearts with the security of the Holy Spirit. It all comes down to Whom or what we allow to guard our minds. For in so doing, this is the entity which will inevitably guard our hearts. If it is our intellect, we will succumb to the devil and our flesh. It it is humility of mind as found in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:2), then no power or demon from hell will ever be able to break in and spoil the treasure of God.

This for "That"

Luke 5:8 - "But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!'"

Does it bring us to our knees when we see "that" for which the Lord has done? Peter's "that" was the Lord's ability to perform the impossible when he and his comrades had toiled all night for nothing. Sometimes, God can reach us best when He shows us our inadequacies in the things in which we think we excel. Peter undoubtedly thought of himself as a "professional" fisherman. There may have been none like the fishing teams of Peter and Andrew or James and John. Yet, this itinerant preacher comes who grew up in Nazareth, miles from Galilee and tells them how to do their job! The first miracle is that Peter conceded to do what the Lord asked. When he surrendered his intellect to Jesus, then the next miracle occurred -- a boat load of fish! But then the greatest miracle of all happened. Peter saw his inadequacy and acknowledged the Lord's ability to do more than he ever thought or imagined.

What are we facing today that we think we can handle alone? We may consider we have gone through troubles before on our own. Why should we trouble the Lord? The reason is obvious from Peter's example. Surrender of our human reasoning allows God to perform great things if we will but obey. May we all look to Him for He is able to do abundantly beyond anything we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).