Your Own Meditation of the Bible

King Hezekiah began to reign at the age of twenty-five years of age as King of Judah. His predecessors failed to follow the Lord. The condition at the temple was so much like many churches today–closed. Closed doors speak of no access to God and no service for God. While God has set before us an open door (Rev. 3:8), yet we close it by the way we live.

How do we close the doors of the church? We don’t witness. We don’t pray. The altar of prayer is cold. We don’t sacrifice. We think more of our lives then following the life God intends for each of us. When God looks around He sees plenty of rubbish in the church. No wonder the church of the Living God is so powerless.

What must be done? There must be a way given–for God wants to prosper His work. God’s heart is to get us to the point of total sanctification-set apart for God. Sacrifice of one’s person to the Lord’s service and a song in the heart leads to the reopening of the doors. God must start with you and me-the preacher and the people. For if God’s servants are not clean, God cannot bless His work.

L.R. Scarborough said that if we could only have a five-minute glimpse into hell our evangelism would be changed for a lifetime. Just the other day I was trying to imagine what a look into hell would be like. I’m sure the “terror of the Lord” would take on a dreadful new meaning if I could see hell.

We believe that Sunday School is important, as far as it goes, but that is about it. The number one reason why most attend the Sunday affair is because of their own fellowship and teaching for them, or just out of obligation.  Yet if we are content to be spiritually fed, spiritually welcomed, and we forget about participating in bringing others to hear the good news, then we do not have the heart of Christ. Sunday School is meant to bring others to hear what you hear and feel what you feel and to share what you share.

Prayer with others on a specific night is important as well. It is at the prayer meeting where we come together as a body to beseech the God of glory for the lost and for our own strength that only grace can provide. The Kingdom of God is coming upon this earth one glorious day. And God is peopling His kingdom with people who have been prayed for, reached for, and sought for–who come to submit to His way of salvation for them–through the outreach and prayers of His people.

When you and I have food and a future we can not be content with others who are starving and lifeless. The four starving lepers of Samara who walked into a deserted enemy camp discovered food and a future, and they could not keep this to themselves. They said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent” (2 Kings 7:9). So they did something about their passivity. Together they went and told the good news of food and a future in the camp.

It is together that we invite others, it is together we pray, it is together we meet with God. Church is important for groups to gather and not for individuals just to meet. God works through His gathered people. The greater the unity of God’s people the greater the authority we have as God’s people.

(Psalm 61:2).

Jesus is to be the center of it all. Everything.
Today at the Good News Baptist Church on the island of St. Maarten, we sang a song that expressed this prayer. God is the star of His own movie. For so many of us we think indirectly or directly much of this thought:  It is about us.
When we pray we are asking God to guide, to guard, and to govern. We must realize He is the One who gives breath and life. He is the only One who has the power and the prowess to do just this. And He desires to honor you as you and I honor Him. We are very insignificant when it comes to the almightiness of the God who stands apart from us.
Today when you call upon His name remember that He loves you and He desires you with all of your warts and blemishes. He desires greatly to bring glory to His own name through your life. It is God who is pursuing Himself in you. Allow this God of glory to have His will and His pleasure in your life. It is amazing to receive and feel His love.

First of all there is vitality. The believer’s union with Jesus Christ is a living union. The Spirit of God lives in the believer. We are baptized into the body of Christ. It is God who does the work and it is God who gives life.

Secondly, there is unity. We are members of His body. The members of the body work together. They maintain the peace within the body. There is only one body (Ephesians 1:22-23). The church is more than an organization. The church is an organism.

Thirdly, the church has diversity. Though we are one we have different parts to play and to function in the world. The church operates together to build up the body of Christ. When one part of the body separates from its rightful position and place there is a cancer that develops.

Fourthly, the body of believers deals with maturity. We mature in Christ by demonstrating our love for Christ, for each other, and for the lost. I Corinthians emphasizes love while I Corinthians 14 shows how that love should be exercised in the practical activities of the church.

Fifthly, there is ministry. The Lord Jesus works through us, his body, to accomplish what he desires. He ministers and serves as we surrender to Him. We are his spiritual body. The birth of His physical body is found in Luke 2. The birth of His spiritual body is found in Acts 2, both written by Doctor Luke.

We speak of church membership as if it were only a matter of joining the church and supporting the church with our money, attendance, and occasional work. But membership means more than that. We are a part of a living body. We contribute to the strength and growth of that body, the spiritual body of Christ on earth. Membership in the body of Christ means much more than what most think about. May we today wake to the awesome joy of living in Christ.

The prophets of the Old Testament met great opposition. Ministry is nice when it’s a suburb and, manicured, quiet, well-kept place to come and wash feet. It’s nice when there’s fruit. When there’s encouragement. When there’s hope. When there’s appreciation. When there’s spiritual hunger. When there’s a readiness to change. When there’s a passion for Christ. When it’s yours and God blesses and blesses and blesses. It’s nice, isn’t it?

Jeremiah was told by Jehovah God, “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee; thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee” (Jeremiah 7:27). Jeremiah was told by the people to either change your message or change your address. They would not hear or listen to his warning.

This was Main Street in Dodge City at high noon. This was the greatest of all fights. But Jeremiah stood his ground. Most people don’t. They run. They hide. They say, “I never signed up for this course.” There is a great gulf between heaven and hell. When people choose to serve themselves, their self, and refuse God’s glory then there is hell on earth. And Jeremiah felt the heat of it!

What about us? Do we yearn to quit? How far will we walk away before we turn back? Many serve God with strings attached. Jeremiah was disappointed but He did not get tangled in the strings. He was committed to God’s calling upon his life. People want to go where it is easy, while the thrust of ministry is not easy. Jesus promised it! If it was not simple and easy for the Lord Jesus then why do we think it would be for us?

There have been many that have made it big with their money. They have worked hard and spoke loudly of the way they live by the money they make. Maybe the words aren’t loud, but the spending is.

After a certain amount of time the money flows and the items are bought and the road continues…until. It looks as if all is going well. Then it happens. Darkness falls. The children grow up. The dad and mom have done so much together, but the grave calls.

Now the children are seated in a funeral home, alongside their dad. The mom is gone. The aged father is not thinking of their gain. The hurt is very real. Time is gone and nothing seems the same. The things accrued, the times spent, are a distant memory. What are we to do to ensure we feel fulfilled and contented when the time comes and death beckons?

Wealth is given by God so that we can give it to others. Children and others need to understand that dad and mom love God more than they love money. Who gives the money anyway? Who gives the ability to earn? Who owns it all? Is it not the God that gave His only Son?

We need to own the needs around us and toward distant lands, and distribute that wealth to help others into the kingdom of God. There is “A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away” (Ecclesiastes 3:6). God in his sovereignty has allowed us the choice. Through our disobedience we bring forth sin into the world, and death by sin (Romans 5:12).

There are way too many memorial services which are empty and void. Why? Because most lived for gain and not for giving.  It is an emptiness that does betray the soul. Why? Because money and stuff can never fill the soul. But that which is given does. Whether rich or poor may we give away that which is not ours to keep.  Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. And he has his reward.