Coffee With The Lord

I just read Psalm 91 again this morning.  It’s message?  It pays to trust and serve the Lord in dangerous and difficult times.  Abiding in Him whenever problems threaten is a wise course of action!

In a time when a strong walled city, a secret cave, or a high, defensible rocky cliff were your only defense from a persistent and determined enemy, the Psalmist recommended… “THOSE WHO LIVE IN THE SHELTER OF THE MOST HIGH will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  This I declare about the Lord – HE ALONE IS MY REFUGE, MY PLACE OF SAFETY; He is my God AND I TRUST HIM… His faithful promises are your armor and protection… If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home.  For He will order His angels to protect you wherever you go…” And as if that wasn’t enough, THEN THE LORD, HIMSELF SPEAKS…

“THE LORD SAYS, ‘I will rescue those who love me!  I will protect those who trust in my Name!  When they call on Me, I will answer; I WILL BE WITH THEM IN TROUBLE!  I will rescue and honor them! I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation!” (From Psalm 91 NLT)

 One more time… It pays to trust and serve the Lord in dangerous, difficult and frightening times!!

This morning read some well known, but important encouragement to God-fearing parents and grandparents… “Hear [listen/heed]… The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (From Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV) Sure seems like good advice to me in the times in which we live!

I just finished reading one of the saddest and most painful chapters in the Bible – Jeremiah 52 (the same period with additional details are recorded in 2 Kings 24-25 and 2 Chronicles 36). It is the sad story of a nation (Judah) reaping the prophesied consequences of their sin and rebellion against Jehovah.

First of all the chapter records the painful and bloody siege of Jerusalem by Babylon, the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and three deportations of the population to 70 years of painful exile. Think about it: from the siege of Jerusalem to the final deportation to Babylon itself was over 15 years of excruciating pain, violence, dread and death and finally deportation! (Interestingly what follows immediately after Jeremiah 52 in your Bible is the painful expression of Lamentations!)

It always amazes me that people quote Jeremiah 29:11 as a passage filled with hope and promise and positive intentions, and ignore the fact it expresses the incredible mercy of God articulated to a people who are about to experience 70 years of discipline for their sin and rebellion. I mean, here it is… read it in context:

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

Scripture declares: “The way of the transgressor is HARD!” (Proverbs 13:15) … And it is! God’s “discipline” is difficult and painful – BUT His purpose is positive and redemptive! … Ask the “exiles!” (Read Hebrews 12:5-11)