Month: May 2018

He is their help and their shield

Psalms 115:1  Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!  Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”  Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.  They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.  They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.  They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.  Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.  O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.  O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.  You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.  The LORD has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;   he will bless those who fear the LORD, both the small and the great.  May the LORD give you increase, you and your children!  May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth! The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.  The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.  But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!

False gods draw men down, never up. False worship is not innocent and ultimately the worshipers will perish together with their idols.  Trusting in God, the one and only true God, is not wasteful like these idols made from the hand of man.  God is limitless, all powerful, all mighty, everlasting, Holy, and just.  Despite our many disappointments in looking to other place for a help and shield, we are often quick to repeat the mistake.  We seem to trust in our own plans and strength when things turn sideways.  We seek solution, quick fix, and usually something or someone other than God first.  Keep God’s word in your heart, mind, and soul.  Think on it always.  God’s presence is always with us and He is able to do more than we ask and much more than we can imagine.  Keep praise on your lips, love in your heart, and trust in your soul for God always.

Though they roar, they cannot pass over it

“The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.”

Psalms 114:7  Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

Psalms 77:18    The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.

Psalms 97:4-5    His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.  The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.

Psalms 104:32    who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke!

Job 9:6     who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;

Isaiah 64:1-3     Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—   as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!  When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

Jeremiah 5:22     Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

God has authority over all of His creation.  All creation has been given boundaries they can not pass.  We often say given enough time, money, and resources anything can be accomplished.  We look at history and what mankind has been able to accomplish to add some measure of truth to this statement.  Yet nothing man has done can be claimed apart from God.  We work within His creation and according to His boundaries.  There is one boundary that requires mankind give special attention too.  The boundaries between eternal life and eternal torment .  Mankind has those who will not acknowledge God exists.  They cry out with worldly wisdom about the simple mind that would believe in a Creator.  They defend this with all kinds of science talk.  No matter their thoughts and beliefs, there still is a boundary between eternal life and mankind.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  This boundary has been given one doorway, Jesus Christ.

Not only in this age but also in the one to come

Psalms 113:7  He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,

Psalms 22:15    my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

Psalms 69:3    I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God

Psalms 32:3-4    For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

Proverbs 17:22    A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Isaiah 26:19     Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Daniel 12:2-3   And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.  And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Ephesians 1:20-21     that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

There are two points that are absolute. 1. The dead shall rise and awake   2. some to everlasting life and/or everlasting shame.  Christ died for the sins of very single person and yet there is a forgiveness to some and not to others.

John 3:16  📝  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Those who cling to, trust in, rely on Jesus Christ will show humble service, a heart deep deep desire to honor, follow and obey Him.  At the time of awakening from death these will sing for joy and everlasting life.  Others will awake to shame and everlasting destruction and torment.  They have chosen to reject the gift of salvation, forgiveness, redemption, grace, mercy and love through Christ.  They choose to life for self, never yielding to the call from God to repent.