April 30

NUMBERS 7
“Cushing.” Now there was a bizarre thought. I immediately dismissed it from my mind. I had been reading Numbers 7. If you just read it, you may have reacted like me. You may have found the first 88 verses to be rather boring. So it was with me, until I came to verse 89. In the fall of 2006 I had been wondering for days about how we “hear the voice of the Lord.” The summer before I had thought I heard the Lord speaking to me, saying, “Return to the land of your fathers.” But nothing had worked out that would enable me to do that. I was questioning whether I had really heard the voice of the Lord. Then as I stumbled on verse 89, I began to meditate upon the typology of the ark and hearing the voice of the Lord. The ark is a type of the Messiah. The word ark simply means box. In Genesis 50:26 it is translated coffin. Think about it. The ark is a coffin. The ark is a type of the Messiah. In Jesus the Law is placed. Our transgression of the Law required our death. When we are placed in Jesus, we are buried with Him in His death. The mercy seat is placed upon the coffin. The blood of the atonement is sprinkled upon the mercy seat covering my sin. The blood of Jesus covers my sin. The Cherubim, the protectors and proclaimers of the holiness of God, overshadow the mercy seat. From this position of holiness where the transgression of the Law is hidden in the coffin and covered by the blood of the mercy seat, Moses heard the voice of the Lord. We hear the voice of the Lord from the same position—holiness.
As I was meditating upon this, “Cushing” popped into my mind. That was weird. Cushing is where my maternal grandparents are buried. I dismissed the thought and continued. Later in the day I collected my e-mail. There was an e-mail from my wife. It was sent about the time that “Cushing” popped into my mind. The e-mail simply said, “I had an overwhelming desire to look at real estate in Cushing and saw this house that I liked.” She attached the web page to the e-mail. This incident happened in October of 2006. Over the next year and a half, God made it absolutely clear that He had spoken to me. May 1, 2008 I moved into Oklahoma, the land of my fathers. It took a while to place things in order. God actually had to burn down my house, but that is a long story. But now, here I am, and I can do no else.
Where and when do we hear the voice of the Lord? Only from a position of holiness that is found in Jesus the Messiah. Isn’t He amazing? HE speaks to us! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

Psalm 119:113-176
My wife and I have bought 6 houses in our lifetime. Each time we had to put down earnest money. That was money that we gave to the realty company which would show our good intentions about purchasing the home. In return for the money, the house was taken off the market until the purchase was complete. Once the seller accepted the contract and the money, he/she was not allowed to sell the house to anyone but us. Even if someone came along and offered more money, the seller could not legally sell to them because he had already entered into a contract with us. On my part, if I reneged on the deal, the seller would keep the money because he would perhaps have lost the ability to sell to someone else while the house was off of the market. Another word for earnest money is surety.
In verse 122 David asks the Lord, “Be surety for Your servant for good; Do not let the proud oppress me.” Does he have the same concept in mind here? I believe that he does. David knows his own heart. He knows what is in his heart. At the time of writing this Psalm, he knows the value of the word of the Lord. He knows the richness of the pleasure of walking with Him. He commits to His word and to Him. But he knows his heart. He knows that he will waver and flip flop. He asks the Lord to put down earnest money on His soul. He wants to know that God will be faithful to complete the deal when he wavers from the path. The blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the surety, the guarantee for us. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 1:13–14:
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
David knows that he will need help to keep his end of the deal. He cannot do it without the direct intervention and help of the Lord:

133Direct my steps by Your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me.
154Plead my cause and redeem me; Revive me according to Your word.
159Consider how I love Your precepts; Revive me, O LORD, according to Your lovingkindness.
176I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments.

This great Savior of ours is the One who enables us to keep our commitments. That is what the Spirit does in our lives. As we commit ourselves to His word, He makes it live, gives us life, gives us power. It is our responsibility to rendezvous with Him in His word, to listen to the voice of His Spirit and to yield to His Spirit. It is his responsibility to empower us. What a deal! What glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

ISAIAH 30
It was the spring of my senior year in high school. My older friend had sold books for this company the summer before. He had made a lot of money to pay for his college year and had now arranged for me to have this interview with the company so that I could also have opportunity to sell the books and to make a lot of money. It was the first time that I had ever been recruited for a job. The guy who interviewed me was using a high pressure sales technique to get me to agree to go to work for the company. He wanted a commitment to sell that night or the offer would be withdrawn from the table. “Look. You believe God’s will is logical, right?”
“Of course!” I replied.
“God wants you to be in school, right?”
“Yes.”
“You must be able to pay your tuition to go, right?”
“Of course,” said I.
“Would you agree, that you could make more money doing this in the summer than you can doing anything else?”
“I am sure I probably could.”
“Do you think that God wants to provide the best way possible for you to go to school?”
“Sure.”
“Can you think of a better way earn the money to go to school?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Then, you agree that logically this is the best way to go to school?”
“Probably.”
“If God’s will is logical and logically this is the best way to get the money, then why won’t you sign tonight?”
“I just feel like I should pray on it a while.”
“What’s there to pray about? God has already shown you through logic that this is the route that you should take.” The interview ended shortly after that.
Ahaz was seeking, considering an alliance with Egypt in order to gain help and relief from Israel, Syria or even Assyria. It seemed the logical thing to do. Egypt could be a powerful monster (Rahab) if she would engage herself against Israel, Syria or Assyria. It seemed the most logical course of action for Ahaz to engage Egypt’s help his northern enemies. After all, did not God want Judah to be secure? Was not enlisting Egypt to help the most logical course of action?
God’s will is always logical, but sometimes our logic does not take in to account premises which only God may know, or only God can fill, or which we ignore. One such premise is that the greatest good is the glory of God. If we ignore that one, then we will often take a logical path that produces less than the greatest good. The logical path for Ahaz was to go down to Egypt to get help. The logical path for my summer was to make a lot of money selling books to get tuition money for the next summer. Consequently Ahaz went to prophet that would tell him what he wanted to hear. So what is the best way to find out the premises that only God know, or God can fill or which we ignore. Isaiah tells Ahaz,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Only by settling down before the Lord to hear His voice, only by being quiet before Him, only by drawing confidence from Him will we be delivered. In the place of quiet confidence before Him we will find what we need. All other paths lead to the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. But waiting upon Him leads to the joy of His glory.
By the way I did not sell books that summer, and God still met my need. I saw his glory in a fresh way. I graduated OSU debt free. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

LUKE 21:1-19
I had the privilege of attending Explo '72 the summer before my senior year in High School. It was a great experience. I also seemed to be getting into situations where I had to exercise patience. They were handling large crowds, and even the best planning usually has its glitches. When you have to wait in line for each meal with 5,000 other teens, it can get a little testy. And shipping 80,000 people back and forth across the city of Dallas from various places to the cotton Bowl and back can be challenging. ON the whole, the organizers did an amazing job of planning and coordinating the event! But as you can imagine the logistics were overwhelming and we spent a lot of time hurry-up and waiting. It called for a lot of patience from everybody. Teens in particular are not known for their patience. Patience was a virtue which, as the week wore on, we had to learn. Patience was exercised in meal lines, bus lines and getting in and out of the Cotton Bowl.
Toward the end of the week, we had an hour or two of free time at State Fair Park, where the Cotton Bowl is. My roommates and I decided to ride the sky way. We were at the highest point when it broke down. We hung suspended in the air for what seemed like a whole hour. Patience was once again a thing we were learning.
The disciples were excited about being in Jerusalem for the Passover. Admiring the beautiful temple architecture (and it was an amazing thing), they commented on the temple beauty to Jesus. This launched a whole discourse by Jesus about His second coming. In the middle of warnings about the events preceding His coming, Jesus says, "By your patience possess your souls."
Now here is a patience that far exceeds waiting in hour long lines for a meal or bus or being suspended in the air for an hour. This speaks of a patience exercised in wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, persecutions, trials and martyrdoms. Where does one get patience like that? A bus line is a mere trifle compared to that. The implication is that it can only exist in view of the second coming of Jesus. Are we so convinced of his magnificent glory that we know that every trial which we endure during the wait will be worth the beauty that we shall experience at His coming? We were able to endure the long lines at Explo because we enjoyed the sessions in which we were involved. They were worth the wait. Is He worth enduring through war? Is He worth remaining steadfast in the long aftermath of disasters like earthquake or hurricanes? Is He worth enduring through the hunger of famine? Is He worth waiting for even through long pestilence or illness? Is He worth remaining faithful for during persecutions? If you do not think so, then I say you need to look at His glory some more. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john