THIRTY ONE DAYS OF BIBLE TRUTHS - DAY 15 (ONE THING)

BIBLE VERSE:  One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord (Psalm 27:4 )

TRUTH:  Have you ever wondered why Jesus prayed “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”? There are a host of reasons but one of the main ones is Worship. We humans were created to worship. We are compelled to worship and commanded to worship by the God Who wrote His Law on each human heart. In his rebellion, the majority of mankind has always worship anything but the One True God of the Bible. But David,  under inspiration from the Holy Spirit, exemplifies what a man or woman of God should think, walk, talk, and be like. ONE THING – he prayed in this verse, one thing he asked from the Lord. By standing on those two words, we too can exhibit to our Heavenly Father that He alone is EVERYTHING. 

This one thing remains – just as our God inhabits and abides in the praise and worship of His people, we too much see to dwell in His House for every more and worship in His Temple.  Isaiah Chapter 6 tells us of the sheer power, awe and majesty of the Temple of the Lord with the Cherubim and Seraphim flying back and forth before God’s Throne saying “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty”. This is the real Temple of God and there are no designer coffee and expensive HD projectors with super star preachers. There is only God and Him Alone. This is where David wants to behold and look on the sheer awe of God forever more! This is an incredible reality and WOW! Is this your “ONE THING”? IT SHOULD BE!

THIRTY DAY PRAYER CHALLENGE - DAY 27

PRAY THE NAMES OF GOD

DAY 27
GOD IS ABBA (FATHER)



A childless couple adopts a baby, let us say, around 1960. Then the baby grows up to be a great kid, with straight A's in school and plays shortstop on the Varsity baseball team. His name is Scott.


After graduating, he goes to the local Junior college where he excels both in math, chemistry and still plays baseball for their team. After transferring his credits to the big four year state college, he graduates Magna Cum Laude and decides to accept a job offer with a local bank, whose manager has seen his name in the town weekly, ever since he played High School baseball. 


This young man then falls in love and marries the boss' daughter, around say 1985. They have three kids, buy a home in a new subdivision and live happily ever after!


Now, Scott was adopted. The first thing his permanently new parents did was give Scott THEIR last name, because he belongs to them as a member of their family. Scott has all the rights, privileges and yes, responsibilities of being a legitimate member of that family. He is no less loved by Jack and Diane Smith, than if they had their own biological twins. 


Scott is no less a member of the Smith family than Kristen, their miracle daughter who was born five years after Scott was adopted. In fact, no one would have ever known Scott was adopted until he himself mentioned it, when he became Mayor of his little town in 2010 and was honoring his dear parents!


Scott is us. His natural born sister, Kristen, is the Jewish people whom God called His chosen people. We are now all the same family in God. When God sent Jesus Christ to be the Jewish Messiah and they rejected Him, the second part of God's plan was revealed - save the rest of the world.  Jesus sent one of His disciples biggest persecutors - Saul - to accomplish that job. Christ did that when He knocked him blind, off his horse when Saul was heading to Damascus to kill more Christians.


Saul met the Living Jesus in the Third Heaven, as he said, and promptly became Paul - the greatest evangelist the world has ever seen. Here is what Paul wrote about his OWN adoption (and ours) into God's family, as a result of his Conversion on the Road to Damascus:
"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:15-17 ESV)


That is correct - we are adopted sons and daughters of God and He is our Abba - our Daddy! The word Abba represents the father side of the equation of the father-child relationship in a family. It literally means just that - Dad! This Spirit of adoption which Paul talks about is the Holy Spirit - the Comforter - Who descends into us. The Spirit does that once we are saved and moved from a child of hell, to being a child of the Real God, sealed with the Blood of Christ, Which washed us clean!


Only the Christian, born-again through the Lord Jesus Christ, can legitimately claim to be an Adopted Daughter or Son of the Living God! Only we have the right to cry out to Him "Abba, Father"...and know He will hear us! Now, aren't you glad you are His?!


So Father, in the Name of Jesus, YOU are my Father in Heaven! You are my Daddy! You are my Creator; Provider; Protector; Nourisher; Healer; Banner...in fact I can go on and on until the end of time and still find amazing names to call You! You, oh God, are my All in All!


My Father in Heaven, hallowed, holy, righteous, pure and GREAT is Your Name! I thank You Lord for calling me out of the darkness which the Power of Sin had me living in, into the Kingdom of Your Marvelous Light.

I thank You, Lord, that You sent that Light, Jesus Christ, to be Savior of the World, because YOU, Oh God, are the Father of Lights Who giveth all good things to all Your people.


I thank You, Lord, that You sent the Spirit of that significant event of my salvation through the Cross. That Spirit is not only purely God, but wholly and Holy You! He not only testifies to the Truth of the Gospel and the Full Counsel of Your Word, He has sealed me until the Day of Redemption, when Jesus my Advocate stands before You as my Kinsman Redeemer and says "this one's Mine"! WOW!! PRAISE YOU, PRAISE YOUR HOLY NAME!! WOOHOO!! AMEN!


I thank You, Lord, that this same Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Adoption as well as my Teacher and Guide because He testifies daily that I am truly a member of YOUR family...of YOUR Kingdom...and that I  am truly saved by YOUR Son - Jesus, the King!


I thank You, Lord, that because of that Adoption, You have made me a joint Heir with Christ in the Eternal Kingdom where we will live together, learning and rejoicing and worshiping and thanking You forever and ever!  Amen!

Thank You, Father, for just being You and loving me, even when I am at my most unlovable as Your adopted son, according to the Love and Works and Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom all perfection and glory resides...and it is in His Name I pray, amen.

TOMORROW: GOD IS, WELL, EVERYTHING!

(image by google images)

THINK ON THESE THINGS - SATURDAY

Think of the word "FOREVER" and we think "never-ending" or infinity.We like to write love songs which tell the object of our true love "I will love you forever"....or the old country song asks, tongue in cheek "How long is Forever....this time"!!


If you look at the last few words of the LORD's PRAYER, you may understand why I am spending so much time on one sentence. We are in Day 4 of this one phrase! Today we look at what modern readers call "FOREVER" but which the English translators of the Bible recognize as literal...and these are two words: "FOR EVER"!

Matthew 6: 8-13:

Our Father in heaven,
      Hallowed be Your name.
      Your kingdom come.
      Your will be done
      On earth as it is in heaven.
      Give us this day our daily bread.
   And forgive us our debts,
      As we forgive our debtors.
    And do not lead us into temptation,
      But deliver us from the evil one.
      For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen.

We see here, the Lord Jesus actually used two words "for ever" and not "FOREVER".  While they are synonyms, the literal phrase has more impact for the following reason:
FOR: EIS (The Original Greek) ...meaning into, in, unto, to, upon, towards, for or among.
EVER: AION (The Original Greek)...meaning an age, a cycle (of time), especially of the present age as contrasted with the future age, and of one of a series of ages stretching to infinity.


Jesus is more intentional about the Majesty, Mighty and Mystery of His and our Father in Heaven than just a flippant throwaway line in a song about "forever". Get this again - EIS AION - the Lord MEANS that all of these awesome attributes of God are for a cycle or period of time, from Eternity past and not just NOW, but into the future as far as infinity...AND BEYOND! (Incidentally, we get the word 'eon' or 'aeon' from this Greek word, to describe a long period of time.)


Wrap your mind around this for a few minutes and it will but thrill and awe you, just how long and GREAT GOD really is! This is why, when we evangelize, we had better show the unsaved person, the need to  realize how long Eternity away from God really is...and that they really don't want to go there!


LET US PRAY:
ELOHEY KEDEM - oh God of the Beginning, You are the Beginning and Genesis of all things and all mankind! Before there was time, You were there. The creator of Time, You are here, Jehovah Shammah. The God of future Time, You see us there. With You, there is no end. Many will go into everlasting judgment, Father, but You, oh Eternal God, see Your saints from the viewpoint of perfection outside of the realm of time.
Father You have caused Eternity to be built into the very souls and fiber of the human soul. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says You set eternity in the hearts of men. You know our innermost thoughts and leanings, because You have created us. Come now, Lord Jesus, in the Name of Abba Father, and fill us with a sense of Awe and Power of just how Perfect and Magnificent You are that we may grab just an inkling of what all of this really means....just how meaningful the word Eternity is! Give wisdom and understanding of this one true attribute of our Father in Heaven, in Your Name, I pray, Lord Jesus, amen and amen!