GODLY DIRECTIVES - COMFORT AND JOY

We are a people under duress these days, in some degree or fashion. It is just the nature of life. Some are in more distress and some even feel as if they are adrift in the ocean, surrounded by sharks. Some just barely have their eyes above water and others walk around in a daze. Some are doing the bare minimum to survive, but are not sure why they do, what they do.

I have encountered two varying degrees of this hopelessness in just the period of thirty minutes while visiting a college campus.  One particular young man, who looked like a freshman, was very unsure of himself, obviously troubled with no father-figure. I wish I could have spent more time speaking hope and encouragement to him.  I was able to give him a copy of the bible and show him how to read the Psalms for comfort and encouragement. Then, a beautiful coed asked if I could pray for her as she sadly swilled down gut-churning Red Bull to stay awake in class. Both young people needed comfort and hope which only God can supply.

The Lord Himself told us in His Word that He is always there available for us. Look at how many times the word “COMFORT” is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1:4-7 (NASB).  Nine (9) times in four (4) verses, comfort is mentioned. The true Biblical meaning of comfort here is even more incredible. The original word, used by the Holy Spirit (the true Author of Scripture) for COMFORT here…is from the root word of….THE HOLY SPIRIT! Each of the nine times comfort is used, the root of the original – PARAKLETOS (Holy Spirit) – is evidenced.

The Holy Spirit IS God. He is the third member of the Trinity or Triune God. He lives ONLY in truly born-again.  One of the titles, or stated divine attributes of the Holy Spirit is Advocate.  He is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ and takes our prayers up the the Throne. 
2 Corinthians 1:4-7

4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 
6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

He (Holy Spirit) is the Counselor and guides us into the path of all Truth, as found in the Bible. If it is not in the Bible, it ain’t Truth.  Being the Counselor, He also interprets the Oracles of God, found in the Word of God, so that the people of God (us) can comprehend the Power, Majesties and Mercies of God. The Holy Spirit is also the Comforter. He is the Only One Who can bring comfort, peace, joy and the mercies of the Father to His people (us).  This is the comfort of which our Bible passage is speaks.

Therefore, because of these verses, we note the following:

• There is comfort in our afflictions (physical and mental pain), even if it appears to be the opposite at times. The Lord is still moving in His many ways.
• We can comfort others because God has dealt mercifully with us. Then, we can go even beyond what was given us, as the Grace has been multiplied to, so will be empowered to shower love, compassion and more on the lost and hurting.
• The comfort we share freely only has power because of the Sufferings and Price Jesus Christ paid with His life on the Cross, where we lay our burdens down and accepted Him as Lord, to begin with. The Main Comforter – the Holy Spirit – has authorized us to be the Hands and Feet of Christ, by His mere presence in our lives
• Now, comfort may even sound generic, unless we grasp the full measure of the Love of God through the Spirit’s intervention in our lives, to effect this truth. “Comfort” is not sitting on a luxurious couch from Ashley Furniture, watching a 75 inch TV with a pizza. It is a literal Heavenly salve to soothe our souls. It is even physical in its manifestation. This Heavenly Comfort spoken of in 2 Corinthians 1:6 is what we need to persevere in times of sickness, trouble, financial difficulty, relationship problems and more….even religious persecution.

What the Lord is actually teaching us here is that He has already made provision for us to make it through, basically, Life.  The Christian is the only one equipped to persevere, if he or she reads and comprehends the Word of God and His Ways. The reason is we have the Same Power within us Who raised Jesus from the dead, on the Third Day after He was crucified.  This fact carries great weight because, when activated properly, the strong believer in Christ is perfectly positioned to both receive mercy; strength; consolation; refreshing; encouragement and good cheer. All of these are wrapped up in the Biblical meaning of Godly comfort.

A VERSE AND A THOUGHT: PSALM 24: 8 - "JESUS - THE KING OF GLORY!!!"

Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle (Psalm 24:8)

THOUGHT:

Our point of reference of historical times for Kings and Rulers of bygone eras, are from books and movies. For most of human history, all major towns and cities had some sort of fortification or system to keep evil out and protect the townspeople.  This was necessary because mankind has always been sinful and evil, since the Fall of Man, recorded in Genesis Chapter 3.

The more significant the town or city, the stronger the fortress, turrets and wider the walls so that you could ride a chariot around it. Then when the ruler of king of that town would return from a campaign, or even hunting out in the countryside, the armorbearer would always have to call out to the Gatekeepers to “Open the Gates”. After the gatekeepers inquired as to the purpose of the visit, the armorbearer would say “It is the King, Let the King come in” (or something to that effect).

In this instance – Psalm 24:8, this is no ordinary King and He doesn’t need permission to come into any part of His Creation. This is the King, Commander and Creator of the Universe.  This is the Lord Jesus Christ. In this current Age, until the church/believers/Christians are called Home at once, in the final raising up, He still announces Who He is to the hearts and lives of all peoples, from all corners of this blessed earth.

The Majestic Lord, Who is currently occupying the Throne on the Right Hand of God the Father, still offers a Royal invitation to join Him in Eternity in Heaven – FOR FREE. There is an equation to fulfilling the requirements to being a resident of the Eternal Kingdom. He had it written down for us – confess (ask forgiveness wholeheartedly – after realizing you’re going down the wrong road); then believe in your heart (with every fiber in your being) that Jesus is Lord, then you SHALL be saved!  Did it cost you money in a church collection plate? No. Did it cost you obeying a bunch of rules and tenets of some man-written religious rule book? No. Did you have to go do something for it? No! Why not? Why would the King, Whom we assume will be a high-taxing, hard-driving, high-living monarch like all the other kings and rulers of the earth, give something away for free?

The free gift from the Royal Throne of Heaven is only free for one reason – the King paid the freight.  He did not send some lesser subject to do it, He came off His Majestic Throne, after creating ALL we see around us, and lowered Himself to be just like us in the flesh. The one major and most significant difference between This Eternal King and the human He became like, for only 33 years is this – He never sinned.  The King only never sinned, He came to explain everything  written about Him from Genesis to John the Baptist as well as the Law of Moses, which He told to Moses.

There is no mind like His. There is no work like His. There is no one comparable. He is not only the beginning and the end, He is in the middle of all history. History will boil down to only His story.

ACTION:

Knowing Jesus as Savior of all mankind is excellent. Knowing Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior is even more important to your final destination. At death, people go one of two places. There is no such thing as purgatory.  In order to KNOW the King as He really is, He must be completely the LORD of your life, as well as Savior. This means everything.  Here is how we proceed:

-     Take your foot off the gas pedal of your life. He owns the vehicle of your life, let Him drive from now on. It also reduces your stress level

-     Leave no corner of your life unswept by the Blood of the Lamb, the Washing of the Word and the Conviction of the Holy Spirit.

-      Allow the Holy Spirit, Who is the Ultimate Gentleman, to turn on the search light and recover every hidden cobweb and buried sin action from even from when we were 5 years old. Then repent of it and move on.

-     If your church does not teach on the Holy Spirit because “that is a Charismatic thing”, forget that – the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and does not follow church or men’s doctrines. He interprets our prayers and the thoughts of our spirit and communicates them with the Lord Jesus Who intercedes with the Father.  If you think your prayers are not answered, consider this – are you fully committed as a Christian to Jesus and if so, repent, surrender to Christ and ask the Holy Spirit to take full control. Do not grieve Him. He goes to the background when that happens. So keep it real, real clean and ask for His intervention. You will not regret it.

Psalm 24 has 10 verses. Verses 9 and 10 are the same as verses 7 and 8, so this is the end of this majestic ode to our great God and King – the Lord Jesus. There is a twofold purpose here. The first one is for the church of the Jesus to wake up from culturally induced slumber and realize just Who He really is! This makes a huge difference as we see less and less reverence for the power and holiness of God in most of our western churches these days, as well as less focus on making disciples.

Secondly, on an individual level, opening the gates to the King of ALL Glory, means the extreme vetting of our hearts and souls to ascertain, in the affirmative, if Jesus Christ TRULY is the Lord of our lives. Anything else is vanity. Amen.

"Before we can have any right idea of the love of Jesus, we must understand His previous glory in its height of majesty, and His incarnation upon the earth in all its depths of shame. But who can tell us the majesty of Christ? When He was enthroned in the highest heavens He was very God of very God; by Him were the heavens made, and all the hosts thereof. His own almighty arm upheld the spheres; the praises of cherubim and seraphim perpetually surrounded Him; the full chorus of the hallelujahs of the universe unceasingly flowed to the foot of his throne: He reigned supreme above all His creatures, God over all, blessed for ever. Quote from Charles H. Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening Devotional" - March 28, 2018

PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES - THE BOOK OF JAMES, #8

METHODOLOGY CONCERNING: HAPPINESS

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms (James 5:13b)

Most people I know only pray or ask for prayer in times of sickness, sadness and horrible tragedy. This is when all the calls for “thoughts and prayers” cometh forth. But do you know that God, our loving Heavenly Father, wishes to hear from us too when something good happens? There is nothing that happens to the believer which the Father hath not ordained. James says “every good gift  and every perfect gift is from above, and comes from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). This means “EVERY”.

The life we have, He gave it. The home we live in, He gave it. The spouse, children, parents and family we have, He gave it. The job, finances and automobiles we have, He gave. Our health, our joy, our peace of mind, our Salvation – all from Him. Why would we, therefore, not thank Him for any and all of this every single day?!

It is not the first time Scripture uses the word “cheerful”. When the Bible says “God loves a cheerful giver”, it means He loves someone who gives ungrudgingly, and  with a gracious attitude, or (attitude of gratitude).  The word also implies hilarity – jocularity and sheer joy which one is so filled with that it should burst forth to those around you, being grateful.

James not only brings up joy but directs us to the only true prayer book directly written by God – the Book of Psalms! Most of these psalms – all 150 of them – were written down by the great Biblical poet, King David but they emanated from the Spirit of God. This is so, for a reason – we are to pray them, learn them, sing them, read them, study them and simply  grow our faith through them.  A lot of modern contemporary worship singers like Third Day or Jeremy Camp have turned parts of psalms into amazing worship music. Third Day’s King of Glory is based on Psalm 24. But when James wrote this, all he had were the cantors in the Jerusalem Temple where Christians were not allowed (called “Followers of the Way” at that time). 

The closest you will ever come these days to what the psalms may have sounded like in Bible days can be listened to in these Messianic worship videos by Marty Goetz. Marty, like the Apostle Paul, was high up in Judaism as a Cantor, butwhen the Lord Jesus – Yeshua – saved him, Marty Goetz brought his brilliant talent, authentic synagogue background from the last 3500 years and his brilliant gift to singing Scripture.

Not all prayers are petitions asking something of our Great God in Heaven, through Jesus Christ. Some of them are designed to be just prayers of heartfelt praise and worship to our Creator and the King of the Universe!  Listen to part of Psalm 118 here, sung in original Hebrew, as recommended by James in Chapter 5, verse 13b. Some of what is being sung is from Psalm 118:25-26 "Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord....."

Image Credit: Vector Clipart