Psalm 117

This Psalm, although short, starts with a call for all people to praise God and ends with a call to praise God

Praise the Lord all you gentiles - this Psalm speaks of all people praising the Lord, not just Israel. In the Authorised Version (AV/KJV) the word 'gentile' is translated: nations - God's plan was always to include non Jews into His Kingdom. 

We are reminded of John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God's love ultimately, is for the whole of humanity - the apex of His creation. 

Laud Him, all you peoples - to 'laud' is to give praise. Why must we Laud (praise) Him? 

'For His merciful kindness is great towards us.' God is merciful towards all people. He is merciful towards sinners, none of us deserve anything let alone God's mercy, yet He provides us with such a bountiful of good things in the physical world - air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, family, friends etc. When we are saved He also provides in the spiritual world. He gives us a new heart, a new perspective, eternal life, He is preparing a place for us in glory, we have an assurance of being with Him forever in heaven, He blesses us with spiritual and physical blessings. 

His truth endures forever - He never fails and He never falters. Humanity may say that truth is fluid, but that's like building your house on the sand - God's truth is eternal, solid, unchanging and firm, it can be relied upon totally. God is all truth. 

Jesus Christ said to Thomas in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are truth. It is who they are. His truth is eternal and endures forever - we can trust in it, believe in it and have faith in it. 

Because His mercy and truth never fail and are eternal, all it leaves for us to do is Praise the Lord!

As we go through our lives, let us do that, acknowledging who He is, His provision and what He has done for us!

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Casting all your cares on Him

 1 Peter 5:5-11

Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for

 “God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble.”

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The Christian walk is one of humility, with many battles, we feel our weakness, we are still plagued by sin, but in all this we can humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God... Casting ALL of our cares upon Him! 

Sometimes events in life overcome us: problems at home, problems in work, problems in the wider family, problems with friends, sickness, financial trials, issues within our churches, whatever they are we can bundle them up and hand them to the Lord. 

There is an issue in my life at the moment and it's taken me so long to realise I can't handle it so everyday I have to say "Lord take it, only You can deal with the issue plus my sinful thoughts and desires which go with it!" We HAVE to hand everything over to the Lord to gain His peace! I can't change the hearts and minds of people, but God is so mighty that He can! 

Let us learn or continue to practice, taking everything which trouble us and handing it over to the Lord daily so that we may find peace in knowing He is the only One who can change our situations, change our hearts, change the hearts of others. 

Resist the devil when he convinces us we can do it on our own or that God isn't interested in us. God is more than interested, He loves us with an everlasting and eternal love! He loves us so much He sent His Son to be nailed to a cross and die for us, of course He's interested in His children! 

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Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

Who is my Shepherd? 

The LORD - Jehovah, the Existing One. He cares for His people, He tends His precious flock. In Isaiah 40:11 it says:

He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.

He provides His sheep with everything they need. Food and water, safety, compassion, guidance etc. He isn't a harsh Shepherd, He will gently lead those who are with young - young = baby Christians, newly converted and in need of guidance from their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ! He gave His life for His sheep. John 10:14,15

I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. No harm will come to His sheep and no sheep will ever want for anything. The Good Shepherd, leads His sheep into green  pastures - a place of peace, calm, tranquillity and sustenance. Our souls rest in Him because He is our peace, He is our calm. He leads His sheep by the still waters, calm waters not tempestuous seas. If chaos rages around us, it isn't there because Jesus put us there - no, His leading and guiding takes us from a place of storm to a habour of calm. He anchors us in His love! 

Our souls may be filled with sin and torment, but He restores them and He leads us into the paths of righteousness. Without peace, calm, tranquillity, guidance, righteousness we are in spiritual turmoil, our hearts aren't right with our Shepherd, but don't despair, He takes us again in His arms, He leads us again into those green pastures by still waters. Why does He do this? For His name's sake. He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. He is with us to the end of time. 

This Psalm switches to the peace and tranquillity of green pastures and still waters to the valley of the shadow of death, but even in these circumstances - not necessarily literal death, but sometimes our trials and tribulations can feel so black, it's like death has come upon us. The coldness of our souls at times, the sins which over take us - Jesus Christ is LIFE and the opposite of these cold and dark times in our lives, and the opposite of life is death! Even when our sins, trials and tribulations feel like they are swallowing us up in confusion, fear, anxiety, depression etc we mustn't fear those times, because Christ, our Shepherd is with us.

The Lord's rod - this was used by a shepherd to protect the sheep from wild animals, it symbolises strength and protection. The staff was used to guide the sheep and speaks of the Lord's guidance. So often we wander from the path, but the Lord, if we are His, brings us back onto the path and if we seek His guidance He will give it to us! It's good to have boundaries because they offer protection and the Lord gives His own people boundaries on how to live their lives to come under His protection and care. Sometimes we kick against these, but they are there to protect us from harm, from guilt, from pain, from anguish. God's commands are to comfort and keep us safe. 

Psalm 91:1,2 says

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”  

If we abide in Him, if we allow the Lord to lead and guide us into green pastures, by still waters. If He restores our souls then we dwell in the secret place of the Most High and we learn to trust in Him in all things. 

The Lord loves His sheep so much - the animals may be set to pounce, devour and overcome us, but He provides so much for us. A table laden with spiritual fruit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and pure living water - the Shepherd Himself. 

John 4:14

“…but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 

There are accounts of starving prisoners of war, who have their tables laden with spiritual food - they were filled with the fruit of spirit, even in the midst of their enemies' vileness. The Lord has anointed them as His messengers in such dark and unholy places, yet they have stuck to serving Him, worshipping Him. The Hebrew word in the original for 'anointed' can mean to make or grow fat - even in adversity many of the Lord's people have grown fat spiritually (in a good way). Sometimes we can be spiritually lean, but only when we feed on God's word can we grow as Christians. There is an abundance here with the cup running over. The cup of the Lord's blessings and care runs over - it doesn't stop running over because those blessings never ever end. In the Christian life there is an abundance of all the Lord gives - He isn't miserly or mean - He gives grace, faith, blessings, life, love etc abundantly out of His never ending storehouse in glory! 

After reading this Psalm, no wonder David could conclude:

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

When we have a generous Shepherd giving His own life for His sheep, giving out of the abundance of the storehouses of grace in heaven - the only conclusion we can draw from this IS that goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Not only that BUT I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Being in Christ doesn't just mean all of these things end when we die, but they continue in even more abundance in heaven where we shall be forever with the Lord. 

Revelation 22:1-5 give us a glimpse of what we can look forward to if we are in Christ:

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.  They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

What a glorious future we have if belong to the Shepherd!

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Why Jesus?

Why does Christianity claim to be the ONLY way to God? Surely if people do good things they will get into heaven, but if they do bad things they go to hell? 

What is good though? We set the standard by our own works, but God sets HIS standard by the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17. Heaven is HIS home after all! 

The Ten Commandments: 

1 You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 You shall not make for yourself a carved image
3 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
4 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
5 Honour your father and your mother
6 You shall not murder
7 You shall not commit adultery
8 You shall not steal
9 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour
10 You shall not covet

Picture this:

A beautiful house with a perfectly white, pure, clean interior. The walls are white, the carpet is the richest, most expensive one and is white. The sofa, the chairs, the tables, the ceilings - everything pure and perfectly clean, no spec of dust, no dirt just purity. Light shining brilliantly in every room. 
One day a bedraggled man and woman come across the house and want to stay there. They are covered from head to toe in muck and dirt. From the top of their heads down to their shoeless feet - it's caked on. They go up to the door and knock on it. A person answers the door - dressed in the purest and whitest of clothes. They ask if they can stay in the house as their journey is long, but the owner of the house says "I'm so sorry, you are covered in dirt and muck and my house is clean and pure, you have to be clean to stay here!"
The man and woman go away and try to clean themselves up, but the more they try to clean themselves up, the dirtier they become because the things they use to clean themselves are also dirty and caked with muck and filth. 
They go back to the house and tell the owner that they can't clean themselves up - everything they are using is making them all the more dirty. So the owner says to them:
"Do you see that fountain, if you go and dip yourself in it, you will become clean and will be able to enter into this house!" So the man and woman go to the fountain but it's filled with blood. They refuse to dip themselves in it, at first, but then after a while the man says - this is the only way into the house, they both climb into the fountain and instantly all the dirt and muck is washed away and they come out pure and clean. 
They go back to the house and the owner sees what has happened - they have been washed as white as snow, so the owner gives them new clothes and allows them into his house. 

What does this mean? 

The house is a picture of heaven, it's pure, sinless, nothing bad or evil dwells in it. The man and woman are a picture of our hearts, tainted by sin. Their long journey is a picture of our life. The fountain represents the blood of Christ, shed for us on the cross.  Everything we do whether good (from a human stand point) or bad is tainted by sin. I'm not saying don't help people, but our motives for doing so are tainted! The new garments represent Christ's righteousness.
Sin separates us from God. It needs to be dealt with to gain us entry into heaven and because every good thing we do is tainted by it, we can't do anything ourselves. 
God gave us the moral law in the form of the 10 Commandments and if we break one, we break them all because we HAVE TO keep each and every one perfectly for our whole life on earth. None of us can say we have kept every one perfectly so we have a dilemma, which God has solved through Jesus Christ. 

Romans 6:23 tells us For the wages of sin is death - God pays us with physical and spiritual death for our sins, but the verse carries on but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life. Completely obeying God and fulfilling His commandments perfectly - no errors at all! There is still the issue of death though! Jesus went to the cross as a perfect sacrifice - He died so that any who come through Him will have everlasting life, because when we stand before God, Jesus is like our defence attorney in a court of law, but instead of maybe getting us off - His sacrifice is a guarantee that we will be pardoned, because He paid the debt on our behalf. The hymnist Philip Paul Bliss (1838-76) wrote these words which sum it up perfectly: 

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood:
Hallelujah! What a Saviour! 

The ONLY way to God is His way - after all heaven is His dwelling place so He has set the rules on how to get there. Jesus Christ said, in John 14:6 "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

If you're trying to get to God by your own means, your own self sufficiency you won't get there. If you obey God and come through Jesus Christ, you will obtain eternal life through Him and spend eternity in heaven, a place of purity, holiness and sinfulness!

Families

Sometimes we can look around society and think that everything regarding families are falling apart. This isn't a modern problem. 

Genesis 4 - Cain murdered his brother, Abel (murder)

Genesis 16 - Sarai giving Abraham, her husband, Hagar (who bore him Ishmael) (adultery)

Genesis 21 - Ishmael was scoffing at his half brother Isaac so Sarah got Abraham to cast them out (jealousy, bullying)

Genesis 27 - Rebecca encouraging her younger son Jacob to deceive Isaac so that he could have the birth-right instead of Esau (deception)

Genesis 29 - Laban getting Jacob to work for him for 7 years for Rachel, but gave him Leah instead so Jacob had to work for another 7 years to marry Rachel (deception)

Genesis 37 - Joseph sold by his brothers (trafficking)

Those are only in the first book of the Bible (Genesis - which means 'Beginnings') and only a few examples. 

We also see throughout Scripture the brokenness of families: 

Judges 16 - Samson was besotted with a woman who eventually had him tortured and killed (lust)

1 Samuel 1 - Elkanah had 2 wives, one of which was bullied by the other because she was childless (bullying)

1 Samuel 4 - Eli, the priest, had 2 wayward sons, who ended up getting killed in battle and the shock killed Eli (not correcting his sons)

2 Samuel 15 - Absalom turned against his father King David (dishonour, treachery)

On and on it goes. If you're having issues in your family, for whatever reason - it's not a modern day occurrence - it's been happening for millennia. 

The Lord blesses those who are faithful to Him and although it can hurt when you're being abused*, deceitfully used, lied to, stolen from etc, we need to look to the Lord and remember the words of Joseph: 

Genesis 50:20a But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good,

Romans 12: 19, 21 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

*in the case of abuse - please seek help, it is unacceptable that anybody should suffer from being abused whichever type it is. 

Rending the Veil Part 7: Mary and Martha

 Luke 10:38-42

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Although Mary, Martha and Lazarus are mentioned in more than this account in the gospels, I will be focussing just on this one.

According to the Rabbis in Jesus' day women didn't really have the capacity to understand religious things therefore they weren't taught about it. But here we see Jesus allowing Mary to be taught. 

Jesus and His disciples entered Bethany, a small village only a couple of miles from Jerusalem. We aren't told whether Jesus knew Lazarus, Martha or Mary already or whether they had heard Him preaching, but He was welcomed into their house to eat and have fellowship with them.  There is no mention of their parents or spouses so we assume they are a brother and his two sisters living together! 

Martha was the one sister who welcomed Jesus into her house, but Mary was the one who welcomed Jesus into her heart that day. Mary sat at Jesus' feet listening to His teaching and the amazing thing is - Jesus allowed her to listen and learn because women are equal with men when they are in Christ. 

As Mary was listening to Jesus Martha 'was distracted with much serving'. We don't know how many people she was serving, but presuming it was Jesus and His 12 disciples plus Lazarus, Mary and of course Martha - she probably had at least 16 people to serve. Of course she was doing all of the work while Mary was relaxing which made Martha annoyed. She approached Jesus and we can imagine that maybe she had a bit of anger and frustration in her voice when she said to Jesus "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me!" 

What was Jesus' response to this? 

He didn't say "Martha, you're being very bossy and rude, I'm a guest in your house..."

No, Jesus was as gracious as ever. This is such a beautiful response:

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Maybe we are worried and troubled about many things. It could be relationships, money, stress, busyness etc and they are valid things which come into our life. We have never been promised an easy time of it, even as Christians BUT Jesus, when we come to Him and focus upon Him He gives us rest, peace, joy, comfort. Mary had chosen to come to Jesus and to sit at His feet to learn from Him, to bask in His presence and to just enjoy His teachings, His fellowship, His company, His peace, His protection, His love. The great thing about Jesus is that when you come to Him, believe in Him, trust in Him and have faith in Him,   For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews  13:5b)

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30