First Word # 4 Psalm 77

Psalm 77:6, 12 (ESV)

⁶I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search: ¹²I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.

The Psalmist here reminds us that our meditation should bring us a song .  In spite of the difficulties that he may be facing his meditation of heart brought him to the point of singing.

As he searched for truth and understanding, he came to ponder upon all of God’s work.  God’s work reveals his grace to all as we all have the opportunity to enjoy the many marvelous aspects of his creative work.  All benefit from the water cycle that works to bring us freshwater and helps us to live.  All benefit from the wind patterns that help to keep our air from getting stagnant and unusable.  One could go on of the many things that God has done for man.

As the psalmist had opportunity to meditate upon God’s mighty deeds all he had to do was to review Israel’s history.  They had seen the many miracles of the plagues in Egypt and how the people of Egypt gave their slaves all of their valuables so that scripture says they were plundered.  They knew of God’s deliverance through the sea on dry ground as they find themselves hemmed in by Pharoah’s army, the mountains to both sides and the sea before them.  They can be reminded of how God drove the Canaanites out of the land, the parting of the Jordan river at flood stage, the great defeat at Jericho( where the walls fell after just marching, shouting, and blowing trumpets), and how even insects and animals were used to empty areas of the Israelites enemies.

As we have been challenged this week to be sure that our meditation pleases God, not only can we ponder and meditate upon His Word, but upon the work that he does and the many ways the He leads and provides in our lives.

May our days be more focused and more positive as we seek to spend time remembering God’s many deeds that are accomplished for our benefit!  And may our words be full of praises for our great and mighty creator!

To see the video version of this visit. www.fbclittletonil.org and lcik on the "First Word" link.

First Word # 3 - Psalm 19:14

Psalm 19:14 (ESV)

¹⁴Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

I am not sure I can count all the times that someone has said within hearing range of me, “Don’t say that at church! Or Don’t talk like that he’s a pastor.”

Yet, very few people in today’s society seemed to be concerned with what God thinks of what they are saying.  Maybe a church building or a pastor help give God “flesh” and are therefore are  convicting, but as one considers the verse before us today we must be reminded that God sees and knows all that we say.

If I place myself in front of the holy and almighty , creator and sustainer of the universe, would my words be different?  Does God’s omniscience (complete knowledge) of my words concern me?  It should!  He has given us standards in His Word for what type of communication should come out of our mouths.

Yet, this verse goes beyond our speech to that on which we are meditating.  What is our mind continually mulling over when we are not forced to be thinking about a task before us?  The psalmist here recognizes that his meditation can be either pleasing or displeasing to God.  The things that I meditate on should please Him. 

Some may ask, “Just what is meditation?”  As I look up the meaning it says, “to murmur, or a moaning”.  I am reminded of when I was a school teacher.  I loved to give pop quizzes in science because it made the students review their notes each morning.  It was therefore not uncommon as the students came into class to have them reciting over and over again to themselves whatever the content was.  As we studied the solar system we might hear a large number of students saying, “Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto,  Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto,  Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.” 

They were meditating upon the planets of the solar system!  If God can be either pleased or displeased with what we meditate on then we had better find out some of the things that are pleasing to Him.  Yesterday, in our “First Word” we saw that “God’s Word” should be our meditation day and night.  May we work to please God as we set our mind to meditate upon His Word as one of the things that we know will please Him!

The verse finishes with a statement of confidence that God is both His Rock and his Redeemer.  I hope that you too look to God as the foundation for your life and that you have been redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ His Son.

http://www.fbclittletonil.org/First%20Word.html

First Word # 2 : Psalm 1

Psalm 1:1–2 (ESV)

1Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

In these familiar verses we are reminded of the blessing that God promises to those who do five things.  Three are negative and two are positive.

The first is that he promises a man will be blessed (happy and content) if he chooses not to walk in the counsel of the wicked.  So we must ask ourselves, “”when I have a difficulty or a problem to whom do I go to receive counsel?  Who do I send my child to for counsel at school?  Do they have Biblical and Godly goal in mind for my children?”

The second negative challenge is to avoid “standing in the way of sinners”.  Do I place myself continually where I am going to be influenced and taking part with those who have no desire to be honoring God with their lives or their speech?

The final negative challenge is not to sit in the seat of scoffers.  Do I avoid placing myself under the instruction and admonition of those who scoff at God and those who don’t live for him?

If I choose to spend enough time with those who are living in opposition to God that they affect my life, I will end up following them in their way.  And the end of the Psalm makes it clear that these “sinners” will not stand in the Day of Judgment, nor with the righteous, but that the “way of the ungodly will perish”

On the positive side, the first challenge is to delight in the law of God.  Can we say that we delight in God’s law?  We might say that we delight in ice cream or chocolate, but what about God’s law.  Is it a drive of our emotions and passions to be able to have time in God’s law, God’s Word?

David’s delight in the law of God brought him to the second positive challenge to have a “blessed” life.  “In His law he meditates day and night”.  When we have time for our mind to wander, to think about whatever it is that pleases us, where does it go?  Does it go to God’s Word?

For those who do, God promises great blessings in this passage.  He says we will be like a tree that never has lack of water so there can always be fruit and that our life will be prosperous, because a life guided by God’s Word will bring glory to God in everything that is done.  Our prosperity may not look like what the world and the ungodly one’s  are looking for, but the opportunity to live for God and glorify Him in our lives is worth the eternity that we will get to spend getting to know God.  For, our present life is nothing but a vapor that quickly vanishes away., according to James in Jam. 4:14  

The videdo of this can be seen at http://www.fbclittletonil.org/First%20Word.html

Be Not Deceived the Harvest Will Come!

Galatians 6:7–8 (ESV) ⁷Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. ⁸For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

In a world full of deceit and lies many people are taken captive by Satan and come to believe that their happiness is the most important aspect of life.

Three areas of deception individuals may succumb to.

1.     The deception of Satan - 2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (ESV) ³And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

a.   Satan works to deceive so that people never trust Christ as Savior

2.   The deception of Society - Colossians 2:8 (ESV) ⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

a.   People around us want us to compromise and not live as we should.  Have I been taken captive?

3.   The deception of Self – Often individuals get the idea that they are o.k. because they compare themselves with others and not with the righteousness of God.  This area is the personal outworking of the previous two.  It gives evidence that we need a change in our thinking and our relationship with God.

The Apostle Paul ministered the word of God to bring the thinking of individuals back to what is pleasing to God.  2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV) ⁵We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Though we may put on a good front and we may be accepted in society, “God is not mocked.”  He knows our hearts and our minds and we will give account to Him.  The harvest will come and what we have sown in our lives because of deception we will face the consequences of it.

First Word # 1 - Psalm 63:1

Psalm 63:1  O God  You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.

The desire of David was to seek God early.  He had a thirst for God that need to be quenched and by setting his mind on God and His lovingkindness, David was able to continue to praise God in spite of people trying to kill him.

I am doubtful that anyone seeing this today is worried about someone trying to kill them unless they are serving in the military somewhere.  Yet we all have the need to focus our minds on God early in the day that our day may be directed by Him. 

Our desire is that for those who tune in daily to “First Word” that we might help them to focus on God and His Word.  This by no means is intended to replace your personal time in Bible Study, Prayer, and mediation, but as a supplement to help you as you begin your day.

As David sought for God and then focused on Him here in Psalm 63.  We see that it affected what was on his lips for he said “My lips shall praise You”.  You see when we are praising God with our lips we don’t have time to be complaining about our boss or whining about going to work.

In verse five, He talks about the satisfaction of soul that he finds in God and how his praise is from Joyful lips.

David’s contemplation helps him to realize that it is God that has been upholding him (vs. 8).  And he pledges to follow close to him.  In Psalm 143:8 David says, “Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning,   For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to You.”  Perhaps this is one reason we know David as a “man after God’s own heart”, because his desire was to walk in the way God had for him.

Our hope is that as you take the time to listen in on a regular basis that you along with us can learn to better walk in God’s way that you may experience God’s blessing and be encouraged in your walk of obedience. 

If you would like to see this in video format use the link below to First Word!
http://www.fbclittletonil.org/First%20Word.html

Sparks Highlight 10-12-11

****Sparks Highlights****   The nation of Israel worshiped God after the triumphant delivery (salvation) from Egypt.  God provided the nation of Israel a leader in Moses as God gave direction to Moses specifically of what was expected of the people.  A nation has laws and God had laws for the nation of Israel.  His laws show us how we are to love/serve God and how we are to love/serve others.  These laws, though, were not to be just a set of rules, but a clear picture of God’s perfect holy standard.  Any action opposite those laws is sin – and the penalty of sin is death eternal.  In God’s eyes when one law is broken – when one sin is committed - we are guilty of all of them.  That should sound familiar to your Sparkie as the K is SPARKS refers to James 2:10 that says ‘whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all’. No one can live up to this perfect standard of keeping all the laws/not sinning because no one is good enough.  Keeping laws or doing good things to live by the laws doesn’t earn us to Heaven because we are never good enough.   The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that no one is righteous, no not one.  The penalty of that sin is death eternal, but the gift of God is eternal life. That gift is Jesus’ shed blood, dying, for our sins; and we believing in that shed blood to cover our sins and save us from the penalty of our sins.  By accepting that gift, we have eternal life.  Jesus is who all of our Old Testament accounts of people being saved/delivered from something are all about.    You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!   You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org .     

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mr. Roger Fox, Mrs. Barb Stein.

The Perfecting Storm of a Sovereign King

I have been preaching verse by verse through Matthew since last Christmas.  Last week found us in Matthew 14 and part of the passage dealt with the fact that Jesus commanded his disciples to go into a boat at night and head out to sea.  They ended up in the midst of a storm.  I quoted Warren Wiersbe and noted that sometimes God uses “Storms of Correction” and other times God uses “Storms of Perfection”.  As the disciples had faced a storm to bring them growth in their relationship with Christ, Jonah had faced a storm to bring him to obedience to God. To many who knew the events of the past week they might have said we had a “week from Hell.”  Yet, knowing that we serve a SOVEREIGN GOD we know that He lead us through just what He had planned.

As SOVEREIGN OVER ALL, we knew going to court (to maintain guardianship of three children we have cared for two years) that ultimately it was not the judge who would render judgment.  For as Solomon said the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord (Prov. 21:1) surely the ruling of a judge is only allowed by His Sovereign direction.

As SOVEREIGN PROVIDER, he knew our car would break down and it would have to be left in town for repairs.  He knew a friend would be in town to provide us a ride home.  He knew and directed someone to notice and drop enough for the repair bill on my desk.  He knew the battery would go dead in our other vehicle on the same day and provided someone who came and took it off the charger while I was gone and had it replaced. (Ps 23:1)

As SOVEREIGN PERFECTOR, we know that he does everything in the lives of those who have repented and trusted Christ as Savior to “conform them to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29)

A SOVEREIGN PEACE is provided by the Prince of Peace, not only peace with God because of Christ’s righteousness at salvation, but the “peace of God that surpasses all understanding.”  (Phil. 4:7)

Through His SOVEREIGN PROMISE, we know “all things work together for good to those who love God to those who have been called according to His purpose.”  (Rom. 8:28-29)

As SOVEREIGN PROTECTOR, we entrust to Him the safety of the children as they return to their birth mother.  (Psalm 18:2)

So although we may not immediately see or understand what God is doing, we can be THANKFUL that we serve a SOVEREIGN KING who is LORD OF ALL and we can and will TRUST in Him as He fulfills his SOVEREIGN PLAN.  (Prov. 16:9; 19:21) 

** This article was originally written last October.