Finished At The Quarry – 1 Kings 6:7

 “And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.”

Consider the physical difficulty of this method of building the temple.  I imagine the stones were fitted at the quarry and then marked for order of placement at the temple site.  All this was accomplished without the computers and lasers that we have today.  It seems an engineering feat.

From the spiritual side, this method reminds us of a few scriptures about what God is doing in us here on earth.  Charles Stanley stated “God is faithful to finish what He starts. Once we accept Christ as our Savior, the work of sanctification begins.  And it continues.  There is always more to walking with God than what we’ve known, seen, learned or experienced.”  It is God that must begin the work, and He must continue the work – according to His Word.  The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul tells us “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  (Philippians 1:6)

God is sovereign, and He will accomplish His work in us in a way He knows will succeed.  When we truly trust that God loves us, we can know that everything we go through, especially the bad stuff, is part of His work in us – and likely those around us.  Sometimes the bad in our lives is simply the consequence of sin.  But other times, when the bad stuff is unrelated to our actions, it is ever so helpful to know that God has a purpose.  As He chisels us into the fit and form that He desires, that He knows is best for us, in due time, if we ask, He will reveal His purpose to us. 

It is also helpful to know that we are not alone.  As fellow citizens, the work God is doing in us is fitting us together, such that we can grow into a holy temple, a dwelling place for Him.  “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  (Ephesians 2:19-22)

How I long for the day of Jesus Christ, the only righteous King and true Prince of Peace.  I know I will not attain perfection on this side of Heaven, but I pray I do not resist the work God will do in me in preparation for that glorious day.

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Redeemed From Distress – 1 Kings 1:29

 “And the king took an oath and said, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from every distress,”

This was at the end of king David’s life, his health was failing.  His life certainly had been filled with challenges, some of his own making, some not.  King David knew distress.  But he was a man of God, a man after God’s own heart.  Why then was his life not a bowl of cherries? 

There are many preachers who give people the impression that if a person just turns their life over to Jesus, they will make a bunch of money and everything will be good.  However, when folks who turn to Jesus under that impression encounter difficulties in life, as life undoubtedly will bring, they feel cheated or like God has let them down.  They become discouraged.

We do not have divine immunity from distress.  Scripture teaches that life this side of Heaven will involve more than mere difficulties, it will include sufferings – specifically for those who love and serve Jesus, and who believe in His resurrection.   Jesus said “If the world hates me, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:18-20a)  The apostle Paul also gives us this unfortunate Biblical promise “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  (2 Timothy 3:12)

“The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian isn't the fact that a Christian doesn't have distresses and doesn't have problems because I have just as much distress and problem as an ungodly person has. The only thing is I have One who redeems me out of them all. The ungodly not so. They've got to make their way the best they can through them or perish in them or whatever. But the Lord will redeem my soul out of all distresses.” (Chuck Smith)

We can have joy in knowing that Jesus will be with us through all our problems, that He will deliver us and bring us out victorious.   When Jesus gave the command to make disciples, he also made a promise, and He keeps His promises.  “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20)  You are not alone.  Through every problem, Jesus is with you.

David did not say that the LORD kept his soul from distress, rather that the LORD redeemed his life from every distress.  Not just some:  all.  May each of us be able to confess with our mouth this praise of God, now and at the end of our life on earth.

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God Speaks Great Things – Hosea 8:12

“I have written for him the great things of My law, But they were considered a strange thing.”

In the book of Hosea, God speaks through His prophet telling the people of the Northern Kingdom the consequences of their sins and iniquity.  Sins such as worshiping idols as gods, one consequence of which is that they will never attain innocence.  Or going to Assyria or Egypt for help, instead of turning to God, as a result they will be abused by these nations.  And by leaving their God, they abandon His protection.  These are a few in the list of sins and consequences. 

What we learn from this passage is how God Himself feels about His Holy Word.  He is telling us here He wrote it.  He says it includes great things for our discovery.  And in it He provides the way to living free from the grip of sin and evil of our own doing, individually and collectively as a nation.

Charles Spurgeon says “This volume is the writing of the living God: each fetter was penned with an Almighty finger; each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips, each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit.  If this be the Word of God, what will become of some of you who have not read it for the last month? Most people treat the Bible very politely . . . When they get home, they lay it up in a drawer till next Sunday morning; then it comes out again for a little bit of a treat and goes to chapel; that is all the poor Bible gets in the way of an airing. That is your style of entertaining this heavenly messenger. There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write “damnation” with your fingers.  The Bible speaks of great things, and of great things only. There is nothing in this Bible which is unimportant. Every verse in it has a solemn meaning, and if we have not found it out yet, we hope yet to do it.”

For those individuals that have not surrendered to Christ and therefore do not have the Holy Spirit living in them, the Word of God can seem strange.  It can feel anywhere from oppressive to silly.

For those of us who have surrendered to Christ, we should all have a steady diet of feeding on the Word of God every day.   We should get to the point that if we miss out on reading for the day, we feel a hungering emptiness like we have missed a meal.  We pray to God, He is speaking to us through His Word.  Set a goal to read through the Bible at whatever pace suits your lifestyle.  Mark in your Bible where you discover great things.  Make notes.  When you finish, start over again.  Use your Bible so much that it falls apart and you must buy another.  Mix it up the next time around.  Try the NASB version, then NKJ, then ESV.  There will be things you do not understand, but keep on reading and praying.

“[It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter.”

Proverbs 25:2

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Depart from the Faith – 1 Timothy 4:1-3

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” (NKJV)

“Some will depart from the faith” indicates that there will be individuals who participate in church and claim to be a Christian with Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but they will draw away or have drawn away to follow a different gospel.  I used to think they were deceived, but the scripture above states that they will speak lies in hypocrisy. 

The Greek term translated for hypocrisy refers to ‘a stage actor,’ and Webster defines hypocrisy as ‘a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially:  the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.’ Hypocrisy is nothing new.  In the Old Testament, the term hypocrite can be found in Job and Proverbs, such as Proverbs 11:9 in the NKJV: The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.  The NASB on the same verse uses the term ‘godless man’ instead of hypocrite.  A godless person is opposed to or forgetful of God.  Really, these people are in the church?  In the New Testament, we see hypocrisy was a frequent criticism that Jesus had of the religious leaders.

When we invite people to church, we frequently hear “why should I go to that church, those people are a bunch of hypocrites.”  In general, I can see their point.  From their perspective, we profess to be Christians, or Christ-like, yet we sin.  We get mad, we hold grudges, we gossip, we judge.  Shameful.  Things the Bible tells us not to do.  What an unbeliever does not understand is that our Savior died for our sins past, present and future.  I have heard it said (and said it myself) “the only difference between a sinner and a saint is the Savior.”  True indeed, but the difference should be much more.  We should be striving to live holy lives through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God, and repent to God when we fail and seek forgiveness from those we have hurt.  If someone does not feel conviction from the Holy Spirit during or after committing a sin (or even thinking about it), that person needs to consider whether their “conscience has been seared by a hot iron.”  Have they departed from the faith?  Did they ever have it?  I thank God the faithlessness of man does not disprove the faithfulness of God.

So we see a world view of hypocrisy about the congregation, which is dangerous enough to the gospel.  Here, however, Paul is addressing something even more harmful: hypocrisy in church leadership, in teachings.  Even though there are deceiving spirits, through prayer and diligent scripture study it is possible to identify a leader, a church, or even a religion that is speaking lies in hypocrisy, one that is opposed to God. 

The Apostle John tells us in his first epistle “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1, NKJV).  John continues, describing one way to test a spirit “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”  (1 John 4:2-3)  Who is this Jesus Christ that John confessed?  The ‘Son of God,’ he says in 1 John 4:15.  Also John described Him in the beginning of his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)  A few verses later, John goes back to stating that Jesus came in the flesh “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)  So Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, come in the flesh.  Those are good scriptures to test a spirit, and it is only a list of three.  We encourage you to look for more.

What is this doctrine of demons?  In the Bible there are two doctrines, the truth of God’s doctrine, and everything else that is the doctrine of demons.  Once again, use prayer and scripture.  Anything that adds to or takes away from the finished work of Jesus Christ is a doctrine of demons.  Give me specific examples you say?  False teachings such as you can only be saved if you are baptized in a particular church, or you must worship only on a particular day, or you must pray to another ‘god’ to intercede (such as Mary), or you must speak in tongues to have the Holy Spirit, or you cannot eat certain foods, or that a religious leader cannot marry.  Stop and think about each of those individually.  It makes it easy to argue we are in the latter times because the doctrine of demons is thriving.

Be careful out there.  “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”  (Matthew 10:16)  Ask God for wisdom and He will grant it. 

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (Col 1:9).

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.