THE GOD WHO INVITES, PART 2 - THE MATCHLESS LOVE OF GOD

If someone had a child or a friend who did not feel the same way about you as you did towards them, a certain amount of heartbreak would be absolutely normal. Depending on the circumstances, whether we are talking about a spouse or a young lady, whom your son wishes would give him the time of day, nothing is as disappointing as love not returned.

While relationships are critical to our human condition, on the horizontal or people to people level, the only real relationship which lasts beyond our brief time on earth is the one with our Heavenly Father, Creator and Sustainer.

In light of this absolute fact (God as Creator/Provider/Sustainer/Savior), we who are called by His Name, are provided free choice to a certain extent. There is no such thing as absolute free will,  obviously, but humans do enjoy a significant amount of freedom to choose or reject God’s offer of Grace, Love, Mercy and Salvation. Hell is full of those people.

For the Christian, God does offer a really beautiful invitation, which if we accept, will lead to such a wonderful life of peace, joy and contentment. This, along with the tremendous ability to persevere through all kinds of trials and tribulations, are the hallmarks of all who choose to accept the offer from the Lord to take Him at His Word.

To this end, let us read this tremendous promise and invitation from the Almighty Himself, to all His people, of all time, from Proverbs 8:17 - "I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me".

This is His Word “I love those who love me”. This is the foundational statement. You either love God or you do NOT. There is no middle ground, regardless of a world system of grays and shaded colors. You either believe in and love Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world, or you do NOT. On this one, the majority of the world has already decided, on the negative, to their own eternal peril.

“ Those who seek me” - the unsaved person does NOT seek after God. Those of us who are saved, know this to be true because it was the Lord Who initially sought us out, to offer His Saving Grace.  Therefore, this literally means that the Christian has the real, and always available option, to pursue more than a dysfunctional relationship with God. We have the option to maximize and move so much closer to Him that there is the same kind of glow in our spirit, which Moses had on his face, when he came off Mt. Sinai after 40 days with God. (Exodus 34:29 "It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him).

The first thing we see is that Love is the Key. God loves us first. He had to, in order to create us, knowing we would disappoint Him, more times often than not. He does love those who love, obey, place Him in the right order (first above all else) and He acknowledges them. He once said of the Exodus hero, Caleb, (who was with Joshua obeyed God in the desert after Moses died, and were the only two original elders of the Israelites from Egypt who were allowed to cross into the Promised Land). God said of Caleb, “My servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows Me wholeheartedly", as He showered kudos on him.  God’s great angel said the following of Daniel in Daniel Chapter 10:11 "He said to me, "O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you." 

God loves those who not only loves Him, and especially if we pursue Him in obedience, prayer and service – DILIGENTLY as Proverbs 8:17 says!  This word “diligently” actually implies a pursuit of God which begins early in the day and often….or early WITH purpose! In daily Christian living, it definitely means that we should seek God the very first thing in the morning in prayer and devotion and then have a lifestyle of Godly living all during the day, ready to give an account or word of encouragement to anyone, about “the hope that is within us”.

This is one of THE most significant invitations from God, which ALL Bible-believing Christians should grab on to and never let go.  This invitation with a promise, and the evidence to back it up from Scripture, gives more than a glimpse of the matchless love of God. It underscores it, in permanent marker, in our very souls.

SEVEN FAMOUS BIBLE VERSES #3 - "JEREMIAH 29:11 - Past, Present, Future"

"For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
This famous and inspiring Bible verse is now the text of many tattoos on men and women all over the world. Apart from John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world....") and Matthew 7:1 ( "Judge not less ye be judged") - this one gives hope to a lot of people to the point of being placed on ink on chests, arms etc. along with bumper stickers, T shirts and plaques, paintings and posters.

Why should it not be? Here is the God of Heaven, our Creator and Maker, who says in His Word that He is such a personal loving God that He has the right paths to a life well lived. It is a life where all our needs will be taken care of and where He will continually guard and protect us. He literally says in THIS Word that He has the future of such a life and it is full of hope! No one is against that and everyone wants to believe this, even people who just profess a surface belief in God.

However, like everything else, we have to read the entire story before the Spirit of Truth and consistency - the Holy Spirit, will reveal ALL to us. When God made this statement through the Prophet Jeremiah about 2700 years ago, the LORD had punished Jerusalem for ignoring His commands and laws and sent them into 70 years of Exile, via the conquest of the brutal Babylonian regime. As devastating the raid and destruction of Jerusalem was by the Babylonians, they were commanded by God to spare Jeremiah who remained with the poor folk and ministered to them the rest of his life. He was directed to write this letter from Jerusalem, as an exhortation to the exiles. Please read the entire chapter of Jeremiah 29 here.

The relevant portion of this Scripture to the exiles contained the full measure of the quote which contains the verse we love so well - Jeremiah 29:11....including me. I love this verse because I know it to be personally true in my own walk, and life IN and WITH Jesus Christ. So before we go any further, please read the full passage and then let's grasp the right way to look at what God is saying here:
Jeremiah 29:10-14 (NASB)
"10 “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

This is a conditional promise to a GROUP of people - Jews in exile. Once the 70 years of exile were up, God did bring them back to Jerusalem....if they wished to come, via Nehemiah and Ezra. He promised to listen to them when they returned to the one true God, and their prayers, if they called upon Him. The passage above is just beautiful and the LORD was true to His promise. Only a few took Him up on these promises later on, as we read in the prophets Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai and so on. 

However God always stays true. His Words and promises and Favor are for a lifetime. All we have to do is the following: 
- Call on Him first...before seeking counsel elsewhere.
- Come to Him with every praise, problem and possibility we have before us. King Hezekiah had some bad news in a threatening letter (Book of Isaiah). He got on his knees before God, spread the letter before Him and said "Lord what am I to do?" You and I, who have that personal relationship with God can do the same
- Pray to Him...continually....all day....every day....pray without ceasing! This is self-explanatory. Prayer, and fervent effective prayer, changes things.
- Jeremiah 29:13 tells us to "seek Him....find Him...Search for Him". These are ALL ACTIVE PRESENT TENSE verbs. That means we are to do it now.
- THEN - DO ALL OF THE ABOVE EQUATION WITH ALL YOUR HEART, GOD SAYS. And I will add - heart AND mind and body and soul.

So is Jeremiah 29:11 written to a group of people? YES! So does that mean it is NOT for us in the 21st century? NO! It is for us! I said God's promises are consistent and truthful.  

Here is what the Holy Spirit told us through the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness".

All of these words of Jeremiah above, from verse 10-14 could be about us. We were exiled from God by sin. We were lost and going to hell. But we didn't seek Him out. He, God, came and rescued us from that sin through the Precious Blood of Christ on the Cross and His death, burial and Resurrection. When God calls us to Salvation, and we response and repent of our sin and trust Him fully, with all our Heart, and come to Him and pray and accept Jesus as Lord....THEN He will reveal that "He has plans for you....and the rest of this amazing verse!!"

This is how it works! The Bible is the living document for personal revival and transformation and we must trust the Word of God. What was written then in the Old Testament is for our education, so that the child of God - us - could know How the Lord operates. What is written in the New Testament is for our salvation and sanctification. They work hand and glove - together.

So use Jeremiah 29:11 as yours and mine, as much as we want. Let's just get the complete story right first, before running off and printing it on our foreheads!

HEALED! - THE PRAYER OF HEZEKIAH

There is an amazing incident in the Bible that happened in the 8th century BC in ancient Judah which still takes your breath away. The reason is, this miracle, where God was about to call a man home - King Hezekiah - occurred when the King prayed one of the shortest prayers ever recorded! For the record, the shortest prayer ever has to be when Peter was sinking after walking on the water briefly towards Jesus (on the Sea of Galilee) and he shouted out in fear and trepidation "Lord, save me!" Those are the most powerful three words in history for any lost sinner, such as you and I were before He rescued us from the domain of darkness into the Kingdom of His Marvelous Light!

Hezekiah was a very young man, probably in his early 50's when the Word of the Lord came to the Amazing Prophet Isaiah. Chapter 38 verse 1 says "In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”

But then here comes the one short sentence prayer which caused God to do something unique, in Isaiah 38:2-3 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” 

What was it in that short prayer that could have caused God to respond this way: (verses 4-6): "And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.”’ 

One of the most productive things any Christian can do is to read and study the dozens and scores of prayers in the Bible! Each one is unique in circumtance but there is a common denominator to each prayer that inspires the reader (you and I) to become prayer warriors like these our predecessors in the Faith, whom we shall meet one day in Heaven and fellowship with forever! That common thread was Faith and Submission to the Will and Work of God. Keep this in mind, through the following: brief look at  King Hezekiah's Prayer: 

- Hezekiah turned his face TOWARDS the wall: the man and woman of God MUST turn away from the bonds of this world and TO the One Who holds the world in His Hands. Not just that but doing this indicates FULL reliance on the power and promises of God to heal, seal and reveal His plans for us.
- Hezekiah "prayed to the LORD": do not be afraid to go to the Lord with even bitter questions of "why Lord, why is this happening" because if you are listening and not trying to answer the question yourself, He will show you why something is amiss, why He allowed it and where this is supposed to lead you in your relationship with Him.
- Hezekiah asked the Lord to remember: Now the Lord did NOT forget a thing. But there is nothing wrong in bringing up your faith and full trust in Yahweh as an introduction to your prayer, and mine, not to remind God but to come to the Throne in full understanding of your right standing before Him.
- Hezekiah walked with God in Truth and with a loyal heart:  and Hezekiah did do that. He removed the pagan form of idolatry and worship and stood on the Word of God his entire life. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says "the Eyes of the Lord runneth to and fro across the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him". While God may not perform a life saving miracle every time, for His own reasons, He does stand up for those who stand WITH Him! Just reflect back on our own lives, and think of the many times He rescued us from this calamity, and that financial hole or this accident or that health scare or worse. This comes from an intentional and purposeful daily WALK with The LORD. Scripture encourages us constantly to WALK with Him and the kind of Walk we should have as sinners saved by Grace. We walk with those whom we love, so why should we not walk with the One Who loved us?!
- Hezekiah did what was good in God's sight: as much as it depends on us, let us do as much good as we can. We should do this, not just to our families where it is expected but to and for those who can give us nothing in return. I am not just talking about helping the poor and homeless but also for living like King Hezekiah, whose deeds made it possible for the Truth of God to reign and be a testimony to others. THAT is our calling.

LIKE DRINKING POISON by NIKKI HAHN

“We harm no one through bitterness as much as we harm ourselves. Someone told me, “Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” In the face of evil and suffering, responding to God or others with bitterness, distrust, accusations bears no good fruit. Responding in honest brokenness and turning to God in submission, faith, and trust yields untold riches of peace and comfort.” - Randy Alcorn, If God is Good, page 425

If there’s one thing to think of today, please focus on this. Bitterness is like drinking poison. Your hate and anger will only harm you. The poison will spread throughout killing everything that made you a good friend or a good family member. Instead of people enjoying your company, they will talk about how once you were someone filled with light and love.

NIKKI HAHN, AUTHOR/BLOGGER

Don’t let the seed of anger when it first falls from the flowering weed to germinate in your soul. Don’t let it establish roots and take over until no one can recognize you anymore. Today think of the people in your life that have angered and hurt you and release it to God. Let Him handle your hurts. Let Him seal the wound on your heart with His sacrifice on the cross.

Then, answer this question from the same book (If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil):"How many of us fail to express gratitude for those ordinary days, wishing instead for something better? If you’ve had a single ordinary day recently, why not thank God for it? Don’t wait for an extraordinary day when you feel wonderful and everything goes your way. That day may not come. And if it does, God’s hand will be no more in it than in all your other days.” - Page 413; Randy Alcorn; If God is Good; Multinomah

Fight unforgiveness by telling God what you are grateful for in your situation. Ask Him to help you forgive and let go. The true path to freedom is by unshackling your soul from the past and taking those first steps forward into your future. It’s by giving others the same mercy He gave you when He sent His Son to the cross for your sins.

Finish this sentence: I am grateful for ________________ in spite of ___________ 

NIKOLE HAHN IS A PROLIFIC BOOK REVIEW & WRITER! PLEASE VISIT HER WEBSITE BY CLICKING HERE.

THINK ON THESE THINGS - MONDAY

WAITING FOR THE PROMISE

(WE RETURN TO HEBREWS 11, VERSE BY VERSE

TODAY'S WORD - BELIEVE) 

Has someone ever made you a promise which not only sounded to good to be true, but could even be termed totally way out there?  I know how human nature would react - we would say "now way"...but inside, our "willer" would say " YES, WAY....er...please"!!!


For instance, take this one man who lived over 75 years surrounded by generations of not just pagan idol worship, but some of the vilest and sex-oriented debauchery which literally had its roots with Noah's great grandson - King (Ima) Nimrod! This man's dad was one of the richest  in UR, (which is not a Twitter abbreviation for "you are"). Terah reigned in Southern Iraq as one of the richest men there.

But one day, God said to Terah's son- take up you beautiful childless 74 year old wife Sarai and go west, old man, to this new land....BUT I am not going to tell it just....just GO! Over twenty years go by in the hot and harsh deserts of the Cradle of Creation. Then one day, God tells this man "your 99 year old wife is going to have a baby, and you da man - at age 100"!


Faith enabled Abraham to become a father, even though he was old and Sarah had never been able to have children. Abraham trusted that God would keep his promise....Hebrews 11:11 (GWT)


Jesus Himself confirmed it to Abraham - Face to face - when the LORD visited Abraham and Sarah, with two angels, on the way to destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Sarah laughed in private - an action with did not escape Jesus, who rebuked her. This story is told in Genesis 18: 10-15.


What we should ask ourselves is this - do we laugh at the Promises of God in His Word, or do we believe them... even a little bit?  Little Faith, just like a little knowledge, can be a dangerous thing. Look what happened when Sarah got impatient waiting for the Lord to send a natural heir for Abraham. She gave her young Egyptian servant girl, Haggar, to Abraham to impregnate, and we now have the Middle East crisis led by the sons of Ishmael!


Therefore, the word today is Believe. When the Lord, through His Spirit or the prophetic declaration of others, makes a promise to you, believe it! Then once you believe it, do not try to force His Hand. Just "Be still and know that He is God" (Psalm 46:10). Because if you try to help God out, they could be consequences you never bargained for!


Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.... Psalm 27:14