What Things?

Cleopas and his wife were on their way back to Emmaus on that first day of the week that we call Sunday. Luke 24:13 – 42 gives us the account of that day in their lives. It says that they were discussing together all of the things that had happened that day, when Jesus came along side of them on their journey. They did not recognize Him and He asked them what things they were talking about.

They told Jesus all of the things they knew. You could call them the facts of the gospel; Jesus of Nazareth was a mighty man in word and deed before God and the people; the religious leaders rejected Him, turned Him over to Pilate, He was crucified, several ran to the tomb on the third day and saw angels and some even said that He had risen.

But they were sad about these things. They knew the right information, but they were holding on to their own hopes about these things, hoping that Jesus would be the redeemer of Israel. They believed the testimonies about Jesus, but Jesus called them unbelievers (“O foolish ones…”), because they did not believe all that the prophets had said!

Here is the point: When you refuse to turn loose of your own plans and hopes and keep trying to manage your own sin and life, or keep trying to manage God, your eyes will be blinded to know the Way, the Truth, and the Life, even when He walking along side of you.

And you will be sad and discouraged because things will not be turning out the way you thought they should, just as they were. When you listen to testimonies about Jesus and learn information about God, but not listen to God and what He has said in His word, your eyes will stay shut to know Christ. “But faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God!” Romans 10:17. Faith does not come from hearing testimonies about Jesus, faith comes from hearing God’s testimony about Jesus!

At that point in the story, Jesus began to unfold the Scriptures concerning Himself in the Old Testament. What a walking Bible study that must have been that first day evening. They arrived at their home and asked Jesus to stay with them. The Bible study had created a hunger for more. The Bible is like that when Jesus is the main course! Jesus stayed with them because they asked Him to stay with them. Have you asked Him to stay with you, desiring to know more and more of Him from the Bible?

Then something surprising happened. Rather than taking the passive role as a guest at their home, waiting to be served, Jesus took the position and role as the host, and took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them! He was the Master, not the guest. Their eyes were opened and they knew it was Jesus! And they made a wonderful statement in 24:32, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

Here is the point: Their eyes were opened by the light from within their hearts concerning the things from the Scriptures concerning Jesus as the Christ! They were now members of the Fellowship of the Burning Hearts, people who have received the word of God concerning Jesus, the Messiah! These are the things to be talking with one another about, the things concerning Jesus as the Christ from the Bible.

They returned to the upper room and began to share what they learned in the Bible concerning Jesus and He appeared in their midst. This is a lesson we must learn today. If we want Jesus to show up and reveal Himself to the churches we belong to, we must learn and share and talk of the things concerning Christ from the Scriptures! And what wonderful things they are!

Let’s decide to forget about trying to manage our own lives and let Jesus be the Master. Let’s listen to what God has to say about His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s allow the testimony of God to light a fire in our hearts concerning the things about Jesus. Let’s allow the fire from within our hearts to open our eyes to see Jesus in our midst. Let’s be members of the Fellowship of the Burning Hearts!

Easter and the First Day of the New Creation

In Genesis 1:3 – 5, God created light and separated it from the darkness and there was evening and morning of the first day. The Jews named the days of the week by numbers, one through seven. The first day, we call Sunday, and the seventh day, the Sabbath, we call Saturday. When God created light, He created time by separating light from darkness, the first day. With time, He created the past, the present, and the future; time.

Tomorrow, April 5, 2015, we celebrate the first day of the New Creation, we call Easter Sunday, the day that our Lord was raised from the dead. Hallelujah!!! As part of that celebration, we recognize a new time in the lives of the followers of Christ.

In Him you have a new past with one event in it; the cross. At the cross, all of your past was handled by Jesus in such a way that brought glory to the Father. He died on the cross, and you died with Him, and the penalty of your sins was paid in full. All of your sins are forgiven! This brought great pleasure to the Father for the way into His presence was opened for “whosoever will to come.”

In Christ you have a new present, life in Him, with Him, by Him, and for Him. When Christ was raised, you were raised with Him to walk in newness of life. This life is His life lived in this world. In this world, you do have tribulation, trial, and trouble, but life in Him, with Him, by Him, and for Him is life that brings great pleasure and glory to the Father and joy inexpressible and full of glory to you. This is because in the new present, the Father is working all things in it for good, just like He did in the first creation. He saw that it was good.

In Christ you have a new future, the resurrection. Hallelujah!!! The promise of your new body is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit given to you when you received Christ. This is not something you hope for; it is something you hope in! The new future is as secure as the truth of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and the peace that comes from His presence in your heart today. God says that you are seated with Christ in heaven. One of the ways of God is, first He says it, then, He does it, every time.

So, tomorrow, gather with fellow believers and celebrate the New Creation in Christ Jesus the Lord. In Him you have a new past, a new present, and a new future. Have a great time celebrating the new time in Christ! Hallelujah!!!

The Most Quoted Psalm in the New Testament

Psalm 110 is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament, used eight times in all, and it only has seven verses! In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus quotes it when He asked the religious leaders, only a few days before His death and resurrection, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” Matthew 22:42, Mark 12:28, Luke 20:41. (other references: Acts 2:34, Hebrews 1:13, 5:5 – 6, 7:17, 21.)

The religious leaders of Israel had been trying to trap Jesus in anything they could find from the very beginning of His ministry. After Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, they intensified their efforts with a barrage of questions. The Lord handled each question in brilliant fashion, silencing them every time.

Finally, Jesus asked them this question about the Messiah, the Christ. It was an easy answer for them. They quickly said, “The son of David.” This was based upon the covenant that God made with David, that his son would reign on his throne from Jerusalem, forever. But then Jesus introduced one of the songs of David concerning God’s Messiah, Psalm 110; “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.’” Then came the follow-up question from Jesus, “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

The religious leaders knew that Jesus was from the tribe of Judah, David’s tribe. They knew that “son of David” was one of the favorite names that the crowds called Jesus. They knew that Jesus was a great teacher and were jealous of Him because of the great crowds that followed Him. But when the crowds in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday started attributing to Jesus the title of Son of God with their shouts from Psalm 118, “Hosanna…Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…,” it was too much for them.

When Jesus cleaned house in the Temple that day, turning over the money changer’s tables and crying out “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people, but you have made it a den of thieves.” They thought He was acting like He owned the place (He did! They just didn’t know it.)

But they could not argue with Psalm 110. It was God’s word. David wrote, in the Spirit, of the divine nature of the Messiah, his son. Everyone knew that David sure wasn’t divine! Bathsheba and Nathan the prophet would be the first to vote “no” to that suggestion! But David’s greater son, the one that God spoke of in His covenant with David, would be God’s Son as well as David’s son, the Messiah; our Lord Jesus Christ, fully man, as God intended man to be, and fully God as the eternal Son of God, the Christ, slain before the foundations of the world; in one individual, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is His name given to Mary and Joseph before He was born. This is His name as man, just like us, yet without sin. What an amazing truth, the incarnation, God in flesh, born in Bethlehem.

Oswald Chambers said, “Christianity is unique in the world’s religions not so much with the Fatherhood of God, but rather with the Babyhood of God!” God was born and placed in a feed trough because there was no room in the Inn.

Psalm 110 is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament because of this truth; it points to the true nature of the one-and-only begotten of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ. It means that His life is the only one that fully pleased the Father. Knowing Christ pleases the Father, which is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Today, pray and ask God to show you one of the characteristics of His Son in you. As you express more and more of His life as yours, you become more and more a true worshiper, who worships the Father in spirit and truth.

The Ways and Works of God

There is a literary device in the Hebrew language called “an echo.” This is when one line “echoes” the same thought of the previous line with different words. This helps interpret the Old Testament. For example, Psalm 145:17 says, “The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.” In that verse, righteous and kind are different words, but have the same meaning. They correspond to his ways and his works, which are also different words, but with the same meaning.

When you learn the ways of God you will also be learning the works of God. To put it another way, God works according to His ways in your life. This particular verse teaches that God is righteous and kind in His ways and works.

The Hebrew word “righteous” is tsad-deek and is used as an adjective in this verse describing God. It means that God is always right in making people and things right with Him. And He is right in doing this. This verse states that God is like this in all of His ways. As you learn the ways of God you will begin to see that they all line up with this truth: God desires to make people and things right with Himself, according to His truth. And God is right in doing this. He made it right! God is so good.

The echo phrase in this verse says the same thing, but with different words. It states the truth that God is kind in all his works. The Hebrew word for “kind” is haseed, and is also an adjective. The verb form of this word is hesed, which is translated as “loving kindness.” This is the covenant love of God and corresponds to the New Testament word agape, God’s love. You may have heard of the group called Hasidic Jews. They derive their name from this Hebrew word. It also has the meaning of faithfulness and holiness.

The point is this: God is right in all of His ways in making you right with Himself, which is a reflection of His faithful covenant-making love expressed toward you in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is also the work that He is doing in your life right now; faithfully making you right with Himself because of His eternal love which He loves you with! And it pleases Him to be that way.

As you know God more and more by learning His ways more and more, you will experience more and more of His love and joy. This pleases God and this is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Today, worship the Father by thanking Him for being righteous in the way that He is faithfully making you right with Himself through Jesus Christ.

Worship and Walking

When babies learn to walk it is a big deal. They take their first steps and immediately their parents put up barriers to keep them safe. Your steps must be guided or you will wander away and not even know it. One of the ways of God is that He provides a path for your steps in His word. When you trust His path rather than your own, He rewards you with Himself. He keeps you safe.

Psalm 119 is a tremendous chapter of learning the worship-walk of prayer from God’s word. It is a prayer to shape your prayers; a major highway in the direction of becoming a true worshiper. The entire psalm is a prayer. The first three verses are the only part of the chapter that is not a prayer. They are the introduction to the prayer and reveal the outcome of learning and praying this prayer for life.

“Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! Psalm 119:1 – 3.

You may ask, how can a person be blameless, keep God’s word, and do no wrong? That sounds like perfection and no one is perfect, except God. Exactly! And one of the ways of God is that He gives Himself, perfection in His eyes, to those who trust Him by following His word, by seeking to know Him in His word.

Notice again in the Scripture above that being blameless, keeping God’s word, and doing no wrong is not a performance on your part, but rather a direction you walk. Not everyone has legs, but everyone is moving in a certain direction, seeking after something in life. God has provided a blessed direction if you are willing to trust Him and head His way!

The word “blameless” in verse one is the Hebrew word, taw-meem, and means complete, perfect, whole, in total accord with the truth, in perfect alignment with God. This is a description of the Lord Jesus Christ and the life He lived before the Father and the watching world around Him. Walking with Christ, following Him, pleases the Father and is in perfect alignment with His word. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

The word “law” is the Hebrew word, torah, and means instructions. These are the steps God teaches His child when they are learning to walk. Each step reveals something about God’s character. In following His instructions, you learn of Him and know Him more and more. He teaches you of Himself.

The word “keep” in verse two is the Hebrew word, naw-tsar, and means to guard closely because of the supreme value of something. It has the understanding of watching something carefully and preserving it with great care. Spending time each day in God’s word, seeking after Him in it, is what it means to value God’s word as the direction you live by and walk in. God has promised His blessing to the one who believes this promise.

The word “do no wrong” in verse three is the Hebrew word avlah, and means, wickedness. This word has built in to it the understanding of leading others astray. True wickedness is when it is shared with others causing them to fall. But the promise of God, for the person who will walk in the pathway of His word, is that they will be blessed and become a blessing for others. They will not cause others to stumble and fall, but will provide help for others to get up and go with them in the blessed way. This path of trusting God from His word is blessed by God and is offered to anyone who is willing to believe and begin moving in that blessed direction.

Today, take the first verse of Psalm 119, memorize it and meditate on how God teaches His child to walk and the direction of that path. Tomorrow, do the same with verse two. The next day, verse three. Then for the rest of the week, meditate on the introduction and promise of God for the one who will learn to walk with the prayer of Psalm 119 for life!