Seeing Worth in Bible Reading

  
 
We don’t know what’s good for us. Really, we don’t. We drink substances that increase our heart rate and blood pressure, but we find it trendy on Instagram and what is delicious in our fast food restaurants. We watch programs that endorse murder, rape and violence and then pull our hairs when we see it manifested through the headlines. 

When did it feel good to be bad become acceptable? Since when did it become appopriate to justify evil? He was selling drugs and even murdered some people but it was to save his family because he was dying of cancer. 

I’m looking at the man in the mirror and realizing that what he enjoys is not healthy. 

What I delight in is not only bad, but it is also short-sighted. It’s Sam posting a picture of her daughter playing with a box disregarding all the toys she has in her room. Or the child I saw in her Sunday dress wallowing in the dirt in front of a playground. 

Our pleasures are not just bad in most cases but just sad and pathetic. C.S. Lewis calls us “half-hearted creatures” because he understood the truth that “the Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak“. We live our lives, “fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy [that is Jesus] is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” ( C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory and Others Addresses (New York: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company), 3-4).

I jumped between Facebook and SMS one night, because I didn’t desire God, then I fancied myself in opening a book called When I Don’t Desire God. Fancy that. 

I streamed through the pages halfheartedly thinking reading it would justify my apathy. Then I stumbled on Psalms 19:10 which speaks of God’s Word: 

“More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” (Psalms‬ ‭19:10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

Then it dawned on me: My desire for the Scriptures is pitifully small compared to its true worth. God said of His Word that is it more desirable than precious metals. My eyes drew from the pages towards the ceiling as almost it had rolled back and I was gazing at the beauty of Christ. 

Could I have been someone that has been spectating the glorious splendor of God through a keyhole? 

The Bible, if you let it speak for itself will reveal to you that beyond the collection of grand and captivating pleasures we relish, Christ is the epitome of all that is treasured because He is the ultimate Treasure. 

Upon returning to Israel from exile and 70 year captivity in Babylon, rebuilding the temple was a momentous yet extraordinary task. The older generation compared the restored Temple to the grand splendor of Solomon’s Temple and were downcast.They were downcast at the pale sight of the temple, so God had Haggai prophecy to encourage them that this will not be the permanent face of their sanctuary. One day it will indeed shine in glorious array. 

God commissions Haggai the prophet at that time to call the nation to take courage and depend on God, for though the Temple was unsightly, they must look forward to when the place will be filled with glorious array at the coming of “the Desire of all nations”: 

“For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts” (‭‭Haggai‬ ‭2:6-7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

God promises to shake the heavens and earth. Judah had experienced the shaking of the earth before at the voice of God on Mount Sinai (Hebrews 12:25). God promises they will experience the shaking of the heavens and the earth by the voice of God’s Son at His coming (Hebrews 12:26). Following the shaking of the nations comes the desire of all the nations. If you let yourself, your spirit almost frolicks within this jar of skin at hearing the desire of all nations, like this anticipation has been inside us the whole time anxiously waiting for this desire which will satisfy us completely. 

This desire answered not acutally by something but in someone. 

A desire in Whom all the nations will be blessed (Genesis 12:1). A desire that will endure forever  as a holy mountain that will not fall but cover the enitre face of the earth, shadowing it with awe and glory (Daniel 2:35). A desire that Whose presence is fullness of joy (Psalms 16:11) and will satisfy every heart with His abundance (Psalms 36:8). A desire that has all creation panting and groaning with impatience for His arrival (Romans 8:19-22). A fortune that unfolds in the sincere pondering of His name. 

“Jesus”. 

I looked at a commentary by Bible professor Walter Kaiser on this passage and what I glean from his observation is that Jesus is the desire of the nations as He is the Source of everything, therefore He will be most precious of all that the world holds as valuable. He will answer the desire of the nations by being the what they actually longed for. 

One way God is magnified is how He appears to our understanding. Because God’s “thoughts are not our thoughts ” (Isaiah 55:8), it can then become difficult for us as finite beings with finite minds to comprehend God. God ordained for the earth to be full of the knowledge of God (Isaiah 11:9); therefore, God reveals Himself in various times and various ways to us and communicate to us.  A very special way God has God revealed Himself to us is through the Bible. 

The Scriptures were written so that real and eternal life may be accessible to man through faith in Christ (John 20:31). It produces and preserves life, because it produces faith so that man is capable to live. All life depends on the Word of God. All life was created by it (Psalms 33:6). Life is sustained by it (Hebrew 11:3). The new life (spiritual regeneration) is produced by it (James 1:18) and is accessed by it (1 Peter 1:23). Interpretation is very important, because life depends on it to live (Matthew 4:4). 

His words should not be sweet perfume we take in and regard, but oxygen we take in and depend to live. 

The life that inhabits Him is the light of men. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (‭‭John‬ ‭1:4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). His light shines as a hope that penetrates the darkness that wants to swallow us in its doom. He is the light of the world. He who follows Him shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life” (John 8:12 NKJV). He is the Word that reveals to us God and He immortalizes His words in a collection of 66 books for them to be a “a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” (‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:105‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). 

It’s almost like God’s Word is one delicious, filling meal before you and Jesus bellows, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalms 34:8 NKJV)!!!

It’s His Word that purifies us of sin (John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26). It’s His Word that protects us from sin (Psalms 119:11), that which will result being ashamed of things. It’s His Word that leads us to true delight (Psalms 1119:174). 

Surveying these words, I see more sharply that my appetites need to change. The lenses that are distracting my vision from enjoying what is really worth my time and behold the wondrous truths in God’s instructions (Psalms 1119:18). 

Behold these words of life and be won over to delighting in Christ as true life. Let your appetites be wet to want to see and savor Jesus and testify: “How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Psalms‬ ‭119:103‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)! 

Or go back to sharing with the world what you had to drink today. That never gets old. 

God’s Plans Override Our Ideas

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise…”(I Corinthians 1:27 NKJV)

God confounds our intellect when He uses debased things to carry out His intelligent operation. An excellent example is God’s sovereign use of Jonah to convert Nineveh.

Jonah hated Nineveh. Their people had oppressed Israel. Now God called Jonah, an Israelite, to witness to his enemies.

From start to end of the book of Jonah, Jonah carried a bitter grudge against the very people God desired to experience his mercy.

In sheer awe of God’s wrath, Nineveh immediately repents:

“Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” (Jonah 3:10 NKJV)

God enjoyed to take pity on Nineveh; however, Jonah shared a different response:

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.” (Jonah 4:1 NKJV)

Hatred propelled Jonah to run to Tarshish, and hatred hardened his heart to Nineveh’s revival. He hated the idea of Nineveh receiving salvation. Yet God chose this hateful person to deliver hope.

God doesn’t choose us by our skills or talents; He qualifies anyone whom He wills to accomplish His plan to receive glory for Himself.

Jonah shows us that God’s delight to receive glory exceeds the liberty of man. God doesn’t bend His plans to suit man’s feelings. He uses whomever, whenever and however.

He used a disobedient, unreliable son to be the chosen ancestor of the Messiah to convey God’s road of glory may even include unexpected potholes.*

He used a prostitute to save the spies of Israel to show His grace confounds our reason.**

He used a false prophet to bless His chosen people to say He can even use evil men to please His wants.***

God has called all his own to serve in bringing Him praise:

“…who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”(II Timothy 1:9 NKJV)

God saved you not to be a pet in His collection of souls, but a masterpiece of His wide scale operation to fulfill His wants.

Ephesians 2:10 puts it this way, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV)

If God has determined an event that involves our participation, He may use us even with our unwilling attitudes. Let us then see that our destiny is designed by God to glorify Him. And on that thought, let us want to complete it with a willing spirit.

*Gen 49:8-10
**Joshua 2
***Numbers 22-24

You Are Very Valuable to God

When it may be oblivious to most people, God see incredible value in you.

David did not fit into the profile of a king. We read the stories, and today we know David was definitely king material. I think taking your capital city in a night and slaying your enemies by the hundreds for a wedding gift is enough for a validation.

Never-mind killing a giant.

But can you believe before David became the legend, he was overlooked as a wimpy sheep herder. Even the man of God, Prophet Samuel, did not consider David his choice for King Saul’s successor. He wanted to anoint David’s eldest brother as Israel’s next leader.

Here we get that favorite verse where the Lord responds to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV)

While others saw a shepherd boy, God saw a king. You may see yourself as under qualified for God’s use, but -believe me- God has such a great value in you, and He sees the potential that He can shape and perfect.

Just trust Him. I, for one, never thought that would I reach college. I am now in my senior year.

Don’t doubt what God can do in your life by what you can’t see through your eyes.

We live a life of faith.

Where You Are on Purpose For a Purpose

You are where you are on purpose for a purpose.

Esther was queen of the largest empire in her age. Out of hundreds of women, she was chosen as the new wife for the King of Babylon.

Her rise to prestige was miraculous, but it was also providential. There arose a threat that impended doom over the existence of Jewish race.

Esther’s fatherly cousin believed it was not by chance Esther became queen. He felt her succession to the throne was the power to save their people.

For Esther to appeal before the king without permission could cause her death. Aware of this, Cousin Mordecai commented: For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”(Esther 4:14 NKJV)

Esther can remain silent on the threat on her people and inevitably watch them be annihilated. Or she could rise from apathy and become a force to make the difference.

You may not want to be where you are, but God has you where you for a purpose. You maybe the difference that will bring about significant change to your world.

Trust Jesus. You might be made to be the change where you are for such a time as now.

“I Want to Use YOU”

God says to all of us, “I want to use you.” But life has a way of making that profound statement into a weary lullaby. Good thing there are days God schedules in our lives to wake us up.

I had one today.

Volunteering for a week-long kids’ summer camp, I was suddenly thrust into a group of young teens. I was asked to speak to them. I did not prepare anything to share. These are the days were you enjoy Jesus’ welcome for us to run to His throne and cry for help. I really need help.

Instantly, the Bible became alive. Verses like Matthew 10:19 bellow: “do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak.”

My faith took a sudden leap into total trust in the Almighty.

The teens in front of me seemingly dissolved into a gathering of attentive viewers, and I had something to say.

My earlier anxieties faded away while I made a prayer of invitation and three young hands pledged to start a relationship with Christ.

While the camp conducted its formal closing for the day, a thoughtful sentence came to me by a still, small voice almost as if Jesus had whispered in my ear.

“I want to use you.” 

I think I’m awake now. Thanks Jesus.

A Fire Breathing Concert

Just returned from a phenomenal concert which featured some of the newest Christian music artists here in Antigua. All I have to say is:

What a fire.

Such a blazing passion that exhales itself through music and song. I’m so glad that I ignored the headache and dragged myself out of the house to experience tonight.

Acts 13:36 says, ““For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep…”(Acts 13:36 NKJV)

David died, completing the purpose God planned for David. God also says to us: “I know the plans I have for you”(Jer 29:11 NKJV) . God has a plan for every single one of us.

I want to see the world turned upside down in my generation! While I’m still breathing! I want to be a history maker for Jesus!!!

Maybe if I follow my purpose and you follow yours, we will make it happen!

I hope tonight was a flame to birth a wildfire of revival for this nation. “Greater things are yet to come!” (Bluetree, “God of this City”) Days like these you’re happy to be alive!

Find Meaning by Calling God

Many people drift throught life, never tapping into the vast hidden purpose that God had arranged for them.

People by the numbers down history demand God to show Himself, but He already has.

Nature clearly points to a Divine presence. (Look up a study on eyelids and discover the complexity in its intelligent design).

Deep within our very souls we know there is something more to life than what we can see.

Life has a purpose and it’s found in God.

To understand life and how to live life purposefully is at our disposal. God said “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” -Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV)

It’s in our seeking for God that we find out what is our purpose in life.