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timewithgod.blog-city.com — August 2009
Lamentations 1-3 This Will Shake You Down To Your Boots
My Bible’s sidebar said that the Jewish people read Lamentations publicly each year to remind them that their sin had caused the destruction of Jerusalem. As I began to read it again, I began to piece together verses that could almost mak
My Bible’s sidebar said that the Jewish people read Lamentations publicly each year to remind them that their sin had caused the destruction of Jerusalem. As I began to read it again, I began to piece together verses that could almost make up a personal lament to remind me of where I might someday be, without the Lord. I changed the personal nouns to “I” or “me”: “I sinned terribly, so I’ve become unclean … those who honored me now hate me… I made myself dirty by my sins and didn’t think about what would happen to me … Is there any pain like mine? Is there any pain like that He has caused me? … He has noticed my sins; they are tied together by His hands (on the cross); they hang around my neck … The Lord has handed me over … There is no one near to comfort me, no one who can give me strength again. My children are left sad and lonely, because the enemy has won…. The Lord commanded me to be surrounded by my enemies … I say, “The Lord is right,” But I refuse to obey Him … My heart is troubled because I have been so stubborn … There is no comfort for me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble, and they are happy You have done this to me …. Do to them what You have done to me because of all my sins … My eyes have no more tears, and I am sick to my stomach. I feel empty inside … No one pointed out my sins to keep me from being captured…. The Lord has done what He planned; He has kept His word … He has destroyed without mercy, and He has let my enemies laugh at me … So I will get up, and cry at night, and pour out my heart like water in prayer to the Lord. I will lift up my hands in prayer to You … I am a man who has seen the suffering that comes from the rod of the Lord’s anger … The Lord filled me with misery; He made me drunk with suffering … I have no more peace. I have forgotten what happiness is … Lord, remember my suffering and my misery, my sorrow and trouble. Please remember me and think about me. I have hope when I think of this: The Lord’s love never ends; His mercies never stop. They are new every morning … The Lord is mine, so I hope in Him… The Lord is good to those who hope in Him, to those who seek Him. It’s good to wait quietly for the Lord to save … I should sit down and be quiet: the Lord has given me hard work to do. I should bow to the ground; maybe there is still hope. The Lord will not reject me forever. Although He brings sorrow, He also has mercy and great love. He doesn’t like to punish people or make them sad. He sees… He sees… the Lord sees… Let me examine and see what I have done and then return to the Lord. Let me lift up my hands and pray from my heart to God in heaven; I have sinned and turned against You… Forgive me … When I was like that, You wrapped Yourself in a cloud, and no prayer could get through … I called out to You, Lord, from the bottom of the pit. You heard me calling. You came near when I called to You; You said, “Don’t be afraid” … Lord, You have taken my case and given me back my life.” WOW! That should be enough of a reminder right there never to let sin gain a foothold again in our lives! Perhaps I should read it monthly. I don’t want to ever have to say, “My children are left sad and lonely, because the Enemy has won.” Father, remind me to read this anytime I feel like I’m letting sin gain a foothold in my life. Use it as a dire prediction of any future that fails to include You, for my body of flesh and my sin-infused mind try to tell me otherwise. I want to listen instead to You.
Lamentations 4-5 Lessons For America Today
Jeremiah grieved for what had been lost: the Temple stones lay scattered, the precious people of God…, the babies…., the children…., the lifestyle and culture…. – indeed, the humanity of the people had been str
Jeremiah grieved for what had been lost: the Temple stones lay scattered, the precious people of God…, the babies…., the children…., the lifestyle and culture…. – indeed, the humanity of the people had been stripped. There was no doubt that God Himself had done it, and done it for a reason. Not just the sins of everyday people, but even the rulers and the religious elite had sinned greatly. They’d looked for a nation to save them instead of looking to their God. In chapter 5, Jeremiah pleads with God to once again look on those He despised, for God had turned His back on them as just punishment for their refusal to obey Him. There is a sense that they are suffering because of the sins of their ancestors (national sin), but Jeremiah acknowledges the sins of each person as well (“How terrible it is because WE sinned.”) Amid all this desolation, his final words are haunting in their agreement to God’s sovereignty and our unwillingness to bow to it at all times – “But You rule forever, Lord. You will be King from now on. Why have You forgotten us for so long? Have You left us forever? Bring us back to You, Lord, and we will return. Make our days as they were before, or have You completely rejected us? Are You so angry with us?” The people of Israel’s relationship to God had swung like a pendulum to the justice of God, and how they now longed to see the other side – the mercy of God. We weren’t meant to live at either extreme. The midpoint, where justice and mercy balance each other, is where we’re called to live. The sidebar in my Bible today said, “God wants us free, but freedom is not license … There’s always a price to pay for license. True freedom doesn’t lie in the exercise of choices, but in the consequences of the choices made.” They were feeling the effects of their freedom. I worry that we as a nation may soon be doing the same. Father, please help us as a nation to stop the radical swing the pendulum has taken over the past 8 months. Energize us to take back the reins of government and agree to obey Your commands rather than the commands of the ungodly. But it all must start within us. Show me where I am disobedient and lead me to understand that my only option is to obey. Your Brother In Christ,Gary Ford
Luke 1 -- Getting To HEAR Good News From God
There’s just something about hearing good news straight from God: “Zechariah, don’t be afraid. God has heard your prayer. You’re gonna be a dad!” “Mary, the Lord has blessed you and is with
There’s just something about hearing good news straight from God: “Zechariah, don’t be afraid. God has heard your prayer. You’re gonna be a dad!” “Mary, the Lord has blessed you and is with you. God has shown you His grace. You’re going to have His Son!” Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, heard God not from a mouth but from a kick by her unborn son, followed by a prompting from the Holy Spirit – “Why has this good thing happened to me?” She wasn’t talking about her pregnancy. “….that the mother of my Lord come to me?” Zechariah recalled hearing the promises of God – not straight from God but probably from his father, who also was a priest: “He said He would do this (give them a powerful Savior) … He promised …. He said …. God promised….” It had been one thing to hear his father read what God had promised, but it was another thing altogether to know that God intends to fulfill them in your lifetime, using your family to help! I used to ask people how they heard from God. Like Zechariah, I’d been doing the church duties, but I’d never understood that God hadn’t stopped talking when John finished Revelation. I think that it was when I, like Zechariah, finally believed that I could finally hear God telling me His will for my life that I started hearing. Then, like Zechariah, I got the good news. On a bus from Svir Stroy to St Petersburg, Russia eight years ago this month: “You will have a son! I’ve picked him out just for you, and I’m about to show you where and who he is!” Then again in Kyiv, Ukraine in January, 2003: “You’re just a couple of months away from meeting him. Don’t worry about the Ukrainian government. I’ll take care of them.” Again on March 31, 2003: “This is Josh! I hope you don’t mind a 2-day wait!” Finally seeing him on April 2, 2003: “Here he is! When I made Josh, half a world away, I was thinking about you!” And again on April 8, 2003: “He’s officially yours now. Take him home!” I know that I was as amazed as Zechariah. And like Elizabeth, I said, “Who am I that God would do this great thing for me?” All I have to do is remember the definition of grace – getting what we don’t deserve. God poured it out on me. It’s grace enough just to hear from God, and grace abounding to have been blessed with not just one son, but two. Father, thank You for Your good news to me. Thank You that every day I can look at my sons and think of You. You have blessed me, not just in hearing from You, but in receiving from You as well. I love You! Your Brother In Christ,Gary Ford
Luke 2 -- Cherishing The Ordinary Moments
I was really struck by the “ordinariness” of the beginning of Jesus’ earthly life as I read this morning. Miles away from their home and traveling without reservations, they probably never dreamed that so many people would hav
I was really struck by the “ordinariness” of the beginning of Jesus’ earthly life as I read this morning. Miles away from their home and traveling without reservations, they probably never dreamed that so many people would have arrived at the tiny town of Bethlehem for the census-taking. I thought of Hamlin and how unimaginable it would be that every place to sleep in town might ever be full. The closest we’ve come is probably the night of the flood in 2007. Still, no one slept out back in an old barn. For all intents and purposes, Joseph and Mary and their new baby could have been considered homeless. No religious leaders appeared for visits. In fact, a bunch of curious shepherds were the only visitors that first night. As Jesus grew up, it’s hard to imagine Him playing with other neighborhood kids, but surely He did. And I doubt that He played all those games of one-upsmanship that all of us did at some point, claiming how much stronger, smarter, or bigger our dad was. Before His public ministry pics up in later chapters, we really hear nothing about what a perfect best friend he probably was. I wonder if there were any neighborhood friends who years later stepped up to say, “I used to play with Him when we were kids!” I have no doubt that there were many people who treasured the ordinary moments they shared with Him, in much the same way that I still treasure the ordinary moments spent with my granddad. Indeed, my favorite memories are of what were probably my worst times – when I felt stuck out at the farm plowing while all of my friends were in town hanging out together. You see, my granddad knew how I felt about those times, and after a hard day’s work hauling freight, rather than kicking back at home to watch TV, he’d drive his old pickup the six miles out to the farm and just sit and watch as I plowed, knowing that his presence meant so much to me. But come to think of it, I suppose that he probably got enjoyment out of being with me, too. The sidebar in my Bible says, “Jesus has come to share the danger as well as the drudgery of our everyday lives. He desires to weep with us and to wipe away our tears…..There can be no ordinary moments for people who live their lives with Jesus.” Father, how often I forget that You Son loves me enough to share the drudgery of my life. When I feel overwhelmed and possibly underappreciated, please remind me that He’s right there with me, in ways my granddad never dreamed, and that He fills my ordinary moments with the joy of His presence. Your Brother In Christ,Gary Ford
Luke 3 & 4 -- Trying To Justify The Means
I’ve read many good comments about those three big temptations Satan used in the wilderness to tempt Jesus to sin. One sentence in my commentary today really caught my eye, though. “In all three cases, the end held out was rig
I’ve read many good comments about those three big temptations Satan used in the wilderness to tempt Jesus to sin. One sentence in my commentary today really caught my eye, though. “In all three cases, the end held out was right enough, but the means of obtaining it was wrong.”
How much simpler life would be if there were only one means of obtaining the ends we seek, and trying to obtain them any other way would be impossible. At least then, we’d know from the get-go that we were sinning. Unfortunately, that’s not the way this world operates, and so often we can even convince ourselves that our motives are purer than they might actually be. When Satan gets us to telling ourselves lies, we’re in bad shape. That’s kind of like cheating at Solitaire.
What a shame that today even, the leaders of our democracy, which is God’s great gift to America, practice this very thing, espousing that tired old phrase “the end justifies the means.” If those “means” are not of God, then neither are the “ends” they seek to accomplish.
Father, please keep me in Your will and on the right path in all that I do. Do not let me sin by having mixed motives. Let my intentions never be questionable to others. I don’t want to bring dishonor to Your name by anything I do. Also, please guide and direct Americans to hold their elected leaders to the standards which our forefathers held dear. Show them Your will for this great nation.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Luke 5 -- Boy, Is HE Gonna Like THIS!
Wow! So much good material in just one chapter! I sat trying to decide what God was pointing me towards today. Would it be the three businessmen who let Jesus borrow one of their boats for a pulpit and in turn were told where to dro
Wow! So much good material in just one chapter! I sat trying to decide what God was pointing me towards today. Would it be the three businessmen who let Jesus borrow one of their boats for a pulpit and in turn were told where to drop their nets, only to walk away from their biggest profit ever to become His disciples, leaving 2 boats full of fresh fish for others to have? Or perhaps the man so covered in leprosy that he’d been driven from home and family, who hadn’t been touched by anyone in so long, being healed by the touch of God in the flesh, and having his family restored to him? Maybe the tax man who didn’t even stop to turn in his latest collections along with his resignation before taking Jesus home for a banquet so his publicly-despised friends could get to hear Him speak? No, I think He’s pointing me to the poor guy who can’t get around on his own – the one with four friends who haven’t abandoned him simply because he can’t go out and throw a football with them. The one who’s friends love him in spite of the fact that he’s unable to walk with them down to the store to get a coke. The one with 4 buddies who weren’t willing to go home empty-handed, saying , “Sorry, man. We tried!” The one who loved those guys who were willing to be charged with willful destruction of property as they hacked a hole in the roof of a house of someone they probably didn’t know. I can just see Jesus trying to suppress a smile as the first little spirals of dust came falling from above, seeing the Pharisees and teachers looking up in disgust, wondering if they were having an earthquake. I can just imagine Jesus seeing this cared but hopeful paralyzed guy now laying in fron of him, His eyes following the four strips of cloth up to four smiling faces peering through a hole in the roof, Jesus’ eyes twinkling, invisibly saying, “You guys!” And then the man gets what he and his friends never, ever bargained for … he hears the only words that really matter, spoken by his Savior – “Your sins are forgiven!” For just a moment, one of his buddies probably started to say, “Hey, wait! It’s his legs we came here for …” But there’s something about hearing those words directly from God … That alone made the trip worth all the trouble they’d gone to and possibly gotten into. Of course, Jesus really enjoyed getting to surprise them with one minor little addition: “By the way, you’re walking home.” Jesus, You are so incredible! How You care for us in ways we’d never dream! Father, thank You for this glimpse of the pure delight you find in blessing our socks off! Thank You for doing that this morning through Your Word. What a great way to start a Monday! Your Brother In Christ,Gary Ford
Luke 6 -- Ouch!
This one was really convicting! Jesus had prayed all night before choosing His closest followers, the apostles. He then exposed the selfish motives of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They were quickly becoming His enemies.&nb
This one was really convicting! Jesus had prayed all night before choosing His closest followers, the apostles. He then exposed the selfish motives of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They were quickly becoming His enemies. What He taught next was probably as tough for the apostles to implement in their lives as I find it today: “Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without hope of getting anything back … Show mercy, just as your Father shows mercy.” That love He started out commanding is not our human love, which is based largely on emotion. The love He spoke of requires divine life, my commentary says, and is largely a matter of the will. It takes God working within us to motivate us to such love, so that we can will ourselves to do that. My commentary says, “In verse 39-45, the Lord is telling the disciples that their ministry is to be a ministry of character. What they are is more important than anything they will ever say or do.” Jesus then drives it home, saying to those around Him, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’, but don’t do what I say?” Father, thank You for reminding me yet again that ministry doesn’t just happen on Sundays and on Wednesday nights. My character and even my responses to what’s happening around me bear witness to You, whether good or bad. Please help me not to misrepresent You to others. Calm me when I feel angered, and help me to weigh each word before I speak. Your Brother In Christ,Gary Ford
Luke 7 -- Not Even Acknowledging Sin
I was again amazed at the Pharisees and older leaders in these verses. First, they were put in a strange position of being friends with a Roman centurion, who had been helpful to them and even built them a synagogue. “They didn&rsqu
I was again amazed at the Pharisees and older leaders in these verses. First, they were put in a strange position of being friends with a Roman centurion, who had been helpful to them and even built them a synagogue. “They didn’t believe in Jesus, yet their friendship for the centurion forced them to go to Jesus in a time of need,” my commentary said. Jesus marveled at the centurion’s faith and healed his servant from afar. Later, some of the followers of John the Baptist came to Jesus with a question from John, asking whether Jesus was the One or not. Answering with all of the prophecies that were being fulfilled in their presence, Jesus sent them back to John, then told the people around him how John fulfilled a prophecy in Malachi as well. Verses 29-30 caught my attention: “When the people … heard this, they all agreed that God’s teaching was good, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts on the law REFUSED to accept God’s plan for themselves; they did not let John baptize them.” My commentary said: “No matter what ministry God used among them, they took exception to it. John the Baptist gave them an example of austerity … and denial. They didn’t like it … The Son of Man ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners; that is, He identified Himself with them whom He came to bless. But still the Pharisees were unhappy …. Nothing and no one please them.” It’s truly amazing how stubborn and spiritually blind some religious leaders can be! To think that they could believe that they were not sinning in this very behavior is craze. The pride of life was evident in them. A few verses later, Jesus dines with Simon – another Pharisee, who complains about the harlot washing and kissing Jesus’ feet and anointing them with perfume. Jesus tells the parable of the two debtors and Simon correctly answers that the one who was forgiven more loved the banker more. “In admitting this, he condemned himself,” my commentary said. “Jesus did not suggest that the Pharisee was not a great sinner. Rather He emphasized that Simon had never truly acknowledged his vast guilt and been forgiven.” I’m afraid too many church people might be the same way. Feeling that they never sin, they fail to acknowledge that they actually do and that they need forgiveness. What a tragedy that they are failing to experience the love and forgiveness of Christ. Father, keep me ever mindful of my likeliness to sin, and create in me a great need for forgiveness when I do. Cause me to want to repent and turn from my sin and come back to You. You have forgiven me much and because of that, my love for You and Your Son is great. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Your Brother In Christ, Gary Ford
Luke 8 -- What The Demons Knew
I came to a point in my life once where I certainly didn’t believe in demons, and I’d just about decided that Satan wasn’t real either. Strangely enough, I think that’s exactly where Satan wants us, for when we don&rsquo
I came to a point in my life once where I certainly didn’t believe in demons, and I’d just about decided that Satan wasn’t real either. Strangely enough, I think that’s exactly where Satan wants us, for when we don’t see him as a threat, he can then move freely in our lives, doing whatever he pleases, and we, unknowingly, will place the blame on circumstances or even on God. We’ll begin to justify our sins rather than repent of them. I can’t remember how I reconciled my belief in the Bible with this disbelief in Satan and demons, for they are plainly presented here by Jesus. He spoke to them. And what they knew can teach us something. Jesus recognized easily that the naked, wild-acting man coming out of the caves had many demons torturing his soul and his body. The demons recognized Jesus for who He is – “Son of the Most High God.” The demons may not have liked God, but they certainly knew their place before Him, begging Him not to torture them. Jesus told them to leave. He wanted the man to be undistracted and free to think on his own about who was before him, and the demons were preventing that from happening. What the demons requested next is important: “The demons begged Jesus not to send them into eternal darkness” (some Bibles read “the abyss”), described as a bottomless pit, where they would fall eternally, constantly in fear of imminent death were the bottom ever to be reached. The demons were spiritual creatures. They could therefore see what humans could not see. They knew of the abyss. They knew that death was not simply ceasing to exist, and what they knew of it frightened THEM, who appeared to be frightening people in the entire region by their possession of this one man! Jesus allowed them to inhabit the bodies of a large herd of pigs. They thought this would bide them time until they could find others to possess. But apparently pigs know better than humans about demons, and to the pig they were so frightened of the presence of demons in their lives that they preferred death! Freed of their powerful influence, the man was once again able to think rationally. Imagine the story he was given to tell! I know some may try to say that demons no longer exist. Believing that puts them right where I once was. But I’ve begun to be able to see the trails of them in the lives of others – the haunted look in the eyes, the avoiding a direct gaze from one who represents Christ. I watch as they squirm when the message of the cross is presented – when they even get up and LEAVE to avoid hearing it. And I pray for the release of those people even as Jesus did it here in this chapter. Aside from indwelling others, I see them working to provide distractions at just the right time to draw people’s attention away from important truths from God. They nudge people to need a drink or a bathroom break, or they get a baby to cry, hoping to spoil the moment in a sermon. Yet I’ve also watched as God hears and answers prayers to banish them from a room so that hearts will be fully open to hear His message of hope. Believing that they do not exist is a powerful tool used by Satan to prevent a heart from coming to God. We may never know who might have been eternally saved had we only acknowledged their existence and prayed for their removal at a strategic time. What opportunities may have been missed by my own doubts about their reality! Father, thanks for showing me unequivocally that demons are real. Your word wouldn’t mention them if they weren’t. And there’s no record of their total banishment in the Bible. Help others to believe and to see the effects of their presence, and to pray for Your intercession as witnessed in this chapter. Help us to have a part in setting other lives free. Your Brother In Christ,Gary Ford
Luke 9 -- Giving Up What We WANT
Jesus uttered a phrase that left no doubt that no one is excluded or excepted from this command: “If people want to follow ME, they must GIVE UP the things they want. They must be willing to give up their lives DAILY to follow Me.&n
Jesus uttered a phrase that left no doubt that no one is excluded or excepted from this command: “If people want to follow ME, they must GIVE UP the things they want. They must be willing to give up their lives DAILY to follow Me. Those who want to save their lives will give up true life. But those who give up their lives for Me WILL have true life. It is worth NOTHING for them to have the whole world if they themselves are destroyed or lost.” My commentary had an awesome take on these verses: “To deny self means to willingly renounce any so-called right to plan or choose, and to recognize His lordship in every area of life. To take up the cross means to deliberately choose the kind of life He lived. This involves:- The opposition of loved ones.- The reproach of the world.- Forsaking family and house and lands and the comforts of this life.- Complete dependence on God.- Obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit.- Proclamation of an unpopular message.- A pathway of loneliness.- Organized attacks from established religious leaders.- Suffering for righteousness’ sake.- Slander and shame.- Pouring out one’s life for others.- Death to self and to the world.But it also involves laying hold of life that is life indeed! It means finding at last the reason for our existence. And it means eternal reward. We instinctively recoil from a life of cross-bearing. Our minds are reluctant to believe that this could be God’s will for us.” Some will read this and say, “Why on earth would I want that?” And in asking, they’ve said it all. It’s about heaven and not earth! I can answer that I have experienced life indeed. I have found the reason for my existence. And I do not recoil from anything that ushers me closer to this goal. I am not excused from such a life and I am not excepted from it. But that wouldn’t matter anyway, because I want it. Yes, it’s tough to give up the things we want. But as to giving up my life daily, I find that God blesses me above and beyond anything I feel that I’ve given up. He’s absolutely worth it. And the only way to find out is to dive in! Father, thank You for this life. Please help me to let go and give up anything else that is holding me back from the life You have planned for me since the beginning of the world. I’ve seen what life’s like when I’m in control, and I like Your control a lot better. Your Brother In Christ,Gary Ford
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