May 16

NUMBERS 25
The fall of my senior year in high school I took a leadership training course with Campus Crusade for Christ. One of the aspects of the course was evangelism training. An assignment for the evangelism component was to read through the Four Spiritual Laws with someone. I told my best friend, “I am taking this leadership training course at OSU. One of my assignments is that I have to read through this booklet with someone. Could I read through it with you?” After lunch that day, we read it together. To my surprise he prayed with me to receive Christ! That evening when I arrived home after football practice, I received a phone call. One of the most beautiful girls in the school called me up and invited me to a dance. I was stunned. I forgot about doing any kind of spiritual follow-up with my friend. For the next three months all I could think about was her. Three months later when she broke up with me, the full import of what happened dawned upon me. I had been snared by the enemy, who used what seemed good to me to divert my attention off of the Lord.
Balaam could not curse Israel, but he wanted to gain the money offered by the Moabite king, Balak. Knowing how the LORD is jealous of His people, knowing the general nature of young men, knowing that the Moabites worship another god, knowing that young men will do almost anything for a beautiful young woman, Balaam developed a plan to get the LORD to curse the children of Israel. He advised Balak to send his beautiful young women to the Israelites to attract the young men (Numbers 31:15-16). When they were courting the young men, the young women could talk the young men into worshiping their god. It started to work.
But one young man, Phineas, recognized what was happening. As a son of a leader of the tribe of Simeon flagrantly presented his Midianite girl-friend, bride, whatever she was, Phineas zealously grabbed a spear and killed them both. His zealous act on behalf of the nation, not himself, stayed the wrath of God; the plague was stopped.
God desires us to cling to His true glory, not the glory of our own making. The enemy of our souls has a plan to use whatever he can to divert us from clinging to Him, especially if we are yielded to the LORD. When I began an aggressive path toward increasing His glory, the enemy swang into action. He knew my vulnerabilities. The girl he chose professed the name of Christ, but the enemy knew me. He suspected that this would take my attention off of the glory of the Lord. It worked for a little while. However, the Lord Jesus intervened! He broke off the relationship! He communicated to me where I needed to repent! He is my Phineas. His zealous act on my/our behalf at the cross has stayed the wrath of the LORD! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

PSALM 135
I’ve heard it said that we know more about what is outside the atmosphere of the earth than we know about what lies beneath the surface of our oceans. It has been easier to build crafts that can enter a vacuum than to build crafts that can take us to the depths where the weight of water pops ordinary vessels like a pimple. We have all probably seen TV shows of the excursions of people who have gone to the depths to find and explore the wreckage of the Titanic, or to explore the depths of the Marianas Trench the deepest spot in the oceans seven miles below the surface. In order to accomplish these feats we have had to engineer special submarines that cannot be crushed at those depths. To exit those special vehicles in a wet suit would immediately crush the human body. We cannot do as we please.
Contrast that with space. We can hurl ourselves to the moon and come back safely. During the ride, we can jump outside the vehicle in a special space suit and make repairs. It is almost as if we could do as we please in space. Is it not interesting that we can figure out how to live in deep space, but not how to live in the depths of the sea. Yet that is an illusion. In space we have a limited amount of time before we must return. In space we are one careless mistake away from death. We really don’t do what we please, but we have a little more liberty than the depths of the sea.
Often times portions of Psalms are repeated in other Psalms. We find this Psalm to be very similar to Psalm 115. However, I noted one difference.

Psalm 115:3 says, “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.” Psalm 135:5–6 says, “For I know that the LORD is great, And our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places.”

He knows what kind of life exists in the heat vents of the Marianas Trench. He knows the vacuum of space. He does what He pleases in either case. He created the water whose weight crushes the people in the depths of the sea. He created the vacuum that sucks the life of man in space. Neither extreme has any effect upon Him for He is life. He does not possess it as if someone or something could ever take it away. He is life itself. He needs neither oxygen, pressure or lack of pressure. He lives independently of all things, because He is life! Take away oxygen, water, pressure, food and we die, but He does not! Without those things He still does as He pleases.
So what difference does that make to me? This God who does as He pleases has declared that those who trust in His Son are His special treasure! He simultaneously judges His people and has compassion upon them. There is nothing in this life that threatens me that threatens Him. He designs all things that come into my life to cause me to look to Him and understand who He is. When I see what I presume to be bad in my life, I can rest assured that he is doing it to draw me to Himself, and that is good! He does what He pleases under pressure and in a vacuum. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

ISAIAH 46
Some years ago I was talking with a fellow pastor, whom I considered to be conservative theologically like myself. He made a statement that really surprised me. It was out of character for a conservative evangelical. He said something to the effect of, “I don’t really see anything more godly about capitalism than socialism. I think socialism could work just as effectively as capitalism if Christians were in charge.” I have thought about that for years. Certainly over the last 50 years our country has become increasingly more socialistic and less capitalistic. But if there were a patron god for red-neck Oklahoma, what would it be? Some might say that it would be Jesus. I would certainly disagree; at least he would not be the Jesus of the Bible. Some might say that it would be that we live in a democratic republic. I think that is true of some people. Some might say that it is our sense that we should be the policemen of the world. I think that is true of some people; otherwise, why are we in Iraq and Afghanistan? Perhaps for some it is a god of war. Some might worship a god of education. That is probably true of many in Stillwater, home of OSU.
It is interesting that Isaiah addresses the gods of Babylon in this chapter.

The Babylonian god Bel (Is. 46:1; Jer. 50:2; 51:44) is the same as Marduk, the chief Babylonian god. The Babylonian god Merodach (Jer. 50:2), an alternate spelling of Marduk, was the god of war and the patron deity of the city of Babylon. Nebo (Is. 46:1) was the Babylonian god of education, literature, writing, wisdom, the arts, and sciences. The special seat of his worship was at Borsippa, near Babylon. The Akkadian form of his name is Nabu.*

The Lord says that He will make Bel bow down and Nebo stoop. He eventually did that in history. Babylon is no more. He makes a point to emphasize that He will carry His people and bring us to a place where we will no longer have any idols. He declares that He is God and there is no other. There is none like Him. He warns us who are stubborn hearted that He is bringing His righteousness near. We need to avail ourselves of it while it is available. He brings us salvation for His glory, not our own.
Let us lay down our gods of economic systems, desires to be right in our own eyes, to be the wisest in the world. None of those things will save us; only His glory can transform us. Oh Lord Jesus, how I need You! Come and work Your glory in my life! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
*Youngblood, Ronald F.: Bruce, F.F. (Hrsg.): Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary : An Authoritative One-Volume Reference Work on the Bible With Full Color Illustrations. electronic edition of the revised edition of Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995

JOHN 5:1-23
When I was in seventh grade my parents bought a split level house on a hill. It had a partial basement with a fallout shelter. Dad decided that he wanted a full basement. Over the next couple of years I watched him work. Little by little he dug out the basement with a shovel, a pick and a wheelbarrow. It was impressive work. Much of what he dug was sandstone. I frequently marveled at how he could consistently remain at the task, especially when it was nothing but sandstone and there was little progress.
As a young teen, I was allergic to work. But as I watched him, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had the muscular power to take the pick and break the rock. On a few occasions I took the pick and shovel and pry bar and tried my hand at it. Little by little Dad whittled it all out and I helped with a couple of shovels full. All totaled he probably moved 3600-4800 cubic feet of dirt and sandstone by hand.
Jesus as the God-Man only did what He was the Father doing. Indeed, He says that He could only do what He saw the Father doing. How did Jesus the man see what the Father was doing?
The few times that I did try my hand at the sandstone were after I had observed dad a while. I watched how he would try to find natural weaknesses in the sandstone and would hit the weaknesses to try to get it to crack along faults. I watched how he would try to carve out holds for the pry bar and then place the pry bar in the hold and see if He could pry loose large hunks of the sandstone. Then, on occasion, I tried the same.
The Father/Creator is working on His ruined creation. He watches and works in similar manner. He sees the Father healing. He healed the man lame for 38 years, lying by the pool of Bethesda. The Father is healing and Jesus heals too.
Here is a twist—Jesus worked on the Sabbath and commanded the lame man to work on the Sabbath. When challenged by the religious about working on the Sabbath Jesus’ defense was, “Well, Dad works on the Sabbath and so do I.” (Chaffin paraphrase) This made them angrier. Why? It made them angry because He made Himself equal with God.
For once they got something right. He is equal to the Father. But He also submits to the Father’s authority. And unless they miss the point, Jesus enumerates both His equality and His submission. He submits by doing only what He sees the Father doing. He is equal in that the Father raises the dead and gives life. . . so does the Son. He is equal in that the Father has given the responsibility of judgment to the Son. Jesus is Equal to the Father. He gives life. How can we watch the Father? Watch Jesus. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John