March 20

EXODUS 31
Decades ago our children’s Sunday School class was in need of a table for kids. We really didn’t have the money to purchase it. So I obtained some wood and made a table and gave it to the church. I don’t think that it was really very well done, but one of the little old ladies told me, “You remind me of Bezalel and Aholiab who oversaw the making of the tabernacle and its furnishings.” She certainly overstated the case, but for the first time I began to contemplate how the arts truly are a part of holiness and the glory of God. The Lord says of Bezalel in 31:3 “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.” And He says of Aholiab 31:6, “I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab. . . ; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you.”
A friend of mine, who is a much deeper thinker and more intellectual than I, recently wrote a series of articles in his blog on how the human mind works. According to him, apparently the left side of the brain operates more in the realm of images or emotions, whereas the right side of the brain operates more in the realm of words or logic. The person and culture works best when it can lead with the left (images) and fulfill it with the right (words and logic). It would appear that God seems to be doing that with Israel. He gives them many images in the tabernacle, its furnishings and the priest’s garments. He anoints gifted men to skillfully craft those images and bring them into a beautiful substance. Even the observance of the Sabbath Day rest is an image of how He would work in them. He leads with the left. Finally He sends Moses packing with the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments, the words. He follows through with His right.
I think in the circles of the church that I operate in, we do not much appreciate the arts, the images, in declaring the glory of God. Now I know that the second commandment states that we are not to make any graven images of God to bow down and worship Him. Yet, I think we are so fearful of disobeying that command that maybe we fail to recognize the power of images in communication—not for the purpose of bowing down to worship God but for the purpose of communicating truth. After all, God is communicating truth through the images which He has commanded to be crafted. Indeed, he filled people with His Spirit so that they might skillfully craft them. Occasionally, I will present a sermon as what I call a ‘dramatic monologue.’ If the passage of Scripture which I am expounding revolves around a certain person, I might write the sermon as if I were that person telling the story. Usually I will try to dress up in costume to look like what I think that person might have looked like. Of all my sermons, those are the ones which people remember. I lead with my left, and follow with my right. Some years back a retired pastor in my congregation was quite critical of me. He came up with everything under the sun to show why I was unfit to be pastor. Among his criticisms of me was that I so audacious as to “dress up in a Halloween costume” to preach the word of God. Now the costume was of a Biblical character, not of the Halloween variety. I think his suggestion was to cut off the left arm and only use the right.
While I think it a terrible waste to spend large amount of monies on buildings which are only used one day a week, there is something to be said for the cathedrals built years ago. They were often the only pieces of art that a peasant could enjoy. The large edifices also caused the worshipper to look up in wonder. Perhaps we need to gain a better appreciation of the arts in communicating truth. Maybe more people would be led to see His glory if we recognized His anointing upon people to do a skillful work to His glory, even if it is a simple thing like building a Sunday School table. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

PSALM 79
When I arose in the morning, I received a call from someone from the Red Cross. The afternoon before our house had caught fire from a faulty electrical outlet. Two adult dogs and three puppies perished from smoke inhalation. Some friends carried their bodies off and buried them nearby. The kitchen (where the fire began) was totally charred, a gaping hole was in the exterior wall, ceiling and roof. The fire department put the fire out, but the house was unsafe to stay in. They allowed us to enter and get some valuables and things which we had to have, and then the Red Cross put us up for the night in a motel. In the middle of the night after the wind had blown the house dry, an ember was fanned back into flames. About 4 in the morning the fire department returned. The call from the Red Cross in the morning was to inform me that the fire department had to return to the house during the night. One more room was now charred and two more holes in the roof. Almost everything was now covered in soot and water. Everything lay in heaps, soaked in the water used to put out the fires.
I don’t think those emotions could ever compare to the emotions wreaked upon the surviving inhabitants at the sack of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar’s army. The sanctity of the Temple had been violated. The bodies were not the bodies of beloved pets, but the bodies of beloved friends and family. There was no one left to bury the dead; their corpses were left to be consumed by carrion and rot in the heat. The living were now all slaves and were being drug off to a new land. The living felt abandoned by God because of His anger against them. In the case of the people of Jerusalem, God’s anger was truly against most of them because of their stubborn idolatry and disobedience toward Him.
But surely in the tens of thousands of people that lived in Jerusalem area and Jerusalem proper, there were some that were faithful to Yahweh. Yet they shared in the harsh anger of the Lord against the city and nation corporately. The ‘innocent’ felt His wrath every bit as much as the ‘guilty’. There does appear to be a corporate responsibility for sin. When someone else sins in such a way that leads the corporate body to bear guilt, even those who did not individually make the choice still bear the corporate responsibility. Was the burning of my house the result of God’s anger against me? Actually, it turned out for my good. I know at least one person who would probably say that the fire was God’s anger. But I think that it was more of God’s way of leading me in the midst of a fallen world. He is righteous in burning down my house because it would accomplish several things that would bring Him glory. One thing that brought Him glory was how the Christian community came together to support us in our loss. Another thing that brought Him glory was how it honed my confidence in Him. When we, the sheep of His pasture, give Him glory in the midst of our adversity, it does something in the lives of some other people. It causes them to see the reality of the Living God in our lives. It opens up to them the possibility that our Lord can also live triumphantly in them. “We will give You thanks forever; we will show forth Your praise to all generations.” How can we tell all generations of His power to deliver in adverse situations unless we walk though those situations and experience them? God walks in our midst to make us holy, even as He is holy, to show us His power and to reveal His glory. Without the adversity that we experience, it is only a tale told to us. He is a glorious King! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

ECCLESIASTES 6
“I want to have a house on top of that mountain, so that I can enjoy the view.” The man looked out of his living room window pointing to a small nearby mountain. It was at one of those pyramid business home meetings, where you sell the business to those who sell it to others, who sell it to others. If you get in on the ground level, and get the multiplication going, you can make a lot of money. Those kind of marketing plans really emphasize using the desire for more as a motivation to succeed. I frequently want more. I find myself frequently wishing, “It would really be nice to have more land. It would really be nice to have more money in the bank. It really would be nice to be able to have this car or this truck. It would really be nice to have this entertainment system. . . the list goes on.” The desire is for more money or things. Of course not only do I combat the desire for more possessions, but I also must combat the desire for illicit pleasure. God is not against our having pleasure, He desires the greatest pleasure for us. It is that my sin nature seeks to take things which He has created for pleasure, and it bends the pleasure or increases it beyond the boundaries for which God designed it. He desires for us to have pleasure in relationships, in work, in eating, in sleeping, in sex, but they all were designed to fall in certain parameters. Satan, the world system and my flesh all conspire to twist, shrink or expand those parameters. For some power is something they crave more of. I want the power to control my own life, but beyond that I am not too interested pursuing power. That laughable thing is that if I really stepped back and viewed things from God’s perspective, I really don’t have the power to control even my own life.
Three things we strive to own, possessions, pleasure and power. Most people will stop at nothing to obtain one, if not all three of these things. Solomon says that he sees a great evil in that a man will pour his life into getting one or all of them, and yet he will not be able to enjoy them. He says it is vanity; it is meaningless. What brings meaning? Does one have to have any of the three p’s to have meaning?

Ecclesiastes 6:12 For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun?

In Ecclesiastes the phrase ‘under the sun’ is a reference to living life for one’s own glory rather than for the glory of God. What good does it really do to have the house on top of the mountain, a bank account full of money, a garage full of nice vehicles, every system of pleasure, and the ability to control other people, if in the end, we are just dust anyway? If meaning and purpose in life are just those things, then so what? We are here for a brief hundred years at best, and then we are gone.
But that is not what life is all about! We are created for a purpose. The purpose is to know Him and enjoy Him forever. It is all about Him! Why then is He so hard to find? He puts it this way, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek for Me with all your heart.” Our problem is that we do not seek for Him with all our heart. We seek one or more of the three P’s with all our heart, but not Him. If we are content with the things under the sun, as wonderful as they are, then we are content with too little. Our sun is an average size star in an average size galaxy in a universe which contains more galaxies than we can count. He created them all, and He holds them all together by the word of His power. He has chosen that we should know Him, but He refuses to be held as small as the little things around us like a mountain with a mansion on top of it. I am discontent because I settle for far too little. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

LUKE 1:1-25
Have you ever lived in someone else's shadow? Most of us think we have, whether it really happened or not. My brother Bill is five years older than me. When he was in college, he used to preach lots of weekend youth revivals at various churches throughout northern Oklahoma. I greatly enjoyed tagging along. I became well known as 'Bill's little brother.' Hey, that was good! Bill was an excellent preacher and we had a lot of fun sharing the gospel with people. We frequently would find out where the young people hung out, go there, share the Gospel with them and invite them to the youth revival service. I remember when this guy, who seemed to be the leader of the teens to whom we were talking, said that if Bill could beat him at arm wrestling, he would come to the revival service. Bill turned to me and whispered, "You'd better pray."--The guy had huge biceps. Well, to everyone's surprise Bill beat him. The guy reneged on his promise, claiming Bill cheated. He was just too embarrassed that this skinny guy (Bill) beat him. I guess he was too proud and too spiritually insensitive to know that he wasn't wrestling with just a skinny guy. But some of those young people did come. I believe Bill had become known in our church circles for doing mighty exploits for God. It was fun being in his shadow.
Zacharias and Elizabeth lived in a shadow most of their lives. Except their shadow was simply obscurity. Zacharias was part of what the more influential priests might have referred to as an 'idiot priest.' But in the sight of the One that really counts, they were considered 'righteous.' They were old and childless. In their culture being childless usually carried with it the thought that you were being punished by God for some sin. Being childless was a reproach among the people. But sometimes being what people consider to be a reproach is really just God working in you, developing His character in you, and preparing you for a way in which He will show His glory in a greater way.
Finally, when he was old and had lived in the shadow so long that it was hard for him to believe God would ever do anything different with him, God brought Zacharias into the light of His glory. God gave Elizabeth the ability to conceive a child by Zacharias. Not only that but God promised that that child would be the promised forerunner of the Messiah. Can you imagine everyone's surprise when after 5 months of hiding Elizabeth came out into public and lo and behold, "She is expecting!" What does she say, "The Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people." She is now in a shadow of light. She is content to live in the shadow of the Almighty.
It was fun being in Bill's shadow. But you know what? It is more fun walking in the shadow of the Almighty. I may or may not be ever known has having done great exploits for God. But what is more important to me is that I can sit in the Shadow of the Almighty! It is a shadow of light! He is the One that really counts. As I focus on His glory, He does that for which He created me. Whether anyone else recognizes that is immaterial. He is the One that counts. The same is true for you also. That is why it is so important to see His glory and speak it to others. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John