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timewithgod.blog-city.com — December 2008
Ecclesiastes 12 -- Finally! An End To This Wisdom Under The Sun
Solomon's wise and helpful advice under the sun finally comes to an end. I'm about as tired of hearing it as I am of dealing with the stomach bug I've had for 2 days now!I guess we really don't know how fortunate we are to have
Solomon's wise and helpful advice under the sun finally comes to an end. I'm about as tired of hearing it as I am of dealing with the stomach bug I've had for 2 days now!
I guess we really don't know how fortunate we are to have landed time-wise on this side of the cross. All Solomon knew was a fear of God that was "a slavish terror of a creature before his Creator .... The motive for fearing and obeying God here is the certainly of coming judgment," my commentary said.
But on our side of the cross, "We do not trust and obey because of fear, but because of love. Through His finished work on Calvary, we have the assurance that we will never come into judgment but have passed from death into life," according to my commentary.
Father, I'm glad that this life isn't all there is. I'm thrilled that I won't have to face that judgment. But most of all, I am so overjoyed that I don't know You solely as my Creator and God, but also as my Lord, my Savior, and my Redeemer. What on this earth would life be like without that?
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Micah 1-3 A Little Too Much Like America Today?
My commentary says that at the time Micah was active as a prophet, Israel and Judah had moved from an agricultural society to a more urbanized, greedy, and materialistic society where there were large landowners. Most small farmers had been dri
My commentary says that at the time Micah was active as a prophet, Israel and Judah had moved from an agricultural society to a more urbanized, greedy, and materialistic society where there were large landowners. Most small farmers had been driven into the cities to find jobs. Trade with other nations was picking up, and as a result, the Jewish culture found itself under attack by the worldliness of their trading partners.
Micah's message was addressed primarily to the leaders and the wealthy -- the ones controlling society at the time.
Doesn't that sound remarkably like America right now? And whether they be Democrat or Republican, it's a fact that our Congressmen and Senators have to be wealthy to have gotten their positions. Every day there are talks of bailouts of "rich corporations" that will be taking money from taxpayers. Homes are being lost through foreclosures, primarily because people buying them were "betting on tomorrow" -- that their house values would continue to rise and would make them the money they really couldn't afford to pay in payments at the time of their purchases.
America's materialism, along with the rest of the world's, has caught up with it, just as was about to happen in Micah's day. Today, the only enemy we can point to is self. Could God be calling Americans to heed His warnings and come back to Him, denying all of the multiculturalism and the unbiblical worldviews that have gotten us into this mess? They didn't like Micah's message back then, either.
Father, call us back to you. Help us as a nation to want to obey You. Then lead us out of this mess of our making. Restore what we will need to do the ministry You would have us doing. Most importantly, tell our leaders that You are God and You will not be mocked. Show them the peril they face for trying to write You out of the system.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Micah 4 -- Could God GET Any More Personally Involved? Yes??
I was so moved by God's personal involvement and hands-on teaching that Micah says is still to come. Describing events still in our future, he wrote: "....so that He can teach us His ways, and we CAN obey His teachings."&nbs
I was so moved by God's personal involvement and hands-on teaching that Micah says is still to come. Describing events still in our future, he wrote: "....so that He can teach us His ways, and we CAN obey His teachings." We won't be learning from another man or woman, but from GOD HIMSELF! There won't be any of this "I wonder what He meant by that?" The second part of that was equally marvelous -- there's not going to be anything that will keep us from obeying, either! It will be possible to fully obey Him. Won't that be awesome!
In verses 6-7, God states just how personally involved He will be (if it's actually possible for Him to be any more personally involved!):
"I will gather the crippled;
I will bring together...
I will keep alive....
I will make a strong nation....."
Yet despite the obvious joy of these promises, the other shoe must first drop for the Israelites hearing Micah's words at that time:
"People of Jerusalem, ..... now you must leave the city .... You will go to Babylon, BUT you will be saved from that place. The Lord will go there and buy you back...."
It wasn't as great as what He did for us when His Son came here to buy US back, however!
I wondered about America, and what may be coming as we get closer to the return of Jesus Christ. These days of uncertainty certainly make one wonder. Verse 3 says, "He will make decisions about strong nations that are far away." Could He be speaking about us here? We'd better make certain that we keep supporting Israel -- His chosen people -- or we may find ourselves on the receiving end of His wrath!
We don't know what's coming in the immediate future, but this one thing I do know about the future: God wins! And I want to be on the side of the One who gave up His only Son for me.
Father, I don't know how You could have done it, but I'm so very thankful that You did! Thanks for adopting me into Your family and for directing me to adopt Josh and Joseph into mine. I love You!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Micah 5-7 The Cure For EVERYTHING That Ails America
I struggled to coalesce the thoughts and inklings that God seemed to be trying to get me to link together today. I hope I have properly framed it all:Many Americans voted for change in November. Some of the major issues included the war i
I struggled to coalesce the thoughts and inklings that God seemed to be trying to get me to link together today. I hope I have properly framed it all:
Many Americans voted for change in November. Some of the major issues included the war in Iraq, the economy, the environment, healthcare, and poverty. With grandiose flair and little else, the winning party tried to indicate that, by "concentrating their thoughts" on these problems, they could somehow make them all go away -- as if some consolidated consciousness of our own making could send positive thoughts out worldwide to remedy everything. We just have to BELIEVE.
God points to the real causes of these problems here in these chapters, and they are not what those "winners" ever want to hear or admit:
"As for Me, I will make you sick (healthcare), I will attack you (war), ruining you (economy) because of your SINS.... You will still be hungry and empty (poverty).... You will plant, but you won't harvest (loss of productivity) ... The earth will be ruined FOR the people who live in it (notice: not BY them) because of their deeds (can you say "sins"?)."
God's solution to all of this?
"The Lord has told you, human, what is good; He has told you what He wants from you: to do what is right to other people, love being kind to others and live humbly (yeah, they're feeling good by now, but wait, here it comes ---->) obeying your God."
So do we look to a new president for help? No.
"I will look to the Lord for help. I will wait for God to save me; my God WILL hear me... I have fallen, but I will get up again .... the Lord will be a light for me. I SINNED against the Lord, so He was angry with me, but He will DEFEND MY CASE in court. He will bring about what is RIGHT for me. Then He will bring me out into the light, and I will see Him set things right."
Micah also gave us God's starting solution for all this in chapter 5, telling us that the One who can fix it all would be born in Bethlehem (not Kenya) and He will fix it with the Lord's strength and with the power of the name of the Lord His God.
Father, I can't think of a better way to end this than with Micah's prayer to You that ends this book: "There is no God like You. You forgive those who are guilty of sin; You don't look at the sins of Your people .... You will have mercy on us again; You will conquer our sins. You will throw away all our sins into the deepest part of the sea." Thank You for having done that through the death of the One born in Bethlehem -- Your Only Son. Forgive us for making such a mess of things and thinking that we can possibly fix it all.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Hosea 1 & 2 -- Not Just About Israel
Reading God's instructions to Hosea, the thought of marrying a woman who God has already said would be unfaithful seems tragic enough. But when I also read "... and have unfaithful children," my heart broke for him. I think
Reading God's instructions to Hosea, the thought of marrying a woman who God has already said would be unfaithful seems tragic enough. But when I also read "... and have unfaithful children," my heart broke for him. I think most Christian parents firmly believe that they can show their children the way to Christ. The idea that any children Hosea will have will not be faithful to God must have been saddening.
A nugget of gold stands waiting for the Jewish people to some day understand in verse 7: "I, the Lord their God, will save them." Of course, they were thinking of physical rescue from the coming bondage. Someday, they'll understand that He was ultimately speaking of what His Son would do on the cross.
God tells us the lengths to which He is willing to go to get us BACK when we sin (personalized from 6 and following):
"I will block your road...
I will build a wall around you ....
I will come back and take away .....
I will show your nakedness (fully expose our sins to us??)"
Once He has us in this position, He says:
"So I am going to attract you; I will lead you into the desert and speak tenderly to you. There I will give you back your vineyards, and I will make the Valley of trouble a door of hope."
There comes a radical change in each of us when God pursues us and wins us over. It shows up in verse 16. God ceases being known to us as "My Master", instead becoming known to us as "My Husband." What a fundamental change in our relationship with Him! And He continues: "I will make you My promised bride forever. I will be good and fair; I will show you My love and mercy. I will be true to you as My promised bride, and you will know the Lord. At that time, I will speak to you."
God had said that those not loyal to Him would be called "Jezreel" (scattered, as in scattered seed). But in verses 22-23, He alters the meaning to become "planted" -- a purposeful action, rather than random scattering. God plants us where He wants us to grow: "I will plant My people in the land, and I will show pity to the one I had called "not pitied". I will say, "You are My people" to those I had called "not My people". And they will say to me, "You are our God."
Father, thank You so much for seeking after me to get me back. Thanks for every roadblock and wall You put up to try and block my path to sin. Thanks for taking away enough to show me I was not my own god and that I was cheating You of Your rightful place in my life. Thanks for attracting me, for leading me into the desert and turning my Valley of Trouble into my door or hope. Thank You that I no longer have to worry about You being my master as a slave would, because You have called me "friend". Thanks for being true to me and for helping me to know You and for speaking to me. Most of all, thanks for planting me, because I was like a tumbleweed once. Thanks for calling me Yours. I'm glad You're my God!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Hosea 3-5 Doing The SCIENCE Along With The Math
We have no clue how really ignorant we are regarding how things work in this world, and the amazing thing is that, as a whole, humanity laughs at how God says things really work. I've done it myself.True, we blame ourselves for changes in o
We have no clue how really ignorant we are regarding how things work in this world, and the amazing thing is that, as a whole, humanity laughs at how God says things really work. I've done it myself.
True, we blame ourselves for changes in our climate that supposedly are having global impact. We have no real science nor long-term observations that prove global warming results from the use of fossil fuels, and in a show of our absolute idiocy, there was even a report in the news last week about a potential plan to tax each head of cattle in larger operations for the methane/carbon dioxide belched and expelled by these animals!
Cattle have been around forever and are doing what comes natural for them, and we dare to be concerned about curtailing it!
What does this have to do with Hosea? In 4:6, it says, "My people will be destroyed, because they have no knowledge. You have refused to learn .... You have forgotten the teachings of Your God."
Today, just as in Hosea's day, mankind has let our pride and our supposed knowledge get in the way of us getting closer to God. We don't want to be told that our moral choices are what really affects our world. 4:3 says, "Because of this, THE LAND DRIES UP. EVEN THE WILD ANIMALS AND THE BIRDS OF THE AIR AND THE FISH OF THE SEA ARE DYING."
We've lost the knowledge of the disconnect. We think we've reached the pinnacle of our existence when we can decide for ourselves what is and is not a sin. We somehow believe that if we approve of our actions and don't label them as sins, then our shame will be taken away. But in 4:7 GOD says, "I will take away their honor and give them shame." 4:18 says, "They love their disgraceful ways." My commentary described it as "loving shame more than glory."
No, the science is in these chapters and others. The One who created the natural laws tells us what is causing the changes in climate. Yes, it is our fault, but not because we drive cars, burn fossil fuels, or eat beef. It's because we sin against God.
4:4 says, "No one should accuse or blame another person." In other words, it's our own fault -- each person individually -- and all we are trying to do is find anyone other than ourselves to blame. We instead have to take personal responsibility for our sins, NOT for our carbon footprint.
God says in 5:2-3, "You have done many evil things, so I will punish you all. I now all about the people ... what they have done is not hidden from Me... They will not give up their deeds (not their cars, their energy usage, etc.) and return to their God. They are determined to be unfaithful to Me; they do not KNOW the Lord ... The people will stumble because of their sin. They will come to worship the Lord, but they will not be able to FIND Him, because He has left them. They have not been true to the Lord....their false worship (of Mother Earth??) will destroy them AND THEIR LAND."
What a shame that no "scientific" study has ever been done to correlate climate changes with living in obedience to the One who created the climate. We need to "do the science" more than the math.
Father, the intellectual elite will laugh that this and chalk it up to "religious fundamentalism". I hate that such a group of people are about to be placed in positions of great power throughout the vast bureaucracy that runs our country, further entrenching us in a worldly mindset. Please raise up those who have the ability to prove them wrong and You right, and empower them to reveal our ignorance.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Hosea 6-8 GOOD Jealousy?? YES!
The sidebar in my Bible, from Knowing God by J.I. Packer, picks up on something out of the second commandment that is very evident in these chapters. It's not about the commandment itself, but about the sanction tied to it. It's t
The sidebar in my Bible, from Knowing God by J.I. Packer, picks up on something out of the second commandment that is very evident in these chapters. It's not about the commandment itself, but about the sanction tied to it. It's there that God mentions His jealousy. While jealousy in a human is considered ungodly, God's jealousy is both holy and righteous.
God reveals quite a bit about His jealousy in these chapters: "He has hurt us, but He will heal us ... so that we may live in His presence and know Him.... I want faithful love more than I want animal sacrifices. I want people to know Me more than I want burnt offerings .... How terrible for them because they left Me! .... I want to save them .... They do not call to Me from their hearts. They just lie on their beds and cry .... I have written many teachings for them, but they think the teachings are strange and foreign."
J.I. Packer quoted John Calvin: "The Lord very frequently addresses us in the character of a husband .... As He performs all of the offices of a true and faithful husband, so He requires love and chastity from us; that is, that we do not prostitute our souls to Satan .... As the purer and chaster a husband is, the more grievously he is offended when he sees his wife inclining to a rival; so the Lord, who has betrothed us to Himself in truth, declares that He burns with the hottest jealousy whenever, neglecting the purity of His holy marriage, we defile ourselves with abominable lusts, and especially when the worship of His deity, which ought to have been most carefully kept unimpaired, is transferred to another; .... since in this way we not only violate our plighted troth, but defile the nuptial couch, by giving access to adulterers."
Packer then continues: "The jealousy of God REQUIRES us to be zealous FOR God. As our right response to God's love for us is love for Him, so our right response to His jealousy over us is zeal FOR Him. His concern for us is great; ours for Him must be great, too...... God's people should be positively and passionately devoted to His person, His cause, and His honor. The Bible word for such devotion is zeal, sometimes actually called jealousy for God. God Himself ... manifests this zeal, and the godly must manifest it, too."
Father, Your jealousy for my heart is so incredible! Why anyone would want me that badly, and not want to share me with anyone else is too great for me to understand! But it has more to do with You than with me. You are so worthy of my praise and worship and adoration. How it must pain You when, despite all Your love for me and all You have done for me, I willfully choose to turn my back on Your teachings and how You've loved in my heart to return to my old sinful nature. I'm sorry! Not about getting caught doing that, but about wounding Your heart. Such divine jealousy deserves infinitely more than I am capable of giving, but please help me every day to try. I don't want to disappoint You!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Hosea 9-14 Oh, No, You NEVER Let Go!
It was so sad to hear God lament about how much He'd loved Israel and how they had scorned His love. Yet it was also amazing and hope-filled to hear about how, despite His great anger and His desire to not love them anymore, God NEVER let g
It was so sad to hear God lament about how much He'd loved Israel and how they had scorned His love. Yet it was also amazing and hope-filled to hear about how, despite His great anger and His desire to not love them anymore, God NEVER let go.
His earliest thoughts: "When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert. Your ancestors were like finding the first figs on the fig tree (a real delicacy)."
Their sins, however, caused God to want to be away from them, because He is so holy that He cannot bear to be around sin: "How terrible it will be for them when I go away from them!"
In 9:15, God appears to be giving up on them: "I have hated them ... Because of the sinful things they have done, I will force them to leave My land. I will no longer LOVE them."
His anger grows in chapter 10: "Their heart was false, and now they must pay for their guilt.... Israel will be disgraced... Israel will be destroyed."
Then God recalls those early days again: "When Israel was a child, I loved him ... It was I who taught Israel to walk, and I took them by the arms, but they did not understand that I had healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ropes of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down and fed them."
The hurt returns again: "My people have made up their minds to turn away from Me .... none of them honors Me at all."
But the love wins out: "Israel, how can I give you up? How can I give you away, Israel?.... My heart beats for you, and my love for you stirs up my pity. I won't punish you in anger, and I won't destroy Israel again. I am God and not a human. I am the Holy One, and I am among you. I will not come against you in anger."
Warnings about what they must do: "You must RETURN to Your God; love Him, do what is just, and always trust in Him AS your God."
The hurt again: "I, the Lord, have been your God since you were in the land of Egypt. You should have known NO OTHER GOD EXCEPT ME. I am the ONLY One who saves.... But then they became too proud and forgot Me.... Israel, I will destroy you..... I will show them no mercy.... The nation of Israel will be ruined, because it fought against God."
Another attempt to love on them: "Israel, return to the Lord Your God ... Come back to the Lord and say these words to Him: '...You show mercy to orphans (they have effectively orphaned themselves from God).' "
Time passes for Israel, but for God it's only a blink of the eye: "The Lord says, 'I will forgive them for leaving Me and will love them FREELY, because I am not angry with them anymore .... The people of Israel will again live under My protection .... I, the Lord, am the One who answers your prayers and watches over you!"
What really popped out for me was this: Yes, God does get angry with us for our sins -- so mad that He wants to leave us and no longer love us. For us, it seems like an eternity, but for Him, it's just a blink of any eye, and then His love overpowers anything we might choose to do to tear ourselves away from that love, and in a way that we humans will never be able to understand, God continues to love us despite our worst! I wouldn't choose to have any other God!
Father, thank You for Your amazing love which is beyond my ability to comprehend. Thanks for never letting go of those You love!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Zephaniah 1-3 Just WAIT.....
All of the introductions I'd read to Zephaniah made me think, "Oh, no. Here comes another doom and gloom book again." But God revealed real nuggets of hope and promise and joy this morning.In verse 6, God promises punishment
All of the introductions I'd read to Zephaniah made me think, "Oh, no. Here comes another doom and gloom book again." But God revealed real nuggets of hope and promise and joy this morning.
In verse 6, God promises punishment on those who turned away from the Lord, who quit following the Lord, and who quit praying to Him for DIRECTION. Taken in the positive, it shows blessings for those who turn TO the Lord, who follow Him, and who pray to Him for direction. Our prayers are not solely to be prayers of rescue in danger, but are to ask for guidance CONTINUALLY.
In v.12, punishment is promised for "those who are satisfied with themselves." That tells me that we should never be lulled into a state of being satisfied with our spiritual condition, or of thinking we are doing all we need to do for God.
Throughout this book there are references to humility and loss of pride -- a desirable state as we come before the Creator of the universe.
In 2:11, I saw a reference to us once we received the Holy Spirit: "Then everyone in faraway places will worship Him wherever they are."
3:5 says, "But the Lord is good, and He is there in that city," reminding me of the song God Of This City.
Glimpses of the Millennial Reign is 3:9 -- "Then I will give the people of all nations pure speech so that all of them will speak the name of the Lord [something the Jews never did] and worship Me together."
Near the end of chapter 3, words that ring out with hope to all of us:
"Be happy and rejoice....The Lord has stopped punishing you; He has sent your enemies away. The King of Israel, the Lord, is with you; you will never again be afraid of being harmed ... Don't be afraid, don't give up....The Lord your God is with you. He is might to save.... He will rejoice over YOU. You will rest in His LOVE; He will sing and be joyful about YOU.... I will save My people.... I will give them praise and honor.... I will gather you.... I will bring you BACK HOME. I will give YOU honor and praise when I restore your fortunes BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES."
There's probably no better wrap-up than the two words God used in 3:8 -- "Just WAIT...."
Thank You for all You have planned for us, Father. I can't wait to see it, but I will !
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Genesis 1 -- WHY He Did It
In attempting to provide "reasons" for why things are as they are in our world, science -- through the limited thought processes of ordinary men -- has done its best to take the wonder out of creation and to remove the "specialness&quo
In attempting to provide "reasons" for why things are as they are in our world, science -- through the limited thought processes of ordinary men -- has done its best to take the wonder out of creation and to remove the "specialness" of humanity from the original equation. We now laugh at how ethnocentric we were for years, believing that the sun and stars revolved around the earth. Why would we dare to believe that all that exists should for some reason focus on this tiny planet in a back-alley galaxy in all of our huge universe?
The reason is God WILLED it, and I believe, therefore, that efforts to minimize our reasons for existing run contrary to God's will.
My commentary says the Bible presupposes God. It never tries to explain His existence. He is the starting point.
Given all this, it seems to me to be very amazing to think of our ball of dust hanging out there in space, all by itself, as its Creator plans what will happen next.
I found myself focusing on this aspect despite the incredible "reconstruction" God was doing. I was less concerned with sky, water vapor, oceans, dry land, and seas than I was with reading over and over this phrase: "Then God said.....and it happened." Matter hurrying to form or re-form itself according to the wishes of the Maker!
Everything God was doing seemed to be about bringing order out of chaos -- the heavenly lights to order time over the long haul, and the sun and moon to order it over the short haul. Humans were to rule over the planet itself ("be its master"), over the creatures in the sea, and the creatures in the sky and over every living thing.
God wasn't content to simply create, either. It wasn't enough to suddenly be a fish, finding itself swimming in something it couldn't describe. After just a little while, God blessed them. What was that like? How different was their existence after being blessed? Surely it was suddenly fun to be a fish, or a bird. Maybe it was what followed His blessing that changed things, because His next words were "Have many young ones." Was bestowing the ability to re-create what the blessing was all about?
My commentary said that man being created in God's image and according to His likeness meant that man was placed on earth as God's REPRESENTATIVE. Again, they were created, and once created, they were blessed -- the next words from God being, "Have many children."
Father, Your wisdom is beyond my ability to ever comprehend, as is Your power to bring forth whatever You dream up. Please prevent the "orderly thoughts of man" from making the mistake of taking You out of the equation. Help us to understand that we aren't being ethnocentric if we accept this version of creation. Instead, we are accepting the fact that we are very special to You, and You did all of this out of Your incredibly inconceivable love for us. Don't let us push that love aside!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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