Marching Forth!

What treasure is found in the pages of God's word!  For the hungry soul there is satisfaction, for those overwhelmed by troubles there is comfort, for the erring there is correction and for the weary there is rest found by faith in God.  In the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia books, children visiting their uncle enjoyed exploring his palatial residence.  As if this wasn't interesting or amazing enough, when Lucy ventured into a simple wardrobe she entered another land called Narnia that was filled with talking beasts and adventure.  One sentence, one verse, a single word from God in the scripture is like that:  it opens up a new world of wisdom, light, joy and rest for the one who trusts in the LORD. Today I was impacted by a detail I had not considered before in  Psalm 95:8-11 :  " Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, a s in the day of trial in the wilderness,  9  when your fathers tested Me; t hey tried Me, though they saw My ...

Last night when our family read the Bible after dinner, we were treated with this passage about the missionary efforts of Paul and Barnabas in  Acts 14:1-3 :  " Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed.  2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren.  3 Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands ."  There were a number of interesting revelations of God's wisdom presented here. The first is how God has given believers the opportunity to make known the Gospel of grace so others will also believe in Jesus as LORD and Saviour.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, God used Paul and Barnabas to bring many Jews and Greeks in the synagogue to saving faith in Christ....

I awoke this morning with the last sentence of Psalm 87 in my mind:  " All my springs are in you ."  In this song the sons of Korah wrote to proclaim the glory of God in the place of His habitation:  Jerusalem, the city where God had placed his name and the temple was built.  To say you were born in Jerusalem and numbered among God's people was a great blessing, a testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness. The song concludes, " All my springs are in you ."  The city of Jerusalem boasts the Gihon spring which continues to send forth clear, clean water directed through Hezekiah's Tunnel to this day.  The flow of this spring was vital to sustain the lives of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and it was God who caused that living water to flow in a dry land.  The words of the psalmists have a double meaning, as they acknowledged their reliance upon the spring for water and upon God who sustained their lives by His mercy, goodness and His covenant with the...

I recently listened to a sermon on Mark 2 , the passage where a paralytic was carried by four friends to Jesus.  It had been widely proclaimed Jesus was in a house in Capernaum and thus many people flocked to hear Him preach the word of God.  It was so crowded people could not even make their way near the door.   Mark 2:4-5 says, " And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.  5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you ." With divine insight Jesus looked through the dust and din and observed the faith of these men who removed the roof to bring their friend to Jesus.  It is very likely Jesus recognised the faith of the paralytic in Him as well, for he may have urged them in his desperation for healing.  It occurred to me as I considered this passage what a fittin...

How wondrous is our glorious God and the grace He extends to those who seek Him!  Knowing God loves us and is for us changes forever the way we approach Him and strengthens us to stand.  A great illustration of how God's grace ought to provide boldness to draw near to God and commune with Him is seen in the book of Esther in the interactions between king Ahasuerus and queen Esther. In the law of the Medes and Persians it was illegal (punishable by death!) to appear before the king without first being summoned, yet there was a caveat provided for all to whom he reached out the golden sceptre.  Queen Esther, after three days of fasting from food and water, approached the king knowing her life hung in the balance.  How relieved she must have been when she found grace in his eyes and he extended life to her when he held up the sceptre.  This began a chain of events which led to exposing wicked Haman as the enemy of the Jews who was promptly executed for his crimes--...

As I was preparing for this week's message, it occurred to me at times the only place of agreement we can find on some matters with opinionated people is to "agree to disagree."  This certainly is never our preference, for we would much rather have people see things like we do.  What may come as a shock to us is we can also have this approach toward God who says and does things we do not understand.  Like Job who suffered great pain and loss, we can question why God would allow such things, wonder if God has made a mistake and doubt His wisdom. When we agree to disagree with people, it is often to keep things civil between two parties.  Having agreed to disagree we do not bother bringing up the touchy topic anymore in consideration of the feelings of the other party.  We agree to disagree because we value the other person more than the point we want to make.  We might even do so because we have to, otherwise it will prove so divisive any lingering discussi...

I remember hearing a prayer that thanked God for "making us worthy," and I felt rehearsing Inigo Montoya's line from the movie  The Princess Bride :  "Y ou keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means ."  To the credit of the people who have prayed thus, "worthy" is a word that has a range of meaning that has shifted over the years.  A partial definition from the Webster's 1828 Dictionary of "worthy" is:  " 1) deserving; such as merits; having worth or excellence; equivalent; with of, before the thing deserved; 2) possessing worth or excellence of qualities; virtuous; estimable; 3) suitable; having qualities suited to; either in a good or bad sense; equal in value. "  Worthy speaks of being meritorious, of being deserving when compared with others.  I do not believe the person who claims they are made "worthy" are suggesting they are equal with God or deserving of His help or grace, for that ...