A Love Affair With Trinkets!

“Now King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, much more than she had brought to the king. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants” (2Ch.9:12). King Solomon was no ordinary man, and he was no ordinary king. Famous for his unprecedented wealth, but more than that which he possessed he was famous for the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding he was blessed with. So why then was the queen of Sheba so easily satisfied with a few trinkets? All she desired King Solomon gave to her! Whatever she asked it was given to her! And once she had her fill of trinkets she turned and went. Despite all of Solomon’s wisdom and glory she takes some trinkets and leaves. Does she not vainly see the true value and worth of this glorious king? And is this not also how vainly some see Jesus Christ today? The Bible declares that Jesus IS the King of kings. Yeah in all of Solomon’s glory he is but an understudy of King Jesus. And yet so many people today are satisfying themselves with trinkets while Christ stands over all of His creation as the Sovereign GLORY. “No”, many from this generation says, “we do not care to know you Lord Jesus, but give us our trinkets and we will be fine!” Even many who possess an ingenuine spirit of religion will take up a creed, ask Jesus for the trinkets of a good marriage, safety for their children, good health, healthy pets, and a nice vehicle and home, and turn and go from His presence without ever seeing His true value and worth as the unending, all-satisfying fountain of living waters. The soul’s delight is to simply marvel at Him without need of any other. He is a bastion for our affections and emotions. He is the pinnacle of divine glory—brilliant—strong—incomparable—unending—an all-consuming fire of righteousness, purity, holiness, gentleness and love! He is the King of all other kings! He is the Potentate over the impotent! His true value is to be gained from who He is, and not merely from what He possesses…”Behold, your KING!”

The Love of God!

“God loves you, and is willing to accept you wherever you are at!” This is the Christian mantra of our day. “What does that mean”, I often ask myself as a Christian minister? The Bible says that God is love, but the Bible also says that God is holy, pure, just, and righteous. God’s love and righteousness, at first sight, don’t appear compatible with each other. One is striving to uphold the holiness and justice of God’s character, while the other is defacing the character of God by forgiving and shirking the crime of sin. But when one follows the trail of these two Divine characteristics they gloriously and compatibly unite at the cross of Jesus Christ. It is through the passion of the Christ that we see the love of God for mankind in offering up His Son as a sacrifice for the nations. The prophet Isaiah said, “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him”- the “Him” being His Son! “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16), the apostle John penned, referring to a qualitative, not a quantitative action. It is the quality of God’s love that is impressive! He set forth His own Son! And it pleased Him to do so for the people of His love. Yet at the same time the suffering of Christ on the cross removes all suspicions about God’s righteous character too. He delivers a verdict upon sin and sentences His Son to bear the iniquities of many. Yes, His love is demonstrated and His righteousness upheld in the sufferings of His own Son. God will not accept you wherever you are at today, and He does not love you for who you are. But He will accept anyone at the cross of Christ—anyone who is willing to trust in the righteous loving sufferings of Jesus for their sin. And He will love you as He sees the reflection of His Son in you—clothed in the holy merits of Christ!

Which one of these prophets from the Bible was a 'Herdsmen'?

The answer to my last poll question, "Which one of these prophets from the Bible was a 'Herdsmen'?", is AMOS (Amos 1:1). I have been informed by a friend that my poll questions are too easy, so I will make any future poll questions a little harder from now on.

On Vacation

I will be on vacation for the next 5 weeks as I and my family return to Canada for the first time in 3 years. I will not be blogging again until after I return. God keep you all for His glory by His grace!

A Wise Investment!

Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant…’. The servant said, “I was afraid!” (Mt.25:24-26a) Fear can evoke three different reactions from we humans, as I see it. It can evoke the reaction of alertness or readiness. It can evoke the reaction of run and hide. Or it can evoke the reaction of panic and irrationality. Here the servant in Jesus’ parable in Mt.25 runs and hides. The lord had made an investment in this servant and was looking for a dividend, but would not find one. In essence this servant despised his lord’s investment and wasted his life in doing nothing of any value. The lord calls him a ‘lazy servant’. This is the sad unwritten epitaph on many a gravestone: “Here lies the wasted life of a lazy servant!” God has invested Himself in each one of our lives personally, as our Creator, provider, and sustainer, and expects a dividend at the end of our lives too. As our Creator He has invested His image in each one of us that we may honour and glorify Him in all that we do. So we can run and hide and waste our lives in spiritual laziness, but He will deal with us in the end. Or we can panic at the demands of God and live irrationally and foolishly. Or we can be alert to the demands of our Creator to honour Him, by investing our lives in the work of His Kingdom, including trusting in His offering for our sin, His Son- Jesus Christ.

Magnify The Lord!

I said in my blog yesterday that when Gabriel, the messenger of God, told the young girl Mary that she would deliver to the world the Son of God- Jesus, she proclaimed, “My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46). But how does one’s soul magnify the Lord? Whatever magnifies, makes that which it magnifies more fully seen. So how can the soul of a person make God more fully seen. There are two basic types of magnification: the microscope and the telescope. The microscope makes things that are very tiny look very large, and the telescope makes things that are distant and large appear for what they really are. Mary’s soul treasured the infinite panorama of all of God’s goodness and glory. She did not behold God as through a microscope, and hope to add something to His being by making Him look bigger than He really is. Rather, Mary saw God for who He truly is and yearned to declare and make known His glory and worth to all. Reverend Henry Scougal in his treatise The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man says, “He who loves shameful and distasteful things does thereby become base and vile; but a noble and well-placed affection does advance and improve the spirit or soul unto conformity with the perfections which it loves”. In other words, “the worth and excellency of your soul is to be measured by the object of its love.” What are the objects of your soul’s affections today? Will your soul magnify the Lord today and thus improve with conformity into all of God’s perfections or will your soul magnify the base corruptions our culture has so intoxicated itself with and thus degenerate with conformity to all that is vile?

Seek Hard After God!

When the young girl Mary was told by Gabriel, the messenger of God, that she would deliver to the world the Son of God—Jesus, she proclaimed, “My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46). Thankfully we can apprehend the nature and character of God from His Word, though we will never be able to fully comprehend the Being of God until we pass through the portal of this life into the next. But WE CAN comprehend how Mary’s spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour! She rejoiced in the Being of God, in His nature and character as much as she could apprehend Him. And she apprehended Him, as did the Psalmist before her, as a “God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.” (Psm.86:15) This apprehension of God aroused joy in her spirit, as it should ours. Yet in a culture that has been relegating God out of the public forum in ever-increasing measure and restricting Him to the Church, and in a society where the separation of Church and State has become the separation of God and State; people are soullessly drifting with no greater purpose than continuous WANT! But WANT of what? There is no definite secular answer to that question. People are simply wandering, drifting, and separated from their Creator trying to fill that relationship void with “endless want”. Joy is a temporary commodity in our culture today, and has no deep and abiding roots in the life of those who have no apprehension of the One who has made them. So if you truly long for your spirit to rejoice within you, seek hard after God today, to apprehend Him through Jesus Christ in all His goodness and grace. You might start by picking up the Bible.