December 8, 2010

2 Chronicles 8

Fascinating! Solomon observes all of the law concerning the sacrifices and the celebration of the 3 festivals; yet, he marries the daughter of Pharaoh. He knows that there is something wrong with marrying her because he will not allow her to live in Jerusalem. Listen to what he says concerning her, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.” He will not even let her live where his father lived because she does not share the faith. Then why did he marry her? He united with almost 1,000 concubines and wives. He knew it was wrong but did it anyway. They turned his heart from serving the Lord. If Solomon in all his wisdom could succumb to such a temptation, how much more should I be wary of willfully turning from God?

Where is the glory of God in all of this? I’m really digging here. Could it be the tremendous longsuffering of the Lord? Could it be the tremendous grace of the Lord? I mean, Solomon is clearly disobedient in relation to his marriages and his sacrificing to other gods, yet the Lord does not remove him. Surely the longsuffering of the Lord is being tried here! Am I any different? Well, I don’t have any concubines, and I have only one wonderful wife, or any other kind of wife for that matter. I have not built any altars to other gods to burn sacrifices and incense there. But is any other sin I commit not just as grievous to the Holy God I serve? When I willfully sin, am I not trying the longsuffering of the Lord. Yes, I am. For that reason I should be motivated to not sin. But at the same time I rejoice that He is indeed longsuffering and gracious. Thank You, Lord! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

3 John

In college I took a class called Philosophical Problems. The semester was divided into three main questions of discussion.

Is there a God and if so, what is He like?
Is there a basis for morality and if so, what is it?
Does man have a soul or an immaterial part of his being?
The professor was an agnostic and obviously read about and thought about the questions most of his life. Of course he was guiding the class reading and discussion to his conclusion, which was basically the same for each question. His conclusion was, "We don't know and probably cannot know." For him truth was an elusive thing that can only be found in the facts demonstrated by the scientific method. Never-the-less there were three or four of us in the class that stuck to our guns and argued against his conclusions. (Unfortunately we lacked training and experience in this.) Why did we do that? We did it because we had each had a personal encounter with the Truth, the person of Jesus Christ.

This is the only book of the New Testament where the name of Jesus does not appear. But the word truth or true is used seven times and love or loves is used thrice. John has sometimes been called the Apostle of Love because of his emphasis on love in other writings. Perhaps he might also should be called the Apostle of Truth. John, the one whom Jesus loved, is said by some to be the Lord's favorite disciple. Usually his writings exude with Jesus. John is known for his emphasis in his writings on the person of Jesus Christ. But here he does not even call the name of Jesus. John is the one who quotes Jesus as having said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. . . " Truth is the emphasis of this letter.

How does one walk in the Truth? The Truth is Jesus. Ultimately we walk in Truth by what I have been trying to do in these meditations on the glory. We walk in the truth by spending enough time in the Word every day until we see the glory of Jesus and what difference it makes in our life. We then seek to apply it to our lives and speak it to others. He is the truth. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor John