January 19, 2012 … Responding to THE Test

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Genesis, Chapters 22-24 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

Genesis 22: 1-3: … [Abraham: Pure Faith] ... 1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” … “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love — Isaac — and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

My Journal for Today: Today I was led by my chronological reading plan to read/study/meditate through Chapters 22-24 of Genesis; and from that reading the incredible account of God testing Abraham simply has to be my chosen focus passage for my devotional journal this morning.

I charge anyone who’s reading along with me today to go back and please re-read [I’m sure you’ve read it before] Chapter 22 of Genesis, focusing on this outlandishly and seemingly viscous test through which God takes Abraham and his “son of promise,” Isaac. And every time I’m led to read or study or teach on this passage, I just can’t get my mind completely around WHY God would put this chosen “father of the faith,” … God’s man Abraham, … through such a horrible crucible to test his faith. Sure I can see that putting any believer though the fires of life purifies his faith. But this test???

The whole thing is just WAY OVER THE TOP with regard to what was asked of poor old Abe. Even the distance from where Abraham was abiding, in the Negev desert, in Beersheba, traveling way up to the mountain country in Moriah (probably to Mount Moriah itself) was a very arduous task. That’s about a 60 mile journey – a three-day journey minimum in those days. And can you just imagine what was going through the mind of God’s faithful servant, Abraham, and his son as they trekked to the mountain.

But the message is quite simple from this passage, isn’t it? God called Abraham; and Abraham went? And even though God was asking Abraham and the boy to the most extreme of tests, the father of this one son – Abe’s only son, … the son whom God had promised would become the father of many nations and all of God’s chosen peoples, was to be placed on an altar to God and burned as a sacrifice.

And in this test of faith – what I’m calling “THE test,” we see what had become Abraham’s maturity of trust in his God. Abraham and Sarai, who BTW dies and is buried in the chapters of our reading today, had seen the wondrous, incredible-to-unbelievable miracle of Isaac’s birth. They had seen God carry out His promise, mercifully, in spite of the failings of faith exhibited by both Sarah and Abraham before Isaac was born. And so, when God now said what he did to Abraham in our focus passage today, old Abe trusted God completely. And this may be the most powerful biblical example of the truth of what we’re taught by God’s word in Proverbs 3: 5-6 and in the NT from 1st Corinthians 10: 13 and by Jesus in Luke 9: 23; and I do hope you, fellow Christian, know these three passages by heart.

They tell us that when God calls, we are to follow. Oh, we may have questions; and God will even listen to our questions; but faith – especially mature faith – is following God obediently … even when it doesn’t make any human sense. It’s carrying our cross daily through trials of fire in our life. It’s following God’s direction and His narrow path even when the world is telling us to take the wide path which makes so much more worldly sense. And that’s exactly what Abraham did; and that’s exactly what we should do.

So, I’m not going to complicate this very simple lesson (I didn’t say EASY, I said, “simple”) with a lot of speculative analysis. It may be a trial of fire to test the purity of our faith; but when God is calling us to “GO,” we should be saying, “Where, Lord?” And when He shows us the way, we should, as did Abraham, … go!

My Prayer Today: … Lord, shine a light on my path, and I will follow. Amen

Blogger’s Note: As often is the case when I’m meditating on God’s word, the thought of a song comes to mind; and that’s what happened this morning. So, may I lead you to meditate on what I’ve written today by adding this link to a wonderful song, performed by Daniel O’Donnell, Here I Am, Lord. To hear it, you can go to this link.

June 8, 2011 … Integrity Passes the Test

Passage of the Day: Daniel 1: 14 - 16 … 14 So he [Ashpenaz] agreed to this [Daniel’s proposed scheme] and tested them [Daniel and the Hebrew boys] for ten days. 15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

My Journal for Today: In our lives our spiritual (i.e., Christian) integrity WILL BE tested. The testing may be set in motion by God Himself, as it was for Abraham (see Genesis 22: 1-2).

SCRIPTURE: Gen. 22: 1 - 2 … 1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," He replied. 2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

However, more likely, the testing may come from our circumstances, mostly resulting from our own choices – as when Israel wandered in the wilderness (see Deut. 8: 16).

And finally, the testing of our Christian integrity may come from Satan, allowed by God, as it was for Job (see Job 1: 12; 2: 6). But no matter the source, all testing is under God’s control and foreknowledge in order to mature believers and bring them into increased fruitfulness (Romans 8: 28; and 1st Peter 1: 6 – 7).

In today’s passage, Daniel and his three friends were tested as they carefully, yet assertively, chose to stand for God’s principles in the face of death before the worldly authorities. And God honored their stand for His glory by clearly intervening to make them look healthier than their peers after only ten days of their vegetarian diet. This, of course, had to be supernatural; because when you consider that middle eastern, Hebrew diet of the day, there is no natural way that they could have looked so physically different from the other Babylonian fed trainees in such a short period of time. And so, God, through the faithfulness of the Hebrew lads and His intervention, had opened the way for Daniel and his young friends to continue honoring God as well as witnessing to His power to the Babylonians.

We must believe in the truth of 1st Cor. 10: 13 (which I hope you have memorized by now) … that God will never allow us to be put in or to go through any test, trial, temptation, or tribulation through which, with His help or guidance, we cannot pass or endure. As you’ve hopefully believe from Rom. 8: 28 (which I ASSUME you have also memorized by now), ALL tests are for our good as Christians; so, we should be ready, and more importantly willing, to take the tests in Christ’s Name. Prayerfully, we will come out of these tests with a passing mark (… from God, of course).

My Prayer Today: Help me, Lord, in any test of life which may come my way today. Amen

May 7, 2011 … Trial’s Lessons: Right Priorities

Passage of the Day: Genesis 22: 10 - 12 … 10 Then he [Abraham] reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son [Isaac]. 11 But the Angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he [Abraham] replied. 12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," He [the Angel – likely Jesus] said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, … your only son."

My Journal for Today: It’s a test! And the question from today’s passage, involving the poignant and powerful test Abraham had to endure, becomes – Do we pass God’s test when He calls for our radical obedience in the face (at times) of overbearing demands from the circumstances of life?

Sometimes the teaching from God is almost unbearable. Jesus taught a hard truth in Luke 14: 26 (see below) when He told His followers that discipleship could cause them to seem like they hated their own family. [“hate” here refers to turning radically from selfish desires or feelings for others]

SCRIPTURE: Luke 14: 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.”

But as with all such challenging demands from Christ, Jesus, Himself, is our Model. He was the suffering servant (see Isaiah 53), Who went to the cross in perfect obedience to His Father in Heaven, encountering incredible hardship, pain, and even death to carry out God’s will. And that becomes the mold into which we must pour our lives … no matter how challenging it might be, especially when we are called – by God – to move in directions which our family may not agree. Often, when Muslims convert to Christianity, their family hates them for it; and many times the newly converted Christian must turn his/her back on the family to pursue discipleship in Christ.

So, what in our lives stands in the way of following Jesus as He commanded … to deny self, to take up His cross daily, and to follow Him [Luke 9: 23]? Are we willing to put Christ first – even above the lives and feelings of our families? Of course, Christ would never ask us to do anything that subverts the roles we have as Christian husbands or fathers or even as friends in steadfast Christian family relationships. That’s illustrated as clearly as it could be in today’s highlight passage about Abraham and Isaac. He certainly didn’t allow Abraham to take the life of his son. But many times Christ’s calling will mean that others will have to take second place as we lift and carry His cross and follow Him in our daily life. Are we ready and willing to do so?

I pray that I am.

My Prayer Today: Lord, help me pass Your test. Amen

April 10, 2011 … They ALL Failed the Test

Passage of the Day: Matthew 26: 56b … 56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then ALL the disciples deserted him and fled.

My Journal for Today: Above I capitalized the word “ALL” for emphasis. That word “all” in that passage is the Greek word “pas,” which is used almost 1300 times in the New Testament; and it means just what it says. It means “each and every one” of Jesus’ disciples cut and ran. If this had been test of their Christlikeness or a measurement of the maturity of their discipleship, how would these men have done on the test?

I capitalized that word “ALL” for emphasis so that we can see that ALL of Jesus’ closest disciples fled when the pressure was on. ALL of them, fearing for their lives as Jesus was arrested, cut and ran. And these were men who had walked with their declared “Messiah” for three years. They had seen Him perform all of those miracles recorded in the Gospel accounts … turning water into wine … walking on water … calming a raging sea with a wave of his hand … feeding the multitudes with a few fishes and loaves, … healing all those people; … and even witnessing Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. And three of their number had seen Jesus transformed on the Mount of Transfiguration. And yet, ALL – not some of them, … but ALL - of the remaining disciples fled when their “Messiah,” the One they had declared to be the Son of God, was taken away by the soldiers. I don’t know about you; but personally, the facts surrounding this event are hard for me to grasp.

Oh, it’s so easy to ask, “How could they do this?!!” But I wonder if I would not have been the same cowering disciple as these men were given that test of my discipleship. Earlier I referred to Cassie Bernall’s simple faith with a gun to her head at Columbine High School. She didn’t run or deny her Lord as did Peter and the other inner-circle Disciples. No … like Jesus, Cassie Bernall died for her faith. Wow, … I would hope and pray that I could be like Cassie, especially since, like her, I have the benefit of the biblical account of our Lord dying on the cross for my sins; and I have declared in faith, here in this safe place, that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Actually, to be fair to the disciples who ran that day, sometime later, after they witnessed the cross and the resurrection and the ascension, they all died, save John, the death of martyrs for their faith. These men were not cowards down deep in their hearts; but they were very human; and as we know from the truth of Jeremiah 17: 9, we humans have hearts which are wicked and deceitful to the core of our being. We ALL have in us the capability of failing the test of loyalty to our Savior when the consequences are dire and our very lives are threatened.

When the real testing comes, we must ask ourselves if we can live up to Paul’s exhortations to stand in the gap when the times get tough (see Eph. 5: 15 – 16 below) ...

SCRIPTURE: Eph 5: 15 … 15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

So, … can we stand with Christ … or rather, can we walk with Him and follow Him … wherever He leads us? [see Luke 9: 23] Can we walk worthily in His steps, calling ourselves “Christian?” [see Eph. 4: 1] Well, of course, it’s not easy. And we may pass the ultimate test of discipleship, as did Cassie Bernall, even when we’re called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice for our Lord. Go ahead … ask the big test question on God’s pop-quiz of followership here in this safe place.

The question looms large; ... will we pass the test? Will we stand for our Savior and deny self? Will we stand for purity and against sin in a culture which beckons us to fall into line with Satan rather than the Savior? ... Will we?!!

But we know, in our faith, that it’s worth it to stay the course … not to “cut and run;” … but to fight the fight … to witness for our Lord no matter the circumstances. Hopefully, we’ve learned our lesson from that of group of Jesus’ disciples who got the ultimate lesson in fear versus faith. Only with God’s strength can we prevail (and I hope you all know, believe, and live the truths found in Rom 8: 31, Phil. 4: 13, 2nd Tim. 1: 7, and 2nd Cor. 12: 9). Because, if we do live - with belief - these truths, we will pass the test.

My Prayer Today: Help me, Lord, to be faithful when it counts. Amen

2010 – November 3 – Toward a Greater Faith

Study from God’s Word… More selections from the Synoptic Gospels by Dr. Smith revealing Jesus traveling through upper Galilee, teaching his Disciples about their inability to see Jesus’ kingdom teachings clearly ... see passage references on pages 1410 – 1415 of The Daily Bible in Chronological Order … Passage for Reflection: Mark 9: 24 [from the description of Jesus confronting the faith of a father whose boy was demon possessed and epileptic – the father desperate for his son’s healing – see Mark 9: 14-29]… NIV Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed [at Jesus’ inquiry as to his faith), “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

My Journal for Today: Dr. Smith begins his devotional entry for this date with a faith challenge. He writes the following questions (answer each with a simple “YES or NO”) …
• Do you believe that Jesus is The Christ, … the Son of the living God? … YES/NO
• Do you believe in the virgin birth? … YES/NO
• Do you believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God? … YES/NO
• Do you believe that, with enough faith, you could literally move a mountain from one location to another? … YES/NO

Well, if you’re like me – as a Bible-believing, staunch follower of Jesus Christ, you were confident of responding “YES” to the first three of these questions. Then your answer to the fourth question might have been a bit more – if not a lot – more hesitant.

Today Dr. Smith, as the editor of The Daily Bible in Chronological Order, took his readers and students of Scripture through sections of the Synoptic Gospels where Jesus was trying to give His inner twelve Disciples a deeper understanding of how they needed to have a more committed faith in Him as THE Messiah and the Son of God. We see, as Jesus was traveling through the northern regions of Galilee, before He would head back to Jerusalem and to Calvary, the Disciples had come to the place where they really desired to place their faith in this man, Jesus, as their Messiah. Three of the twelve had even been given a walk up Mount Herman and witnessed Jesus transfigured and speaking with Moses and Elijah. The Disciples had been sent out into the countryside and had been empowered, by Jesus, with the ability to heal the sick and raise the dead. Yet, even after this, upon their return to Jesus, the Lord perceived that their faith in Him was inadequate.

Because in the scenario which is presented in the text today from Mark 9: 14-29 [linked here], we read that the twelve inner disciples, having returned from their ministry travels in the countryside, two-by-two, were perplexed that they could not heal a boy who was epileptic and demon-possessed. And so Jesus, showed them, and the boy’s father, that even a small faith in JESUS Himself, was strong enough to heal and cast out demons.

And we read that prayer of the father (above), where he recognized that his faith in Jesus was there, but incomplete; and he honestly responded to Jesus’ inquiry about his faith with a simple prayer to Jesus to help him in his unbelief. Oh, my friends, that’s a prayer we all need to be diligently praying more often, especially in these days which try our faith.

Back to the three questions above: Do we recognize that our faith is not, as some Word-of-Faith teachers claim these days, in our own faith? Our faith, as God’s word clearly states (see Eph. 2: 8-9), comes from God’s enabling/empowering grace. Yes, we must receive, by faith, God’s grace; and it is our own ability to do that which determines whether, in God’s scheme of things, we can or cannot move mountains. As Dr. Smith says in his devotional for today, ”Believing the affirmations of Christian faith is light-years away from having the depth of faith that makes those affirmations fully empowering. Most of us are staunch believers and fearful unbelievers … all at the same time. Were there not so great a gap of faith in all of us, Everest itself would have reason to tremble!”

And that, my friends and reader-followers, pretty well describes my faith – or lack thereof. How about you?

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me today in my unbelief!! Amen

2010 – October 6 – Not Just Talking the Talk

Study from God’s Word… Ezra, Chapters 7 – 8 … Passage for Reflection: Ezra: 8: 22 - 23… NIV 22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, "The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him." 23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

My Journal for Today: Let me start my devotional journal entry today with the question posed by LaGard Smith, the author of my devotional guidebook. He posits this personal question for self-inventory: ”How often do I pray for God’s protection, then put my reliance for protection in any and everything BUT God?”

Wow. Ouch! That one hurt – at least for me. How about you? Sometimes it’s just painful – from conviction – when the mirror of truth is held up for us to look at ourselves in the light of God’s truth.

And Dr. Smith began his devotional entry for today with a reminder of the old adage, Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, which seems so logically accurate, doesn’t it? Certainly your financial advisor has probably invoked that old saying; and having a backup plan would probably be thought to be wise by prudent generals in battle. But when it comes to spiritual warfare or our relationship with God, He states, very simply, in Proverbs 3: 5, 6 [NKJV] that we are to “… trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In ALL you ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

And that’s exactly what Ezra finally decided was the only correct and God-fearing way to respond to King Artaxerxes’ offer to provide the Jews returning to Jerusalem with what they needed to rebuild their temple and reinstate their Law. It might have been the prudent and natural thing to do to ask the King for a guard of soldiers to protect God’s people on their journey home; but Ezra realized that this would be a poor witness to this pagan king; and it would be an affront to the God who had delivered His people from Egypt and so many other adversaries along their journeys to and in the Promised Land.

So, Ezra put all of his eggs in one basket; and as we read [see verse 23 above] he led the people to fast and pray for God’s protection; and we also read how God answered those prayers.

So, I’m back to the opening question from Dr. Smith, which I’ll repeat here to close out my journal entry today: ”How often do I pray for God’s protection, then put my reliance for protection in any and everything BUT God?” You deal with that one in your life. I’m certainly going to have to do so in mine.

My Prayer for Today: Forgive me, Lord, for wanting to do things my way, not having the faith in You which You desire from me. Amen

2010 – September 8 – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Study from God’s Word… Job, Chapters 1 - 3 … Passage for Reflection: Job 2: 10 … NIV He (Job) replied (to his wife), “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God , and not trouble?”

My Journal for Today: So, in the midst of reading through The Daily Bible in Chronological Order [DBICO] , today Dr. LaGard Smith, the Editor, takes me (and his readers) to the Book of Job, which is reported by scholars to be the oldest written book in the canon of the Bible. So, what’s up with that in terms of chronological order? Shouldn’t we read Job in January?

Well, Dr. Smith reasons that the reading of Job is to be placed now in the DBICO reading because Ezekiel, whom we’ve been reading about lately, wrote about Job (see Chapter 14, verses 14 & 20, of the Book of Ezekiel), making a reference to the dilemma of God’s people, the righteous remnant and the disobedient Jews, both of whom had been taken captive and were suffering TOGETHER in Babylon. For Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and most certainly for those Jews who were obedient to God in Babylon, it would have been natural to seek after answers to why God would allow the righteous and the unrighteous Jews to suffer the same captivity in Babylon. Therefore, at this time in their history, the story of Job, which was certainly part of the Scriptural lore of the Jews, would have had great relevance, especially to loyal followers of God. And of course, this book, Job, has great relevance to this very day, especially for every believer in the one, true, and good God.

It’s that great conundrum and the question: “How do we define ‘blessing’ in our lives?” Are the “blessings” only those events or circumstances which are the warm-n-fuzzies? Or could the challenges of life, … yes, even the disasters, be seen as “blessings” in the context of a sovereign God who wants only ultimate good for those who are the called according to His purpose (i.e., steadfast believers and followers of Yahweh)? And how many times have our beliefs in the truth of Romans 8: 28 been challenged by some oppressive circumstances in life, … occurrences which seem much more like “curses” than “blessings?”

Today’s text is, of course, Job’s faithful response to his wife’s perspective on the disasters which had been perpetrated on Job by an unseen Satan, who was challenging God and Job’s faithfulness. And how do we measure up to Job’s faith in the midst of some horror which is visited in our lives? Perhaps you’ve had to deal with the inexplicable death of a child in your life. Maybe you wonder about how a loving God would allow a tsunami or an earthquake to take the lives of thousands of staunch believers as well as those non-believers consumed in the disaster. Just like Job, the headlines of our lives can scream out the question: “What’s up with that, God?!”

And hence it is great for us, as it was for Ezekiel, to have a book of truth, in this case the Book of Job, which helps us see that there are some circumstances in life which we’re not likely going to be explained from our human perspective. No, we’re going to have to learn, as Job was expressing in today’s highlight text, to declare that God’s sovereignty and love for His children go way beyond our ability to get God’s reason WHY when we are beset with inexplicable horrors.

No, my friends; if we could explain everything clearly which happens to us, the concept of “faith” would be meaningless, would it? But prayerfully, we can learn, as did Ezekiel, from the book of wisdom involving Job, that our faith is going to be tested by life and we’re going to have to deal with the horrors as well as the happiness by having faith in a sovereign, and ALWAYS loving God.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I say again, You are God and I am not. Praise You IN all things, ... AT all times, … FOR all time. Amen

2010 – April 19 – A God Who Seems Distant

Study from God’s Word… Psalm 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 … Passage for Reflection: Psalm 10: 1… NIV 1 Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? … Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

My Journal for Today: We’ve all been there, in the place of David, as he wrote the songs which Dr. Smith had me read and meditate upon today. If you’re a believer, like yours truly and even King David, there are going to be days when God just SEEMS (and note my emphasis) absent. And most certainly, we know the human/worldly effects when leadership is perceived to be absent.

What happens, Dr. Smith asks, when parents are absent to lead their children? What happens when a boss is never around at work or a coach never calls a practice? And these human analogies call attention to one of the most difficult things about our relationship with God. How do we have faith in a God, Who is a Spirit, and Who doesn’t speak audibly to us, … especially now in these New Covenant times? I’m sure you’ve had times, as I have had and these Psalms document David had, when God just didn’t seem to be there as He has promised He would ALWAYS be. Many of you know what it says in both the OT and NT (see Deut. 31: 6 or Heb. 13: 5), … that our God will never leave us, not forsake us.

Well, then, why are there times when we desperately seem to need Him and he’s not there to swoop into our lives with a red cape and supernaturally heal our ills or solve our human dilemmas? And the answer to this one has everything to do with – and you know what I’m about to write - … FAITH! God’s SEEMING absence, … if we truly have faith, is ALWAYS a matter of our perception and never a matter of God’s reality. And we could speculate all we want; but there are going to be times when the truth of the passages I cited above as well as Isaiah 55: 8-9 from the OT and Paul’s exhortation in the NT in Romans 8: 28 are going to be called into personal reflection and question. (I hope you know what all these passages say about our inability to explain many things in our life as well as our faith in a God Who might seem to be absent. If you don’t know these Scriptures by heart, it would be good to find these passages, meditate on their truth, and then, do a check on your belief in their veracity.)

As evidenced by the Psalms I read today for my devotional time, it’s not wrong to feel the questions about God’s absence at certain times in our lives; and it’s not wrong to even raise the questions to God. David certainly did; and we know that many other giants of the faith in our Bible studies raised “WHY” questions to our God. But the thing we must guard against is letting our human feelings get in the way of surrendered faith; because it is only the latter – many times – which can give us faith’s victory to believe God being there when He seems to be absent. And knowing and clinging to His promises and His truth – from His word – as I’m convinced did David, we will be able to wait on the Lord for His presence to be felt and realized.

Dear one, when you FEEL that God is far away – or even absent – know His truth from His word to give you hope. When you feel your prayers bouncing off the ceiling, seemingly unheard, know, at least in your mind, if not in your heart, the reality that God will always hear you. So, like David, cry out to our God, and, though He already knows your feelings, let Him hear of your concerns; and keep praying for His power to be invoked and to cover your weakness.

My friend, God is there – ALWAYS THERE!! He hears – ALWAYS HEARS!! And He loves us – ALWAYS!!!

My Prayer for Today: LORD, when I’ve needed you – even when You seem far away – You were always there, bending down to hear me; and covering me with Your wings of protection. Help me to believe in my heart as much as I do know Your promises in my head. Amen

2010 – Mar. 16 – The True Test of Trust

Study from God’s Word… Judges 2: 8,9 [Josh 24: 29,30]; Josh 24: 32; Judges 1: 1-10, 16-19; Josh 15: 13,14 [Judges 1: 20b]; Judges 1: 11-15 [Josh 15: 15-19]; Judges 1: 22-26; Josh 13: 13; Josh 16: 10 [Judges 1: 29]; Josh 17: 11-13 [Judges 1: 27, 28]; Josh 15: 63; Judges 1: 21; Judges 1: 30 - 36; Judges 2: 1-5; … Passage for Reflection: Judges 1: 19 … NIV 19 The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots.

My Journal for Today: Today my devotional shepherd, Dr. F. LaGard Smith, asked me to read the target verse for today several times, asking, in essence, ”What’s wrong with this picture?” And the answer to that question is really quite obvious when we realize – and believe – that God’s covenant with His people, through Joshua, is truth. God had promised that wherever and whenever His people moved to conquer the pagan peoples who occupied the Promised Land, that He, God, would be with the Israelites and they could – and should – eradicate the pagan peoples and cultures from these lands. So, … what’s with today’s highlighted verse?

It says that God’s people, in this case the men of Judah, stopped short and were failures when it came to taking possession of the hill country because the armies who inhabited these lands had iron chariots. Hey!, … isn’t God able to overcome even thousands of iron chariots? Well, of course He is; and what this shows is that the Hebrew armies (and especially their leaders) failed to trust in God; and they balked when they saw all those iron chariots. And isn’t that the way with all of us who claim to trust in God? We can do fine when we perceive that we are in control; but give our spiritual enemies a seemingly overwhelming advantage; and we, so often, bolt and run from letting God have the victory.

I’m called in ministry to work with men who’ve stared down defeat over and over and over again in the area of sexual purity and freedom. They have confronted the enemies, which are Satan and their own flesh, and they’ve come to believe that they cannot be victorious. They see “iron chariots” in the presence of their own weaknesses of the flesh; and they simply relent, giving in to their fleshly desires, failing to take advantage of the power they have within themselves as Christians, the same resurrection power, the Holy Spirit, Who raised Jesus from the dead, … the same God, Who can, and will, enable and empower any Christian to choose purity over impurity and to defeat the enemies Satan is sending into battle in those “iron chariots.”

When are we, as disciples of Christ, going to realize the truth of 1st John 4: 4, which loudly declares to believers, … every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. 4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them [i.e. the spirits of antichrist], because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Like the people of God in the times of Joshua, we have, when we fully trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior, have made a covenant with God, believing on the Name of Christ; and trusting/clinging to the truth that He [the Holy Spirit] is greater in us than any spirit in the world and even Satan, who certainly will do all he can to show off his “iron chariots” and try to make us believe that He is stronger that the Spirit of God Who resides in our hearts when we are truly born-again.

Dr. Smith asks his readers today, ”Do I glibly speak of trusting God when all is well, but cower in fear when the situation looks hopeless?” And each of us must answer that question in the light of our faith; because God’s word and His covenant with us are true and strong; and the power we have in ourselves as followers of Christ is most certainly stronger than any “iron chariots” we see coming against us. The question will be answered when we stand and fight or … we cut and run.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I stand with you in the truth of Romans 8: 31. Amen

2009 – Day 350.Dec 17 – Genuine Faith

Passage for Study: Genesis 22: 3 – 8 … Genesis 22 linked for study …
Secondary Passage: Hebrews 11: 8 – 19 … … Hebrews 11 linked for study …

My Journal for Today: When you read through these passages, Swindoll is right that we can easily get wrapped up in the emotions of the scenario, especially those of us who have children, as we empathize and simply can’t imagine how/why Abraham responded in faith the way he did to the test God was putting him through. I, for one, would be the first to have cried, “Why God!” in this scenario. So, we ask how Abraham could be so faithful to his God by going up to Mount Moriah to offer up his ONLY son as a living sacrifice.

Well, the answer really is in common logic, operating in concert with the maturity of Abraham’s faith. Abraham simply had a highly developed trust in His God by intimately knowing His God. He knew God could not lie; and God had promised that Isaac was to be God’s seed of promise for a nation of people; and the only way that could happen would be for Isaac to live. Abraham also knew that God was God, Who had the power over death. And so the logical conclusion was that God could, and would, make sure that no matter what transpired on that mountain, God would provide a way for Isaac to cheat death and live to carry out God’s covenant with Abraham. Hence, we read old Abe responding quietly and logically to Isaac’s question about where the lamb was for the sacrifice that day. Isaac’s father simply, and logically, responded in Genesis 22: 8, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”

And so, we read what real faith is all about in this story; and real faith is measured by choices which fulfill the command Jesus gave to His disciples, when He said, (in Luke 9: 23), “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” And the only way a follower after God can deny self and take up a cross like sacrificing his son would be to truly know His Lord and to trust that God would only lead him in such a way as to provide a way – God’s way - even when there does not appear to be a way.

I’m going to repeat something here I’ve come back to often in my devotionals. And it’s something which I learned from my dear mentor years ago, … something which has become my mantra of faith over the years. And my friend, if you can internalize the truth here, it can help you have the faith of an Abraham in the face of seemingly overwhelming situations. My mentor taught me that to know God is to love God. And to love God is to obey God. And to obey God is to serve God. And to serve God is to be blessed by God.

My dear one, Abraham knew His God, loved His God, and obeyed His God; therefore, Abraham knew to simply serve God in that obedience, no matter what God led him to do. And ultimately Abraham knew – in faith - that if he served God faithfully, God would bless him by providing a way, even though there seemed no way. That, my friend, is the promise of two verses from God’s truth which help me follow God’s way – as much as my growing faith can muster. And those two verses are Proverbs 3: 5 – 6 and 1st Cor. 10: 13. I hope you have these passages memorized and internalized; because they will help believers when doing things God’s way seems illogical to the world and even when they seem impossible to us. I won’t quote those two truths here. I hope you go back and meditate on these two passages; and if you don’t know them, memorize them; and then join me to do all we can, by living – in faith – from these truths, to know God, to love God, to obey God, to serve God and to live with God’s blessing – as did Abraham.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to have the discipline to know You in such a way that I can have the faith of an Abraham when things seem senseless in this world, knowing that You will always provide a way for Your children. Amen

2009 – Day 349.Dec 16 – The Test

Passage for Study: Genesis 22: 1 – 2 … 1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

My Journal for Today: Again, we have the same text for today, from Acts 22, where God tests Abraham’s faith by having him take his only son, Isaac, up to Mount Moriah and see if God loved the gift (i.e., Isaac) more than old Abraham loved God. Yesterday, we discussed how tightly we hold onto things God has provided is a test of our love of God. And we saw how we can hold too tightly to the things we come to adore, especially dear relationships like our children. And we noted that we must carry any and all things in life loosely, not letting any of them to be grasped too tightly.

Well, it is legitimate to ask why a loving God would put old Abe to such an extreme test of faith. Was it to let God see that Abraham really did love God or Isaac more? No, … that can’t be; because God is omniscient; and God knew before it happened how Abraham would respond, didn’t He? Well, then, to whom was God trying to show the object of Abraham’s faith and love? And the answer is in the word “test” in verse 1 of Genesis 22. And from the Hebrew that word TEST is the word “nacah” [prounounced “nasah”], which is an assayer’s term. It means that something is put to a test (for example, gold or silver) to prove just how pure it is. And the ones in this passage who needed to determine the purity of Abraham’s faith were Abraham himself and his son, Isaac.

Abraham, having failed God on several occasions in his past needed to see that he had the faith to do exactly what God would command; and Isaac, Abe’s son, needed to see the pre-eminence of Godly faith in action from his dad’s example for his future as the one to carry on God’s seed to God’s people. Abraham had been impure of faith when he lied to save his skin twice and when he didn’t trust God for the Covenant by having a child by his wife’s handmaiden. And so, we see God, Who knew how Abraham would respond, with Abe’s faith having matured over the years, putting Abraham through this test to show Abraham and Isaac just what faith in God is all about.

Now, we come to a 2nd Cor. 13: 5 (check it out) faith test in our New Covenant lives. As Swindoll puts it, we have to ask ourselves, “Do I adore the gifts of life more than I adore the Giver?” Yes, when we put our faith in God through the crucible of life, letting the pressure and heat of our choices test whom or what we really love most, how does our love and trust of God come out from this test? Is our love of God, the Giver, purer and more refined than our love of the gifts He has given us? Or have we allowed our hearts to become polluted by the love of stuff more than our love of the Savior?

Because, if there’s anything in our lives which is polluting our love of God by causing us to love self over Savior, we must either eliminate it or let it go to the point where God becomes our first love again. That was Christ’s message to the rich young ruler [see Luke 17: 18-27 or Matt. 19: 16-30 or Mark 10: 17-31]; and it was His message to His church (of Ephesus) in His first letter of Rev. 2: 1-7. Our God knows that the only way He can provide and dole out His grace is when His children trust and obey Him; and so His love is a jealous love. It’s not like our human jealousy. It’s a jealousy which desires that we have all God can provide for us when we hold His love as the pre-eminent desire of our lives.

So, this story, of Abraham being able to see the reality of his own dominant love for God was God’s way of demonstrating to Abraham’s that his first love was for God and God alone. And the lesson was also for you and me as we read it from God’s own word from the pen of Moses in God’s first book. The question becomes our test; and we need to see – from the heat and pressures of life – just whom (or what) we love as our first love. Is our first love God; or is it something else in our lives?

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I declare You # 1 in my life. I pray that my life choices – under the test of life’s fires – prove that as truth. Amen