December 4

2 CHRONICLES 3-4
Much is said about the building of the Temple. 600 talents of Gold were used to inlay the walls of the Most Holy place. How much gold is that? That converts to about 34,800-48,000 pounds of gold, or 17-24 tons. What would it cost to buy that much gold today? I just went on line to check the price of gold. As I write, gold is $1,131.00 per ounce. Let’s use the low end. 34,800 X 16 X 1,131.00 = $629,740,800.00 That is just to buy the gold for the temple. Isn’t that extravagant? To build the Most Holy Place (not to mention the rest of the temple and its furnishings) of the temple today would take close to a billion dollars. Is that extravagance for 7,000,000 people, men, women and children? It is about $90.00 per man, woman and child. If we spent that today to build a building to house an average church of 70 people it would be about 90X70=$6,300.00 just for the gold. Is our God worth it? He is worthy to receive glory and power and dominion and riches!!! Does He need it? Of course not! Is He worthy of it? He made it; of course He is worthy! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

PROVERBS 4
Today verse 23 struck me the most: Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. (NKJV). The New Century Version, translated on a third grade reading level, says, “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.” Hmmm. . . How much of what I think on the Glory of Christ runs my life? Do I really grasp the relationship between thinking upon his greatness as it relates to every area of my life and what actually happens in those areas? If it is legitimate to segment my life into areas in order to more fully grasp how thinking about His glory in that area, how would thinking first about His glory there change how I think and run my life in each area.
Of course I would have to begin with my relationship with Him. If I did that, then certainly I would become more of a person who practices the presence of God (i.e. Brother Lawrence). How would it affect my relationship with my wife? Does the way I love her reflect His glory? Does it reflect the way He loves? How would it affect my relationship with my children? My grandchildren? How would it affect my relationship with the congregation which I pastor? How would it affect the use of the material things of which He has appointed me a steward? How would it affect the use of the time which He has given me to live? How would it affect my interaction with my neighbors? HOW? HOW? HOW?
I think I am starting to get worn down by how far short I fall from the ideal. I cannot attain His glory. But I guess that is part of what Paul was talking about when by the inspiration of the Spirit he said, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” It almost makes me want to throw up my hands and say, “So what’s the use? I cannot do it!” That is why He offers grace. It is His divine enablement in me. It is Himself in me.
Verse seven says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” Nelson’s Topical Bible Index says that understanding is knowing things in their right relationship. I cannot know anything in its proper relationship without understanding its relationship to the glory of Christ. Lord, give me understanding and the power to put it into action! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

MALACHI 2
The Lord directs this chapter toward the priests. Now, priests no longer exist in Israel or Judaism. So how does this apply to the Christian? According to 1 Peter 2:5&9 we are priests,

5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

So the principles directed toward the priests could be directed toward us. Malachi instructs them to take the rebuke to heart so that they might give glory to God’s name. What were the rebukes? The priests had failed to teach the people how to walk in the ways of the Lord. It is to the glory of the Lord that we walk in His ways and teach others how to walk in His ways as we walk the walk before them. What does that mean? First we seek Him in His word constantly to hear is voice and do what He instructs us. What does His word instruct? That we love others as He loves us. Wow! That is a tall order.
The next rebuke, which He gave, related to the family. He rebukes the nation for marrying the daughter of a foreign god and for dealing treacherously with the wife of their youth. Both of these practices put at risk the desire that the Lord had for the nation. What was His desire? He wanted a godly offspring. This theme traces itself in Scripture to the creation. At creation God said,

Genesis 1:26-28 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

From the beginning God’s plan was to fill the earth with people who reflect His image. Marriage and the procreation of children was for that purpose. Through the ages men have subverted that purpose. The men of Israel at the time of Malachi were choosing wives not on the basis of how his wife could help him reflect the image of God, but upon his own pleasure. Was she pleasing to him? As his relationship with her progressed, and as she no longer was pleasing to him, he would divorce the wife of his youth in order to find a wife pleasing to him.
Our marriages should reflect what God is like. What is He like? Well that is a question that is full of many answers. There is the issue of attributes. Literally thousands of books have been written on that question. There is the issue of the Trinity. There is only one God in essence eternally existing in three persons. There is an eternal commitment to each other in the persons of the Trinity. The desire of the Lord is that husband and wife become one flesh. While the phrase does refer to our sexuality, it goes way beyond that and is inclusive of us emotionally and spiritually. There is to be a oneness in our marriage relationship that reflects to the world what God is like. When we as believers bail out of our marriages, we make it difficult for our children, our friends and the world to see the reflection of God in us. It is like trying to view yourself in a shattered mirror; it is possible, but obscure.
Attitudes in couples that lead to unequally yoked marriages and/or divorce also wreak havoc upon the children of those unions. The children see the differing commitments to the Lord God in the unequal unions, and they see and sense the hypocrisy in the union of their parents, who are not one, or who go to the divorce court. Those parental attitudes produce one more hurdle for the children to pursue hard after God.
So where is the glory in all of this? We must recognize that God has designed every detail of our lives to bring glory to Him. He wants those around us to see Him in us, particularly our family. It is not the end of the world if we blow it. However, we have to pursue the goal for His glory. Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

1 JOHN 3
Once when I lived in a community that did not have public water, My neighbor awakened me one morning. It was my day off, but he needed something. His water pump had died. It had died two days earlier. He needed water. We ran a hose from my house to his house. Finally they were able to get clean water to take a shower, wash their clothes & dishes, and flush their toilet. What a convenience it is to have clean water! I don’t know whether they drank tap water or not. We didn’t. Our water was clean (as in healthy) but it tasted really nasty. It was not pure. We bought water at the grocery store to drink. Our water was not pure in that it had gasses in it that gave it a nasty smell and taste. If you let the water sit open for a while the gasses escaped and then it was tolerable to drink. But the essence of good drinking water is that you want it on demand. It is pure even from gasses.
Jesus is pure. There is no sin in Him, on Him or around Him. Someday, when we see Him, not only will we be declared pure, but we will be pure in our experience. Those who fix on His glory understand that and cooperate with Him purifying their lives now. Could it be like the water coming out of my well? We ran it through a water softener which collected the unwanted minerals in the water. Could that be compared to His declaring us righteous on the basis of His death upon the cross? Yet, the gasses from the minerals still remain in us. The smell and effects of water is still in, on and around us. Sometimes it is a process of getting rid of gasses in us, spiritual flatulence.
But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. That includes getting rid of the impurities in us. The spiritual flatulence in us keeps us from loving others and others loving us. As we gaze upon Him, we begin the process of removing the spiritual flatulence. One of the ways that we know that we have come to know Him is that we are in the process. He is pure. He wants us to be pure. Let us gaze upon His glory. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John