Only One God

It's impossible to worship when you are so busy complaining.

Exodus 15:1-3 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD: "I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; He has hurled both horse and rider into the sea. 2 The LORD is my strength and my song; He has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise Him--my father's God, and I will exalt Him! 3 The LORD is a warrior; Yahweh is His name!

Exodus 20:1-5 Then God gave the people all these instructions: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

3 “You must not have any other god but me. 4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.

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After the miraculous escape from Egypt there was so much rejoicing and relief for what God did for His children. It is so obvious to everyone that God is the only one with power over the gods of Egypt and He is in love with His people. It also seems like the people are in love with Him as well.

One of the earliest praise and worship songs ever, was sung by Moses and all of the people joined in, it looks like there was 100% participation in worship on that day. Imagine seeing God's power displayed as it was during the plagues of Egypt and the power that they saw as they escaped the Egyptian army, worship was the only appropriate response. (Exodus 15:1-3)

But the worship service didn't last long enough, God's children found that the quickest way to end a worship service is to start complaining against God and the leaders that he has given, it is impossible to worship Him if you are busy complaining about Him. (Exodus 15:24, 16:2, 17:2)

When God's people grumble and complain about God the outcome will include complaining about each other. Right after the people complained about God they also started having disputes with each other that Moses would have to decide. There were so many disputes that it took up all of Moses time. (Exodus 18:13-16)

Meanwhile the complainers are making a vow to God to be obedient to all of the commands that God gave to them through Moses.  "We will do it," they promised (Exodus 19:8, 24:7) but just a little while later they are already going back on the number one rule to have only one God without any "god's." (Exodus 32:1)

It is too easy to make empty promises, we make them to each other, to ourselves and even to God. You might buy your empty promises and you may fool somebody else but God knows what is going on, promises and sacrifices wont do you any good if you are living in sin and you are not willing to repent and change your ways.

Just like God's children we have gained so much that it makes you wonder how we could be so unfaithful to the greatest friend that we could ever have. When God says that He alone is God and He wants me to live in that reality everyday then how dare I become a traitor and place my loyalty somewhere else.

Isaiah 45:22 Let all the world look to Me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other.

God gave out some basic guidelines to help us to know how to treat him, he proved to His people over and over that He alone is God and He alone has the right to rule over our lives. But if you are not thankful for what God has done then you will be just like those complainers in the wilderness.

Sure, they got to see some spectacular miracles but we have the full revelation of the Gospel that they didn't have, we have the big picture of the New Testament that they couldn't know about like we do. Yet we are so bored many times with grace even as we sing the song "Amazing Grace."

As Easter approaches I need to remember that I have a friend that is true to me and He will always treat me better than I could possibly treat Him. I need to be true to Him and do everything that I can to be pleasing to Him and serve Him above anything or anybody else.

The Foolish Church

Living between hot and cold is repulsive to Jesus.

Revelation 3:15-21 "I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth! 17 You say, 'I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing!' And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

18 So I advise you to buy gold from Me--gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from Me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. 19 I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

20 "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. 21 Those who are victorious will sit with Me on My throne, just as I was victorious and sat with My Father on His throne.

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It is easy to be so well blessed that you forget where the blessings come from and you start to depend on the blessings instead of the one who blesses. The church at Laodicea didn't think that they were lacking anything but that is because they were using their physical eyes instead of their spiritual.

"You are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked."

They thought that their gold and their fine garments and the ointment that their city was famous for were signs that God was pleased with them. But Jesus offers us so much more than the riches and pleasures of this world. Just like the Samaritan women at the well who was offered the Living Water, just like the crowd that was offered the Bread of life, Jesus is offering a better gold, better garments and better ointment for their eyes. The things that the world has to offer are never as good as the things that Jesus has for us. (Revelation 3:18)

This church thought that they were doing a good job, they were busy building themselves up, they thought that they were rich but Jesus says that they are poor. This stands in contrast to the church at Smyrna that thought it was poor and Jesus said that they are rich. (Revelation 2:9-10)

This church reminds me of God's children in the Old Testament, most of the time they were proud of the fact that they were not too radical, they thought that they could please God while they embraced the ways of the people around them.

1 Kings 18:21 Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, "How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!" But the people were completely silent.

It seems a lot like the church today in America. We don't like to be offensive but the gospel is offensive. We don't like to be different from the rest of the world but that is exactly the way God's children are called to be. Instead of being offensive we have allowed historic beliefs of the church that have been part of our creeds and part of Biblical teaching to be watered down and contradicted.

So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

Our everyday lives lack passion for the Lord, the message to Laodicea is also to us, get hot for Jesus, be radical instead of ordinary. A zeal for the things of God will cause us to cheerfully work for him and our love for him will help us stand for truth because when we love something strongly then we will hate all that is against it.

Jesus is waiting for us to let him into our church, it sounds a little bit strange, the church has to be willing to have him for him to come in. The thing that made this church so foolish is that they were trying to do church without Jesus. Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Yet there are plenty of "churches" today that are attempting to do just that.

Jesus has gone to extreme measures to get to the door but he will not open the door and force his way into our congregation. We often use these verses to lead lost people to Christ, but the basic application here is to the church.

The inscription on the cathedral in Lubeck, Germany:

"Ye call Me Master and obey me not,
Ye call Me Light and see Me not,
Ye call Me Way and walk not,
Ye call Me Life and desire Me not,
Ye call Me wise and follow Me not,
Ye call Me fair and love Me not,
Ye call Me rich and ask Me not,
Ye call Me eternal and seek Me not,
Ye call Me gracious and trust Me not,
Ye call Me noble and serve Me not,
Ye call Me mighty and honor Me not,
Ye call Me just and fear Me not,
If I condemn you, blame me not".

We have a tendency to stay in the lukewarm zone, very few people like to be overly hot or cold, it is natural for us to seek a comfortable temperature. As a follower of Jesus we don't get to stay comfortable if we want to please God.

I think there are few churches today that have a zealous desire for Jesus, not very many are wanting to experience the red hot church of the Book of Acts, most of us want just enough Jesus to keep us out of Hell.

It is very difficult for us to see ourselves as God sees us and view our sins as being as offensive as he does. If I agree with God about my condition, if I agree with him that I am a wretched man without him, if I view my sins as being offensive to him then I will not try to live in between hot and cold.

We should learn from the church of Laodicea:

• Seek our riches from God and reject the counterfeit riches of the world. 
• Hold onto sound doctrine despite the views of the world.
• Serve God with passion and reject halfhearted devotion to him. 
• Be sure that Jesus is welcome inside our church so we can fellowship with him.

SCRIPTURE ON ZEAL

Psalm 69:9/ John 2:17/ Romans 12:11/ 2 Corinthians 7:11/ Galatians 4:18/ Titus 2:14

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God With Us

Have you ever checked out this man named Jesus?

1 John 1:1-4  We proclaim to you the One who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.   

2  This One who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen Him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that He is the One who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then He was revealed to us.

3  We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.  4  We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

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If you are not a Christ follower then maybe you don't know why some people are or maybe you don't understand why they or why they call themselves Christian. Could Jesus really be that big of a deal?

John was one of the guys that spent all of his time with Jesus every day for three years. John tells us that the reason that he wrote all of this information down was because he knew the truth about Jesus and he wanted to share it with us so that we could decide for ourselves. If you consider the facts then you will realize that Jesus was not an ordinary man, he wasn't a madman and he wasn't a big fake.

John 20:30-31  The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book.  31  But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life by the power of His name.

John wants us to know that he was there and he had personal contact with Jesus, he saw what he did, he heard him teach and he touched a real physical body. John was there for the Sermon on the Mount, he was there when the demons obeying his command and be looked on as Peter walked on the water with Jesus. John believed and he wished that his readers might have the same experience that he had so they would have the same belief, the same hope, and the same joy that he had.

John 1:1-4  In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2  He existed in the beginning with God.  God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him.  The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone.

John's testimony tells us that Jesus is God and as God he has always existed, he took part in creation, he is the giver of our first life and he is the one that made eternal life possible. What an incredible thought to realize that Jesus was with God, he left heaven to get to know us better, he shared in our hurts and our struggles and he revealed himself to us so that we could know God better and secure our eternal destiny.

You Need To Decide
Matthew 16:15-17  Then He asked them, "But who do you say I am?"  16  Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."  17  Jesus replied, "You are blessed, Simon son of John, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being

The people that really knew the truth about Jesus came to him from very different backgrounds. There were tough guys like the fishermen that dropped their nets to follow him, there was a zealot that was fighting to overthrow the oppressive Roman regime. There was ruthless tax collectors, scholarly Pharisees and oppressed women.

One day Jesus gave his disciples a pop quiz to see if they had come to the right conclusion about his identity. They had the advantage of direct access to the teacher, they could ask a question without raising their hand and they didn't have to wait for office hours yet they didn't always get what their teacher was telling them.

How will you answer Jesus pop quiz? Was God really with us?

What Have You Decided About Jesus?

We all have a decision to make.

Luke 23:39-43 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” 40 But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41 We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Three crosses, three men crucified, one of them is the cross of our Savior the other two crosses hold men that are criminals.

On one cross the God-man, he didn't get a fair trial, he didn't do anything wrong and he didn't get treated the way that he should have. On the other two crosses the victims probably had a fair trial and they were found to be deserving of execution.

The crowds made their decision about Jesus, the two men on the crosses next to Jesus made up their mind about him and just like them, we are criminals that deserve to die and just like those two men we also have to make a decision about Jesus.

The choice that we must make is pictured at Calvary, we can be like the criminal that saw his sin, he changed his mind about his crimes and he saw Jesus for who he really is or we can be like the criminal that joins in with the crowds and rejects Jesus.

Three crosses, each one a symbol, one cross was a symbol of redemption being provided, the other a symbol of redemption being received and the third cross a symbol of redemption being rejected.

What have you decided about Jesus?

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How Much Is Jesus Worth To You?

I need to have an extravagant love for Jesus.

Matthew 26:6-16 Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy.

7 While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head.

8 The disciples were indignant when they saw this. “What a waste of money,” they said. 9 “It could have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”

10 But Jesus, aware of this, replied, “Why criticize this woman for doing such a good thing to me? 11 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. 12 She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”

14 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests 15 and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

Matthew 26:33-35 Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

35 “No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same.

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Throughout Jesus ministry there were always great contrast in emotions toward him, as we approach the end of Jesus life, the passionate feelings about him have not subsided. Love him or hate him, we see a great contrast in the way that people feel about Jesus, how much he is loved and how well he is treated.

In this chapter of Matthews gospel the first character that shows us how much they value Jesus is the woman that pours expensive ointment on him. The woman walks into a dinner party with a bottle of expensive ointment.

Everybody at the table got mad and they said that it was a huge waste of money. What a noble cause, looks like the disciples are interested in helping the poor, who could argue with such a good idea?

The next demonstration of how much Jesus is worth in this chapter is from Judas. A man that has been with Jesus for three years, a man that Jesus called a friend, a man that was dipping his hand into the money bag.

Things were not working out as Judas had hoped they would, Judas was in it for what he could get, he was ready for Jesus to announce his earthly kingdom but Jesus was talking about dying. Judas values power and wealth more than he values Jesus.

The last person to indicate how valuable Jesus is to him is Peter. Swearing his allegiance to Jesus, Peter says that he will never leave no matter how bad things get, great intentions but as we will see later he didn't have a lot of commitment.

Soon Jesus is arrested and everybody abandons him, you will find Peter following Jesus from the shadows, for a while anyway, but later on the cost gets to be too high and Peter values his life more than he loves Jesus.

How much do you love Jesus? Are you using him for your own purposes? Will you run and pretend you don't know him when the cost is too high? Does your everyday life prove that you love him?

The extravagant love that was shown to us while we are enemies of God is too difficult to understand, no matter how much we give, it is such an incredibly small thing compared to the love that he has for us. Nobody should feel that the expense of loving and worshiping our Savior is too high like the disciples did when the woman anointed him.

Thank you Lord for the awesome display of your love at Calvary. I need to love you extravagantly everyday and let it show by my good works, my worship and my obedience to your commands.

The War On Wisdom

Do we really want God's wisdom?

Jeremiah 8:8-9 “‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the word of the Lord,” when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies? 9 These wise teachers will fall into the trap of their own foolishness, for they have rejected the word of the Lord. Are they so wise after all?

Isaiah 5:21 What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever.

Proverbs 1:7  Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

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Ask just about anybody that you want and you will probably never have somebody admit that they are a fool. Usually the fool is a fool because he doesn't know it.

God's children thought that they were wise when they were so unashamedly following after false gods and ignoring the commands that the real God gave them. They even thought that things would be fine when they took God's words and twisted them so that they could make themselves look wise.

God's children couldn't say that they didn't know. They had wisdom available to them, they had God's word, they had the testimony of their forefathers and they had numerous prophets that God sent to them as a wake-up call. All of these sources of wisdom were being completely ignored.

The first truth that we need to realize about wisdom is that it comes from God and it is founded in God. Their is no other absolute authority on the subject, the one that had the wisdom to create the world and keep it's intricate details all running smoothly is the only one who is truly wise. (Job 12:13)

That's why we war against wisdom, it is actually a war against God, we don't want God to be a part of our lives. We want to live a lifestyle that is driven by convenience and pleasure, often the price for that kind of living is morality, God's rules get in the way of the "good life." We don't want to be slowed down by the ten commandments or that love your neighbor stuff. The issues on morality in our society can be traced to the war against God and his wisdom, all of these issues would be settled if we agreed that God is wise, we are not, so we should do it his way.

Be careful if you claim to be wise

Romans 1:21-23 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

It is easy to see that if you reject God then you reject wisdom. True wisdom belongs to God and is offered up freely to everyone that will accept him and his wisdom. There are a lot of clever people with great insight that will try and seem wise but if their wisdom isn't based on the rock solid truth that comes from God then it will come to nothing.

What is the difference between the wise and the foolish? The fools have been fooled into thinking they are wise and refuse to let themselves think otherwise. The wise man knows that the only wisdom that he has is what he copied from God.

I need to remember what James said about the foolish and the wise:

James 1:5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. James 1:22-23 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

The first step in ceasing to be a fool is to realize that you have been one, the devil tricks us into believing lies about God and about ourselves so that we will walk away from God, we need to look in the mirror of God's word and take a close look at who we see.

Help me Lord to always place a priority on Bible study, I need your wisdom injected into my life everyday so that I won't be fooled by the devil.

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