The Gospel in 6 (or 3) Words

In Is 53.11 this morning where Isaiah writes: And he shall bear their iniquities. 6 words. Six words that contain the whole of the gospel, the whole message of redemption. In Hebrew it is three words. Implicit in this statement is the fact that 1) People have iniquities; 2) That someone needs to bear the punishment for their iniquities; and 3) That the Suffering Servant is able to bear their iniquities. The whole of the gospel of redemption, in three words.

"How kind the LORD is! How good he is!
So merciful, this God of ours!" - Ps 116.5

A good example of why I love the NLT, especially in the Psalms. If our own lives aren't saturated with praise in the way that the writers of the Psalms were, then reading this will leave us dry, dead, and lifeless. This kind of expression comes, not from a life free from trouble, but from a life drenched with relationship; with pursuit of our God. This relationship sustains us through the vagaries of live. May my life cry out that our God is kind, good, and merciful!

- "Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed." Prosper of Aquitaine

Sobering Words Indeed

Revelation 20:15
15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

In Rev 20.15, this morning where we find the above sobering words. No room for squirming or arguing or debating, if your name is not found in the book of life, you will be thrown into the lake of fire. Whether it is a literal or figurative fire is the least of my concerns. The point to take under consideration is that the Scriptures describe it as a lake of fire. That is all I need to know. I choose Jesus Christ and him crucified for my sins.




- "Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed." Prosper of Aquitaine

Location:MEM

I Will Carry You

In Isaiah 46.3,4, this morning, a favorite passage. Precious promises from the Lord to his people here. I have carried you from before your birth. I will carry you. I will save you. To your old age. I will.

You're Gonna Worry

"Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." (1 Pet 5.7)

I'm studying through 1 Pet 5.6-11. In verse 7 Peter makes the assumption that we are going to have anxieties and worries. He doesn't say IF you have anxieties because he makes the (correct) assumption that you ARE going to have them, which he himself obviously had.

I like that. The Scriptures never assume that we are or have to be super saints. God understands who we are. He understands our weaknesses. He does not call us to perfection, he calls us to follow as we are, with our shortcomings, weaknesses, and anxieties.

Yep. You are going to have worries. Take them to the right place.


- "Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed." Prosper of Aquitaine

A Politically Incorrect God

I'm reading in Isaiah 34, today. The language and imagery is, shall we say, a little difficult for the modern ear to take: “For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.” (Is 34:5–6 ESV). Do you see what I mean?

God seems not in the least concerned about appearing politically correct, nor for our approbation of his actions. I like this, even though I do not understand it. If we understood everything about God and could pass judgment on all his actions, then we would have a genie for a God. I do not want a genie for a God. I want God to be God, and for him to be God, there will be times when I do not understand his actions, or his words. This is one of those times.

I am happy to worship a God whom I do not fully understand, because the alternative is to either a. create a God in my own image who is politically correct, or b. live in a world with no meaning, not ultimate foundation for morality, and no ultimate purpose. I do not want to live in that world, and do not believe we are in that kind of world.

As Mr. Tumnus said to Lucy in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: "He (Aslan) is not a tame lion, but he is good."

The Lord our Mighty One

21 The Lord will be our Mighty One.
He will be like a wide river of protection
that no enemy can cross,
that no enemy ship can sail upon.

In Isaiah 33.21, this morning, reading it in the NLT. I am loving the NLT! It helps to read in a version of the Bible that I have not read very much because it helps me to read with "new eyes."

When God brings peace to his people, he will be a "wide river of protection" for us, our guardian, our protector, our peace, our Mighty One.

Promises to rest in.


- "Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed." Prosper of Aquitaine

A True Heart and Skillful Hands

In Ps 78.72 this morning. Asaph finishes this great Psalm commenting on God's character. "He [God] cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands." Precious and deep truth. Our God has our best interests in mind because our best interests are found in what glorifies God the most. We do not serve a fickle God who treats us according to his whim at the moment, our God has a true heart and hands that are infinitely more skillful than the finest surgeon.


- "Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed." Prosper of Aquitaine

Location:Home

The Song of the Redeemed

When God redeems his people, when he finally finishes history and completes salvation; when he swallows up death forever, the redeemed will sing a song to him, part of which is in Is 25.9 - "In that day the people will proclaim, this is our God! We trusted in him, and he saved us! This is the Lord, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!"

I look forward to that day and to that song, and I - along with all who are there - will sing at the top of my lungs!


- "Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed." Prosper of Aquitaine

Location:Home

Who can stand before a great king.

"No wonder you are greatly feared. Who can stand before you
when your anger explodes." Ps. 76.7

A good example of why I like to read the NLT from time to time. The imagery is so vivid, especially in the Psalms. The answer of course is that no one - no person or thing - can stand before God when his anger explodes. He is the great king before whom all bow, whether willingly or unwillingly.


- "Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed." Prosper of Aquitaine

Location:PHX

This Wicked Congregation

Reading in Numbers 14.35, this morning, where God refers to the generation of the Exodus as This Wicked Congregation. He could not have chosen harsher words. The remarkable thing is that this generation saw God move in power like perhaps no generation has seen before or since, except maybe the generation of Christ. They witnessed the ten plagues; they lived through the release from Egypt; they walked across the Red Sea between two walls of water; they experienced the miracle of manna; they saw water come from a rock in the desert, and yet when it came to take the land God had given them, they shrank back, to their own destruction; thus earning the name, This Wicked Congregation.

What to take from this? First Hebrews uses them as an object lesson on (lack of) faith. The writer says, "don't shrink back from following the Lord like his own people shrank back; they did not enter God's rest because of their unbelief. Don't miss out on God's rest because of your own unbelief." Second, a lesson for us is to trust God's promises despite appearances. This Wicked Congregation became distracted by appearances and refused to trust in what God had promised.

The Word of God is Not Bound. Ever.

Reading in 2 Tim 8,9, this morning. A couple of favorite verses. Paul is in prison. He is suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. However, where he is bound and unable to go anywhere without permission, the gospel is not bound, it is free to go wherever the Spirit of God would have it go. This is a profound truth. One never knows where words spoken will have an effect. One illustration comes to mind in which a preacher goes to visit people in their house. He shares the gospel with them, they do not come to faith. However, their child is listening in the next room. The child is saved. The word of God is not bound!

The Insatiable Nature of Money

Reading in Ecc 5.10, this morning. Solomon says that the pursuit of money for its own sake is endless. You will never be satisfied with what you have. Life proves this statement beyond a shadow of a doubt. How much money do men need to live on? Apparently, there is no answer to that because one watches men make billions of dollars in a year, only to turn around the next year and try to make billions more. It becomes a matter of ego, rather than actually needing money. Beware the pursuit of money—or anything else besides God the Father—for its own sake. This is vanity.

Tested By Praise

In Proverbs 27.21, this morning (I LOVE Proverbs). We are tested [tested as silver and gold is tested in a crucible, i.e. the dross is separated to see if there is any true silver or gold] by how we handle praise.

The Preacher's Commentary (which doesn't get any love from preachers and I'm not exactly sure why) gets it exactly correct: There are not wanting men in modern days who uphold the maxim, Vox populi, vox Dei. Septuagint, “The action of fire is a test for silver and gold, so a man is tested by the mouth of them that praise him.” No surer test of a man’s true character can be found than his behaviour under praise; many men are spoiled by it. If a man comes forth from it without injury, not rendered vain, or blind to his defects, or disdainful of others, his disposition is good, and the commendation lavished upon him may be morally and spiritually beneficial.

Does it Appear that Evil is Successful?

Don't worry. Take the long view. This is the message of Prov 24.19,20. Evil will not triumph. Those who are evil and appear to be "getting away with it," will not get away with it. They are accountable to God. He will hold them accountable.

Do You Rob the Poor?

God will certainly rob you of life. Thus the message of Prov 22.22,23. This is known as "talionic justice" or "poetic justice." Do not think that if you oppress the poor because you can get away with it, that you will get away with it. You will not. God will see that you do not. As Derek Kidner writes in the Tyndale commentary: To be ruthlessly on the make is to make, above all, an Enemy.

The Word of Truth = The Gospel

So says Paul in Col. 1.5. If Pilate had only understood this. When he asks Christ, "What is truth?" (John 18.38), Christ doesn't bother explaining to Pilate because Pilate obviously was not open to what exactly truth was. He commands/allows the murder of Christ (heeding the predetermined plan of God by making his own choices—a mystery). A guy who is going to let an innocent man be murdered in the most heinous manner is not a person who is open to hearing the truth; however, it does explain why he allows Christ to die. If one does not believe in absolute truth, then whatever is expedient is fine.

He Loved Them to the End

In John 13.1 this morning where John says that Christ, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end. The phrase to the end might not be the best way to translate the expression, to the uttermost is perhaps a better way. It is an expression that while Christ fully understood what he was about to suffer and why he was to suffer it, he pressed forward because of his love for his own. He did it for us.

On Being Stiff-necked

Thinking about Ex 33.3 this morning where God tells his own people that they are a stiff-necked people. Ouch! That must have hurt. Events prove that God read his people exactly correctly. Despite having seen the ten plagues decimate Egypt; despite witnessing the great deliverance at the Red Sea; despite seeing the daily miracle of manna; and God bring water from a rock, the people fail as a generation. They do not go up and take the land that God commands them to do. They are stiff-necked.

It is easy to see events from 3000 years and throw stones at the generation of the Exodus, but despite having all of the promises of the Scriptures, and seeing God's work completed in Christ's resurrection, and having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as an ever present reality, we are often stiff-necked as well, when the Holy Spirit commands us to do what we do not want to do. Rather than condemn the generation of the Exodus, we should probably evaluate our own lives in light of this verse. Am I stiff-necked?

Some Were Paying Attention

In John 10. 41, 42, this morning. Some in Israel were paying attention. They had watched John's ministry and understood that he had preached about the coming of Messiah, but had done no works. Along came Christ who said he was Messiah and who did miraculous works. They rightly concluded that everything that John said about this man was true. The result: And many believed in him there.

One cannot overemphasize the importance of paying attention like this. The Pharisees and scribes had the exact same information as those who believed, but because of their preconceived notion of how Messiah should act and what he should do, they were spiritually blind.