Coffee With The Lord

STRONG ASSURANCE… GREAT PROMISES… INCREDIBLE ENCOURAGEMENT… (AND NO NEED FOR COMMENT!)  Back-to-back passages, yet!  SOMEONE NEEDED TO HEAR WHAT THESE PASSAGES HAVE TO SAY TODAY!!!

From Psalm 124…

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side… if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! ⁷ We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped! Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

From Psalm 125…

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.  As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.  For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.  Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts!”

If you’re following the “Necessary Food Bible Reading Plan” that I developed several years ago, one of the passages that you read today is one of the most difficult and disturbing in all of Scripture – Judges 19! It tells the revolting story of a culture without a moral compass. It seems like almost every ethical principle and moral norm imaginable is violated in the account! (I could describe it and tell the story but it is too graphic and disgusting for this venue. Read it for yourself and keep in mind this is a historical account, not fiction – it actually happened!). I’m convinced that this account is included in the Bible for the very purpose of producing a revulsion – a moral nausea – in the hearts of spiritually sensitive people. It’s there to drive us to our knees in prayer and out into our culture with the message of the gospel and the “salt and light” of “Kingdom” values!

The story begins to end with this incredible… no, more than that, this absolutely irrational scene:  “And the people came to Bethel and sat there till evening before God, and they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly.  And they said, ‘O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel!?”

Why has this happened?! How absolutely stupid and silly! The last verse of these chapters gives the answer… “In those days there was no king in Israel. EVERYONE DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES.” THIS CHAPTER RECORDS WHAT CAN HAPPEN IN A CULTURE THAT ABANDONS THE MORAL NORMS OF SCRIPTURE! It’s where we’re headed as a culture as we more and more reject the moral guidance of Scripture and embrace “situational ethics” – what “seems right in their own eyes”. The inconceivable today becomes actual tomorrow. I’m Concerned… and praying… Praying fervently!! “Oh Lord, send a moral and Spiritual revival to America… to our world!!!

Don’t know about you, but I have a deep concern for the situation today in the Middle East (as it relates to Israel and her Arab neighbors, and others).  The situation there at the present time is a “powder keg” waiting to explode!

Today, I was challenged as I read these words from Psalm 122 as a part of my Bible reading during “coffee with the Lord…

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ … to give thanks to the name of the Lord… Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!  May they be secure who love you!  Peace within your walls and security within your towers! … For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.” (from Psalm 122)

Gotta tell you, I grieve that a Moslem holy site, the Dome of the Rock, is situated on the traditional site of the Jewish temple!  I look forward to the day when Ezekiel’s prophecy of a restored eschatological temple will be fulfilled! (Ezekiel 39:25 – 48:35)  I am praying for “the peace of Jerusalem!”  I am praying that Jewish people will turn to Christ as their Messiah!  I am praying for Scripture to be fulfilled in the coming of the Lord!

In the meantime, I rejoice that there is a real “temple” in Jerusalem (and elsewhere in the world) of the kind that is spoken of in Ephesians 2:11-22 and 1 Peter 2:4-10 where the Living God makes His presence known among both believing Jews and Gentiles who embrace Jesus Christ as their Messiah…

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, GROWS INTO A HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LORD.” (Ephesians 2:19–21 ESV)

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, YOU YOURSELVES LIKE LIVING STONES ARE BEING BUILT UP AS A SPIRITUAL HOUSE, TO BE A HOLY PRIESTHOOD, TO OFFER SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES ACCEPTABLE TO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST… You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (from 1 Peter 2:4-10 ESV)