2010 – September 6 – The Name Says It All

Study from God’s Word… Ezekiel, Chapters 44 - 48 … Passage for Reflection: Ezekiel 48: 35 … NIV And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE.

My Journal for Today: Interesting observation Dr. LaGard Smith makes in his devotional entry for today’s date (9/6), reminding his readers that we have cities which almost everyone knows by their designated “nickname,” such as The Big Apple, Big D, Music City, Sin City, The City of Brotherly Love, or Motown. I agree that almost everyone would be able to name all of those because of their designated and characterized nicknames. And even in Old Testament lore, we know of cities like Jericho as the “City of Palms” and Jerusalem as the “City of David.”

And in today’s text we have God’s vision to Ezekiel about the coming City of God. And in another vision God gave to the Apostle John, in The Revelation, we’re given a word picture of the “New Jerusalem.” But both of these could amply be designated – a nickname from God if you will – as “THE LORD IS THERE.” In Hebrew that name is “Jehovah shammah,” which means that in this city, described in great detail by God to/through Ezekiel in the Book by his name, i.e., Chapters 40 – 48, was to be called “The City Where God resides” or “THE LORD IS THERE.”

Do you know, my fellow Christian, where that Temple is now? Yes, right now, as you read this, where is the “Jehovah shammah?” And I would hope that we all know from God’s own word [in this case from Paul in 1st Cor. 6: 19 – 20 (linked here)], God has His New Covenant Temple residence in the hearts of any – and all – believers. Yes, dear one, if you are a born-again Christian, “Jehovah shammah” is in your heart; and that is where God will reside forever when the New Jerusalem, the vision brought to the Apostle John in Revelations 21 is provided for all to bring God’s temple dwellers into His new home in heaven.

And if we can grasp the concept that God has honored each and every born-again Christian with our hearts becoming a “Jehovah shammah,” that place where God’s Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, resides, we would want to treat God’s Temple with the respect, dignity, and the reverence it reserves; wouldn’t we? Hence the tagline of challenge in the passage to which I’ve linked you above (see 1st Cor. 6: 20). And I know that I’m a shabby Temple Keeper at times; and I need to take my stewardship of this heart which God’s Spirit has taken residence, … His “Jehovah shammah.” Maybe we all should resolve here, before our Lord, to keep His place, the Jehovah shammah, a place purified by how we live for Him.

My Prayer for Today: Oh, Lord, You live in me! Amen

2010 – June 26 – Hope You Can Count On

Study from God’s Word… Micah, Chapters 3 – 5 … Passage for Reflection: Micah 5: 2 … NIV "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. "
Micah 5: 2 … NLT But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, One whose origins are from the distant past.

My Journal for Today: As Dr. Smith begins his devotional today by quoting the old Christmas carol, “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.” And here was Micah, some seven centuries before the event, prophesying that the birth of a “great One,” a Messiah, would be born into this world in that sleepy little hillside shepherd town, which God named through Micah as Bethlehem. And as we, who do believe that Yeshua, Ha-Mashiach [Hebrew for “Jesus, the Messiah”], know, that’s exactly what happened … again … some seven centuries later.

So, what’s up with this prediction; and why centuries before the coming of the One Who would fulfill it? And I believe LaGard Smith has the reason nailed. It is God’s way, though His prophet and His word to have one of those glorious “I told you so” predictions so right and so, so true in Scripture that it can not – or at least SHOULD NOT - be ignored as part of God’s plan and His design for mankind.

And if God could – and did – predict that Jesus, the Messiah, would come into that little sleepy suburb of Jerusalem over 7 centuries before it happened, how would we – or could we - deny that there will be another coming of Christ which will herald the advent of the celestial new Jerusalem, a literal heaven on earth, where mankind will live with the Savior forever.

What a hope and what a promise; and heaven is a hope you (and I) can count on because we’ve read about and seen the predictive power of God in action through prophets like Micah; and the prophesies which have come since Micah are even more powerful and wonderful than those to which Micah addressed himself centuries before the coming of the Christ child in Bethlehem.

Take heed, my dear ones. Christ is coming again; and He will usher in your heavenly home; and it will be so much more glorious than that little sleepy event heralded by Micah centuries before the shepherds gathered on the hillside to witness what Phillips Brooks wrote about in 1903 in his carol …

O holy Child of Bethlehem! … Descend to us, we pray!
Cast out our sin and enter in; … Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels; …The great glad tidings tell;
O, come to us, abide with us, … Our Lord, Emmanuel!

My Prayer for Today: O, Lord, what a prayer this is from the old Christmas song; and may we rest in its promise. Amen