March 21

EXODUS 32
When my oldest sons were little, this chapter was one of their favorite readings of the Scripture. It is the ultimate in passing the buck. Here the Children of Israel have time and time again been miraculously saved by the LORD; and they have experienced a number of theophanies. They themselves were able to view a magnificent appearance of God on Mt. Sinai from which Moses and Joshua were invited to come meet with the LORD on the mountain top. Moses and Joshua were gone no more than 40 days and Israel begins to worry, “What has this all consuming fire done with Moses and Joshua? They are gone; we know not where. We are fearful of entering the presence of this God lest our fate end like theirs. What do we do?” Their solution was to make an image that would represent God. It would be safe. It was somewhat like what they experienced in Egypt. After all, the Egyptians had their bull god. Why not a calf god to represent the LORD? When Moses asks something to the effect of, “Aaron, what were you thinking?” He gets this ridiculous answer, “I threw the gold in the furnace and out came this calf!” My boys would roar with laughter at the lame excuse. Even at 7, 5 & 3, they recognized how incredulous was the response.
What is it about us as humans that we so quickly forget or cannot even grasp the greatness of the glory of the LORD? While not under pressure, we laugh at the Israelites for their fickle behavior. But let us get under pressure and we also, like the Israelites, begin to crack. Forty days is a long time to go without seeing His glory. We are designed by God to live in the presence of His glory. His glory is at times frightening. At times it is comforting. It is always amazing. Yet, we can never remember. That is why it is so incumbent upon us to seek His glory daily. As the deer pants for the water, so our souls long after Him—even if we do not recognize it. Nothing satisfies like His glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

PSALM 80
“Cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!” If I haven’t seen them for a while, and I walk in to the room, my granddaughter’s faces will usually light up. They will shine in excitement. Caedie in particular will light up and almost percolate with delight. Their response can bring a 180 degree change in my emotional state. Contrast this with a few occasions when I have walked into the presence of someone whom I knew was displeased with me. On a few cases, their faces would stop a clock. My emotional barometer soars like a lead balloon.
Why would the face of the Creator God shine upon me? Does He ever percolate with delight when I come into His presence? The Psalmist’s plea is for that to happen. I believe that the Holy Spirit is saying through this that if we will come in repentance to Him, He literally shines in delight with us. Wow! Imagine that! The God who created this awesome universe gets excited about us when we come to Him in repentance! That thought alone ought to send me percolating with delight, and when I stop to think about it, it does exactly that!
The converse is devastating. When He is angry, I want to run and hide. But where can I go? Even if the mountains would fall upon me, He would be there. His angry stare does more than stop a clock; it dissolves time. It brings a meal of tears and depression. We become like an abandoned acreage in a wild prairie fire. But like the spring rain, He replenishes us. He restores the charred embers with the moist green growth of new life O Lord, let me bask in shining or Your countenance! Let Your glory shine! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John

ECCLESIASTES 7
“Pastor, my neighbor’s mother just passed away. They have no church or pastor to help with the funeral. Would you be willing to help them?”
I told her, “Sure, are they available now?”
“Oh, yes. Please come on over.”
I met with the deceased woman’s son and his wife. Somewhere in the conversation, I asked, “What are some of the good memories of your Mom?”
There was a long silence, then he replied, “I don’t have any.”
“What are some of the good qualities of your Mom?”
“She didn’t have any. My brothers and sisters are all refusing to come to the funeral because they couldn’t get along with her.”
The simple graveside funeral was dismal at best. There was a small canopy erected over the grave, and it was raining. Even the small canopy seemed empty. The only ones who showed up were the adult son of the deceased, his wife and their two little girls. Clearly the deceased was not a believer, neither was the son or his wife. What hope can be communicated in such a situation? Only One. It is the hope of the resurrection for those who will repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I preached a simple gospel. We prayed and went home. Sometime later I returned to the home to follow up on their loss. I again shared the gospel and offered it to them. The rejected it feeling incredulous that God could offer free grace to anyone. They were convinced that the gift of salvation must be earned, and they were unable to do so.
That was the very first funeral that I preached. Twenty-nine years down the road, I have preached a number of other sermons. I have sat with countless other people as we have contemplated the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly of lives lived. I have also sat with a number of people at weddings and births. Why is it better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting? Well let’s ask, “What is a house of mourning? It is the home where one has died. There the focus is upon the end of life. Funerals are a place where we contemplate the value of the life of the deceased and the value of our own life. In the house of mourning we are reminded that we take nothing with us. The only value at the funeral is how we have built into the lives of those whom we have touched during our lives and how we have prepared ourselves for what lies beyond this life. It is a time to ask, “How am I living so that it will be a good thing when I leave this earth?” Paul said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” The reason to die was gain is that His life was Christ.

Phil 3:7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

What does that say about the value of Christ? It says that He outweighs every other thing that I could possibly want. His glory is of more infinite value than anything that I might desire. The house of mourning properly approached reminds me that His glory should be of preeminent importance to me. In the end it is the only thing of value that we can enjoy after this life. It is the only thing that we may take with us when we die. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

LUKE 1:26-38
I never cease to marvel at what God did in Mary. She sat in a different type of shadow. It was still a shadow of light. Here is a girl who is a virgin and who is willing to bear the insults of the community in order to be obedient to God, and she does it joyfully. But of greater import than Mary's attitude is what God created within her womb in that shadow. Using Mary's chromosomes, God adds special chromosomes to prepare a body for the God-Man.
His name is to be Jesus, which is the Greek transliteration for the Hebrew Joshua. Joshua means, "Yahweh saves," or, "Yahweh is salvation." He is the promised fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 and 12:3. He will be the very Son of God. Yes we are all sons of God in the sense that we are created by Him. We who have received Him are sons of God in the sense that we are adopted into His family. But He is the very Son of God, the Son of the Highest. He accomplished this salvation in His first coming in His death, resurrection and ascension.
He is the Son of David. As such, He fulfills the promise of 2 Samuel 7:12,13,16. But He has not ruled on earth upon the throne of His father, David. He will accomplish that when He returns, His second coming. You know the Shiite Muslims believe that they can hasten the second coming of the 12th imam, the "Mahdi," by creating chaos on earth. What contrast that is to our King. We can hasten His coming by preaching the good news of His death, burial and resurrection can bring new life and new order to people's lives. I like sitting in the shadow of that light. It is so different from the shadow of death that is in the rest of the world. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john