Daniel and Charlie

Daniel turned seventeen months old today...we celebrated with his first new pair of slippers.  He won't keep socks on but he loved these slippers and left them on the whole time his was at grandma's!  (Well, all except for the one time he crawled out of them...)

Click here to enjoy the entire album.

Charlie turned two months old on Wednesday.  He LOVES bath time.















Click here for a smile or two!

So They May Learn to Fear Me

"Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children' " - Deuteronomy 4:10.

These words were directed at Moses in regards to the nation of Israel but they have application to us as well.  Some observations regarding the fear of the LORD from this verse:

1)  Holding the LORD in the proper reverence and awe due Him is something we learn to do.
  
2)  There is no learning the fear of the LORD apart from His Word because that is where He has revealed the truth of Himself.  It is there where we come to comprehend His greatness and majesty.

3)  We are to respect His sovereignty, feel wonder at His majesty, and fear offending Him until we take our last breath.

4)  Learning to honor the LORD and hold Him in high esteem is to be passed down from one generation to the next generation.  

The Lord has been calling out a people to fear Him ever since the Fall.  Lest we think that God is self-serving and only interested in benefiting Himself by demanding our respect and worship, we need  to remember that He has revealed to us in His Word that He is perfect and holy, without sin.  He abhors evil.  Therefore anything that He does and anything that He commands is good and will result in the benefit and blessing of those who obey. 

A question for you - Who created us with the capacity to experience joy?  It is the very God who demands that we fear Him.  When we don't take the time to understand who He is in His Word and to give Him the honor that is due Him we dwell in the shallow end of the pool of joy.  Fullness of joy comes from being in the presence of the one and only true God.  Teaching our children then to fear the Lord is to set them on the greatest path to joy.

So what are you waiting for?

Free Will But in Who's Realm?

We are not born God-seekers.  We are born self-indulgers and flesh-pleasers.  The only freedom one has who is dead in their trespasses and sins is found in Satan's realm.

Ephesians 2:1-3 - "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind..." 


Our drive towards sinfulness and self-indulgence takes an intervention by the Holy Spirit and God's Word to breath God's eternal life into us, transferring us from Satan's kingdom into God's kingdom.

Someone illustrated spiritual rebirth for me like this one time.  God takes our lifeless, dead hands in His.  He wraps our hands around His gift of faith and salvation, and breaths eternal life into our souls.

The death-grip of sin over us is then broken.  Our wills are free from complete bondage to the prince of the power of the air and are now under the influence of the Holy Spirit.  We go from choosing how far we desire to delve into sin to choosing how much we will bring pleasure to our Creator.  Spiritual rebirth gives us the ability to choose to live for God's glory.

I have a question for you regarding free will to choose God for salvation.  Does it make any sense that God gives us just enough spiritual life to give us the ability to choose Him and then if we don't want Him, we fall back into spiritual death?

To say we have free will to choose God for salvation makes as much sense as to say a dead body can reach out for a defibrillator and shock one's own heart into beating.

^"In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth" - James 1:18.

"Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more" - 1 Thessalonians 4:1.

Our salvation is according to God's will, we then have the choice to excel in our pleasing Him.  Let's be all about that, for His glory!

As You Launch

Wishing Dave and Kristen Wisen and all those at Harvest Bible Chapel, Spring Lake, a blessed and joyous first Sunday.  May many lives be changed for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Deuteromony

I've spent the last two days reading through Deuteronomy.  I probably haven't read through Deuteronomy since my college days, a long, long, time ago.  It was enthralling to say the least.

Deuteronomy is a series of speeches by Moses, which consist of divine revelation to the children of Israel.  In these speeches, the character and the attributes of God are put on display.  Your heart will surge with joy as you read through it, seeing that God is faithful, glorious, jealous, just, loving, merciful, powerful, compassionate, a promise keeper, righteous, true, unequaled, wise, and wrathful. You will also gain a clear picture of how we are so not God.

Israel is encamped on the plains of Moab, getting ready to go in and conquer the promised land as Moses gives these addresses.  In the first address to the children of Israel, Moses reviews their wanderings.  He reminds them of their rebelliousness and lack of faith which brought devastating consequences.  The first generation died off, not living to see the promised land.  He also reminds them of how God went before them, putting dread and fear into the hearts of different people as they traveled, how God delivered the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og into their hand, so they utterly destroyed them and their people.

Moses then tells Israel to listen to the statutes and judgments which he was going to teach them.  God commands that they hear His words, and fear Him.  His desire was that they walk in His ways, that they love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength.  Moses explains the law to them.  They were then to take what Moses taught them and pass it on to their children.  God's desire was that His people be set apart to Him.  If His people choose obedience, they would receive great blessing and experience great joy.  If they choose to not walk in His ways, they would experience great suffering. This is something Moses repeats, over and over again. 

Moses not only looked back, but he also looked ahead.  God revealed to him that Israel would fail in the future.  This failure to obey God and to follow after other gods, to not walk in His ways only, would kindle God's anger against Israel and Israel would be scattered among the nations.  Moses was commanded to write and teach Israel a song regarding this rebellion.  The song would be a witness for God against Israel for their future failure.

The final address is the blessing with which Moses blessed Israel before his death and before they entered the land to conquer it.  The Lord shows Moses from Mt. Nebo all the promised land.  Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died.  He could still clearly see and his death was not due to physical weakness. The Lord simply took him because his work was done.

If you've never read through Deuteronomy, let me encourage you to take the time.  What a fantastic book to spend time in enlarging your view of God, and gaining a much needed, more humble perspective of ourselves.

(Did you know that Moses pleaded with God to let him cross over the Jordon?  This was God's answer, "Enough!  Speak to Me no more of this matter."  Deut. 3:23-29)

The Lord commands the obedience of His children.  There are consequences when His children do not walk in His ways.  

The Rock!

"For I proclaim the name of the LORD; 
     Ascribe greatness to our God!   
The Rock!   
     His work is perfect, 
For all His ways are just; 
     A God of faithfulness and without injustice, 
Righteous and upright is He" - Deuteronomy 32:3,4.

If anyone had a proper view of God, it was Moses.  Moses spoke these words to all of Israel as he was passing the torch of leadership to Joshua.  That Moses called God "The Rock" lept off the page at me as I was thinking on his words. Remember, Moses broke faith with God right in front of all Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, by striking the rock instead of speaking to the rock.  Moses did not treat God as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel.  This great sin was an affront to a holy God.  God could have struck Moses right then and there for doing such a thing, for not treating Him as holy in the sight of all Israel.  Instead, God showed Moses mercy.  Moses sin did cost him the privilege of leading the Israelites into the promised land, but in His mercy, the Lord allowed him to see it.  


I wonder if Moses was thinking about the time when he struck the rock, when he called God "The Rock."  Was he thinking that he had struck at God Himself, this One who is a refuge for frail and sinful men?  Of course we don't know, but just as Moses hit the rock, instead of speaking to it, isn't our sin like slapping God in the face?  Just typing that brings grief to my heart.  God is righteous and upright.  Everything He does is perfect, without flaw.  He is holy, holy, holy!  He is utterly and completely without sin.  All His ways are just.  Moses never questions God's punishment for His sin.  Instead, he acribes greatness to God and declares that God is a God of faithfulness and His ways are just.   

Oh that we would always view our sin as slapping God in the face!  Lord, help us to hate our sin and all sin as much as You do!  Lord, thank you for your grace and mercy!  Lord, You are exceedingly great, You are exceedingly holy, You are exceedingly just, righteous, and upright, in all Your ways!

What Do You Value?

Christ is honored in us when He is shown to be magnificent...The unwasted life is the life that puts Christ on display as extremely valuable. 

Live Christ.