5 posts tagged “say”
Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?
John the Baptist asked this question of his cousin Jesus. It was an important question to John, because he was at the moment a prisoner of King Herod. He was waiting to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel and his liberty.
Go back and report to John what you see and hear: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.
Jesus preached the same message as John, but with an important twist. Oh yes, Jesus called for repentance, just like John, but He also preached that salvation was possible for all, even sinners, tax collectors, and their loathsome Roman overlords.
Jesus surely cared about his cousin John and wanted to free him from King Herod's prison, but He did not intervene to do that. Oh sure, He could have, but Jesus did not work that way. His kingdom was not of this world. His kingdom would come by invitation and response, not by His own divine power and might.
Take for example Jesus' encounter with the rich young ruler. Remember how He said the man lacked one thing? He told the man, Go, sell all you have, give it to the poor, and follow Me. Sadly, the man, who was actually a pretty good guy otherwise, could not do that. So the man walked away, unable to part with his riches and to enjoy being the 13th disciple of Jesus.
Did Jesus then run after the man and let him keep his materialistic god? No, he did not. He just let him go. He simply let him make his own decision. He respected his free will. Jesus did not really care about the man's money, but he did care about the man. He knew that the man's riches had a hold on him and he offered him a once in a life time opportunity to have true liberty!
I like the term being a non-anxious presence. To me it means what Jesus did here, addressing an issue but also showing he cared about the man. He cared enough to offer him a place in His own troupe of disciples. How sad that this man missed his opportunity for real liberation.
There are many who are weak and poor and need rescuing, but this man was not one of them. He was bound in a prison of his own making. He was possessed by his possessions.
How about you, my friend? Are you generously opening your hand to the poor at this Advent Christmas season and throughout the year? Are you still thinking that you can take it with you? Or, are you dedicating all that you are and all that you have to the Master who still invites you to follow Him today?
Jesus is waiting for you to make your choice.
Do it today.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NIV):
The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
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I like the second one of the three signs of Christ's coming again.
"With the voice of the archangel."
There are only three angels named in the Bible.
- Gabriel, who announced the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. Gabriel is obviously a messenger angel.
- Satan, the fallen angel, told about in Revelation. He leads the bad angels who revolted against God. Paul tells us that Satan fell because of his pride.
- And Michael, the archangel, the chief of the angels, a warrior angel.
So it is Michael, then, whose voice we will hear just before Christ's second coming.
First, there will be the loud command, calling us to attention, to stop what we're doing and look up.
Second, Michael, the archangel, will speak. We will hear the voice of the head angel, who will lead God's good angels in the final battle with Satan and his bad angels, as told about in the Revelation to John.
What will Michael say to us at Christ's second coming?
I think it might be something like what was said at Jesus' baptism or his transfiguration. "This is God's beloved Son. Listen to him!" It may be something simpler, such as, "Look up! Christ is about to come down from heaven!"
I will be looking up, but I will drop to my knees, too, in the presence of my Lord and Savior.
Anyway, the voice of the angel will certainly be something to which we can look forward.
We are closer now to Christ's second coming than at any time. God delays this event, not out of disinterest, but out of mercy, giving us extra time to get right with Him.
Tomorrow's post: The Trumpet Call of God
1 Thessalonians 4:16 NIV:
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
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I am studying 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 this week. I am fascinated with verse 16, above.
What is the loud command given when He comes down from heaven? Does Christ give the command or someone else?
I think the loud command is a great "Hark!" It sounds dramatic enough. Or maybe it's "Behold!" Or perhaps it is "Look out below!"
The Lord himself will come again. He will come with a loud command. We don't know what he will command us, but it will be loud. Of that we can be sure. It will be so loud that everyone will hear it, even when jackhammers are jackhammering. Will it be so loud that it hurts our ears?
It makes me remember being in school and hearing the morning announcements begin over the P.A. (public address) system.
I also think of when sailors hear their Captain say over the P.A. system, "Now hear this!"
Whatever the loud command is, it is meant, no doubt, to get our attention, to stop what we're doing, and just listen. We need to ready ourselves to do just that.
The Lord's return will happen, says Paul. He wanted to reassure the Christians in Thessalonica that Christ was coming again.
"Now hear this!" Christ will come with a loud command.
As I think about this verse, I ready myself for that moment. When it happens, I will not count it as a surprise. I will look forward to the return of Christ with joy and anticipation.
In the meantime, I will enjoy His daily presence, communicated by the Holy Spirit, by which Christ is "with us always," just as He promised!
Psalm 90 continues (verses 3-6),
You turn men back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."
For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning --
though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening it is dry and withered.
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As I meditated on these four verses from Psalm 90, I remembered the song "Dust in the Wind." It was written in 1977 by Kerry Livgren, when he wrote and played for the band Kansas. While playing "Dust in the Wind" one day at home, when his wife was doing laundry, she
told him he should put it on the album. Since the album had some extra
time available, he presented the song to the band and it was included on the "Point of Know Return" album,
becoming their highest charting single.
Livgren's song opens with these words:
"Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
I close my eyes
Only for a moment, then the moment's gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind."
If you've ever heard it performed, "Dust in the Wind" is a slow melody, well paired with the melancholy lyrics. It has somewhat the same feel and tone as Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller's song "Is That All There Is?" which was memorably sung by Miss Peggy Lee in 1969. The chorus expresses life's disappointments:
"Is that all there is?
If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing.
Let's break out the booze and have a ball,
if that's all there is."
Are we just dust in the wind? Are life's disappointments really all there is? Moses, here in Psalm 90, reflects on the meaning of life and its brevity. We do not hear Moses saying that life is without meaning and purpose in these verses. He is simply saying that our lives are in God's hands.
God made us from dust and then blew into us the breath of life. God's breath is in you and me. That essential part will never die. Our bodies grow, mature, and die. Compared to God's timeless nature though, we live brief lives, like new grass, which in the morning is green and bright, but by evening may be dry and withered.
Just think! The great God of heaven, the Creator of the earth, moon, stars, and universe, has put His stamp upon you and me. We are his. He is ours. We each have a purpose upon this earth, because life is preparation for eternity. Once we accept Christ as Lord and Savior and begin to live in Him, life takes on new, eternal meaning. Nothing in life or death can take us from God's love and His presence.
Paul Harvey has a daily radio broadcast on which he always tells a personal story in two parts. The second part is always "the rest of the story." I began by mentioning the author of "Dust in the Wind," Kerry Livgren. At the time he wrote the song, he did not know God and believe in Him. "The rest of the story" is that later, Kerry accepted Christ and became a Christian. Describing himself as a family man, he now teaches an Adult Sunday School Class at Topeka Bible Church in Topeka, Kansas.
Friend, if you are facing a time in your life when you are asking "Is That All There Is" and you look around you and wonder if you are just "Dust in the Wind," then I say to you, look to Moses' word here in Psalm 90. God has put His stamp upon your very being. You belong to Him. To God, you are not just "Dust in the Wind." You are of eternal worth to God!
From Exodus 16:2-15 NIV:
Verse 3: The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
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"If only ..."
How many times have you said that about something? How many times have you heard others say it, too?
In verse 3, above, we see the Israelites were grumbling to Moses and Aaron as they camped in the Desert of Sin.
We always remember well what we had in the past. When we suddenly have less, we grumble about it, like the Israelites did.
It comes to mind that people grumble a lot about gas prices. We'd like to blame foreign leaders, or the oil companies, or the Congress, or even the President for our troubles.
I remember in college in the late 1960s when I paid thirty cents per gallon for leaded regular gas for my car. I could get three gallons and change for less than a dollar. Sometimes all I had was a dollar.
A couple of days ago I filled up the tank in my nine year old car. Gas was $3.49 per gallon at a Shell station in nearby Hampstead, Maryland. I was glad to get it at that price, having seen it much higher at other stations lately.
The Israelites were not grumbling about having money or the price of anything. They left Egypt laden with silver and gold, but had little food and water. They fled Pharoah's chariots and army in haste.
I can understand their grumbling about their lack of food and water. They wanted to blame it all on their leaders, Moses and Aaron. But these brothers were only following God's orders to lead them out of Egypt and head for the Promised Land.
So the people were projecting their anger on their leaders, but it really was meant for God. And do you know what happened next?
Before Moses and Aaron could even turn to God and ask for help, God promised to help the people with meat and bread.
God told Moses:
"I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."
If only, the people said. Little did they know, right then, that God was listening and God wanted to help them. Indeed, God had a promise to make and a plan to fulfill.
The next time you hear yourself or someone else say "If only ...", then remember that God hears you and others when we grumble.
God not only hears us, but God deeply cares for his own and already has a promise and plan to help us.
Do you think you can trust God to provide for your needs, even as God did it for the Israelites?
I'm willing to trust God like that. I think they still call that "Faith."
Will you, too?
