Death Is In His Hands - And Praise God for It!

“[He that is] our God [is] the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord [belong] the issues from death.” (Ps 68:20 AV)

Yes, sir!  Praise the LORD that all things concerning death are in His hands!  Amen and Amen!  David makes this obvious statement in the context of salvation, not damnation.  There is nothing to fear.  Eternity is one heartbeat away.  What a glorious day that will be!  Who knows, with the whole Iran thing, we just might be closer than we think.  Regardless, if the soul has trusted solely in the LORD Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins and atonement from sin, then eternity is our final and perfect abode.  Anxiety melts away when we realize just how good God is and will be.  Heaven awaits the thirsty soul that wants nothing more than the perfect presence of God.

Every once in a while, I watch train videos.  I know, really interesting, huh?  These are usually through mountainous regions and picturesque countryside.  At the beginning of the video, the creator often shows a map of the trip with any interesting landmarks or places of interest marked on the map.  Sometimes, tunnels with their lengths are delineated.  These tunnels can be extremely short.  Or they can be the opposite.  Extremely long.  Some of these tunnels can be thirty to sixty minutes of travel time.  When studying for sermons, and these videos are on, one can be distracted by how long those tunnels actually are.  But I can imagine what it would be like riding on a train like that.  The only thing one can see is darkness.  Unless you are riding in the engine and have the luxury of a lamp, darkness is all you see.  Until the light at the end of the tunnel marks the end of a dark journey, the demeanor of the passenger might suffer.  When the light at the end of the tunnel shines, no matter how small it may be at first, there is hope that the journey will soon be over.

Now, our lives have never been one long tunnel.  There have been good times as well as not so good times.  It is the nature of our human experience.  However, one can honestly say that living would be immensely better if there were no bad times.  The issues of death belong to the God of our salvation.  An issue is something that comes forth from something else.  Usually used to describe that which issues from the body, like infection, defecation, or cleansing; an issue is that which comes forth in order to make or keep the body healthy.  Therefore, when David speaks of the issues of death he is speaking of that which comes forth from death that makes the person much better off.  HEAVEN!  The presence of God is there, and although death will be the worst of all human experiences, from it comes an eternal bliss that cannot be compared.  Praise God that our GOD of salvation is in control of that which comes from the most unpleasant of all human experiences.

He's Boss

“He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.” (Ps 66:7 AV)

How appropriate for our day today.  With wars and rumors of wars, it seems the nations think themselves greater than their Creator.  No doubt our weapons of war are terrible.  All told, if all were used, no doubt almost all of humanity could become extinct.  Yet, not for all the weapons of war of all the nations of the earth can even scratch the glory of God.  Not any.  Not all!  It is sad, really.  Our rebellious third rock from the sun thinks it can collectively conquer God.  It thinks that if the majority of mankind rejects the sovereign Creator, then He is obligated to leave them alone.  Oh, not so!  God created it all.  And therefore owns it all.  How foolish we are to think we are anything.  We think that if we do not believe in Him, then He does not see us.  Out of sight, out of mind.  If God does not exist, then there is no one to observe our wickedness.  But belief that God does not exist does not mean He does not exist.  Our Creator, the First Cause, exists whether we believe in Him or not.

How much more are we that know Him accountable for our rebellion?  What, you say?  How can a child of God be in rebellion against the God who saved Him?  But we can.  And we are.  When we deliberately ignore what the word of God requires, or worse yet, change it to appease our own hearts, we are in rebellion.  When the revealed word of God is as plain as the nose on the face, and we refuse to follow, we are in rebellion.  When the word of God commands certain things like holiness, faithfulness, and sacrifice, and we think it is an option, we are in rebellion.  If the truth be told, the body of Christ is far more rebellious than we may care to think.

God isn’t going to change.  Nor for us.  Nor for anyone.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  God requires what He requires and will not bend to rules simply to please those whom He created.  We were created for Him and not He, us.  He sees everything and will express His pleasure or displeasure.  He rules forever.  There are no elections.  There is no force, real or imagined that can dethrone Him.  He is God, and we are not!  Mic drop!

The Awesome Privilege of Prayer

“O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.” (Ps 65:2 AV)

What a verse!  But what of the wicked?  They don’t pray.  Will they come and speak to God?  Listen to Paul.  “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven, and [things] in earth, and [things] under the earth; And [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Php 2:9-11 AV) The simplest definition of prayer is speaking with God when God hears our speaking.  It matters not what a soul’s standing with God might be.  If the wicked speak to God and God hears their speaking, they have just prayed.  The answer will not be as they wish, but God did hear and God will answer.  Have you ever heard the line, “Well, I’m just not a prayin’ man”?  Perhaps it was a line in an old spaghetti western.  As the enemy encircles and the minister encourages prayer, the toughest guy says this line.  As if God admires his courage!  Prayer is seen as a weakness.  Sure, we go to prayer because we are weak.  But that is not the only reason.  We go because we are strong, too.  The guarantee of being heard, as stated above, it the reason we go to God in prayer!

Prayer is both a privilege and a gift.  Imagine!  We can talk directly with our Creator.  If we are saved, we have the wonderful and gracious gift of speaking with our eternal Father.  Of all the years I spent in a false religion that spoke of God as an angry and displeased Creator, when Jesus saved my soul the privilege of prayer was a blessing beyond words.  It has taken a lifetime of walking with God for me to realize and accept His true nature.  Prayer was and is a big part of that.  If God were like the Wizard of Oz; unapproachable and intimidating; then there would be little point in salvation.  Prayer is the Christian privilege that sets us apart from all other religions.  We do not approach a distant Creator or Controller for the mere purpose of appeasement.  Jesus Christ paid for our sins.  There is no appeasement necessary.  We are the accepted in Him!  When we go to prayer, our conversation is not limited to gaining God’s favors.  Yes, we are to pray for our needs because it is the polite and respectful thing to do.  But prayer is far more than listing a bunch of stuff we think we need.  Rather, it is a conversation with our sovereign God, King, and Father that we might know Him!

When David states the obvious in the verse above, I think it is far deeper than it at first appears.  David was a man after God’s own heart.  All one needs to do is study the book of Psalms to realize the depth of David’s prayers.  There were requests.  But there was also praise.  There were complaints, but there was also worship.  There were concerns, but there was much adoration.  When he states that God hears, and therefore all will seek His ear, shows us that there is a deep desire to know our Creator.  The wicked simply do not like the terms.  Heaven will be heaven because the saints have the privilege of learning and knowing the eternal and limitless Creator who calls us beloved.  Praise be to God!

Working Hard at Sin

“They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward [thought] of every one [of them], and the heart, [is] deep.” (Ps 64:6 AV)

I was struck by the phrase ‘diligent search’.  My mind immediately went to how hard we work at sin.  This wickedness is not merely yielding to in impulsive temptation.  This degree of sin is planned and executed.  At what point does working for pleasure become a pleasure in itself?  To accomplish something means to make an end of it.  Therefore, those who sin as a conscious choice of life exhaust all avenues to experience that sin.  It ends one of two ways.  Those bent on sin will work very hard at finding it.  They will look at every conceivable place.  If sin is not found, a new search ensues.  I guess what strikes me as odd is that sinful mankind will work extra hard at self-pleasure that only ends in emptiness and destruction, but will not work equally hard at righteousness.

This reminds me of a situation many years ago.  A couple traveled a significant distance to visit my wife and me.  We had known this couple for a long time.  Their marriage was strained, and they thought a vacation would help.  One problem they faced was that the husband was a substance abuser.  He had been for years.  He was in and out of rehab.  This fella even traveled thousands of miles to enter a program.  He was clean for a while, but eventually fell back into old habits.  At the time of our visit, we lived in a very high-crime city and neighborhood.  It was the second day of their week-long visit that the husband said he needed to go to a bank and deposit a check.  I thought that was odd since the likelihood of finding a national bank similar to the one they used at home would be a feat.  Off he went, and he left his wife behind.  Which I thought was also odd.  He was gone for several hours.  That was also odd.  An errand that should have take no more than thirty minutes took most of the morning.  I later found out he had hit the streets and was looking to score some drugs.  The thing is, our neighborhood was extremely dangerous.  Especially for someone like my friend.  He worked awfully hard to find his drug of choice even to the point of risking his life to do so.

Our phones and computers come with search engines.  Based on the settings one has, the results can be rather wicked.  Filters have to be put in place to avoid seeing things the browser need not see.  The same is true with sin.  We can work awfully hard as self-pleasure.  We can go to the extent of our search to feel, see, or think something that God calls wicked.  The best practice is the install filters.  We have the filter of God’s word.  We have the filter of fellow believers.  Most of all, we have the filter of the presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit.  If only we would work just as hard at holiness as we do sin, we would be more like Christ than we are.

Humility Required

“Behold, [when] we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee.” (Jos 2:18 AV)

I wonder how Rahab’s family felt about their immoral relative being the source of their salvation.  What was going through their minds?  Did they fear the activity that might occur if they spent a few nights in her house?  Did all the uncomfortable conversations or statements of disappointment come up while sitting around a dinner table?  I wonder if they felt insulted that God had chosen a converted prostitute to be their sanctuary instead of someone far more moral.  Rahab is a great example of how the LORD will and can use the worst of us to reach the best of them.  One thing is for certain: Rahab’s family had to eat some crow in order to live.  Humility was demanded, or they would not survive.  The same is true with salvation.  It cannot and will come to the proud of heart.

It is kind of funny how this works.  Many years ago, I worked as a glorified janitor for a real estate company.  They owned several office buildings.  It was my job to travel to these building and clean the restrooms, empty the trash, etc.  At the main office, the company had two lawyers on staff.  One was a seasoned Jewish man who knew a bit of the bible.  We had many discussions.  Yet, I was his janitor.  He had decades of education and experience.  Yet, he engaged me in biblical debates.  Then there was my wife’s employer.  He was a county judge.  Yet my wife, a lowly secretary, often witnessed to him as well.  There were many times that I worked as a caddy for some very wealthy people and every once in a while, was asked of my testimony.  These types of successful people could have sought out ministers in ivory towers.  They could have asked the deceivers of the faith because of the false appearance of success.  But they did not.  They asked the lowly janitor, caddy, and secretary of the good news of the gospel.

It is often the least among us who do the greatest work.  Those who have baggage and a background often are the ones God uses to win the most.  Rahab’s family had to lower their standards if they were to live through the destruction of their city.  They had to dwell in a house of ill repute in order to survive.  Rahab, no doubt, left her life of sin once she saw the power of Jehovah.  The bible tells us as much.  Once she stepped out on faith and protected the spies of Israel, she made her choice to leave her profession.  The den of sin became the domicile of salvation.  But in order to realize the same salvation as Rahab, her family had to humble themselves, see their need, and accept any means by which God provided their salvation.

Wisdom Is Wealth

“Happy [is] the man [that] findeth wisdom, and the man [that] getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it [is] better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.” (Pr 3:13-14 AV)

Sometimes this takes a lifetime to learn.  But it is true nonetheless.  Wisdom is far more valuable than all the things we might be able to attain.  The word ‘merchandise’ is interesting here.  It means to use in business in order to make a profit.  The old saying that money cannot buy happiness is certainly true.  Material goods, no matter how much, cannot buy certain things.  Wisdom, however, makes certain things attainable that money cannot buy.  With wealth comes stress.  There is anxiety over the things we have.  We must maintain them.  We must protect them.  We must store them.  With wisdom, there are no residual costs.  With material gain comes discontentment.  There is always more to have.  There is always more to gain.  With wisdom, contentment is the end of it all.  There are those who lack for nothing and yet are rarely at peace with life.  There are those who have very little and seem to enjoy life as it comes.  Furthermore, things have their limits.  Throwing money at something does not always fix it.  There are investments with great returns that don’t cost a dime.  Wisdom, and not material things, has the greatest return.

I was reminded of this recently.  While sitting at a table over a simple cup of coffee, there was more ministry accomplished than an entire program tailored solely for an individual.  We notice this while we do our work for the LORD in many ways.  Every summer we have a large VBS in a public park.  It takes many hands and a good chunk of resources.  Yet without follow-up, there seems to be no return.  What matters to people?  It is not the large programs we put on.  It is not the many different venues a soul might explore.  It is the single individual who spends just a small amount of time caring for the hurting soul.  It is the listening ear and feeling heart that sees return on their investment.  Knowing what to say and how to say it pays dividends far beyond patronization with much goods.

The older I get, the more I realize just how true this proverb is.  Over the last decade or so, the LORD has been teaching me skills in listening.  It is hard for a preacher to listen and not speak.  That is our calling.  We are supposed to offer a bit of knowledge that will help in a situation.  However, there are times when nothing needs to be said.  There are times when the hurting soul already knows what he or she needs to know.  They simply need someone to listen.  There is greater pleasure in silence than there is in speaking words that may not be needed.  Wisdom can accomplish many things that a bank account cannot.  Life is not about how much one can gain.  When we pass, it all stays here.  Life is about what we can accomplish for the LORD.  Wisdom is the currency.

Inevitability of Failure

“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call [them] to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,” (De 30:1 AV)

I’ve always thought the transparency above was a bit odd.  It is true.  But odd.  Israel will have times of obedience and faith.  They will also have many more times of disobedience and doubt.  Today’s overly positive world would criticize God for being so honest.  They would see the phrase above as setting Israel up for failure.  The world wants us to build each other up as though failure isn’t part of life.  All we want is good news.  All we want is to hear that we are supernatural and will never do anything wrong.  To inform someone that they cannot be perfect and that they will fail is believed to be a detriment to their improvement.  Yet, the LORD has no problem telling Israel that there will be times of blessing and cursing.  There will be good times and bad times.  They will struggle with temptation and fall into it.  This is not a foregone conclusion or self-fulfilling prophecy.  Just a statement on the nature of people.  How refreshing to hear the truth, even if it isn’t the encouragement we think we need.

No matter what skill I tried to learn, there was always a learning curve associated with it.  How many of us have scars to prove the lessons learned along the road of life?  I remember when I was promoted to the pizza making side of the restaurant.  I started out cutting the pizzas and sending them out to the front cashier.  My job was to mark the boxes according to the order.  The name went on the left and the type of pizza when on the right.  Then, as they came out, I sliced them, closed the box, and sent the box with the receipt to the front.  From there, I graduated to pulling.  That was the person who pulled the pizzas out of the oven and put them in the box.  When the head chef instructed us in the procedure, he warned us that we would suffer burns along the way.  Sure enough, I suffered a bit of pain.  From there, I moved along to a pizza maker.  More burns.  Most of the serious burns came from making pizzas and not pulling them.  Again, I was warned of the inevitability of burns and why they occur.  I was glad they told me.  Even though I relaxed my focus and suffered the consequences, at least I knew burns were coming and why they happened.

I would rather have an instructor or coach who would tell me that I probably won’t get it right the first few times I tried and show me why I failed than someone who told me I will be an immediate success and never fail.  Failure means improvement.  Failure means learning and growing.  Failure is a reality check on just who and what we are.  Failure is uncomfortable but necessary.  Failure produces results that can be fixed.  Failure reveals the why and not just the how.  Failure means there is greater insight into the nature of things.  Honesty, as it regards failure is refreshing.  When the LORD tells me that I will fall into temptation, it is not perceived as an insult.  The saint shouldn’t take it as a parent who doesn’t believe in their child.  Rather, knowing our propensity to fail, we are more aware of it and may even avoid it.  No, I would rather have a heavenly Father who knows the wisdom of full transparency than a God who wants to protect me from the truth.  Praise the LORD for the bad news!  The bad news helps us to overcome and enjoy more blessings than cursings.