2-20-12

Comfort: God's Holy Exchange Isaiah 61:1-3

All of us will be walking in more of the Luke 4:18-19 ministry of Jesus as we go on with God. 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, 

Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; 

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, 

To proclaim liberty to the captives 

And recovery of sight to the blind, 

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Luke 4:18-19 NKJV

God sent his Son who began his ministry on earth quoting from Isaiah 61:1-3. "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD ... has sent me ... to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."

A crown instead of ashes... gladness instead of mourning... praise instead of despair. Jesus defined his call and his eternal relationship with us when he quoted this passage in his first public sermon. The kingdom of our Sovereign Lord is within us, and the indwelling Christ is anointed in our life to bring good news to us, to bind up our broken heart, and to comfort our mourning. He is faithful to comfort us in our grief. These days may not feel like his goodness or his faithfulness, but his Word promises that dark clouds are under his feet (Ps 18:9). He never stops being our dear Father who invites us near him to love, guide, deliver, heal, and comfort us. All we love is in his hands. He hears our prayers and our tears when there are no words. He counts them as liquid intercession, which is precious to him (Ps 56:8a). He is our Mighty Warrior and contends with those forces that are contending with us (Isa 42:13; Ps 35:1). 

Be blessed with a still heart, while he fights for you (Exo 14:14; Ps 46:10). Be blessed in his covenant of love that can never be taken from you (Rom 8:35,38-39; Ps. 18:19). Be blessed to know that everything is for his glory, so that the thanksgiving of many will overflow to you (2 Corinthians 4:15). Believe that He is being glorified in you.

Be blessed with his sure promise that he is able to guard what you have entrusted to him (2 Tim 1:12). Receive his covering of his sweet presence and peace that passes all understanding in all your cares. He never loses sight of whom he designed you uniquely to be and whom he designed those you love to be. His plans for you are written on the palm of the nail-pierced hands of his Son, and those scars are eternally before his throne in heaven. 

Be blessed to know him as your Father of compassion and God of all comfort, who comforts you in all your cares.      2 Corinthians 1:3-4

2-13-12

YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD

The Book of Lamentations in the Old Testament is not a favorite book in the Bible for many people. Written by Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, who laments over the destruction of Jerusalem which happened in 586 BC. It expresses the great suffering that came to Israel because of their sin and unfaithfulness to God.

The book gives us a series of laments which include such expressions as “bitterly she weeps at night,” “Is any suffering like my suffering,” “my eyes overflow with tears,” O Lord, how distressed I am,” “my groans are many and my heart is faint.”

The theological high point of this book comes in Lamentations 3:19-25 

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. YET this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.

Notice the use of the word YET.

“YET this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” Hope is what lifts us from despair and enables us to go on even in the midst of very difficult situations. Hope believes and trusts in the Lord and knows that one day God will make all things right.

Yes, Jeremiah laments over what he and his people were suffering, but he transitions with the word ”yet” to the superior reality of the spiritual realm where God’s people look and remember the truth of God’s love, His compassions, and His faithfulness to His people. In this we find hope, looking also to the example of Jesus, who endured suffering for the joy set before him. And from suffering, He learned obedience to the will and purposes of God.

There is another powerful passage of Scripture from the Book of Habakkuk which I turn to often when I need to remember how to respond in the midst of trials.

These verses also concern the destruction of Jerusalem, but Habakkuk wrote prophetically before God’s judgment came to the nation. He, like Jeremiah, knew that the Israelites had turned from pure devotion to God, and instead were guilty of spiritual adultery, seeking satisfaction in the created things of the world. Habakkuk’s prophesy describes the time when there would be great loss and destruction in Israel.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Though the fig tree does not blossom and there are no grapes on the vines, 

though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, 

though there are no sheep in the pen & no cattle in the stalls,

YET I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, 

He enables me to go on the heights.

Again as we think through the deeper meaning of this passage we see the same 2 realities between what exists in the physical and what we possess in the spiritual.

Some of you can relate to this passage because you have suffered loss. You may have lost a loved one. You may have lost a job, lost your health or are suffering financial loss. You may have suffered through the pain of divorce either as a spouse or as a child and lost the security of a happy home life. In my own life I lost my mother when I was 7 yr old and my father when I was 25. The pain of loss can last for years and years, but there is hope and healing from the Lord.

God has given us in His Word verses that give us comfort, hope and strength which will help us endure. Our spirits will be lifted up as we learn from Habakkuk the lesson of faith even in the midst of loss. Some say this passage of scripture gives us one of the strongest affirmations of faith in the entire Bible.

How then shall we respond when we suffer loss? Remember the powerful word: Yet!

“YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD - YET I WILL BE JOYFUL IN GOD MY SAVIOR.”

2-6-12

GOD’S DESIRE FOR A PURIFIED AND RADIANT CHURCH

There is a cleansing that happens when we present ourselves to the Lord in repentance. There is the symbolic cleansing in baptism as we die to our old nature, and rise to new life. But also God accomplishes a supernatural work in our lives with spiritual water.

I love this verse in Ezekiel 36:25-26. 

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.”

In Hebrews 10:22, we are told, 

“let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

The picture that comes to my mind is of a little child who has been outside playing in the mud and is so filthy.

But how wonderful to be able to bring that child in and lovingly bath it with clean water and see the transformation of the child from one covered with dirt to one who is made clean.

Our loving heavenly Father desires to wash away from us the filth of this world and make us clean. I imagine him washing away profanity, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, sexual immorality, selfish ambition, anger, bitterness, slander, greed, pride, lust….

Paul expresses the heart of God for His church in Ephesians 5:25-27 

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”  

Church, arise as a radiant church!