Today Matters

“And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today” (2 Chronicles 18:4).

 

In a day of rush and hurry up, with a mindset to have plenty of leisure so that we may do what we desire, it is good to learn a great lesson. That reminder from the Lord Himself is to “Inquire at the word of the Lord today.”

 

The Lord Jesus said that we are to learn to lean heavily upon Him. And we lean hard upon Him by relying upon His Word so that we may learn to pray His heart and will. Today is the day of salvation. We need Him to save us and dismantle us from our sin and ourselves.

 

“The glory of the Father must be the aim and end, the very soul and life of our prayer”, said Andrew Murray. God wants us to be in on what He is up to. Prayer becomes transformational when we embrace the enduring context for all praying.

 

As we fix our eyes upon Him we will be transformed by the majesty of our great God, the person of Christ, the purity of His Word – and will excite within us an appetite for Him. Oh may we be renewed with a longing for His glory! Inquire of Him.

 

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  • What is Sin?

    “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

    What is sin? Sin is universal and it represents the margin of difference between all that God is and what we are on our own.

    Sin is anything that falls short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), so that God will evaluate sin as any behavior that falls short of what He does, what He says, and what He is.

    Sin is exposed simply by relating our behavior to God’s behavior. God is perfect, and by that perfection we can recognize what sin is, because sin is anything which falls short of His perfection.

    God Himself is therefore the only standard by which sin is recognizable.

    Sin is also defined as faithless independence: “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). It is an attitude of “lawlessness” according to I John 3:4.

    He Who is in us is holy. When we step out of dependence in Him into independence in us, the measure of our repentance will be the measure of our dependence in Him. Every area of our life which we have not learned to be truly dependent on God is an area of our life in which we have not yet truly repented.

    Christ died for us, who is risen and alive, who indwells every believer, so that we may no longer be egocentric, self-oriented, living only for our own interests.

    Never be sorry for your self. Just be sorry for your sin!

  • He is the God Who is Near

    “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?” (Jeremiah 23:23).

     

    There’s a trend today that isn’t new. It has been going on for thousands of years. It is the way of people, prophets, and priests and their delivery of the Word of God. In Jeremiah’s day the prophets were lying to the people. They said they heard from God but it wasn’t true. And because of their false information to the people there was a great void that was filled by other gods.
    When God’s Word is not lived out by His people we can be assured that something else will flow in. When we forsake our God for the activities of the world then we can be sure we are sending a message to our children that God is not that important to us. When God’s Word makes an impact upon His people you will see people bowing down and humbling themselves before this great and awesome God. You will see people forsake their lives and attend the house of God. Prayer will increase. The fire of people’s hearts will be sustained by more prayer and preaching of God’s Word. Fellowship will increase and love will be deeper.
    God’s Word is like a fire and it is like a hammer. As a fire it will consume all selfishness and sin. And as a hammer it will break the heart’s hardness into little bits of pebble. When God is near lives are changed. In the days of Jeremiah there was not much true God. In America’s church there is not much changing taking place, except more self-seeking and self-serving.  We are in great need of revival. Great needs will be fulfilled when God’s people need Him. Souls will be saved when God’s people forsake the gods that are afar off and return to the God at hand.

  • When Old Faithful Isn’t

    There was a bothersome headline a while back from the USA Today, “Old Faithful Gets Fickle.” What? The famous geyser in Yellowstone National Park was not as faithful as it once was. The 140 foot tower of steam erupted faithfully about every 66 minutes, but something was not right as the report continued.
    The eruption could be predicted for 12:11 p.m. But it didn’t occur until 12:18 p.m. The one predicted for 2:46 p.m. jumped the gun at 2:38 p.m. The problem was that underground shifts by minor earthquakes occurred, plus vandalism by visitors. The “Tommy Tourists” would come by and throw things into the geyser’s hole, from chicken bones to underwear. What?
    Most of us have had something or someone that was kind of our “Old Faithful”, but they became “Old Unpredictable.” It might have been a job that you used to have and depended upon for a long time. Or it could have been a mate that took off and left you holding air and nothing but hopelessness. Maybe it was your parents’ marriage that hurt you deeply that caused a rift for your growing up days.
    Maybe your church or your spiritual leaders have let you down and they were once your “Old Faithful.” It hurts when an “Old Faithful” isn’t anymore. It leaves us disoriented, and afraid, and even unsure of ourselves or unsure of others. Our future can seem so drear and so uncertain. But don’t let it bring you down. While others let you down, you don’t have to go down.
    Remember this for today. Jeremiah says, “I remember my afflictions and wandering, the bitterness and the gall, I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him” (Lam. 3:19).

  • An Unclouded Day

    “And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain” (2 Samuel 23:4).

    The political parties are at extreme odds with one another. One is considered to be dark while the other is considered to be light. One is negative while the other is positive. The Democrats say our country is up. The Republicans say our country is down. We are living in a clouded day, a day of confusion.

    The Lord Jesus was neither an optimist nor pessimist but a realist. He saw things as they were and one day we will too. There is coming a day when there will be no more clouded days and heaviness of heart. God will take away away the clouds and the rain and the Light of Day will forever shine without clouds in the sky.

    We are going to a land of unclouded day and it is not just a pie in the sky mentality. It is God’s forever provision for His people who may weep through many a dark day but who are bound for the world where not only darkness is not present but even tears are passed away.

  • Scattered Word

    “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).

    In earlier days the Bible was maligned by even the religious establishment.  The church itself was against the translation of the Bible into languages of the people.  There were some who wanted the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, for themselves, for their own personal reading.  This evoked bitter and awesome persecution.  This privilege was denied the people for hundreds of years.  Martin Luther was a grown man when he said, “I have never seen a Bible,” and he had been in church all the days of his life.

    John Wycliffe translated the Bible into the language of the people.  He wanted it to be possible for anyone who wanted to know the Word to have it.  He said, “I’m going to make it possible that a plowman will know more of the Word of God than the priest himself, than the king himself.”  John Wycliffe died before men could burn him and try him.  But even after his death they exhumed and publicly burned his body, then cast his body as ashes upon the River Swift.  If anyone was found with a Wycliffe Bible , the Bible was hung around his neck and he was publicly hanged and burned.

    What the English inquisitors did not realize was that when they burned the body of Wycliffe and scattered his ashes on the River Swift, that river flowed into the Avon, and Avon flowed into the sea, and the sea loved the shores of the continents of the world, including the new land of America.  Wherever the sea carried the ashes of John Wycliffe, there God scattered the truth of the Word of the Living Lord.  Isn’t that glorious?  Over the whole face of the earth the Word of God has traveled.  That’s God!

  • The Feast of Tabernacles

    “And on the third day eleven bullocks, two Rams, fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish” (Numbers 29:20).

    There is coming a day of remarkable position for the nation of Israel. The Feast of Tabernacles prophesy to the day when the Kingdom promises and the beautiful bountiful land of Israel will be fully restored and enlarged.

    All promises and prophecies of Scripture are fulfilled in Christ. God’s blood accomplished what the animal sacrifices could not. All sin is forgiven and God is able to move in and make a way.

    You and I cannot live without the intercession and ministry of our Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus. He represents us before the Father. He is our advocate, mediator, and intercessor. As the day approaches to the coming of the King we need to spend much time in His presence depending upon Him for His work in us and through us.

    The sacrifices given during the Feast of Tabernacles were expensive. The grace of God is given to us because of the great value and expense of God’s sacrifice of His only Son. We should be thankful and offer all we are and have up to Him.

    May we not give to the Lord that which costs us nothing (2 Samuel 24:24; Malachi 1:6-11). What great joy to know the Lord of lords and the God of glory is going to return to set up His Kingdom forever!