Always Hears

“Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.” (Ps 66:20 AV)

There is something to be said for eternal security.  There is a relationship that cannot be severed.  It can be strained by our sin, but never severed. The comfort to know that God always hears our prayers and that His mercy never fails is the security which makes repentance and reconciliation all the easier.  I feel badly for those who do not believe in eternal security.  What happens of the last time you sinned was the final straw? God would no longer hear your confession and humility.  Too late.  The most horrible thing about that thought is no one could tell a person exactly where that line is.  It could be those who had eternal life at one time crossed it further back than they realized.  But the God that I know and love always hears me and never takes away His mercy!  What a comfort that it.  To know that I can go to Him in prayer any time and any place and He will hear.  I may have to confess and repent before any other words are uttered.  But I know He always hears our prayers of confession.

As a father, I cannot say that was always the case with my sons.  There were times, although very few, that I was too busy or to angry with them at the time and I let my flesh get the better of me.  Those were rare times indeed.  I have seen others that were not so blessed.  I had this good friend in my high school years who had a father who was never there.  His father would take the family to Disney Land and buy my friend nice things.  He was a busy executive.  Too busy for his family.  Then, I had another friend who had a drunk as a father.  He was so scared of him that he rarely spoke with his dad.  There was still another who was a sports guy.  The only way his son could be close to his father was if he was successful on the field.  Then there was my best friend.  His father was also a busy sales manager for a major company.  He traveled a lot.  My friend rarely saw his father.

The comfort and security of a father is important.  Unconditional love and acceptance is the greatest security blanket we ever need.  Because of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on Calvary, we have that acceptance.  As He imputed His righteousness to all those who have placed their trust in Him, the Father sees us as righteous as His only Son.  We are accepted in Christ.  Because we are, we are always heard and His mercy never fails!

Desire to Bring the Church to the World

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” (Ps 63:1-2 AV)

David desires to see the presence of the LORD in the outside world as he does in the sanctuary.  He desires to see the glory of the LORD as much a part of the world as it is the focal point of the tabernacle.  David wishes to see the glory and purity of the LORD no matter where he may wander.  The reason is stated in verse one.  He lives in a spiritually dry and thirsty land.  Where there is little spiritual refreshment.  The only place he can go to get his cup filled is in the sanctuary.  The very presence of God is the only place to find refreshment.  And he regrets this reality.

The first few years of my Christian walk were very fruitful and full.  These initial years set a tone that has lasted me for my entire lifetime.  Being a first-generation Christian, I had never grown up around gospel preaching and hymn singing people.  Then it happened.  Jesus Christ gave to me eternal life in March of my senior year of high school. The whole world changed.  The sun seemed brighter.  The world seemed filled with more wonder.  Over the years, the LORD would grant to me the blessing of hearing some of the best preaching a person could hear.  Our church was a large one.  Membership hovering around 1,700 at the time.  When people sang, they all sang.  There was a full orchestra and a choir of about 120 voices.  What an experience.  I remember our annual Bible conference the first full week of August.  We had church from 9am to noon, then again at 7pm until 10pm.  There were several preachers who preached each day.  I couldn’t go to it all because of work.  That was the hardest.  When work interfered, I was miserable.  People couldn’t understand why.  God was not at work like He was at church.  Work was a dry and thirsty place.

Now, entertainment and not true spiritual refreshment has replaced the presence of God.  We have come to the place where the church is no longer infiltrating the world, but the other way around.  Our churches are becoming the dry and thirsty place with the misguided practice of emotionalism over spiritualism.  Our world and our churches are a dry and thirsty place because God has been replaced.  True brokenhearted conviction and transformation is no longer the norm.  Shallow words and platitudes designed to make us feel like the center of church life is.  The Psalmist deeply desires the presence of God in a dry and thirsty world as His is in a spiritually refreshing and glory filled sanctuary.  Oh, come LORD Jesus!

No Change, No Fear

“God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.” (Ps 55:19 AV)

When determining the genuineness of a salvation experience in ourselves or others, reaction to sin, and not sin itself, may be the best barometer.  In our verse, he that abideth of old is another way of describing an eternal God.  He is eternally eternal.  He had no beginning and He has no end.  The affliction is God’s hand of correction upon those whom He cares for and wishes to turn to Himself.  The indication they have no fear of God is a lack of change.  No matter what the LORD does, or allows, there seems to be a hardening of the heart against the LORD and no real positive change towards doing right.

Years ago, I doubted my salvation.  It seemed that no matter how much I tried, I failed to a persistent sin.  It was so discouraging.  Oft times I would ask myself, “How could someone who professes the LORD as their Savior fail time and again in this area of life?”  Then the LORD brought me to a meeting in Pensacola, Fl. wherein I was blessed by a preacher who preached out of Romans chapter seven.  He related Paul’s struggle with sin as an indication of salvation and not non-regeneration.  He remarked that is wasn’t necessarily our failures that determines the genuineness of salvation, but rather, our response to the conviction of the Holy Spirit about those failures.  I felt a load come off my shoulders!  Finally, I understood.  The fact my sin bothered me to this degree and the desire to overcome it, even if I failed more than I cared to, was an indication of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.

As a pastor, one worries for those who seem to never change.  Those who seem to never grow.  There are no decisions to be made.  There are no trips to the altar.  There are no counseling sessions.  There are no bible questions asked.  There seems to be nothing there.  One worries first and foremost of the genuineness of their salvation.  Are they truly saved?  They need to be.  But if they are, there are a world of hurts waiting for the individual who is quenching the Spirit.  There is a hard time ahead for those who do not seek and embrace change.  When there is no fear of God, God has no use for us.

Present Help in Perceive Trouble

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.” (Ps 46:1-3 AV)

This Psalm is a prophetical one.  It specifically looks towards the physical troubles of the tribulation.  The earthquakes, floods, etc are mentioned in this psalm.  The trouble of Jacob’s trouble is compared against the strength and love of God who will safeguard His remnant.  One might contemplate the faith that will be needed to utter the above verse while looking at the earth crack open.

I am not one who does well with extreme situations that are unpredictable.  That is, until I am smack dab in the middle of them.  Moving to an area of the country where tornados are not all that uncommon was not the smartest move if my fear is unpredictable extreme situations.  My best friend is my NOAA radio!  It has taken me a while, but these storms do not freak me out as much as they did.  I am still the first one to dive into the basement.  But as long as that radio is working and the forecast is accurate, I am good.  The present help far exceeds the perceived threat.  Just this spring, there was a tornado that touched down just a few miles from our home.  I was outside listening so that I could learn what the meant by the sounds one hears.  The power lines were all resonating at the same frequency even though all the wind was a hundred feet about them.  The familiar sound of a train on the tracks we distinct, even though we could tell it was safety away.  That NOAA radio told us just where the storm was, how it was tracking, and when we could expect it to be in our area.  As long as that voice was speaking from the radio, giving us information, and warning of any possible hazards, we were good.

Our God is better than a NOAA radio.  The radio can only warn.  It cannot provide or protect.  The tribulation saint will have sufficient warning as founded in the word of God.  Nothing will be a mystery.  What is more, the LORD will provide for His remnant.  Some will be persecuted for their faith. But that just means glory all the more sooner.  We don’t know what the future holds.  But we do know who holds the future.  God is, and always will be, our very present help in time of need.

Highest Motive For Obedience

“I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Ps 40:8 AV)

There are several ways we can look at obedience.  And none of them wrong.  We can look at obedience as a means to avoid harsh consequences for failure.  That motive is fear.  We fear what will happen if we are not obedient.  That is the basic and simplest motive for walking in the law of God.  Then there is duty.  It is our obligation to do the right thing.  This is more a matter of the intellect.  It is right because it is right.  Integrity has a lot to do with this motive.  This motive finds satisfaction in accomplishing something and reaching a goal.  This is a higher motivation than fear.  But the greatest of all motivations is delight.  A simple enjoyment to please the LORD with no presumption of personal benefit.  There is personal benefit and we know this.  But the purpose is pure delight.  Simply to know that we have pleased the LORD by doing as He asks.  This is the highest form of motivation.

Few saints get to this point in their walks with God.  We all start out at level one.  This was the reason we accepted Christ to begin with.  The Holy Spirit brought us under conviction.  He revealed to us our sin and the consequences of it. The truth of a devil’s hell shook us to the core.  We were overwhelmed with guilt and fear.  This fear of consequences still continues.  No matter how old in the LORD we get, there are certain things we do not do because we fear what might come of it if we do.  As we grew in the knowledge of the word of God, the Holy Spirit convinced our minds of the holy nature of right.  We compared right from wrong and He gave us a heart that would desire to do right because we didn’t want to be wrong.  Failure was the fear hear.  Not of consequences, but of not being right.  This is where most of us reside.  But there is a greater motive offered.  The motive to please the LORD in all that we do.  The motive of delight.  Not because our bodies fear the physical consequences of sin.  Not because our minds are tormented by failure.  Rather, because our hearts wish to show our appreciate, love, and honor to the God who made and saved us!  This is our goal.

Personal Benefit of Faith

“Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.” (Ps 33:20-22 AV)

There are times when explanation of a verse is pointless.  When the passage is all about God and none of man, it seems almost to diminish from the scripture to expound upon it.  Such is the case above.  The context of the verse is the LORD delivering David from a pagan king. David was running from Saul and he ran right into the kingdom of Abimelech.  The only way he could think of to escape the hand of an enemy was to feign being mad.  And that he did.  The pagan king had compassion on him and sent him away.  This pagan king had more compassion on David than his own father-in-law did.

The Bible clearly teaches us that without faith, it is impossible to please the Father.  Faith and trust are the basis of our relationship with the LORD.  It is the basis of which no other creature can experience with the LORD and it is the deepest of all relationships.  However, there is a benefit to those how trust.  Faith pleases the LORD.  But faith will also please us.

The Psalmist has stated that he (and they) will rejoice because they trusted in the LORD.  The implication is that this joy would not be there if there was no trust.  David had one of two choices.  He could have run again, back into the threat of Saul.  Or, he could trust the LORD with a different enemy who at least did not make the animosity a personal thing.  There were no good options.  He was backed into a corner that forced him to trust the LORD.  It is always better to trust the LORD.  Always.  Specially when it seems like there is no good choice ahead.  It is always better to trust the LORD.  God did not promise David a care free life.  There would be challenges dwelling in the midst of animosity.  Yet, if he trusts the LORD, God will provide.  God will protect.  God does not remove the challenges.  He provides the means to endure through them.

Many people look at faith as a dreadful thing.  We learn over time that faith and trust is the only way to live.  We see the risks but know that to trust the LORD means to rejoice when God moves.  It is the only way to walk with God and experience the blessings associated with a relationship with the LORD!

Mourning Does Eventually End

“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.” (Ps 30:11-12 AV)

Sadness is temporary.  At least it is meant to be that way.  We don’t know the exact circumstance of this Psalm.  It was written at the conclusion of a very deep time of mourning.  It could have been penned at any time of David’s life where he experienced a deep sense of loss.  He buried several children.  His little baby boy born from the affair with Bathsheba.  He buried Amnon because of his actions towards Tamar.  He buried Absalom because of his rebellion.  He buried his parents sometime between his flight from Saul and his ascension to the throne in Jerusalem.  There were times when there was weeping in the night.  There were times when his pillow was wet with tears.  But these times are not intended to last a life-time.  These times are natural, unfortunate, and necessary.  But these times are to be replaced with better times.

Perhaps this is what his son, Solomon had in mind when he penned, “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” (Ec 3:4 AV) He was not born to see the death of his elder brother.  But he was there to see his father go through the other three deaths.  Solomon learned what he learned from his father.  He learned there was a time to weep over the loss of something or someone very close.  But he also saw the correction given to his father by his uncle Joab.  The correction of not rejoicing over victory from an enemy because one was also mourning over the loss of his son.  Solomon saw it was appropriate to mourn.  It was also appropriate to mourn.

Recently, I have had to say goodbye to one of the most important persons in my life.  My dear mother passed away in mid-march.  She was an angle from heaven.  An example of strength, patience, love, and grace.  There was no one else like her nor will there ever be.  We often brag on our mothers as being the best one.  Truly, mine was.  There is a time to mourn.  There is a time to remember her and miss her terribly.  But there is also a time when we can rejoice in the other blessings which the LORD has granted.  David may have lost four sons, but he had far more who outlived him.  I may miss my mother, but the LORD has given me wonderful wife, awesome daughters-in-law, sons that far exceed any dream I may have had, and four precious grandchildren.  I am truly blessed!