Don’t waste the pain. God cares more for your character than you comfort. His “chastening” may be painful, but it yields Christlikeness in you when you submit to its training. One day, you will look back on your life and see how God has disciplined you as His own child for your sanctification. He is conforming you to the image of Christ. Stop rebelling and start submitting. Pray as Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”
It was not Rahab’s status, but her faith that saved her. She believed that the Lord had already given the land to the Israelites. She believed the Red Sea crossing story and all the other miracles she had heard of their wilderness journey. By faith she protected the two Israelite spies and made them promise to save her and her family. By faith she hung the scarlet cord in her window as a sign to the Israelites when they returned to attack Jericho. By faith she and her family were the only ones who did not perish when the walls of Jericho fell. By faith she was included in Israel and married into the tribe of Joshua. By faith she bore Boaz who married Ruth and was included in the line of David and mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus as recorded by Matthew. She was saved by grace, but it was through faith that she received these many blessings.
David wrote Psalm 110 as an announcement of the Messiah’s coming reign. In Hebrew, this verse is: “Yahweh” said to my “Adonai.” The name that God revealed to Moses, “Yahweh” (or “Jehovah”) was the One talking to the Messiah, whom David referred to as “my Lord” (“Adonai”). The title “Adonai” was also used for God. David had already been told by God that the Messiah would be from his lineage (2 Sam. 7:16). Yet, here the Spirit revealed to David that the Messiah would be greater than him, so that he would call him “Adonai,” a title usually reserved for God.
The Spirit revealed to David a conversation between the Father and the Son from eternity past. Yet, it described the present time. For the Lord Jesus, having already accomplished our salvation as Suffering Servant, now sits at the right hand of the Father awaiting His appearance as Victorious King (Mark 14:62).
However, the most profound revelation may be that David called Him, “my Lord.” For that is the key. Not that He is “the” Lord, but that He is “my” Lord. Have you made Jesus your Lord today?
David began his psalm with a prayer that the Lord would no longer “keep silent.” No doubt he had read the book of Job and knew how the Lord’s voice silenced Job’s accusers. David was being attacked by false accusers, yet the Lord remained seemingly silent.
When we try to defend ourselves against false accusation it usually has the opposite effect. People love the lie more than the truth. And when we sound defensive, we sound guilty. But when God speaks, the accusations are silenced because the false accusers are silenced.
Ask the Lord to speak on your behalf. Pray as the first century church did, “Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word” (Acts 4:29). In other words, “Lord, you speak to those who falsely accuse us, while we continue to speak Your Word and praise Your name!”
When we have received Christ’s “offering,” we are already “perfected forever.” We are already made whole and complete in Christ, so that we are fully accepted by the Father for eternity. Positionally, we are already at the right hand of the Father in Christ. We are already holy. We are saints.
Yet, we are still “being sanctified. We still experience the battle between the flesh and the Spirit, and sometimes give into the flesh. But all our sins are already forgiven. The Spirit empowers us to repent and walk in His power, growing in maturity. This is our experience. This tension between our position and our experience has been called the “already/not yet” of the Christian life. In Christ, we are already perfected, but not yet perfect.
But on that Day, our position and our experience will be the same, for we “shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2). Those that are in Christ, will become like Christ. This is God’s purpose for those who believe.
Why is there such a longing in the human soul? Why this emptiness that no physical thing, nor human relationship can fill? We hunger and thirst, so we attempt to satisfy our craving, but to no avail. Since nothing of this world satisfies the soul, isn’t this evidence that it was made for something or someone beyond it?
Surely, the hole within our soul is a residual echo of the fallen image of God within us. And it can only be filled by Jesus Christ. Of whom the apostle Paul wrote, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God… Everything was created through him and for him” (Col. 1:15-16).
We were made by Christ and “for” Christ. The longing of the human soul will never be satisfied with anything or anyone other than Christ!
The psalmist concluded with an admonition that all people should shout “Amen,” when they hear the Lord being praised. “Amen” is more than the word we teach children to say at the end of their prayers. Some use it casually as a word of affirmation, or to say, “I agree.” It literally means, “So be it!” Yet for the Christ-follower, it takes on the further meaning of, “Let it be so in me!”
After the reading of God’s Word on Sundays, I usually say, “This is God’s Word.” To which the congregation responds, “Amen!” By doing so, they are affirming the statement’s truth, while also opening up their hearts and minds to receive it.
The old covenant, which was the law mediated through Moses, was written on stone tablets. But the new covenant, which is by the grace of God through Jesus, is written on human hearts. The purpose of the old covenant was never to save, but to prepare a people for the Savior. The new covenant supersedes the old. The problem with the old covenant was not its content, but the character of the people, for they could not keep it in the flesh. The superiority of the new covenant is evident in that it overcomes the flesh by the power of the Spirit that comes to dwell in those who receive Christ as Savior and Lord.
Has the Lord put His Word in your mind and written it upon your heart? Have you received the new covenant in Jesus Christ?
The law can reflect, but not perfect. It is like a mirror that reveals sin, but it has no power over the flesh to remove it. Instead of bringing us closer to God, the law shows how vast is our separation. It was never given to save, but to point to our need for a Savior. Those who hope in the law will die. Yet, there is a “better hope” found in Christ alone. For those who have put their hope in Christ are able to “draw near” to God with “a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22).
During the prophet Ezekiel’s day, Israel had received many warnings from God through His prophets, yet they did not see or hear. They could have repented and the Lord’s judgment would have been turned away. But they did not repent. They continued in their rebellion. For rebellion against God blinds the eye and deafens the ear to spiritual things. Even when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself came to them centuries later, they still were spiritually dull. For didn’t He quote the prophet Isaiah to them saying, “This people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them” (Matt. 13:14-15, Isa. 6:9-10).
As Jesus often said, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” If you hear the Word of God speaking to you today, listen, repent and receive the healing that He alone offers. And if you know someone who is hurting and far from God, pray that their eyes and ears would be opened that they might receive the same.