Tag: God

Believe: MT e 60

If I were to ask you if you believe that the Bible is true, how would you reply? For those of you who are watching this and are also Christian the answer would certainly be yes. True believers have faith that the Scriptures contains God’s truthful word.

I want to press on that just a little today.  My hope is that my challenge will bring a deeper conviction to your faith.

The focus Monday was the writer of Psalm 77 who was going through a difficult time and it seemed as if God was not hearing his cries, prayers and expressions. 

This writer could have given up, pouted or gotten angry but rather he chose to remember God’s mighty acts.

Do you believe in Scripture in the same way the Psalmist did?  Do you have real faith in Scripture?

When God’s word states that the Israelites with no where to turn were backed up against the sea with the Egyptian troupes after them, do you believe that God walled up the waters and made dry ground for them to cross the Red Sea?

Scripture says that God He poured water from a rock. It says that small David defeated a nine foot giant Goliath.  It says that Lazarus was raised from the dead.  Do you believe it?

The overwhelming  number of believers would say yes.  I know those stories.  I believe the Bible and I believe those things happened.

Why do we live our faith and pray our prayers as if they did not happen? I say this not to shame anyone but rather to encourage you. Is our Lord weak? Is our Lord incapable?

Is our Lord so distant from you and me that you and we can’t have the same confidence that the writer of Psalm 77?

This should change our posture in prayer.  It should change how we look at life, struggle, heartache, and disappointment. 

Our God is Almighty. Let us rejoice and be greatly encouraged in how He has worked in the past.  Let us be confident that His strength in no way has diminished in the present.

In short, believe dear Christian, really believe.

S.D.G.

A Peculiar People: MT episode 17

On Monday’s episode I closed our time together noting that while it is great Christ that was born into this world, it is more important Christ be born in you.  Let’s consider this thought further and from a different angle.

“Jesus, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous for good works.”  Titus 2:14

I picked this passage because it uses the word “peculiar.”  As Kenneth Weust says, “Christians are the peculiar people of God.”

This is a word sometimes we use for people who are odd or strange.  I have definitely met some people who claim Christ and are strange but that is not what is meant here. 

The word here in the original language is a compound of two words, “around” and another word “to be”.  Mentally, picture a circle with a dot in the middle.

As the circle is around the dot, so God is around His people.  He has the dot all to himself.  These people are His own unique possession. Peculiar!

There are days when my obedience and pursuit of God, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would put at a 7 or 8.  Then there are those days or seasons, where things just are not going well.  I might put it at a negative 5.

God is the constant.  In speaking about the believer’s security, Jesus says, “My Father, who has given me (the sheep) is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10:28

Good seasons and bad, we are circled by the Father.  Keep that picture in your head and let it be and encouragement.  As a believer, we are God’s circled people. His possession.

So, the different angle is, this season, it is not only to have Jesus in us (Colossians 1:27) but also, us in Christ (Colossians 2:6).  What a beautiful gift!

S.D.G.