(December 5, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had a good Sunday with a number of people raising their hands in brand new commitments to Jesus! That’s what it’s all about.
I trust you had an excellent weekend also.
This is Family Week for us. That means we allow you to stay home on Wednesday night with the hopes that you will spend more time with your family or even fellowship with some other families.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
. The Devotional for this week will be my message from yesterday.
=====================================
Devotional!
Jesus’ Purpose
Don’t you just love Christmas! I love the season, I love the reason for the season, I love the music; it’s just a great time of the year. It does get a little tiring though with all the special events and parties that take place and usually by the time New Year’s Day is over I’m ready to get back into my normal routine. But since it is the Christmas season I thought it would be appropriate to focus on our Lord, because after all – if it were not for the birth of our Savior there would be no black Friday and our retail stores would have to come up with a new reason to get us to buy stuff.
I’ve been reading SD Gordon’s book called, Quiet Talks About Jesus. In it he throws out an idea about why Jesus came to earth asking the question, what was his purpose? What is the true purpose or idea behind Christmas? Gordon suggests that God is spelling Himself out in Jesus.
“Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that man can understand. God and man used to talk together freely. But one day man went away from God. He left his native land, Eden, where he lived with God. He left, and in leaving he lost not only his native tongue but also how to walk with God.
Have you ever tried to learn another language? I remember back in the ninety’s’ I was going to Spain on a regular basis. Lou and I have been in many different cities throughout Spain as I was traveling and speaking at conferences. I was gradually learning the language. I could at least greet people and ask where the bathroom was. I remember trying out this new language once while I was preaching. I had noticed that on the men’s room door it read “caballero” (which means gentlemen). I thought that men were called caballeros. It’s actually pronounced cab-ee-yare-o. So when I got up to preach I told them that I was a bien caballero. I messed it up pretty bad. Well when I got done my interpreter told me that I just told them that I was a fine horse (caballo [ca-buy-o]). Talk about putting your hoof in your mouth. Anyway I eventually picked up several words because I was going there often enough to use them. The more you use a different language the more fluent you become in it. However, now that I don’t go there very often I have forgotten most of those words.
Adam left his native land and through going away he lost his native speech. He was no longer talking to God on a regular basis. He no longer walked with him like he once did and subsequently forgot the sounds of His words and the look of his footsteps. His ears grew dull and then deaf. Through lack of use he lost the power of speaking the old language and the effects of walking as God walked.
The scriptures indicate that God has always been eager to talk to man. The silence is hard on him. God is hungry to be on intimate terms again with his children. So he decided on the only language man could understand. He decided to send his son to earth as a man, a man who would speak both the language of the day as well as reintroduce the language of Eden and the stride of God. Jesus is God spelling himself out so man could once again understand who He is.
Let’s think about Eden for a moment.
Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (27) And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
In this picture we see man fresh from the hand of God. A spirit, in a body, with unending life, partly infinite, like God in his capacity for love, for holiness, and wisdom, with the gift of sovereignty over the lower creation, and in his own will. Like Him also in his capacity for fellowship with God. For only like can have fellowship with like. Men do not have fellowship with animals. We can love a pet but they cannot meet the needs we have for fellowship in our lives. It is only in that in which we are alike that we can have fellowship. So we have these two in Eden, God and man, walking side by side, working together, friendship in spirit; and partnership in service. This man is in a garden of trees and bushes, with fruit and flowers and singing birds, roses with no pricking thorns, soft green grass with no weeds, and no poison ivy, for there is no hate. He is walking with God, and talking with Him as His chosen friend.
Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
God brings His created beings one by one to man to be catalogued and named, and accepts his decisions. What an endearing picture. These two, God and a man in His likeness, walking and working side by side; likeness in being; friendship, fellowship in spirit; partnership, solidarity in service. And this is God's thought for man!
We all understand that God is Sovereign--the sovereign of this world and all worlds. However God created man to be a sovereign in the realm of nature, and over all the lower creation. He was given dominion, kingship, over all the earth-creation. Man is a king. He is of royal blood. He was made to command, to administrate, to reign.
But there is more here. The chief characteristic of an absolute sovereign is the regal power to choose, to decide. Man was made a sovereign in his own will. God is the absolute sovereign. However, He has made man an absolute sovereign in one realm, his will, his power of choice. There is one place where man reigns alone, an absolute ruler, where not even God can come save as He desires and that is in the will of man.
If that bothers you, remember that it was God's sovereign act that made it that way, subsequently God remains sovereign in making man a sovereign in the realm of his will. There every man sits in regal solitude. If man did not have a free will then there would have been no reason for the Son of God to be born a man - to come and save us from the choices we have made because without a free will we would have only made the choices he desired for us. Without a free will Adam and Eve would never have eaten the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Without man having a free will God would never have had to instruct him to only eat from the tree of life. When they took of the fruit – they exercised their will over God’s will. If that is not the case then we would have to say that God willed for Adam to sin which would be a complete contradiction of his character.
====================================================
Medication: A Merry Heart
A preacher was standing in front of his congregation one Sunday, when an angel of the Lord appeared to them.
He said to the pastor, "You've done such a great job leading this congregation, I'm here to grant you one of three things. You may have wealth, wisdom or great fame."
The pastor said, "I don't even need to think about that one...I'll take wisdom."
The angel waved over the preacher and *Poof*. The preacher stood dazed a bit, and after a moment, someone yelled, "Say something wise."
The preacher said; "I should have taken the money."
Prayer House News!
We had a good Sunday with a number of people raising their hands in brand new commitments to Jesus! That’s what it’s all about.
I trust you had an excellent weekend also.
This is Family Week for us. That means we allow you to stay home on Wednesday night with the hopes that you will spend more time with your family or even fellowship with some other families.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
. The Devotional for this week will be my message from yesterday.
=====================================
Devotional!
Jesus’ Purpose
Don’t you just love Christmas! I love the season, I love the reason for the season, I love the music; it’s just a great time of the year. It does get a little tiring though with all the special events and parties that take place and usually by the time New Year’s Day is over I’m ready to get back into my normal routine. But since it is the Christmas season I thought it would be appropriate to focus on our Lord, because after all – if it were not for the birth of our Savior there would be no black Friday and our retail stores would have to come up with a new reason to get us to buy stuff.
I’ve been reading SD Gordon’s book called, Quiet Talks About Jesus. In it he throws out an idea about why Jesus came to earth asking the question, what was his purpose? What is the true purpose or idea behind Christmas? Gordon suggests that God is spelling Himself out in Jesus.
“Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that man can understand. God and man used to talk together freely. But one day man went away from God. He left his native land, Eden, where he lived with God. He left, and in leaving he lost not only his native tongue but also how to walk with God.
Have you ever tried to learn another language? I remember back in the ninety’s’ I was going to Spain on a regular basis. Lou and I have been in many different cities throughout Spain as I was traveling and speaking at conferences. I was gradually learning the language. I could at least greet people and ask where the bathroom was. I remember trying out this new language once while I was preaching. I had noticed that on the men’s room door it read “caballero” (which means gentlemen). I thought that men were called caballeros. It’s actually pronounced cab-ee-yare-o. So when I got up to preach I told them that I was a bien caballero. I messed it up pretty bad. Well when I got done my interpreter told me that I just told them that I was a fine horse (caballo [ca-buy-o]). Talk about putting your hoof in your mouth. Anyway I eventually picked up several words because I was going there often enough to use them. The more you use a different language the more fluent you become in it. However, now that I don’t go there very often I have forgotten most of those words.
Adam left his native land and through going away he lost his native speech. He was no longer talking to God on a regular basis. He no longer walked with him like he once did and subsequently forgot the sounds of His words and the look of his footsteps. His ears grew dull and then deaf. Through lack of use he lost the power of speaking the old language and the effects of walking as God walked.
The scriptures indicate that God has always been eager to talk to man. The silence is hard on him. God is hungry to be on intimate terms again with his children. So he decided on the only language man could understand. He decided to send his son to earth as a man, a man who would speak both the language of the day as well as reintroduce the language of Eden and the stride of God. Jesus is God spelling himself out so man could once again understand who He is.
Let’s think about Eden for a moment.
Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (27) And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
In this picture we see man fresh from the hand of God. A spirit, in a body, with unending life, partly infinite, like God in his capacity for love, for holiness, and wisdom, with the gift of sovereignty over the lower creation, and in his own will. Like Him also in his capacity for fellowship with God. For only like can have fellowship with like. Men do not have fellowship with animals. We can love a pet but they cannot meet the needs we have for fellowship in our lives. It is only in that in which we are alike that we can have fellowship. So we have these two in Eden, God and man, walking side by side, working together, friendship in spirit; and partnership in service. This man is in a garden of trees and bushes, with fruit and flowers and singing birds, roses with no pricking thorns, soft green grass with no weeds, and no poison ivy, for there is no hate. He is walking with God, and talking with Him as His chosen friend.
Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
God brings His created beings one by one to man to be catalogued and named, and accepts his decisions. What an endearing picture. These two, God and a man in His likeness, walking and working side by side; likeness in being; friendship, fellowship in spirit; partnership, solidarity in service. And this is God's thought for man!
We all understand that God is Sovereign--the sovereign of this world and all worlds. However God created man to be a sovereign in the realm of nature, and over all the lower creation. He was given dominion, kingship, over all the earth-creation. Man is a king. He is of royal blood. He was made to command, to administrate, to reign.
But there is more here. The chief characteristic of an absolute sovereign is the regal power to choose, to decide. Man was made a sovereign in his own will. God is the absolute sovereign. However, He has made man an absolute sovereign in one realm, his will, his power of choice. There is one place where man reigns alone, an absolute ruler, where not even God can come save as He desires and that is in the will of man.
If that bothers you, remember that it was God's sovereign act that made it that way, subsequently God remains sovereign in making man a sovereign in the realm of his will. There every man sits in regal solitude. If man did not have a free will then there would have been no reason for the Son of God to be born a man - to come and save us from the choices we have made because without a free will we would have only made the choices he desired for us. Without a free will Adam and Eve would never have eaten the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Without man having a free will God would never have had to instruct him to only eat from the tree of life. When they took of the fruit – they exercised their will over God’s will. If that is not the case then we would have to say that God willed for Adam to sin which would be a complete contradiction of his character.
====================================================
Medication: A Merry Heart
A preacher was standing in front of his congregation one Sunday, when an angel of the Lord appeared to them.
He said to the pastor, "You've done such a great job leading this congregation, I'm here to grant you one of three things. You may have wealth, wisdom or great fame."
The pastor said, "I don't even need to think about that one...I'll take wisdom."
The angel waved over the preacher and *Poof*. The preacher stood dazed a bit, and after a moment, someone yelled, "Say something wise."
The preacher said; "I should have taken the money."
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