Praise the Lord for this Friday. We are just three weeks away from Good Friday. We are getting ready for the celebration of the Easter Event. "Up from the grave He arose". . . Alleluia". Alice and I walked on one of the local trails yesterday afternoon. It was sunny and bright. The frozen river nearby is melting fast and furiously. I saw many jubilant spring birds and water fowl congregating on the open spaces of the river. Somebody has sighted robins.
Alice is making some pies to take to school this morning for her geometry classes in celebration of ultimate pi day (though it actually is tomorrow, not today) . . . show and tell of sorts. She is leaving behind a small one for me. I am joyful.
During my undergraduate college days( during turbulent sixties of last century) one of the books I read was a book by Billy Graham entitled, "World Aflame". One of my friends in North Carolina sent me a copy of that book in 2006. In his book, Dr. Graham depicted the how the world was an uproar in flames. We can still see the world is in a very similar situation even in 2015.
King David, the "man after God's own heart," was described in Scripture as a man of war, though it was by faith rather than by firepower that he subdued a bear and a lion. When he faced Goliath, he announced that, though he was underarmed and overpowered, God would deliver Goliath into his hand. Why? So that "all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands" (1 Samuel 17:47).
King David did not trust in his own arm or armaments (though he used both). Rather, he resolved, "I will not trust in my bow; neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies" (Psalms 44:6-7). And again, "Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God" (Psalms 20:6-7).
Always David leaned on the Lord for salvation when attacked by his enemies. In 1 Chronicles 11:14 we read of the raid of the "Philistines, and the Lord saved them by a great deliverance." The ancient Jewish people learned well the lesson that if they were to be saved from their enemies, they must be on God's side, and not merely have God on their side.
When Hezekiah was besieged by Sennacherib of Assyria, we read that he fell to his knees before the Lord in prayer. And "the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria ... and guided them on every side" (2 Chronicles 32:22).
Today the word "saved" has come full circle, and it is what everybody who thinks deeply knows that man needs most.
Certainly no human or military power can save us today. The psalmist wrote, "There is no king saved by the multitude of an host" (Psalms 33:16).
Jeremiah lamented, "Our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us" (Lamentations 4:17). Nehemiah related how, when Israel disobeyed, they would inevitably be captured and abused. But when they sought the Lord, He sent them deliverers: "Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them; and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviors, who saved them out of the hands of their enemies" (Nehemiah 9:27).
The prophet Samuel pointed erring Israel to their saving God, remonstrating them for their disobedience and defiance of God's will and ways: "And Samuel called the people together unto the Lord to Mizpeh, and said ... the Lord God of Israel ... delivered you out of the hand ... of all kingdoms, and of all them that oppressed you; and ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations" (1 Samuel 10:17-19).
One of the most amazing of human frailties is man's failure to respond to God's saving grace. There is a very moving passage in Jeremiah 14:8-9 which reads, "O the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aise to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not."
This passage was applicable to ancient Israel, and it is applicable to us today--to our world, to our nation, to each of us as individuals.
It is man and not God who is destroying the human race.
The ancient prophet Hosea 13:9-10 recorded God's call: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. I will be thy king: where is any other that [can] save thee?"
Human philosophy is as bankrupt as man's technology is dangerous. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the prince of peace precisely prophesied the current events of our time, including an approaching holocaust that would threaten to vaporize man from the earth. Included in Jesus' forecast was that "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." When throughout the earth there is "distress of nations, with perplexity," with "men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth ... when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:24-28).
There is redemption for nations in Christ whenever they turn as a people to God in repentance and faith. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
In an increasingly impersonal world, billions of people get lost in the shuffle and miss Christ.
Yet, Christ came to seek and save that which was lost.. Today He is saving individuals. Each person must begin by realizing that he cannot save himself. In Judges 7:2 we read that none are to "vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." It is clear that man can no more save himself than he can save his world. Yet God's plan for man is that he might be saved.
"God our Savior," wrote Paul to Timothy, "will have all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:3-4).
The season of Lent leading to glorious Easter is the Good News of salvation. We are the bearers of the Good News. We are the ambassadors of the Savior and King. We are stewards of the mystery of the Cross.
Let us live with confidence and courage. Let us finish the race well.
In Him
Brown
https://youtu.be/FsgwfliQoqg
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment