Archive for August, 2024
The Lord Is Good (All the Time)
Inquisitors ask, does God judge nations? The answer is an emphatic yes. A classic example is recorded in the Bible book of Nahum.
God is the great arbiter, the all-powerful ruler of the universe. He is patient and long suffering, BUT He is also exercises justice and is zealous of His standards.
He is patient with the rebellious, but He is also zealous for righteousness. His punishment of the guilty is severe, but it is also just (1:1-3a). Repetitiously He has warned His disobedient people. The often repeated pattern of His conduct is seen in His dealing with His people as described by Nahum:
God warns – – – God waits – – – God exercises judgment. He still does in dealing with persons and nations.
Through storms, winds, droughts and earthquakes he sends judgments that bring total destruction. When his wrath is poured out on sinners, no one can escape (3b-6).
He not only has power to exercise judgment of the rebellious, He has the power to protect and provide for His people.
Every Christian should memorize Nahum 1: 9: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who trust in Him.” Don’t only memorize it but adopt it as a personal life-style.
That truth is embedded in the midst of God’s judgement that is about to be vented.
Turning to address the people of God, Nahum promises that God will not punish them further. He will free them from the enemy’s power (12-13). Nahum tells the Assyrians that their gods will be destroyed (14), but tells the Judeans that their God will be victorious. Soon a messenger will bring them news of the overthrow of Assyria, whereupon they should worship God with thanks, sincerity and joy (15).
Being so mighty, God can protect those who trust in him, and destroy those who fight against him (7-8). Nahum warns all enemies that it is useless to plot against God, for he can destroy them with one blow. He will not need to strike twice (9-11).
Not all adversity experienced by believers is a judgment. Whether it is or not believers experiencing difficulty should not ask “Why me, Lord?” The better response is, “How Lord, now that this has happened how can it make me more like Jesus.”
Sometimes pressure on a believer is like the pressure put on clay by the potter. Its purpose is to shape a more perfect image.
With the awareness that God judges nations as well as people pray for our nation. God’s proposed remedy is, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (II Chronicles 7: 14).
Great Is God’s Faithfulness
Give yourself a break. If you can sing, belt out the words below. Even if you can’t sing, at least read them meditatively. Throughout the day let them ruminate in your thoughts. Feeling low? That is all the more reason to reflect on them.
GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Refrain:
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Well, so it lacks something in grammatical construction, but not in biblical truth.
“God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (I Corinthians 1: 9).
“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (I Peter 4: 19).
“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one: (II Thessalonians 3: 3).
“This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
Sing it again!
America’s Genius and Power
America as it was and as it is, is well distinguished by the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, an eminent French representative of the liberal tradition of the mid-1800s. As such he was very active in French politics. He came to America to study the penal system but stayed for some time to study the nation from the perspective of a detached social scientist. His book released in 1835 entitled, “Democracy in America” is considered a classic early work in sociology. It reveals his perspective on the developing nation. These insights into our heritage are worth considering.
His observations led him to conclude why America had not embraced socialism or feudalism as in Europe. It was the different attitudes regarding money. In Europe the common people had no hope and therefore no aspiration to gain it. The privileged felt it was their right to have wealth. Their inherited entitlement resulted in lethargy regarding trying to gain it.
The ethos in America was different. In America money was an object to be sought. Here the people all felt they could gain wealth through industrious hard work. This resulted in a productive people.
He also wrote an interpretation of the character of our society.
“Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.”
“I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion… But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions.”
“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in the democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.
“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”
“America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” That is a sobering thought.
Today there is a correlation between the decline of morality in our present society and the flickering flame in many pulpits. The popular health, wealth, and prosperity version of the gospel has replaced calls for a faith commitment resulting in morality, virtue, and integrity. Personal gain has replaced an appeal for a culture of responsible ethics that benefit all of society. A moral world is rarely addressed.
de Tocqueville wrote of the interrelation between two phases of American life. “In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.”
His belief that the two were mutually dependent resulted in this conclusion: “The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.”
We are seeing the decline of religion and the decay of our judicial system resulting in a society in decline. Only by the renewal of religious values can the morals befitting a renewed America be realized.
May once more our “pulpits flame with righteousness.” That said de Tocqueville is the “genius and power” of our greatness.
Have a blessed celebration of the birth of our nation. Pray for America.
I Pledge Allegiance
Religious freedom is foundational to all of our freedoms. It was a right obtained by men of faith.
John Leland in appealing to the Father of our Constitution, James Madison, for religious freedom wrote: “There is no Bill of Rights. Whenever a number of men enter into a state of society, a number of individual rights must be given up to society, but there should be a memorial of those not surrendered, otherwise, every natural and domestic right becomes alienable, which raises tyranny at once, and this is as necessary in one form or government as in another.”
Now, there is a thought! Note, “a number of rights must be given up to society.”
Acting in response to Leland’s appeal Madison acted when the First Congress convened in January 1789. Early in the session Madison presented the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution, called the Bill of Rights. In part the first of these stated: “Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Parenthetically, neither should the courts.
This Bill of Rights was intended to do two things. One was to forbid the establishment of a state sponsored denomination as was common in Europe. Second, it restricts laws being made “prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This simply leveled the playing field for all denominations and removed road blocks to the practice of religion.
The proponents of the First Amendment wanted to insure freedom OF religion not freedom FROM religion.
To pledge allegiance or not to pledge? Somebody’s right has to be given up. If we have freedom of speech, if we have freedom of religion, if we have a pledge approved by Congress in 1952, and practiced by millions ever since —- let’s pledge.
Why should the rights of the vast majority have to be given up to appease a religious minority? Atheism is a form of religious belief about God.
Why do atheists want the Pledge of Allegiance removed from schools? Are they trying to convert Christians to their belief in no God?
A glimpse of what Congress intended is found in this Congressional Decree of 1782: “It being the indispensable duty of all nations, not only to offer up their supplications to Almighty God, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general…”
It continued and concluded: “…they do further recommend to all ranks and testify their gratitude of God for his goodness, by cheerful obedience to his laws, and by protecting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.”
In these turbulent times of terrorism we need to consider well these words of Benjamin Franklin: “We need God to be our friend, not our adversary.”
The Law of Causality
“For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4).
There is a law of causality; or the law of cause and effect. Simply summarized: for every effect there must be an equal or greater cause.
The world shows marks of design and dependence, hence of mind and management.
Everything about the universe indicates a plan and purpose.
Everywhere there are indications of origin and order.
Every building shows signs of origin and order, mind and management, plan and purpose.
Look at our vast universe and the same jumps out at you. Our universe shows signs of origin and order, mind and management, plan and purpose.
——–
Seeing a building, who would doubt that there was a planner, a designer, and a manager?
Why deny there to be such regarding our universe?
The effect is a universe. The cause must be equal to or greater than the effect. Enter: our Great God and Creator, Designer, Planner, and Manager of the Universe He created.
Every effect demands a cause. Our loving Creator has put on display as evidence of His existence an entire universe.
Back to the party! It is reasonable that such a God would provide a door.
Hebrews 11: 3 states an evident reality: “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
Poster: “All that I have seen of God teaches me to trust Him for all that I have not seen.”
Many at this moment have needs and they can’t see how things are going to work out. As you let God work in them, they work out.
If organic evolution accounts for our being, there is no way such a material process could produce a nonmaterial soul that will survive death. Thus, evolution which proposes we came from nothing dictates we deteriorate into nothing.
The formula for Darwinian Evolution is “Nothing times nobody equals everything.”
T. N. Timinisian, physiologist with the Atomic Energy Commission, said, “Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con-men and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever.”
Not only is the Lord God existent, He loves you and wants you to spend eternity with Him. Trust Him and become a new creature.