What do you place your trust and hope in? Do you trust, hope, and love money, sex, drugs, acceptance, or power? Happiness can never be secured by treasures of this life. Everything around you is temporal and the hope and blessing you derive from these trinkets will waiver and fail you when you are craving trust, hope, and love the most. “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!” Isaiah 31:1 The beautiful simplicity of God’s truth is found in Isaiah. We cannot build our hope on anything apart from the glorious God who lavishly moved to save humanity from its foolish pride. Continue Reading…
Are you standing upon the lavish simplicity of God: Isaiah 31 and 32
Do your actions proclaim your trust or disdain of God: Isaiah 29 and 30
We are given a looking glass into our own lives in Isaiah 29 and 30. What do you treasure? What do you value? What do you hold in high regard? Our lives will answer these questions without a need for us to speak. We can proclaim to act or believe in one thing or another but if our actions do not match what we say we are lying. Do you live out what you proclaim to be your faith in God? Do your actions proclaim your trust or disdain of God? “And the Lord said: ‘Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.’” Isaiah 29:13,14 Where is your heart? Our hearts are what truly motivate us to do everything we do. Continue Reading…
Turn aside from the Idols of the world: Psalm 135
Will you join me in praising God, the Lord of heaven and earth and creator of all things? The situation you find yourself in today will not change the truth that God is worthy of your praise and adoration. Do you praise God and wholeheartedly adore Him? Do you find yourself wondering why God should be praised? As we face life’s monotony and a varying array of trouble there hope for us found in praising God. What is the basis of praise? In Psalm 135 we are exhorted by the psalmist to praise the Lord but along with this exhortation we are given a reason to praise Him. “For I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods.” Psalm 135:5 The foundation of praise is built upon the deeds of God and intrinsically found in His nature. Continue Reading…
Beware of the idols that encroach upon your peaceful existence: Psalm 115
Beware of the idols that you have elevated to prominence in your life. What draws your devotion and attention away from God? Do you desire to seek God first and foremost in your life? As we go about life in this sin cursed world we take for ourselves many of the habits of our family, friends and culture. Beware of the habits you have developed. Are you seeking to first seek God and love Him with all of your being? The things of this world that you treasure and delight in easily become idols that you worship as they crowd out our desire for God. Beware of these idols that are shallow, powerless and bring death to your life. “Their idol are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears; but they cannot heart; they have noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts i n them.” Psalm 115:4-8 Continue Reading…
Transformed upon seeing God: Job 41 and 42
What things do we fear? We fear wild animals that savagely hunt their prey. In the open ocean we fear sharks and other creatures of the deep. Imagine the fierce destructive power of earthquakes, volcanos, tornadoes and hurricanes, we fear these natural disasters that make us completely helpless. We fear financial distress caused from job loss and economic turmoil. We have taken the awe, wonder, and fear we once held of God and and elevated the things of this world to be worthy enough to hold our fear. Continue Reading…
Your heart proclaims your treasure: 2 Chronicles 31 and 32
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Matthew 6:20-24 These verses have been brought to my mind many times by various people the last few weeks. We live in a world that places great renown and power on the accumulation of things. We cannot live a life where we have a mixed allegiance between God and the world. What does it look like when we cast aside the bonds of idolatry that have taken root in our lives and cling to God? What hope is there to break free from the bonds that consistently seek to hold onto our attention? Continue Reading…
Exile from everything held dear: 2 Kings 25
In 2 Kings 25 the exile for the sons of Israel has come to fulfillment. For generations the people drifted away from worshiping God and the kingdom of Babylon comes to carry off the people of Judah into exile just as Isaiah told Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:17,18. The city of Jerusalem was rased and all the wealth of the city was carried off into Babylon. Will good come from the Israelites being taken away into exile in Babylon? Can you imagine being taken away from the comfortable life you have known to be placed in a foreign land? How would you view life if everything you knew and held dear were stripped away from you? How does the adversity that we endure change out lives? Continue Reading…
Who walks in your footsteps: 2 Kings 13 and 14
Would you like it if you knew that people would be continually compared to you generations after your death? It would be great to make such an impact on the world so that your memory and name lived on. Would you live life differently today if you knew that you would be remembered for your wickedness? Consistently in 2 Kings it has been said of the various kings that they followed in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat. What does this mean? What did Jeroboam do to claim such a reputation?
After the death of Solomon in 1 Kings 11 the nation of Israel split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Jeroboam ruled Israel after the division and he realized that if the people of Israel went to worship God in Jerusalem they would want to reunite as one nation. Continue Reading…
The Lord He is God and His power reigns over idolatry: 1 Kings 17 and 18
In 1 Kings 17 Elijah a prophet of the Lord proclaims to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 1 Kings 17:1 After these words Elijah follows heads away from Ahab and hides in the wilderness. Was Elijah concerned about having his needs met since he just prophesied a drought in the land? Did Elijah have the faith to trust that God was going to supply his needs. God proves Himself faithful as he sends ravens to bring Elijah bread and meat twice daily. Can God supply your needs? Do you need a road map to take a step of faith? Elijah didn’t know what was going to happen next but he trusted that God would supply for his needs as he followed Him. Continue Reading…
Idolatry leads toward unfaithfulness and death: 1 Kings 13 and 14
What power is there in the idols of your life? Can you find true and lasting fulfillment in your iPhone, does Facebook satisfy the deep desire for fellowship that you have, can the joy you find in your family and friends carry you through the difficult moments of life, does the money you earn working incessantly form the foundation of who you are, or will the praise and adoration of men give you a sense of fulfillment on your death bed that you can die confident of what lies ahead? What is the driving motivation in your life? The state of our sinful inclination has not changed since the time of the old testament. We live in a sex saturated world that seeks to satisfy all the needs we have in an instant but the one true need we have for fulfillment can only be satisfied in God. Continue Reading…
