"THINK" SERIES: PART 7 - "WHATEVER IS NOBLE"

 THINK BIBLICALLY - #2 

" Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things". (Philippians 4:8)

Most Christians know the Bible's great examples of character, dignity, gravitas, and honor. Men like Enoch, who the Bible says "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24) all the days of his life, and God thought so much of him that He took him to heaven as a very young man. How about Daniel, the prophet who inspired the Magi of the Christmas story? Daniel was so full of integrity, character, and love for God, that he refused to bow down to King Darius of Babylon's edicts and ended up in the lion's den (Daniel 6 here).

The man or woman of God who thinks and lives Biblically and stays diligent to that calling has a special place in the Heart of God. Look at what the Lord sent His chief warrior Angel Michael to say to Daniel, for his faithfulness and honor (Daniel 10:12) "“Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words". What words, you ask? Please read all of the book of Daniel, but especially Daniel's prayer in Chapter 9.

Our key verse for thinking Biblically - Philippians 4:8, has as its second exhortation from heaven: "Whatever things are noble". The original biblical Greek word here is "semnos" which means honorable, dignified, worthy of respect, and noble. 

It is not enough to be a faithful believer who lives right, pays taxes, obeys the law, goes to work, does a great job, loves God, and loves other people, primarily your family. It is not enough to do all of those wonderful things. We must carry ourselves - men and women - in such good repute that we not only NEVER bring the Name of Jesus to disrepute as too many Christians do these days, but there should be no doubt about who we are when we walk into our workplace, church, or community gathering, that this is a person who walks the talk.

Being a person of noble character also carries the moniker of one who does not gossip or engage in double-speech. This person is also temperate when everyone else is losing their collective minds. He or she is sensible and calm, gentle and firm, yet full of Truth and love. Being of noble character begins with THINKING God's thoughts. 

This is how Daniel's character shined so much that God took note and rewarded him with a special blessing from the Heavenly Throne. You and I can have that same favor with God that Daniel had.

All that you and I will need to do is have the same reverence, awe, respect AND self-respect which Daniel exhibited.  It all began with his thought life or his extremely high view of God. The meaning of the word "noble" in our verse, reminds us that we are commanded to think, and therefore act differently than the world around us.

Thinking Biblically by being in awe of God, by having the ultimate respect and reverence for Him and by living this way, is the true sign of a thoughtful lifestyle, based on Truth - His Truth - the Only Truth. Amen

Father, just as You have done in ages past, please give us the courage and boldness to live like Daniel did, the Courage to bow the knee to no one but You; the courage to proclaim Your Name to a dying corrupt world and the courage to live every moment with our guard up, so that we will never slip up in public or private. May we have those thoughts, beliefs, and actions which are consistent with the Truths of Scripture and walk with and in them all the days of our lives, in Jesus' Strong Name amen.

Image Credit: Free Christian Illustrations

THE APPLE OF HIS EYE

Apples are an amazing fruit. In the summer, it's a favorite of picnics everywhere as baskets get packed for the great outdoors of Creation. In the Fall, the fragrance of apples light up the atmosphere as cold pressed cider from your neighborhood orchard attract us like bees to the honeycomb. By winter, Apple pies coming out of hit ovens and garnished with vanilla ice cream are the essence of life.

There's an apple for every taste bud- the stock red delicious for everyday, or the Gala for the exquisite. How about the Jonathan, Braeburn or golden delicious itself! Most of the apples on display from late summer through Fall are grafted. They come from rootstock which combined with the PH factor soil and the scion added to the rootstock, gives us variety of apples we see at Apple barns and markets. The rootstock is the main root in the ground and the scion is the chip or portion of another tested variety which is grafted to the rootstock. The same is true to other fruit trees like pears, berries and more.

When a new apple tree is transferred from the nursery to the ground....whether the residential backyard or the commercial orchard, everything then depend on the rootstock and the soil. The apple tree in this photo was planted less than two years ago. However, it will be another 2-3 years before it begins bearing fruit by the bushel, no matter how many tiny little apples are showing here. So it is with our faith. 

At the moment of conversion, when Christ brought us out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His Marvellous Light, we were grafted into the very Rootstock of Heaven! Everything depended on and still depends on Him. We are the little scion grafted into the rootstock. The Holy Spirit provides the nutrition for us to go and it does take time for us to grow and bear fruit. 

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude....Colossians 2:6-7

The analogies to the productive and powerful Christian life are so real in relation to apple trees that it's uncanny. These two short verses are proof from the Word of God. The maturing Christian life starts with Christ, remains in Christ and grows in Christ! 

So, how do we grow, mature and live a fruitful life which is pleasing to God?

1. Receive Christ. Jesus is Lord and He died for all. The Holy Spirit convicts, we respond, relent, repent, reach out and surrender to His calling for rejuvenation. We must then receive the gift.

2. Just a closer walk with Him. When Jesus saves you and I, He is immediately our best Friend! He knows the way because He is Way. He saved us to be with Him for eternity so this is absolutely natural. Enoch WALKED with God for 300 years and was no more because God took His best friend at the time Home, to be with Him while he (Enoch) was still alive. The fruit of Enoch's evangelism, faith and family was found in men like Methusalah and Noah! 

3. Be a scion to the Rootstock. Like the bunch of grapes is connected to the vine, we. MUST be firmlygrounded, having taken up personal residence in the Rock and Root called Jesus Christ. 

4. Be built up. The scion is grafted into the rootstock of salvation and we are nourished in the rich soil of the Bible, prayer and praise fueled by the Holy Spirit. 

5. Be established. This kind  establishment is NOT the status quo of mortal worldly lost men. This is the maturing status of the Qualified...the qualified who shows a little fruit in a few years only to bear bushels of bountiful goodness, worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

The maturing Christian is like an apple tree in many respects. The faithfully surrendered believers among us seek to become apples of His Eye. Why not, press on? Amen

PART 2 - ENOCH'S WALK PLEASED GOD

There is “Walking with the Lord”….and then there is the PLEASING Walk with the Lord, which most westerners in the Body of Christ fall short on. Too many are using the Lord as a crutch, while pleasing themselves in hot pursuit of the American Dream. 

We are called to be humble disciples and followers of Jesus Christ. We are not called to be in an all-out,  full-fledged Pursuit of the now elusive formula of high school, license at age 16; college; big job;  big suburban home, iPad and iPhone and a BMW or Ford Explorer. We are called to something less frustrating and more fulfilling than this pipe dream! The  fruits of this are becoming more and more evident, as more and more families are seeing their kids’ and grandkids’ dreams disappear before our eyes.  Due to  liberals and their politicians/academics and even lax parenting, many expect their children to be worse off in their adult lives, than they were. 

The Church has been no help, in the west. Like all entitlement societies, the Lord’s so-called “under-shepherds” have found the formula to their own cushy lifestyles and it is not by preparing their flocks (or congregations) for trials, tribulations and “he who perseveres to the end, will be saved”. As a result, very few….a very small fraction of the actual 9% of Americans who are born-again Christians, find the secret of that “pleasing walk with the Lord”.

Hebrews 11:5 says “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death,  “and was not found, because God had taken him” (a direct quote from Genesis 6: ); for  before he was taken, he had this testimony, THAT HE PLEASED GOD (emphasis mine).

Oh that would be said that our testimony “pleased God”!  First we would have to know what a testimony really was and secondly, do we have one of those!  According to Webster’s Dictionary, a testimony is “proof or evidence that something exists or is true”. It is also an “open acknowledgment”  in terms of Faith – of what the Lord has done for and to us in our spiritual lives. The key words here are “proof”, “evidence”, “true and “open acknowledgement”.  Ten times out of ten, a person’s general testimony describes the conversion story of the person giving the Testimony and the road which that same person is now on, in his Faith Journey. I once asked a person to give his testimony at a certain meeting, and he basically got up and said he had none. 

Enoch did not have that problem. The Great Faith Chapter of Hebrews 11 said he HAD this testimony – “THAT HE PLEASED GOD”! How did a man four thousand years ago, with no church building; no ministry website or 501 C(3); books and DVDs “please God” when we today have everything and know our conduct is nowhere near this kind of Faith. Simple - Enoch was a simple man but he also had the benefit of direct knowledge of the sin of his literal ancestor - Adam!

Enoch saw the filth and degradation all around him as his corrupt world headed for the Great Flood...and obviously stayed away from it. He and his family, which included Methuselah, remained faithful in their pro-active Faith in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Like Job and Abraham, they believed God and He reckoned it to them as righteousness. These men, especially Enoch and Job, pleased God with their upright lifestyle. Hebrews 11:6 confirms that it was Enoch's strong Faith which led the Lord to rapture him out alive.

The verse said "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." There it is right there - if you wish to please God, if you wish to have a pleasing Journey through Life with our Creator - Faith is all it takes. 

To the unbeliever and those who follow pagan religions, this Truth is difficult to comprehend due to its simplicity.  This kind of pleasing Faith has a component which is not a general characteristic of the modern Christian: "diligently seeking the Lord". This implies active pursuit of the Truth and thus, the Favor of the Lord.

How do we do that? Is there a famous "seven point plan for that"? Is there a self help book by some famous author for that? Yes! A Famous Author told us - the Holy Spirit gave us the Scriptures to know God and therefore, love, trust and obey. With obedience, comes the "drawing near" or coming to God, as Hebrews 11:6 tells us. We come near through prayer, intercession, fasting and walking in His Marvelous Light. We come near through seeing His Hand in every single thing around us and then allowing Him to be Lord of your life, but submitting to His Will. 

My recommendation is to understand that He is the "rewarder" of all things, but to stay away from focusing too heavily on the rewards, and more on the relationship side of the ledger.  You and I cannot out-give God, but we can do our best to live out our lives for Him. 

PART 1 - ENOCH "WALKED WITH GOD"....

In a world, where life is lived at warped speed, it is profoundly difficult to fathom our Life's Journey as a "Walk" with the Lord, our God. "Walking" implies an activity which is done at a steady and/or measured pace. It is even more delightful if done with someone whom you love or admire, such as a spouse, your children or a close friend. Even more precious, though, is our "Walk with the Lord".

We get a hint of how wonderful walking is when we read in Genesis 3:8 that ... they (Adam and Eve) heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Three things stand out here here: 
- The Lord (Jesus Christ the Creator) walks 
- His garden welcoming and comfortable with cool and full of trees
- The Presence of Him Who made us was in the Walk.

This may challenge theological thinking from seminaries and other man-made formulas, but I know now, that even when I was not walking with the Lord in my rebellious days, He was with me. I know that now, looking back at all the times He rescued me from the pit and those who would do me harm.  It is obvious that before they sinned, Adam and Eve walked and fellowship with the Lord. The above-mentioned verse confirms this.  But it was not just this truth, but the fact that Jesus also WALKED WITH them before the Fall! He was present and was with them as they did the work He called them to in the Garden.

The open and vile sin of both Adam and Eve of listening to a filthy serpent when you are accustomed to being the Presence of the Creator of this amazing Universe, is truly stunning. We all know the current state of the world is because of that sin, but for the purposes of "Walking with the Lord", what does this look like and what does it mean for us?

A much overlooked Biblical hero is a man named Enoch, a direct descendant of Adam and the great-grandfather of Noah. The Book of Genesis said this about Enoch: "Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:22b–24).

Going back one verse to Genesis 5:21-22a, we see that something happened to Enoch at age 65...and this should be an encouragement to us, no matter how old we are...or even if we think we are TOO old and God cannot use us! This verse says in part "Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years." After Enoch became the father of the oldest man in the Bible - Methusaleh - it says that he walked with God for the next 300 years!

Methusaleh is important as his name literally means in Hebrew "his death shall bring judgment".  Methusaleh lived 969 years and at his death, the Great Flood was sent to cleanse the earth of all human degradation. Enoch means "dedicated" (Chanokh in the original Hebrew) and by his 300 year Walk with the Lord, his dedication led to his unique translation into Heaven. Enoch is only one of two men in the Bible who did not experience physical death. Elijah is the other one.

When God gives a name in Scripture, He is directly communicating something by that designation. He changed the name of Abram to Abraham. He changed the name from Saul to the Apostle Paul and called His chief disciple (Simon Barjonah) to Peter. When God caused Jared to name his son Enoch, the Lord knew that the latter would be dedicated to Him.

Since words mean thing, we need to look at the word "dedication" from whence Enoch's name was derived. Websters Dictionary described "Dedication" as the following:
- a feeling of very strong support for or loyalty to someone or something 
- an act or rite of dedicating to a divine being or to a sacred use
- self-sacrificing devotion
- the quality or state of being dedicated to a person, group, cause
- the act of officially saying that something (or here, somebody like Enoch) was created for a particular purpose (such as worship) or to remember or honor a particular person.

Webster's has described the perfect Walk with God, without knowing it! A man (Enoch), whose name means dedicated, walked for 300 years as a loyal man of God who saw the evil of his day, and gave up worldly pleasures (in self-sacrifice) to remain true and loyal, having been set apart (or dedicated) for God, as one of His own. Being set apart like this is a perfect example of the sanctification, which the true woman or man of God is experiencing right now, due to our surrender to Jesus as Lord.

The man or woman of God was (and is) also created for the most particularly important function and that is to worship, honor and obey the Father. All of this is directly implicated in the name of Enoch!

Do we have this kind of dedication? If we do not, we are not walking in Spirit, Truth and Righteousness! Have we dedicated our life to walking with Him, in the fullness of His Presence?
Does our Walk glorify Him?
Are we walking behind or away from Him, by sins of omission as well as commission? 
Are we even walking ahead of Him, but not waiting on His prompting, guidance and direction which can only be gotten through prayer? By doing this, we are chasing windmills.
Are we?

These are questions which each individual has to answer on his or her own.  There is a benefit for the Christian to be walking in sync, and in God's timing and pace, rather than behind or ahead of Him. 

When we walk behind Him, we lose the blessings of His Presence and Power in our lives. We may even be at risk of backsliding and losing fellowship with Him.

When we walk ahead of Him, we short-circuit His wonderful plans and purpose for us and put ourselves in a world of hurt, due to our impatience. There is nothing more perfect than God's Timing. So why blow it by doing things your own way and not waiting on the Lord? 

We have all committed these errors and paid the price of stress, anxiety and failure. Isn't it time, therefore, to have the kind of walk - like Enoch - so that we too can say like the Psalmist "In Your Presence, there is fullness of Joy"!  This kind of fullness can only come, by walking daily and keeping pace with, the One Who saved us by His Grace.

THE EYES OF THE LORD, Part 1 - NOAH

Genesis 6:8 says "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD".

The eyes are the windows to the soul, but how are the Eyes of God…the Almighty, All Powerful, All-seeing; All-knowing Mighty Eyes of our God?

In human terms, our field of vision is limited to the physical environment we currently occupy. Not so with the Lord.  The Voice that spoke the Creation into being has Eyes which always WERE, ARE and WILL BE. Therefore those Eyes pierce to the quick of the matter, the core of the human condition.

Those are also the Eyes which looked down at Creation in the Book of Genesis and said "it was Good"! In this short series of posts, we wish to look at some of the mentions of the "Eyes of the Lord" and what each one means. Today, we see right of the bat at the beginning of time (in the sense of humanity), that Noah, the great grandson of Enoch - found Favor in the "Eyes of the Lord".

Taken in its fuller context, we see from this chapter 6 of Genesis that everything man was doing was perverted, evil and corrupt. It was so horrible and horrid, as a foul aroma to the Lord, that He said in Genesis 6:6, that He regretted ever creating man! How bad is it, for the gracious and most merciful God of Heaven, to be so aggrieved (according to Scripture) that He was so sorry that He made man, He wiped everyone out except Noah and his immediate family?! 

We know how disgusting and foul-smelling evil is. We see it from border to border, from sea to shining sea, from culture to church corridors all over America and western Europe. What we need to focus on, is goodness and righteousness and the veritable FAVOR OF THE LORD.  Noah found favor. How did that occur?

Well, we look back to a man named Enoch who lived only a "few" years compared to others in his family tree! Enoch, a direct descendant of Adam, became father to Methuselah at age 65. Then Scripture says that Enoch "walked with God for three hundred years" after Methusaleh was born...(Genesis 5:22). Then in Genesis 5:24, the Lord says that "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him".

There was something about this family. All Enoch's ancestors were fruitful and multiplied and created enough people to populate the known earth at that time. Before Enoch was taken into Heaven without dying at age 365, he had other children who are not mentioned here. Only Methusaleh and his son Lamech and Lamech's son Noah (and his three sons) are mentioned by name before the great Flood. This family had the Favor of the Lord upon them. This was literally four generations of men who were preachers for the Lord!

In the original Paleo-Hebrew language (which Moses wrote and is different from modern day Hebrew) we start with Enoch and immediately notice that his name means "teaching or commencement".

Methusaleh, was the prophet of doom, for the corrupt around who refused to listen to his messages. He lived the longest life in the Bible, because like the prophet Jeremiah, God was trying to give His people time to repent and turn from their wicked ways. Methusaleh, who was preaching God's message of repentance (like Jeremiah) means "his death shall bring"....and as soon as he died - BOOM - the Flood's plans were put into motion by the Lord.

Lamech, the grandson of Enoch, son of Methusaleh and father of Noah, means "lamentation" or "despairing". You see the parallel to Jeremiah here, who wrote the book of Lamentations about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians!

Noah, the last of these four great preachers for the Lord, means "to bring rest, or comfort". He brought rest and comfort, not to the evil what was wiped out by the Flood but to the new earth after God had reset things. 

By being obedient to the Lord and taking ridicule for decade after decade while he painstakingly built that Ark, and raised his family in righteousness, Noah was loved mightily by God - he found favor and grace was showered upon him. God literally saw, with His own Eyes, Noah's faithfulness and loved him, with a mighty love.  The fourth in this line of preachers, then got to save a portion of all creation, and even the members of his own family.

Are the Eyes of the Lord looking into your heart and mine, and seeing that same faithfulness, love, obedience, integrity and more? Let us then search our heart to see if our walk is like Enoch through Noah, and if we even merit the Favor and Grace of the Lord! This can only occur, if we, like Enoch through Noah, are walking in the Light of the Lord - and that Lord is Jesus Christ, Messiah of the whole world.
Amen.

THINK ON THESE THINGS - THURSDAY

JESUS KNOCKS DOWN THE GATES OF DEATH FOR HIS SAINTS

WORD FOR TODAY: SEPARATION!

Faith is well….taking things on “Faith”. There used to be a time when the U.S. Dollar represented the “full faith and credit” of these United States of America. We all know what happened to the latter – the credit of the United States is lower than a crawling reptile’s stomach! The full faith part still exists. In fact, some people seem to have more faith in the concept of this great country, than they have faith in the God Who created us!

Our next verse in the Hebrews 11 Series is 13 "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth….Hebrews 11:13 ESV

Every Old Testament saint died without seeing the Great Hope and Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam knew the Creator Jesus, Who walked in the “cool of the Garden” and talked with Adam daily. But he lost that fellowship after sinning with Eve and the serpent in Genesis 3. Still, the Lord provided for and blessed his family. What about the others?

The following well known saints died without seeing the Promise of Christ, yet they believed: Enoch; Noah; Joshua; Samuel, King David; Jeremiah; Daniel; Hosea and Abraham. These are the well known faithful ones, but there were many, many whom God calls His Remnant throughout the almost 4000 years before Christ, who never sold out to the world, sin and Satan!

They are like you and I!!

They are the ones who went about their lives; raised their families and had a Fear of Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel. We hardly ever see the awe and respect and fear for Holy God we read and know about from Tradition or of long ago Biblical Worship services. 

But while the modern church does not conduct according to the high standards of Old Testament believers, in our own lives and families, we do not have to participate. 

So for today - the word is SEPARATION. Yes, separate yourself from the Culture and the Filth, even if we have to live and work next door to or IN it! 

Let us be strangers and exiles like those whom we read about in Hebrews 11:13!

Amen!