December 11

2 Chronicles 11-12 When I was in the 7th grade, I found a dollar bill on the ground. In 1967 a dollar was worth a whole lot more than it is today. I thought that I was rich. I told my friend. My friend told everybody on the bus. There was a 9th grader on the bus who heard it. He was of a bullying type personality. He immediately claimed that the dollar bill was his. (In other words he was demanding that the dollar be restored to him.) He was nowhere near the area in which I had found it. He demanded that I give the dollar to him. I refused. The next day on the bus he had two friends. One of them had a knife in hand. They threatened me that I had one day to give them the dollar. Needless to say, I surrendered the dollar. Why? There were several reasons. First and foremost, I did not want to get hurt. It wasn’t worth a dollar. Second, it was never really mine to begin with. It belonged to someone else. Why should I fight to keep what was never mine to begin with? Rehoboam was ready to go to war to restore the kingdom to himself. But was it his to begin with? Certainly Solomon had installed him as king. According to normal protocol,l the Kingdom was his. But listen to what these verses say about the kingdom. 1 Chronicles 28:5 (KJV) 5And of all my sons, (for the LORD hath given me many sons,) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel. Psalm 22:28 (KJV) 28For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations. He had taken ownership of what belonged to the Lord. It was not his. Consequently, he was offended by the ripping of the kingdom; even though, it had been designed by the Lord. How often am I offended by what is ripped from me, even though it is designed by the Lord. Perhaps my claiming my rights obscures the glory of the Lord because the claiming of what I think is my right is actually God’s. Lord, help me to not obscure your glory by claiming my own. All that I have comes from you. It is Yours to do with as you please. You are indeed glorious. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john * Proverbs 11 It has been said that in a democratic society, the people get what they deserve in an elected government. Obama has been elected to a second term. What is he like in terms of Biblical values? Let’s see, he is for unqualified support for abortion no matter how late and for the government paying for it. The final straw that caused Israel to be kicked out of the land was when her kings began shedding much innocent blood by causing their children to pass through the fire (child sacrifice). It seems we have that again in a president. Do we deserve it? Since 1973 our people have murdered 50,000,000 babies in the abortion chambers of America. Looks like we deserve it. But murder is not the only Biblical value. "You shall not commit adultery,” is the negative statement of the positive command to protect the institution of marriage. Biblically marriage is one man, one woman for as long as they both shall live. Obama is on record for redefining marriage to include homosexual couples. Do we deserve that? Well since the early sixties the church has been letting sexual mores slide. We look the other direction when our people divorce and remarry, but hammer homosexuals for their ‘sin.’ Looks like we deserve Obama. “You shall not covet,” is the negative statement of “having food and clothing, with these be content.” One third of the world goes to bed hungry every night. America controls the majority of the world’s resources; we are the most giving nation in the world. Yet we could give so much more. Evangelical Christians alone could easily give double what they give to the Lord’s work, yet we do not give it. What we do give, we spend more than ninety percent of it in the USA, while billions enter a Christ-less eternity. Obama loves to hammer the rich that they should be paying their fair share, but the record shows that before he ran for president, Obama gave very little to charity. As a matter of fact, before he ran for president (2000-2004), I gave more to charity than he did. Considering my salary in 2004 and his salary in 2004, that is not saying very much for him. Sounds like we deserve him. How did we get in this position? Well verse 3 says, “The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.” Sounds like when we went to the polls our integrity guided us corporately. We got what we deserve. The Lord hates dishonest scales and perverse hearts. Oh Lord change me so that I am honest in all of my communications with others. Untwist my heart so that it might be pure in all of its dealings. Let the truth of Your being and the purity of Your life shine in me. Yes, the glory of the Lord shone in the elections. We got what we deserve. Oh Lord, we would have preferred mercy, but we received what we deserve. Have mercy upon us. We pray for the president whom we deserve. Change our hearts and his heart. Incline them toward true righteousness. Let us/him repent of shedding innocent blood. Let us/him repent of our attitudes toward your design for marriage. Let us/him repent of our lack of contentment toward this world’s goods and giving to those in true need. You are glorious in that You shed Your own blood, so that we would not have to die eternally. You are glorious in that You are eternally committed to Your own bride, the church. You are glorious in that You are content with simply who You are, and gave up your riches in heaven to humble Yourself as a servant in order that we might experience Your riches. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john *Revelation 2 It happens frequently. We focus on the truth of the Lord. Eventually we digress so much that we are so enamored with the truth that that little portion of the truth becomes more important than our relationship with Jesus. Our shift in focus has ceased to be our love for Jesus and has become the defense of right doctrine! Well, there is a place for right doctrine, as we will see in a moment, but not at the expense of expressing our love for Jesus. In the midst of this Ephesian church, which Jesus has praised for not permitting evil and liars but has forgotten to express their love for Jesus, Jesus walks. That is part of His glory! He walks among us even when we have forgotten Him, waiting for us to turn back to Him. But He won’t wait forever. He calls us to remember our love for Him and express it to Him. It is kind of like a bride who goes to all of her neighbors proclaiming how wonderful her husband is, but she will not spend time alone with Him. Most earthly husbands would divorce her immediately. The glory of Jesus is that He waits for us. He won’t be patient forever. But He is waiting. The largest number of people in the church of our world today are impoverished and/or persecuted. To these Smyrna type people, Jesus reveals Himself as the First and the Last, the One who was dead but now lives. His glory is such that, if you have Him, you have Life. If you have Him, you have riches. Persecution does not matter because ultimately we have Him as our riches. Should we be killed; we will be raised with him. There are those who are Pergamos type people. They are faithful to the Lord even to death. But they have some doctrines that are just a little bit off. They lost right doctrine. As a result, they lead people into immorality in order to gain some financial reward. To them Jesus reveals Himself as the One with the sharp-two-edged sword coming from His mouth. He gives a warning first and if it is not heeded, the sword goes into action. He does not permit his Holiness or truth to be sullied nor the holiness of His bride. That’s part of His glory. To the corrupted, like those in Thyatira Jesus reveals Himself as the One with eyes like a flame of fire—our corruption cannot be hidden. He will burn it out. He reveals Himself as the One who has feet like fine brass. He will stamp out the corruption and not be corrupted. To all these problem filled people, He presents Himself as the solution. The solution is always Him. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor John