When Micah the prophet preached to the children of Israel, he spoke with a very harsh tone.  His prophetic writings concerned the people’s sin, God’s judgement, and God’s ultimate restoration of the sinner.  If we look within the pews of our churches we might wish to cry forth the same.  Many times the enemy to Christianity are the very ones who call themselves Christians, sit in a pew every week, sing praise songs and pay their tithe; while the remainder of the week they go about the world making money or fame their idol.  I, too, must be ever mindful of the fact that as far as the world sees my daily actions are the only reflections of Christ that some will ever see.  Yet, what I am referring to are those who put on the outward show and claim that they are Christians; yet, their hearts have no inclination or love for the Lord.  These were to whom Micah was preaching in the Israel nation.  Those who went about performing the acts of sacrifice and presenting their burnt offerings; more for the show that true love or worship.  They desired what they could obtain or the gifts from God; but did not want the fellowship.  In fact, many worshiped idols.  In chapter 5 of Micah, Christ’s birth was prophesied.  Then in chapter 6 Micah pleaded with the people for repentance, a repentance of the heart.

Micah 6: 6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

There were three things which the Lord required, which demonstrate the heart of the true believer.

Continue reading What Doth The Lord Require of Thee? →

Fear not is a direct command of God; yet, as humans how do we do that?  How do we lay aside all fear?  When facing trials, the uncertainties of a move, and when questioning ourselves as to whether or not we heard God correctly; we humans tend to fear the unknowns which are before us.  How do we look into the darkness of a future with unwavering faith?  We search and seek to know the future.  We want every detail to be laid out neatly so as to believe.  We tend to be planners and question God when we find that He may not have laid out the plan in the same way we have.  We may want to believe; yet, deep within us rises the urge to fear the unknown.  Still fear not is a command of faith that trusts in God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and His determined will which is always intrinsically for the the good of His children-those who have been adopted into His family by faith in Jesus Christ.  C. S. Lewis wrote in his book The Problem of Pain the following quote. 

Artwork of Ronald Barba (used by permission)

"God’s will is determined by His wisdom which always perceives, and His goodness which always embraces, the intrinsically good. But when we have said that God commands things only because they are good, we must add that one of the things intrinsically good is that rational creatures should freely surrender themselves to their Creator in obedience. The content of our obedience—the thing we are commanded to do—will always be something intrinsically good, something we ought to do even if (by an impossible supposition) God had not commanded it. But in addition to the content, the mere obeying is also intrinsically good, for, in obeying, a rational creature consciously enacts its creaturely role, reverses the act by which we fell, treads Adam’s dance backward, and returns."  C.S. Lewis from The Problem of Pain Copyright © 1940, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright restored © 1996 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.

So, following the command of God not to fear is an act of trust in who God is.  It reflects our faith in Him, not the circumstances which surround us nor in our own abilities.  It must take our eyes off of ourselves and our circumstances.  So how do we do this?  What are the steps we must take? 

Continue reading Slaying the Dragon of Fear →

Recently I had a friend who was under constant attack by their coworkers who asked me for advice.  They felt defeated, injured, and sad because of the words of their coworkers.  Have you been there?  In this world in which we live, we all have at some time been the victim of others gossip.  What are we to do?  Peter addressed this very issue as he wrote:

1 Peter 2:(NIV)  15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil;live as God’s slaves.

used courtesy of istock.com/Zhenikeyev

Our very nature is to retaliate or to respond with anger in an attempt to clear our own name, so how do we respond with goodness and kindness to the very people who would like to cause us harm?  How does kindness and goodness silence their ignorant talk?  Peter tells us that the key to this can be found in looking at Christ’s response.

1 Peter 2: (NIV)  21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example,that you should follow in his steps.

22 “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”[e]

23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

If our natural response is to retaliate in defense, then what must we do to be able to respond with kindness?  

Continue reading Silencing the Foolish Talk with Goodness →

Promises are only as good as the veracity of the one promising and their ability to keep that promise.  God’s covenant promises with mankind are based upon His truthfulness, faithfulness and are firmly grounded by His love.  They are not based upon our abilities nor our veracity.  He who spoke the universe into being has the power to keep those promises as well.  When God swore an oath with Abraham, He swore upon His own word because there was no greater power to swear upon. (Hebrews 6: 13).  Back in Genesis 9, following the flood; God established a covenant which was that never again would He destroy all of earth with a flood; thus He placed His bow in the sky as a symbol. (Genesis 9:11-13)a  The rainbow has ever since stood as a symbol of God’s grace and symbolic of more than just this one promise.  Indeed it stands as a symbol that God will complete His promises and will forever remain true to Himself.  It does not mean that judgment will not come; though not as a flood to destroy everything–His bow does stand for judgment as well as for His mercy. 

photo courtesy of Alberto Sepulveda

It stands as a firm sign of His covenant promises to all who believe and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  He paid the price, the penalty demanded that justice remain true.  Look at Revelations,

Continue reading God’s Bow in the Sky–Symbol of Judgment or Promise of Mercy- You Choose →

Matthew 11: 28

²⁸Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest

Though Christ has promised to provide us rest, there are moments in our lives that we are filled with sorrow such as described by David in this Psalm.

Psalm 69:

²I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

³I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

We wonder in those moments whether we can bare up under the weight of it all.  It was such a moment when my brother died suddenly, when my father died and again with the death of my beloved husband.  The same was true when I was told I had cancer and throughout the treatment for that and later the other illnesses and surgeries which plagued my life.  So often I wondered whether all

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this was God’s punishment for my sins and my failures.  I bore my cross with great sorrow and knew it would be worth it to one day see Christ.  As though this was the necessary cross so that I could be made acceptable to God and to be made worthy of His grace.  Yet, that was wrong and that was wrong theology;

Continue reading Yoked to Find Rest →